AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

SUBMISSION ONLINE

All manuscripts must be submitted online to the submission system at http://hrjournal.net/login. First-time users are required to register at this site; registrations are free. Registered authors can track their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password. If you experience any problems, please e-mail the editorial office at editorialoffice@hrjournal.net.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Cover letter

A cover letter provided by authors should include the following:

1. Summary

Summarize the important points of your manuscript, including a brief description and the highlights of your study.

2. Original statement

Make clear that your manuscript is an original study that has not been previously submitted to or accepted by any other journal, that it has been approved by all the authors, that ethics approval has been obtained, that written informed consent has been obtained from participating subjects in the case of research involving humans, and that each author believes that the work reported in the manuscript has been carried out and reported honestly and with integrity.

The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author who is responsible for communicating with the other authors concerning revisions and final approval of the proofs should be listed, if the statement is not included in the cover letter.

3. Authors’ contributions details

Please indicate the contributions made by each author at the end of manuscript. Contributions should be categorized as follows, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review.

Authors’ contributions will be printed along with the article. One or more ‘lead authors’ (usually the corresponding author) with primary responsibility for the work should be identified.

Manuscript preparation

1. Types of manuscripts

We consider the following article types:

TypesWord countContentNo. of references Original Article> 3000Original Articles include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic testing, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, casecontrol series, and surveys with high response rate. > 20Review> 5000Review articles that summarize the current state of understanding of a topic.> 50Case Report> 1000Case Reports should detail new, interesting, or unusual cases. These cases will very often be unique, describing a diagnostic or therapeutic challenge, and will always present a new perspective to readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. > 10Editorial> 1000Editorials are nearly always solicited, although unsolicited editorials may occasionally be considered. > 10Letter to Editor> 500Letters to Editor include the contents and references.> 5Commentary> 1000Commentaries are always solicited by the editors. These manuscripts should include relevant background information, comments on the paper, areas that need further investigation, and future directions. The relevant manuscript should be included in the reference list. > 5

The word count excludes the abstract, figures, tables, and references.

2. General format of manuscripts

The manuscript should be written in concise English, and should generally be organized as follows:

Title

Please provide a concise and specific title (no more than 12 notional words) that clearly reflects the manuscript’s content. And a running title (3-6 words) should also be provided in a manuscript.

Authors and affiliation

? All authors who played significant roles in the research should be listed in the manuscript.

? Include all authors’ full names. Once accepted, authors cannot be added or deleted, and the order cannot be changed without the written consent of all authors.

? Provide full affiliation information (complete name of the department, institution, city, postcode, province/state, and country) for all authors.

? Indicate a single corresponding author. The name, title, institution, address, telephone number, and e-mail of the corresponding author should be given, to ensure prompt communication.

? The abstracts of original articles (maximum 200 words) should be structured under four separate headings (Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion).

? Reviews and Case Reports should generally have unstructured abstracts (200 and 100 words, respectively).

? Editorial, Commentary and Letter to Editor which manuscripts do not require an abstract.

? The first person (I, we) and citations should not be used in the abstract. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and defined at their first use.

Authors should supply 3-8 relevant key words that describe the subject of their research, in order to improve its visibility.

Introduction

The information in this section should always be referenced. It should indicate the broad context and should include a brief review of the key literature related to the study.

Methods

The Methods should provide enough detail for the research to be reproduced elsewhere; protocols for new methods should be included, but well-established methodological procedures may simply be referenced. Full details of methods used should be included in the manuscript rather than in a supplementary file. If methods used are as per a published paper, the corresponding reference should be cited in the Methods section.

Ethics and Patient consent

A statement on ethics committee permission and patient consent must be included in the Methods section (If the experiment involves the relevant content, please see 5. Ethics approval and 6. Patient consent, below).

Selection and description of participants

Selection of observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) should be clearly described, including also eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the sources.

Technical information

? Identify the methods, apparatus (list manufacturers’ names and locations in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results.

? Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations.

? Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

? Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, interventions (e.g. methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding).

Statistics

? Quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals) whenever possible.

? Authors should report losses to observation (e.g. dropouts from a clinical trial).

? Specify the statistical methods used to analyze data that are summarized in the “Results” section.

? Avoid non-technical use of technical terms in statistics, such as “random” (which implies a randomizing device), “normal”,“significant”, “correlations”, and “sample”.

? Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and all symbols used.

? Specify the computer software used. Use upper-case italics to denote P values (i.e. P < 0.048).

? For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001.

? Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables, and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results

All the results, including those in all figures and tables, should be analyzed and explained precisely. In addition, this section should also include all primary and secondary outcome measures analyzed. The Results section should be written in past tense.

Discussion

The discussion should be concise and tightly worded. It should include paragraphs on the generalizability, clinical relevance, strengths, and limitations of your study. And the main findings of your study should be summarized in the discussion section.

Acknowledgments (Optional)

This section should acknowledge anyone who contributed to the research or writing of the article but who does not qualify as an author. One or more of the following categories may apply:

? Contributions that should be acknowledged but that do not justify authorship, such as general support from a departmental head.

? Acknowledgments of technical help.

? Acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support.

Conflicts of interest

A conflicts of interest statement is required for each author/contributor. Please provide a statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest. Further, all authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with: publication of the manuscript, an institution or product that is mentioned, and/or its importance to the study outcome. Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Financial support and sponsorship (Optional)

? Please state who funded the work, whether it is your employer, a funding agency, a grant etc.

? Please do not list funding that is not relevant to the specific study being submitted.

? For each funder, please state the funder name, grant number (where applicable), and the individual to whom the grant was awarded.

? References should be consecutively numbered in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not alphabetic order).

? Identify references in the text, tables, and legends with superscript Arabic numerals in square brackets after the punctuation marks.

? References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identi fication in the text referencing that table or figure.

? There should be no more than 5 continuous references cited in one position (e.g. [1-6] should be avoided).

? All authors’ names should be listed in the references (do not use et al.).

? Avoid using abstracts as references.

? Journal names should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus.

? Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source.

? Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.

The commonly cited types of references are shown here; for other types of references, please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

Standard journal articles (list all authors)Parija SC, Ravinder PT, Shariff M. Detection of hydatid antigen in the fluid samples from hydatid cysts by co-agglutination. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1996;90:255-6.Both personal authors and organization as authorVallancien G, Emberton M, Harving N, van Moorselaar RJ; Alf-One Study Group. Sexual dysfunction in 1,274 European men suffering from lower urinary tract symptoms. J Urol 2003;169:2257-61.Chapter in a bookMeltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.Article not in EnglishZhang X, Xiong H, Ji TY, Zhang YH, Wang Y. Case report of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis in child. J Appl Clin Pediatr 2012;27:1903-7. (in Chinese)BooksSherlock S, Dooley J. Diseases of the liver and billiary system. 9th ed.Oxford: Blackwell Sci Pub; 1993. p. 258-96.

3. Formats of tables and figures

Tables

? All tables should be consecutively cited at the relevant place in the text.

? Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.

? Tables cannot have more than 10 columns and 25 rows.

? Consecutively number tables with Arabic numerals in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.

? Place explanatory matter in footnotes rather than in the heading.

? Explain all non-standard abbreviations in the footnotes.

? Obtain permissions for all tables that are reproduced in full, and for adapted and modified tables, and acknowledge the source and the permission in the footnote.

? The footnotes should use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, ?, ?, §, ||,?, **, ??, ??.

? Tables with their legends should be provided at the end of the text, after the references.

? Please provide tables as editable text rather than in image format.

Figures

? Upload images in JPEG/TIF format. The file size should be no more than 10 MB. (Histograms, line graphs and flow charts are suggested in an editable format).

