Author guidelines

Scope

NAR Cancer publishes original research and review articles at the intersection of the nucleic acids and cancer fields. All manuscripts are peer-reviewed and must meet the general criteria of originality, timeliness, significance, and scientific excellence.

The Editor-in-Chief sets overall editorial policy in consultation with the Editorial Board, editorial staff, and publisher. The Editor-in-Chief decides whether to accept manuscripts for publication in accordance with the journal's established editorial criteria and review procedures.

Initial submission

The Associate Editors are senior members of the Editorial Board who may be assigned responsibility for handling individual manuscripts, including selection and assignment of peer reviewers and providing recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief regarding manuscript acceptance.

The Editorial Board is composed of recognized experts in topics covered by the journal. They may serve as peer reviewers, but do not otherwise participate in editorial decision-making. Editorial Board members may also provide general advice on journal policy and development.

The Managing Editor and journal staff report to the publisher. They handle initial processing of submitted manuscripts, check them for completeness and adherence to journal policies, and assign them to the Editor-in-Chief (or to an ad hoc acting Editor-in-Chief in cases where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest). They serve as a resource for authors and editors. They are also responsible for providing final versions of accepted manuscripts to the publisher’s Production Department.

How we publish

NAR Cancer is a peer-reviewed fully open access journal publishing four issues per year online. All papers published in the Journal are made freely available online under open access publishing agreements, with applicable charges. Please refer to the open access section below.

After copyediting and review of the final proof, papers are published in the currently open issue.

Article types

NAR Cancer publishes Standard, Review, and Cancer Data Resource articles.

Standard articles

Standard articles report original research results in categories of:

Cancer Computational Biology
Cancer Genomics
DNA Damage Sensing and Repair
Cancer Gene Regulation, Chromatin, and Epigenetics
Cancer Methods (including single-molecule and single-cell approaches)
Cancer-specific RNAs and RNA Processing
Nucleic Acid-Based Cancer Therapeutics
Structural Biology of Cancer-Related Macromolecules

Standard articles should provide mechanistic insights. Purely descriptive studies will not be considered. Biomarker studies will be considered only if they are hypothesis-driven and of exceptional impact. Medicinal chemistry studies (except nucleic acid-based therapeutics) will generally not be considered. The journal does not publish interventional clinical studies.

From time to time, the editors discuss more detailed criteria for consideration in various standard categories, including topics that the Journal specifically encourages or discourages. Please see the recently updated criteria for Gene Regulation, Chromatin, and Epigenetics and Cancer Data Resource and Computational Biology.

The article length and the number of cited items should be proportional to the scientific content. A length of no more than 10 published pages is preferred. There is no separate category for brief communications.

Review articles

NAR Cancer accommodates reviews that are relevant to the journal’s core area of interest at the intersection of the nucleic acids and cancer fields. Review articles should be written in a way to draw in a diverse audience of specialists and non-specialists. There are two categories of review articles:

Critical Reviews and Perspectives, which provide critical analyses, a synthesis of ideas, and new insights within a broad area. These typically occupy about 15 printed pages, with 4-6 display items and 100-150 references. They may contain a very limited amount of original data.
Short Reviews, which are briefer articles focused on a single topic. These generally occupy 4 printed pages or less, with 1-2 display items and no more than 50 references.

Prospective authors of review articles should send a pre-submission enquiry to the Editor-in-Chief outlining the proposed content and author qualifications, including prior publications in the topic area.

Cancer data resource articles

NAR Cancer publishes a Cancer Data Resource collection devoted to articles that describe queryable databases, web-based services, or stand-alone software implementations. The name of the resource should be featured in the article title, and the URL, if applicable, should appear in the Abstract. Resources must be freely available to all users via the web or a repository. Authors must commit to maintaining availability of the Resource under the same URL for a minimum of 5 years. For more information and discussion of technical standards and best practices, authors are encouraged to consult relevant descriptions for the Database and Web Server issues at Nucleic Acids Research. Pre-submission inquiries are strongly encouraged and should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief.

More detailed Criteria for Consideration, including subject areas that are encouraged or discouraged, criteria for rigor, accessibility, and benchmarking, and an explanation of the difference between Cancer Data Resource articles and standard articles in the Computational Biology Category, may be found here.

Submitting

We appreciate your interest in submitting your manuscript to NAR Cancer and look forward to the opportunity to consider it. You can learn more about the benefits of publishing in the Journal on Why publish your research with NAR Cancer?

Publishing in NAR Cancer means that you are publishing with Oxford University Press (OUP), a not-for-profit publisher and a department of the University of Oxford. Learn more about how publishing with OUP reinvests in the scholarly community on the OUP Authoring page.

Authors are welcome to contact the Editor-in-Chief at any time with questions about editorial policy or for pre-submission inquiries.

After preparing your manuscript according to the guidance in the Preparing your manuscript section, you can submit your work through the Journal’s online submission site. If you have not used our submission site before, you will need to create an account. Additional help and instructions are available on the submission site as you go through the process. Please contact us with any questions about submitting your manuscript.

Peer review process

The Journal uses the ANSI/NISO Standard Terminology for Peer Review. If you would like further description of the peer review terms used here, please refer to the most recent standard definitions. If further clarification is needed, please contact the editorial office at [email protected].

Peer review summary:

Identity transparency: single anonymized
Reviewer interacts with: editor
Review information published: none
Post publication commenting: open

The Journal operates single-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is known to the editors and to the reviewers, but that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors.

