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GASTROENTEROLOGY publishes clinical and basic studies of all aspects of the digestive system, including the liver and pancreas,
as well as nutrition. The types of articles GASTROENTEROLOGY publishes include original papers, review articles, and special category
manuscripts. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals"
developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ( http://www.icmje.org ). Gastroenterology is a member
of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk ).
GASTROENTEROLOGY has a total circulation
of approximately 17,000—about 12,000 in the United States and 5,000 in other countries. Eighty percent of subscribers are AGA members.
In the United States, about 75% of subscribers are physicians, and about 25% of subscriptions go to residents, medical schools, and libraries.
About 68% of the papers published originate overseas.
GASTROENTEROLOGY is abstracted and indexed in Biological Abstracts, CABS,
Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents, Excerpta Medica, Index Medicus, Nutrition Abstracts, and Science Citation Index.
Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest
Policy
Plagiarism, Duplicate Submission/Publication Policy
National
Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding
Information about Article Types
Submission Checklist
Reporting Clinical Trials
Randomized Controlled Trials
Reporting Meta-Analyses
of Genetic Studies
Distribution of Material Described in Published Papers
Manuscript Processing and Review
Publication
Contact Information
ETHICAL STANDARDS
GASTROENTEROLOGY strongly discourages the submission of more than one article dealing with related aspects of the same study. In
almost all cases, a single study is best reported in a single paper.
The Journal editors consider research/publication misconduct
to be a serious breach of ethics and will take action as necessary to address such misconduct, which includes submission or publication
of information that:
(1) Is intentionally erroneous,
(2) Has been published elsewhere by a different author without acknowledgment
(plagiarism),
(3) Has been published elsewhere by the same author without acknowledgment (duplicate publication), or
(4) Is subsequently
published elsewhere by the same author without acknowledgment, attribution, or permission from the AGA Institute, as holder of the copyright,
to reprint or adapt the material.
Each author who submits a manuscript must complete GASTROENTEROLOGY's
Copyright Assignment, Authorship Responsibility,
NIH Funding, Financial Disclosure, Institutional
Review Board/Animal Care
Committee Approval and Sponsorship form thereby
affirming that:
(1) None of the material in the manuscript is included
in another manuscript, has been published previously, or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. This includes symposia
proceedings, transactions, books, articles published by invitation, and preliminary publications of any kind except an abstract or poster.
If there is any potential overlap with a manuscript previously published by the authors, the related manuscripts must be included for
editorial evaluation.
(2) Only people who contributed to the intellectual content, the analysis of data, and the writing of the manuscript
are listed as authors and that all authors take public responsibility for the research results being reported.
(3) Ethical guidelines
were followed by the investigator in studies on humans or animals and described in the paper. The approval of the institutional review
board of animal care committee must be cited in the Methods section of the text.
(4) All authors had full access to all of the data
in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Breaches in these standards
may result in proscribed submission for all authors of the concerned manuscript and, when appropriate, notification of the authors' institutions.
All authors are fully responsible for the content of the manuscript.
The publication of abstracts or posters is not considered duplicate
publication but should be disclosed in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript submission.
Authorship
Each author
must have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content of the paper and must approve of the final
version of the manuscript. Authorship should be based on substantive contributions to each of the following:
(1) conception and design
of the study;
(2) generation, collection, assembly, analysis and/or interpretation of data;
(3) drafting or revision of the manuscript;
(4) approval of the final version of the manuscript.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY
A. Potential Conflicts of Interest
The following are examples of COI that may occur with editors, authors (including invited
authors), and reviewers. Interactions considered pertinent are from the start of the research activity in a specific program until such
time that a submission is anticipated to be published or one year from submission date, whichever is longer.
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a. Editors:
Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts must have no personal, professional, or financial involvement in any of the issues
they might judge. Examples of personal involvement with an author include former student, fellow, mentor, or relative. Examples of professional
involvement include academic rivalry, being from the same institution or research group as the author, evaluating a manuscript submitted
by a member of the board of editors, or collaborating (e.g., co-authoring research article or grant) with an author. Examples of financial
involvement include employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants/patents received, and
royalties with an entity (or competing entity) discussed in the manuscript.
