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CLINICAL GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY
An Official Clinical Practice Journal of the AGA Institute

Guide for Authors

Content

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology publishes original papers, review articles, brief communications, and special category articles on all aspects of the digestive tract and the liver. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (External link http://www.icmje.org ).

I. Ethics
II. Authorship
III. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding
IV. Disclosure Policy
V. CME
VI. Cover Letter
VII. Manuscript Preparation
VIII. Reporting Clinical Trials and Meta-Analyses of Genetic Studies
IX. Image of the Month
X. Electronic Image of the Month
XI. Letters to the Editor
XII. Publication
XIII. Editorial Office


Ethics

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology strongly discourages the submission of more than one article dealing with related aspects of the same study. In almost all cases, a single study is best reported in a single paper.

The Journal editors consider research/publication misconduct to be a serious breach of ethics and will take action as necessary to address such misconduct, which includes submission or publication of information that:

  • Is intentionally erroneous,
  • Has been published elsewhere by a different author without acknowledgment (plagiarism),
  • Has been published elsewhere by the same author without acknowledgment (duplicate publication), or
  • Is subsequently published elsewhere by the same author without acknowledgment, attribution, or permission from the AGA Institute, as holder of the copyright, to reprint or adapt the material.


Breaches in these standards may result in proscribed submission for all authors of the concerned manuscript and, when appropriate, notification of the authors' institutions. All authors are fully responsible for the content of the manuscript.

The publication of abstracts is not considered duplicate publication but should be disclosed in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript submission.

Authorship

Each author must have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content of the paper and must approve of the final version of the manuscript. Authorship should be based on substantive contributions to each of the following:
  • Conception and design of the study;
  • Generation, collection, assembly, analysis and/or interpretation of data;
  • Drafting or revision of the manuscript;
  • Approval of the final version of the manuscript.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding

If a manuscript is accepted for publication and was supported by the NIH, the journal's publisher will automatically deposit the manuscript into PubMed Central (PMC) in accordance with the mandatory NIH policy on federally funded manuscripts. To facilitate this process, authors of such manuscripts are asked to provide their NIH grant number on the Copyright Assignment Form under the NIH Funding portion of the form. The publisher will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript when received at Elsevier's production department. Once deposited, authors will receive an email from the NIH containing the PMC-formatted article for approval.



Disclosure Policy

I. Authors (Original Articles and Review Articles)

The following information must be included on the title page of submitted manuscripts:
  • A list for all authors that discloses any financial arrangement (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, patent-licensing arrangements, research support, major honoraria, etc.) they may have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Interactions that occur from the start of the research activity in the specific program until the time when the paper is anticipated to be published or one year from submission date, whichever is longer, are pertinent. In the absence of any conflict of interest, authors must make the statement that there is no conflict to disclose.
  • A statement of all funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations.
  • Individuals who provided writing assistance for the manuscript and the funding source for this assistance must be disclosed.
  • Investigators must disclose potential conflicts to study participants and must state whether they have done so.
  • All phase II or III trials pertaining to a commercial product (pharmaceutical or device) require:
a. A statement that the statistical analysis of the entire data sets pertaining to efficacy (specifically primary and major secondary efficacy endpoints) and safety (specifically, serious adverse events as defined in federal guidelines) have been independently confirmed by a biostatistician who is not employed by the corporate entity (the name of the biostatistician must be provided); and
b. A statement from the corresponding author that he or she had full access to all of the data and takes full responsibility for the veracity of the data and analysis. All authors for each manuscript will also need to complete and submit to the Journal's editorial office the Authorship Responsibility portion of the Copyright Assignment, Authorship Responsibility, NIH Funding, Financial Disclosure, Institutional Review Board/Animal Care Committee Approval, and Sponsorship form upon submission of a manuscript.
  • Authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the report for publication.

II. Reviewers and Editorialists

• Reviewers and editorialists will be disqualified from reviewing or from writing an editorial if they:
a. have had an ongoing collaboration, original publications or grants with the authors within the previous two years, except in the case of being a part of a multi-center group from a different site; or
b. are from the same institution as the authors.

• Reviewers and editorialists should disclose at the time of submission of their review or editorial any financial arrangement (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, patent-licensing arrangements, research support, major honoraria, etc.) they may have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Interactions that occur from the start of the research activity in the specific program until the time when the paper is anticipated to be published or one year from submission date, whichever is longer, are pertinent.

