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Submission guidelines

Contents

Information for Authors (Revised April 1, 2023)

Journal Scope

The International Journal of Hematology is the official journal of the Japanese Society of Hematology, and has a long history of publishing leading research in hematology. The journal features articles that contribute to progress in hematology in both basic and clinical fields, including erythrocytes, leukocytes and hematopoiesis, immunology, hemostasis, thrombosis, hematological malignancies, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and cell therapy.

The journal presents the most up-to-date information on modern hematology, providing readers with high-impact, original work focusing on pivotal issues.

Article Types

Original Articles, Case Reports, Rapid Communications, and Review Articles are accepted for consideration by the Editorial Board with the understanding that no substantial part of the paper has been submitted or published elsewhere. Authors are responsible for conforming to the guidelines specified in this Information for Authors. The Editorial Board reserves the right to make corrections to the text in the interest of clarity, consistency, and readability. Editorial decisions are final.

Original Articles:

Original Articles should include the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and References. Original Articles should not exceed 5,600 words.

Case Reports:

Case Reports should describe new findings that have a significant clinical impact on hematologists or that may alter the concept of a disease. Authors should summarize new findings within 100 words in the title page under the headline “new findings.” Case Reports of the following will not be accepted for publication: a description of a rare disease or condition without new findings to be added to previous reports; a combination of different diseases without new findings that inform hematological research; remarkable effects of already known treatments without data that suggests an explanation for the exceptional results. Case Reports should not exceed 1,800 words.

Rapid Communications:

Rapid Communications should not exceed 2000 words, including references, tables, and figures. Rapid Communications only report important new observations of sufficient significance and urgency to warrant rapid publication. Sections may be combined (e.g., Introduction, Methods [or Patients], Results, Discussion). Request for consideration as a Rapid Communication should be made in the author’s cover letter upon submission.

Such papers, if accepted, will be published in the next available print issue. All articles, including Rapid Communications, will be published in the Online First format on SpringerLink ahead of print publication.

Images in Hematology:

Authors can submit for consideration an illustration (or, where appropriate, two or more related images) that is interesting, instructive, and visually attractive, with explanatory text not exceeding 400 words, and usually one or two contributors. High-resolution (600 dpi for line art; 300 dpi for halftones or color images) digital files should be submitted. Due to space constraints, references are not generally provided in the “Images” section. However, a single reference may be accepted at the discretion of the Images Editor if it appears essential to the contribution in question.

Review Articles:

Review Articles generally are invited contributions, but suitable manuscripts may be submitted for this purpose. However, involvement of medical writers/researchers employed by the pharmaceutical industry is not permitted for Review Articles.

Progress in Hematology:

Progress in Hematology integrates such relevant fields as the cell biology of stem cells and cancer cells, and clinical research in inflammation, cancer, and thrombosis. It also includes reports on results of clinical trials, thus contributing to the aim of fostering communication among researchers in the growing field of modern hematology.

Letters to the Editor:

Letters to the Editor are comments on published research. They should not exceed 700 words, 3 references, and 1 figure/table, and should include an illustrative title, but no abstract or subheadings.

Manuscript Preparation

The journal's language is English. British or American English spelling and terminology may be used, but should be followed consistently throughout the article. The form of manuscripts should adhere precisely to the following specifications. Authors whose native language is not English are required to seek the assistance of language services, or of a colleague who is a native English speaker and is familiar with the field of work, prior to submission.

Editing services for non-English speakers

The following organizations provide language services to non-native speakers of English. Please note that the International Journal of Hematology does not endorse, nor does it have any direct involvement with, any of the services listed; this information is provided solely for the convenience of authors submitting to the International Journal of Hematology.

Title page

The title page should contain:

  • Article title
    The title should effectively convey the content of the article to non-specialist readers in a condensed manner. It should not exceed 120 characters, including spaces. Titles should use active voice and not contain any punctuation or abbreviations. Commonly-understood abbreviations may be used, but must be defined in the abstract. When the article is reporting results obtained from non-human model systems rather than human subjects, the title must include the species.
  • Proposed manuscript type (Review Article, Original Article, Case Report, Rapid Communication, or Letter to the Editor)
  • Authors of proposed Case Reports should summarize new findings within 100 words in the title page under the headline of “new findings.”
  • Author name(s): Full and accurate names of all authors
  • Affiliations: Institutions where the research was conducted
  • Full name, address, and e-mail address of the corresponding author
  • Word counts for the main text and abstract, figure/table count, and reference count.