It is a COI for editors of the AGA Institute journals
to hold a position of editorial responsibility for a competing publication. The Ethics Committee reviews disclosure statements submitted
by editors and notifies either/both the Secretary/Treasurer and editor of any potential conflicts. The procedures contained in Section
C of the "AGA/AGA Institute Policy on Disclosure of Potential Conflict of Interest" apply if a conflict is found to exist.
b. Authors:
COI for an author may arise if there exists a financial arrangement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options,
expert testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties) with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript
or with a company that makes a competing product.
c. Reviewers: COI for reviewers exist when they have had an ongoing collaboration,
original publications, or grants with the authors within the previous two years, except when part of a multicenter group from a different
site; are from the same institution as the authors; or have any financial arrangements (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock
ownership or options, expert testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties) with a company whose product figures prominently in the
submitted manuscript or with a company that makes a competing product.
B. Process
Potential COI are to be
disclosed at the beginning of the peer-review process.
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a. Editors: An associate editor having COI with a submitted manuscript
must recuse himself from handling the manuscript and request that the manuscript be reassigned. The editor-in-chief having COI with a
submitted manuscript must assign review to one of an associate or guest editor for handling. A manuscript submitted by one of the members
of the board of editors must be assigned to a guest editor.
b. Authors: The senior or corresponding author assumes full responsibility
for supplying the following information on the title page at manuscript submission:
i. For each author, disclosure of any financial
arrangement with any company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or that makes a competing product; or a statement
for each author that there is no conflict to disclose.
ii. A disclosure of all funding sources supporting the work and all institutional
or corporate affiliations.
iii. A list of individuals who provided writing assistance for the manuscript and the source of funds
that supported this assistance.
In addition, at manuscript submission, each author must complete and submit to the editorial office
a standardized form that transfers copyright to the AGA Institute, verifies authorship responsibility, states NIH funding (if any), discloses
all relevant conflicts of interest, and attests that the research protocol was approved by the author's institution and all experimentation
was conducted in conformity with ethical and humane principles of research.
Based on the information provided, the editors will determine
whether COI exists and decide to either a) reject the manuscript or b) publish the manuscript with the COI disclosed.
c. Reviewers:
When invited, reviewers must decline to review a manuscript if a potential COI exists. After review, all reviewers must agree to and
initial one of the following statements, which appear in the journals' manuscript tracking system:
i. I, the undersigned Reviewer,
certify that I have not had an ongoing collaboration, original publication, or grant with the authors within the previous two years,
except in the case of being a part of a multicenter group from a different site, nor am I from the same institution as the authors. I
also certify that I do not have any financial arrangements (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert
testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties) with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with
a company that makes a competing product.
ii. I have listed any potential conflicts on interest in the Comments to Editors field.
If the reviewer discloses a potential COI after the review, the handling associate editor decides if the review should still be
used to judge the manuscript.
C. Sanctions
Should an editor, author, or reviewer fail to disclose a potential
COI and this is discovered after publication, the following sanctions may be applied according to the severity of the infraction.
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a. Editors:
i. A letter of reprimand and warning as to future conduct from the editor, in the case of an associate editor,
or from the Chair of the Publications Committee, in the case of the editor.
ii. Dismissal from the position.
b. Authors:
i. A letter from the editor of explanation and education where there appears to be a genuine misunderstanding of principles.
ii.
A letter from the editor of reprimand and warning as to future conduct.
iii. A letter from the editor to the author's institution
or funding body.
iv. Publication of a notice detailing the author's failure to disclose the COI.
v. Publication of an editorial
detailing the full details of the misconduct.
vi. Refusal to accept future submissions from the author on a sliding scale of one-to-five
years.
vii. Formal retraction or withdrawal of the paper from the scientific literature.
viii. Reporting the case to the Office
of Research Integrity (ORI).
c. Reviewers:
i. A letter from the editor of explanation and education where there appears to
be a genuine misunderstanding of principles.
ii. A letter from the editor of reprimand and warning as to future conduct.
iii.
A letter from the editor to the reviewer's institution.
iv. Refusal to allow the individual to review for the journal on a sliding
scale of one-to-five years.
