Author guidelines

Scope

One of the leading periodicals in its field, the European Journal of Orthodontics publishes peer-reviewed scientific papers aimed at all orthodontists and the general public. The Journal aims to publish scientific papers of excellence on all aspects of orthodontics including craniofacial development and growth. Research papers are of direct clinical relevance and extend the scientific basis of orthodontics.

Article types

Original Articles

A research article reports on new research findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant novel contribution to existing knowledge.

Following the main title, the text then begins with a Summary (not more than 250 words, except for Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews, which have a 400 word limit) followed, where appropriate, by keywords, an Introduction, Materials (or Subjects) and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conflict of interest statement, Data availability statement, any Acknowledgements, Funding, References and Figure Legends. Please note concise, well-structured and coherent manuscripts are preferred. These would ideally be between 4000 and 6000 words, including figure legends and references, although longer articles can be accepted at the editors’ discretion.

Where possible original articles should adhere to publishing guidelines laid out by the Equator network: STROBE, SPIRIT, STARD, AGREE, SRQR, ARRIVE and CHEERS.

Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses submitted to the EJO are screened for compliance of PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines. Therefore, systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be prepared according to PRISMA guidelines. Please download the PRISMA checklist and flow diagram and submit with your article. When submitting your manuscript, click the appropriate box ‘systematic review’.

Summaries for systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be in a structured format and should follow the PRISMA guidelines; when applicable the summary should contain the following subtitles: Background, Objectives, Search methods, Selection criteria, Data collection and analysis, Results, Conclusions, Registration and Conflict of interest. Summaries for systematic reviews should not exceed 400 words. Please note concise, well-structured and coherent manuscripts are preferred. These would ideally be between 4000 and 6000 words, including figure legends and references, although longer articles can be accepted at the editors’ discretion.

Author names, trial reg numbers and ethics committee details can be included in the main file without blinding it, as SRs are single-blinded.

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)

Randomized controlled trials should be prepared according to the CONSORT (consolidated standards of reporting trials) guidelines. Download the CONSORT checklist and flow diagram and submit with your article. When submitting your manuscript, click the appropriate box ‘RCT’.

Summaries for RCTs should be in a structured format and should follow CONSORT guidelines. The summary should include information on Background, Objectives, Trial design, Methods (Participants, Interventions, Objective, Outcome, Randomization, Blinding), Results (Numbers randomized, Recruitment, Numbers analysed, Outcome, Harms), Conclusions, Trial registration, Funding.

Examples of summaries for RCTs can be found on the CONSORT website, as well as in Figure 3 of Fleming PS, Buckley N, Seehra J, Polychronopoulou A, Pandis N. 2012 Reporting quality of abstracts of randomized controlled trials published in leading orthodontic journals from 2006 to 2011. American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics 142: 451-458.

Summaries for RCTs should not exceed 400 words. Please note concise, well-structured and coherent manuscripts are preferred. These would ideally be between 4000 and 6000 words, including figure legends and references, although longer articles can be accepted at the editors’ discretion.

Author names, trial reg numbers and ethics committee details can be included in the main file without blinding it, as RCTs are single-blinded.

Narrative Reviews

A narrative review is a review method in which the researchers summarize different primary studies from which conclusions may be drawn in a systematic way and from a holistic point of view, contributed by researchers’ own experience and existing theories. Narrative reviews should contain a structured abstract with a maximum 250 words.   Please note concise, well-structured and coherent manuscripts are preferred. These would ideally be between 4000 and 6000 words, including figure legends and references, although longer articles can be accepted at the editors’ discretion.

Commentaries

Commentaries are short review reports about original articles published in the EJO. Leading experts are asked to write commentaries after the reviewers of the manuscript have highlighted the high quality of the original article. Commentaries are reserved for articles of particular merit. The original articles are thought to be ground breaking, possibly seminal and are predicted to strongly influence future developments. The commentary will be published together with and will be linked to the original article.

A commentary is a short review of the paper and a short review of the subject. It should state why the subject is important, what are the important recent developments in the field, why the article is noteworthy and give a perspective of where the article fits into the field. Commentaries should have a punchy title and a very short abstract (2-4 sentences). Commentaries should be a maximum 2 pages i.e. 500–1200 words and can include one figure (image, schematic diagram or table). References should be kept to a minimum. Commentaries should be submitted with 2–3 months so that they can be published in a timely manner. Commentaries are subject to peer review.

Letters to the Editor

A Letter to the Editor is usually a type of short communication that normally in response to articles published in the journal but can be written on any topic that attracts the attention of the reader. If the letter concerns an article published in the journal, the authors of the article would normally be invited to respond to the letter to the editor and their response published with the letter to the editor. Letters are normally under 500 words in length with only a few references. 

Editorials

Editorials are normally published by the Editor, Editorial team, or at the invitation of the Editor.

Announcements

Announcements are for use of the Journal Editors and/or the European Orthodontics Society in order to make relevant announcements to the EJO community.

How we publish

European Journal of Orthodontics is a peer-reviewed journal publishing 6 issues per year online.

After copyediting and review of the final proof, papers are published in the currently open issue.