Continuing Medical Education (CME)

Each issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology will contain two to three continuing medical education exams associated with articles that appear in the issue. AGA members can take the exams online free of charge. Non-AGA members are required to pay a $15 processing fee. For CME exams that accompany original articles, readers can claim 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Reviewers of manuscripts can also claim CME credit. After reviewing a manuscript on the Journal's manuscript tracking system, Editorial Manager, the reviewer will be prompted to claim up to 3.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.



Cover Letter

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology strongly encourages authors to suggest 3 to 4 referees (include the mailing address, electronic address, phone, and fax numbers) and the Associate Editor they believe best qualified to review their paper. Authors may also list a non-preferred Associate Editor and non-preferred referees, but the ultimate selection of an Associate Editor and referees is at the sole discretion of the Editor and Associate Editor, respectively.

State reasons for deviations, if any, from standard format and clarify any potential conflict related to the exclusive nature of the publication. The cover letter must also categorize the manuscript into one of two groups: Alimentary Tract or Liver/Pancreas/Biliary.

Manuscript preparation


Submission
Submit 1 complete manuscript typed in 12-point font size and double-spaced with 1-inch margins. Limit of 15 pages (approximately 4000 words) for original articles or about 20 pages (5000-6000 words) for review articles, including tables, figures, and references (2 figures = 1 typed page). All manuscripts submitted to Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology are made available for online review. Authors may submit their manuscripts, with figures and tables, electronically via our website, External link http://www.editorialmanager.com/cgh . Complete instructions for online submission are located on the website.

Note: If you have submitted your manuscript electronically, you do not need to submit a hard copy. If your manuscript is accepted you will be asked to provide the editorial office with hard copies of the missing materials.

Other Enquiries

Visit External link http://authors.elsevier.com/trackpaper.htm for the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. The Author's Homepage (External link http://www.elsevier.com/authors) also provides detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions and more.

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

Manual Submission
Manual submissions may be mailed to:
AGA Institute
4930 Del Ray Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
Attention: CGH Editorial Office

Authors of manual submissions will incur a non-refundable charge of $75. Manual submissions must be accompanied by a check (payable to the AGA Institute), purchase order, or credit card information (card type, card number, card holder's name, and expiration date)

Title Page

Title--Use no abbreviations. Limit: 120 characters with spaces.

Short Title--Limit: 45 characters with spaces.

Authors--Include first names of all authors and name and full location of department and institution where work was performed.

Grant Support--List grant support and other assistance.

Abbreviations--List abbreviations alphabetically. (Note: In general, the use of abbreviations is discouraged.)

Correspondence--Provide name, complete address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number of corresponding author.

Financial Disclosures--All authors must disclose any financial arrangement(s) they may have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product.

Writing Assistance--The names and funding source for individuals who provided writing assistance must be listed.

Abstract

Limit: 250 words. Do not use abbreviations, footnotes, or references.

Authors should submit a structured abstract of no more than 250 words organized into the following categories as applicable:

Background & Aims: Describe the importance of the study and the precise research objective(s) or study question(s).

Methods: Methods should include information on the following aspects of study design when applicable. The methods section may employ subheadings at the discretion of the author.
  • Design--describe the basic study design, e.g., randomized controlled trial, cross sectional study, cohort study, case series, survey, etc.
  • Setting--specify whether the study was conducted in a primary or tertiary care setting, in an ambulatory care clinic or hospital, in the general community, etc.
  • Participants--indicate the number of study subjects and how they were selected, recruited, and assigned to the intervention.
  • Intervention--report the method of administration and duration of the intervention.

Results: Provide the main outcomes of the study, including confidence intervals or P values. Report the absolute values and risk differences so that readers can determine the absolute, as well as the relative, impact of the results.

Conclusions: State only conclusions that are directly supported by the evidence and the implications of the findings.

Body of paper

Describe ethical guidelines followed; cite approval of institutional human research review committee or animal welfare committee; describe in detail hazardous procedures or chemicals involved, including precautions observed.

Outline statistical methods used.

Identify drugs and chemicals used by generic name (if trademarks are mentioned, manufacturer name and city are given).

References

Cite references in order of appearance in text using superscripted Arabic numerals.

Cite personal communications and unpublished data directly in text without being numbered.

Conform abbreviations to those used in Index Medicus.

Conform style and punctuation to Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology requirements:

Article (list 3 authors followed by et al):

13. Meltzer SJ, Ahnen DJ, Battifour H, et al. Protooncogene abnormalities in colon cancers and adenomatous polyps. Gastroenterology 1987;92:1174-1180.

Book:

18. Day RA. How to write and publish a scientific paper. Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information, 1979.