This policy was developed in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
PLAGIARISM,
DUPLICATE SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION POLICY
A. Definitions
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a. Plagiarism: Unreferenced use of
published and unpublished ideas. It may occur at any stage of planning, research, writing, or publication and applies to print and electronic
versions.
b. Duplicate Submission/Publication: Occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share the same hypothesis,
data, discussion points, or conclusions.
B. Sanctions
Should plagiarism or duplicate submission/publication
be identified, the journal editors will apply the following sanctions according to the severity of the infraction. They will apply sanctions
to individual authors depending on their type of involvement with the article, as provided at the time of submission on the title page.
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a. A letter of explanation from the journal editors to the authors where there appears to be a genuine misunderstanding
of principles.
b. A letter of reprimand from the journal editors as to future conduct.
c. A formal letter from the journal editors
to the author's institution, employer, or funding body.
d. Publication of a notice or editorial in journal.
e. Refusal to accept
submissions from the author for a range of one-to-five years.
f. Formal withdrawal or retraction of paper from the scientific literature.
g. Journal editors report the case to Office of Research Integrity, which promotes integrity in biomedical and behavioral research
supported by the U.S. Public Health Service; monitors institutional investigations of research misconduct; and facilitates the responsible
conduct of research through educational, preventive, and regulatory activities.
This policy was developed in accordance
with the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
(ICMJE).
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) FUNDING
If a manuscript is
accepted for publication and was supported by the NIH, the journal's publisher will automatically deposit the manuscript into PubMed
Central (PMC) in accordance with the mandatory NIH policy on federally funded manuscripts. To facilitate this process, authors of such
manuscripts are asked to provide their NIH grant number on the Copyright Assignment Form under the NIH Funding portion of the form. The
publisher will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript when received. Once deposited, authors will receive an email from the NIH
containing the PMC-formatted article for approval. Articles become available on PMC 12 months after they have been published.
INFORMATION
ABOUT ARTICLE TYPES
Original Articles
Original Articles are full-length reports of original research
and will be considered for either the Clinical Research section or the Basic Research section of the Journal. Articles cover topics relevant
to clinical and basic studies in these areas of interest. They may discuss nutrition, immunology, cell biology, molecular biology, morphology,
physiology, pathophysiology, epidemiology, imaging, or therapy. Both adult and pediatric problems are included. To be published, the
work presented in the manuscript must be original; on occasion, confirmatory studies of timely and important observations will also be
acceptable. In addition, other considerations for evaluating the acceptability of a submitted manuscript include its importance, the
soundness of the experimental design, the validity of the methods, the appropriateness of the conclusions, and the quality of presentation.
Original article submissions to Gastroenterology cannot exceed 6,000 words, including the abstract, figure and table legends, and
references. No more than a combined total of eight figures and/or tables are permitted. Each figure may have up to six panels. Your manuscript
will be returned to you if it does not meet these criteria.
Reviews in Basic and Clinical Gastroenterology
Each issue
of GASTROENTEROLOGY will contain a review article by two or more collaborating authors that is solicited by the board of editors (no
unsolicited reviews will be considered). Each review article will be divided into two sections, Basic and Clinical, with one section
to be overseen by a basic science editor and the other by a clinical editor.
Reviews must not exceed a total of 8,000 words, not
including references, figure legends or table legends. Authors are also required to include a minimum of four to six figures or illustrations
and to work witih GASTROENTEROLOGY's medical illustrator in developing them.
Clinical Challenges and Images in GI
Clinical
Challenges and Images in GI presents a striking clinical image that is meant to challenge and inform readers. The "Clinical Challenge
and Image in GI" is presented as an unknown with the diagnosis hinging on the correct interpretation and integration of the image and
clinical data. The answer is presented on a separate page of the Journal. The section is intended to illustrate and teach important medical
points. If you would like to submit an image for publication in the Journal, please follow the instructions below.
- Images
can be either clinical, pathologic (gross or microscopic), endoscopic, or radiographic. They should be of high quality (300ppi) and illustrate
the diagnosis well.
- The article must include a title that does not reveal the answer to the challenge. This title will be
published should the article be accepted.
