Author guidelines

Scope of the journal

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM) publishes high-quality original papers, reviews, and clinical trials in respiratory, critical care, and sleep medicine to foster advances in translational research and clinical practice. AJRCCM focuses on human biology and disease, as well as animal and in vitro studies that contribute to the understanding of pathophysiology and treatment of diseases that affect the respiratory system and critically ill patients.

How we publish

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is a peer-reviewed journal publishing 12 issues per year online.

Once a paper is accepted and the publishing agreement is signed, the Journal will publish the Accepted Manuscript version of the paper (before copyediting and review of the final proof) within one week on the Advance articles page. The Accepted Manuscript will be removed from Advance articles when the Version of Record is published in an issue. Substantial changes to the published Accepted Manuscript may require a correction notice. The Version of Record requires a correction notice for any changes after it is published. See the definitions of the Version of Record and other versions of the paper for more details.

Submitting

We appreciate your interest in submitting your manuscript to American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and look forward to the opportunity to consider it.

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is an official publication of the American Thoracic Society. To publish the Journal, the American Thoracic Society partners with Oxford University Press (OUP), a not-for-profit publisher and a department of the University of Oxford. Learn more about how publishing with OUP reinvests in the scholarly community on the OUP For Authors page.

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

Please note that the Journal charges a publication fee to publish under a standard license. You can find specific publication fees, as well as open access charge information, in the Charges section.

Manuscript submission guide

Article types

All articles are peer reviewed unless otherwise indicated. The Journal publishes several different article types:

Original Research

The Journal is particularly interested in Original Research submissions of clinical trials and translational research but will happily consider all high-quality original research in respiratory, critical care, and sleep medicine.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page 
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• For Original Research revisions only: include an “At a Glance Commentary” on the title page which addresses the following two issues: Scientific Knowledge on the Subject and What This Study Adds to the Field.
  • The entire "At a Glance Commentary" section should not exceed 200 words.
  • Please note that this same text should also be included at the end of your Manuscript Details in the appropriate boxes when submitting your paper in the submission system.
• Structured abstract—maximum word count: 250
  • Preferred/suggested abstract headers: Rationale, Objectives, Methods, Measurements and Main Results, Conclusions
• Keywords— minimum of 3 and maximum of 5
  • Use of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms is preferred
• Text length—maximum word count: 3,500
  • Each submission must contain the following sections and use these terms as the first level section headers: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (Results and Discussion may not be combined) and Conclusion.
• May include tables and figures—no limit
• May include a graphical abstract. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review
• References— maximum of 50

Concise Clinical Review

Concise Clinical Reviews provide a scholarly, authoritative, and evidence-based synthesis of the literature pertaining to topics of fundamental importance to the practice of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. The reviews should have a clinical focus but may include a discussion of basic science germane to understanding disease pathogenesis or therapeutic approaches. Authors should be recognized experts in the field, with prior publications in the area under discussion, but should avoid simply recapitulating their previous works.

While many reviews will be by invitation, unsolicited proposals for review articles are welcome.

• Potential authors should submit an outline describing the contents of the proposed article to the Editor, Fernando J. Martinez, MD, directly, at [email protected] before starting to write a Concise Clinical Review.
• Additionally, authors should compose a paragraph stating the importance of the proposed topic to clinical practice and recent developments and/or novel aspects that will be addressed by the review.
• Authors should list previously published review articles on the same topic and explain in what ways the new manuscript will add to rather than reiterate these works.
• If the authors have previously written review articles or chapters on the same topic, they need to indicate how the new manuscript will differ from their previous reviews.
• Abbreviated curricula vitae of each co-author, identifying prior publications relevant to the current proposal, should be provided. Authors should state the date they expect to submit the completed manuscript.

All submitted manuscripts undergo peer-review, and even commissioned manuscripts may be declined for publication in the Journal. Invited reviews will undergo expedited peer review.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• Unstructured abstract—maximum word count: 250
  • Written as a single paragraph and should briefly summarize the main ideas covered in the article
• Keywords— minimum of 3 and maximum of 5
  • Use of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms is preferred
• Text length—maximum word count: 3,000 to 4,000
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 4 to 6 figures and tables
• May include a graphical abstract. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review
• References— maximum of 50 to 75

Concise Translational Review

Concise Translational Reviews provide a scholarly, authoritative, and evidence-based synthesis of the literature pertaining to topics of fundamental importance to the practice of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. The reviews should have a translational focus and should discuss potential clinical outcomes from basic science research. Authors should be recognized experts in the field, with prior publications in the area under discussion, but should avoid simply recapitulating their previous works.

While many reviews will be by invitation, unsolicited proposals for review articles are welcome.

• Potential authors should submit an outline describing the contents of the proposed article to the Editor, Fernando J. Martinez, MD, directly, at [email protected] before starting to write a Concise Translational Review.
• Additionally, authors should compose a paragraph stating the importance of the proposed topic to clinical practice and recent developments and/or novel aspects that will be addressed by the review.
• Authors should list previously published review articles on the same topic and explain in what ways the new manuscript will add to rather than reiterate these works.
• If the authors have previously written review articles or chapters on the same topic, they need to indicate how the new manuscript will differ from their previous reviews.
• Abbreviated curricula vitae of each co-author, identifying prior publications relevant to the current proposal, should be provided. Authors should state the date they expect to submit the completed manuscript.

All submitted manuscripts undergo peer-review, and even commissioned manuscripts may be declined for publication in the Journal. Invited reviews will undergo expedited peer review.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page 
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• Unstructured abstract—maximum word count: 250
  • Written as a single paragraph and should briefly summarize the main ideas covered in the article
• Keywords— minimum of 3 and maximum of 5
  • Use of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms is preferred
• Text length—maximum word count: 3,000 to 4,000
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 4 to 6 figures and tables
• May include a graphical abstract. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review
• References— maximum of 50 to 75

Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

The AJRCCM will consider Systematic Reviews with or without Meta-Analyses for publication, but the analyses must be original and lead to novel concepts beyond information presented in the articles reviewed. Authors can also elect to reformat their manuscript into that of a conventional review (i.e., a narrative that discusses, interprets, and synthesizes major studies on a particular topic but does not employ the methodology of meta-analysis in the format of a research manuscript). It is also possible to use a Systematic Review approach in a review article for consideration as a Pulmonary or Critical Care Perspective.

Authors considering a Systematic Review and/or Meta-Analysis can contact the Editor, Fernando J. Martinez, MD, directly, at [email protected] to determine if submission is appropriate.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• Unstructured abstract—maximum word count: 250
  • Written as a single paragraph and should briefly summarize the main ideas covered in the article
• Keywords— minimum of 3 and maximum of 5
  • Use of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms is preferred
• Text length—maximum word count: 3,500
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 4 to 6 figures and tables
• May include a graphical abstract. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review
• References— maximum of 50 to 75

State-of-the-Art

State-of-the-Art articles are broad, comprehensive, scholarly works, which are considerably longer than other types of review articles, discussing recent, seminal developments in respiratory medicine.