Initial submission

During peer review, reviewers communicate directly with the editors but not the authors or other reviewers.

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, it will then be passed to a handling editor, who will oversee peer review and recommend a final decision. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the submitted manuscript.

Editors and reviewers must not handle manuscripts if they have a conflict of interest with an author or the content. Editors make every effort to avoid potential conflicts of interest in the assignment of other editors and peer reviewers. For more information, please see the section on Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. During the peer review phase, your manuscript is typically sent to a minimum of two reviewers.

Choosing referees

Authors must suggest at least six potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their field and able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript without financial or interpersonal conflicts of interest with any authors. We encourage authors to consider reviewers from a diverse range of backgrounds, including those from under-represented communities.

At the time of submission, authors may request that specific individuals not be used as reviewers of their manuscript. Authors may do so in their cover letter, along with a brief explanation as to why they want them excluded. However, there is no guarantee these individuals will be excluded by the Journal. We suggest that authors add one additional qualified suggested reviewer (beyond the six minimum) to their list, for each requested excluded reviewer, to help ensure timely evaluation.

If the manuscript is accepted for publication, no information about the review process or editorial decision process is published, unless one of the authors has a role on the journal. See the Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest section for more information in that case.

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, no information about the review process or editorial decision process is published, unless one of the authors has a role on the journal. See the Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest section for more information in that case.

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review.

Revision

Following review, authors may be invited to submit a revised version that addresses reviewer and editor comments and concerns. Detailed instructions will be provided for formatting and submission of revised manuscripts. Authors are encouraged to complete revisions within 30-60 days depending on the amount of revision required. With scientific justification, extensions of up to six months (total from decision date) may be requested. After this, the article will be automatically withdrawn.

Revised manuscripts will be sent to the original reviewers or to new reviewers for further comments. Alternatively, if the requested revisions are straightforward and the authors’ responses are complete and comprehensive, the manuscript may be accepted following editorial review.

Authors should promptly notify the Journal if they choose not to revise their manuscript and intend to submit it elsewhere.

Resubmission

The resubmission of manuscripts that have been rejected following editorial or peer review must satisfy the following conditions, regardless of whether the resubmission covers the entirety of the previous work or only a part, and regardless of any changes in authorship:

The resubmission should have been previously invited by the journal editorial staff. NAR Cancer allows uninvited resubmissions only in exceptional cases.
All resubmissions must be accompanied by a cover letter containing full details of the previous version.
The manuscript number of the earlier submission must be provided.
Where appropriate, a file must be uploaded which contains the authors' responses to any previous editorial or Referee reports and a summary of the changes that have been made.

Authors are encouraged to carry out resubmission within twelve months of the decision date of the original manuscript. The authors should contact the handling editor if the resubmission is likely to take longer than this.

Manuscript transfers

The Journal accepts original submissions as well as transfers from Nucleic Acids Research, NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, NAR Molecular Medicine. Reviewer reports may be included in the transfer with reviewer consent. Transferred manuscripts may be sent out for additional peer review, and a decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all consenting reviewers and the judgment of the editorial team of NAR Cancer.

In some cases, the editorial team of the Journal may offer you the option of transferring your manuscript to NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, NAR Molecular Medicine. If you accept this offer, the manuscript files and any reviewer reports from consenting reviewers will be sent to NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, NAR Molecular Medicine. The editorial team of NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, NAR Molecular Medicine may choose to seek additional peer review. A decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all reviewers and the judgment of the NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, NAR Molecular Medicine editorial team.

Acceptance

Following notification of editorial acceptance from the Editor-in-Chief, the Production Editor at OUP will then send the corresponding author instructions to complete the following steps:

Complete a license to publish online.
Pay the Open Access charge online. Please note that manuscripts cannot be published without receipt of this.

Proofs

Accepted manuscripts will be sent to Production at OUP. For improved publication speed, the proofs are provided on our Total Online Proof (TOP) system. The corresponding author will receive a link and log-in details and should make all changes within 48 hours after receipt. A corrected copy should be uploaded in accordance with covering instructions. If the corresponding author will be unavailable, they should delegate responsibility to another person and provide an email address where the proofs may be sent. Proofing instructions will accompany the PDF file.

Any substantial changes and notes added to the proof necessitate the approval of the editor responsible for the paper. In general, corrections to figures are not permitted at this stage. The corresponding author must assure that all co-authors agree with any corrections made.

All manuscripts will undergo some editorial modification, so it is important to check proofs carefully.

Indexing

All content will be automatically downstreamed to PubMed Central (PMC) to satisfy funding agency requirements and to allow them to become searchable in PMC and PubMed.

Post publication commenting

The Journal allows open commenting on published articles. Comments are displayed at the bottom of the article page under the “Comments” section. To comment, users must log-in to their OUP account or create a new one. Commenter name and affiliations are collected as part of the comment submission process. All comments are reviewed by the editorial team and subject to approval before the comment is published live. During the review stage, the editorial team may contact the authors of either the paper or comment before coming to a decision. The editorial team may also make edits to the comment before publishing.

If a comment is accepted and published, the author of the comment and the corresponding author of the paper are notified of the outcome. If the comment is rejected, the comment author is notified. For questions about submitting a comment, please contact the editorial office at [email protected].

Screening for misconduct

Manuscripts may be screened using iThenticate to help detect publication misconduct including plagiarism and redundant publication.

The Journal uses ScholarOne's Unusual Activity Detection tool to build confidence in the identity of authors and reviewers.