- The case should be described in one typed double-spaced page or less. Format should
be as follows: Short pertinent history, physical exam and laboratory findings, and initial clinical course. The image(s) should then
be described with all labeled structures explained in the text.
- The answer should discuss the image findings and the diagnosis
in no more than one double-spaced typed page. The diagnosis and discussion should make an important medical teaching point and include
from one to three pertinent references. Information regarding the specific patient in terms of follow-up and response to therapy should
be given as appropriate.
- No more than three authors are allowed on each submission. Contributors must provide their names,
addresses, phone, and e-mail addresses. Contributors must sign and return the copyright form which assigns copyright to the AGA Institute
and attest that the figure has not been submitted or published elsewhere.
- "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" submissions
must be submitted at www.editorialmanager.com/gastro.
Online-Only Clinical Challenges and Images in GI
Due to a high number of "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" submissions
and the increasing use of video in reports on clinical cases, GASTROENTEROLOGY has developed a new section, "Online-Only Clinical Challenges
and Images in GI," where some accepted images or those that include video clips can be published only online. When an image is accepted
for the online-only image section, authors will receive a decision letter requesting approval to publish their article only online. If
an author does not agree to these terms the article will not be considered further for publication. If authors choose to have their accepted
image published in the "Online-Only Challenges and Images in GI" section, their article will be posted on our website, www.gastrojournal.org, within a few months.
To submit your "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" to GASTROENTEROLOGY, log on to http://www.editorialmanager.com/gastro
. Authors are required to follow the "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" guidelines provided above.
Imaging and Advanced Technology
Imaging and Advanced Technology is written by the section editor or, in some instances, by a guest author. It highlights developments,
both current and anticipated, in translational science and clinical medicine. Examples include, but are not limited to, chromoendoscopy
and detection of aberrant crypt foci, optical imaging and Barrett's esophagus, endoscopy and confocal imaging, nanotechnology, genomics
and discovery of IBD genes, and proteomics.
Correspondence
Correspondence offers opinions on papers published in GASTROENTEROLOGY.
Text should not exceed three pages double-spaced, and no more than 10 references should be included. All letters become the property
of GASTROENTEROLOGY and are subject to editing by the editors. Letters commenting on papers are sent to the authors of those papers for
a response. Letters are selected for their importance, relevance, and originality; not all letters submitted can be published. GASTROENTEROLOGY
will not publish letters commenting on manuscripts for which letters have already been published.
Editorials
Editorials
express opinions on current topics of interest or provide comments on papers published elsewhere in the same issue. Editorials are usually
solicited by the Editor.
This Month in Gastroenterology
This Month in GASTROENTEROLOGY is written by the section editors.
It provides general previews of two clinical articles and two basic articles that appear in the issue and are of particular importance
to the GASTROENTEROLOGY readership.
Selected Summaries
Selected Summaries are concise overviews of articles recently
published in other journals that are of potential interest to GASTROENTEROLOGY readers. Contributors are selected by the section editor.
Unsolicited summaries may be submitted to the Selected Summaries Editor for consideration.
Print and Media Reviews
Print
and Media Reviews are informative analyses of recently published books or other media relevant to clinical practice and research. Reviews
are solicited by the section editor. Unsolicited reviews may be submitted to the Print and Media Reviews Editor for consideration.
Notices
Notices are brief announcements of meetings, seminars, and courses with only essential information given.
Notices received less than 3 months before publication cannot be guaranteed an appropriate publication date.
Mini-Reviews and Perspectives
Mini-Reviews and Perspectives are invited articles that inform the clinical and basic research communities about fields in which there
have been recent and important advances. They focus on one specific aspect of a field, rather than providing a comprehensive literature
survey, and can be controversial, briefly discussing opposing viewpoints.
Meeting Summaries
This section includes brief
reports of symposia, conferences, and meetings in digestive disease research. They include critical commentary, connections among the
presentations, and consensus, if any, that emerged from the meeting. The editors encourage authors of potential meeting summaries to
propose submissions for this section in advance of scheduled meetings. To ensure relevance, summaries must been submitted within two
months after a meeting.
