General Instructions

• About TBM
• Types of Manuscripts
• Special Issues
• Virtual Issues
• Manuscript Submission Instructions
• Manuscript Style Guide
• Instructions for Manuscripts Accepted for Publication
• Appeals Process
• Editorial Policies
• Ethical Standards

About TBM

Translational Behavioral Medicine: Practice, Policy, Research (TBM) is an international peer-reviewed journal that offers continuous, online-first publication. TBM’s mission is to engage, inform, and catalyze dialogue between the research, practice, and policy communities about behavioral medicine. It aims to bring actionable science to practitioners and to prompt debate on policy issues that surround implementing the evidence. TBM’s vision is to lead the translation of behavioral science findings to improve patient and population outcomes.

TBM began receiving an Impact Factor in 2015 and currently holds an Impact Factor of 2.989. TBM is one of two journals published by the Society of Behavioral Medicine. The Society of Behavioral Medicine is a multidisciplinary organization of clinicians, educators, and scientists dedicated to promoting the study of the interactions of behavior with biology and the environment, and then applying that knowledge to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

Types of Manuscripts

Commentary/Position Paper

TBM invites commentaries and position papers that are specifically relevant to the field of behavioral medicine. These pieces should comment on—or take a position on—a particular health issue, practice, or policy. Pieces may advocate for specific evidence-based health polices or practices; explain how specific changes in the field of behavioral medicine tie into policy work; note implications or caveats for future research or policy work in a given area; etc. We are particularly interested in pieces that are directly related to one or more articles printed in TBM; commentaries and position papers must build on the practice and/or policy implications of the work referenced. Length: 3,500 words or less.

Example:
TBM_CommentaryExample1_NIH.pdf
Example: TBM_CommentaryExample2_physicalactivity.pdf

Original Research

We welcome original empirical articles, such as reports of randomized controlled trials, observational studies, or other basic and clinical investigations. International work and research on global health issues are encouraged. Quantitative or descriptive and integrative literature reviews will also be considered. Manuscripts should clearly state an objective or hypothesis, the research methods (including statistical methods), the essential features of any interventions, the outcome measures, and the results of the investigation. The results should be discussed in the context of other published literature. Length: No more than 25 double-spaced pages including title page, references, abstract, figures, and tables.

Systematic Reviews

We consider systematic reviews that rigorously plot study evidence as objectively as possible, assess the quality of the evidence, and synthesize it. Specifically, we publish reviews that fit the definition of the Cochrane Handbook as, “A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyze and summarize the results of the included studies.” Systematic reviews addressing the effectiveness of interventions and policies are especially welcomed. Length: No more than 25 double-spaced pages including title page, abstract, references, figures, and tables.

Brief Reports

We accept brief reports of soundly designed, original research studies of specialized interest that can be effectively communicated in less space than standard-length articles. An author who submits a brief report must agree not to submit the full report to another journal.

We also encourage submission of replication studies focused on translational topics in behavioral medicine as brief reports. We are particularly interested in publishing replication studies that replicate research that is of high importance to the field, methodologically sound, conducted by researchers other than those who had the original finding, and otherwise adhere to the high standards of the journal.

Length: No more than 15 double-spaced pages including title page, references, abstract, figures, and tables.

Practice and Public Health Policies

These articles cover new events and trends in policies that affect behavioral medicine practitioners or the public. We specifically look for pieces about health care reform, insurance reform, reimbursement policies, global health, health care delivery, and systems of health care. We also seek articles about new or forthcoming legislation that affects the built environment and taxes or subsidies related to health behaviors. Articles that promote a translational dialogue between clinicians, policymakers, and researchers are especially welcome.

TBM also invites submissions of Policy Position Statements approved by the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Executive Committee. These are brief position statements that have undergone and received all proper approvals of the peer review process embedded within SBM’s Position Statements Committee, which includes two rounds of rigorous review and feedback from the Position Statement Committee and review and approval by SBM’s Executive Committee. For more details on this process, including examples of previously published Position Statements and instructions on submitting a position statement, please reference the SBM website on Policy Positions.

Length: 3,500 words or less; double-spaced.

Null Results Research

We will consider papers with null findings that may substantially contribute to advancing the field. Null findings commonly occur in behavioral research and are viewed negatively. Investigators are often challenged to publish null findings due to the value placed on significant findings. As a result, researchers may “abandon” their ideas/research questions in hopes of having significant findings. The negative connotation to null findings wastes valuable resources and limits the opportunity to inform and advance the field. Papers with null findings will be considered if they have a strong research design and use advanced methods with appropriate statistical analysis. A necessary condition for publication is that the study is powered to accept the null hypothesis. Authors should include a detailed description of the methods (i.e., clearly stated hypothesis, well characterized intervention, recruitment strategy, power calculation), address the lessons learned as a result of the null findings, discuss how the null findings advance the field, and describe plans for future studies. Length: No more than 15 pages double-spaced including title page, references, abstract, figures, and tables.

