Submission guidelines
Submit manuscript
Please read the guidelines in full before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
The Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the author responsibilities section on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with our Editorial Policies and our Publication Ethics Policies.
Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions and peer review from a diverse range of authors and reviewers from across all countries and backgrounds. Read our diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge.
All manuscripts submitted to Antioxidants & Redox Signaling will be assessed the following mandatory Publishing Services Fees:
Page Charges (assessed upon acceptance): $90/page
Please read the guidelines below then submit your manuscript here.
Access: Subscription
APC: See article processing charge information below
Accepts preprints? Yes
Identity transparency: Single anonymized
All manuscripts submitted to Antioxidants & Redox Signaling will be assessed the following mandatory Publishing Services Fees:
Page Charges (assessed upon acceptance): $90/page
Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. If you wish to have color figures in the printed version, the following fees apply: $800 for first image in print; $200 for subsequent color print images.
Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Open Access agreement eligibility is determined by the corresponding author’s affiliation matching an agreement at acceptance. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access.
For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
Open access fees do not cover page or color charges and are charged separately.
Your article must be within the scope of the journal and be of sufficient quality. If not, it will not be reviewed. Please read the journal’s Aims and Scope to see if your article is appropriate.
The manuscript must be your original work, you must have the rights to the work, and you must have obtained and be able to supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, including figures, illustrations, tables, lengthy quotations, or other material previously published elsewhere.
Article types
Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts.
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Original Research Communications |
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Review Articles |
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Comprehensive Invited Reviews |
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Forum Original Research Communications |
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Forum Review Articles |
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Forum Editorials |
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Redox Pioneers |
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News & Views |
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Letters to the Editor |
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Word limits do NOT pertain to the abstract, disclosure statements, author contribution statements, funding information, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, or references.
Description of Manuscript Types
Original Research
Maximum word count for original research communications should not exceed 6,000 words (excluding Materials and Methods). In general, the text should be organized under the headings: Introduction, Results, Discussion, Innovation, and Materials and Methods. Each section should begin on a new page. The Innovation section, which is required, should appear after the Discussion. It cannot exceed 100 words and cannot be diffused. In a sentence or two it must summarize the current state of the field and then cite specific results reported to explain how this work helps to substantially advance the field. If the work has clinical significance, please be sure to highlight that. Do not regurgitate findings. This section must include a simplified summary graphic illustration (Fig. 1 in all submissions) in this section to highlight major advances. This illustration must be brief and simple intended to communicate the core message to readers outside the specific area of expertise. Highlight key advances.
Detailed Methodology and specific catalog number and source of reagents must be included. A brief description of the methodology is not acceptable. Clearly indicate whether data are recorded in electronic laboratory notebook and if so in which platform. Manuscripts should be written succinctly, conform to accepted standards of English style and usage, and cite select references that are directly relevant. Methods-related submissions must include a video supplement demonstrating the key steps.
Illustrations: Continuous data cannot be presented as bar and line graphs. Bar and line graphs must show scatter plot revealing each data point. Box plots and histograms are encouraged.
Number pages (bottom-center) consecutively; the first author’s last name should appear on each page. The source of cells utilized (species, sex, strain, race, age of donor, whether primary or established) should be clearly indicated. The source of reagents should be stated (name, city, state, and catalog number within parentheses) when first cited. Publication of results is based on the principle that results must be verifiable. Authors must accept to make unique reagents available to qualified investigators either directly or through a recognized distributor.
Comprehensive Invited Review
If you are an authoritative expert (senior investigator with long standing and extensive publication record) in a field relevant to the Journal and are interested in contributing a Comprehensive Invited Review article on a topic of general interest, please write to the Editor-in-Chief. These articles are intended to be full-length critical appraisals of topics that would be of long-term archival value. Textbook-style coverage is strongly discouraged. Emphasis should be placed on late-breaking advances and critical treatment. ARS dedicates a substantial amount of space to these articles. Page charges are waived. To ensure balanced treatment of any given subject, these articles are typically reviewed by 6–10 experts in that field. These experts are identified in the publication as Reviewing Editors unless they opt against it. Fees to publish images in color in the online version of the journal are waived for this special track. However, if authors chose to publish images in color in the print version of the journal, there is an associated fee. Please see Publication Costs for more information.