Abstract

Original Articles, Case Reports, Rapid Communications, and Review Articles require an abstract. Abstracts should not exceed 200 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or reference citations.

Keywords

Please provide 3 to 5 keywords that can be used for indexing.

Text formatting

For submission in Word

  • Use 12-point Times Roman for text
  • Number pages using the automatic page-numbering function
  • Do not use field functions
  • Indent text using tab stops or other commands, not the space bar
  • Make tables using the table function, not spreadsheets
  • Use the equation editor or MathType for equations
  • Do not include tables or figures in the main document; instead, upload them separately on Editorial Manager

Heading levels

Please use the decimal system of headings, with no more than three levels.

References

The list of references should include only works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Identify citations in the text by numbers in square brackets.

Some examples:

  1. Negotiation research spans many disciplines [3].
  2. This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman [5].
  3. This effect has been widely studied [1–3, 7].

List style

List references at the end of the article. Number references consecutively as they appear at their first mention in the text. For 6 or fewer authors, list all authors. For 7 or more, only list the first 6, followed by “et al.” The “Vancouver Referencing Style” is a good resource for journal title abbreviations.

Examples:

  1. Bhaskaram C, Reddy V. Cell-mediated immunity in iron- and vitamin-deficient children. Br Med J. 1979; 3:522-5.
  2. Metcalf D. The hemopoietic colony-stimulating factors. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science; 1984.
  3. Goldwasser E. Erythropoietin and differentiation. In: Cunningham D, Golwasser E, Watson J, Fox C, editors. Control of cellular division and development. New York: Alan R. Liss; 1981. p.487-94.

Unpublished data and personal communications

Do not include unpublished data or personal communications in the reference list, or cite them in the text. You may cite preprint, website, and web guidelines as references.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Spell out all abbreviations and acronyms at the point they first appear in the text. Common abbreviations of units do not need to be spelled out. Examples include s, μm, μg, μL, min, mm, mg, mL, mM, h, cm, g, dL, M, mm3, kg, L, mEq, Bq, c/kg, and Gy.

SI units, numbers

Write out units of time in text, figure legends, and table footnotes and abbreviate only in tables. Use SI units for weights and measurements, degrees Celsius for temperature, and the 24-hour clock for times of day.

Product and manufacturers' names

In principle, generic names should be used. If using a trademarked name, capitalize the initial letters of the names. Provide the names and locations of manufacturers in parentheses.

Submission from Japan

The first author should be a member of the Japanese Society of Hematology at the time the manuscript is accepted, unless they are a student.

Supplemental Data

Electronic supplementary material (ESM) should be submitted separately from manuscript files. If ESM is submitted, it will be published as received from the author in the online version only.

ESM may consist of

  • Information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings
  • Information that is more easily handled in an electronic format: sequences, spectral data, etc.
  • Large original data: additional tables, illustrations, etc.
  • When supplying any ESM, make specific mention of the material in the text as a citation, similarly to that for figures and tables (e.g., “. . . as shown in Animation 3.”)

Artwork guidelines

Artwork guidelines

Publication Fees

Pre-submission Charges

If the first author is not a member of the Japanese Society of Hematology, a pre-submission fee of US $20 (authors from Japan: ¥2000) will be charged before the peer-review process can begin. After submission, an email will be sent regarding credit card payment. Charges cannot be refunded under any circumstances, and the submission will not move on to the peer review process until payment is confirmed.

Page charges

Accepted manuscripts will be published subject to a fee of US $25 per published page (authors from Japan: ¥3000 per published page). Charges cannot be refunded under any circumstances.

Color illustrations are free of charge.

Page and offprint (if any) charges will be separately charged to the corresponding author, except for solicited material. In unusual circumstances, the Editor-in-Chief may waive some or all of these charges upon request.

Open access publishing

To find out more about publishing Open Access in International Journal of Hematology, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit the Open access publishing page.

The journal waives page charges for open access articles.