Reviewer recognition

To promote recognition of the essential work done by reviewers, the Journal offers reviewers the option to have their reviews verified and automatically listed on their Web of Science Researcher Profile.

Reviewer locator

The Journal uses the Web of Science Reviewer Locator to assist the editors in finding appropriate reviewers.

Appeals and complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision. To do so, please contact the editorial office at [email protected], providing as much specific detail as possible about why the original decision should be reconsidered. Every appeal will receive a response within a reasonable timeframe. Please do not resubmit your manuscript in the interim.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact [email protected]. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes.

Publication and research ethics

Authors' responsibilities

Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and is not under consideration elsewhere. At submission, the submitting author confirms on behalf of all authors that they are in complete agreement with the contents of the manuscript and are prepared to abide by NAR Cancer’s policies.

Valid email addresses must be provided for all co-authors, who will automatically be notified of the submission. If the corresponding author is not the corresponding author named on the title page, then full contact details of the latter must be included with the submission. The journal reserves the right to communicate directly with the corresponding author named on the title page should circumstances require.

At submission, authors should take care to archive and safeguard unprocessed original data related to the submission and to assure that figures, charts, and tables accurately represent that original data. The editors may ask authors for the original data, either during the editorial process or to address post-publication concerns. The journal also requires that certain types of data be placed in a repository at the time of submission. To facilitate compliance, authors will be asked to complete an online checklist, please click on the following link Data Availability, Reproducibility, and Standardization checklist.

Cover letter, previous submissions, and related manuscripts

Authors should upload a cover letter briefly listing the main conclusions of the manuscript and explaining the significance of the work in the context of its field. The cover letter must also include details of any previous submission of the work to NAR Cancer or to Nucleic Acids Research, either partial or in entirety, which has been rejected, regardless of any changes in authorship. The manuscript number of the earlier submission must be provided, together with a file containing the responses to any editorial or referee reports and a summary of the changes that have been made, including changes in authorship.

The cover letter should also contain details of any data obtained from other groups which is cited in the manuscript as a personal communication(s). The corresponding author must confirm that permission has been obtained for each inclusion.

The cover letter must also advise the journal of any related manuscripts currently under consideration by NAR Cancer or any other journal, especially where the related manuscript describes work that may impinge significantly on the results or interpretation of the current submission. A file of the related manuscript must be uploaded into the online submission system.

Authorship

Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. The Journal will contact all listed authors at the point of submission to confirm their role. Authorship should be based on (i) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; (ii) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (iii) final approval of the version to be published; and (iv) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Persons designated as authors should meet all four of these criteria for authorship. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the co-authors and should be agreed upon before submission to the journal.

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on ghost, guest, or gift authorship. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.

Equal contribution

It is sometimes necessary to indicate that two or more authors have contributed equally to the manuscript. The joint authors should be identified by a dagger symbol and a footnote containing the statement '† Name1, Name2 and Name3 contributed equally to this work' should be added. The relative contributions of ALL authors must appear under Acknowledgements.

Joint corresponding authors

Corresponding authors take responsibility for the published work on behalf of all authors. The names of joint corresponding authors can appear at any place in the list of authors and will be identified by an asterisk.

Acknowledgements

Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement of the study, the corresponding author should obtain permission from all acknowledged individuals and be prepared to provide this to the journal upon request.

Author contributions statement

The inclusion of an Author Contributions statement is mandatory for all articles, preferably with the original submission, but no later than at revision. We encourage authors to follow the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT), which allows authors to describe the contributor roles in a standardized, transparent, and accurate way. Authors may choose from the contributor roles outlined on the CRediT website and supply this information upon submission. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed in your manuscript as non-author contributors with their contributions clearly described under Acknowledgements. Following manuscript submission, any changes to contributor roles require the approval of the editor.

AI-powered language processing models

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

Changes in authorship

Please note this journal has enabled the Authorship Change Detection Tool, provided by ScholarOne. This functionality will alert the Editorial Office of any changes made to the authorship list during revisions, resubmissions or transfers. If detected, all Co-Authors will be asked either to accept or reject the change.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made unless there is a substantive reason to do so. The editor and all co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office at [email protected]. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

After submission, changing who is designated as the corresponding author will be permitted only where there is a substantive reason to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open access charges section.

ORCiD

Submitting authors are required to provide an ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) at submission. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website.

As ORCID identifiers are collected, they are included in papers and displayed online, both in the HTML and PDF versions of the publication, in compliance with recommended practice issued by ORCID.

ORCID functionality online allows users to link to the ORCID website to view an author’s profile and list of publications. ORCID iDs are displayed on web pages and are sent downstream to third parties in data feeds, where supported.

If you have registered with ORCID, you can associate your ORCID iD with your submission system account by going to your account details, entering your ORCID iD, and validating your details. Learn more about ORCID and how to link it to your account.

Groups and consortia

Groups (also known as corporate, organization, or collective names) who meet our authorship criteria should be included in the main author list. Every individual in the group should fully meet the criteria for authorship. At least one individual must be designated on behalf of the group as the primary point of contact during the peer-review and production processes, as well as for correspondence following publication. This individual may be listed separately in the main author list if desired.

If the group only has a few members, the members should be listed in the author by-line on the manuscript's title page.

If the group has many members, the members should be listed in the Acknowledgements section or in an Appendix at the end of the article.

The group name will be entered for a PMC citation. The names of the individual members of the group will be entered as collaborator names for PMC citation, in the order in which they are published in the paper. If an individual is named both in the main author list and as a member of the group, they will appear in PMC as both an author and a collaborator.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

Authors

The Journal requires all authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest at the point of submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that conflicts of interest of all authors are declared to the Journal.