Forum Articles
Initial submission of Forum Review Articles should not be made online unless the designated Forum Editor has a conflict of interest with the authors. Such articles should be submitted by email as PDF files to the designated Forum Editor. If preliminarily accepted by the Forum Editor, please submit the article to ARS via ScholarOne as instructed by the respective Forum Editor. Note that Forum Review Articles that are preliminarily accepted by the Forum Editor will be reviewed for format and deficiencies in format will be subject to additional revision or rejection. Forum Original Research Communications must strictly adhere to guidelines provide above for Manuscript Text and Illustrations. It must be submitted directly via ScholarOne identifying the Forum Editor.
Authors of Forum articles already reviewed and preliminarily accepted by the respective Forum Editor, are advised to perform the following:
- During online submission, the submitting author will be asked specifically for the name of a Forum Editor. Please correctly enter the name of the specific Editor of the Forum for which you have written the manuscript.
- On the title page, above the title, identify the article as FORUM ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION or FORUM REVIEW ARTICLE, whichever is appropriate.
- To submit any non-Forum free-standing review article, please contact the ARS Central Editorial Office.
News & Views – Short Outstanding Observations
This track aims at expediting publication of short communications of outstanding significance. A short title (100 characters) with a question mark at the end is mandatory. The article must include a section on Innovation (100 words) and summary graphic illustration (see above). This section has a major influence on acceptability. A NOTES section should be placed before the Acknowledgments. The “Materials and Methods” part of these articles is moved to the NOTES. Do not shorten this section. Provide ALL details necessary to reproduce your work, including reagent source, catalog number, etc. Note that these articles are not arranged as the regular Introduction– Innovation–Results–Discussion–Material and Methods pattern. The manuscript is written with focus on certain themes in every paragraph. The tone of the text should focus on raising new questions in light of the observations made, instead of drawing firm conclusions. Abstracts should be limited to no more than 200 words and avoid experimental details. The last line of the Abstract must propose a hypothesis based on the observations reported.
Sample Abstract: “Consumption of alcohol induces protein A in the human brain, which in turn causes specific degeneration of glial cells. We note that protein A is glycated under conditions of diabetes. Such glycation results in a gain of function of protein A, resulting in more extensive glial degeneration in response to alcohol consumption. Our observation leads to the hypothesis that the consumption of alcohol poses increased risk to diabetics compared to matched non-diabetic humans.” For general rules, please follow the guidelines given for regular articles.
Redox Pioneers – Introducing our Most Cited to the New Generation and to the Scientific Community Outside Redox Biology
Anyone (author) may nominate a scientist (nominee) other than themselves who meets the following criteria: the nominee must be someone who (a) has published, as first/last author, at least one PubMed listed publication directly addressing antioxidant/redox biology that has been cited over 1000 times (per data from Web of Science, www.isiknowledge.com); (b) has published, as author (any rank), at least 10 publications that have each been cited over 100 times (per Web of Science data); and (c) has expressed, in writing, her/his willingness to be nominated by the individual for the ARS Redox Pioneer series. Once the above three criteria are met, the author may submit an article to ARS in the “REDOX PIONEER” track. The article must strictly meet the format criteria specified below. For general rules, please follow the guidelines given for regular articles.
Title format: Redox Pioneer: Professor John Smith (articles will appear in PubMed as such).
Page after the Title Page: Include a 50-word summary introducing the author and her/his relationship to the nominee.
