Instructions for Authors
AIMS AND SCOPE
The American Journal of Gastroenterology publishes original articles, narrative and systematic reviews, correspondence, and brief reports on other clinical topics in gastroenterology. Articles are accepted for publication on the condition that they are submitted solely to The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Topics include:
Colon and Small Bowel
Endoscopy
Esophagus
Functional GI Disorders
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Liver
Pancreas and Biliary Tract
Pathology
Pediatrics
Nutrition/Obesity
Stomach
AJG devotes itself to publishing timely medical research in gastroenterology and hepatology with:
Original Research Articles
Review Articles
Brief Communications
Editorials
ACG Clinical Guidelines
Videos of the Month
Images of the Month
Correspondence
The Red Section
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Manuscripts must be submitted online at: https://www.editorialmanager.com/ajg
First-time Users: Please click the Register button in the main menu and enter the requested information. Upon successful registration, you will be sent an email indicating your user name and password. Save a copy of this information for future reference. Note: If you have received an email from us with an assigned user ID and password, or if you are a repeat user, do not register again. Once you have an assigned ID and password, you do not have to re-register, even if your role changes (that is, author, reviewer, or editor). Authors please click the login button from the menu at the top of the page and log in to the system as an Author. Submit your manuscript according to the author instructions. You will be able to track the progress of your manuscript through the system. If you experience any problems, please contact the Editorial Office (or click on the 'Contact Us' link in the header menu).
ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
A submitted manuscript must be an original contribution not previously published (except as an abstract), must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, and, if accepted, it must not be published elsewhere in similar form, in any language, without the consent of Wolters Kluwer. Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the study to a significant extent. Although the editors and reviewers make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its editors, or the publisher.
Documented review and approval from a formally constituted review board (Institutional Review Board or Ethics committee) is required for all studies involving people, medical records, and human tissues, and for all animal studies. For authors or investigators that do not have access to formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed. If the study is judged exempt from review, a statement from the committee should be provided. Informed consent by participants should always be sought and documented in the Methods section. If not possible, an institutional review board must decide if this is ethically acceptable, and documentation of this decision must be included with the submission.
Plagiarism Detection: AJG is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. iThenticate checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting www.ithenticate.com. If a case of plagiarism comes to light after a paper is published, the Journal will conduct a preliminary investigation, utilizing the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics. If plagiarism is proven, the Journal will contact the author’s institute and funding agencies as appropriate. The paper containing the plagiarism may also be formally retracted or subject to correction.
Patient Anonymity and Informed Consent: The corresponding author of an Image article, Video article, or Correspondence reporting a case report must provide a written guarantee on the title page at the time of submission indicating that the subject(s) of the case report or their parent/guardian provided informed consent to publish the included information. No forms are required. Authors should remove patients' names and other identifying information from figures. If any identifying details appear in text, tables, and/or figures, the author must provide proof of informed consent obtained from the patient (i.e., a signed permission form). Photographs with bars placed over eyes of patients should NOT be used in publication. If they are used, permission from the patient is required. If the parents or guardian were unable to be located for their consent, a signed statement from the Chair of the Department or from the Institutional Review Board may be accepted. The statement must read: all attempts have been exhausted in trying to contact the parents or guardian for the purpose of attaining their consent to publish the Correspondence, Image, or Video.
Conflicts of Interest: Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of Interest" and via the submission form in Editorial Manager.
Declaration of Funding Source: Acknowledgment of grants or financial support must be declared for all manuscripts. In addition, authors of all articles in which the effect of a drug, appliance, or treatment is evaluated must also acknowledge all support from the manufacturer of such drug, appliance, or treatment or its competitor. Authors of all articles, including review articles, editorials, correspondence, and other editorials, must disclose any financial interests that might have an impact on the views expressed in the submission. The funding declaration must be included on the title page of the manuscript and via the submission form in Editorial Manager. Authors with nothing to declare should provide a statement to that effect. Manuscripts submitted without the required disclosures will be returned to the authors.
Copyright: In addition, each author must complete and submit the journal's copyright transfer agreement. A copy of the form is made available to the corresponding author during the Editorial Manager revision process. Co-authors will automatically receive an e-mail with instructions on completing the form upon revision.
Permissions: Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to use direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyrighted form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source. Any permission fees that might be required by the copyright owner are the responsibility of the authors requesting use of the borrowed material, not the responsibility of Wolters Kluwer.
