Submission guidelines

The editors of Breast Cancer abide by the recommendations formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) ( http://www.icmje.org/ ).

Aims and scope

Breast Cancer, the official journal of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society, publishes articles that contribute to progress in the field, in basic or translational research and also in clinical research, seeking to develop a new focus and new perspectives for all who are concerned with breast cancer. The journal welcomes all original articles describing clinical and epidemiological studies and laboratory investigations regarding breast cancer and related diseases. The journal will consider five types of articles: editorials, review articles, original articles, case reports, and rapid communications. Although editorials and review articles will principally be solicited by the editors, they can also be submitted for peer review, as in the case of original articles. The journal provides the best of up-to-date information on breast cancer, presenting readers with high-impact, original work focusing on pivotal issues.

All papers, which must be written in English, will be subject to review, and the quality of the English text will be thoroughly reviewed. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been published or submitted elsewhere in substantially similar form or content, nor can they be submitted elsewhere during the processing for publication by Breast Cancer. Copyright of articles published in Breast Cancer is owned by the Japanese Breast Cancer Society.

Its publication must be approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out.

Before submitting work for publication, authors whose first language is not English should seek the assistance of a colleague who is a native speaker of English and is familiar with the field of work.

Although the editors and referees make every effort to ensure the scientific accuracy of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with authors, not with the journal, its editors, the society, or the publisher.

Clinical trial registration

Breast Cancer adopts ICMJE's policy regarding clinical trial registration (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html). Specifically, Breast Cancer requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication.

Breast Cancer follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which uses the World Health Organization's definition of a clinical trial. The ICMJE defines a clinical trial as "Any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes.' Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example, drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes). Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration."

The ICMJE lists the following registries as fully compliant:

Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry

ClinicalTrials.gov

ISRCTN Register

UMIN Clinical Trials Registry

Netherlands Trial Register

Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (ReBec)

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR)

Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS), Republic of Korea

Clinical Trials Registry - India (CTRI)

Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials(RPCEC)

EU Clinical Trials Register (EU-CTR)

German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS)

Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT)

Japan Primary Registries Network (JPRN)

Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR)

Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR)

Sri Lanka Clinical Trials Registry (SLCTR)

Upon submission, authors must provide the registration identification number and the URL for the trial's registry.

Authors can post their results in clinical trial registries as part of these requirements without it being considered previously published or overlapping publication.

Authors also must agree to submit the original protocol upon request from the editorial committee.

Prerequisites for publication

A copy of the certification form obtained from http://www.springer.com/12282 must be submitted to the journal’s editorial office by uploading it as a PDF file at the same time you submit your manuscript via Editorial Manager.

IMPORTANT: Upon receipt of Certification for Manuscript Submission , manuscripts are officially recognized as submissions.

Certification Form (Download pdf, 60 kB)

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.

Authors should include the following statements (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” when submitting a paper:

· Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

· Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals

· Informed consent

Please note that standards could vary slightly per journal dependent on their peer review policies (i.e. single or double blind peer review) as well as per journal subject discipline. Before submitting your article check the instructions following this section carefully.

The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.

The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.

Potential conflict of interest

All authors are required to disclose any financial relationship with a biotechnology manufacturer, pharmaceutical company, or other commercial entity that has an interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. Readers are entitled to transparency regarding any real or perceived conflicts of interest. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is necessarily inappropriate.

The corresponding author collects the conflict of interest disclosure forms from all authors. Further, the corresponding author includes a summary statement in the text of the manuscript in a separate section before the reference list, which reflects what is recorded in the potential conflict of interest disclosure form(s). See sample disclosures below:

A (author name) serves as a consultant to Z (entity name); B’s spouse is chairman of Y; C received a research grant from X; D received lecture fees from V; E holds a patent on U; F has been reimbursed by T for attending several conferences; G received honoraria for writing promotional material for S; H has no conflict of interest.

The “ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest” available at the ICMJE site ( http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/) should be used.

Members of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society must also refer to the Breast Cancer Clinical Research Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy and its regulations ( https://www.jbcs.gr.jp/modules/English/index.php?content_id=7).

ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflict of Interes

Research involving human participants and/or animals

1) Statement of human rights

When reporting studies that involve human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

The following statements should be included in the text before the References section:

Ethical approval: “All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”

For retrospective studies, please add the following sentence:

“For this type of study formal consent is not required.”

