| | The International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics
(IJROBP), known in the field as the Red Journal, publishes
original laboratory
and clinical investigations related to radiation oncology, radiation
biology, and medical physics. Original contributions
by leading
scientists and researchers include experimental studies of combined modality
treatment and relevant innovations in tumor sensitization,
especially
at the molecular level, normal tissue protection, including both
precision avoidance and biochemical means, brachytherapy,
particle irradiation,
and tumor imaging. Technical advances related to dosimetry
and conformal radiation treatment planning are also
included.
James D. Cox, M.D., serves as the journal's Editor-in-Chief. He can
be contacted at International Journal of Radiation
Oncology * Biology * Physics, Department of Scientific Publications, Unit 1202, 1515 Holcombe
Blvd., Houston, TX 77030; phone: (713)
792-6014; fax: (713)
794-1120; e-mail: ijrobp@mdanderson.org.
The IJROBP can be accessed online at its Web site, www.redjournal.org. Journal submissions and reviews:  http://ees.elsevier.com/rob/.
Electronic Submissions and Correspondence
The IJROBP accepts submissions and correspondence electronically,
and the Web-based system enables authors to track their
submissions
online. The entire review process and all written correspondence are
also handled through this system. Author and reviewer
tutorials are provided
online, and 24-hour phone and e-mail help is available.
Authors must register on the Website with their e-mail
address and
other information to receive a password. Those who have previously reviewed
a manuscript for the IJROBP may already
be registered. Specific
instructions for accessing and using the system can be found at www.redjournal.org.
(Select the Submissions & Reviews button). Once the
submission files are uploaded, the system automatically generates an
electronic
(PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence,
including editor decisions and requests for revisions, are by
e-mail.
Journal Policies
Human and Animal Experimentation. When reporting on human subjects,
please indicate in the text whether
the procedures followed were in
accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on
human experimentation (institutional
or regional) and with the Helsinki
Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Patient anonymity must be ensured
at all times; do not use
patient names, initials, hospital numbers, or
other identification in the manuscript, tables, or figures. In clinical photographs,
identities
of patients should be masked or otherwise cropped.
Written consent forms from patients must accompany all photographs
in which there
is any possibility of identification of the patient. When reporting
experiments on animals, please also indicate in the text that you
followed the institution's or a national research council's guide for, or
a national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals.
Conditions of Publication. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts
submitted to the IJROBP have not already
been published and
will not be submitted simultaneously or published elsewhere. All manuscripts
submitted to the IJROBP are
subject to peer review, and only
those that are of the highest scientific quality are accepted for publication.
Copyright Transfer.
Authors are required to sign a copyright transfer
form, which will accompany page proofs of the article. For details on
copyright policy,
please refer to Copyright Information at http://www.elsevier.com/authors.
Conflict of Interest Policy. The IJROBP
adheres to the policy on conflict
of interest promulgated by the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors, which states, in
part, that "to prevent ambiguity, authors
must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist." (See
Conflict of Interest
Notification.) The complete policy can be accessed at
the following Web site: www.icmje.org.
Authorship. According to the "Uniform Requirements" (see Journal
Style and Guidelines), all persons designated as authors should
qualify
for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the
work to take public responsibility for its content.
Authorship credit
should be based only on substantial contributions to (1) conception
and design, or analysis and interpretation
of data, and to (2) drafting
the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and
to (3) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions 1-3 must
all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition
of funding or the collection
of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research
group does not justify authorship.
Any part of an article critical
to its main conclusions must be the responsibility of at least one author.
In the case of corporate
authorship, all members of the group must
meet all criteria to justify authorship and inclusion in the byline. Those
who do not meet
these criteria should be listed (with their permission) in
an Acknowledgments section.
