About SLEEP^®

Instructions to Authors

Download the Author Guidelines as a PDF

SLEEP^® is the official publication of the Sleep Research Society (SRS).

Scope

SLEEP^® is a monthly, peer-reviewed scientific and medical journal that is published online. SLEEP^® publishes a wide spectrum of original basic, translational and clinical sleep/circadian research findings. The primary audiences are research and clinical professionals specializing in sleep and circadian science and medicine. 

Increase exposure to your research by publishing in SLEEP^®:

• Accepted papers are immediately available on the SLEEP^® website for viewing by all SRS and American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) members and journal subscribers.
• Accepted abstracts are available on PubMed as Ahead of Print.
• All articles are available free to the public twelve months after publication.
• Noteworthy manuscripts are promoted to various national and local media via the journal's public relations staff. 

Online Submission Information

All materials are submitted and edited electronically using ScholarOne. To submit an original manuscript, review article, editorial, letter to the editor or journal club reviews, please go to ScholarOne Manuscript Central. Complete instructions for the electronic submission process can be found on that site.

Submission Fee

To help offset publishing costs, there is a nominal, nonrefundable submission fee of $50 for all original scientific manuscripts submitted for publication in SLEEP^®. This fee will be collected during the manuscript submission process and is charged whether or not the manuscript is eventually accepted. The fee is charged once per manuscript number; subsequent versions will not be charged a submission fee. We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any third parties. No fee will be required for reviews, letters to the editor or editorials.

Categories of Manuscripts

The following types of manuscripts will be considered:

Original Articles

Original Articles present original research findings in the fields of sleep/circadian medicine and sleep/circadian science, broadly defined. There is no minimum or maximum length for Original Articles, but reductions in manuscript length (including numbers of figures and/or tables) may be required as an outcome of peer review. The submission of incomplete data sets, partial cohorts, or pilot data is discouraged. SLEEP^® does not publish Original Articles that describe individual patient-based case reports or case series that lack a comparator or control group and thus lacks analytical components for hypothesis testing.

Review Articles

Review articles are critical, timely and balanced evaluations of material that has already been published. They should be novel, not repeat previously published reviews, unless there are significant new developments, and should be based on adequate published literature. A review article should have a clearly defined research question and consider the progress of current research toward clarifying this question, as well as contributing to the wider understanding of the field. The author(s) should summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of current research; identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature; and suggest the next step or steps in solving the problem.  Preference is given to reviews that employ a systematic search process, (with meta-analysis if warranted), to identify relevant literature. Authors wishing to submit a review must complete this form and submit it as a Review Proposal in the submission system before submitting their manuscript.

Systematic reviews must be registered in PROSPERO, Research Registry, INPLASY, OSF Registries, or protocols.io. When submitting a systematic review, you must also submit a PRISMA checklist as a separate document. The PRISMA checklist will be evaluated during peer review and, if your manuscript is accepted, published as supplementary material.

Perspectives

A Perspective is a mini-review on a topic of current interest.  These articles can be in any topic area that the journal publishes. The Perspective should provide a particular point of view that will contribute to the debate as to how we move our research field forward. It should include evidence supporting the perspective as well as evidence that is not consistent with it. In other words, a Perspective would constitute a Pro-Con debate in one single document.

Perspectives can be either invited or author initiated. Proposals for suggested Perspectives would require a detailed outline. This would provide the overall concept of the Perspective and the argument to be advanced. An outline of the topics to be covered in the Perspective and the key literature that would be discussed would be provided. This will allow the editorial team to judge the value of the Perspective. Please email proposals to the editorial office at [email protected].

Perspectives should not exceed 4,000 words in length and 50 references. This is intended as a guide; Perspectives could be longer with more references, if justified. These articles will typically be single author, although this is not a requirement.

All Perspective submissions will be peer reviewed through our editorial process and subjected to the same editorial decisions as original papers. We will commit to reaching such editorial decision within 30 days of submission.

Research Letters

Research Letters are intended to provide authors the opportunity to publish short reports of their research findings. This type of publication is appropriate when the investigators have insufficient data for a full manuscript.

As a guide, a Research Letter should have 1,200 words, 10 references, one figure or table, and no abstract. Supplemental files for Research Letters are allowed.

Editorials and Letters to the Editor

Editorials may be commentaries on newly published articles that are solicited by the Editors. These Editorials will appear in the same issue of the journal as the target article. Unsolicited Editorials may address standards of research or clinical practice, funding agency priorities, or public policy issues of relevance to the field. Editorials have a maximum length of 1,200 words plus as many references as needed and may include one figure or table. Editorials should be formatted as a series of paragraphs with no section headings and no abstract. Editorials may list no more than three authors.