Please submit a 500-word outline to the Chief, Journals ([email protected]) as a pre-submission inquiry.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• Structured or unstructured abstract—maximum word count: 250
  • If structured, preferred/suggested abstract headers: Rationale, Objectives, Methods, Measurements and Main Results, Conclusions 
  • If unstructured: written as a single paragraph and should be informative rather than descriptive
• Keywords— minimum of 3 and maximum of 5
  • Use of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms is preferred
• Text length—maximum word count: 5,000-7,500
  • Generally 12-20 double-spaced pages, including references
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 4 to 6 figures and tables
• May include a graphical abstract. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review
• References— maximum of 50 to 75

Images in Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and the Sciences

The Journal now welcomes submissions of images for a newly added feature in the online version of the Journal. The images should be related to pulmonary, critical care, or sleep medicine, and/or be scientific images providing advances and/or unusual contributions to our field. In addition to seeking photomicrographs and images of gross pathology, we are also looking for other interesting types of images, including radiographs, CTs, MRIs, polysomnographic tracings, lab setups, etc. Authors are also encouraged to submit accompanying videos.

Please compose a few sentences (not exceeding 200 words, with no more than 5 references) describing your submitted images and the techniques used to capture them. In addition, include a statement affirming that the images have not been previously published. The text should start on a separate page. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, each one should be identified and explained clearly in the legend. In photomicrographs, explain internal scale and identify the method of staining.

Please upload high quality images for consideration to the AJRCCM submission site and select the submission type “IM – Images” from the drop-down menu. You can enter N/A for any questions that do not apply to submission of an image. When you upload the image file, please be sure to upload the original source file. The system will convert the file to a quick-view PDF and the original source file will be available for editors’ evaluation. Please remember to crop all white or otherwise unnecessary space from the figure before uploading.

If a photograph of an identifiable patient is used, the patient must sign an ATS Consent Form indicating their agreement to be published in the Journal. Any information in photographs that might identify a patient or hospital (including date or city) must be removed or otherwise edited out of the image. Halftones (photographs or continuous tone images with no added labels or graphics) should ideally be submitted as TIFF at a minimum resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi); JPEGs are acceptable if the image was originally captured as a large JPEG file with minimal or no compression. Color figures should be saved as RGB (red/green/blue), not CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/black).

If you are adding labels, or combining halftones with other graphics (combo) or with other halftones, this should be done in PhotoShop (.psd files) or Illustrator (.ai files). Please send us the source files (.pds or .ai), although Illustrator EPS files are acceptable. If you only have a TIFF for a combo, it must be between 500–900 dpi. If you are adding in labels or combining figures or graphics in a Microsoft program (Word, PowerPoint, etc.), which is not recommended, then upload the source Word or PowerPoint files; do not create TIFFs in this case because they will be low resolution files if generated directly from the Microsoft program. Line art (graphs and charts with no photographic images) must have a minimum resolution of 1,000 dpi.

If you are submitting art that you have created in a program or file format that we do not support (i.e., other than Illustrator, PhotoShop, or a Microsoft program), the preferred solution is to send us a PDF that must be configured to “press quality” settings (you must have Acrobat Distiller installed, not just the free reader). To create a high quality PDF in Windows, click “Print,” under “Printer Name” select “Adobe PDF,” click “Preferences,” then select “Press Quality” (remember to change your settings back for regular printing).

For further information on the preparation of digital art see the Submission of Digital Art Guidelines. Please ensure that all the guidelines in the section on image manipulation are carefully followed.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 200
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• Must include figures or tables—no limit
  • Additional figures or tables may be included as supplementary material
• References— maximum of 5

Pulmonary Perspective and Critical Care Perspective

Pulmonary Perspectives and Critical Care Perspectives focus on the more scientific aspects of a given subject. They resemble concise State-of-the-Art articles in that they focus on the most recent and relevant scientific data supported by the best experimental evidence, but they are narrower in scope and shorter in length. The authors are allowed and encouraged to provide a more narrowly focused perspective in the subject area than would be appropriate for a State-of-the-Art article.

While many Perspectives will be by invitation, unsolicited proposals for Perspective articles are welcome. Potential authors should submit an outline describing the contents of the proposed article to the Editor, Fernando J. Martinez, MD ([email protected]), before starting to write a Pulmonary Perspective or Critical Care Perspective.

• Additionally, authors should compose a paragraph stating the importance of the proposed topic and recent developments and/or novel aspects that will be addressed by the Perspective.
• Authors should list previously published articles on the same topic, and explain how the new manuscript comments on or adds to these works. Authors should state the date they expect to submit the completed manuscript.

All submitted manuscripts undergo peer-review, and even commissioned manuscripts may be declined for publication. Invited Perspectives will undergo expedited peer review.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page 
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 3,000
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers.
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 2 figures and tables
• May include a graphical abstract. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review
• References— maximum of 50

Viewpoint: Turning the Air Blue

The new Viewpoint: Turning the Air Blue feature will provide a forum for authors to share rapid commentary on hot, emergent topics, irrespective of whether the AJRCCM has published a related manuscript. Authors should be recognized experts in the field, with prior publications in the area under discussion. The commentary can be provocative and controversial. Above all, authors should not be boring.

Many of the articles for this new section will be commissioned. Unsolicited proposals are also welcome.

• Potential authors should submit an outline not exceeding 250 words describing the proposed contents and why the article belongs in “Viewpoint: Turning the Air Blue.”
• Please send the proposal to the Editor-in-Chief, AJRCCM, Fernando J. Martinez, MD ([email protected]) before starting to write.
• Abbreviated curricula vitae of each co-author, identifying prior publications relevant to the current proposal, should be provided.
• Authors should state the date they expect to submit the completed manuscript.

All submitted manuscripts undergo peer-review, and even commissioned manuscripts may be declined for publication in the Journal.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • The number of authors should not exceed six
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 1,000
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 1 figure or table
• References— maximum of 10

Research Letter

The AJRCCM considers two types of Letters to the Editor: Research Letters and Correspondence. Correspondence provide a format to discuss previously published material or other controversies, while Research Letters may present unpublished investigations of a more preliminary nature, or a discussion of patient cases.