The order of authorship must be agreed to by
all co-authors before the
manuscript is submitted for consideration. Any changes in authorship
after submission of a manuscript must
be explained in a letter to the
Editor-in-Chief that is signed by all co-authors to indicate their consent
to the change. These
changes include the deletion and addition of
authors as well as any change in the order of authors. Changes can be
expected to delay
publication.
Permissions. Written permission must be obtained by authors and submitted
with the manuscript for the following:
- permission of the publisher and/or copyright holder to reprint in theIJROBP any material that has been previously
published, including
figures, tables, and quotations; quotations must be accurate and
fully credited.
- permission for the use
of personal communication and/or unpublished
data; such communication must include the name, degrees
of the person(s) with whom the author
has communicated or obtained
the data, and the month and year in which the information
was obtained.
- written consent forms
from patients for all photographs in which
there is any possibility of identifying the patient.
Permissions letters and
forms must be uploaded separately from the
manuscript and mentioned in the cover letter.
Online Publication. Articles that
have been accepted for publication,
set into page proof, and corrected by authors and editors are posted online
before print publication
under the "Articles in Press" section of theIJROBP's Web site, www.redjournal.org.
Journal Style and Guidelines
In addition to this Instructions to Authors, the IJROBP relies on the
"Uniform Requirements
for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
Journals," ( http://www.icmje.org/) and the American Medical Association
Manual
of Style, 9th ed.
Types of Manuscripts
Rapid Communication. Rapid communication manuscripts have been discontinued.
Editorials. Editorials are brief commentary, analysis, or opinion pieces
about a published article or other topic of special
interest. Both solicited
and unsolicited editorials undergo review and should not exceed 1,500
words and 10 references.
Critical
Reviews. Critical reviews are contributions from experts in the
field and are solicited by or on behalf of the journal s Editor-in-Chief
or
Senior Editor for Critical Reviews. Before a critical review article is initiated,
potential authors will be expected to complete
and submit a financial
disclosure. Authors with interest or questions regarding critical
reviews should write to Lynn D. Wilson, M.D.,
M.P.H. (Senior Editor,
Critical Reviews): Lynn.Wilson@yale.edu. Critical Review articles are limited to 6,500 words including
references.
Correspondence. Letters to the editor must be brief and concise. Those
with comments on a particular article should
be submitted within 2
months of publication of the article; authors whose articles are being
commented on are given the opportunity to
reply and should do so
within 2 months of the request. Letters must be limited to no more
than 400 words and 10 references. Correspondence
is reviewed by the
Editor-in-Chief for possible inclusion in the journal. Letters and replies
must be submitted electronically using
the online system.
Book Reviews. Reviews of recently released books of interest to the
journal's readers are published on a
limited basis and must not exceed
700 words. Submissions should be made electronically using the online
system under the category "Book
Review." Queries and review copies
of books should be sent directly to the book review editor, David S.
Shimm, M.D., who will consider
them for publication: dshimm@aol.com. or Raleigh Regional Cancer Center, 275 Dry Hill Road, Beckley,
WV 25801.
Scientific
Articles. The journal publishes scientific articles describing
original laboratory and clinical investigations related to radiation
oncology,
radiation biology, and medical physics. Submissions are thoroughly
reviewed for scientific originality, significance, relevance,
and
priority, and the topics must be of broad interest to the journal's readers.
Only high-priority manuscripts that report cutting-edge
science and that
promise to have a strong impact on clinical practice are accepted. Articles must not exceed 5,000 words.
Controversy
Articles. This section is devoted to an exchange on controversial topics that are of a higher profile than can be adequately dealt
with in the Letters to the Editor section. The Editor-in-Chief, in conjunction with the Senior Editors, identifies topics that qualify
for the feature. The section is accompanied by a commentary that introduces and explains the controversy.
Style for Scientific
Articles
All material submitted to the journal must be typed double-spaced. Each
page of a manuscript (except the title page,
which is page 1) should be
identified with the first author's last name and the page number in the top
right-hand corner. This format
should be used throughout the text, references,
figure legends, and tables.