Letters to the Editor can be a commentary or critique of an article recently published in SLEEP, opinions about areas of emerging interest or controversies in the field, or brief research reports. Letter should be formatted as a series of paragraphs, with no section headings and no abstract. Letters have a maximum length of 1200 words, a maximum of 10 references, and may include one figure and one table. A limited number of Case Reports will be considered as Letters to the Editor. For Letters that comment on previously published work, replies from authors of the target article may be solicited by the Editors and published together in the same journal issue as the letter.

Journal Club Reviews

Journal Club Reviews are authored by Sleep Research Society trainee members. These reviews are a summary, critical review and discussion of impact/significance of on an article recently published in SLEEP and should be written in the style of an Editorial, with no abstract, significance statement or subheadings.  Maximum length is 2,000 words and may include one figure or one table.  There are no restrictions on the number of citations.  Eligible authors are graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows who are current trainee members of the Sleep Research Society. Co-authored manuscripts are encouraged but not required. SRS membership number(s) must be stated during online submission for all eligible authors.

Point/Counterpoint

Point/Counterpoint is a debate series addressing the most relevant controversies in sleep research and serves as a venue for robust discussion between opposing views. Point/Counterpoint articles are invited by the editors. The editors will consider concise proposals of topics submitted through the editorial office email with the subject line “Point/Counterpoint Proposal”.

Point/Counterpoint articles are linked pairs of two articles each. Each article contains an argument limited to 2,000 words and 50 references and a rebuttal to the argument of the opponent limited to 1,000 words and 10 references. The arguments are prepared and reviewed separately. Once they are both reviewed and accepted by a team of editors, the authors are provided with the opposing argument in order to prepare their rebuttals, which are also reviewed before publication. The editors engage peer reviewers with necessary expertise outside the editorial board as appropriate.

SLEEP Forum Articles

SLEEP Forum articles are discussions of a topic with an introduction and conclusion by a moderator and responses by community members with varied perspectives on the matter. The authors are all aware of the statements of their co-authors and given the opportunity to revise their own statements if desired. The moderator prepares an introduction limited to 500 words and 20 references. Each perspective within the Forum article is limited to 1,000 words and 15-20 references. The moderator’s conclusion is limited to 250 words. Generally, the editors invite a moderator to organize a Forum article, and suggestions are welcome. Please contact the editorial office at [email protected] to propose an idea before drafting or submitting.

Letters to the Editor and Responses

The Journal welcomes Letters to the Editor from readers offering relevant comments, querying authors, and providing objective and scholarly criticism of recently published articles in the Journal. Contributions should be constructive, professional, and polite.

At the discretion of the editors, Letters to the Editor being considered for publication may be sent to the authors of the original article to give them the opportunity to submit a Response. If an author does not submit a Response, the Journal may publish a statement indicating this to readers. To enable readers to evaluate the arguments presented, Letters to the Editor and Responses are linked to the original article, are typically published online nearly simultaneously, and may be published together in the same issue.

Submitted Letters to the Editor undergo an initial assessment by the editors, at which point they may be rejected, sent for revision, or accepted. At the discretion of the editors, Letters to the Editor may be sent for peer review or may be considered without external peer review. Letters to the Editor on the same topic or in response to the same article may be grouped, sent to the author of the original article for reply, and published at the same time. Authors of Letters to the Editor and Responses complete authorship forms, disclose conflicts of interest, and sign publishing agreements (if accepted), as with any manuscript submitted or published in the Journal. The Journal may request revisions to Letters to the Editor and Responses for content, length, clarity, grammar, style, and format.

Essential Elements of Manuscript Submission

Guidelines for Statistical Analysis

Accurate use of statistical methods is a prerequisite for publication in SLEEP®. Statistical methods must be rigorous irrespective of the type of publication and reporting of statistical findings must be accurate and complete. Editors can request an expert statistical review of all submissions, particularly if there are methodological questions or concerns. Guidelines for statistical methods and reporting for manuscripts submitted to SLEEP®.

Clinical Trials

The editorial team at SLEEP encourages the submission of clinical trials and we will review them primarily on their methodological rigour and clarity of reporting and not on the statistical significance of their results. All clinical trials should be reported using the CONSORT statement most appropriate to the particular clinical trial design used. In addition, the appropriate CONSORT checklist must be completed and attached to the initial submission. We also encourage authors to attach their protocol and matching ethical approval letter as supplemental documents for review only. If a formal Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) exists, then we also encourage submission of that. If protocols, ethical approval letters, or SAPs are not submitted we may ask for them later.

Clinical Trials Registration

In accordance with the Clinical Trial Registration Statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), all clinical trials published in SLEEP must be registered in a public trials registry at or before the onset of participant enrollment. In agreement with the ICMJE, SLEEP defines a clinical trial as "any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and concurrently assigned comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome."  For any clinical trials commencing prior to 2008, retrospective registration will be accepted.