Letters that confirm previously published material without adding significant new information are less likely to be published. Because of space limitations, priorities will be assigned to submitted Letters, and publication will depend on this priority rating.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • The number of authors should not exceed ten
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 1,000
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—maximum of 2 figures or tables total
  • Figures should be single-paneled, not multi-paneled.
• References— maximum of 10
• Online supplementary material will not be accepted or posted

Correspondence and Correspondence Reply

The AJRCCM considers two types of Letters to the Editor: Correspondence and Research Letters. Correspondence provide a format to discuss previously published material or other controversies, while Research Letters may present unpublished investigations of a more preliminary nature, or a discussion of patient cases.

Letters that confirm previously published material without adding significant new information are less likely to be published. Because of space limitations, priorities will be assigned to submitted Letters, and publication will depend on this priority rating.

The Journal welcomes Correspondence from readers offering relevant comments and providing objective and scholarly criticism of recently published articles in the Journal. Contributions should be constructive, professional, and polite. The Editors may not consider Correspondence pertaining to articles published into an issue more than one month prior. After the initial Correspondence and Correspondence Reply, no further submissions on the same topic will be considered.

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

Submitted Correspondence will 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, Correspondence may be sent for peer review or may be considered without external peer review. Correspondence on the same topic or in response to the same article may be grouped, sent to the corresponding author of the original article for reply, and published at the same time. Authors of Correspondence and Correspondence Replies will be asked to 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 Correspondence and Correspondence Replies for content, length, clarity, grammar, style, and format.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Title should be brief and reflect the content of the Correspondence
  • Up to 5 authors may be included
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 600
• Tables and figures are discouraged
• References— maximum of 6
• Online supplementary material will not be accepted or posted

Editorial

The Editorials should be submitted through the submission system; please make a note in the author comments section if the editorial is a tie-in to another manuscript. For tie-in editorials, please be sure to list the original article to which it is referring in your references.

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Title should not exceed 85 characters (including spaces) and no abbreviations should be included
  • The Journal now considers up to 2 co-authors for most editorials and can accept a maximum of 3 if the manuscript is submitted from multiple institutions
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 800 to 1,000
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—no limit
• References— maximum of 16

Beyond the Blue: What Fellows Are Reading in Other Journals

Beyond the Blue is a section in AJRCCM that consists of articles written by fellows (belonging to a fellowship program) reviewing the most interesting papers recently published in other journals. Each submission contains 3 short reviews, each written by a different fellow within the fellowship program (one fellow per review). Each review summarizes the findings of a different paper and discusses the relevance of the research with reference to the wider literature (300-400 words each).

We encourage authors to select three papers which fit within an overarching theme. We ask that the fellowship program director oversees the submission process in order to ensure professionalism and quality. Customarily, the program director responsible for the submission will be included as the senior author.

Our goal is to engage fellows in the lifelong process of learning and incorporating into their practice the advances reported in leading medical publications. This is an exciting learning and collaborative opportunity for the upcoming generation of physicians.

If you are interested in submitting to this category, please email Lydia Finney, PhD, at [email protected].

Each submission should include:

• Cover letter
• Title page 
  • Include the title of your submission, the authors' names, and the authors' affiliations, precisely as you wish these to appear in the Journal. The author list should not include degrees or other postnominal initials.
  • Author contributions section:
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required
  • Funding section (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments section (if applicable)
  • Data availability section (if applicable)
• No abstract or keywords required
• Text length—maximum word count: 1,200
  • Should contain 3 short reviews (300-400 words each), with each review written by a different fellow
  • This article type may use any wording for the first level section headers
• May include tables and figures—no limit
• References— no limit

Preparing your manuscript

General guidelines on preparing your manuscript for publication can be found on OUP’s Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Specific instructions for American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine can be found below.

Pre-submission language editing

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

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

Cover letter

Authors may include a cover letter with their submission. This letter represents an opportunity to explain the value of the work to the Editors.   

The cover letter should include:

• A statement that no part of the research presented has been funded by tobacco industry sources.
• A statement indicating that all authors have read the manuscript and approve its submission.
• If any data are derived from subjects or animals of a previous report, this must be stated explicitly in a cover letter in the "Author Comments" area on the ScholarOne website as well as in the manuscript. 
• During manuscript submission, authors must disclose any potential overlap in a cover letter and must append any relevant manuscripts or data to the online submission. The cover letter should list the appended article or articles and explain the nature of any possible overlap. 
• If the length of any previous abstract exceeds 400 words, a copy should be included with the submission and the overlap should be explained in the cover letter.
• AJRCCM accepts the submission of manuscripts that have been posted on a nonprofit preprint server prior to submission to AJRCCM. Please mention this in your cover letter and provide a link to the preprint version
• If a study is funded by an agency with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome of the study, the corresponding author must include the following statement in the cover letter and "Author Comments" section upon submission: "I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis."

Title page

The full title page should include: 

• A concise and descriptive title for the paper that avoids abbreviations, limited to 100 characters (including spaces).
  • Please note that the title that appears on the manuscript itself must be identical to the manuscript title entered into the submission site.
• The total word count for the body of the manuscript. This must not exceed 3500 words.
  • The total word count should exclude the abstract, references, and legends.
• All full author names (first name, middle initial, and last name) and affiliation addresses  
  • Full affiliation address elements include: Division/Department, Institution/Organization, City, State or Region abbreviation, and Country
  • Dual lead and/or senior authorship should be indicated here. You may include multiple senior authors. 
• Full mailing address and contact information of one corresponding author 
  • Full corresponding mailing address elements include: Division/Department, Institution/Organization, Full Street/Road Address, City, State or Region abbreviation, Postal Code/Zip Code, and Country 
  • Full contact information includes: full author name and email address
  • You may include up to 3 corresponding authors
  • The corresponding author listed on the title page does not have to be the same person listed as the corresponding author for Peer Review in the submission system (but should be the person who will serve as corresponding author for the final article).
• A statement of 2-3 sentences concerning the impact this research will have on clinical medicine and basic science and how the research adds to our knowledge base of the disease process.
• For Original Research revisions only: include an “At a Glance Commentary” which addresses the following two issues: Scientific Knowledge on the Subject and What This Study Adds to the Field.
  • The entire "At a Glance Commentary" section should not exceed 200 words.
  • Please note that this same text should also be included at the end of your Manuscript Details in the appropriate boxes when submitting your paper in the submission system.
• Statements relating to ethical or integrity policies, which may include any of the following: 
  • Author contributions section (mandatory for all article types except Correspondence and Editorials)
    • List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
    • Effective June 1, 2026, ICMJE forms are no longer required.
  • Funding/financial interest information section (if applicable)
    • Authors should disclose the sources of any support for the work received in the form of grants and/or equipment and drugs.
  • Data availability statement (if applicable)
    • The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data and/or code providing the required unique identifier.
  • Ethical approval statement (if applicable) 
  • Patient consent statement (if applicable) 
  • Clinical trial registration (if applicable) 
  • Permission to reproduce material from other sources (if applicable) 

Native language author names (optional)

If the paper is published, the author name(s) will be displayed online in Latin-alphabet characters as provided to us on the manuscript. If authors wish for an alternative name also to be displayed (for instance, the non-Anglicized Chinese-character version of an author name, or an alternate name by which the author is commonly known) please include that name in parentheses, immediately after the Latin-character name in the manuscript. Note that alternatives names will be presented as supplied on our website and in the article PDF but may not be presented in other locations where the published article appears, such as Pubmed. 

