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Author guidelines

Authors are required to complete our article template for submission

Download article template

Ready to submit? Go straight to submission.

Submissions are assessed by the Editorial Board and are subject to external peer review using the single anonymous method whereby the identity of the reviewers and editors is not disclosed to the authors. Senior Editors will typically assign two external reviewers to each manuscript.

The journal aims to return a decision on a peer-reviewed paper in less than a month.

Appeals

Authors are entitled to appeal against a rejection decision made by a journal. Appeals should be submitted to the journal email address. We must receive your valid appeal within four weeks of the original decision, otherwise it will not be considered. An appeal is considered to be an extension of the peer review process and so you should not submit your article to another publication whilst an appeal is ongoing.

To be considered, appeals must directly address the reason(s) given for the initial rejection decision. If reviewer reports were included with the decision letter, then these criticisms must be responded to in the appeal, however you should not prepare and submit a revised version of your article with the appeal. Appeals that are received late, do not address reviewers’ criticisms, are dismissive of the reviewer comments, or contain offensive language will not be considered.

Valid appeals will be sent to a member of the journal’s Editorial Board for consideration. Where possible, an independent member of the Editorial Board who was not connected to the original decision will oversee the appeal.

If successful, an appeal may result in the decision being rescinded and a continuation of the peer-review process. If the appeal is rejected, then the original rejection decision is upheld and no further consideration of that article is possible.

Submission Checklist

Your article

Structure – Authors are required to complete our article template.
Reported data – Data accuracy is crucial. Authors are strongly encouraged to double-check all reported data for accuracy and to confirm that all units of measurement are correct and consistent.
Language – Non-native English speakers are encouraged to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission. This is particular key for revised submissions. Click here for full details of our recommended English Language Editing Services.
Graphics – All figures and tables should be presented in a clear and informative manner with accompanying legends.
Ethical compliance – All articles are required to meet the requirements outlined in our ethical policy. Ensure you have included all relevant ethical approval statements.

Before submitting

Approval – Ensure all authors have seen and approved the final version of the article prior to submission. All authors must also approve the journal you are submitting to.
Open access – The appropriate open-access licence must be selected on submission. Authors are responsible for ensuring any funder mandates are followed. For further details, please see the open-access policy.
Charges – EDM Case Reports is an online-only, open-access publication, and an article publication charge is payable upon acceptance. Full details are available on our publication charges page.

Uploading your submission

Author list – All authors must be listed on the title page and entered on the ScholarOne Manuscripts submission in the correct order. Ensure all author email addresses provided are valid. Author information entered into ScholarOne Manuscripts will be used to generate PubMed listings for published papers.
Cover Letter – This letter should introduce your paper and outline why your work is important and suitable publication at this time.
File formats – Ensure all files are in the correct format for revised submissions. See ‘General’ for further instructions.
Figures and tables – Ensure all figures and table files are present and correct, and that they display clearly in the PDF proof.

User account details

ORCID iD

All submitting authors are required to link their ScholarOne account with their ORCID iD. The system will prompt the author to do this when creating the submission.
The journal also requests that all authors identified as ‘corresponding authors’ create and link an ORCID iD with their account on ScholarOne prior to article acceptance. We also encourage contributing authors to associate an ORCID iD with their ScholarOne account. Author ORCID iDs will be displayed on the published article.

Author email addresses

The journal requires an institutional email address is associated with the account of both the submitting author and corresponding author; please edit the associated ScholarOne accounts to include this before pressing 'submit'. Alternatively please provide an explanation as to why this is not available to the Editorial Office by contacting edm@bioscientifica.com
This policy has been adopted in order to verify the authenticity of article submissions and protect the integrity of EDM Case Reports.

Preparation of Case Reports

General

Case reports should:

Be prepared using the article template
Be clear and concise
Define all abbreviations when first mentioned
Be written in either UK or US English

Please be aware that the combined size of your files should not exceed 40 MB.

Changes within revised manuscripts should be highlighted using the highlighter function or coloured text, and should be accompanied by a full response letter to editor and reviewer comments.