The registry must be accessible to the public at no charge, searchable, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a not-for-profit organization, and include all the necessary information as specified by the ICMJE. A list of recommended registries can be found on the ICMJE website at the link provided above.  Results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the primary registration resides will not be considered prior publication if they are presented in the form of a brief abstract (500 words or less) or a table.

Upon manuscript submission, the corresponding author must provide the registry's URL and the trial's registration number at the end of the manuscript's abstract.  This information is required for manuscripts reporting the primary analysis of an original clinical trial, and for all partial and secondary analyses of original trials.   This information will be published in the journal if the article is accepted.

Clinical Research Content: Best Practices Reporting Checklists

Best practices have been developed for reporting a variety of study types, including randomized trials (CONSORT), observational studies (STROBE), non-randomized controlled trials (TREND), systematic reviews (PRISMA), meta-analyses (QUORUM), and qualitative research (SRQR or COREQ-32). Submissions to this journal should comply with the relevant reporting guidelines published by the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) Network.

Authors are expected to adhere to appropriate research reporting standards and should include the appropriate completed checklist with their submission. Authors should include a statement in the methods describing which reporting guidelines were followed (e.g., “Study method and results are reported following the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement for cross-sectional studies (von Elm et al., 2007)"). If there is a strong reason for not providing a best practices checklist from EQUATOR please address this in the cover letter. However, the Editor may still request a checklist before the manuscript is considered for review.

Ethics of Investigation

Authors should specify within the manuscript whether ethical standards were used in their research. If results of an experimental investigation in human or animal subjects are reported, the manuscript should describe the approval by an institutional review board on human or animal research, and the appropriate informed consent procedures for human subjects. If approval by an institutional review board is not possible, then information must be included indicating that clinical experiments conform to the principals outline by the Declaration of Helsinki.

Privacy and Informed Consent

Authors must omit from their manuscripts and figures any identifying details regarding patients and study participants, including patients’ names, initials, Social Security numbers, or hospital numbers. If there is a possibility that a patient may be identified in text, figures, photos or video, authors must obtain written informed consent for use for in publication of print, online, and licensed uses of SLEEP^®, from the patient or parent or guardian and provide copies of the consent forms to SLEEP^®. In such cases where the patient may be identified, authors must indicate that they have obtained informed consent in their manuscript. In addition, all authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscript and figures comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Data Availability Policy

SLEEP encourages all authors, where possible, to publicly release all data underlying any published paper. For papers that depend on a new computer algorithm or code, computer algorithms or code should be shared.  Data and computer code should be deposited in a recognized repository or as supplementary material in the journal article. The requirement to share code does not apply to all manuscripts, only those where the results depend on a new computer algorithm or code.

Authors must include a Data Availability Statement in their published article. Visit the author resource center for examples of Data Availability Statements. If data and/or computer code cannot be shared for privacy, ethical or ownership reasons then authors must apply for exemption from the Editor in Chief who will provide approval. If granted, this should be indicated in the Methods section of the manuscript in association with the rationale.

Publication Ethics

Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Falsification or fabrication of data; plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation; and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with in accordance with COPE guidelines.

The US Office of Research Integrity defines scientific misconduct and includes these behaviors:

• Falsification of data: ranges from fabrication to deceptive reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or willful suppression and/or distortion of data.
• Plagiarism: The appropriation of the language, ideas or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one’s own original work.
• Improprieties of authorship: improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, inclusion of individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published, or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors.
• Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
• Violation of generally accepted research practices: serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
• Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: including but not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological or chemical materials.
• Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct: this includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding of information relevant to a claim or misconduct and retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation.

Many journals, including SLEEP^®, also consider misconduct to include redundant publication and duplicate publication, lack of declaration of competing interests and of funding/sponsorship, and other failures of transparency.

Managing allegations of misconduct

The Editorial Staff take seriously all possible instances of misconduct. If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behavior, the editorial team will discuss the case in confidence.

If the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s) and the Editor-in-Chief still has concerns, the case may be reported to the appropriate authorities. If, during the course of reviewing an article, an editor is alerted to possible problems (for example, fraudulent data) in another publication, the editor should immediately alert the Editor-in-Chief.

Readers that suspect misconduct in a published article are encouraged to report this to the Editor–in-Chief. Cases of research publication misconduct may be referred to COPE in an anonymized format if further guidance is required.

Disclosures

Authorship

All authors listed on the manuscript should have contributed significantly to the design or implementation of the experiment or the analysis and interpretation of the data. Any other individuals who contributed to the experiment or the writing of the manuscript should be listed in the Acknowledgment section. During online submission, the corresponding author must certify on behalf of all authors have read and approved the submitted version.

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, write code, or process data) 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.