A conflict of interest exists when the position, activities, or relationships of an individual, whether direct or indirect, financial or non-financial, could influence or be seen to influence the opinions or activities of the individual. For more information, refer to OUP’s definition of conflict of interest.

The Journal follows the COPE guidance for any undisclosed conflict of interest that emerges during peer review, production, or after publication.

Reviewers

Individuals that have a conflict of interest relating to a submitted manuscript should recuse themselves and will not be assigned to oversee, handle, or peer review the manuscript.

If during peer review an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

Editors

At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled. The statement will read “[Author name] holds the position of [role] for NAR Cancer and has not peer reviewed or made any editorial decisions for this paper."

Previously published material

You should only submit your manuscript(s) to the Journal if:

It is original work by you and your co-author(s).
It is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any other publication.
It has not been published in any other publication.
It contains nothing abusive, defamatory, derogatory, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

The submitting author must disclose in their cover letter and provide copies of all related or similar preprints, dissertations, manuscripts, published papers, and reports by the same authors (i.e., those containing substantially similar content or using the same, similar, or a subset of data) that have been previously published or posted electronically or are under consideration elsewhere at the time of manuscript submission. You must also provide a concise explanation of how the submitted manuscript differs from these related manuscripts and papers. All related previously published papers should be cited as references and described in the submitted manuscript.

The Journal does not discourage you from presenting your findings at conferences or scientific meetings but recommends that you refrain from distributing complete copies of your manuscripts, which might later be published elsewhere without your knowledge.

For previously published materials including tables and figures, please see the Reusing copyrighted materials section.

Preprints

As an author, you retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels and this does not prevent submission to the Journal. If accepted, you are required to update the status of any preprint, including adding your published paper’s DOI. For full details on allowed channels and updating your preprint, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Reusing copyrighted material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, images, data, or software. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following:

Nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in NAR Cancer
Rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
Lifetime rights to use the material
Worldwide English-language rights

If you have chosen to publish under an open access licence but have not obtained open access re-use permissions for third-party material contained within the manuscript, this must be stated clearly by supplying a credit line alongside the material with the following information:

Title of content
Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rightsholder]
This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Our publisher, Oxford University Press, provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information.

Misconduct

Authors should observe high standards with respect to research integrity and publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data including inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Allegations of ethical misconduct, both directly and through social media, are treated seriously and will be investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE guidance.

If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in one or more of the following outcomes, among others:

If a submitted manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
If a paper has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either a correction notice will be published and linked to the paper, or retraction of the paper will occur, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
The relevant party’s institution(s) and/or other journals may be informed.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal may be screened with plagiarism-detection software. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose that part or all the of the manuscript has been previously published.

COPE defines plagiarism as:

“when somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were their own and without proper acknowledgment.”

COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as:

“when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification,
or
when the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the findings have been published before.”

COPE defines citation manipulation as:

“behaviours intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, and excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner.”

Data fabrication is defined as intentionally creating fake data or misrepresenting research results. An example includes making up data sets.

Data falsification is defined as manipulating research data with the purpose of intentionally giving a false representation. This can apply to images, research materials, equipment, or processes. Examples include cropping of gels/images to change context and omission of selected data.

If notified of a potential breach of research misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

Ethical research

The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on ethical oversight. We take research integrity seriously, and all research published in the Journal must have been conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, the Journal requires that all research be done according to international and local guidelines.

Human participants

When reporting on human participants, you should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration, which were developed by the World Medical Association. For non-interventional studies, where ethical approval is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Otherwise, manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section that the research was performed after approval by a local ethics committee, institutional review board and/or local licensing committee, or that such approval was not required. The name of the authorizing body and any reference/permit numbers (where available) should also be stated there. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

Human participants must give written informed consent, or if they are minors or incapacitated, such consent must be obtained from their parents or guardians. Consent forms should cover not only study participation but also the publication of the data collected and deposition in databases and/or biobanks. Also, any patient or provider information should be anonymized to the extent possible; names and ID numbers should not be used in the text and must be removed from any images (X-rays, photographs, etc.). Please note blanking out an individual’s eyes in a photograph is not an effective way to conceal their identity. In studies where verbal, rather than written, informed consent was obtained, this must be explained and stated within the manuscript. If informed consent is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be included in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. The Journal does not routinely collect consent forms, but authors should be prepared to provide written consent forms signed by the participants or other appropriate documentation to the editorial office upon request. For further guidance and examples, please refer to COPE’s guidance on consent.

Animals

Studies involving animals require approval from the relevant institutional ethics committee or institutional animal use and care committee, and the research must be conducted in accordance with applicable national and international guidelines. All such manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section providing details of the name of the committee(s) that approved the study, as well as the permit or animal license numbers where available. Where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be stated in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

You are encouraged to consult the ARRIVE guidelines recommended by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3R).

Where applicable, any euthanasia or anesthesia methods must be carried out in accordance with applicable veterinary guidelines. These methods must be described in detail in the manuscript.

Manuscripts describing research involving laboratory-based animals must include details on housing, husbandry, and steps taken to reduce suffering. In studies where experimental animals were euthanized, details must be provided on humane endpoints. Details on the planned behavioral observations or physiological measurements used to determine the humane endpoint must be described. You are advised to consult the NC3Rs guide on Humane Endpoints and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Guidelines for the Humane Slaughter of Animals.