? Figures should be consecutively numbered according to the order in which they were first cited in the text.

? Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and uniformly sized. Figure lettering should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.

? Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be neatly marked with transfer type or tissue overlay (not by pen).

? Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends rather than on the illustrations themselves.

? When graphs, scattergrams, or histograms are submitted, the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.

? Photographs and figures should be cropped to remove irrelevant background areas.

? If photographs of individuals are to be used, they must be accompanied by written permission from the concerned individual(s).

? If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.

? Final figures for print production: When submitting the revised manuscripts, send sharp, glossy, unmounted color photographs with a maximum height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches. Print-outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. If digital images are the only source, ensure that the image has a minimum resolution of 500 dpi or 1800 × 1600 pixels. Send the images on a CD. Each figure should have a label pasted (avoid using liquid gum) on the back indicating the number of the figure, its running title, the top of the figure, and the figure legend. Do not write the name(s) of the contributor(s). Do not write on the back of figures or scratch/mark them by using paper clips.

? The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge images to an acceptable size.

Illustration legends

Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding any credit line) for illustrations, using double spacing and with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. Symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters used to identify parts of the illustrations must be identified and explained in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the staining method in photomicrographs. Illustration legends should be included at the end of the article file.

4. Multimedia files guidelines

Multimedia files comprising video or audio materials can provide an efficient and visual means to introduce authors’ ideas and research achievements to readers. To attract readers, authors are encouraged to supply video or audio materials with their manuscripts.

Please prepare your video or audio materials according to the following guidelines:

? Introduce the research background and the topic of the paper, and highlight the innovative aspects of your research, such as novel methods, important or breakthrough results, and the impact of your article in your research field.

? The duration of the video or audio files should be limited to 3 min.

? The presentation and introduction should be easy to understand.

? The content should be displayed using animations and pictures as far as possible.

? Videos or audio files are only accepted in English.

? The frames should be clear, and the speech speed should be moderate.

? Supply a brief overview of the video or audio files in your cover letter.

? Upload the videos in .mp4, .wmv, or .rm format (preferred over .mp4) and audio files in .mp3 or .wav format.

? The file size should be limited to 500 MB.

? Please use professional software to produce high-quality video files, to facilitate acceptance and publication along with the submitted article.

? The video or audio files will be published on the website (if the author’s article is accepted); hence, please check them carefully prior to submission.

5. Ethics approval

? For some specific studies, authors must indicate 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 when reporting studies on human beings.

? With respect to prospective studies involving human participants, authors are also expected to cite approval from aregional/national/institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, regarding obtaining informed consent from adult participants and obtaining assent from children aged over 7 years participating in the trial.

? The age above which assent is required varies with regional and/or national guidelines and should be verified.

? Ensure confidentiality of subjects by avoiding mentioning participants’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material (e.g. X-ray or other imaging films/clips/slides).

? For studies involving animals, authors should indicate whether an institution’s or a national research council’s guide, such as the guidelines issued by the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals, was followed.

? Evidence of approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand.

? Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible, and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated.

? The journal will not accept or publish any paper that is ethically unsound. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all original articles under the “Methods” section.

6. Patient consent

? Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, computed tomography scans, or pedigrees, unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian when applicable) provides written informed consent for publication.

? Authors should remove patients’ names from figures unless they have obtained written informed consent. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article, and a copy of the consent should be attached upon manuscript submission.

7. Other article types

Review

Review articles generally have section titles that depend upon the topic being reviewed. The article should include Title, Authors and affiliations, Abstract (unstructured, 200 words), Introduction, the main content (with appropriate headings), Conflicts of interest, Acknowledgments, and References. There should be a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data (these methods should also be summarized in the abstract).

Case Report

Headings in the main text of a Case Report should include Introduction, Case report, and Discussion. An unstructured abstract (100 words) is required.

Editorial

Editorials are nearly always solicited, although unsolicited editorials may occasionally be considered. No abstract is needed.