Article in Book:

22. Costa M, Furness JB, Llewellyn-Smith IF. Histochemistry of the enteric nervous system. In: Johnson LR, ed. Physiology of the gastrointestinal tract. Volume 1. 2nd ed. New York: Raven, 1987:1-40.

Tables

Tables should be prepared without the use of tabs; most table editor programs can be uploaded successfully. If your table contains decimal fractions, please round your numbers to two places after the decimal point.



Figures

Images: Images can be clinical, pathologic (gross or microscopic), endoscopic, or radiographic. They should be of high quality (300 dpi or greater, clear, and in good focus) and illustrate the diagnosis well.

Photographs: Photographs of identifiable patients must be accompanied by written permission to publish from the patient.

Line Art and Graphs: Graphs, charts and other line art may be reformatted and/or redrawn by our Medical Illustration Department for consistency with the overall style of the AGA Institute journals. Please be sure that any graphs or line art you submit are at a resolution of at least 150 dpi so that they are readable to reviewers.

Cost: Authors will be required to pay for the printing of color figures ($650 for the first color figure and $100 each for additional figures). If the manuscript is reviewed with color figures, it must be published with color figures with printing fees paid for by the author. If the author does not wish to pay for printing color figures, then the authors upload grayscale or black-and-white files only to allow review of the data as they will ultimately be published.

Figure Legends: Please do not embed or flatten the text into the image files. Figure legends should be typed and submitted in .rtf (rich text format). This text will be reformatted in the style of the AGA Institute journals.

Accepted Figure File Formats: We support the following among dozens of file formats: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .pbm, .pcx, .png, .tif, .eps, .xbm, .psd, and .tga files. When sending image files, please do not embed them in Word. You may submit mixed file formats (image1.jpg, image2.tif, image3.eps, etc.).

Preferred Figure File Formats: .tiff, .psd and .jpg. If you have created Photoshop image files containing separate layers with arrows or text, please send us the layered files (unflattened).

Image File Formats not Supported at this Time: ChemDraw, CorelDraw, Canvas, FreeHand, Excel, SigmaPlot, QuarkXpress, and Equation Editor. You may export image files from these programs as PDF, JPEG, or other acceptable file formats.

File Naming Convention: Figures should be named consecutively such as "figure 1.tif," "figure 2.jpg," etc., with the file extension appended (.tif, .jpg, .eps, etc). Each figure should be saved as a separate electronic file.

Color Files: Figures should be submitted in the CMYK color space. Authors are encouraged to present color figures in a manner that will allow the data to be interpreted by colorblind readers. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology suggests that authors present dual-labeled images in green and magenta rather than in green and red. See the website of the Jfly data depository for Drosphila researchers (External link http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/ ) for more information on how to make figures and presentations intelligible for a colorblind audience. Font: If your figures include text, an 8 to 10 point font should be used. Acceptable fonts are "sans serif" fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, and Myriad. Examples of unacceptable fonts ("serif" fonts) are Times, Palatino, and Georgia. Lettering should begin with an upper case letter, followed by lower case lettering.

Multiple Panel Figures: Do not mount multiple part figures. Please submit each panel (image) separately. However, you may submit a multiple panel version to suggest the order in which you would like the panels arranged. You may also include a written, suggested layout. Each individual panel should be of the highest possible quality (300 dpi or higher) at actual print size.

Reporting Clinical Trials

As of January 1, 2008, it is mandatory for authors to provide full registration of their clinical trial(s). A clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. The trial must have at least one prospectively assigned concurrent control or comparison group in order to trigger the requirement for registration.

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology has adopted the recommendations put forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For more information on the ICMJE recommendations, please go to External link http://www.icmje.org . Appropriate online registries include www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.isrctn.org, www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index.htm, www.actr.org.au, www.trialregister.nl, or any primary registers that participate in the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trial Platform. The clinical trial registry URL and the clinical trial number must be included in the body of the manuscript and must be provided in the manuscript management system upon submission.

Randomized controlled trials should be presented according to the CONSORT guidelines (External link http://www.consort-statement.org ). At manuscript submission, authors must provide the CONSORT checklist with a diagram that illustrates the progress of patients through the trial, including recruitment, enrollment, randomization, withdrawal and completion, and a detailed description of the randomization procedure. The CONSORT checklist and template flow diagram can be found on www.consort-statement.org. Manuscripts that fail to comply with CONSORT guidelines will not be reviewed for publication.

Reporting Meta-Analyses of Genetic Studies

As of January 1, 2008, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology will require all meta-analyses of genetic studies to be registered and to follow the Human Genome Epidemiology Network™ (HuGENet) guidelines. To review the guidelines, go to External link http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet/reviews/guidelines.htm .