C4DISC partnership

The Journal and OUP aim to create a community that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of our commitment to these principles, OUP is a proud partner of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC). C4DISC works with organizations and individuals within the scholarly communications landscape to foster equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility across the publishing industry and its published outputs.

The Journal is proud to adopt the Joint Statement of Principles of C4DISC.

Inclusive language and images

As defined by the Linguistic Society of America:

“Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities”

We encourage you to consider using inclusive language and images when preparing your manuscript. For guidelines, please see the Linguistic Society of America guidelines

Accessibility

Written, visual, and audio content in your submission should be accessible to all. Please see the C4DISC guidelines for making text, images, charts, tables, and audio and video accessible.

Availability of data and materials

The Journal requires all authors, where ethically possible, to publicly release all data and software code underlying any published paper as a condition of publication. Authors are required to include a data availability statement in their paper. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area.

Data availability statement

The inclusion of a data availability statement is a requirement for papers published in the Journal. Data availability statements provide a standardized format for readers to understand the availability of original and third-party data underlying the research results described in the paper. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.

More information and example data availability statements.

Authors may request an exception to the policy due to legal, privacy, ethical, or other limitations or restrictions. Exceptions will be made at the discretion of the Journal. Please notify the editorial office at [email protected] when submitting your manuscript if you wish to request an exception. If an exception is granted, a data availability statement must still be included in your paper specifying what cannot be shared and explaining why.

Choosing where to archive your data

Authors are highly encouraged to select a repository that issues DOIs as this helps to facilitate persistent linking to the dataset from the research article. You may refer to online resources such as FAIRsharing.org and re3data.org for lists of data repositories, including information on certification status and services offered.

We suggest you consider these options when choosing your repository:

Deposit the data in a subject-specific public repository.
If there is no such repository, deposit the data in a generic repository that issues DOIs as this helps to facilitate persistent linking to the dataset from the research article. Authors may refer to online resources such as org and re3data.org for lists of data repositories, including information on certification status and services offered. We suggest that authors consider these options when choosing a generic repository:

If options 1-2 above are not possible, provide the data as supplementary files.

Software

All non-third-party software must be open-source. Software must be available and functional at the time of submission.

Biological resources

Authors must be willing to provide cell lines, plasmids, strains, and similar resources to qualified investigators upon request. Authors are encouraged to deposit samples with a repository such as the European Culture Collections' Organization, World Federation for Culture Collections. Plasmids may also be deposited in Addgene.

Submitting your bioRxiv or medRxiv preprint to the journal

You can submit your bioRxiv or medRxiv preprint directly from the bioRxiv or medRxiv server to NAR Cancer. To do this, visit the Author Area in bioRxiv or medRxiv and select NAR Cancer from the list of options.

This will transfer all manuscript files and author information to NAR Cancer. You will then receive an email with a link to your submission in NAR Cancer, where you will need to answer some additional questions and approve the manuscript for submission.

Authors submitting their bioRxiv or medRxiv preprint to NAR Cancer should refer to the section on Preprints. In particular, you should note the following:

You should not submit your preprint to more than one journal simultaneously.
If your paper is accepted for publication in NAR Cancer, you are responsible for ensuring that the preprint is updated with the DOI of and a link to the published paper. bioRxiv or medRxiv does this automatically for most papers, but the process is imperfect, particularly if the preprint and paper titles are different.
For details on updating your preprint, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Digital preservation

Content published in the Journal will automatically be deposited into digital preservation services, including CLOCKSS, the Global LOCKSS Network, and Portico. This ensures the long-term preservation of your work. Through LOCKSS, participating institutions can sustain access to content if the Journal were to otherwise be unavailable, even for a short period of time. Should the Journal ever cease to publish, or content would otherwise become permanently unavailable, long-term access to the archives of CLOCKSS and Portico would be triggered. Until such a trigger event were to occur, this content is not available to the public through CLOCKSS and Portico.

Self-archiving

Self-archiving refers to posting a copy of your work on a publicly accessible website or repository. Under certain circumstances, you may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. For information about the Journal's policy, and to learn which version(s) of your paper are acceptable for self-archiving, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Publishing agreement and charges

Authors, please read each section on the publishing agreement and charges carefully. Even if your publishing agreement (also called a licence) does not carry a charge, publication charges will apply.

If you have any questions relating to your publishing agreement or charges please contact OUP Support.

Publishing agreement

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a licence to publish through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris. The Journal is fully open access, meaning all papers in the Journal are published under an open access licence. The corresponding author will need to arrange payment of an open access charge to publish in the Journal. This charge allows all published papers to be freely available to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. Papers can be published under the following:

Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY)
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence (CC BY-NC)
United States Government Open Licence
UK Open Government Licence

Please see the OUP guidance on Licences, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Complying with funder mandates

Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution before selecting your licence.

Further information on funder mandates and direct links to a range of funder policies.

Charges

Open access charges

Please see the details of open access licences and charges. As the Journal is fully open access, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris.

The current Open Access charges are:

CC BY/CC BY-NC - $2,583

OUP has a growing number of open access agreements with institutions and consortia, which provide funding for open access publishing (also known as Read and Publish agreements). This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution has an open access agreement.

To be eligible for one of OUP’s Read and Publish agreements, the corresponding author must provide their qualifying institution as their primary affiliation when they submit their manuscript. After submission, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible.

As an open access journal, we rely on article processing charges for the journal's continued operation, and we ask authors to ensure they are able to pay these charges before submitting a paper. However, we acknowledge this is not always possible for all authors. Corresponding authors based in or at institutions in countries and regions that are part of the low and middle income countries initiative receive a full waiver of their open access charge. For further details, please see our open access waiver policy.