Text abstracts

Text abstracts must be written in English and should be designed to summarize the essential features of the paper in a logical and concise sequence. The abstract should be written in a format that can be understood by both researchers and clinicians. Do not use abbreviations, acronyms, footnotes or references in the abstract.

The abstract should be included within the main manuscript file on the second page (numbered page 1). At the bottom of the page, state the number of words in the abstract; the abstract should not exceed 250 words.

For Original Research, the abstract should be structured and should include the following preferred/ suggested subheadings which should appear in the text of the abstract: 

• Rationale
  • Avoid a long introductory section.
• Objectives
• Methods
• Measurements and Main Results
• Conclusions
  • A clear conclusion is imperative, and all speculation should be avoided

For Concise Clinical Reviews, Concise Translational Reviews, and Meta-Analysis and Systematic Reviews abstracts should be unstructured, should briefly outline the findings that are being presented, and must not contain reference citations or abbreviations.  

State-of-the Art pieces may have either structured or unstructured abstracts.

Abstracts are not required for Images in Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and the Sciences, Viewpoint: Turning the Air Blue, Pulmonary Perspective, Critical Care Perspective, Beyond the Blue: What Fellows Are Reading in Other Journals, Correspondence, Correspondence Replies, Research Letters, and Editorials.

Graphical abstracts

Graphical abstracts may be submitted for the following article categories: Original Research, Concise Clinical Review, Concise Translational Review, Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review, and State-of-the-Art. Graphical abstracts will undergo peer review.

Keywords

3-5 keywords categorizing the article should be added to aid discoverability as these will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article and may be published with the article. Please see the Article types section for keyword requirements for particular article types for the Journal.  

Authors can choose their own keywords but should avoid repeating words from the article title. Terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should ideally be used; if suitable MeSH terms are not yet available for recently introduced terms, other terms may be used.  In the published article, keywords will be ordered as supplied by the author.   

Manuscript format and structure

Manuscripts should be typed in 12-point type with margins of 2.5 centimeters (1 inch). Double spacing should be used throughout. Consecutive line numbers throughout are strongly recommended.

All papers should be organized to include:

• Title page
  • Author contributions section (mandatory for all article types except Correspondence and Editorials)
  • Conflicts of interest paragraph
  • Funding information (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments (if applicable)
• Abstract
• Text
• References
• Tables
• Figure legends
• Figures

Each of the preceding elements should begin on a separate page. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the abstract. The text of articles should usually, but not necessarily, be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The Introduction should contain background material, and, most importantly, a clear rationale and hypothesis or central question. With rare exceptions, the introduction should contain less than 450 words (one and a half typed pages). While the Introduction should begin on a separate page, it is not necessary for the Methods, Results, and Discussion section to begin on separate pages; instead, they should follow after the Introduction, with two spaces separating each section.

Manuscripts should be concise. Verbose reports containing excessive redundancy and repetition are less likely to be accepted. Long articles may require subheadings within some sections to clarify the contents, especially the Results and Discussion sections. There should not be more than two levels of subheadings per section. Subheadings must never be used in the Introduction section.

Statements referring to work in progress that implies future publication, in the Journal or elsewhere, should not be used. Unpublished work should not be cited in References but may be cited in full parenthetically within the text. Written permission from the author for citation of unpublished work should be mailed to the Peer Review Office.

All cases of tuberculosis and all designators of mycobacteria should be classified according to the 1990 edition of Diagnostic Standards and Classification of Tuberculosis, published by the American Lung Association.

Generic names of drugs should be used instead of trade names. The location (city, state, country) of a manufacturer listed in the text should be provided after the first reference to the manufacturer.

Units of measurement should conform to current scientific usage and can be abbreviated when they follow a number (e.g., cm, nm, ml, g, mg, nmol) but not otherwise. Unusual units should be defined.

Statistical methods must be described and the program used for data analysis, and its source, should be stated. Summary statistics should define whether standard deviation (± SD), variability of the sample, or standard error of the mean (± SEM), uncertainty about the average, is being used.

Clinical trials must follow the CONSORT guidelines. The authors should ensure that their manuscript complies with the 30-item CONSORT checklist and flow diagram. The first figure in a report of a clinical trial must contain information regarding progress through the phases of the trial, including enrollment, patient allocation, follow-up, and analysis.

If overlapping work or supplemental information is discussed within the manuscript text, a labeled copy of the overlapping article or supplemental information should be attached at the end of the submitted manuscript file.

Author contributions

Authors of all article types (except Correspondence and Editorials) are required to submit an “Author contributions” section that is clearly marked with a separate heading and included on the title page. List each author’s participation in or contribution to the study or work; please see the ICMJE Recommendations for more information.

Conflicts of interest 

Effective June 1, 2026, authors must list any conflicts of interest in a “Conflicts of interest” paragraph that appears on the title page of the manuscript. ICMJE forms are no longer required.

Please ensure that the paragraph lists all authors, even those without any conflicts of interest. Following is an example of the format: 
  
Conflicts of interest
J.K.L. served as a consultant for Antabio and AstraZeneca. D.E.F. received research support from Boehringer Ingelheim and Chiesi, and she is a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. X.Y.Z. is a speaker for Insmed and holds stock in AstraZeneca. A.B.C. served on a data and safety monitoring board for the National Institutes of Health. G.H.I., P.Q.R., S.T.U., and V.W.X. reported no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

For more information, please refer to OUP’s definition of conflicts of interest, the ICMJE guidelines, and the Authors’ section of the potential conflicts of interest section. 

Funding

Authors of all article types are encouraged to submit a “Funding” section that is clearly marked with a separate heading and included on the title page. 

Authors must fully declare all funding information relevant to the study, including specific grant numbers. If the funder is listed in the Crossref Open Funder Registry, the funder name should be included exactly as it appears within that database. Where grants were received by specific members of the author group, the authors should be identified using closed initials with dots (C.J.D.). If no funding was received for the study, the authors should still include the section and state “None declared.”

NIH-funded articles
NIH’s new public access policy came into force for articles accepted after 1 July 2025. It requires articles to be made freely available immediately in PMC (PubMed Central) on publication.

