Go to journal home page - Translational Research

Translational Research

Aims and Scope

Translational Research delivers original investigations in the broad fields of laboratory, clinical, and public health research. Published monthly since 1915, it keeps readers up-to-date on significant biomedical research from all subspecialties of medicine. Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary in scope, it aims to expedite the translation of scientific discovery into new or improved standards of care and promotes a wide-ranging exchange between basic, preclinical, clinical, epidemiologic, and health outcomes research. It encourages submission of studies describing preclinical research with potential for application to human disease, and studies describing research obtained from preliminary human experimentation with potential to refine the understanding of biological principles underpinning human disease. Also encouraged are studies describing public health research with potential for application to the clinic, disease prevention, or healthcare policy.
Translational Research is published in Association with Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.

Article Type and Length

Original research articles. Submission of original empirical research in all fields of medicine is strongly encouraged; there is no maximum word limit.

Reviews. Review articles are welcomed for both state-of-the-art comprehensive reviews, directed at research scientists in specific fields, and more general informative reviews, directed at the broader community of clinical investigators. Originality is critical in order to contribute to the medical literature, and the perspective should be fresh and the synthesis unique. Authors of reviews should realize that the Journal is multidisciplinary and that reviews for such a journal require appropriate interpretive material. Clarity of presentation is a major criterion for acceptance.

Letters to the Editor. Letters to the Editor commenting on published articles may be submitted. These comments should be directed at confirming the results (from a different approach), extending the original report, or refuting results or the authors' interpretation. Maximum length is 1000 words; maximum number of references is 15. The Editor reserves the right to decide on publication of letters, shorten them, remove objectionable comments, and make other changes in accord with the style of Translational Research.

Contact details for submission

Please send queries concerning the submission or review process to journal mailbox at [email protected].

Before you begin

Review and selection

All articles are evaluated by the Editor for suitability for consideration for publication in Translational Research. Potentially acceptable submissions will also be reviewed in detail by two additional referees with expertise in the specific area. All revised manuscripts are carefully re-examined with no guarantee of acceptance, and authors will only have two opportunities to make revisions to the same manuscript. Final acceptance is based on originality, significance, documentation of conclusions, and form of presentation.

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.

Human subject research

Articles reporting studies in human subjects must be accompanied by statements that the research was carried out according to The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki), that informed consent was obtained, and that the author's institutional review board has approved the study. This statement must be included in the Methods section. The Journal encourages authors to discuss the ethical concerns in research that involves significant risk to participants. All clinical trials that prospectively assign human subjects to intervention and comparison groups for the purposes of evaluating the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome must be registered with a public registry before submission of a paper based on the trial. Studies that are designed for other purposes (retrospective records review, pharmacokinetics studies or assessment of major toxicity) are exempt from this requirement. Trial registry name, registration identification number, and the URL for the registry should be included in the Acknowledgements. Examples of registries are the US National Library of Medicine registry (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) registry ( http://www.controlled-trials.com).

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

All authors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest relevant to the subject of their article at the time of submission. Conflicts of interest may arise when authors or immediate family members have a financial or personal relationship with organizations that could potentially be perceived as influencing the described research. Financial relationships include compensation for services (e.g., employment, consulting fees, honoraria, expert testimony, advisory boards, speaker's bureau), equity interest (e.g., stocks, stock options, bonds, or other ownership interests), intellectual property rights (e.g., patents filed or pending, copyrights, royalties), and direct research support (e.g., grants, contracts, or material support). Disclosure of information about potential conflicts of interest is intended to improve transparency and allow readers to form their own judgments of competing influences on the described research. Include a statement in the Acknowledgments stating whether all authors have disclosed potential conflicts of interest (if there are none, include a statement to this effect) and whether all authors have read the journal's policy on conflicts of interest.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Disclosure of funding source

Authors are required to identify sources of financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, then this should be stated. Include a statement describing the funding source in the Acknowledgments.

Authorship agreement

The publisher and editors of Translational Research subscribe to the definitions of authorship as set forth in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals; accordingly, we expect each listed author to accept full responsibility for the paper. Submission of an article implies that it has been reviewed by and approved by all named authors; that the corresponding author is empowered by all of the authors to act on their behalf with respect to submission to Translational Research; that the article is original; that the article does not infringe upon any copyright or other proprietary right of any third party; that neither the text nor the data reported have been published previously (abstracts and electronic preprints excepted); that the article or a substantially similar article is not under consideration by another journal at this time, that its submission and publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried, and, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder. Furthermore, articles submitted to Translational Research are reviewed (and ultimately published) with the understanding that all potential copyright conflicts have been addressed by the author(s) and that all overlap with other publications by the authors or by others have been disclosed. Moreover, in the event that fraud or other irregularity is alleged within 5 years of the appearance of a paper in Translational Research, it is our expectation that the authors will at our request produce both the actual data on which the paper was based and documentation of adequate resources to have carried out the work in question. It is understood that statements and opinions expressed in articles and communications are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the editor(s) or publisher, and the editor(s) and publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material. If the article is accepted, a form transferring copyright will be sent to the corresponding author. Include a statement in the Acknowledgments stating whether all authors have read the journal's authorship agreement.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Article in press

Accepted articles will be published online ahead of the printed issue and can be viewed at http://translationalres.com/inpress. Early online publication significantly reduces the time from acceptance to publication to approximately 4 weeks.