We will consider waiver requests from authors based at institutions outside these countries, but please note our ability to grant such discretionary waivers is limited. If you would like to request a discretionary waiver, we ask that you follow the discretionary waiver application process on our APC Waiver Policy Page. Please note that a waiver for open access charges should be requested before manuscript acceptance. If granted, a waiver does not guarantee manuscript acceptance. Waiver acceptance or rejection does not affect the peer review or editorial process, as waivers are managed by OUP staff, and editors and reviewers are not informed of waiver eligibility or receipt.

Colour charges

The Journal does not charge for colour.

Page charges

The Journal does not have page charges.

Changes to published papers

The Journal will only make changes to published papers if the publication record is seriously affected by the academic accuracy of the published information. Changes to a published paper will be accompanied by a formal correction notice linking to and from the original paper.

As needed, we follow the COPE guidelines on retractions.

For more information and details of how to request changes, including for authors who wish to update their name and/or pronouns, please see OUP’s policy on changes to published papers.

Promoting your work

As the author, you are the best advocate for your work, and we encourage you to be involved in promoting your publication. Sharing your ideas and news about your publication with your colleagues and friends could take as little as 15 minutes and will make a real difference in raising the profile of your research.

You can promote your work by:

Sharing your paper with colleagues and friends. If your paper is published open access, it will always be freely available to all readers, and you can share it without any limitations. Otherwise, use the toll-free link that is emailed to you after publication. It provides permanent, free access to your paper, even if your paper is updated.
Signing up for an ORCID iD author identifier to distinguish yourself from any other researchers with the same name, create an online profile showcasing all your publications, and increase the visibility of your work.
Using social media to promote your work. To learn more about self-promotion on social media, see our social media guide for authors.

Find out how Oxford University Press promotes your content.

Press releases

If authors would like to arrange an embargo date so that a press release can be issued simultaneously with the publication of their paper, they should contact the editorial office as soon as possible. Once published, the paper cannot be temporarily withdrawn. If the paper has already been accepted, contact the Author Support Team. If the manuscript is still under review, please contact the editorial office.

Preparing your manuscript

General guidelines on preparing your manuscript for publication can be found on OUP’s Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Specific instructions for NAR Cancer can be found below.

Bullet points

At the time of submission, authors will be asked to summarise the contents and significance of the paper in approximately three bullet points (one sentence each). These will be used by the editors to evaluate whether the manuscript is within scope for the journal and to guide the selection of Associate Editors and Referees. They do not appear in the published version.

Data deposition

Authors must provide access to the data underlying the results presented in their article at submission. For more information on where and how to deposit the data, please visit the Data Deposition and Standardisation page.

Pre-submission language editing

You may wish to use a language-editing service before submitting to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. Our publisher, Oxford University Press, partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Through the OUP-Enago partner page, prospective authors are entitled to a discount for language editing, abstract and layperson summary writing, rejected manuscript editing, and creation of graphical abstracts, illustrations, and videos.

Enago is an independent service provider, which will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing and other services from Enago are optional and do not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will undergo the regular review process of the Journal. For more details and a list of additional resources, please see OUP’s page on language services.

File types

Authors are encouraged to use the NAR Word and OUP LaTeX templates.

LaTeX

If authors have prepared a manuscript using TeX or LaTeX, they should create a PDF version to upload. This should be the complete manuscript (text with figures appearing at the end of a paper).

Please note that only the PDF is required on submission and LaTeX files will be requested at revision stage.

For creating manuscripts in LaTeX, NAR Cancer recommends the use of the OUP LaTeX template. The template is available online at Overleaf and also as a downloadable package via OUP's Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Please use the 'Modern Large' design.

Overleaf is a free, collaborative online LaTeX editor that allows authors to write a manuscript in a TeX or rich text environment, to generate PDF outputs concurrently with writing, and to share the manuscript with co-authors and collaborators. Overleaf also allows authors to submit manuscript files directly into our online submission system, without needing to upload files manually, as well as to make updates to those files if preparing a revised submission.

Initial submission

For the initial submission, we encourage submission of a single .pdf file which includes the main text, references, tables, and figures. All figures and tables should be embedded in the text to facilitate reviewing, either in-line with the Results section or in a separate section at the end.

Please upload supplementary data as separate file(s).

Number all pages.
Use embedded TrueType fonts in Word documents. (Select 'File> Options> Save> Preserve fidelity when sharing this document' from the top menu bar, then check the box to Embed fonts in the file. Tick the first box and untick the second box.)
Insert special characters using the Symbol font.
Use single-column and single-spaced text (unless using LaTeX)

Don't

Use line-numbering.
Use footnotes.

Revision

Authors should provide the following files, carefully labelled so that their content is clear. Please provide all source files in their native editable format.

Responses to Referee or Editor comments specifying all changes made.
Revised manuscript: .docx, .rtf or LaTeX file format but NOT PDF format. Changes made in response to Referee or Editor comments must be written in red. Embed tables, figures, and their respective captions in the text to facilitate reviewing.
High-resolution figure files: For a simple guide to preparing figure files, either submit as a .pdf file or other format as described in our short guidelines. These guidelines cover recommended file formats, resolution, sizing, and color management options, to help authors achieve the best outcomes online and in print.
Tables: any editable format (such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel), not as an image file.
Supplementary data: must submitted in a separate file to the main article, preferably in PDF format.