Dual Authorship

Dual co-first authorship may be indicated on the title page of the manuscript with a statement that the two first authors have contributed equally to the manuscript. If co-authorship is indicated, it is the understanding of the Editors that all authors of the manuscript agree to this designation. 

Dual corresponding authorship may be indicated on the title page of the manuscript and both authors will appear on the correspondence line on the final article. However, only one can be considered the corresponding author in the online manuscript submission system; thus, only the corresponding author designated in the system will receive automated messages, such as editors’ decisions and page proofs.

Authorship and "Umbrella" groups

Many large collaborative studies are organized under a group name that represents all the participants. All articles must have at least one named individual as author. Authors who wish to acknowledge the umbrella group from which the data originate should list the authors of the article, followed by "on behalf of the [GROUP NAME]". The members of the group should be listed individually in the acknowledgments section, and if correctly presented will ultimately be listed in Medline as “collaborators.”

For further guidelines on authorship, please refer to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Originality

During online submission, the corresponding author must certify on behalf of all that, with the exception of publication in a preprint server, their manuscript (i) is a unique submission, (ii) has not been submitted and is not being considered for publication by any other source in any medium, and (iii) has not been published, in part or in full, in any form. In the acknowledgements section of the manuscript authors must describe all prior publications or postings of the material in any form of media. Failure to divulge previous publications is a violation of the Ethical Guidelines for Publication of Research and will result in a placement of notice of unethical practice in the publication. 

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest exists when an author has financial or other interests that could be reasonably perceived to inappropriately influence his or her judgment. Because of this, authors must disclose potentially conflicting interests so that others can make judgments about such effects. Authors may consult with the Editor-in-Chief regarding material to be included in this disclosure (by email to [email protected]). Such consultation will be held in strict confidence. 

The Disclosure Statement is a manuscript requirement that applies at the time of submission, to all the authors of a paper and to all categories of submissions. Papers that do not include a Disclosure Statement will be returned to authors for correction. The Disclosure Statement includes two statements: Financial arrangements or connections that are pertinent to the submitted manuscript (or none) and Non-financial interests that could be relevant to the submitted manuscript (or none).

Self-Archiving Policy

For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving Policy page.

Reuse of Oxford University Press Material

More information regarding the reuse of Oxford University Press material.

Third-Party Copyright

In order to reproduce any third party material, including tables, figures, or images, in an article authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse. When seeking to reproduce any kind of third party material authors should request the following:

• non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
• print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
• the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
• world-wide English-language rights.

It is particularly important to clear permission for use in both the print and online versions of the journal, and we are not able to accept permissions which carry a time limit because we retain journal articles as part of our online journal archive.
Further guidelines on clearing permissions

Preprint Repositories and Prior Publication

SLEEP allows the submission of preprints. Preprints are manuscripts that have not been submitted to a journal for full peer review, have not been copyedited or typeset, and have been deposited to a recognized repository such as bioRxiv. Authors submitting preprints to SLEEP^® must inform the editorial office at the time of submission that the manuscript is a preprint and guarantee that it does not infringe any subsequent copyright or license agreement. Upon final publication, authors must add a link from the preprint to the final published article.

Also at the time of submission, authors must describe all prior publications or postings of the material in any form of media that is not a preprint repository. Abstracts or posters displayed for colleagues at scientific meetings need not be reported. These non-preprint occurrences will be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief to determine if the postings are material enough to constitute prior publication.

Failure to divulge previous publications is a violation of the Ethical Guidelines for Publication of Research and will result in a placement of notice of unethical practice in the publication.

Open Access

SLEEP^® authors have the option to publish their paper under the open access initiative. For a charge, the paper will be made freely available online immediately upon publication. After the manuscript is accepted the corresponding author will be required to accept a mandatory license to publish agreement. As part of the licensing process authors will be asked to indicate whether or not they wish to pay for open access. Authors who do not select the open access option, will have their paper published with standard subscription-based access and will not be charged.

Open access articles are published under Creative Commons licenses.

• Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license (CC BY-NC-ND)

Visit the OUP licensing website to find out more about Creative Commons licences.

SLEEP® offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. 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.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

CC BY; CC BY-NC-ND licence - $4,388
CC BY; CC BY-NC-ND member rate - $3,510

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

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

Please note that you may be eligible for a discount to the open access charge based on society membership. Authors may be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.

Please note that charges are in addition to the SLEEP^®submission charge.

Third-Party Open Access Copyright

If you will be publishing your paper under an Open Access license but it contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content

Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

Guidelines for Reporting and Statistical Analysis

Accurate use of statistical methods is a prerequisite for publication in SLEEP®. Statistical methods must be rigorous irrespective of the type of publication and reporting of statistical findings must be accurate and complete. Editors can request an expert statistical review of all submissions, particularly if there are methodological questions or concerns. Guidelines for statistical methods and reporting for manuscripts submitted to SLEEP®.