Authors can comply with the NIH policy by publishing open access in the Journal. OUP will deposit open access articles in PMC and make them available immediately on publication. For more information on NIH’s policy, visit the National Institutes of Health page.

Acknowledgments

Authors of all article types are encouraged to submit an “Acknowledgments” section, which should be set as a single paragraph, clearly marked with a separate heading, and included on the title page. 

Author names within this section should be given as closed initials with dots (C.J.D.). Do not include study funding or conflict of interest/disclosure information within this section, as that information should instead be included within the Funding or Conflicts of interest sections. 

Acknowledgments may consist of: a list of participants, investigators, or study groups within a group study; mention of previous presentations of the material; preprint information; additional contributions or thanks; contributions to the paper that do not qualify for authorship (see Authorship section for additional detail); deceased author details; and/or miscellaneous acknowledgments. 

Style

The journal follows AMA style with a numerical citation system. More information on the journal style and reference examples are available here.

Please refer to these style requirements when preparing the manuscript. US spelling should be used throughout, except in quotations and in references.

Manuscripts should be well-written, concise, easy-to-read for the target audience, and organized in a logical fashion. Manuscripts not adhering to these general principles are unlikely to be accepted. Specialized jargon should be avoided in favor of widely recognized scientific and clinical language.

We prefer shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs. Most paragraphs should be 10 manuscript lines or less, and all should be 15 lines or less.

Statements referring to work in progress that implies future publication, in the Journal or elsewhere, should not be used.

Generic names of drugs should be used instead of trade names. You may use the proprietary name to refer to an instrument; give the name of the manufacturer in parentheses in the text.

Units of measurement should conform to current scientific usage and may be abbreviated when they follow a number (e.g., cm, nm, ml, g, mg, nmol) but not otherwise. Unusual units should be defined.

Language use

When writing content that discusses smoking or lung cancer, authors must follow the following language guidance from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC):

Use of person-first language:

*IASLC recognizes that word count limitations can be a barrier, so authors may choose to abbreviate their uses of person-first language. 

Eliminate blame language:

*“Prevention” is population-centered, whereas “Risk reduction” is individual patient-centered. This suggested vocabulary is aligned with the current direction of science and communication in the era of personalized medicine.

End stigma:

*Categorizing a person by a behavior, which has a negative connotation, perpetuates the stigma.

If authors should avoid using terms like "smoker", “ever smoker,” “light smoker,” or “heavy smoker”. The authors should instead include a precise definition (eg, a certain number of cigarettes per week or a certain number of years) that will be helpful for readers to know. The author should provide person-first language to be used as an alternative to the “[adjective] smoker" terms (eg, “person who smokes”, “person with a 5-year history of smoking”, “person who doesn’t smoke”, or “person who has never smoked”).  

Abbreviations

The Journal generally discourages the use of abbreviations and acronyms, but it is acceptable to substitute a standard abbreviation for an unwieldy word or phrase appearing more than five times in a manuscript.

Please ensure any abbreviations are defined at first occurrence, and avoid them, wherever possible, in the title and abstract. Do not invent new abbreviations where pre-existing ones exist. If you use an abbreviation, make it a sensible one, such as three capital letters without periods. Avoid using terms like Group 1 or Group A; readers should not have to remember what Group 1 or Group A stands for. Instead, write the "treated patients" or the "control group." Specialized jargon should also be avoided.

An abbreviation should never replace one short word: for example, do not use ETX for endotoxin or ARc for arousal, whereas LAM for lymphangioleiomyomatosis is acceptable. A simple way of avoiding abbreviations is to use a substitute word. Instead of writing "IRL" for "inspiratory resistive load", simply write "load" after first stating what type.

Biomarker and genetic studies

AJRCCM articles that associate new biomarkers, genetics/genomics (including polygenic risk scores) with the diagnosis, staging, severity or prognosis of a disease should provide methodological details regarding the regression analysis used to identify the association. These details can be included in the body of the manuscript, or within an online supplement. Authors should be aware that the association identified in the initial exploratory regression analysis is only suggestive that a similar relationship would be observed in an independent cohort. Accordingly, such studies should include at least a second prospective, independent validation cohort analysis (or alternate equivalent means) to determine the extent to which the initial regression applies to new patients who were not part of the initial analysis. In some cases, a third confirmatory cohort may be required. In general, statistical bootstrapping methods do not provide an adequate substitute for an independent validation cohort, nor does random cohort splitting (e.g., 60% derivation and 40% validation). However, temporal (e.g., first few years of a cohort as derivation and after as validation) or geographic (e.g., some clinics used for derivation and others as validation) splitting are reasonable options if sample sizes are statistically reasonable and external validation is impossible. If you wish to seek guidance or clarification about the suitability of your work in relation to the above, you are encouraged to submit a pre-submission enquiry to the journal.

Tables

Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Each table should constitute a single unit of communication, completely informative in itself. The information in a very small table can be presented more economically as one or two sentences of text. Avoid very broad and very narrow tables. Large collections of data in a table are of interest to very few readers. Such tables should be submitted for consideration as supplementary material.

Authors must number all tables (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, Table 3) and must mention them within the text in chronological order. Tables should be supplied in an editable format (preferably Microsoft Word), and not embedded as an image or as a spreadsheet file. All tables should include a caption or title explaining the contents. Compare the titles of tables with one another and remove redundant words. All tables should be oriented in a way that achieves the best presentation. Authors must place all tables at the end of the main text; with revised submissions, each table should be included on a separate page. Tables that do not fit into this format will be returned for reworking.

Do not use color and shading (which cannot be replicated in the online version for accessibility reasons) or spacing/tabbed spacing to indicate alignment. Ensure that any formatting, symbols, or abbreviations are explained in the table footnote, even if previously defined in the main text. For footnotes, use the following symbols in this sequence: *, † , ‡ , §, ll, , **, †† , etc. Provide units in column or row headers, rather than in the table body, unless the row/column features mixed units. Within tables, avoid arbitrary labels or classifications, such as groups A and B, when specific descriptors, such as "control" and "hypoxia", can be used.

Figures

All figures and their captions should be embedded in the text in the correct numerical order to facilitate reviewing. At initial submission, you will also be required to submit figures as individual files. Figures should be submitted in one of the following file formats: .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tiff, .pdf, or .eps (see specifics below). Images prepared as .bmp, .gif, or .doc/.docx files will not be accepted. Please see OUP's guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics. Figures should be clearly named to match their citation in the manuscript, e.g. fig1.tiff, fig2.eps.

When sizing your images, please consider the overall page dimensions and layout and the final reduction necessary for publication. The size of the symbols and lettering should be in scale with the figure. Lettering on figures should have a sans serif font, such as Helvetica, and be of uniform size. All figures within a manuscript should be the same point size.