Manuscript Submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts using the journal's online submission system. Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing time and shortens overall publication time. Please upload all files associated with the manuscript directly to the submission site (https://www.editorialmanager.com/ijhm), following the instructions given on the screen. Use the Help option to see the most recently updated system requirements.

Author accounts

Authors entering the journal’s Editorial Manager site can either create a new account or use an existing one. Once you have created an existing account, please use it for all your submissions. You can track submission status on the same page.

If you have forgotten your username and password, please click the link “Send Username/Password” and enter your e-mail address. You will then receive an automatically generated e-mail with your username and password. Alternatively, please create a new account and then follow the instructions given on the screen.

Getting started

Once you have logged into your account, Editorial Manager will lead you through the submission process in an orderly, step-by-step process. If you cannot finish your submission in one visit, you can save a draft and re-enter the process later at the same point for that manuscript.

While submitting your electronic manuscript, you will be required to enter data about your manuscript. These include the full title, author names and affiliations, and other information, as listed below under Manuscript preparation. Support for special characters is available.

Uploading files

Main Documents: Upload the main documents of articles as Microsoft Word documents.

Tables: Use the table functions of your word processing program, not spreadsheets, to create tables. Upload Tables and Figures separately from the main document.

Figures: Common graphic file formats such as GIF, JPEG, EPS, and TIFF are supported. Please upload figures that are satisfactory for the review process and for printing according to the artwork guidelines described at the end of these instructions.

After you have uploaded the components of the article through this process, the system will convert the files to PDF format. You can view the converted file with Adobe Acrobat Reader. You will also be notified by e-mail that your submission was successful.

Click Help at any point during this process to view answers to frequently asked questions. If the total size of the files exceeds the maximum size (10 MB) for online submission, reduce the resolution of large files for initial submission.

Status tracking

After submission, you may return and monitor the progress of your submission through the review process.

Peer Review

IJH editors primarily judge manuscripts on the basis of technical aspects such as the quality, novelty, and scientific importance of the work that the manuscript describes. However, they will also consider other factors such as presentation, timeliness of the material, and whether the content would interest IJH readers.

Even before the peer review stage, the editors may decide to promptly reject manuscripts that are outside the journal’s scope or uncompetitive with other submissions currently under consideration.

Once a manuscript clears this initial screening, it is passed to members of the Editorial Board and/or other experts in the field for further review. The editors select reviewers and make the final decision on whether to accept the manuscript. Authors will not be informed of their reviewers’ identities. Editors and reviewers will treat all manuscripts as privileged information. In the event of any real or apparent conflicts of interest, they will not participate in the review.

When the editors reject a manuscript, it is typically due to low priority compared with other submissions or low relevance to the field of hematology. Rejections for data quality and technical issues are rare. As such, IJH strongly discourages rebuttals to rejected manuscripts, and generally does not grant requests for resubmission of rejected manuscripts in the absence of significant evidence of errors in the review or decision process.

Revised manuscripts submitted to IJH

Even when the editors determine a manuscript is worthy of further consideration based on peer review results, they will frequently ask for revisions, including additional experimentation. However, need for extensive revisions will decrease the likelihood of acceptance. If you have received a revision request, please submit the revised manuscript within 3 months of receiving the initial decision e-mail. Otherwise, it will be considered a new submission, and will be assigned a new manuscript number and be subject to a new submission fee. If the reviewers have requested new experiments that require a significant amount of time to complete, you may request an extension to this period, provided that you do so at least 2 weeks prior to the deadline.

Use tools such as underlining, highlighting, and strikethrough to mark all changes in the document. Do not use Microsoft Word Track Changes, as these will not appear in the converted PDF, and will have to be re-done.

Editorial Policies

The International Journal of Hematology has adopted the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (URM) established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). These requirements were developed “to help authors and editors in their mutual task of creating and distributing accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies,” and are available from the ICMJE website (www.icmje.org). The Editors reserve the right to reject studies that do not demonstrate sufficient conformity with IJH editorial policies or with accepted standards for the conduct of biomedical research. The Editors may further retract published articles that are subsequently shown to have been conducted in violation of these principles.