Details of Style

People-Centered Language

Guidance for improving the language researchers use to talk to and about people with studied health conditions has been issued in several fields. The Editors of SLEEP® endorse the use of people-centered language in research communications. Our recommendations for people-centered language for sleep/circadian research publications can be found on this page.

Language

Papers should be clearly and concisely written in good English. Authors whose native language is not English should consult someone fluent in English prior to submission of the manuscript. Alternatively, a professional language-editing service can be used. Manuscripts may be returned to authors for revision for English language.

Sleep Medicine Terminology

Follow the terminology usage recommendations in the AASM Style Guide for Sleep Medicine Terminology.

Abbreviations

Please note that journal style for the abbreviation of standard deviation is SD. Please do not use SD as an abbreviation for sleep deprivation.

Each abbreviation should be expanded at first mention in the text and listed parenthetically after expansion.

Drug Names

Use generic names in referring to drugs; trade names may be given in parentheses after the first mention, but the generic name should be used thereafter.

Reference Style

SLEEP uses the American Medical Association 10th Edition style guide.

For abbreviations of journal names, refer to “List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus.”

Manuscript Format Requirements

Format Neutral Submission: New manuscripts may be submitted format neutral, as a single Word, RTF, or PDF file. Technical formatting such as reference layout and order of components is not scrutinized for compliance at this initial stage. If the required information is present (complete title page, all author information, abstract, full text, figures and tables, references, etc.) the manuscript will be assessed solely on its scientific merit.  

At any later stages of the submission process, your article will need to follow the below requirements.

Manuscript should be provided in Microsoft Word.

Pages should be numbered.

Lines should be double spaced.

Do not number the lines.

Manuscripts should be structured using the following components:

Title Page (Page 1 of manuscript)

• Title and Subtitle (if applicable). Please do not include a running title 
• Authors and Author affiliations (identify the institution where the work was performed) 
• Corresponding author's name, full address and current, valid email address

Abstract (Page 2 of manuscript)

Each original manuscript and review article must be preceded by an abstract. Abstracts are not required for letters to the editor and editorials.

The abstract is limited to 250 words. The components of this format are (start each on a new line): Study Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions and Keywords. Conclusions should not simply restate results, but should address the significance and implications of the findings. Authors have the option of not using section headings and may submit a single paragraph, narrative abstract of 250 words maximum length. Abstracts should include as few abbreviations as possible, must follow the title page and should begin on a new page

Keywords

Abstracts must be followed by no fewer than three but no more than ten keywords that reflect the content of the manuscript. For guidance consult the Medical Subject Headings - Annotated Alphabetic List, published each year by the National Library of Medicine.

Graphical Abstracts

Authors of Original Articles are required at the revised submission stage to submit a graphical abstract in addition to a text abstract for their article. Authors of Review Articles and Perspectives are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract with their article in addition to the text abstract. Articles with no text abstract may not include a graphical abstract.

The graphical abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article and will be published as part of the article online and in the PDF. The graphical abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. The file should be clearly named, e.g., graphical_abstract.tiff. Please see Guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics. Please ensure graphical abstracts are in landscape format.

Clinical Trials 

State the details of Clinical Trials: name, URL, and registration

Statement of Significance

Each original manuscript and review article must be preceded by a Statement of Significance. A statement of significance is not required for letters to the editor, editorials or Journal Club reviews.

The Statement of Significance is limited to 120 words and must follow the abstract.

The Statement of Significance should provide a clear statement of the importance and novelty of the research, using language that can be understood by scientists or clinicians without special knowledge of the field. It should include a statement about critical remaining knowledge gaps and/or future directions of the work. For basic science papers, include a reasonable statement about human disease relevance and/or translational implications.

The statement should not be repetitious with the abstract or the “In summary…” paragraph that is often placed at the end of the Discussion. It should not contain references, numbers, description of methods, abbreviations, or acronyms, unless necessary.

Introduction

State the objective of the reported research, with reference to previous work.

Methods

Describe methods in sufficient detail so that the work can be duplicated, or cite previous descriptions if they are readily available.

Results

Describe results clearly, concisely, and in logical order. When possible give the range, standard deviation, or standard error of the mean, and statistical significance of differences between numerical values.

Discussion

Interpret the results and relate them to previous work in the field. Include a paragraph near the end of the discussion that briefly lists the limitations of the study.

Acknowledgments

The minimum compatible with the requirements of courtesy should be provided. Umbrella groups and specific author contributions may be listed in this section.

Disclosure Statement

The Disclosure Statement is required for all categories of papers (including letters to the editor,editorials and Journal Club reviews).