Figure titles, legends, and captions should be included within the manuscript file, not in the image files. The text included in each legend should be sufficient to enable a reader to understand the information in an illustration without reading the body of the text. Captions should include definitions of all symbols and abbreviations used in figures. Common abbreviations, or those that have been defined in the text, need not be redefined in the figure legend. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, each one should be identified and explained clearly in the legend.

Please also consider accessibility when designing each figure, so that all images can be easily understood by color-blind and visually-impaired readers. Authors may review OUP’s guidelines for making figures accessible, which includes recommendations for color palettes, color contrast, image layout, and text accessibility. We also encourage authors to include alt text descriptions of their figures.

Raster images, such as photographs, paintings, or scans, can be provided as .tiff (preferred), .jpg, or .png files. This type of image should not include lettering. Resolution is measured by the number of dots or pixels per inch, referred to as dpi or ppi.

• Minimum resolution required for color half-tones: 300dpi
• Minimum resolution for grayscale half-tones: 600dpi
• Minimum resolution for combination half-tones and line art: 600-900dpi
• Minimum resolution for monochrome line art (complex or finely drawn): 1200dpi

Images of maps, charts, graphs, shapes, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Vector images can be provided as .eps, or .pdf, files; all fonts should be embedded.

Multi-panel figures should include all panels in a single figure file. Each panel should be labelled with a capital letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel. Labels indicating subparts of a figure (A, B, C, etc.) should be boldface and capitalized and should show up clearly against the background. The style and format of lettering of figures should be uniform throughout all the figures in a manuscript. The captions should be sufficiently detailed to comprehend each panel without extensive reliance on the main text.  

Graphs that summarize data from multiple independent measurements (e.g., bar graphs, time responses, or dose-response curves) should, whenever possible, also include information related to the number of data points and the variance of the data. This can be achieved using box-and-whisker plots, or by superimposing the individual data points on, for example, a bar graph or dose-response curve. All figure graph axes must be labelled, including units where applicable. Any lettering should be at least 2mm in height in the final figure (after any resizing) and should be in proportion to the overall dimensions of the drawing. Leave adequate space between the lettering and the axis. Line weight should not be less than 0.3pt at final size and solid lines are preferable. Minimize the number of tick marks on the axes, and do not number each tick. Design figures so that you need the least possible number of letters.

Scale bars should be included in all images for which magnification and scale are relevant (e.g., cell staining, microscope, photomicrographs, or scan images, etc). Any photomicrographs or back-scattered electron images must be of high resolution with respect to detail, contrast and fineness of grain. In photomicrographs, explain internal scale and identify the method of staining.

If any figure contains a map, the figure caption should include the source of the map or describe how the map was generated, and the text should include any geopolitical considerations.

Please ensure you have permission to re-use or adapt any third-party image materials. Figures not meeting these requirements may result in papers being sent back for further work.   

Image manipulation

Electronically submitted figures must be accurate representations of actual research images. Specific features within an image should not be enhanced, obscured, moved, deleted, or added. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by using dividing lines (or other graphic means of demarcation) and must also be stated in the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if applied to the entire image, as long as these techniques do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds (backgrounds should not be faded out to the extent that they are undetectable). Nonlinear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) as well as other manipulations such as pseudo-coloring must be disclosed in the figure legend. If there are any questions about a figure, the Editor may contact the corresponding author at any point, even after the publication of the article. All papers are subject to routine forensic analysis. Should a paper be provisionally accepted, the authors are required to submit all data and original blots within 7 days if requested.

Figure accessibility and alt text

When submitting your manuscript, we require you to provide alt text (alternative text) descriptions for all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs included in the main article.  

Please consider accessibility when designing each figure, so that all images can be easily understood by visually impaired readers. OUP provides detailed guidance on figure accessibility, including contrast, text accessibility and alt text. It is also best practice for the information or data represented in the image to be fully described by the caption and/or surrounding text.

Please include each alt text description in your main manuscript file, directly under the figure legend for the relevant figure, preceded by ‘Alt text:’.  

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.   

Including alt text in your manuscript helps make your work more accessible to all readers. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can understand the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to give concise and informative descriptions of your figures so all readers can understand and benefit from the visuals in your manuscript. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and will not appear as part of the typeset article.   

Author videos (optional)

Authors are encouraged to provide informative and educational digital videos that supplement the article submitted. If authors have a video that they would like to include with their manuscript, they should refer to the instructions below.

Submission guidelines

• Submit your video as a .mp4 file, at a good resolution for streaming playback. 
• A caption should be provided in the manuscript file as for a regular figure, alongside a representative still image for the PDF (named clearly e.g., Video_1_placeholder.jpg).  
• Background music in videos will not be accepted, unless you hold the copyright or have permission to reuse. See reusing copyrighted material for more information.  
• All videos must include either clear English-language narration (preferred) or subtitles (in English) as a guide to the viewer.  
• Please do not submit animated gif files, which may be published as single image. Instead, please convert the gif to an .mp4 file. 
• We cannot use videos hosted on third-party sites such as YouTube, as the link may expire. 
• Signed Participant Consent Forms must be included for any individuals featured in the video[s]. 
• See OUP’s Video and media guide for further guidance on preparing videos for submission.  
• Short titles can be added to different sections of the video, enabling the reader to ‘jump’ from section to section by clicking on titles. If authors would like to add this feature, they should follow the instructions given here and should upload resulting items as a ‘Cuepoint file’ when submitting the manuscript to the journal.  
• Videos should not reveal author names, affiliations, logos, or any other identifying information. 

Publication

• An embedded version of the video will appear in the final online version of the article. In the article PDF, it will be replaced by a representative still image, cited in the text as ‘Video 1’ etc.  
• The following text will be added to the caption: ‘The playable video file is available in the online version of this article.’ 
• Videos will not be edited for publication.

References

The Journal follows the AMA reference style with a numerical citation system. Style files for the AMA reference manager are available here.

The references should be numbered in order of appearance in the text (in parentheses) and must be listed numerically in the reference list. Please ensure that your references include the most current articles and information. Include up to six authors' names in a citation. If there are more than six, use et al. after the sixth author. Also include complete article titles and inclusive page numbers. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Spell out the names of journals that are not listed. A reference for the statistical methods used should be cited.

Authors should check all references carefully, list them on a separate page at the end of the main text and ensure that all references are cited in the text. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of reference information and may be queried to provide any missing reference elements during proofing.

If an article cited in the References is in press, one copy must be attached at the end of the manuscript submitted online. Unpublished observations and personal communications should be referred to as such in the text and not be referred to in the reference list. Submit written permission when citing a personal communication. Manuscripts "submitted for publication" are considered unpublished work and should not be included in the reference list. They should be cited in parentheses in the text as "unpublished data" or "unpublished observations."