Letters to the Editor

We publish letters to the editor that offer opinion or interpretation of articles previously published in the journal. It is customary for letters to be sent to the author(s) of the original work and the authors’ response may be published as a companion to the letter to the editor. Length: 500 words or less; double-spaced; no more than seven references; tables and figures should be used only if absolutely necessary.

Special Issues

TBM routinely publishes special issues on timely and emerging topics in behavioral medicine. Recent special issues have focused on community-based dissemination and implementation; clinical and public health genomics; and networks and healthcare outcomes.

If you have a topic idea and are interested in serving as a special issue guest editor, please contact us at [email protected]. We can review your topic for fit and can provide more information about responsibilities, timeline, calls for abstracts, etc. Special issues have approximately 16 articles (mix of original research and invited commentaries). TBM also publishes special sections, which are smaller (typically between four and 10 articles) but still important.

Virtual Issues

Virtual issues are a special curation of articles recently published in TBM, that have a unified theme around a timely and/or emergent behavioral medicine topic. They are compiled into a virtual issue along with a lead commentary that describes and synthesizes the state of the science. Recent virtual issues have focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, health equity, and mindfulness and other complementary & integrative approaches in behavioral medicine. If you have an idea for a special issue and would be interested in taking the lead on the opening commentary, please reach out to Dr. Keith Bellizi [email protected]. 

Manuscript Submission Instructions

Articles cannot be concurrently submitted or published by any other publication, print or electronic. All manuscripts must be submitted via Editorial Manager, an online submission and review system used to track manuscript progress from initial submission through the final publication decision. Authors will enter pertinent information into the system and submit the following files:

Cover Page

The cover page must contain the manuscript title; all author names, degrees, and affiliations; the contact information for the corresponding author; and the following statements:

• Funding Sources: “This study was funded by X [grant number X].”
• Acknowledgment of the Involvement of the Funder. See section on Involvement of the Funder. 
• Conflicts of Interest: “Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.” (Alternatively: “Author A, Author B, and Author C declare that they have no conflicts of interest.”)
• Human Rights: “All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.” (For retrospective studies, please add the following sentence: “For this type of study, formal consent is not required.”) (Applicable IRB approval information should be included here.) (Alternatively: “This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.”
• Informed Consent: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.” (If identifying information about participants is available in the article, the following statement should be included: “Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.”) (Alternatively: “This study does not involve human participants and informed consent was therefore not required.”
• The Clinical Trials Registration # (if applicable). The clinical trials registration number should not be indicated anywhere in the body of the manuscript. 
• Welfare of Animals: “All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.” (Alternatively, “This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.”
• Five transparency statements related to (1) study registration, (2) analytic plan registration, (3) availability of data, (4) availability of analytic code, and (5) availability of materials. Please see Transparency Statement document for guidance on statements.
• Acknowledgements: (Optional)
• 4 to 6 keywords that can be used for indexing purposes. It is recommended that you choose medical subject headings (MeSH) and/or psychological index terms for your keywords. The National Library of Medicine provides a searchable MeSH database for PubMed and APA publishes the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. 

Transparency Statements

Authors are required to provide transparency statements on (1) study registration, (2) analytic plan registration, (3) availability of data, (4) availability of analytic code, and (5) availability of materials. Further instructions and examples that authors can use are available in this Transparency Statement document.

Statements will be published with the manuscript. Commentaries do not need to provide transparency statements. More guidance on pre-registration and data and materials sharing is available below in “Study Registration” and “Availability of Data and Materials” sections.

Conflict of Interest Checklist

This conflict of interest checklist form must be completed. The form should be used to summarize all authors’ conflicts of interest. It should be uploaded separate from the cover letter or manuscript file.

Implications

An implications file must state the impact of findings for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers (one sentence each, written as a pithy, action-oriented recommendation, rather than a description or summary. Please refer to our example implications statements.

Manuscript

The manuscript file containing the entire text of the article, including abstract, all text, references, footnotes, appendices, figures, and tables. In an effort to promote an anonymized review process, where authors and reviewers are anonymous to each other, this file should not include author information such as names, affiliations, or contact information. A structured abstract of no longer than 250 words is required and should be divided into the following sections: Background, Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. A list of four to six keywords should be provided directly below the abstract for indexing purposes.