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
Each issue of GASTROENTEROLOGY will contain two to three
continuing medical education exams associated with articles that appear in the issue. AGA members can take the exams online free of charge.
Non-AGA members are required to pay a $15 processing fee. For CME exams that accompany original articles, readers can claim 1.0 AMA PRA
Category 1 credit. For CME exams that accompany AGA Institute medical position statements and technical reviews, readers can claim 2.0
AMA PRA Category 1 credits.
Reviewers of manuscripts can also claim CME credit. After reviewing a manuscript on the Journal's manuscript
tracking system, Editorial Manager, the reviewer will be prompted to claim up to 3.0 AMA PRA Category 1 credits.
SUBMISSION
CHECKLIST
All manuscripts should be double-spaced and should contain the following sections in the order given below:
Cover Letter
GASTROENTEROLOGY strongly encourages authors to suggest two to five referees (include their email address,
phone, and fax numbers) and the Associate Editor they believe best qualified to review their paper. Authors may also list a non-preferred
Associate Editor and non-preferred referees, but the ultimate selection of an Associate Editor and referees is at the sole discretion
of the Editor and Associate Editor, respectively.
State reasons for deviations, if any, from standard format and clarify any potential
conflict related to the exclusive nature of the publication. The cover letter must also categorize the manuscript into one of the four
following groups: Clinical Alimentary Tract, Clinical Liver/Pancreas/Biliary, Basic Alimentary Tract, or Basic Liver/Pancreas/Biliary.
Title Page
Title-Include animal species. Use no abbreviations. Limit: 120 characters with spaces.
Short
Title-Limit: 45 characters.
Authors-Include first names of all authors and name and full location of department and
institution where work was performed.
Grant Support-List grant support and other assistance.
Abbreviations-List
alphabetically abbreviations not mentioned in the Style Guide, which follows the Instructions to Authors. (Note: In general, the use
of abbreviations is discouraged.)
Correspondence-Provide name, complete address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax
number of corresponding author.
Disclosures-All authors must disclose any potential conflicts (financial, professional,
or personal) that are relevant to the manuscript. If the author(s) has nothing to disclose, this must be stated.
Transcript Profiling-Provide
accession number of repository for expression microarray data.
Writing Assistance-The names and funding source for individuals
who provided writing assistance must be listed.
Abstract
Limit: 260 words. Organize according to the following headings: Background & Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and Keywords
Abbreviations must be spelled out
at least once. Do not use footnotes or references.
Authors of clinical research studies should submit a structured abstract
of no more than 250 words organized into the following categories as applicable:
Background & Aims: Describe the importance
of the study and the precise research objective(s) or study question(s).
Methods: Methods should include information on the
following aspects of study design when applicable. The methods section may employ subheadings at the discretion of the author.
- -Design-describe
the basic study design, e.g., randomized controlled trial, cross sectional study, cohort study, case series, survey, etc. Source of all
non-standard reagents need to be explicitly stated.
-Setting-specify whether the study was conducted in a primary or tertiary care
setting, in an ambulatory care clinic or hospital, in the general community, etc.
-Participants-indicate the number of study subjects
and how they were selected, recruited, and assigned to the intervention.
-Intervention-report the method of administration and duration
of the intervention.
Results: Provide the main outcomes of the study including confidence intervals or P values.
Report the absolute values and risk differences so that readers can determine the absolute, as well as the relative, impact of the results.
Conclusions: State only conclusions that are directly supported by the evidence and the implications of the findings.
Keywords
Include 3-4 keywords associated with your manuscript, separated by semicolons (e.g., active vitamin D; parathyroid
hormone-related peptide; hypercalcemia; bone resorption). Should your manuscript be accepted, the keywords will appear with the published
manuscript, making it easier to find in literature search engines such as PubMed.
Video Abstracts
Authors are encouraged
to submit video abstracts with their manuscripts. Discussion points include the motivation for undertaking the study, a brief overview
of methodology, and the highlights of how the results advance the field of digestive disease. The following guidelines apply:
- •
Acceptable file formats: MPEG, MOV, AVI, or GIF
• Length does not exceed 5 minutes
• Sound and picture is clear (ensure
that you capture the video in a quiet and well-lit environment)
• Video is in English
• Author speaks clearly
•
Content is relevant to accepted manuscript
• Content is free of language that is offensive, defamatory, abusive, profane, and
threatening
To submit a video abstract with your manuscript, choose the item type "Video Abstract" on the journal's manuscript
management system, Editorial Manager.