Image of the month

Image of the Month presents a striking clinical image that is meant to challenge and inform readers. The Image of the Month is presented as a short case report including up to three images. The section is intended to illustrate and teach important medical points. If you would like to submit an image for publication in the Journal, please follow the instructions below.
  1. Images can be either clinical, pathologic (gross or microscopic), endoscopic, or radiographic. They should be of high quality and illustrate the diagnosis well . Images for hardcopy submission should be original color or black and white photographic or digital prints 5 by 7 inches in size and should be submitted in duplicate.
  2. Arrows or other symbols, or label identifiers should be marked only on the second print. The back of each print and slide must be labeled with the last names of the contributors and an arrow indicating the top of image.
  3. The case should be described in one typed, double-spaced page or less. Format should be as follows: Short pertinent history, physical examination and laboratory findings, and initial clinical course. The image(s) should then be described with all labeled structures explained in the text.
  4. The answer should discuss the image findings and the diagnosis in no more than one double-spaced typed page. The diagnosis and discussion should make an important medical teaching point and include from 1 to 3 pertinent references. Information regarding the specific patient in terms of follow-up and response to therapy should be given as appropriate.
  5. No more than three authors are allowed on each submission. Contributors must provide their names, addresses, phone, and e-mail addresses. Contributors must sign and return the copyright form which assigns copyright to the AGA Institute and attest that the figure has not been submitted or published elsewhere.
  6. "Image of the Month" submissions must be submitted online at External link http://www.editorialmanager.com/cgh

Electronic Image of the Month

Due to a high number of "Image of the Month" submissions and the increasing use of video in reports on clinical cases, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology publishes Electronic Image of the Month, where some accepted images or those that include video clips can be published online only. When an image is accepted for the Electronic Image of the Month section, authors will receive a decision letter requesting approval to publish their article online only. If an author does not agree to these terms the article will not be considered further for publication. If authors choose to have their accepted image published in the 'Electronic Image of the Month' section, their article will be posted on our website, www.cghjournal.org, within 2 - 3 months.

To submit your "Image of the Month" to Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, log-on to External link http://www.editorialmanager.com/cgh . Authors are required to follow the "Image of the Month" guidelines provided above.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor offer opinions on manuscripts submitted to Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Text should not exceed 250 words with a limit of 3 references; no more than 3 authors are allowed on each submission. All letters become the property of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and are subject to editing by the editors. Letters commenting on manuscripts are sent to the authors of those manuscripts for response. Letters are selected for their importance and not all letters submitted can be published. Letters should be submitted within a month from the publication of the manuscript.

Brief Communications

Brief Communications are short reports of preliminary or limited results of original research, observations, or case series on the causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, course, treatment, and prevention of digestive diseases. The formatting guidelines for brief communication are as follows: Abstract must not exceed 175 words, manuscript body must not exceed 1500 words, 1-2 figures or tables, and 15-20 references.

Case Reports

The journal will publish only a select number of high quality and critical case reports. Authors have the option of reformatting their case reports as Brief Communication or Image of the Month.



Publication Accepted manuscripts are sent to the publisher, Elsevier, soon after acceptance. Once authors have had the opportunity to review galleys of their manuscripts, these author-corrected proofs will be uploaded to Articles in Press on www.cghjournal.org and will be indexed on PubMed, several weeks ahead of print.

Manuscripts are copyedited to make them consistent with Journal style; if a particular section in the manuscript is not clear or requires additional information, the copy editor will direct questions to the author. These questions, or author queries, will appear in the margins of the proofs that are sent to the author.

The time between acceptance and publication is currently about 3 months. The corresponding author can expect proofs of the article approximately 2 months after acceptance. Authors receive proofs for the primary purpose of checking the accuracy of the typesetting; authors are not to revise or rewrite their articles at this stage. If after acceptance of their paper, authors become aware of important information they believe should be added to their manuscript, they should contact the editor of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Authors are required to return proofs to the publisher within 48 hours.

Reprints. Forms for ordering article reprints will be sent with proofs to authors and should be returned with the corrected proofs. Authors do not receive free reprints, and therefore are responsible for ordering their own reprints (minimum order, 100) from the publisher.

Editorial Office

The address for the submission of manuscripts or correspondence is: C. Mel Wilcox, M.D., Editor, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, AGA Institute, 4930 Del Ray Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland 20814; E-mail: cgh@gastro.org; tel: (301) 654-2055 ext. 683.



Updated September 2007

© 2007 by the AGA Institute
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