Peer review process

The Journal operates double anonymized peer review for all manuscripts except randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews, meaning that the identity of the authors is hidden from reviewers, and the reviewers’ identities are hidden from the authors. The editors know the identity of both the reviewers and the authors.

The Journal operates single anonymized peer review for randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews, 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 a handling editor, who will oversee peer review and recommend a final decision. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the submitted manuscript. 

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 2 reviewers. 

The Journal will not consider author-suggested reviewers. 

At the time of submission, you may request that specific individuals not be used as reviewers of your manuscript. Please do so in your cover letter, along with a brief explanation as to why you want them excluded. However, there is no guarantee these individuals will be excluded by the Journal. 

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. 

Screening for misconduct

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

Appeals and complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision. To do so, please contact the editorial office at [email protected], providing as much specific detail as possible about why the original decision should be reconsidered. Every appeal will receive a response within a reasonable timeframe. Please do not resubmit your manuscript in the interim.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact [email protected]. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes.

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. The Journal will contact all listed authors at the point of submission to confirm their role.

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 or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

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.

After submission, changing who is designated as the corresponding author will be permitted only where there is a substantive reason to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open access charges section.

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 included in papers and displayed online, both in the HTML 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.

CRediT

The Journal uses the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT), which allows authors to describe the contributor roles in a standardized, transparent, and accurate way. Authors should choose from the contributor roles outlined on the CRediT website and supply this information upon submission. You may choose multiple contributor roles per author. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed in your manuscript as non-author contributors with their contributions clearly described. Following manuscript submission, any changes to contributor roles require the approval of the editor

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 undisclosed conflict of interest that emerges during peer review, production, or after publication.

Reviewers

Individuals that 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

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. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled. The statement will read “[Author name] holds the position of [role] for European Journal of Orthodontics and has not peer reviewed or made any editorial decisions for this paper."

Another editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process, and as in all other submissions a double-anonymized peer review process will be used.

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.

The Journal does not discourage you from presenting your findings at conferences or scientific meetings but recommends that you refrain from distributing complete copies of your manuscripts, which might later be published elsewhere without your knowledge.

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

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:

• Nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in European Journal of Orthodontics
• 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 licence 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 [rightsholder]
• This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence 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 the 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 misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

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.

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. 

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).

C4DISC partnership

The Journal and OUP aim to create a community that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of our commitment to these principles, OUP is a proud partner of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC). C4DISC works with organizations and individuals within the scholarly communications landscape to foster equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility across the publishing industry and its published outputs.

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. Authors are required to include a data availability statement in their paper. 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.

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.

Data availability statement

The inclusion of a data availability statement is a requirement for papers published in the Journal. 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.

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 would 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.

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 European Journal of Orthodontics can be found below.

Manuscripts should be submitted to the editors via the journal's online submission site where the authors will be taken through the process step by step. The total size of files uploaded cannot exceed 100MB. See below for submission instructions.

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, which 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.

Manuscript

Your submission should consist of 2 separate files. Any other files, e.g. figures, tables, supplementary material, are in addition to the main 2 files. The first file (Title page) should include the names of all authors and their affiliations (no qualifications); from December 2015 authors are asked to use superscript numbers for affiliation designators, instead of asterisks e.g. A. Smith¹ and B. Jones^2,3. A short running title is required when the full title of the paper exceeds 45 letters. The title page should also include authors' full postal address and email address.

Country names should be included for all affiliations, for example:

• ²Department of Neurology, Munich University, Munich, Germany; 
• ³Department of Radiology, Berlin University, Berlin, Germany; 
• ⁴Department of Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

The second file (Main file) must be completely anonymized for all Original articles (except for Randomized Controlled trials and Systematic reviews, which are single-blinded) i.e. contain no potentially author identifying information like authors' names or affiliations so that the identity of the authors is not disclosed to the referees. Following the main title, the text then begins with a Summary (not more than 250 words, except for Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews, which have a 400 word limit) followed, where appropriate, by keywords, an Introduction, Materials (or Subjects) and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conflict of interest statement, any Acknowledgements, Funding, References and Figure Legends. All source files or other files required for processing of the manuscript should be submitted, e.g. Word doc files and BibTeX files for LaTeX documents.

.doc, .docx or .rtf format are acceptable. Please note concise, well-structured and coherent manuscripts are preferred. These would ideally be between 4000 and 6000 words, including figure legends and references, although longer articles can be accepted at the editors’ discretion.

The Abstract should be in a structured format, and be comprehensible to readers before they have read the paper. It should introduce concisely the subject and aim of the study, highlight the key findings and conclusion and state the importance of the work. It should not contain references. Appropriate subtitles for the Abstract include Background/Objectives, Materials/Methods, Results, Limitations, Conclusions/Implications.

All submissions which contain original research should include an Ethics statement. This may include the approval information: name and number in the main file or may state why ethics approval is not required. For all Original articles that information should be marked as xx or blacked out. For Randomized controlled trials please include ethics details in full and not blacked out.

Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews should have a Trial registration number included after the Abstract. Both are single-blinded, therefore there is no need to anonymise author-identifying information.