Abstract (no more than 250 words): Start with “Dr. John Smith (Ph.D. 1966) is recognized here as a Redox Pioneer because he has published at least one article on antioxidant/redox biology as first/last author that has been cited over 1000 times and has published at least 10 articles, each cited over 100 times.” Educational/professional training of Dr. Smith, with reference to institutions (55 words); Summary of top scientific contributions of Dr. Smith (100 words); Relevance of findings to human health (50 words).
Main Body of the Text (not to exceed 2000 words): Background, development, and training (250 words); Area of interest in redox biology, its significance, and how that interest developed (500 words); Description of key finding 1 (250 words, thoroughly referenced): provide this section with a short title highlighting the finding, then describe the finding and how it helped to move the field forward; Description of key finding 2 (250 words); Description of key finding 3 (250 words); and Other Achievements and Current Position (500 words). A short quotation from the nominee is encouraged in this last section.
Illustrations: The Background section should be supported by a personal photo in black and white (either alone or in a group with family or colleagues); each Key Finding section should be supported with a summary illustration—it could either be a data slide (reproduced with appropriate permission) or a schematic. Figure legends need to be fully explanatory, where the illustration may be understood without reading the main body of text. The section on current position should be supported with a current passport style photo). Photos of the pioneer should not be numbered as figures, but should be labeled as PioneerPhoto1, PioneerPhoto2, etc.
Supplemental illustrations (mandatory for online publication): Provide a tabulation of the articles (cited as is seen in ARS reference lists)—Table 1 will contain all published articles, where the nominee is the first/last author, that have been cited over 1000 times; Table 2 will contain all published articles, where the nominee is an author (any rank), that have been cited over 100 times. List each article and enter citation data and date recorded next to it.
Supplemental information (not for publication, for peer review): Acceptance letter of the nominee; Full-length curriculum vitae of the nominee.
Acknowledgment (not to exceed 250 words): The nominee may use this section to thank everyone who has played a key role in her/his career. "Professor John Smith thanks...."
Peer Review: Each article is subject to peer review by a panel of top experts in the relevant field. Acceptance will be based on such peer review. If accepted, names of reviewers will appear on the article unless a reviewer specifically chooses to be anonymous. The nominee will also be invited to review for fact check.
Cost: If accepted, page charges will be waived for this track. However, the author is responsible for the cost of any color reproduction.
Supplementary Information
Only supportive data and figure legends may be submitted as supplements. For any cropped Western blot band shown in the main body of the manuscript, the entire blot including molecular weight markers must be submitted as a Supplement. The figure legend must connect such blot to the appropriate panel of the main figure. No Materials and Methods related text may be submitted as a Supplement.
Abbreviations, Symbols, and Terminology
Include in the manuscript, a list of new or special abbreviations used in the article, with the spelled-out form of the definition. Unfamiliar or new terms should be defined when first used. Jargon, clichés, and laboratory slang should not be used. Internationally accepted biochemical abbreviations such as ADP, NADH, and pi do not need to be defined; other frequently used abbreviations need only to be defined at first mention. For commonly accepted abbreviations, word usage, symbols, etc., authors are referred to The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (8th ed., 2014). Chemical and biochemical terms and abbreviations should be in accordance with the recommendations of the IUPAC-IUBMB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature. Isotope specification should conform to the IUPAC system.
Spelling and Compounding
Authors should follow Webster’s Third New International Dictionary for spelling and compounding.
DNA Microarray Data Reporting
It is mandatory that all articles using microarray data analysis comply with the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) standard (www.fged.org).
HUGO Gene Nomenclature
In accordance with the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC), authors should obtain approval for new human and mouse gene symbols. Additional information on gene nomenclature guidelines is available from HGNC
Letters to the Editor
Antioxidants & Redox Signaling will consider Letters to the Editor commenting on the scientific content of an article published in the Journal. Letters should not exceed 500 words of text and 5 references. Letters submitted for publication must be original and must not be submitted to any other publication simultaneously.
Clinical trial registration
The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Formatting your manuscript
Accepted file types
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. You do not need to follow a template, but please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined.