Tables

Tables should be concise
Number tables in the order they are cited in the text
Include a title; a single sentence at the head of the table
Use footnotes to provide any additional explanatory material, cross-referenced to the column entries
Give a short heading for each column
Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines, colour or shading
Explain all abbreviations used in the table in the footnotes

Please note that the option to print large tables in a final article is subject to editorial approval. If the tables are deemed too large for the final article, you will be asked to publish your tables as supplementary data.

Figures

Number figures in the order they are cited in the text
Include legends to all figures, giving the figure number, keys to any symbols used, the names of any statistical tests used and the probability levels used for comparisons
Label figure sections as A, B etc in the top left-hand corner
Do not enclose figures in boxes
Indicate magnification by a scale bar in the bottom right-hand corner of the image and give the measurement in the legend
Use the preferred symbols of closed and open circles, squares and triangles. Ensure that symbols are large enough to be read clearly when the figure is reduced for publication
Files should be exported in Illustrator compatible format, avoiding PowerPoint or Word files: Line images/graphs: EPS, TIFF, high-resolution PDF, AI (Adobe Illustrator). Resolution at final published size: 1200 dpi
Half-tone (greyscale) images: TIFF, high-resolution PDF, JPEG. Resolution at final published size: 600 dpi
Colour images: TIFF, high-resolution PDF, JPEG. EPS or AI files can be used for graphical data and illustrations that don’t include photographs. Resolution at final published size: 300 dpi. Colour format: CMYK or RGB

Declaration of interest, Funding, Author contributions and acknowledgements

Declaration of interest

Actual or perceived conflicts of interest for all authors must be declared in full.

Please either (a) declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported; or (b) fully declare any financial or other potential conflict of interest.

Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:

Employment and consultancies
Grants, fees and honoraria
Ownership of stock or shares
Royalties
Patents (pending and actual)
Board membership

Funding

Please detail all of the sources of funding relevant to the research reported in the following format:

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant numbers xxxx, yyyy); the Wellcome Trust (grant number xxxx); and Tommy’s Baby charity (grant number xxxx).

Where research has not been funded please state the following:

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.

Author contribution statement

Please include a statement specifying the contribution of each co-author. If the author is not the named physician of the patient please clarify involvement in the oversight of the reported case, or confirm you have permission of the physician who is responsible for the patient.

Acknowledgements

Please be as brief as possible.

References

References should be cited in the text in numerical order, and listed in the reference list in the order they are cited in the text. List all authors in each reference in the reference list. Do not use et al. in the reference list.

If a reference consists of only a web address it should not be included in the reference list but cited in the text, along with the date the page was accessed. Citations of abstracts that are not generally accessible is discouraged.

Unpublished work

Any unpublished work (personal communications, manuscripts in preparation and submitted but not yet accepted for publication) must be referred to in the text and not listed in the references. Give the full list of authors, including their initials, and the date. For example:

(A Stone, J Brown & M R Smith 2010, unpublished observations)

(J Brown 2011, personal communication)

Articles accepted for publication but not yet published may be listed as "in press" in the reference list, using the current year as the publication year. If an "in press" article is available online then the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be included; otherwise a copy of the article should be submitted as a supplementary file for reviewing purposes.

EndNote

Please use Vancouver style (Superscripted number). Do not use an Endnote style which abbreviates the reference list in your submitted article.

Patient's perspective

We welcome comments from the patient; their own description of their experience may help other patients or clinicians who are dealing with a similar problem. If the patient would like to contribute we urge authors to provide guidance and to ensure they include only relevant personal details. Patients may describe their symptoms, how any tests and treatments affected them, and how the problem is now. The patient's perspective will be included in the published article at the discretion of the Editor.

Editorial Policies

Human Subjects Research

Human subjects

Authors must ensure research involving human subjects complies with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Authors must include a statement that consent has been obtained from each patient after full explanation of the purpose and nature of all procedures used. For research requiring ethics committee approval, please include a statement to this effect in the manuscript. Also indicate whether patient consent was obtained in line with the below policy. We will be unable to accept research papers without this statement.

Patient consent

Where possible, identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Any identifiable patient must be shown the manuscript to be published before being asked to give consent. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available online or in print after publication. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. We no longer publish pictures with black bands across the eyes without a signed consent form, because bands fail to mask someone’s identity effectively.