The Disclosure Statement includes:

• Financial arrangements or connections that are pertinent to the submitted manuscript. If there are no interests to declare use the statement: Financial Disclosure: none. 
• Non-financial or conflicts of interest that could be relevant in this context should also be disclosed. If there are no non-financial interests to declare use the statement: Non-financial Disclosure: none

Preprint Repositories

Disclose the appearance of the manuscript in a recognized repository such as bioRxiv or any form of media that is not a preprint repository. For full guidelines please see Conflict of Interest above.

Citations within Text/Reference List

SLEEP uses the American Medical Association 10th Edition style guide. There is no limit on the number of references for original articles or reviews.  The reference section should begin a new page at the end of the text. 

A standard bibliography program such as EndNote or Reference Manager may be used. We cannot guarantee that citation/reference software will match all SLEEP® author guidelines. 
Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the author. Failure to initially comply with the journal’s style requirements may result in manuscripts returned to authors for correction and may potentially delay publication.

SLEEP®  does not allow citation of preprint manuscripts in final published articles. Prior to publication of accepted papers, preprint citations must be replaced with the final, peer-reviewed version of record. If the cited preprint work has not been published by acceptance, it must be removed from the reference list.

Citations within the Text

• Each reference should be cited in the text, tables, or figures in consecutive numerical order by means of Arabic numerals placed in brackets and outside periods and commas and inside colons and semicolons. 
• When three or more references are cited at one place in the manuscript, a hyphen should be used to join the first and last numbers of a series.
• Commas should be used without spaces to separate other parts of a multiple-reference citation.

Sample citations within the body of a paper

• According to our previous work, [1, 3-8, 19]
• The patients were studied as follows [3, 4]

Reference List

• Provide all authors' names when fewer than seven; when seven or more, list the first three and add et al.
• Provide article titles and journal name. For abbreviations of journal names, refer to “List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus.”
• Provide year, volume, issue and inclusive pages.
• Provide DOIs and URLs when appropriate.

Sample references:

•   Journal Article:
  1. Rainier S, Thomas D, Tokarz D, et al. Myofibrillogenesis regulator 1 gene mutations cause paroxysmal dystonic choreathetosis. Arch Neurol. 2004; 61 (7): 1025–1029.
  2. Lehert P, Falissard B. Multiple treatment comparison in narcolepsy: a network meta-analysis. Sleep. 2018; 41 (12). doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsy185.
   Book:
  1. Modlin J, Jenkins P,. Decision Analysis in Planning for a Polio Outbreak in the United States. San Francisco, CA: Pediatric Academic Societies; 2004.
   Chapter of a book:
  1. Solensky R. Drug allergy: desensitization and treatment of reactions to antibiotics and aspirin. In: Lockly P, ed. Allergens and Allergen Immunotherapy. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2004: 585v606.

Figure Captions

A list of figures: Figure number, title and captions should appear in manuscript following references.

Figures and Tables

Figure Guidelines

The following graphics can be submitted as figures: charts, graphs, illustrations, and photographs. Use color where appropriate. There is no charge for color.

Remove figures from the manuscript: Submit figures separately, one per file.

Figures must be cited, consecutively, in the manuscript text.

Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2 etc.).

Figure resolution must be a minimum of 300 dpi.

Unacceptable file types: Figures embedded as images in a Word document or in PowerPoint slides

Acceptable file types: .tif, .eps, or .pdf files.

Charts and graphs that are built in a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet can be submitted as a Word .doc file or an Excel .xls file. 

Figure titles and captions should appear together in a list, placed after the manuscript text.

Multi-part figures: Assemble the parts into one file rather than sending several files. Do not submit Fig 1 a, Fig 1 b, Fig 1 c. Instead submit Fig 1 a-c.

Symbols and abbreviations should be defined within the figure or in the figure caption or together in a key.

Type within figures must be legible in the final pdf. Avoid the use of italic and bold unless necessary.

Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining full permission to publish figures for which they do not hold the copyright. Proof of this permission is required prior to publication. If a figure has been previously published, a citation to the original publication and/or necessary attribution should be included in the figure caption as required by the copyright holder of the figure.

Photographs of subjects in which the individual is identifiable require a signed model release.

Table Guidelines

Tables must not duplicate data reported in the manuscript text or figures.

Each table must be self-contained and comprehensible without referring to the manuscript

Each table should begin a new page

Tables may be included in the manuscript document following the Reference List and/or Figure Captions List.

Alternatively tables may be submitted together in a separate file with the File Name: Tables.

Tables must be cited, consecutively, in the manuscript text.

Tables should be numbered using Arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1, Table 2 etc.)

Tables should be formatted to fit the width of the page (use landscape when necessary.)

Tables must be editable, created using the table function in Microsoft Word or in Excel.

Tables embedded as images in a Word document or tables in PowerPoint are unacceptable for publication.

Each table must have a corresponding short title above the table and caption below.

Symbols and abbreviations should be defined within the table caption or together in a key.