Supplementary material

Any supplementary data or material should be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript. Supplementary material should enhance the content but should not be necessary in order to understand the paper. 

Videos, audio files, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint files (as well as other file types) may be included in this section. Additional text, tables (and supporting information), and figures (and supporting information) may also be included. For example, an extended Materials and Methods section might be placed in this section. When writing Supplementary material, authors are allowed to repeat sentences included in the manuscript submitted for the journal if this will make comprehension easier.

Any supplementary items should be submitted as clearly-named files that are separate from the main manuscript file(s). The supplementary material must be submitted simultaneously with the rest of the manuscript and will undergo peer review and be judged by the same criteria as the rest of the manuscript. The cover sheet of material being submitted for the Supplement should give only the manuscript title, list the authors (not affiliations), and include the title "Online Supplement." 

The figures and tables in the Online Supplement should be labeled Figure S1, Table S1, and so on. To indicate the presence of these items, the author must make a statement in the main manuscript, such as "see Figure S1 in the Online Supplement."

If citations are made in the Online Supplement, this supplement must contain its own independent reference section with the references numbered sequentially, even if some of these references duplicate those in the main manuscript. The references should be numbered S1, S2, and so on.

If supplementary material was initially submitted for consideration for posting in the Online Supplement, the material needs to be included again when a revised manuscript is being submitted.

Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript. Please see the Journal’s submission site for information regarding file requirements, such as file types and sizes. Supplementary material will not be copyedited or typeset, and it will be available online upon publication.  

Any supplementary material will be published on OUP’s website alongside the article and must not be hosted elsewhere (e.g. the author’s personal or institutional website, Google Docs, YouTube), as links may expire.  

Supplementary material is subject to the same policy on changes to published papers as the main paper. 

Peer review process

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

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

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, it will then be passed to an Associate Editor, who will oversee peer review and make the final decision.

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

You may suggest potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their field and able to provide an objective assessment of your manuscript without financial or interpersonal conflicts of interest with any authors. We encourage you to consider reviewers from a diverse range of backgrounds, including those from under-represented communities. Suggested reviewers should not have been collaborators or coauthors within the previous three years, nor should they have provided substantial advice or critique of the submitted manuscript.

At the time of submission, you may request that specific individuals are not used as reviewers of your manuscript. Please indicate any opposed reviewer(s) when asked during the submission. You may also be asked to provide a brief explanation of why you oppose them. Please note there is no guarantee these individuals will be excluded by the Journal.

Statistical methods should be rigorous, and reporting of statistical findings should be accurate and complete. Editors may request an expert statistical review of any submission containing statistical analysis. 

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

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

Manuscript transfers

The Journal accepts original submissions as well as transfers from American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, and ATS Scholar. Reviewer reports may be included in the transfer with reviewer consent. Transferred manuscripts may be sent out for additional peer review, and a decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all consenting reviewers and the judgment of the editorial team of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

In some cases, the editorial team of the Journal may offer you the option of transferring your manuscript to American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, and ATS Scholar. If you accept this offer, the manuscript files and any reviewer reports from consenting reviewers will be sent to American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, and ATS Scholar. The editorial team of American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, and ATS Scholar may choose to seek additional peer review. A decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all reviewers and the judgment of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, and ATS Scholar editorial team.

Screening for misconduct

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

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

Manuscripts may also be screened, including with services provided by third parties, to help detect integrity issues such as inappropriate image alteration and papermill activity.

Reviewer locator

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

Publication and research ethics

Authorship

Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.

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

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 Acknowledgments section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

No large language model (LLM)-driven chatbots, including ChatGPT, will be accepted as a credited author on a research paper. All author attributions must demonstrate accountability for the work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility. All published ATS Journals articles will include a footnote reporting the author AI tool disclosure, based on the author disclosure provided on the title page at the time of submission.

At the time of submission, authors will declare artificial intelligence (AI) tool use as follows:

• In the submission portal, authors will be required to declare whether an AI tool was used, which one was used, and how it was applied in preparing the manuscript.
• On the manuscript title page, authors must provide a statement declaring whether an AI tool was used and, if so, describe the use.
• Authors must continue to document the AI tool use in the relevant section of the manuscript.

Reviewers still cannot input any part of a manuscript (including online supplements) into an LLM. Reviewers may use an LLM to edit their Reviewer Comments, which must be disclosed in the peer review portal.

The ATS AI Task Force to review ATS Journals AI policies and propose revisions when needed.

Corresponding and submitting authors

The submitting and corresponding authors may be the same person or different people. The submitting author is responsible for submitting the manuscript and communicating with the Journal during the peer review process. Corresponding author duties include:

• Signing the publishing agreement
• Arranging payment for any charges due
• Communicating after the paper has been accepted during the production process
• Answering queries about the paper after publication

You must designate a corresponding author in the submission system and in the author list of the manuscript (refer to the Preparing your manuscript  instructions).

The submitting author may choose to assign a different person as corresponding author on the “Authors & Institutions” page in the submission system.

In addition, you may nominate up to 3 co-corresponding authors by marking them in the author list on the title page (refer to the Preparing your manuscript  instructions). The additional corresponding authors will be listed on the paper as contacts for any queries after publication, but one person must be designated in the submission system as the primary corresponding author and will be responsible for any duties and queries before publication.

If you would like to access Read and Publish funding to publish open access, the primary corresponding author designated in the submission system must have the qualifying institution as their primary affiliation.

After submission, changing who is designated as the corresponding author will be permitted only where there is a substantive reason to do so. We will not accept changes to the corresponding author to access Read and Publish funding.

For more information on Read and Publish funding, refer to the Open access charges section.

The corresponding author’s details in the submission system will also be used to judge eligibility for any member discounts.

Authorship changes

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

ORCiD

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCiD iDs (Open Researcher and Contributor iDs) at submission and take advantage of the benefits of participating in ORCiD. If you do not already have an ORCiD iD, you can register for free via the ORCiD website. 

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

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

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

Group authorship

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

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

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

Authors

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

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

The Journal follows the COPE guidance for any suspected undisclosed conflict of interest before and after publication.

Effective June 1, 2026, authors must list any conflicts of interest in a “Conflicts of interest” paragraph that appears on the title page of the manuscript. ICMJE forms are no longer required.