Letter to Editor

A Letter to Editor includes the contents and references. No abstract is needed.

Commentary

Commentary should include some relevant background information, comments on the paper, areas that need further investigation, and future directions. No abstract is needed. Authors should note that the manuscript you are commenting on should be included in the references.

Supplementary information (optional)

All supplementary information must be uploaded as a separate file either in .doc/.docx format. Further, the file should be clearly labeled with the manuscript title and author list.

Designate each item as either Supplementary Table, Figure, Video, or Note. Each type of supplementary information should be continuously numbered (for example, Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Figure 2, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Table 2, and so on).

Submission checklist

The revised version of a manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for the initial submission. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include the referees’ remarks along with point-bypoint responses; these should be placed together at the beginning of the revised file, immediately ahead of the revised article. In addition, contributors are expected to mark as underlined or colored text the revisions that they have made to their article.

1. The type of manuscript and word count should conform to the corresponding instructions for that manuscript type.

2. The author details should be checked for all authors, to ensure that all the information provided is correct and is suitable for publication.

3. The main text of the article from the Abstract through the References (including tables) should be in this file. Use .docx/. doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 4 MB. Do not incorporate images. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted separately to reduce the size of the article file.

4. The formats, size, and definition of images and tables should be checked carefully. Tables in the manuscript should be in editable format, rather than as images. For images/figures, PowerPoint presentations, and additional material, the maximum file upload size is 10 MB.

5. Legends to the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

6. References: Check the order, number, and formats of the references carefully.

7. Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (registry name of the registry and its URL).

8. If the manuscript was presented as a contribution to a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read should be indicated.

Submitting a revised manuscript

The revised version of a manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for the initial submission. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include the referees’ remarks along with point-by-point responses; these should be placed together at the beginning of the revised file, immediately ahead of the revised article. In addition, contributors are expected to mark as underlined or colored text the revisions that they have made to their article.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION

Manuscript charges

From March 1, 2017, all manuscripts submitted to Hepatoma Research. are assumed to be submitted under the Open Access publishing model. Under this publishing model, when a paper is accepted for publication, authors are required to pay an Article Processing Charges. There is no submission charge as such, but only the publication processing fee after the paper is accepted for publication. There are no additional charges based on color, length, figures, or other elements. Payment of this charge allows Hepatoma Research to recover its editorial and production costs.

The publication fee details as follows:

Journal TitleArticle Processing Charges (USD)Hepatoma Research$299

The following special discounts are offered to authors and editorial board members:

? Editorial Board Members of Hepatoma Research are allowed TWO free publications annually. Subsequent submissions from Editorial Board Members are published at 50% discount of the standard publication fee.

? Hepatoma Research provides an automatic waiver of Article Processing Charges to high quality research articles or reviews.

Publication schedule

Based on monthly publishing frequency, the journal immediately publishes articles on its website upon acceptance and follows a “continuous publication” schedule.

Reporting guidelines

Reporting guidelines have been developed for different study designs; examples include CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy.

Publishing ethics

The journal strictly follows the publication guidelines of The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For detailed information, please click Publishing Ethics.

Editorial policies

Authors are advised to learn about and comply with our Editorial policies; please see Editorial Policies.

Copyrights

? The full contents of the Hepatoma Research are protected under USA copyright. Authors need to submit a completed assignment of copyright form to transfer the copyright to the Hepatoma Research upon manuscript acceptance. The journal will publish the manuscripts under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, modify, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under identical terms.

? The original contributors’/copyright transfer form (template provided below) with the signatures of all the contributors must be submitted within 2 weeks of submission via courier, fax, or e-mail (scanned image). Hard copies of the images or digital images should be sent to the journal office at the time the revised manuscript is submitted. High-resolution images (up to 5 MB each) can be sent by email. The contributors’ form/copyright transfer form can be submitted online from the authors’ site at http://hrjournal.net/login.