The text should have clearly marked levels of headers
and follow the
standard format of Abstract, Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results,
and Discussion. The manuscript should be organized
in the following
sequence: title page, abstract, key words, text, references, and
legends.
Manuscript Format
Text and
tables must be submitted in Word format.
Figures and tables must be in separate files. (See Figures and
Tables sections.) Only standard
abbreviations and acronyms should be
used, and each one should be defined at its first use in the text.
Manuscripts must be thoroughly
edited by an English language medical
editor to be acceptable for publication.
Parts of a Scientific Article
Title Page.
The title page should include a concise but informative title;
a complete byline (see Authorship), including each author's full name
and highest earned academic degree(s); each author's complete affiliation(
s), including department(s), institution(s), city, state,
and country;
the name and complete mailing address, phone number, fax number,
and e-mail address of the corresponding author (to whom
all correspondence
and reprint requests will be directed); and a shortened running title.
Acknowledgment of grant or other financial
support, meeting
presentation, conflict of interest, or assistance with manuscript preparation
or data collection can be included here
or in an Acknowledgments
section.
Conflict of Interest Notification. On the page that follows the title page
under the heading
"Conflicts of Interest Notification," please state explicitly
whether any actual or potential conflicts of interest do or do
not exist. Provide additional detail, as necessary, in the accompanying
cover letter.
Abstract. The Abstract should have
no more than 300 words and should
be structured using the following subheadings: Purpose, Methods and
Materials, Results, and Conclusions.
These subheadings should not be used in abstracts for Critical Review articles; abstracs for Critical Reviews should just summarize the
content of the article. The Abstract should reflect the content of the article
and include the purpose of the study, the experimental
design, the
most important results, and an interpretation of the data, including the
conclusion and any implications derived from the
results.
Key Words. After the Abstract, provide five specific key words for
indexing.
Introduction. The Introduction
section should include the background
and rationale for the study, a clear purpose or hypothesis statement, and
a brief description of
the experimental design.
Methods and Materials. The Methods and Materials section should describe
the materials used and the
experimental and statistical methods.
Previously described methods should not be included, only cited, with
significant modifications
stated. Clinical studies should be identified
as retrospective or prospective. Methods should not be included in the
Results section
or figure legends.
Results. The Results section should describe only the most important
results of the study and include as
little discussion as possible. Measures
of statistical significance must be clearly indicated, and tables and figures
should be cited
in numerical order.
Discussion. The Discussion section should begin with a statement of the
conclusions based on the study's
findings and include an interpretation
of the results in the context of other published studies. The study's limitations
and implications
should also be stated. The conclusions can be
included in this section or presented separately under the heading "Conclusions."
They
should be clearly tied to the purpose of the study. Background
information, methods, and results should not be repeated in
detail in
the Discussion.
References. The reference list must be typed double-spaced. References
must be cited and numbered in consecutive
numerical order as they first
appear in the text and should be listed in consecutive numerical (not alphabetical)
order in the
References section. All bibliographic information
must be complete and accurate. The author is responsible for the
accuracy of all references.
The following reference style must be
used, and the author should also refer to the "Uniform Requirements"
and the American Medical
Association Manual of Style for other examples
and conventions.
Journal references should be given in the following order: author(s)
surnames and initials, that is, the names of the first three authors followed
by et al.; article title (with
subtitle if any),
journal abbreviation in italics, year, volume number, part
or supplement number, and inclusive page numbers. If the paper has
been seen
only in abstract form, this should be indicated at the end of
the original reference by the addition of the word [Abstract]. Likewise,
if the reference is to a volume with a supplement, the supplement number
with the abbreviation [Suppl.] should be included. References
to
books must include the names of the authors, title, edition number,
city of publication, publisher, and year. References to chapters
in books
must include the names of the editors and the chapter title after the
name(s) of the author(s) and the book title. Examples
of references using
the AMA numbered style follow:
- Davis JT, Allen HD, Powers JD, et al. Population requirements
for
capitation planning in pediatric cardiac surgery. Arch Pediatr
Adolesc Med 1996;150:257-259.