How you phrase your title and abstract impacts how likely your article is to be discovered by others via search. When writing your title and abstract, be sure to clearly state the key finding and repeat relevant keywords. See SBM's SEO guidelines for authors [PDF] for examples and more information to ensure your article is optimized for search engines.

Best practices have been developed for reporting a variety of study types, including randomized trials (CONSORT), observational studies (STROBE), systematic reviews (PRISMA), case reports (CARE), qualitative research (SRQR), quality improvement studies (SQUIRE), and clinical practice guidelines (SPIRIT, PRISMA-P). When possible, submissions to TBM should comply with the relevant reporting guidelines published by the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) Network.

Clinical trials should be registered through Clinicaltrials.gov or other appropriate registry. Submissions that report on clinical trial findings must include a CONSORT flow diagram. Authors are encouraged to include a completed checklist (e.g., CONSORT checklist) with their submission. Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines are welcome and will receive full consideration provided the authors report their rationale for deviating from the guidelines in both the cover letter and manuscript.

Graphical Abstracts

Authors are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract or video abstract as part of the article, in addition to the text abstract. The graphical/video abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article, and will be published as part of the article online and in PDF. The graphical/video abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. The file should be clearly named, e.g. graphical_abstract.tiff, video_abstract.mp4. See this page for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics and videos. Please ensure graphical abstracts are in landscape format.

Note that graphical abstracts will be subject to any print reproduction charges that the journal levies for colour figures.

Some examples of graphical abstracts.

Lay summary

Authors of all article types are required to submit a lay summary as part of the article, in addition to the main text abstract. The lay summary should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article for non-expert readers, and will be published as part of the article online and in PDF. The lay summary should be submitted for peer review as part of the main manuscript file, under the heading ‘Lay summary’, before the article’s main text. The lay summary should be no longer than 200 words. As with a main abstract, avoid citations and define any abbreviations.

Teaser text

Authors of all article types are required to submit 1-2 sentences of promotional text describing their primary findings to encourage readers. Authors will be asked to provide this text under the lay summary as part of the article. Teaser text is not considered part of the main article content and appears only in the table of contents, Advance Access listing, search results, and journal homepage display.

In order to be accessible to the general public, please avoid jargon, acronyms, and scientific or medical terms that may not be commonly understood. Use "person-first" language that emphasizes people rather than conditions (e.g., "patients with breast cancer" instead of "breast cancer patients"). Examples of statements that provide a clear summary in simple, non-technical language include:

• A known effective strategy to increase fruit and vegetable intake and delivered through primary care settings, was successfully adapted for use in senior centers.
• A policy to limit tobacco sales to people under age 21 resulted in fewer sales of loose cigarettes in urban areas.
• A school-based approach to raising awareness about the COVID-19 vaccine was able to reach more students in urban than in rural districts.

Instructions for Manuscripts Accepted for Publication

This journal follows Oxford SciMed style. By following the mini style checklist you can review any style points not covered in the Instruction to Authors guide

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. 

Proofreading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables, and figures. Substantial changes in content (e.g., new results, corrected values, title or authorship modifications) are not allowed without the approval of the editor. After online publication, critical changes can only be made in the form of an erratum, which must receive the editor’s and the publisher’s approval, and which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Advance Access

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Copyright

Authors will receive an electronic notification to transfer copyright of the article to the Society of Behavioral Medicine via Oxford University Press. This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws. 

Open Access

TBM offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. 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.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

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

Please note that you may be eligible for a discount to the open access charge based on society membership. Authors may be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.

Third-Party Copyright and Open Access

In order to reproduce any third-party material, including tables, figures, or images, in an article, authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse. When seeking to reproduce any kind of third-party material authors should request the following:

• non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
• print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
• the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
• world-wide English-language rights.

It is particularly important to clear permission for use in both the print and online versions of the journal, and we are not able to accept permissions which carry a time limit because we retain journal articles as part of our online journal archive. Further guidelines on clearing permissions can be downloaded as a pdf.

If you will be publishing your paper under an open access license but it contains material for which you do not have open access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:
Title of content
Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

Self-Archiving Policy

For information about this journal's policy, please visit the Author Self-archiving Policy webpage.

Reuse of Oxford University Press Material

For more information regarding the reuse of Oxford University Press material, please visit the Rights & Permissions webpage.