2) Statement on the welfare of animals

The welfare of animals used for research must be respected. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed, and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists).

For studies with animals, the following statement should be in the text before the References section:

Ethical approval: “All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.”

If applicable (where such a committee exists): “All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.”

If articles do not contain studies with human participants or animals by any of the authors, please select one of the following statements:

“This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.”

“This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.”

“This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.”

Informed consent

All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken. Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.

The following statement should be included:

Informed consent: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”

If identifying information about participants is available in the article, the following statement should be included: “Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.”

Secondary publication

Manuscripts submitted for secondary publication meeting the conditions specified in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, available on-line at http://www.icmje.org/ , will be considered for publication, but attempts at duplicate publication ignoring those conditions will be treated severely.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:

• The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.

• The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work (please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).

• A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).

• No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions

• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (“plagiarism”). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

• Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

• Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author, and order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are notaccepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

• Adding and/or deleting authors and/or changing the order of authors at revision stage may be justifiably warranted. A letter must accompany the revised manuscript to explain the reason for the change(s) and the contribution role(s) of the added and/or deleted author(s). Further documentation may be required to support your request.

• Requests for addition or removal of authors as a result of authorship disputes after acceptance are honored after formal notification by the institute or independent body and/or when there is agreement between all authors.

• Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential proprietary data is excluded.

If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the paper is maintained on the platform, watermarked "retracted" and explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed.

Editorial procedure

This journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure.

Manuscript submission via Editorial Manager

Authors should submit their manuscripts to Breast Cancer online. Please log in directly at: https://www.editorialmanager.com/brca and upload your manuscript following the instructions given on the screen. Please use the Help option to see the most recently updated system requirements.

https://www.editorialmanager.com/brca

Manuscript preparation and types of papers

• All manuscripts should be divided into the following sections: (1) Title page, (2) Abstract, (3) Introduction, (4) Materials and Methods (or Patients and Methods), (5) Results, (6) Discussion, (7) Acknowledgments, (8) References, (9) Figure Legends and Tables. All sections should start on a new page, all pages being numbered consecutively.

• Original articles should describe clinical, epidemiological studies and laboratory investigations regarding breast cancer and related diseases. It should not exceed 4000 words, 40 references and 7 figures/tables. For reports of randomized controlled trials, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement of guidelines (http://www.consort-statement.org).

• Review articles should contain a maximum of 4000 words, 80 references and 7 figures/tables.

• Only case reports with new findings that have significant clinical impact on the field or that are likely to change clinical practice, methods, or approaches will be accepted for publication. Authors should avoid the following: describing rare cases or conditions without adding new findings; describing a combination of different tumors without providing new information; or describing the outstanding impact of an existing clinical practice without providing an explanation of its efficacy. Case reports in which the patient’s diagnosis remains uncertain following initial treatment will not be considered for publication. It should not exceed 2000 words, 25 references and 4 figures/tables.

• Rapid Communications should not exceed 2000 words, 25 references and 4 figures/tables.

• Editorials are intended to convey opinions or comments relevant to breast cancer in all its aspects. Editorials are usually, but not always, solicited; unsolicited editorials will be considered for publication. Editorials should be approximately 1000 words and 4 references.

• Letters to the Editor commenting on articles published previously in the journal or expressing views on topics relevant to breast cancer will be published at the editors’ discretion. Please note the following: 1) It should not exceed 500 words, 4 references. Letters will not be acknowledged. 2) Signatures of all authors are required, but authorship is limited to three persons. 3) Letters referring to a recent journal article must be received within two months of its publication.

• Title page

The title page should include:

• The name(s) of the author(s)

• A concise and informative title

• The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)

• The e-mail address and telephone number of the corresponding author

・If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)

• Abstract

For original papers only, the abstract should be structured. The primary purpose of this format is to concisely present the data contained in the manuscript in an easily understood and comprehensive summary. The format should consist of four paragraphs, each with an introductory heading: 1) Background, comprising a short paragraph describing the present status of the field and the purpose of the study; 2) Methods, consisting of the plan and/or methods used in formulating the study; 3) Results, with a concise summary of the essential features verified by the data; and 4) Conclusions, with a brief description of the objective findings of the study. The structured abstract should be approximately 250 words in length.