Detailed guidelines are also provided below.

Article structure

Manuscripts should be ordered as follows:

Title

The title must be clearly intelligible to a non-specialist. The use of jargon and non-standard abbreviations is not permitted.

Authors and affiliations

List the names of all author(s) in the following format: first name followed by initial(s) and last name – e.g. John Smith or John E. Smith.

Affiliations of all authors: must include as a minimum Department/Division/Unit, Institution, Town, Postal Code, Country.

Email address(es) of corresponding author(s).

If two or more authors have contributed equally to the manuscript, the joint authors should be identified by a dagger symbol and a footnote containing the statement “† The first X authors contributed equally to this work.” The names of the corresponding author or authors may appear at any place in the list of authors and will be identified by an asterisk.

Accuracy of author names is paramount. To assure correct attribution, and to streamline the submission process, all authors are encouraged, and corresponding authors are required, to register with ORCID and link their ORCID iD to their ScholarOne account.

Graphical abstracts

Authors of all article types are required to submit a graphical abstract in addition to a text abstract for their manuscript at initial submission.

A graphical abstract is a single figure prepared by the authors that summarizes the key point(s) of an article and serves as a visual introduction to encourage interest in the content. When preparing your graphical abstract, keep in mind that they are ideally suited for promoting your article on social media, so text should be large enough to be read in that context and the image should be oriented in landscape format.

Please also consider the accessibility of your graphical abstract to all readers. See OUP's Guidelines for making figures accessible.

Graphical abstracts are peer reviewed and published as part of the article online and in the PDF. It also appears in the table of contents and some other journal pages including in search results.

Your graphical abstract should be submitted as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file type designation in the online submission system. The file should be named “graphical_abstract”. Please see OUP's guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics.

Technical Requirements:

Size: 5:2 aspect ratio, 127x50mm or 5x2in minimum
Orientation: landscape
Please see our short guidelines to preparing figures. These guidelines cover recommended file formats, resolution, sizing, and colour management options, to help authors achieve the best outcomes online and in print.
Font: Use a sans serif font such as Arial, 12–16 points

The graphical abstract should:

be simple
be original i.e. not an existing main or supplementary figure
importantly, not include trademarked or copyrighted images or logos. For example, authors could use the text UniProt, but not the logo
use color
use text sparingly, mainly for labels
consist of a drawing, diagram, graph, etc. illustrating a main point or methodology of the paper
read from top-down or left-to-right

See examples from previous issues.

Text Abstract

Text abstracts must be written in English.

Single paragraph, not exceeding 200 words. Subheadings are not permitted.

Authors should eschew citations and abbreviations.

URLs, references to figures or schemes, reference citations or non-standard abbreviations should NOT be included. However, note that articles that describe a Cancer Data Resource should include the URL, if applicable, in the abstract.

Abbreviations

There is no separate abbreviations section. Non-standard abbreviations should be defined in the text at first occurrence.

Introduction

The introduction should succinctly set the work in context, cite relevant prior studies, and identify the questions addressed in the study.

Materials and Methods

Methods should be described in sufficient detail that readers will have a clear understanding of how each experiment was performed. Further details may be included in the Supplementary Material. Together, the information in the main text and Supplementary Material should enable a qualified investigator to repeat the work.

Results

Results and Discussion may be combined.

Results should call out display items (tables and each panel in each figure) and succinctly describe the experimental design, result, and interpretation.

Discussion

Results and Discussion may be combined.

The discussion should describe the meaning and significance of the work in the context of its field. The discussion should not extensively recapitulate content of the Results section.

Data Availability

Please consult the Journal’s full Data Deposition policy.

Articles should include a Data Availability Statement, following the Discussion, in which accession numbers and editor/reviewer access information (token or user name/password) are provided for any data that has been deposited in a public repository. NAR Cancer follows the same data deposition policy as Nucleic Acids Research. Details, including preferred repositories, may be found on our Data deposition and standardization page.

Examples of data types that must be deposited prior to submission include:

Results of genome wide analyses, including Chip-Seq and RNA-Seq.
Novel nucleic acid or protein sequences, including raw data for high-throughput sequence runs.
Novel three-dimensional structures, including those obtained by X-ray crystallography, NMR, or cryo- electron microscopy, or those based on theoretical modelling.
Mass spectrometry proteomics data.
Software and source codes.
Flow cytometry

NAR Cancer encourages, but does not currently require, that data types for which no specialized repository exists be deposited in a general-purpose repository such as Zenodo or Dryad. Such data may include raw gel images, unedited micrographs, and numerical data used to generate published graphs and tables.

Authors are asked to complete an online Data Availability, Standardization, and Reproducibility Checklist at submission, which is automatically appended to the manuscript for reviewer and editor use. A copy is provided here for reference.

Supplementary Data statement

Authors must add the following statement if their manuscript includes supplementary material for publication: ‘Supplementary Data are available at NAR Online’.

Please see also Supplementary Data guidelines below.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments of persons should precede acknowledgments of funding sources. Because acknowledgment may imply endorsement of the study, the corresponding author should obtain permission from all acknowledged individuals and be prepared to provide this to the journal upon request.

Subject to the editor’s discretion, dedications to recently deceased scientists are permitted.

Author Contributions Statement

The inclusion of an Author Contributions statement is mandatory for all articles, preferably with the original submission, but no later than at revision. We encourage authors to follow the CRediT taxonomy. You may choose multiple contributor roles per author. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed under Acknowledgements.