Author contributions

For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

Publishing options and copyright

This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research: open access and subscription.

Subscription

  • THERE IS NO PUBLICATION FEE.
  • Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our access programs.

Open Access

  • Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse.
  • An open access publication fee is payable by authors or their research funder.
  • The publication fee for this journal is $3,000, excluding taxes. Learn more about Elsevier's pricing policy: https://www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing.

Articles published through open access or subscription models will have no effect on the peer-review process or acceptance of submitted articles.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential article archiving requirements as specified by conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies, please visit https://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Language (usage and editing services)

Please write your text in standard English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language article may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors, and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to contact a professional medical editor.

Article transfer service
This journal uses the Elsevier Article Transfer Service to find the best home for your manuscript. This means that if an editor feels your manuscript is more suitable for an alternative journal, you might be asked to consider transferring the manuscript to such a journal. The recommendation might be provided by a Journal Editor, a dedicated Scientific Managing Editor, a tool assisted recommendation, or a combination. If you agree, your manuscript will be transferred, though you will have the opportunity to make changes to the manuscript before the submission is complete. Please note that your manuscript will be independently reviewed by the new journal. More information.

Color Figure Charge

Authors are encouraged to submit color figures, which will be published online at no cost; however, the expense of reproducing color figures in print must be borne by the authors. The charge for reproduction of color figures is $650 for the first figure and $100 for each subsequent figure. Any figure submitted in color and requiring color for adequate representation of data-as judged by the reviewers-will be reviewed and processed with the understanding that the figure will appear in color in the printed version of the journal at the author's expense. Authors unable to pay color figure charges may request a waiver in the cover letter at the time of submission.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. 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.

For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Elsevier Researcher Academy
Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Preparation

Submission

Articles should be submitted online at https://https://editorialmanager.com/TRANSRES/default.aspx . The website guides authors stepwise through the submission process. Submission items include a cover letter (save as a separate file for upload), the manuscript (including title page, abstract, main text, references, and figure legends), tables, and figures. Revised manuscripts should also be accompanied by a separate file (separate from the cover letter) with responses to reviewers' comments. Original source files (not PDF files) are required for online submission. Files should be labeled with descriptive file names (e.g., SmithText.doc, Fig1.tiff, Table3.doc). Do not import figures or tables into the text of the article. The article must be written in English and typed double-spaced.

Peer review

This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review.

Article structure

The article text should be divided into clearly defined sections. Each section should be given a brief heading. The organization of review articles should be appropriate to the content of the review.

Introduction. State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background that orients the general scientific reader to the topic. Avoid a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Material and methods. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Include a description of statistical methods used
Results. Results should be clear and concise. Results may be presented in tables or figures that should not duplicate the text.
Discussion. Synthesize the results into a cohesive story in the context of the published literature. Set forth the major conclusions of the authors. Do not repeat information from the Introduction or Results section. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Title page

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formula where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Include the names and affiliations of the author(s). Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Indicate the address of the author to whom correspondence and reprint requests should be directed. The corresponding author is expected to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication, and post-publication. Ensure that phone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Running head and abbreviations. Include an abbreviated title (45 characters or less) and a list of definitions of any abbreviations used in the article. Because this is a multidisciplinary journal, abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. It is preferable to use only universally understood abbreviations. Only standard chemical or nonproprietary pharmaceutical nomenclature should be used. All abbreviations must be defined separately in the title, abstract, and text of the manuscript.

Brief Commentary

Describe the background knowledge and translational significance of your study (not to exceed 100 words). Use the headings: "Background" and "Translational Significance" to segregate the information.

Abstract

An abstract of 250 words or less should orient the reader to the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions, all in one paragraph without subheadings. It should be easily understood without reference to the text.

Acknowledgements

In addition to the customary recognition of nonauthors who have been helpful to the work described, this section must disclose, where appropriate, all sources of support for the investigation, any potential conflicts of interest, and clinical trial registry information. Additionally, include statements that all authors have read the journal's authorship agreement and policy on disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. Acknowledgements should be made in a separate section at the end of the article after the Discussion and before the references.

References

All references must be cited in the text. These should be numbered serially in the text and listed, in the order cited, after the Acknowledgments section. References should follow the standards summarized by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and detailed in the National Library of Medicine's Citing Medicine. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references. Unpublished results and personal communications do not belong in the reference list; they should be cited parenthetically in the text.

Figure Legends

Ensure that each illustration has a legend. Legends for figures should be typed double-spaced on a separate page after the References. A legend should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Figures and tables

Number figures and tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Ensure that the data presented in figures and tables do not duplicate results described in the article text.

Data references
This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking
If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

After acceptance

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. Example of a correctly given DOI (in URL format; here an article in the journal Physics Letters B): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059 When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Online proof correction

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our ProofCentral system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors. If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please upload all of your corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Offprints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

AUTHOR INQUIRIES

For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. For detailed instructions on the preparation of electronic artwork, please visit https://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at https://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs at https://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ and/or contact Customer Support via https://service.elsevier.com.

Publisher Details
Ryan Shaw
Publisher
Elsevier
1600 John F. Kennedy BLVD, Suite 1800
Philadelphia, PA 19103
[email protected]

Editorial Office
Please send queries concerning the submission or review process to journal mailbox, at [email protected].