Body of Paper
Describe ethical guidelines followed (for human or animal studies);
cite approval of institutional human research review committee or animal welfare committee; describe in detail hazardous procedures or
chemicals involved, including precautions observed.
Outline statistical methods used.
When describing the results of hypothesis
testing, report P values and/or confidence intervals; avoid using phrases such as "not significant."
Identify drugs and
chemicals used by generic name (if trademarks are mentioned, manufacturer name and city are given).
References
List references
using superscripted Arabic numerals by order of appearance in the text.
Cite personal communications and unpublished data directly in
text without being numbered.
All abbreviations should follow the Index Medicus abbreviations.
Follow GASTROENTEROLOGY
requirements for style:
Article (list 3 authors followed by et al):
13. Meltzer SJ, Ahnen DJ, Battifour H, et al. Protooncogene
abnormalities in colon cancers and adenomatous polyps. Gastroenterology 1987;92:1174-1180.
Book:
18. Day RA. How to
write and publish a scientific paper. Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information, 1979.
Article in Book:
22.
Costa M, Furness JB, Llewellyn-Smith IF. Histochemistry of the enteric nervous system. In: Johnson LR, ed. Physiology of the gastrointestinal
tract. Volume 1. 2nd ed. New York: Raven, 1987:1-40.
Tables
Tables may either be uploaded separately from the manuscript
or embedded in the file that contains your manuscript. Most table editor programs can be placed within the manuscript file successfully.
Tables should be prepared without the use of tabs.
Figures
For additional information regarding journal guidelines
for figure submissions, please see our Frequently Asked Questions
Images: Images can be clinical, pathologic (gross or microscopic), endoscopic, or radiographic. They should be of high quality
(300 ppi or greater, clear, and in good focus) and illustrate the diagnosis well.
Photographs: Photographs of identifiable
patients must be accompanied by written permission to publish from the patient.
Line Art and Graphs: Graphs, charts and other
line art may be reformatted and/or redrawn by our Graphics staff for consistency with the overall style of the AGA Institute journals.
Please be sure that any graphs or line art you submit are at a resolution of at least 300 ppi so that they are readable to reviewers.
Figure Legends: Please do not embed or flatten the text into the image files. Figure legends should be included in the manuscript
body, immediately before the references, or typed and submitted in .doc (Word document) or .rtf (rich text format). This text will be
reformatted in the style of the AGA Institute journals.
Preferred Figure File Formats: The preferred formats for figure files
are tiff (.tif) and jpeg (.jpg). For questions regarding the conversion of other file formats to .jpg or .tif, please view our Figure
Submission FAQ.
Accepted Figure File Formats: Other acceptable file formats include: .bmp, .gif, .pbm, .pcx,
.png, .pct, .msp, .tif, .eps, .xbm, .psd, .ai, .indd, .pdf, and .tga files. When sending image files, please do not embed them in Word.
You may submit mixed file formats (image1.jpg, image2.tif, image3.eps, etc.).
Image File Formats not Supported at this Time:
Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets, ChemDraw, CorelDraw, Canvas, FreeHand, SigmaPlot, QuarkXpress, and
Equation Editor. You may export image files from these programs as PDF, JPEG, or other acceptable file formats. For questions regarding
the conversion of these file formats to our preferred formats, please view our Figure
Submission FAQ.
File Naming Convention: Figures should be named consecutively such as "figure 1.tif," "figure
2.jpg," etc., with the file extension appended (.tif, .jpg, .eps, etc). Each figure should be saved as a separate electronic file.
Color Files: Figures should be submitted in the CMYK color space. Authors are encouraged to present color figures in a manner
that will allow the data to be interpreted by colorblind readers. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology suggests that authors present
dual-labeled images in green and magenta rather than in green and red. See the website of the Jfly data depository for Drosphila researchers
(http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/ ) for more information on how to make figures and presentations intelligible for a
colorblind audience.