A manuscript may have additional supporting material that cannot be included within the main manuscript. This supplementary material can be made available online to accompany the published manuscript. Any supplementary material must also be peer-reviewed, as it forms part of the publication record and is associated with the DOI of the main manuscript.

Abbreviations and units

All measurements should be expressed in S.I. units except blood pressure which will continue to be expressed in mm Hg.

Nomenclature

Gene names should be in italic type. Protein products should not be italicised. Human genes and loci should be in upper case and Arabic numerals. Nomenclature should be in accordance with established conventions.

For further information please see: Drosophila, Human, Mouse, Zebrafish

Text abstracts

Text abstracts must be written in English.

Figures, illustrations, and tables

All manuscripts should have:

• High-resolution versions of figures and illustrations. For more information see the Figures section of the manuscript preparation page.
• All figures and tables should be in an editable format so that changes/redrawing and minor edits can be made by the typesetting team if required.
• Confirmation of colour requirements – which figures should be published in colour. 

IMPORTANT: Please see the Figure Requirements page for full information on preparing figures for submission.

All figures and tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Both figures and tables should be uploaded as separate high-resolution image files without their captions (captions should be included as a list after references in the main file).

The figure specifications for EJO can be found below:

Image size:

• Single column width: 82mm
• Double column width: 171 mm
• Height: 236 mm

Image Resolution:

• Halftone: 300 to 600 dpi with clear image details (image should not be blur)
• Line art: 600 to 1200 dpi with clear image details (labels in image should be readable and legible for print)

File formats:

• Vector file formats: Eps, PDF.
• Rastor file formats: Tiff, jpg.

Colour figures should be supplied in CMYK not RGB colours. Font-related problems can be avoided by using standard fonts such as Times Roman and Helvetica. Any lettering should be approximately 2 mm in height and should be in proportion to the overall dimensions of the figure.

Authors please note: figures must be submitted to the above specifications. Figures which do not meet the journal requirements will be returned to authors.

Photographs should be of sufficiently high quality with respect to detail, contrast and fineness of grain to withstand the inevitable loss of contrast and detail inherent in the publication process. Line drawings should have clear and sharp lines that are a minimum of 1 point in thickness. Shading used on line drawings should be clear and distinctive; shades of grey will not reproduce well and small patches of white on an otherwise black background are likely to be lost on reproduction. Symbols used in figures should be limited to standard open and closed symbols (circles, squares, triangles and diamonds). Symbols cannot be generated in the legend and should be described rather than indicated by a symbol. Figures and legends should be intelligible without reading the text of the manuscript. Photographs of people must be accompanied by a written consent. Failure to do so will result in the blacking out of the eyes to avoid recognition. Please note that it is not sufficient to use microscope images/slides at a different magnification and allege that they are different images.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Conflict of interest statement

All manuscripts submitted to EJO must contain a conflict of interest statement, which should be placed in the main file before references. Guidance on conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

All manuscripts submitted to EJO should include a Data availability statement. See Availability of data and materials for more details.

References and Reference List

The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author/s.

The journal follows Oxford SCIMED style. Please refer to these requirements when preparing your manuscript after initial review. More information is available in our mini style guide.

Funding

Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'References' section.

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply ‘National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI’ (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or ‘NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) . Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].’

Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.

Supplementary material

Only directly relevant experimental data should be included in the full text of manuscripts. Supporting data should be submitted for review as supplementary material, in a separate file from the manuscript. Supplementary Material can be published in these formats: .txt, .html, .htm, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .mov, .mpg, .avi, .pdf, .xls, .doc, .rtf, .tif.

Please note that supplementary files are not edited or proofed out during the Production process and will be published online as they are received.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Systematic reviews and meta-analysis submitted to the EJO are screened for compliance of PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines. Therefore, systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be prepared according to PRISMA guidelines. Please download the PRISMA checklist and flow diagram and submit with your article. When submitting your manuscript, click the appropriate box ‘systematic review’.

Summaries for systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be in a structured format and should follow the PRISMA guidelines; when applicable the summary should contain the following subtitles: Background, Objectives, Search methods, Selection criteria, Data collection and analysis, Results, Conclusions, Registration and Conflict of interest. Summaries for systematic reviews should not exceed 400 words.

Author names, trial reg numbers and ethics committee details can be included in the main file without blinding it, as SRs are single-blinded.

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 licence to publish through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris. The Journal offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (standard) licence or an open access (Creative Commons) licence. There is a charge to publish under an open access licence, 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 licence makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is no licence charge. This licence grants OUP an exclusive licence 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 licence to publish (Oxford University Press (OUP) Journals, Standard Publication Model)
• Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence (CC BY-NC)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND)

Please see the OUP guidance on Licences, 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 do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution before selecting your licence.

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 licences and charges. If you select an open access licence, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris.

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.

Colour charges

The Journal does not charge for colour.

Page charges

The Journal does not have page charges.

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. 

Discussion of papers

Questions or criticisms concerning recently published papers may be sent to the Editor through the online submission website. The Editor may refer them to the authors. The readers' comments and authors' replies may subsequently be published together. However, whether this correspondence is published is the decision of editor(s). There is no other correspondence section in the Journal.

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.