Funding

All funding support, including industry and foreign talents program awards, must be acknowledged.
If the funder is listed in the Crossref funder registry, the funder name should appear exactly as it appears in that database. See this page for more information on funding agency requirements.
PubMed Central links require that a specific grant number be referenced.
To assure maximum visibility and to allow the article to be searchable in PMC and PubMed, it is important that authors acknowledge any and all funding or other resources from PMC partners (which include most US federal agencies), Europe PMC partners or participating British and other charitable sources. Information about compliance with funder requirements including PubMed/PMC deposits.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Please see Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest above.

References

NAR Cancer follows the style of Nucleic Acids Research.
Non-peer reviewed items with a Digital Object Identifier (e.g., BioRxiv preprints) may be included in the main reference list. These will be tagged as non-peer reviewed at the copy-editing stage.
Citations of URLs should be embedded in the main text.
Items without a DOI (e.g., personal communications. unpublished results) should be noted parenthetically in the main text.
Authors should carefully check the accuracy and formatting of cited items.

Tables

All tables and their captions should be embedded in the text to facilitate reviewing.
If needed, individual tables should also be submitted in an editable format (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), not as an image file.
Tables should be numbered consecutively and accompanied by a caption.
Avoid excessive formatting, such as the use of colour and shading, which are not replicated in the published web version, and the use of tabbed spacing to indicate alignment.
Ensure that any formatting or superscript symbols such as asterisks are explained in the table footnote.
Provide units in column or row headers, rather than in the table body.
All tables provided should be cited within the article text.

Figures

Figures should be numbered consecutively. Note that any figures prepared according to the instructions for Nucleic Acids Research will also be deemed compliant for NAR Cancer. The following are best practices for figure preparation:

All figures and their captions should be embedded in the text to facilitate reviewing.
In addition, authors are required to submit high-resolution images, preferably with their initial submission but no later than revision stage. Detailed guidelines are available.
Please ensure that the figure is clearly labelled with its figure number.
The captions should be highly detailed and nearly sufficient to comprehend each panel without extensive reliance on the main text.
Figure width should be no more than 84 mm (single column) or 178 mm (double column) and height should be no more than 230 mm. Lettering should be internally consistent, use a plain sans serif font, and be no smaller than 5 points when reproduced at final size. Incorporation of descriptive labelling within graphs and images is desirable. Image resolution should be 300 dpi when reproduced at final size.
The recommended file format is editable PDF. Other formats (PNG, EPS, TIF, and Microsoft PowerPoint) can be accommodated and will be converted to PDF for review. To facilitate review, authors should reduce file sizes to no more than 2 MB per figure if possible. Figures should have a 2.5 cm (one inch) top and left white margin (in addition to the dimensions given above) to avoid overlap with line numbers in the compiled reviewer PDF file. The preferred colour space for online viewing is RGB. Use of CMYK colour space may result in a loss of image quality.
No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping of images from different experiments or from different parts of the same experiment (i.e. the creation of a "composite image") must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (i.e., using dividing lines) and in the text of the Figure Legend.

Supplementary Data

For a definition of Supplementary data and the guidelines for submitting it, please visit our Submitting supplementary data page.

All Supplementary data MUST be referred to in the main manuscript at an appropriate point in the text.

Please note that Supplementary Material is considered as published material and is regulated by the same copyright and permissions rules as the published article to which it belongs.

Supplementary material may include supplementary figures, tables, images, methods, or other items.
Supplementary material should be uploaded at the time of submission.
Style should conform with the rest of the manuscript.
The preferred format is a single .pdf file, which will be appended to the main manuscript text for reviewer use.
A submission guide can be found on our Submitting supplementary data page.
To facilitate reader download, the Supplementary Material file size should be minimized, preferably not exceeding 5 MB. Larger files will be accommodated at the discretion of the editorial office.
Supplementary figures, tables, methods, or other text should be referenced at the appropriate point in the main manuscript.
Supplementary material will not be copy edited. Authors should assure that it is clearly and succinctly presented.

The journal also accepts videos as Supplementary Material. Videos should be submitted as an .mp4 file-type, at the highest possible resolution, and include a still image to represent the video in the print PDF. We cannot use videos hosted on third-party sites such as YouTube, as the link may expire. Manuscripts may include supplementary data to be made available by the publisher as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. Such data should consist of electronic files and should not merely be a link to another web site. Manuscripts accompanied by online Supplementary data are designated with an ' S ' in the Table of Contents in the print edition.

Contact us

For questions regarding submission and review, including appeals, you can reach the editorial office by email at [email protected].

After your paper has been sent to production, you can contact [email protected] for questions regarding publishing agreements and charges, the production process, or publication. Please see Changes to published papers if you need to request a substantive change to your published paper.

If authors experience any problems during the online submission process, please consult the Author’s User Guide which provides more detailed submission instructions and ‘movie tutorials’ explaining how to submit their manuscript. Authors will find this under ‘User Tutorials’ on the Login screen of ScholarOne Manuscripts.

If the problems are purely technical (i.e. failure of files to be uploaded or converted), authors should contact the ScholarOne support team using the 'Get Help Now' link in the top right-hand corner of every screen.

Presubmission inquiries of a scientific nature may be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. William S. Dynan: [email protected].

After their paper has been sent to production, authors can contact [email protected] for questions regarding the production process or publication. Please see Changes to published papers if authors need to request a substantive change to their published paper.

For queries about payments and licensing, please contact [email protected].

For waiver requests, please follow the instructions provided on the APC waiver policy page.

All other general queries should be sent to the Editorial Office.