Authors submitting case reports are required to state that they have obtained informed consent from the patient or the patient's guardian for publication of the submitted article and accompanying images. Authors should obtain written consent from the patient for use of potential identifiable material including photographs.

The patient (or parent or guardian) must give written informed consent for publication by signing our consent form. Signed consent forms should then be retained in the patient's clinical notes for future reference, and a copy should be made available for review by the Editor on request.

The manuscript reporting this patient's details should state that 'Written informed consent for publication of their clinical details and/or clinical images was obtained from the patient/parent/guardian/relative of the patient'.

If the patient is deceased the authors should seek permission from a relative and include a statement to this fact. If neither the patient or a relative can be traced, we can only publish if we are satisfied the information has been sufficiently anonymised, making it impossible to identify the patient with any certainty.

Permission is not required to publish the 'recordings' listed below, provided that, the recordings are effectively anonymised by the removal of any identifying marks, and patient details (i.e. patient name, date of birth, name of hospital) from images before submission:

Images taken from pathology slides
X-rays
Laparoscopic images
Images of internal organs
Ultrasound images

When such an image is accompanied by text that could reveal the patient's identity through clinical or personal detail, however, a signed consent form and declaration as listed above, will be required before publication.

Gene and protein nomenclature

Wherever possible, manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with approved gene nomenclature.

In gene and protein symbols, substitute Greek letters with the corresponding roman letter, e.g. TGFBR2 not TGFßR2
Gene symbols should be in italics with all letters capitalised, e.g. SOX2
Protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols but not italicised, e.g. SOX2
Please use symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)

Digital image integrity

No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The groupings of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g. using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend. Adjustments should be applied to the entire image. Threshold manipulation, expansion or contraction of signal ranges and the altering of high signals should be avoided.

Statistical analysis

It is the author’s responsibility to document that the results are reproducible and that the differences found are not due to random variation. No absolute rules can be applied but, in general, quantitative data should be from no fewer than three replicate experiments. Appropriate statistical methods should be used to test the significance of differences in results. The term ‘significant’ should not be used unless statistical analysis was performed, and the probability value used to identify significance (e.g. P < 0.05) should be specified.

When several t-tests are employed, authors should be aware that nominal probability levels no longer apply. Accordingly, the multiple t-test, multiple range test, or similar techniques to permit simultaneous comparisons should be employed. Also, in lieu of using several t-tests, it is often more appropriate to utilize an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to permit pooling of data, increase the number of degrees of freedom, and improve reliability of results. Authors should use appropriate nonparametric tests when the data depart substantially from a normal distribution.

In presenting results of linear regression analyses, it is desirable to show 95% confidence limits.

When data points are fitted with lines, specify the method used for fitting (graphical, least squares, computer program). If differences in slopes and/or axis intercepts are claimed for plotted lines, these should be supported by statistical analysis.

Give sufficient details of the experimental design and analysis so that the reader can assess their adequacy and validity for testing the hypotheses of interest. In particular:

Describe the numbers of experimental units used and the way in which they have been allocated to treatments
Justify the omission of any observations from the analysis
Describe methods of analysis precisely and state any necessary assumptions, as these may affect the conclusions that can be drawn from the experiment

Preprint repositories

A preprint is a version of the article prior to submission to the journal for peer review, and has not been copyedited or typeset.

Bioscientifica allows deposition of preprints to recognized repositories, such as bioRxiv, provided that Bioscientifica is informed of this at the time of submission and it does not infringe any subsequent copyright or licence agreement.

Upon final publication, authors are required to add a link from the preprint to the published article (version of record).

Licence and Copyright

During the submission process the submitting author will need to complete a publication agreement on behalf of the co-authors and the copyright holder for the article. As part of this agreement, the copyright holder will grant Bioscientifica a non-exclusive licence to publish the article. The copyright is retained by the original copyright holder and is not assigned to Bioscientifica.

Authors may download a copy of this agreement in advance.

Bioscientifica also allow publication of articles under the CC BY licence if it is a requirement of the funder, for example the Wellcome Trust. Please contact the editorial office upon submission if you require the CC BY licence.