Please ensure that the paragraph lists all authors, even those without any conflicts of interest. Following is an example of the format: 
  
Conflicts of interest
J.K.L. served as a consultant for Antabio and AstraZeneca. D.E.F. received research support from Boehringer Ingelheim and Chiesi, and she is a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. X.Y.Z. is a speaker for Insmed and holds stock in AstraZeneca. A.B.C. served on a data and safety monitoring board for the National Institutes of Health. G.H.I., P.Q.R., S.T.U., and V.W.X. reported no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Additionally, as part of submitting an article, authors are required to disclose any relationship with the tobacco industry or cannabis industries or their affiliates and subsidiaries. The Journal does not accept contributions that are funded by tobacco industry sources or cannabis industry sources that market recreational cannabis products consumable by inhalation and does not accept any contribution submitted by an author or co-author that has currently, or had within the 12 months prior to submission, a relationship with such entities. For further detail view the ATS tobacco industry and cannabis industry policies. The journal does not accept manuscripts that are supported by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a tobacco industry-initiated and funded entity.

Reviewers

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

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

Editors and editorial board members

At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process.

Previously published material

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

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

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

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

By virtue of submitting a manuscript to the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the authors certify that (a) the material is original, has not been published except in abstract form, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere, including publicly accessible websites or e-print servers, (b) no part of the research presented has been funded by tobacco industry sources or from cannabis industry sources that market recreational cannabis products consumable by inhalation (c) all authors have read the manuscript and approve its submission, and (d) all clinical trials have been registered in a public trial registry. For further detail view the ATS tobacco industry and cannabis industry policies and the ICMJE page on clinical trial registration. 

Preprints

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

Reusing copyrighted material

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

• Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
• Rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
• Lifetime rights to use the material
• Worldwide English-language rights

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

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

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

Misconduct

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

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

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

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

COPE defines plagiarism as:

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

COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as: 

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

COPE defines citation manipulation as: 

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

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

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

If notified of a potential breach of research conduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s). Authors should be prepared to provide additional information on request. 

Ethical research

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

Human participants

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

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

Clinical trials

Clinical trials should be registered before enrollment of the first participant in accordance with the criteria outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). When reporting primary or secondary analyses from a clinical trial, follow these criteria:

• Provide the trial registration number at the end of the Abstract.
• When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference.
• If your data have been deposited in a public repository and/or are being used in a secondary analysis, please state at the end of the Abstract the unique, persistent data set identifier, and repository name and number.
• When submitting the manuscript, you must disclose any protocol alterations and all posting of results of the submitted work or closely related work in registries.

In reporting randomized clinical trials, you must comply with published CONSORT guidelines.

• Complete the recommended checklist and be prepared to provide it to the editorial office upon request.
• Present the recommended trial flow diagram as a figure in the manuscript or as supplementary material.
• If your manuscript reports on a randomized Phase II/III trial, you must provide a brief description of the statistical plan of the original study that includes the primary and secondary endpoints, power calculation, and sample size.

Where available, registration numbers should be provided not only for the trial you are reporting but also for any other trial mentioned in the manuscript. When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference. 

For further detail view the ATS tobacco industry and cannabis industry policies and the ICMJE page on clinical trial registration.

Animals

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

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

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

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

Inclusive language and images

As defined by the Linguistic Society of America: 

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

We encourage you to consider using inclusive language and images when preparing your manuscript. For guidelines, please see the “Correct and Preferred Usage" chapter of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style.

Accessibility

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

Availability of data and materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Data availability statement

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

More information and example data availability statements.

Choosing where to archive your data

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

We suggest you consider these options when choosing your repository:

• ArrayExpress
• CIBEX (Center for Information Biology gene EXpression)
• DDBJ
• Dryad Digital Repository
• EMBL
• Figshare
• GenBank
• Gene Expression Omnibus
• Harvard Dataverse
• Mendeley Data
• Open Science Framework
• Zenodo

Genomics data in ATS journals 

Authors are required to deposit their genomic datasets into publicly available databases on the date of publication. For the purposes of evaluating the manuscript, authors should provide the editors and reviewers with access to the datasets when the manuscript is submitted to the Journal; information about accessing the datasets can be included in the Materials and Methods section.

1. Microarray Data: It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that all data collected and analyzed in their experiments adhere to the Minimal Information About A Microarray Experiment (MIAME) guidelines. Click here to review the MIAME checklist. Appropriate public databases include, but are not limited to: ArrayExpress, GEO, or CIBEX
2. Nucleotide and Protein Sequences: DNA Sequences, RNA Sequences, and Protein Sequences

Appropriate public databases include, but are not limited to: EMBL, GenBank, or DDBJ.

Digital preservation

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

Self-archiving

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

Publishing agreement and charges

Authors, please read each section on the publishing agreement and charges carefully.

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

Publishing agreement 

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a license to publish through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris. The Journal offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (standard) license or an open access (Creative Commons) license. There is a charge to publish under an open access license, which allows your paper to be freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. The standard license makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is a per-article publication fee payable upon acceptance. This license grants OUP an exclusive license to publish and distribute the content. There is no transfer of ownership of the copyright. You, the author, retain copyright for the content. 

Papers can be published under the following: 

• Standard license to publish (Oxford University Press (OUP) Journals, Standard Publication Model) 
• Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) 
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC) 
• United States Government License 

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

Complying with funder mandates

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

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

Charges

Open access charges

Please see the details of open access licenses and charges. If you select an open access license, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through our licensing and payment portal, SciPris.

Please note that prices are subject to change. All stated charges are exclusive of any applicable value added tax, goods and services tax and any similar sales or excise taxes (Sales Taxes). Any Sales Taxes will be added to the invoiced charge at the prevailing rate, as applicable.

The fee may be paid in other currencies at a rate determined when you sign the publishing agreement for your manuscript.

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

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

Article charges

The Journal charges a per article publication fee upon acceptance: $2240 per article for members and $2800 per article for non-members. This charge is not levied if an open access license and fee is paid. Research Letters receive a 50% discount on article charges. There are no article charges for Images in Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine and the Sciences, Correspondence, Correspondence Replies, and Editorials.

Color charges

The Journal does not charge for color.

Page charges

The Journal does not have page charges.

Member discounts

Corresponding authors who are members of the American Thoracic Society may be eligible for a 20% discount on open access charges. Please provide the member identifier when prompted as you submit your manuscript.

Open access charge discount: Please see the open access charge list.

Changes to published papers

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

As needed, we follow the COPE guidelines on retractions.

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

Promoting your work

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

You can promote your work by:

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

Find out how Oxford University Press promotes your content. 

Press releases

If you would like to arrange an embargo date so that a press release can be issued simultaneously with the publication of your paper, you must do so before your manuscript is accepted. The Journal publishes the accepted manuscript shortly after acceptance, and this process cannot be interrupted. No version of a paper may be temporarily withdrawn once published. Please contact the editorial office ([email protected]).

Contact us

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

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

For changes that arise after acceptance but before publication that cannot be addressed in the proof process (including changes to the author list), contact the Author Support Team at [email protected].