Conflicts of interest

The IJH requires authors to disclose financial or other interests, at the personal or institutional level, which might be construed as potentially influencing the results of experiments, their interpretation, or description. In adherence to current global standards of practice formulated by the ICMJE, the Editors require all authors to submit a completed Uniform Disclosure Form (available at: http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf) at the time of submission. Information on potential conflict(s) of interest may be revealed to reviewers, or as a note in the published version of the article, at the Editors’ discretion.

List a summary of conflicts for each author on the page following the acknowledgment. If no conflict exists, state:

“The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.”

A summary of relevant information will be published with the manuscript.

Authorship

All persons listed in the author byline must have made substantive contributions to the experimental design, the acquisition and/or analysis of research data, or the preparation of the manuscript, and must agree to accept responsibility for the aspects of the work with which they were involved. Acknowledge all persons who made contributions to the preparation of the manuscript, including those whose contribution was solely writing assistance, and disclose any support for such assistance. All authors must agree to the content of the manuscript and its submission to IJH. Resolve disputes over authorship prior to submission. Failure to resolve authorship disputes may result in publication delays or other editorial action.

Redundant or duplicate publication

When submitting a paper, always make a full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant or duplicate publication of the same or very similar work. Alert the editor if the work includes subjects about whom a previous report has been published. Mention and reference any such work in the new paper. Include copies of such material with the submitted paper to help the editor decide how to deal with the matter.

Expect editorial action, or at least prompt rejection of the submitted manuscript, if redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification. If the editor was not aware of the violations and the article has already been published, it is likely that a notice of redundant or duplicate publication will be published with or without the author’s explanation or approval.

Acceptable secondary publication

Secondary publication in the same or another language, especially in other countries, is justifiable, and can be beneficial, provided all of the following conditions are met:

  • The authors have received approval from the editors of both journals, and the editor concerned with secondary publication has been provided a photocopy, reprint, or manuscript of the primary version.
  • The priority of the primary publication is respected by a publication interval of at least one week (unless specifically negotiated otherwise by both editors).
  • The paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; an abbreviated version could be sufficient.
  • The secondary version reflects faithfully the data and interpretations of the primary version.
  • A footnote on the title page of the secondary version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the paper has been published in whole or in part and states the primary reference. A suitable footnote might read: “This article is based on a study first reported in the [title of journal, with full reference].”

Permissions

If you wish to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format.

Human subjects

When reporting research on human subjects, the work must comply with the principles of the most recent version of the Declaration of Helsinki (updated 2008; http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html). Indicate that the study design was approved by a relevant local ethics committee and, where appropriate, that informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Privacy and confidentiality

Do not include identifying information of patients or human subjects, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication.

Animal studies

Research using animals must be conducted in conformity with local laws and regulations and under the supervision of the animal welfare committee, or its equivalent, of the institution at which the research was conducted. In general, all research use of animals should conform to the "3 R" principles of replacement, reduction, and refinement, and should be designed to minimize pain and distress.

Clinical studies

Approval from an institutional ethics committee and the informed consent of all patients/research participants is required before submission of clinical study reports that involve secondary use of registered databases, or case reports that involve use of investigational drugs, off-label uses of approved drugs, or special clinical examinations. The manuscript must include a statement that these have been obtained.

Registration of clinical trials

In adherence with the ICMJE uniform requirements and current practice standards for biomedical research, the IJH requires that all articles describing research in which human subjects have been prospectively assigned to intervention or control groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a clinical intervention and an outcome be registered with a not-for-profit, publicly accessible registry. This requirement only applies to the design and methodology of the trial; the journal does not require registration of results. Examples of public clinical trial registries include those administered by the World Health Organization (http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/) and the US National Institutes of Health (http://clinicaltrials.gov/).

IRB

Please refer to “Clinical Studies”

Protection of patient information in case reports

The journal has prepared the following guidelines in response to its obligation to prevent identification of individual patients in case reports and similar journal content in accordance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information enacted in April 2005. These apply to all submissions from Japan (even if the authors are not Japanese).