Footnotes should be marked with superscript lowercase letters or symbols and not marked with numbers (Arabic or Roman numeral).

All footnotes should be fully expanded in the table caption.

Type within tables must be legible in the final pdf. Avoid the use of italic and bold unless necessary.

Authors are responsible for obtaining full permission to publish tables that have been previously published. Permission from the original publisher must be obtained and all necessary attribution should be included in the table’s caption.

Supplemental Materials

While discouraging indiscriminate use of supplemental materials, some forms of data (videos and large datasets, explanations of data sources, details of computational algorithms) may be appropriately presented as supplemental material. Supplemental material must be directly relevant to the conclusions offered in the main text but non-essential for reader understanding. Information that is essential to understanding the article must not be provided as supplemental material.

Supplementary material is not published with the paper but will be made available for download.

No comments or critiques of supplemental material will be considered for publication in SLEEP^®. Supplemental materials, including data sets, are not copyedited by SLEEP^®.. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that all files are checked carefully.

Supplemental Material Guidelines

Supplementary material should be referenced to in the text of the main manuscript.

Supplementary material may be submitted together in one file (inclusive of text, captions, list, tables, figures) or as several separate files.

A list of captions for supplementary tables and figures must be included.

There are no restrictions for file extension type or figure resolution.

Supplementary tables need not be in an editable format but they should be formatted to fit the width of the page.

Captions and file names should be numbered sequentially using Figure S1, Table S1, Data set S1 etc.

Video Guidelines

Videos should be provided in .mp4 format.

Provide a Word file containing succinct captions for of the videos.

Captions and File names should be numbered sequentially using Video 1, Video Captions List etc.

Releases signed by persons who appear in any video must be provided with the submission of videos. SLEEP^® will not publish any video where persons can be identified without suitable permission forms on file.

Dataset Guidelines

Large datasets should only be submitted when necessary to support a manuscript’s conclusions, when solicited by Editors/Reviewers, or if the authors feel that the publication of the dataset is critical to advancing research in the field. These should be submitted as an Excel spreadsheet, which will be made available for download. Authors have the option of providing a link to large data sets and hosting them on their own website.

Citations within Text/ Reference List

SLEEP^® uses the American Medical Association 10th Edition style guide. There is no limit on the number of references for original articles. The reference section should be included starting on a separate page at the end of the text, following the style of the sample formats given below. A standard bibliography program such as EndNote or Reference Manager may be used. We cannot guarantee that citation/reference software will match all SLEEP^® author guidelines. Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the author. Failure to initially comply with the journal’s style requirements may result in manuscripts returned to authors for correction and may potentially delay publication.

Review Process

The Editor-in-Chief and/or Associate Editors first determine if a submitted manuscript is suitable for review and publication. Manuscripts selected are then sent for peer-review to reviewers who are selected based on their expertise related to the particular manuscript. After reviews are submitted, a recommendation of accept, reject or revise (for further consideration) is made by the Associate Editor to the Editor-in-Chief, who makes the final decision. A decision of reject is final and no resubmission of the same or largely the same paper is permitted.

Manuscripts are reviewed with due respect for the author's confidentiality. At the same time, reviewers also have rights to confidentiality, which are respected by the editors. SLEEP uses single-anonymized peer review: reviewers will see author names, but authors will not see reviewer names, unless they choose to self-identify within their review content. The editors ensure both the authors and the reviewers that the manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and are the private property of the author.

We rely on reviewers for conducting reviews in accordance with, and in order to uphold, the standards of the journal. While there are potential opportunities arising from generative AI, we ask reviewers to ensure these types of tools and resources are not used as a substitute for their expert opinion and do not supersede their own judgment. Maintaining confidentiality both throughout and following the review process is important, so we ask reviewers not share information about the manuscript, its content, or their review with any person or entity, including Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI tools.

During online submission, authors may suggest the names of potential reviewers to invite and/or exclude.

Revisions

If a manuscript is returned to the author(s) for revisions, all resubmissions must follow the Instructions for Submitting a Manuscript and include the following:

Revisions must include a response document. The author’s response must state each editor and reviewer comment (including line number) followed by the author’s response using a point-by-point format, detailing the action(s) taken on all comments and concerns.

Two versions of the revised manuscript must be prepared: a clean manuscript and a marked manuscript showing changes, using highlights, colored text or the Track Changes feature etc. (do not show deletions).

The deadline for submission of a revised manuscript needing major revisions is 60 days from the date of the notice. For minor revisions, the deadline for resubmission is 30 days. There is no guarantee that a revised manuscript will be accepted for publication.

Notice of Acceptance

Submission of First Look Production Files

Accepted manuscripts are subject to a final submission from authors of production quality files. Manuscripts are carefully checked by the editorial office to be sure all files meet the submission guidelines for the manuscript, tables, figures and supplementary material. Once the files are approved they are sent to the Production Team for copyediting.