Clinical Trials: Original research Articles of studies that prospectively assign human subjects to specific intervention or comparison groups and determine the relationship between an intervention and outcome are considered clinical trials. To ensure consistency with the guidelines of the Clinical Trial Registration Statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, all trials submitted to the Journal with patient enrollment commencing after January 1, 2009 must be registered in a public trials registry prior to enrollment of the first subject. The registry must incorporate free public access, and must be searchable, open to prospective registrants, and have not-for-profit management. The following information must be included in the registry: (1) unique identifying number, (2) statement of intervention(s), (3) hypothesis, definition of primary and secondary outcome measurements, eligibility criteria, target number of subjects, funding source, contact information for principal investigator, and dates of registration, start and completion. Authors should provide the URL (website address) and trial identification number on the title page of the manuscript. This information will be published with the article. Clinical trial reports should comply with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) and the checklist should be submitted at the end of the manuscript.
Reporting Clinical Trials Conducted by Pharmaceutical Companies: Please ensure that clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies follow the guidelines on Good Publication Practice. These guidelines aim to ensure that such trials are published in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines cover companies' responsibility to endeavor to publish results of all studies, companies' relations with investigators, measures to prevent redundant or premature publication, methods to improve trial identification, and the role of professional medical writers.
STAndards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD checklist): If you are reporting a study that has assessed one or more diagnostic tests you must complete the STARD Statement, and paste it onto the end of your full manuscript.
STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE Statement): Reports of an observational cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional study must include the relevant STROBE Checklist at the end of the manuscript. Additional information can be found on the STROBE website.
Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE Statement) should be applied for quality improvement (QI) projects and those involving a detailed consensus process.
ARTICLE TYPES
Article: Although the Editors-in-Chief do not impose page or word limits on articles, they reserve the right to request that any text and/or information deemed non-essential be published online as supplementary material to the main article. In general, limit full-length articles to 3,000 words, not including references, tables, or abstract. Include a structured abstract of 250 words or fewer and study highlights. All articles must include the following section headings:
Introduction: the specific aim(s) and an a priori hypothesis must be stated.
Methods: must include sufficient information by which to judge the quality of the research, including statistical analyses and study power where appropriate.
Results: do not duplicate results presented in the text and tables.
Discussion: consider including a brief statement of the principal findings, the strengths and weaknesses of the study, strengths and weaknesses in relation to other studies, a consideration of important differences in results, the meaning of the study, including possible explanations and implications for clinicians and policymakers, and a commentary considering unanswered questions and future research.
Brief Communication: Brief communications or reports present a novel and impactful research finding in a focused way. Please limit text to 1000 words or fewer, excluding references and abstract. Include a structured abstract of 100 words or fewer, 15 references or fewer, and 3 or fewer total tables/figures/images. Only main section headings are allowed. Include a title page with COI information, but no study highlights.
Review Article (Narrative): The American Journal of Gastroenterology publishes substantive reviews on clinical and translational topics in gastroenterology and liver disease. All articles will be peer reviewed prior to consideration. Include an unstructured abstract of not more than 250 words. The main article should be not more than 3,000 words excluding references, figures and tables. The review should contain at least 2 and not more than 8 figures or tables.
Review Article (Systematic Review and Meta Analysis): The American Journal of Gastroenterology publishes high-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses in all topics of gastroenterology and liver disease. All articles will be peer reviewed prior to consideration. The literature search should be conducted in MEDLINE and EMBASE at minimum. If controlled trials are sought, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials should be searched as well. The risk of bias of included studies should be systematically assessed, reported and discussed. Include a structured abstract of not more than 250 words. The main article should be not more than 3,000 words excluding references, figures and tables. The review should contain at least 2 and not more than 8 figures or tables.
A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Checklist should be included at the end of the manuscript. Alternatively, the MOOSE checklist should be applied for meta-analyses of observational studies. A full list and index of reporting guidelines can be found at www.equator-network.org/library/. All can be downloaded as Word documents that can then be included at the end of the manuscript.
The Red Section: The Red Section is comprised of brief, expert-written articles on clinically applicable topics. These are primarily solicited by the Editors, though direct submissions will be considered. Manuscripts submitted to other sections and found to be more appropriate for the Red Section may be transferred to this section upon author approval.
