Abbreviated Information for Authors
Article Outline
- Categories of Articles
- Informed Consent, Quality Improvement Activities, and Privacy
- Conflict of Interest Policy
- Potential Author Conflicts
- Potential Reviewer Conflicts
- Potential Editor Conflicts
- Manuscript Preparation and Submission
- Title Page
- Support and Financial Disclosure Declaration
- Abstract
- Manuscript Body
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Tables and Figures
- Supplementary Data for Online Publication
- Abbreviations
- Units of Measurement
- Conditions of Submission
- Publication on AJKD Electronic Pages
- After Acceptance
- Editorial Office
The American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD) serves clinicians and scientists who treat and investigate kidney disease and associated conditions. AJKD is dedicated to providing high-quality information in the form of state-of-the-art original investigations, case reports, narrative reviews, editorials, and features.
A concise version of the information for authors appears below. The full Information for Authors and the AJKD Editorial Policies are available online at http://www.ajkd.org under For Authors.
Categories of Articles
AJKD welcomes manuscripts in the categories listed below.
Original Investigations evaluate pathogenesis and treatment of kidney disease and hypertension, acid-base and electrolyte disorders, dialysis therapies, and kidney transplantation. AJKD only considers manuscripts that focus on clinical research. Studies that focus on laboratory measurements are acceptable only if they are directly linked to measurements or outcomes in human subjects. For clinical trials, AJKD requires registration in a public trials registry prior to consideration for publication. More information on the clinical trial registration policy is provided in the Editorial Policies section of the AJKD website.
An Original Investigation includes a structured abstract, is limited to 3,500 words (excluding abstract, references, acknowledgements, tables, and figure legends), and includes the following types of studies:
i. Clinical Trial
ii. Observational Study
iii. Case Series
iv. Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis
v. Decision Analysis or Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
vi. Quality Improvement Report
vii. Study of Diagnostic Accuracy
In all cases, authors should refer to the recommended formats for reporting each type of study, as described in the full Information for Authors. Criteria for review will include validity, originality, and clinical importance.
Case Reports should be succinct and original and should have a single, well-defined message. These articles are limited to 1,400 words and no more than 2 figures or tables; an abstract is required. Case Reports consist of an Introduction, Case Report, and Discussion. Criteria for review will include clinical plausibility and originality.
Narrative Reviews may cover any clinical, translational, or basic science topic of interest to practitioners. They are limited to 4,000 words and must include an abstract. Criteria for review will include originality, comprehensiveness, and balance of viewpoints.
Editorials generally provide focused commentary and analysis concerning a topic of interest to AJKD readers. These articles may be up to 1,400 words and include 1 figure or table. Editorials are usually invited but may be submitted without invitation on articles published in AJKD or in other journals, or on an issue in current nephrology.
Letters to the Editor may be in response to an article in AJKD or may concern a topic of interest in current nephrology. For responses to AJKD articles, the letter must be received no more than 6 weeks after the article’s date of print publication. The body of the letter should be as concise as possible and in general should not exceed 250 words. A maximum of 3 authors may be listed on a letter, and up to 10 references and 1 figure or table may be included. There is no guarantee that letters will be published. Letters are subject to editing and abridgment without notice.
Special Articles encompass content that does not fit in the aforementioned categories and may cover any topic of interest to AJKD readers. These articles are limited to 4,000 words and must include an abstract.
AJKD also welcomes submissions for the following features:
Quiz Page: An image-based educational feature that recurs monthly; images from the page often appear on the cover of AJKD. The first section includes a concise clinical history (150 words or fewer), a maximum of 4 figures, and 1 to 4 brief questions pertaining to the case. An answer to each question, further information regarding the clinical entity, and a brief statement of the final diagnosis should be provided in a separate answer section, which may include an additional 2 to 4 figures and in most cases should be limited to 200 words. Quiz Pages from February 2007 onwards may be consulted as examples of the preferred organization; however, for initial submission, Quiz Pages should include a standard title page.
Kidney Biopsy Teaching Case: A case report to educate clinicians on pathologic correlates of clinical presentations, with key educational points well delineated in the discussion. These articles are limited to 1,800 words and no more than 4 figures or tables, do not include abstracts and are organized into the following sections: Introduction, Case Report (with the subsections Clinical History, Kidney Biopsy, Diagnosis, and Clinical Follow-up), and Discussion.
Acid-Base and Electrolyte Teaching Case: A case report to educate clinicians on acid-base and electrolyte pathophysiology and the interpretation of serum and urine chemistries in clinical practice. Key points should be clearly delineated in the discussion. These articles are limited to 1,800 words and no more than 4 figures or tables, do not include abstracts and are organized into the following sections: Introduction, Case Report (with the subsections Clinical History, Additional Investigations, Diagnosis, and Clinical Follow-up), and Discussion.
Imaging Teaching Case: A case report to educate clinicians on interpretation and applications of imaging in clinical nephrology. Key educational points should be clearly delineated in the discussion. These articles are limited to 1,800 words and no more than 4 figures or tables, do not include abstracts and are organized into the following sections: Introduction, Case Report (with the subsections Clinical History, Additional Investigations, Diagnosis, and Clinical Follow-up), and Discussion.
