Submission guidelines
Submit manuscript
Please read the guidelines in full before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
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.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Open access options are available – see below.
Please read the guidelines below then submit your manuscript here.
Access: Subscription
Accepts preprints? Yes
Identity transparency: Double anonymized
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
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.
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.
Research
| Article type | Description | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Original Research | Reports of original clinical or basic science data pertaining to prevalence, causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, course, treatment, and prevention, including systematic reviews and meta-analysis that represent a new contribution to the field. Traditional, narrative reviews should also be considered in this category. |
⚹Narrative review articles may have an unstructured abstract |
| What I (We) Do | Introduce new problems to clinical problems. Novelty and quality of illustrations and videos (when appropriate) are key ingredients. If no patient identifiable data are included, no IRB form is necessary. |
|
| Case/Clinical Reports | Case reports presenting new clinical information. |
|
| Ethics/Health Policy | Ethical and Legal Reports are original articles which examine issues of ethics or law arising in cleft and craniofacial care and research. Health Policy Reports are original articles which examine social, political, and economic issues arising in cleft and craniofacial care or research. |
|
| Brief Communications | Preliminary or limited results of original research pertaining to prevalence, causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, course, treatment, and prevention. |
|
Clinical review and education
| Article type | Description | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Ideas and Innovations | Short communications related to novel ideas, techniques, methods of assessment, etc. |
|
Opinion
| Article type | Description | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Perspective | Perspectives are typically articles that provide background and context for an article in the issue in which they appear. Perspectives should provide thoughtful, scientific, constructive commentary pertaining to articles or research published in The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal |
|
| Letter to the Editor | Comments in the form of letters that express differences of opinion or supporting views of recently published CPCJ content. They should provide thoughtful, scientific, constructive commentary. |
|
| Editorial | Brief substantiated commentaries on subjects of interest to the CPCJ readership. Editorials should be narrative in form and provide thoughtful, scientific, constructive commentary pertaining to articles or research published in The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal |
|
Statistics
If a statistical analysis is conducted, explanation of the methods used must precede the Results section in the manuscript. Unusual or complex analysis methods should be referenced.
Units of Measure/ Abbreviations
The metric system is preferred for expressing units of measure. Abbreviations may be used for terms. The full term for each abbreviation should appear at its first use in the text, unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measure. Abbreviations used in a table must be explained in a footnote below the table. For a list of standard abbreviations, consult the Council of Biology Editors Style Guide (available from the Council of Science Editors, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814; http://www.councilscienceeditors.org) or other standard sources.
The table below lists standard accepted abbreviations for typical cleft-type classifications and study groups. Other abbreviations may be proposed for classifications and groups not listed.
Modifying terms that may added to the abbreviations above include:
i (isolated)
I (incomplete)
U (unilateral)
B (bilateral)
SM (submucous)
Phonetic Symbols
Authors who use phonetic symbols are required to use Unicode-compliant fonts in their manuscripts. This will ensure the symbols display properly both during peer review and in the final published article. Examples of acceptable fonts include Charis SIL, Doulos SIL, and Gentium Unicode. Times New Roman is also acceptable, as it includes most IPA symbols and is Unicode compliant.
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.
Reporting guidelines
Your manuscript must follow the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines, depending on the type of study. The EQUATOR wizard can help identify the appropriate guideline. You will need to upload the appropriate checklist with your submission.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.
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.
The LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTeX template is available on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
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 of 250 words between the title and main body of your manuscript for original articles and Ideas and Innovations articles. The structured abstract should include the following headings and information, as applicable.
Structured Abstract:
Objective: State the main question or objective of the study and the major hypothesis tested, if any.
Design: Describe the design of the study indicating, as appropriate, use of randomization, anonymization, criterion standards for diagnostic tests, temporal direction (retrospective or prospective), etc.
Setting: Indicate the study setting, including the level of clinical care (for example, primary or tertiary; private practice or institutional).
Patients, Participants: State selection procedures, entry criteria, and numbers of participants entering and finishing the study.
Interventions: Describe the essential features of any intervention, including the methods and duration of administration.
Main Outcome Measure(s): The primary study outcome measures should be indicated as planned before data collection began. If the hypothesis being reported was formulated during or after data collection, this fact should be clearly stated.