Font: If your figures include text, an 8 to 10 point font should be used. Acceptable fonts are "sans
serif" fonts such as Helvetica, Arial, and Myriad. Examples of unacceptable fonts ("serif" fonts) are Times New Roman, Palatino, and
Garamond. Lettering should begin with an upper case letter, followed by lower case lettering.
Multiple Panel Figures: Please
submit each panel (image) separately. However, you may submit a multiple panel version to suggest the order in which you would like the
panels arranged. You may also include a written, suggested layout. Each individual panel should be of the highest possible quality (300
ppi or higher) at actual print size.
Cost: Authors will be required to pay for the printing of color figures ($650
for the first color figure and $100 each for additional figures). If the manuscript is reviewed with color figures, it must be
published with color figures with printing fees paid for by the author. If the author does not wish to pay for printing color figures,
then the figures must be uploaded in grayscale or black-and-white only to allow review of the data as they will ultimately be published
in print. Authors may include color images to be published online only by uploading the color files separately as supplemental files.
Supplemental Material
We encourage you to submit non-essential figures or portions of your manuscript as supplementary
material for online-only publication, as our readership highly values supplementary materials. However, please note that important
methods should be within the body of the text and not provided as supplemental information. Exceptions that may be included in the
supplemental information include tables of primers or antibodies with legends in such tables describing details of the use of such reagents.
Also, authors who offer supplementary information must ensure those materials are readily available upon request.
The portions of
your manuscript that you would like to be included as supplementary material (including figures and tables) should be uploaded separately
from the manuscript as "supporting documents." The supplementary material will not appear in the PDF, though there will be a link to
access the file in the PDF of your submission.
REPORTING CLINICAL TRIALS
Authors
of manuscripts involving clinical trials must provide full registration of their clinical trial(s). A clinical trial is defined as any
research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship
between a medical intervention and a health outcome. The trial must have at least one prospectively assigned concurrent control or comparison
group in order to trigger the requirement for registration.
Gastroenterology has adopted the recommendations put forth by the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For more information on the ICMJE recommendations, please go to http://www.icmje.org
. Appropriate online registries include www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.isrctn.org, www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index.htm, www.actr.org.au,
www.trialregister.nl or any primary registers that participate in the
World Health Organization's International Clinical Trial Platform. The clinical trial registry URL and the clinical trial number must
be included in the body of the manuscript and must be provided in the manuscript management system upon submission.
RANDOMIZED
CONTROLLED TRIALS
Randomized controlled trials should be presented according to the CONSORT guidelines (http://www.consort-statement.org
). At manuscript submission, authors must provide the CONSORT checklist accompanied with a flow diagram that illustrates the progress
of patients through the trial, including recruitment, enrollment, randomization, withdrawal and completion, and a detailed description
of the randomization procedure. The CONSORT checklist and template flow diagram can be found on www.consort-statement.org.
Manuscripts that fail to comply with CONSORT guidelines will not be reviewed for publication.
REPORTING
META-ANALYSES OF GENETIC STUDIES
GASTROENTEROLOGY requires all meta-analyses of genetic studies to follow the Human
Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGENet) guidelines. To review the guidelines, go to http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet/reviews/guidelines.htm
.
DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL DESCRIBED IN PUBLISHED PAPERS
Authors are expected
to make available materials such as cell lines, cDNA clones, hybridomas, antibodies, biological reagents, unique animals, etc. to any
qualified investigator. Prior to the submission of newly cloned genes or nucleic acid sequences, the Journal requires authors to provide
an accession number to a publicly accessible, recognized data repository (e.g. GenBank) on the title page of the manuscript.
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profiling (expression microarray) data must be submitted to an appropriate repository (either NCBI's GEO or EBI's ArrayExpress). The
data should preferably be MIAME compliant (http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAMEMiame.html ). The repository URL and the
data accession number must be included, both in the body of the manuscript, and the manuscript management system, upon submission. The
full dataset must be available to reviewers either via a download link or on a data disk (5 copies).