Editorial: Editorials will be paired with select articles and will be solicited at the provisional acceptance of an article. Unsolicited Editorials will not be considered. To submit a perspective for consideration, please see the Correspondence section. Editorials require an unstructured abstract of 100 words or fewer and must consist of no more than 1000 words excluding references.
Image Article: Image submissions should contain no more than 3 color or black and white images of 300 dpi resolution, submitted as separate TIF files. Do not embed images into your text document. Images containing patient identifiers will be immediately rejected. Images should be accompanied by a Word document containing a brief description of no more than 200 words. Include callout letters (a, b, c) in your description to relate appropriate text to each image. Submissions must include a full title page showing 1) author names and affiliations, 2) corresponding author contact information, 3) responses to the conflict of interest/study support items described in this guide, and, most importantly, 4) a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from the patient for the publication of their information and imaging. Please make sure similar images have not appeared in this journal in the previous 10 years. Do not include an abstract, references, image captions, or a study highlights section; these will not be published. Titles may be creative but should be sufficiently descriptive. Color image fees are not charged for this section.
Video Article: Video submissions should contain a video file of no more than 30 MB in .mp4 format. Please do not include text slides in your video. Audio narration in English is allowed, but please be sure that the spoken information also appears in your description text. As many as six (6) still color or black and white images of 300 dpi resolution from the video or from other imaging may be included, submitted as separate TIF files. Do not embed images into your text document. Images containing patient identifiers will be immediately rejected. Images should be accompanied by a Word document containing a brief description of no more than 300 words. Include callout letters (a, b, c) in your description to relate appropriate text to each image. Submissions must include a full title page showing 1) author names and affiliations, 2) corresponding author contact information, 3) responses to the conflict of interest/study support items described in this guide, and, most importantly, 4) a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from the patient for the publication of their information and imaging. Do not include an abstract, references, image captions, or a study highlights section; these will not be published. Titles may be creative but should be sufficiently descriptive. Color image fees are not charged for this section.
Correspondence: Correspondence will be considered in two formats: 1) a response to a previously published article in the American Journal of Gastroenterology and 2) small case reports. All correspondence should be no more than 500 words, with no more than 5 references and no abstract or study highlights. Please include a full title page with full COI information. Peer review of correspondence is at the discretion of the editors.
Correspondence that comments on recently published articles must cite as a reference the article to which it pertains. This is not a forum for authors to publish their own original research or data.
Correspondence that presents a case report of 1-3 patients must demonstrate novel physical, histologic, radiologic, serologic, or other findings that have the potential to significantly influence clinical practice or stimulate further research in the field. These may include 1-2 total images, figures, or tables. Informed patient consent must be confirmed on the title page, and, if your institution IRB requires approval for case reports, confirmation of that approval must be provided.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Manuscripts must be in English and typed double-spaced. The American Medical Association Manual of Style (10th ed.), Stedman’s Medical Dictionary (28th ed.), and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) should be used as standard references. The journal follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/). Manuscripts not prepared according to the Instructions to Authors will be returned to the author(s) without review.
English Language: Concise, clearly written articles are more likely to be accepted for publication in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Authors whose first language is not English are strongly encouraged to ask a native English-speaking colleague or a professional author's editor, preferably with knowledge in the subject matter contained in the manuscript, to edit their manuscript before submission. Please note that the use of a language editing service is not a requirement for publication in this journal and does not imply or guarantee that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted. Wolters Kluwer, in partnership with Editage, offers a unique range of editorial services to help you prepare a submission-ready manuscript:
Premium Editing: Intensive language and structural editing of academic papers to increase chances of journal acceptance.
Advanced Editing: A complete language, grammar, and terminology check to give you a publication-ready manuscript.
Translation with Editing: Write your paper in your native language and Wolters Kluwer Author Services will translate it into English, as well as edit it to ensure that it meets international publication standards.
Plagiarism Check: Helps ensure that your manuscript contains no instances of unintentional plagiarism.
Artwork Preparation: Save time and effort by ensuring that your artwork is viewed favorably by the journal without you having to incur the additional cost of purchasing special graphics software.
For more information (including pricing), please visit Wolters Kluwer Author Services.
……
更多详情：
https://edmgr.ovid.com/ajg/accounts/ifauth.htm