Plagiarism Review

SLEEP^® carefully monitors accepted papers for plagiarism. If plagiarism is detected at acceptance or during any part of the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected.

We define plagiarism to include: literal copying - reproducing a work word for word, in whole or in part, without permission and acknowledgment of the original source; paraphrasing - reproducing someone else's ideas while not copying word for word, without permission and acknowledgment of the original source; substantial copying - copying images, or data from other sources; text-recycling - reusing substantial amounts of text from your own previous publications.

Any text contained in a manuscript that is directly copied from another source must be placed within quotation marks and the original source must be properly cited. If a paper captures the essence of a previously published work, that work should be cited. If any paraphrasing is included, the source must be properly referenced and the meaning intended by the source must not be changed. All works that may have inspired a study’s design or manuscript structure must be properly cited.

For published papers where plagiarism is detected, we reserve the right to issue a correction or retract the paper, whichever is deemed appropriate. We reserve the right to inform authors' institutions about plagiarism detected either before or after publication.

Appeals

The journal SLEEP^® seeks to publish high impact original articles that are novel and methodologically rigorous. Given that we receive many more articles than we can publish, we have asked our Associate Editors to look at articles that are submitted and decide, prior to review, whether the article can meet our high standards.  In order not to delay the processing of the manuscript and the editorial decision, we have asked them to reject articles that do not meet our high standards without further review. They will provide a high-level summary of why they came to their decision, but there will not be detailed reviews. While this is not a comprehensive list, some typical reasons for our Associate Editors to reject articles are as follows: lack of novelty; incremental science; major methodological issues; lack of depth with respect to sleep measurements (for example, association studies with only limited questionnaire data); and epidemiologic studies with cross-sectional designs or small sample size.

Authors who believe that the decision was not appropriate are able to implement a formal appeal process. To do so, the authors need to fill out the below appeals form to initiate an appeal within six weeks of the final. Since the Editors are thoroughly familiar with our standards for acceptance, it is only in very rare circumstances that an appeal will be successful.

This will be reviewed by the Associate Editor, at least two Deputy Editors-in-Chief, and the Editor-in-Chief. We may invite other experts on the editorial team to review as well. This process will take approximately 2-3 months, at the end of which we can give a decision. Please note that your manuscript should not be submitted elsewhere until a decision is made on your appeal.

We may also reject articles after the manuscript has been sent for peer review. In this circumstance, the authors will be provided with more detailed review information.  If, again, the authors feel that the decision to reject was inappropriate, they can initiate an appeal as described above.

Reviewers are advisory to our editorial team. They do not make the final decision. After peer review, the decision to accept or not is always taken by two or three individuals working as a team—an Associate Editor and a Deputy Editor together with the Editor in Chief. This group is very experienced and knows the standards needed for acceptance of an article in SLEEP^®.  Hence, it will only be on rare occasions that appeals will be successful. We strive to provide timely decisions to avoid unnecessary delays for authors.

SLEEP^® Appeals Form

Copyediting and Proofreading

All accepted manuscripts are subject to manuscript editing for conciseness, clarity, grammar, spelling and SLEEP^®style. After acceptance all manuscripts will be copyedited. The copyedited version will be sent to the corresponding author for review and approval and returned to Oxford University Press. Once the manuscript is scheduled for publication, the corresponding author will be notified as to the assignment of the manuscript to an issue and page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. These proofs will be emailed as a PDF file and authors will be expected to return their corrections or approval of these proofs within the timeframe given in the email. It is the authors’ responsibility to keep their account in ScholarOne current or to notify the Journal Editorial Office ([email protected]) of any changes in contact information after a paper has been accepted.

Accepted Papers

In order to provide readers with access to new scientific developments as early as possible, all manuscripts accepted by the Editor in Chief will be available online prior to being published. Accepted manuscripts are posted as received - without editing or formatting by the publisher. The layout and appearance of each article will change when published in SLEEP^®.

All papers appearing in SLEEP^®, including online Accepted Papers, are copyrighted by the SRS. No paper in whole or in part may be used in any form without written permission from the SRS

Advance Articles

Advance Articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication, in advance of their appearance in a journal issue. Appearance in Advance Articles constitutes official publication, and the Advance Article version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). When an article appears in an issue, it is removed from the Advance Articles page.

Once an article appears in an issue, both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.

All papers appearing in SLEEP^®, including online Accepted Papers, are copyrighted by the SRS. No paper in whole or in part may be used in any form without written permission from the SRS.

Disclaimer

Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the editors, the publisher, or the Sleep Research Society (SRS), and the editors, the publisher, and SRS disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials. The editors, the publisher, and SRS do not guarantee, warrant, or endorse any product or service advertised in this publication, nor do they guarantee any claim made by the manufacturer of such product or service.