In Translation: An authoritative, cutting-edge analysis of developments in basic science with diagnostic or therapeutic implications in the clinical practice of nephrology. This feature includes a clinical vignette and describes the pathogenesis of a disease process or its complications as well as recent advances in the field, giving particular attention to cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease and their relation to diagnostic approaches or therapeutic applications. These articles may have up to 4,000 words and 6 figures or tables; an abstract is required. In Translation is organized into the following sections: Background (250 words), Case Vignette (300 words), Pathogenesis, Recent Advances, and Summary.
The World Kidney Forum: A narrative review that explores the socioeconomic, geopolitical, ethical, and historical issues related to kidney disease and the wider world of nephrology. The Forum should be 4,000 words or fewer and will recur quarterly; an abstract is required.
Two editors will review all manuscripts submitted to AJKD, generally within 1 week. If the editors deem that the manuscript is unlikely to be published in AJKD, it may be rejected at this stage. With the exception of letters, Quiz Pages, and invited editorials, manuscripts will then undergo external review. Further details on the review process are available in the Editorial Policies section of the AJKD website.
Informed Consent, Quality Improvement Activities, and Privacy
For all studies in humans, appropriate safeguards (eg, local Institutional Review Board, Ministry of Health approval) should be included in the Methods section regardless of country of origin.
When submitting a quality improvement report, authors should indicate whether the plan for the quality improvement activity has been approved by the clinical leadership of the organization whose experience is reported.
Whenever possible, any information identifying individual study participants should be avoided. If identifying information is necessary for scientific purposes, the patient must be shown the manuscript and provide written informed consent before publication.
Conflict of Interest Policy
AJKD policies and procedures generally follow those of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, as published in the “Uniform Requirement for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication” (updated October 2007; http://www.icmje.org/).
A conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships with other persons or organizations that may inappropriately influence or bias his or her actions. There is a potential for a conflict of interest whether or not an individual believes that a relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Conflicts can occur as the result of employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony or opinions, personal and family relationships, or academic competitive pressures. All participants in the peer review and publication process must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest.
Potential Author Conflicts
Authors should disclose at the time of manuscript submission all financial and interpersonal relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. These include, but are not limited to, any financial relationship that involves conditions or tests or treatments discussed in the manuscript or alternatives to tests or treatments. Authors should disclose information even when there is a question as to whether a relationship constitutes a conflict. Potential conflicts should be listed for each author on the page following the title page; a summary of relevant information will be published with the manuscript.
Authorship of editorials and reviews requires interpretation of the literature and therefore is inherently subject to bias, thus AJKD requests that authors of such manuscripts not have a significant financial interest in the subject matter of the manuscript.
Potential Reviewer Conflicts
Individuals who have potential conflicts of interest should not serve as peer reviewers. This includes individuals who closely collaborate either in clinical care or research with authors as well as individuals who may have a financial interest in the subject matter of the manuscript being reviewed. Authors may provide editors with the names of persons they feel should not review their manuscript because of a potential conflict. However, when possible, authors should explain the reason(s) for their concerns. Editors will try to avoid selecting reviewers who have potential conflicts of interest. Individuals who have been invited to review a manuscript must disclose any conflicts that could bias their opinions, and they should disqualify themselves from reviewing when appropriate.
Potential Editor Conflicts
AJKD follows comprehensive policies dictating the treatment of submissions that are associated with the editors. Detailed information is available in the Editorial Policies section of the AJKD website.
Manuscript Preparation and Submission
All manuscripts are submitted and processed electronically using Editorial Manager, which is available at http://www.editorialmanager.com/ajkd. Assistance with Editorial Manager is available from the editorial office.
Authors should follow the style guidelines and recommended formats for reporting Original Investigations listed in the full Information for Authors.
Title Page
The title page should include the following: (1) title; (2) authors’ names and highest degree; (3) institution of each author; (4) corresponding author’s contact information; (5) word counts for the abstract and the body of the manuscript; and (6) a short title to be used as a running head.
All authors must have a significant role in the manuscript. This includes (1) conceiving of the study design or interpreting study results; (2) writing and/or revising the manuscript; and (3) approving the final version of the manuscript. All individuals who contributed to the writing of the manuscript must be identified either as an author or in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript.
Support and Financial Disclosure Declaration
The second page of each manuscript should acknowledge research support (from funding agencies or industry) and disclose any potential financial conflicts of interest (relevant consulting fees, stock options, employment, etc) for each author.
Abstract
Manuscripts of Original Investigations must include a brief (300 words or fewer) structured abstract. Formats for abstracts differ according to type of study, as described in the full Information for Authors. Abstracts for Narrative Reviews, Special Articles, and features may be unstructured and are limited to 200 words.
Manuscript Body
Original Investigations should be structured into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each section must conform to the recommended formats for reporting described in the full Information for Authors.
Information on the organization of other article types is available in the individual article descriptions in the “Categories of ArticlesP” section.