Study Registration

Clinical trials should be registered in a public registry (e.g., www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the trial registration number should be reported in the Methods section of the manuscript as well as in the Transparency Statements. Clinical trials are defined as studies that prospectively assign participants to either intervention or control conditions to study the cause-and-effect relationship between an intervention(s) and a health or behavioral health related outcome. Registration is not required for early-stage or feasibility trials.

Researchers conducting hypothesis-driven research that are not clinical trials are also encouraged (but not required) to register their study and analysis plan prior to data collection. Although the journal does not advocate a particular registry, the registry should be accessible to the public at no charge, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a not-for-profit organization, and electronically searchable (examples include http://openscienceframework.org/ and http://egap.org/content/registration). Manuscripts should specify when data analyses presented deviate from pre-registration plan.

During submission, authors will be required to provide transparency statements indicating if their study and their analyses plan were pre-registered, and if so, where to access the pre-registration(s). This statement will be published with the journal article.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, Translational Behavioral Medicine strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be deposited in a public repository whenever possible. When submitting in a public repository is not possible (e.g., due to ethical concerns) authors are encouraged to consider depositing in a protected access repository (i.e., one that requires permission to access). For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.

During submission, authors are required to provide a statement about the availability and how to access their data, analytic code, and research materials, which will be published with the journal article.

Open Science Badges

Translational Behavioral Medicine supports Open Science Badges to acknowledge open science practices. These badges are offered as incentives to share data and materials and preregister research, and signal to the reader that the content has been made available in a persistent location. These badges will feature in the published article. When uploading a manuscript revision, authors should indicate the desired badge, and include a completed Open Science Badge application form and eligibility will be confirmed upon acceptance.

Open Science Badge Disclaimer: Translational Behavioral Medicine, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and its publisher Oxford University Press are not responsible for the accuracy of any open science claim made by the author in this article. Information is considered true and accurate at the time of article acceptance. Subsequent changes to open science claims may not be updated or printed by the journal, the society, or its publisher.

Data Citation

Translational Behavioral Medicine supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite: 

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page. Citations of preprints are allowed in articles, when digital object identifiers are available.

 

Appeals Process

If a manuscript is rejected and the author(s) believe that a pertinent point was overlooked or misunderstood by the reviewers, it is possible to appeal the editorial decision by contacting the editor in charge of the submission. If an appeal to the editor does not bring about a satisfactory resolution, further appeal can be directed to the editor-in-chief. If an appeal to the editor-in-chief does not result in a satisfactory resolution, then a final appeal can be addressed to the chair of the Publications and Communications Council of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Editorial Policies

Role of the Editor

The editor-in-chief is responsible for the entire content of the journal. An editorial advisory board is available to the editor to help establish and maintain editorial policy. TBM adheres to the World Association of Medical Editors’ definition of editorial freedom. According to this definition, editorial freedom, or independence, is the concept that editors-in-chief have full authority over editorial content and timing of publication of that content. Journal owners should not interfere in the evaluation, selection, or editing of individual articles either directly or by creating an environment that strongly influences decisions. Editors should base decisions on the validity of the work and its importance to the journal’s readers. Editors should be free to express critical but responsible views about all aspects of journal content without fear of retribution, even if these views conflict with the commercial goals of the publisher. Editors have an obligation to support the concept of editorial freedom and to draw major transgressions of such freedom to the attention of the international medical, academic, and lay communities.

Peer Review

Contributions submitted to the journal that are selected for peer-review are typically sent to two reviewers chosen by the editor or associate editors, but considerations of timeliness may require the editor to act on the basis of less than two reviews. Authors are welcome to suggest potential reviewers; however, it is the editor's decision whether or not to honor such requests.

Confidentiality

TBM keeps all details about a submitted manuscript confidential. TBM will not comment to any outside organization about manuscripts submitted to the journal while they are under consideration or if they are rejected. The journal editors may comment publicly on published material, but their comments are restricted to the content itself and their evaluation of it.

Corrections, Retractions, and "Expressions of Concern"

Editors must assume initially that authors are reporting work based on honest observations. Nevertheless, two types of difficulty may arise. First, errors may be noted in published articles that require the publication of an erratum. Errata will appear on a numbered page, be listed in the table of contents, and include the complete original citation and link to the original article and vice versa if online. Errors should not be confused with inadequacies exposed by the emergence of new scientific information in the normal course of research, which requires no errata or withdrawals. The second type of difficulty is scientific fraud. If substantial doubt arises about the honesty or integrity of work, either submitted or published, it is the editor’s responsibility to bring the issue to the attention of the authors’ sponsoring institution. It is not the responsibility of the editor to conduct a full investigation or to make a determination; that responsibility lies with the institution where the work was done or with the funding agency. The editor should be promptly informed of the final decision, and if a fraudulent paper has been published, the journal must print a retraction. If this method of investigation does not result in a satisfactory conclusion, the editor may choose to conduct his or her own investigation. As an alternative to retraction, the editor may choose to publish an expression of concern about aspects of the conduct or integrity of the work.