- Champlin RER, Feig SA,
Ho WG, et al. Bone marrow transplantation
for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in remission: Importance
of extramedullary involvement
[Abstract]. Blood 1982;60 (Suppl.
1):165a.
- Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for
nurses.
2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
- Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH,
Brenner BM,
editors. Hypertension: Pathophysiology, diagnosis,
andmanagement. 2nd ed.NewYork:RavenPress; 1995. p. 465-478.
Figures.
Each figure should be placed in a separate file and uploaded individually at submission. Please make sure that each figure is properly
identified in the file. Figures should be consecutively numbered (1, 2, 3, etc.) as they
appear in the text and must be accompanied by
legends (See Figure Legends.).
The author should include figures that enhance,
not duplicate, textual information. Four-color figures
may be submitted,
but the author must assume all costs for separation and printing. Color figures are printed free of charge
in the online
version of articles. Lettering should be uniform and large
enough to be easily read when reduced for publication. Patient anonymity
must
be ensured at all times; do not use patient names, initials, hospital
numbers, or other identification in the figures or legends. In
clinical photographs,
identities of patients should be masked or otherwise cropped.
Written consent forms from patients must accompany
all photographs
in which there is any possibility of identifying the patient. Unsuitable figures
will be returned to the author for correction
or substitution.
Previously published figures must be accompanied by written permission to reprint from the publisher and authors,
with sources cited in the text.
Figures should be supplied in TIF or EPS format. All photographic images should be submitted at
300 dpi; all line art images should be submitted at 800 to 1,200 dpi. BMP, JPEG, and GIF file formats are unacceptable for publication,
as are figures embedded in the manuscript document.
For further details in the preparation of artwork and the types of files
that
are acceptable for publication, please go to www.elsevier.com/locate/artwork.
Figure Legends. Complete, explanatory, and descriptive legends must
be provided for all figures. The legends must correspond
to the consecutively
numbered figures and be typed double-spaced after the References
section inside the manuscript document. All abbreviations
or other letter designations used in
a figure must be defined in the legend for that figure. Magnification
and staining materials should
be indicated. Acknowledgment of previously
published material should be given in the legend, and the source
should be included in the
References section. (See Permissions.)
Tables. Tables should be placed in one separate file for uploading at submission, preferably
in a Word document. Tables should be typed double-spaced on separate pages, and numbered consecutively, as well as cited in the text
in numerical order. Each table number (1, 2, 3, etc.) should be followed by a brief, specific title. Table titles should be placed above
each of their respective tables. The data should be self-explanatory and should supplement, not duplicate, the text. Previously published
tables must be accompanied by written permission to reprint from the publisher and authors, with sources cited in the text. Acknowledgments
to
previously published material should be given in a footnote to the table,
and the source should be included in the References section.
(See Permissions.)
All abbreviations used in the table must be defined in the footnotes.
Footnotes should be ordered as they first appear
in the table with
the following standard symbols: ) *(asterisk), † (dagger), †† (double dagger),§ (section
mark), || (parallel mark), ¶ (paragraph symbol), and #
(number sign).
Supplementary Material. Authors are welcome to
submit supplementary material and appendices at the time of e-submission. However, the Editor-in-Chief will determine whether the material
is relevant enough to the content of the manuscript that it should be published with the manuscript. If not, the author will be told
that the material will be posted on the Journal's website and a footnote will be added to the opening page of the article indicating
that "Supplementary material or appendices for this article can be found at www.redjournal.org."
It is recommended that authors indicate this Web site in the text where the material is cited and number the material as Table e1 or
Figure e1, etc. Appendices should be numbered Appendix eI or eII, etc. While supplementary material and appendices will be reviewed,
it will not be typeset or edited by the publisher.
Updated January 2010
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