Other large datasets produced
using genomics technologies (including but not limited to ChIP on Chip, Genotyping, aCGH and Tilling Arrays) must be deposited in an
appropriate public repository. Please include the repository URL and the data accession number, both in the body of the manuscript and the manuscript management system, upon submission. If there is no public repository for the submitted data, it is the author's
responsibility to provide permanent publicly accessible links to the raw data and access for the reviewers.
These guidelines are
a means of encouraging the free exchange of scientific information and to promote progress in all areas of gastroenterological investigation.
MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING AND REVIEW
Submissions. The Editorial Office receives
over 2,000 manuscripts a year. Each new manuscript receives a unique number, and information on the manuscript is recorded on the Editorial
Office computer network. The editorial staff releases information on manuscripts only to authors. The Editorial Office will e-mail a
letter to the corresponding author acknowledging receipt of a manuscript, whether new or a resubmission.
Review process. Each
manuscript is assigned to an Associate Editor who has expertise on the subject of the manuscript. After review by the Associate Editor,
if the manuscript is judged to be appropriate and competitive for publication in GASTROENTEROLOGY, it is sent to experts in the appropriate
area for peer review. The Associate Editor chooses two to three reviewers, who remain anonymous. Authors are encouraged to suggest an
Associate Editor and two to five reviewers in the cover letter, though final assignments are at the discretion of the editor.
Reviewers
provide comments for the editor and for the authors. The Journal expects reviewers to treat manuscripts as confidential communications
and not to use the content for their own purposes or make copies of the manuscripts. Reviewers are also expected to declare to the editor
any possible conflicts of interest.
Decisions. The single most important criterion for acceptance is the originality of the
work. However, a decision to accept a manuscript is not based solely on the scientific validity of its content. Other factors affecting
decisions include the extent and importance of new information in the paper compared with that in other papers being considered, the
Journal's need to represent a wide range of topics, and the overall suitability for GASTROENTEROLOGY. Decision letters usually, but not
always, convey all factors considered for a particular decision. Occasionally, the comments to the authors may appear to be inconsistent
with the editorial decision, which takes into consideration reviewers' comments to the editor, as well as the additional factors listed
above.
Decisions on peer-reviewed papers are e-mailed to the authors an average of three weeks from the date of submission.
PUBLICATION
Accepted manuscripts are sent to the publisher, Elsevier, and are indexed on PubMed soon after acceptance. Within
five to seven business days, they will be uploaded to GASTROENTEROLOGY online (www.gastrojournal.org)
under "Articles in Press" for preprint viewing by subscribers. Once authors have had the opportunity to review proofs of their manuscripts,
these author-corrected proofs will replace the uncorrected proofs, followed by the final articles on PubMed.
Manuscripts are copyedited
to make them consistent with Journal style; if a particular section in the manuscript is not clear or requires additional information,
the copy editor will direct questions to the author. These questions, or "author queries," will appear in the margins of the proofs that
are sent to the author. All abstracts and titles will be reviewed and possibly modified by the Journal's science editor. Authors can
review changes at the Accept with Revision stage of their manuscripts. All line art will be reviewed and possibly modified by the Journal's
graphics staff. Authors can review changes at the proof stage of their manuscripts.
The time between acceptance and print publication
is approximately three months. The corresponding author can expect proofs of the article approximately two months after acceptance. Authors
receive proofs for the primary purpose of checking the accuracy of the typesetting; authors are not to revise or rewrite their articles
at this stage. If after acceptance of their paper, authors become aware of important information they believe should be added to their
manuscript, they should contact the editor of GASTROENTEROLOGY.
Authors are required to return proofs to the publisher within 48
hours. If changes are not returned within 48 hours, the manuscript will move forward in the production process.
Reprints.
Forms for ordering article reprints will be sent with proofs to authors and should be returned with the corrected proofs. Authors do
not receive free reprints, and therefore are responsible for ordering their own reprints (minimum order, 100) from the publisher.
CONTACT INFORMATION
The address for correspondence is: Anil K. Rustgi, MD, Editor,
GASTROENTEROLOGY, AGA, 4930 Del Ray Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-3015; e-mail: gastro@gastro.org; tel: 301-654-2055,
ext 681; fax: 301-654-1140
Updated October 2009
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