• Keywords

Please provide not more than 5 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

• Text

Text formatting

For submission in Word

• Use a standard, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.

・Use Italics for emphasis.

• Use the automatic page-numbering function.

• Do not use field functions.

• Use tab stops or other commands, not the space bar, for indents.

• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.

• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

Note: If you use Word 2007, do not create equations with the default equation editor but use MathType instead.

• Heading levels

Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.

• Abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

• Terminology

Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.

• Footnotes

Footnotes on the title page are not given reference symbols. Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively.

• Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

• Conflict of interest

Authors must indicate whether or not they have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research. See the Potential conflict of interest section for more information.

• References

The list of References should include only works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should be mentioned only in the text, parenthetically. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

• Citation in text

Citations in the text should be identified 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].

• Reference list style

Journal article

Please list all authors when six or fewer; when seven and more, list six and add et al.

1. Morimoto T, Itoh S, Ishida T. Mass screening for breast cancer using physical examination in Japan (in Japanese with English abstract). Jpn J Breast Cancer 1992;7:63–8.

2. Nomura Y, Miura S, Koyama H, Enomoto K, Kasumi F, Yamamoto H, et al. Relative effect of steroid hormone receptors on the prognosis of patients with operable breast cancer. Cancer 1992;69:154–64.

Journal article with DOI (and with page numbers)

3. O’Mahony S, Rose SL, Chilvers AJ, Ballinger JR, Solanki CK, Barber RW, et al. Finding an optimal method for imaging lymphatic vessels of the upper limb. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2004;31:555–63. doi:10.1007/s00259-003-1399-3.

Book chapter

4. Harris JR, Hellman S. Natural history of breast cancer. In: Harris JR, Hellman S, Henderson IC,

Kinne DW, editors. Breast diseases. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott; 1991. p. 165–81.

• Tables

• All tables should be numbered using Arabic numerals.

• Tables should be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.

• For each table, please supply a table title. The table title should explain clearly and concisely the components of the table.

• Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table title.

•Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.

• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.

• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

• Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

• Figures

• All figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals.

• Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters. If illustrations are supplied with uppercase labeling, lowercase letters will still be used in the figure legends and citations.

• Figures should be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.

• For each figure, please supply a figure legend (caption).

• All elements in the figure should be identified in the legend.

• Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the legend.

• For more information about preparing illustrations, please refer to the artwork guidelines.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

• The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
• A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
• Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
• Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

• Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
• Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
• Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
• Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

  - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

  - an expression of concern may be placed with the article

  - or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

Authorship principles

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

All authors whose names appear on the submission

1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

3) approved the version to be published; and

4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

* Based on/adapted from:

ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

• ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
• managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
• providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
• making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Example: CRediT taxonomy:

• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

• Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

Artwork guidelines

Electronic figure submission

• Supply all figures electronically.

• Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.

• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.

• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts outlined or embedded in the files.

• Name your figure files with ‘‘Fig’’ and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line art

Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.

• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering, and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.

• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.

• If provided as scanned images or bitmap images, line drawings should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.

• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts outlined or embedded in the files.

Halftone art

Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.

• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate the magnification by using scale bars within the figures themselves.

• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination art

Definition: A combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.

• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Color art

· Color art is free of charge for online publication.

• Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans-serif fonts). Use lowercase letters to denote figure parts.

• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).

• Variation in type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.

• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.

• Do not include titles or captions in illustrations.

Figure Numbering

· All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

· Figures should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.

· Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).

· If an appendix appears in your article/chapter and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, “A1, A2, A3, etc.” Figures in online appendices (Electronic supplementary Material) should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure Captions

· Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.

· Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.

· No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.

· Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.

· Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure placement and size

• When preparing figures, size figures to fit within the column width.

• Figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that

· All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)

· Patterns are used instead or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)

Electronic supplementary material

If electronic supplementary material (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, etc.

• information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, etc.

• large amounts of original data, additional tables, illustrations, etc.

Submission

• Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.

• Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

•To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.

Audio, Video, and Animations

•Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3

• Maximum file size: 25 GB

• Minimum video duration: 1 sec

• Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp

Text and Presentations

•Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.

•A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

•Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

• Specialized formats such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

• It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Numbering

• If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.

•Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., “... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)”, “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.

• Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

Captions

• For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

Processing of supplementary files

• Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

•The manuscript contain a descriptive caption for each supplementary material

•Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

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