Your article title, keywords, and abstract all contribute to its position in search engine results, directly affecting the number of people who see your work. For details of what you can do to influence this, visit How to help readers find your article online.
Title
Your manuscript’s title should be concise, descriptive, unambiguous, accurate, and reflect the precise contents of the manuscript. A descriptive title that includes the topic of the manuscript makes an article more findable in the major indexing services.
Abstract
Please include a structured abstract for Original Research Communications, Review Articles, Comprehensive Invited Reviews, Forum Original Research Communications, and Forum Review Articles of no more than 250 words between the title and main body of your manuscript that concisely states the purpose of the research, major findings, and conclusions. If your research includes clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. Submissions that do not meet this requirement will not be considered.
For clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Keywords
Please include a minimum of 4 keywords, listed after the abstract. Keywords should be as specific as possible to the research topic.
Artwork, figures, and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures, and graphs in electronic format, please read Sage’s artwork guidelines.
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. If you have requested color reproduction in the print version, we will advise you of the costs on receipt of your accepted article.
Please ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Acknowledgments
If you are including an Acknowledgements section, this will be published at the end of your article. The Acknowledgments section should include all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship. Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your manuscript.
Writing assistance and third party submissions: if you have received any writing or editing assistance from a third-party, for example a specialist communications company, this must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgements section and in the covering letter. Please see the Sage Author Gateway for what information to include in your Acknowledgements section. If your submission is being made on your behalf by someone who is not listed as an author, for example the third-party who provided writing/editing assistance, you must state this in the Acknowledgements and also in your covering letter. Please note that the journal editor reserves the right to not consider submissions made by a third party rather than by the author/s themselves.
Author contributions
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review and publication process, this journal has adopted CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). CRediT is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 roles, which is used to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work.
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Statements and declarations
Please include a section with the heading ‘Statements and Declarations’ at the end of your submitted article, after the Acknowledgements section [and Author Contributions section if applicable] including each of the sub-headings listed below. If a declaration is not applicable to your submission, you must still include the heading and state ‘Not applicable’ underneath. Please note that you may be asked to justify why a declaration was not applicable to your submission by the Editorial Office.
Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. You can find information on what to say in your ethical statements as well as example statements on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.
All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved the study, or waived the requirement for approval, providing the full name and institution of the review committee in addition to the approval number. If applicable, please also include this information in the Methods section of your manuscript.
Consent to participate
Please include any participant consent information under this heading and state whether informed consent to participate was written or verbal. If the requirement for informed consent to participate has been waived by the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (i.e. where it has been deemed that consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain), please state this. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section. More information and example statements can be found on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.
Consent for publication
Submissions containing any data from an individual person (including individual details, images or videos) must include a statement confirming that informed consent for publication was provided by the participant(s) or a legally authorized representative. Non-essential identifying details should be omitted. Please do not submit the participant’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent to publish but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file in addition to the statement confirming that consent to publish was obtained within the manuscript text. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section.
Declaration of conflicting interest
The journal requires a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors so that a statement can be included in your article. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, see our policy on conflicting interest declarations and the ICMJE recommendations.
If no conflict exists, your statement should read: ‘The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article’.
Funding statement
All articles need to include a funding statement, under a separate heading, even if you did not receive funding. You’ll find guidance and examples on our Funding page.
Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
- Cite this data in your research
Reference style and citations
The journal follows the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms.
Every in-text citation must have a corresponding citation in the reference list and vice versa. Corresponding citations must have identical spelling and year.
Authors should update any references to preprints when a peer reviewed version is made available, to cite the published research. Citations to preprints are otherwise discouraged.
EndNote
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
Supplemental material
This Journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Author Services. Visit Sage Author Services for further information.
As part of the submission process you will need to confirm that this is your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that this is for first publication in this Journal, that it is not being considered for/has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that the journal may accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.
Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.
Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission.
Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed.
Submission site
Submit your manuscript online via Sage Track.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in Sage Track before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
Manuscripts should only be submitted with the consent of all contributing authors. The individual responsible for submitting the manuscript should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the manuscript are listed as authors.
Ensure you upload all relevant manuscript files, including any additional supplemental files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Files
- Cover letter. To help the Editor in their preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the manuscript suitable for publication.
- The submitting author must accept responsibility for the following:
- That the submitting author has the written consent from all authors to submit the manuscript and that all authors accept complete responsibility for the contents of the manuscript.
- That the manuscript is not currently under consideration elsewhere and the work reported will not be submitted for publication elsewhere until a final decision has been made as to its acceptability by the Journal (note that posting of submitted material on a website is considered pre-publication).
- That the manuscript is truthful original work.
- That (where applicable) microarray data reporting, gene nomenclature, and research on fetal tissue matter has been done in compliance with Journal guidelines. If this is not applicable, please state so.
- If the manuscript contains color illustrations, indicate which figures print in color and which print in black and white (see notes below on COLOR REPRODUCTION). Color may not be withdrawn after acceptance of manuscript. If submitted, color must be published at least online.
- Your manuscript, properly formatted according to all stipulations above, and within the scope of the journal.
- Figures and images.
- All figures must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text – they will appear in the published article in the order they are numbered.
- Figure resolution is 300dpi. More information on figure/image preparation can be found here.
- Submission of high resolution .TIFF or .EPS figure files is strongly recommended.
- Figures should not be embedded within the manuscript file. Individual data points must be shown using box plots or such other forms.
- Cite figures consecutively in text within parentheses.
- A legend should be supplied for each figure and all legends numbered consecutively.
- Images should not show the name of a patient or a manufacturer.
- Do not include any illustrations as part of your text file.
- Horizontal and vertical lines should not be used in the background of any line or bar graph.
- It is critically important that dead space within figures is kept to a minimum.
- All parts (A, B, C...) of any illustration should be arranged on one page.
- The figure number or the author’s name should not be printed on the face of the figure.
- Supplemental material. This journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc) alongside the full-text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
Figure Legends
Figure legends should be uploaded as a separate Word file and double spaced. In the legend, provide explanations for any abbreviations, arrows, etc. that appear in the figure. Figure legends should describe experimental conditions. If the illustration is taken from a copyrighted publication, permission must be secured, appropriate credit must be given in the legend, and a corresponding reference must appear in the reference section.
Tables
The use of tables is discouraged. When unavoidable, prepare all tables in one Word file single-spaced with a brief title on a separate page. The title should be brief and informative. All explanatory matter, including explanation of abbreviations, should be in the footnotes, not in the title. Horizontal and vertical lines should be omitted. Use Arabic numerals to number tables. Do not repeat information that is given in the text, and do not make a table for data that can be given in the text in one or two sentences. Cite the tables in sequence in the text. Table footnotes should be listed in order of their appearance and identified by standard symbols *, †, ‡, § for four or fewer; for five or more, use consecutive superior letters. If the table is taken from a copyrighted publication, permission must be secured, appropriate credit must be given in the legend, and a corresponding reference must appear in the reference section.
Figures
Photographs
Submit high-quality digital copies using the ARS ScholarOne Manuscripts submission system. If hardcopies are required for production, authors of accepted manuscripts will be notified by the production office. Electrocardiograms, kymograms, and oscillograms should be prepared so that the cross-hatched background is eliminated. To avoid problems in processing, use non-photo, blue-ruled instead of black-ruled, recording paper for the originals.
Color Reproduction
At the end of the legends of figures that are only available in color in the online version of the journal, the following line should be added: “To see this illustration in color, the reader is referred to the online version of this article."
Note: Any submission that goes through the peer review process with color figures MUST publish in color, using either of the two options noted above. Non-payment of color publication after acceptance will result in withdrawal of the acceptance.
