Cancer Letters

Types of papers

Cancer Letters welcomes submissions of full-length original research papers and Minireviews. The act of submitting a manuscript to the journal carries with it the right to publish that paper. The main object of the journal is the publication of papers with particular reference to the human species. These should appeal to clinicians and research workers alike. Original research papers should deal with original research not previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere. Minireviews should provide concise overviews of the current research and/or clinical status of the topics under discussion. They should discuss published data. Minireviews should not present primary unpublished data. Cancer Letters does not publish Case Reports.

All original papers submitted to Cancer Letters will be evaluated by the Journal's Editors.

The Editorial Office has adopted a rating system, in order to establish which manuscripts will be sent out for peer review. The rating system allows the Editor to assess the manuscript in terms of the following criteria:

* Presentation
* Style and structure
* Quality of English language
* Whether the topic being covered is within the aims and scope of the journal
* The manuscript's scientific novelty together with how it compares to other manuscripts submitted on similar topics.

Those manuscripts which are judged as being eligible for consideration by the Editors will be subject to peer review.

Ethics and Procedures

The editors and publisher of this Journal believe that there are fundamental principles underlying scholarly or professional publishing. While this may not amount to a formal "code of conduct", these fundamental principles with respect to the authors' paper are that the paper should:
* be the authors' own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere
* reflect the authors' own research and analysis and do so in a truthful and complete manner,
* properly credit the meaningful contributions of co-authors and co-researchers,
* not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration (ensuring it is not under redundant simultaneous peer review), and
* be appropriately placed in the context of prior and existing research.

Of equal importance are ethical guidelines dealing with research methods and research funding, including issues dealing with informed consent, research subject privacy rights, conflicts of interest, and sources of funding. While it may not be possible to draft a "code" that applies adequately to all instances and circumstances, we believe it useful to outline our expectations of authors and procedures that the Journal will employ in the event of questions concerning author conduct. Relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed (see http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/conflictsofinterest).

Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines.

Submission of manuscripts

Cancer Letters has moved to an online submission and review system. Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/can and the instructions on the site should be closely followed. Authors may submit manuscripts and track their progress through to final decision. Reviewers can download manuscripts and submit their reports to the Managing Editors.

Authors unable to submit online should contact the Editorial Office:


Cancer Letters Editorial Office
Elsevier Ltd
The Boulevard
Langford Lane
Oxford OX5 1GB
U.K.
Tel : +44 (0)1865 843203
Fax : +44 (0)1865 843992
Email :cancerletters@elsevier.com

Submission of an article to Cancer Letters implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/can and should be in English. Authors' full names, academic or professional affiliations, and addresses should be included on the first page. All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or the acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted. The name, postal address, email address, phone and FAX numbers of the corresponding author should be provided. Authors should supply the names and email addresses of 3 to 5 potential reviewers for their manuscript. To provide an international perspective, no more than 2 potential reviewers should be from the same country. Please do not suggest reviewers from your own institution, previous or current collaborators or Editorial Board members. Without reviewer suggestions, processing of the manuscript may be delayed. Please do not contact any reviewers that you have suggested.

Online submission guidelines can be followed at http://www.ees.elsevier.com/can. Via this website you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files into a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer review process. Please note that although manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by email and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

Manuscript preparation

Please strive for a professionally prepared manuscript of high technical and scientific quality. Many reviewers are overwhelmed with review requests. Our experience is that they are more likely to agree to review a well prepared manuscript.

Articles should be submitted in the following order : Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References.

Please number the headings in your manuscript as follows:
1. Introduction; 2. Materials and methods; 3. Results; 4. Discussion, etc.; with further numbering for subheadings (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, etc) as required.

All submissions must be accompanied by a covering letter in which the significance of the results is outlined in no more than 5 sentences.

Title must address the main result of the study and preferably not exceed 185 characters, including spaces. Extraneous words such as 'study' 'investigation', 'analysis', etc, should be avoided.

Abstract. A concise and factual abstract not exceeding 80-100 is required, followed by 3-6 indexing terms (keywords). The abstract should briefly state the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.

Tables should be typed, with double spacing, each on a separate sheet, numbered consecutively with Roman numerals, and should only contain horizontal lines. A short descriptive heading should be given above each table, and any footnotes and explanations underneath.

Figures must be numbered and keyed into the text. For advice on correctly formatting electronic images, please refer to http://authors.elsevier.com. For illustrations that cannot be submitted electronically, please send them by post to the Editorial Office. The author's name, the figure number and an arrow identifying orientation should be appended to the reverse of each illustration. Line drawings (including graphs) must be in black ink on a white background. Alternatively, sharp photographs on glossy paper may be provided. The lettering should be large enough to permit photographic reproduction. Halftone illustrations may be included, which should be submitted as black and white prints on glossy paper and have as much contrast as possible. All legends should be typed on a separate sheet of paper. Composite illustrations should be sensibly and compactly arranged as a plate, without leaving much empty white space between the different elements.

Illustrations should be designed for use in either a single column (7.5cm) or a double column (16cm). Actual magnification of all photomicrographs should be indicated by a micron bar or in the legend.

Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable electronic colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g. ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.

Acknowledgements. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a departmental chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for that assistance.

Conflict of Interest. At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of Interest Statement", all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could innapropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Role of the Funding Source. All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of the study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

References should be numbered and listed on a separate sheet. Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

Example: "?.. as demonstrated [3,4]. Barnaby and Jones [5] obtained a different result?."

List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] J. van der Geer, J.A.J. Hanraads, R.A. Lupton, The art of writing a scientific article, J. Sci. Commun. 163 (2000) 51-59

Reference to a book:
[2] W. Strunk Jr., E.B. White, The Elements of Style, third ed., Macmillan, New York, 1979.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] G.R. Mettam, L.B. Adams, How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp281-304.

Supplementary data is accepted by Cancer Letters to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional responsibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions, please visit our artwork instruction pages at the Author Gateway at http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.

Authors In Japan please note: if you would like information about how to have the English of your paper checked, corrected and improved (before submission), please contact our Tokyo office who will inform you of the services provided by language correctors:

Elsevier, 9-15, Higashi-Azabu 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan.
Tel. (+81) 3-5561-5033: Fax (+81) 3-5561-5047; E-mail: info@elsevier.co.jp

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright, see http://authors.elsevier.com). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases : contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238 7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting ("Public Access") policy

Elsevier facilitates author response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NOH "Public Access Policy"; see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm) by posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMedCentral on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication. Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com) that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMedCentral on your behalf a version of your manuscripts that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you have responded fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMedCentral, and any such posting is prohibited.

Author's rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following :
- Make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use.
- Make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically, e.g. via an e-mail list or list server).
- Post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites.
- Post a revised personal version of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on http://www.elsevier.com).
- Present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting.
- For your employer, if the article is a 'work for hire', made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g. training).
- Retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article.
- Include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially).
- Use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of your article in the journal).
- Prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.

Proof reading. When you receive a (PDF) proof (as an e-mail attachment) of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible.

Electronic Offprints (e-offprints). The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.

Author enquiries. Authors can also keep track of the progress of their accepted article, and set up email alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the "Track a Paper" feature of Elsevier's Author Gateway ( http://authors.elsevier.com).

For specific enquiries on the preparation of electronic artwork, consult http://authors.elsevier.com.

Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.

Cancer Letters has no page charges.

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