Acknowledgements
If authors wish to express thanks or acknowledge assistance, an acknowledgement should be inserted after the manuscript text and before the reference list. Additionally, all individuals who contributed to the writing of the manuscript but who do not qualify as authors must be cited in this section. Authors are responsible for approval from all parties named prior to publication.
References
References should be compiled at the end of the manuscript according to the order of citation in the text. Examples of reference formats are provided in the full Information for Authors.
Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should be cited in numerical order in the text using Arabic numbering.
Each table should be on a separate page of the manuscript file, and should appear immediately after the references. The table number and title should be included above the table on the same page. Any additional information should appear in notes below each table.
Figure legends should be grouped on a separate page at the end of the manuscript file (immediately following the references and tables, if present). Legends or titles should not appear in the figure files themselves.
Figures should not be embedded within the manuscript file; instead they should be uploaded in the Editorial Manager system as separate files. For the purposes of initial evaluation, figures must be of sufficient quality to be legible and interpretable. If revision is requested, production-quality figures will be required, for which advice will be given.
Authors are responsible for applying for permission from the relevant publisher(s) for both print and electronic rights to all borrowed material and are responsible for paying any fees related to applying for these permissions.
Supplementary Data for Online Publication
In cases where essential information associated with an article is too extensive for print publication, authors should consult the supplementary data guidelines, described in the full Information for Authors, for appropriate procedures.
Abbreviations
To improve readability, only standard abbreviations should be used and all abbreviations should be expanded at first mention. Abbreviations in titles, abstracts, and running heads should be avoided. Expansions of all abbreviations used in tables and figures should be provided.
Units of Measurement
Units of measurement should be expressed in conventional units. At first mention, the conversion factor for the Système International (SI) unit should be given in parentheses; thereafter, only conventional units should be used. In abstracts, no conversion factors are required. In figures and tables, conversion factors should be given in legends or table notes. Manuscripts without conversion factors will not be returned, but correction will be requested if a revision is invited. For a complete list of conversion factors, authors may consult the SI Converter available at the AJKD website. Examples are also provided in the full Information for Authors.
Conditions of Submission
Manuscripts are considered for publication if and only if the article and its key features (1) are not under consideration elsewhere, (2) have not been published, and (3) will not appear in print or online prior to appearing in AJKD. This restriction does not apply to abstracts or press reports published in connection with scientific meetings.
Submission of a manuscript is understood to indicate that the authors have complied with all policies as delineated in this document and the online Editorial Policies. Individuals who violate these policies are subject to editorial action including but not limited to (1) disclosure of violations to employers, funding agencies, or other journal offices and/or (2) publication of a retraction, correction, or editorial.
Publication on AJKD Electronic Pages
Because AJKD receives many more meritorious papers than can be published in the print edition, some Case Reports may be accepted for publication solely on the AJKD website. The initial decision letter sent to the authors will indicate if the manuscript is being considered as an online Case Report. Articles that are published exclusively online will be listed in the printed table of contents and indexed in MEDLINE. Online Case Reports will incur no page charges or charges for color figures, but will be subject to the same copyright laws as the printed edition.
After Acceptance
Copyright Transfer
The copyright will be assigned exclusively to the National Kidney Foundation, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media. Permission requests are handled by the publisher, Elsevier; information on how to request permission is available at the Contact Information section of the AJKD website. Elsevier will not refuse any reasonable request by the author for permission to reproduce any of his or her contributions following publication in AJKD; further information on copyright and permissions is available in the Editorial Policies section of the AJKD website.
Page Charges
AJKD holds all authors responsible for payment of excess page charges for published manuscripts. Authors may publish up to 4 printed pages without any page charges; for each page in excess of the 4 free pages, authors are responsible for paying $75.00 per page or partial page. One printed text page is equivalent to about 2.5 double-spaced manuscript pages (12-point type), 35 references, or 2 tables/figures. Additional guidance is provided in the full Information for Authors.
Color Reproduction Charges
As described in detail in the full Information for Authors, authors must bear all costs connected with printed color illustrations, with the exception of those appearing in Quiz Pages. The first color figure will cost $650 and each additional figure will cost $100. In some cases, authors may be able to have their color figure(s) produced in black and white for the print version of AJKD, but the figure(s) will appear in color for the online version. Color reproduction costs and page charges are billed separately.
Proofreading
Corresponding authors are provided with proofs via e-mail. Corrections of production errors or important changes in data are allowed, but authors will be charged for excessive alterations to proofs. Corrections must be returned to Elsevier within 48 hours.
Reprints
Reprints of articles can be ordered before or after publication. Individuals wishing to obtain reprints of an article that appears in AJKD can do so by contacting the author at the address given in the journal.
Editorial Office
AJKD Editorial Office
Tufts Medical Center
Boston, MA, USA
Andrew S. Levey, MD, Editor-in-Chief
Daniel E. Weiner, MD, MS, Deputy Editor
Nijsje Dorman, PhD, Managing Editor
Elizabeth Frank, Associate Managing Editor
David Boffa, Editorial Assistant
Brendan Davis, Editorial Assistant
Phone: +1 617-636-0599
Fax: +1 617- 636-0598
Email: AJKD@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
PII: S0272-6386(08)00486-1
doi:10.1053/S0272-6386(08)00486-1