  • Do not include patient names, admit numbers, initials, or any pseudonym that could identify individual patients. Include patient age and sex.
  • Do not include the location where a patient currently resides. However, if the place where the disease occurred is relevant to the pathogenesis or other details of the case, the general area (e.g., “Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture”) may be described.
  • Specify dates up to the year and month, but not the exact day.
  • If a patient was previously diagnosed and treated, do not include names or locations of the other treatment facilities.
  • When presenting a photograph of a patient’s face, conceal the eyes. When showing ocular disease, magnify the photograph so that only the eye is visible and not the entire face.
  • Remove any numbers or other personally identifying information from biopsy, autopsy, or imaging data.
  • When writing a case report pertaining to a genetic disorder or human genome/gene analysis, follow the regulations in the “Ethical Guidelines for Human Genome/Gene Analysis Research” (published March 29, 2001 [partially revised on December 1, 2008] by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).

Research Data Policy and Data Availability Statements

This journal follows Springer Nature research data policy. Sharing of all relevant research data is strongly encouraged and authors must add a Data Availability Statement to original research articles.

Research data includes a wide range of types, including spreadsheets, images, textual extracts, archival documents, video or audio, interview notes or any specialist formats generated during research.

Data availability statements

All original research must include a data availability statement. This statement should explain how to access data supporting the results and analysis in the article, including links/citations to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Please see our full policy here.

If it is not possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, this statement should describe how data can be accessed and any conditions for reuse. Participant consent should be obtained and documented prior to data collection. See our guidance on sensitive data for more information.

When creating a data availability statement, authors are encouraged to consider the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article.

Further guidance on writing a data availability statement, including examples, is available at:

Data availability statements

Data repositories

Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit their supporting data in a publicly available repository. Sharing your data in a repository promotes the integrity, discovery and reuse of your research, making it easier for the research community to build on and credit your work.

See our data repository guidance for information on finding a suitable repository.

We recommend the use of discipline-specific repositories where available. For a number of data types, submission to specific public repositories is mandatory.

See our list of mandated data types.

The journal encourages making research data available under open licences that permit reuse. The journal does not enforce use of particular licences in third party repositories. You should ensure you have necessary rights to share any data that you deposit in a repository.

Data citation

The journal recommends that authors cite any publicly available data on which the conclusions of the paper rely. This includes data the authors are sharing alongside their publication and any secondary data the authors have reused. Data citations should include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI), should be included in the reference list using the minimum information recommended by DataCite (Dataset Creator, Dataset Title, Publisher [repository], Publication Year, Identifier [e.g. DOI, Handle, Accession or ARK]) and follow journal style.

See our further guidance on citing datasets.

Research data and peer review

If the journal that you are submitting to uses double-anonymous peer review and you are providing reviewers with access to your data (for example via a repository link, supplementary information or data on request), it is strongly suggested that the authorship in the data is also anonymised. There are data repositories that can assist with this and/or will create a link to mask the authorship of your data.

Support with research data policy

Authors who need help understanding our data sharing policy, finding a suitable data repository, or organising and sharing research data can consult our Research Data Helpdesk for guidance.

See our FAQ page for more information on Springer Nature's research data policy.

After acceptance

During the production phase the following issues must be clarified:

Copyright

Copyright transfer: Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Japanese Society of Hematology. This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.

eOffprints

Upon publication the corresponding authors will receive a free eOffprint of their article.

Online first

Articles will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the article can also be cited by issue and page numbers. After online publication, changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Proofreading

You will receive an e-mail notification with a temporary URL from which you can obtain your proofs.

Use the proof to check for typesetting errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content (e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship) are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

Errata

Errata are brief corrections to scientific errors in a manuscript that could contribute to misunderstanding of the text but do not change the conclusions of the article, omissions (e.g., author names or references), or errors related to writing or publication.

When submitting an erratum request for editorial approval, please describe the error, provide its correction, and include a full citation of or link to the original article, to ijh@jshem.or.jp.

All inquiries or correspondence of a general nature should be addressed to the Editorial Office.

Editorial Office

International Journal of Hematology

c/o The Japanese Society of Hematology

Maeda S.N. Bldg. 8F

518 Akinono-cho, Nijo-sagaru, Karasuma-dori,

Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-0847, JAPAN

Tel: +81-75-231-5711

Fax: +81-75-231-5722

e-mail: ijh@jshem.or.jp

http://www.jshem.or.jp/modules/en/

Links and downloads

Open access publishing

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in International Journal of Hematology, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page.

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