Results: Describe measurements that are not evident from the nature of the main results and indicate any anonymization. If possible, the results should be accompanied by confidence intervals (most often the 95% interval) and the exact level of statistical significance. For comparative studies, confidence intervals should relate to the differences between groups. Absolute values should be indicated when risk changes or effect sizes are given.
Conclusions: State only those conclusions of the study that are directly supported by data, along with their clinical application (avoiding overgeneralization) and/or whether additional study is required before the information should be used in clinical settings. Equal emphasis must be given to positive and negative findings of equal scientific merit.”
Data-based Brief Communications articles should include a structured abstract of no longer than 150 words with the following headings: Objective, Design, Setting, Patients/Participants, Interventions, Main Outcome Measure(s), Results, Conclusions.
Non-data-based Brief Communications, Perspective articles, and Ethics/Health Policy reports should include an unstructured abstract of no longer than 100 words.
Case/Clinical reports should include an unstructured abstract of no longer than 100 words, describing the objective, essential features and uniqueness of the case being presented, and conclusions.
What I (We) Do articles should include a 50–75-word structured abstract with the following format: background (what is the issue/problem), solution, what I/we did that is new.
Narrative reviews should include an unstructured abstract of no longer than 250 words.
Letters to the Editor and Editorials do not require abstracts.
Then this should follow: “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. 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.
This journal includes video abstracts. For more information on how to prepare a plain language summary, please see this page.
Keywords
Please include a minimum of 3 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.
A list of figure legends must be included on a separate page at the end of the manuscript article file. The legend should explain each figure as concisely as possible. Do not include figure legends in your figure art file. Figure legends are not included in the word count limit.
Figures should be minimally processed and should reflect the integrity of the original data in the image. Adjustments to images in brightness, contrast, or color balance should be applied equally to the entire image, provided they do not distort any data in the figure, including the background. Selective adjustments and touch-up tools used on portions of a figure are not appropriate. Images should not be layered or combined into a single image unless it is stated that the figure is a product of time-averaged data. All adjustments to image date should be clearly disclosed in the figure legend. Images may be additionally screened to confirm faithfulness to the original data. Authors should be able to supply raw image data upon request. Authors should also list tools and software used to collect image data and should document settings and manipulations in the Methods section.
Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Each table should have an appropriate title and explanation at its head. Abbreviations used in a table must be explained in a footnote below the table. Submit tables as separate files, with one table per file, in either .doc (text) or .xls (spreadsheet) format.
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.
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.
Title page
To ensure fair and anonymous peer review, your manuscript must be fully anonymized. Please ensure any identifying information is removed from the main manuscript document and included on the Title Page instead. Do not include any author names in the manuscript file name and remove names from headers and footers. This version of the manuscript will be sent to the peer reviewers. The Title Page will not be sent to peer reviewers. See the Sage Journal Author Gateway for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.
The Title Page should include:
- Article title
- The full list of authors including names and affiliations of each
- 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 – please indicate this on the title page.
- All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission (please see the authorship section for more information).
- Contact information for the corresponding author: name, institutional address, phone, email
- Acknowledgments section
- Declaration of conflicting interest
- Funding statement
- Ethical approval and informed consent statements
- Data availability statement
- Any other identifying information related to the authors and/or their institutions, funders, approval committees, etc, that might compromise anonymity.
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.
Statements and declarations
To ensure proper anonymization, please include a section with the heading ‘Statements and Declarations’ on your title page, 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. This information will be added to the end of your published paper.
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 AMA Manual of Style. View the AMA Manual of Style 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.
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
- 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.
- Tables and figures must be separate files, if applicable.
- Video clips that contribute significantly to the manuscript may be submitted in either avi, mov, or mpeg formats. Videos should be submitted at the desired reproduction size and length but should not exceed 10MB in size. If submitting avi files, the files must be compressed. Authors are solely responsible for all editing of video clips.
- As there are restrictions to the video file size, we recommend compressing the file and uploading it to the CPCJ Sage Track platform. The manuscript review system ScholarOne has a file size limit of 350mb for video files. If the video you wish to submit for review is larger than this,please follow these instructions on compressing the video file to fit within this limitation.
- Please note that if your submission is accepted, you will be asked to provide the full-size file for publication. This can be provided to production via DropBox or Google Drive.
- Each video file must be accompanied by a still image from the video that conforms to the figure resolution and size requirements outlined above for figures. This image will be published in the print version of the journal in place of the video. Please indicate in the figure legend that the still image has an associated video file. Both the print-version figure and the video must share the same file name (e.g., Figure1.jpg and Figure1.mov). A "List of Video Legends" should be prepared on a separate page at the end of the manuscript article file.
- Video submissions are strongly encouraged, particularly for articles dealing with surgical techniques.
- For videos with identifiable subjects, subjects will need to sign the Audio- Visual Likeness Release Form. It is the author’s responsibility to submit signed release forms, if necessary, for each video. If patient(s) are identifiable in the video, authors must confirm a Patient Permission form has been completed and signed by each patient.
- If the author does not hold copyright to the video, the author must obtain permission for the video to be published in the journal. This permission must be for unrestricted use in all print, online, and licensed versions of the journal.
- PRISMA checklist. Please upload a completed PRISMA checklist for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
- CONSORT checklist. Please upload a completed CONSORT checklist for clinical trials.
- Social media. Be ready to input X/Twitter handles for authors and a drafted tweet of no more than 280 characters (optional).
- Data availability statement. Please note this is optional, unless required by funder or institution.
- Patient First Language. Please be sure you are using patient-first language in your entire manuscript (e.g., use "patients with CLP" instead of "CLP patients"; or "patients with 22q11.2 DS" instead of 22q11.2DS patients").
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:Double-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.
When a manuscript is submitted, CPCJ editorial staff perform and initial evaluation according to the following criteria: material is original and timely, writing is clear, study methods are appropriate, data are valid, conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data, information is important, and topic has general interest to readers of this journal. From these basic criteria, the editors assess a paper's suitability for publication. Suitable manuscripts are sent to expert consultants for peer review. Manuscripts deemed unsuitable for publication are rejected promptly.
CPCJ adheres to a rigorous double-anonymized reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. At least two independent reviews are required for a manuscript to reach a Revise or Accept decision. At the discretion of the Section Editor, a third review may be requested and/or a review by a biostatistician may also be solicited. Manuscripts will be evaluated according to various criteria, including scientific methodology, level of evidence, novelty, clarity, and conciseness. Accepted articles describing novel findings or methods with high levels of evidence may be advanced in the publication queue at the discretion of the Editor.
The journal has an Editorial Board and Editorial Review Board, including Section Editors, who serve the journal as external peer reviewers. Each member of the Section Editor team, Editorial Review Board and Editorial Board are active researchers in the field and selected based on strict criteria, ensuring they possess the necessary expertise and experience. The Editor may use one Specialty Reviewer Board or Editorial Board Member as a reviewer for a manuscript, and will then reach beyond this pool to include additional reviewers to meet the required number before a decision can be made. All reviews operate under double anonymous peer review. This ensures a comprehensive and robust peer review process, aligning with our commitment to publish the most credible and valid research. On occasion, a Section Editor may serve as a peer reviewer in certain instances and in that instance would be operating under a single anonymous peer review policy. In either instance, care is taken not to invite any Editorial Review Board Member or Editorial Board Member that has any potential conflict of interest with any author of the paper.
Reviewers for CPCJ have the option to invite a Reviewer in Training (a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, early-career research assistant or associate) to serve as a co-reviewer. This program is completely optional. This opportunity is afforded as an educational experience to the Reviewer in Training. The quality of the review is the responsibility of the lead reviewer and not of the Reviewer in Training. The Reviewer in Training will not receive any communications about the manuscript. The use of the contact information for the Reviewer in Training may be used to invite and authorize reviewer roles in the future. If the mentee wishes to be recognized in Web of Science Reviewer Recognition (formerly Publons), the lead reviewer can forward the email that certifies they completed the review to the mentee and then the mentee can send that to Publons. If you worked with a reviewer in training and wish to give them credit, please complete the survey here: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7392813/CPCJ-Reviewer-Scoresheet
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 Section Editor, who then makes a recommendation to the Editor. The Editor 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.
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:
Editor: Jamie Perry, PhD
Editorial Office: The Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal
Email: perryja@ecu.edu