Advertising

All advertisements in TBM must clearly identify the advertiser and the product or service being offered. Commercial advertisements will not be placed adjacent to any editorial matter that discusses the product being advertised, nor adjacent to any article reporting research on the advertised product. Further, advertisements must not refer to an article in the same issue in which they appear. In the case of drug advertisements, the full generic name of each active ingredient should appear. Finally, advertisements must have a different appearance from editorial material so there is no confusion between the two. Advertisements may not be deceptive or misleading. Exaggerated or extravagantly worded copy will not be allowed. Advertisements will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent or offensive in either text or artwork, or contain negative content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious character.

TBM reserves the right to refuse any advertisement for any reason.

To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), IRB approval, human rights and informed consent if the research involved human participants, and welfare of animals if the research involved animals. The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send it, if requested, during peer review or after publication. The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.

Tobacco Industry Involvement

Society of Behavioral Medicine journals do not accept any research that has been funded by tobacco entities or that includes an author or co-author who is employed by a tobacco entity at time of submission. Research funded by or featuring authors employed by businesses involved in electronic nicotine delivery systems is only prohibited if those businesses are financially connected to the tobacco industry. The submitting author is required to answer a question in Editorial Manager about tobacco industry involvement. Click here for SBM’s full tobacco industry involvement policy. Contact SBM staff at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Ethical Standards

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:

• The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work (please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).
• A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).
• No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (“plagiarism”). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized, and/or paraphrased), quotation marks are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

• Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.
• Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author, and order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
• Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage may be justifiably warranted. A letter must accompany the revised manuscript to explain the role of the added and/or deleted author(s). Further documentation may be required to support your request.
• Requests for addition or removal of authors as a result of authorship disputes after acceptance are honored after formal notification by the institute or independent body and/or when there is agreement between all authors.
• Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential proprietary data is excluded.

If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in the editor-in-chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the paper is maintained on the platform, watermarked "retracted," and explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.
• The author’s institution may be informed.

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could influence or bias the work. Although an author may not feel there are conflicts, disclosure of relationships and interests affords a more transparent process, leading to an accurate and objective assessment of the work. Awareness of real or perceived conflicts of interests is a perspective to which the readers are entitled and is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation for consultancy work is inappropriate. Examples of potential conflicts of interests that are directly or indirectly related to the research may include but are not limited to the following:

• Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number)
• Honoraria for speaking at symposia
• Financial support for attending symposia
• Financial support for educational programs
• Employment or consultation
• Support from a project sponsor
• Position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships
• Multiple affiliations
• Financial relationships, for example equity ownership or investment interest
• Intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights)
• Holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work

In addition, interests that go beyond financial interests and compensation (non-financial interests) that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.

Although many universities and other institutions and organizations have established policies and thresholds for reporting financial interests and other conflicts of interest, Translational Behavioral Medicine requires complete disclosure of all relevant financial relationships and potential conflicts of interest, regardless of amount or value. If authors are uncertain about what constitutes a relevant conflict of interest or relationship, they should contact the editorial office.

The corresponding author collects the conflict of interest disclosure forms from all authors. In author collaborations where formal agreements for representation allow it, it is sufficient for the corresponding author to sign the disclosure form on behalf of all authors.

The corresponding author will include a summary statement on the title page that is separate from their manuscript that reflects what is recorded in the potential conflict of interest disclosure form. Examples are presented here:

If there are financial conflicts of interest:

Funding: This study was funded by X (grant number X).

Conflict of Interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.

If no conflict exists, the authors should state:

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Involvement of the Funder

The corresponding author should indicate on the Title Page (not in the body of the manuscript),  any sources of financial support for the research. The author should also specify the role of the funding source(s), if any, in (1) conceptualization of the research; (2) study design and conduct; (3) collection, management, analysis and interpretation of data; (4) writing and review of the manuscript; and (5) the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, this also should be stated on the Title page., e.g.,

Role of the Funder: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Authorship

Neither symbolic figures such as Camille Noûs nor natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT qualify as authors, and OUP will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content, write code, or analyze data) must be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

When reporting studies that involve human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

The welfare of animals used for research must be respected, and authors should include a statement to that effect. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed, and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists).

Informed Consent

All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken. Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning. Authors should include a statement on informed consent.