Correspondence Address
Following the references, provide the name and complete affiliation and institutional email address of the person to whom correspondence should be sent.
Other information required for submission
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ORCID ID of the submitting author.
- It is strongly encouraged that all co-authors ensure their ORCID IDs are linked to their accounts in the submission system prior to article acceptance, as this is the only way to have their ORCID ID present on the published article. ORCID IDs cannot be added to manuscripts after acceptance/publication. Please note that each co-author must log in to the submission system to add their own ORCID ID to their account. To add an ORCID ID, edit your account, click the link when prompted, and sign into your ORCID account to validate your ID. You will then be redirected back to the submission system and your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata.
- Please create an ORCID ID if you do not already have one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
- Complete list of authors, with their institutional affiliations.
- The author information you enter at submission must exactly match what is included on your manuscript and/or title page, including full names, academic affiliations, and corresponding author contact details.
- The listed affiliation should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a note at the end of the manuscript.
- All listed authors must meet the criteria for authorship (above).
- All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission.
- All authors must have given consent for the manuscript to be submitted in its current form.
- Keywords: During submission, you may be asked to select or enter keywords for your manuscript. These keywords are used to match appropriate reviewers to your manuscript.
- The number of figures, tables, and words in your manuscript.
- Funder information: Name, grant/award number.
- You may be required to enter your declaration of conflicting interest as part of the submission process, in addition to listing it on your manuscript and/or title page. Please have it on hand.
- If you have posted your manuscript to a preprint server, you will be asked to supply the DOI (this does not prohibit submission, but no changes should be made to the preprint version while your manuscript is under evaluation in this journal). Please see our guidelines on prior publication. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your manuscript is accepted, you must include a link in your preprint to the final version of your published article.
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal:
Identity transparency: Single-anonymized
Reviewer interacts with: Editor
Review information published: None
Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejected without peer review at this point if they are out of scope for the journal or otherwise unsuitable.
After passing the initial evaluation, your manuscript will then be peer reviewed. You can log in at any time to check the status of your manuscript. We will notify you when a decision has been reached.
After internal editorial screening for suitability, all manuscript submissions containing original research or that comprise scholarly review are subject to rigorous, independent, external peer review. Editorials, correspondence, news features, and/or Invited opinion or perspective contributions in other sections of the journal are subject to stringent editorial oversight; at need, external, independent review will be arranged to address specialized topics. Final decisions for publication are solely the responsibility of the Editor(s)-in-Chief.
To ensure the integrity of the peer review process we assign reviewers and cannot accept author recommendations.
All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision on all manuscripts, including those appearing in a special issue or special collection. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
As a COPE member we engage with multiple forms of post-publication discussion in line with wider guidance from Sage: Commentaries, Critiques and Responses.
You can view our complaints and appeals policy here.
Read Sage's complete peer review policy.
Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Contributor’s Publishing Agreement
Before publication, we require the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Preprints
If your manuscript was posted on a preprint server prior to acceptance, you must include a link in your preprint to the final published version of your published article.
Production
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal, Sage Edit, or by email, and should be returned promptly to avoid delaying publication. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. This is the final opportunity to make changes to your manuscript. Further corrections will not be possible after publication. Changes to the author list are not permitted at this stage.
Publication
OnlineFirst publication: This enables us to publish final articles online immediately, without waiting for assignment to a future issue of the Journal. This usually significantly reduces publication lead time. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.
Access to your published article: We provide you with online access to your published article. The online access link is provided to the corresponding author for sharing with their co-authors.
Promoting your article
Publication is not the end of the process. Between us, we can ensure that your article is found, read, downloaded and cited as widely as possible. Many of the most effective tactics are those you can do quickly and easily to your network of contacts and peers. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway for numerous resources to help you promote your work.
The Sage Journal Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journals Solutions Portal.
You can view our complaints and appeals procedure.
Contact us
You can direct any questions to the journal’s editorial office: