Information for authors

Cancer Hypotheses welcomes submissions of research papers, reviews, mini-reviews and short communications in all cancer-related areas. High quality reviews from leading researchers are particularly welcome and they will be peer-reviewed and published quickly when acceptable.

There will be no set limit to the length of the submission, however, authors are urged to be succinct in their presentation and arguments.

Short research communication is limited to <2500 words. Authors can choose any preferred style and format for submission, although the Harvard system for text references is requested; e.g. as (Jones and Lee, 2013). For regular papers, the Journal recommends that they are organized as Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods (if and when necessary), Results (if and when necessary), and Discussion, followed by Acknowledgements, Conflict of Interest, and References. Reviews should have clear subheadings that deal with specific aspects or points being made in the text.

Submission

Please submit the manuscript as a word.doc file and jpg files for the figures. Submit the manuscript using the website form or as an attachment to office@cancerhypotheses.org.uk

Review/Decisions

The  manuscripts go through peer-review process. The outcomes can be:

(i) accept as is, (ii) minor revision, (iii) major revision, or (iv) reject. Authors should submit back their revisions within 1 month in the case of minor revision or 2 months in the case of major revision. To submit a revision, follow the procedure as for the initial submission. If there is a challenge to a decision of rejection, the editor will be prepared to have the paper re-reviewed by independent editors when a good case is made.

Regarding plagiarism, we operate a zero-tolerance policy (including self-plagiarism). . Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism before and/or during publication. If any significant plagiarism is found, submission will be summarily rejected at any stage of the editing process.

Publication Charges:

PUBLICATION IS FREE OF CHARGE UNTIL JULY 2017

Published articles of Cancer Hypotheses are open access and full texts appear online. This effectively removes the barriers for timely distribution of the articles and ensures that they can be read by all the scientific and medical fraternity. Payment should be made after acceptance of an article in order for the paper to be published, and an invoice with instruction will be sent to the corresponding author. The charge can be made preferably by bank transfer, alternatively by money order or check. We no longer accept credit cards for security reasons. The fee is required to cover the cost of publication; it has been set low to cover the expenses of running the journal on a not-for-profit basis. However, with this policy we cannot offer any fee waiver.

Reviews and research papers :£400

Short communication, comments, etc. : £250

Format for Publication

Upon acceptance of the manuscript, please provide a final version (in Microsoft Word file) for editing purposes. Include figures and Tables at the end of the Word file manuscript. We cannot accept Latex and Tex files.

Make sure figures, photographs and other images are of high resolution, and any letters on them are clear and legible. Use a bar on a figure where dimension is important. If the figures or tables are created using PowerPoint, Photoshop, Microsoft Excel etc., please provide the original files from these programs.

Title Page and abstract:

The first letter of each word in title should use upper case. Include in the first page the article title, author's names, affiliations, corresponding author's phone number and email. Abstract should not contain citations to references. Also provide 3-6 keywords.

Author's names: please provide full names. Important! Please write first name and middle name before surname or last name, e.g., "Mike Johnson" (not "Johnson, Mike"; not "Johnson M."; not "M. Johnson").

Text:

Subtitles/subheadings are important. If necessary, they can be given numbers in sequence.

Citation of Tables and Figures:

Tables and Figures should be numbered consecutively. Citation of tables and figures should use the format: Table 1, Table 2, ... Figure 1, Figure 2, ... (or Fig. 1, Fig. 2, ...). Parts in a figure can be identified by A, B, C, D, ... . and cited as Figure 2A, Figure 2B, Figure 2C. Please do not abbreviate the word "Table" to "Tab.".

Math Formulas and Symbols:

Simple mathematical formulas should be constructed using superscript, subscript, italic, and symbols in the Microsoft Word.

• Use symbols in the Fonts: (normal text) or Symbol fonts. To insert a symbol, use Insert/symbol in the Word menu.
• Use / for "divide" or "over". For example, 1/7, 5/(4+6).
• Use Symbol fonts for "±", etc., but avoid underlining.
• For “greater than” or “less than”, use > and <

Please avoid using mathematical equations in Word whenever possible, as they have to be replaced by images in xml full text.

References:

References should be cited in the manuscript text in alphabetical order. Avoid putting personal communications and unpublished observations in the reference list; they should be added in the text. Conference abstracts or papers in references should also be avoided. References should not be as footnotes.

a) A Journal Paper
Please use this format:  The sequence is as: [Author surname] [Author initials], [Other author surnames & initials]. [Article title]. [Journal name abbreviation]. [Year]; [Volume]: [First page number]-[Last page number].

•  Journal paper must have journal name (or journal abbreviation), year, volume and page numbers.
• Use "," to separate volume and first page number.
•  It is not necessary to highlight or italicize the title, journal name, or any part of references. Omit any "." in the journal abbreviations.

Examples:

• 1. Eknoyan G, Beck GJ, Cheung AK, et al. Effect of dialysis dose and membrane flux in maintenance hemodialysis. N Engl J Med. 2002; 347: 2010-9.
• Supplement example:
  2. Volk HD, Reinke P, Krausch D, et al. Monocyte deactivation-rationale for a new therapeutic strategy in sepsis. Intensive Care Med. 1996; 22 (Suppl 4):S474-S481.
• No author given example:
  3. [No authors listed]. Medicare program; criteria for Medicare coverage of adult liver transplants-HCFA. Final notice. Fed Regist. 1991; 56(71):15006-15018.
• In press example:
  4. Cheung TMT, et al. Effectiveness of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation in the treatment of acute respiratory failure in severe acute respiratory syndrome. Chest; in press.
•  Epub ahead of print example:
  5. Li W, Chen Y, Cameron DJ, et al. Elovl4 haploinsufficiency does not induce early onset retinal degeneration in mice. Vision Res 2007; [Epub ahead of print].

b)Book

Kiloh LG, Smith JS, Johnson GF, et al. Physical treatment in psychiatry. Boston, USA: Blackwell Scientific Publisher; 1988.

• Chapters in Edited Book

Beckenbough RD, Linscheid RL. Arthroplasty in the hand and wrist. In: Green DP, ed. Operative Hand Surgery, 2nd ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1988: 167-214.

c) Web Site

[Internet] WHO: Geneva, Switzerland. Summary of probable SARS cases with onset of illness from 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003. Revised 26 September 2003. http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2003_09_23/en/

[Internet] Kornberg R. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2006/press.html

DOI: Please remove the "[pii]" field in any doi. E.g., doi:00932.2006 [pii] 10.1152/japplphysiol.00932.2006. Remove "00932.2006 [pii]".

Supplementary materials:

Supplementary materials may include figures, tables, methods, videos and other materials. They are available online linked to the original published article. Supplementary tables and figures should be labelled with a "S", e.g. "Table S1" and "Figure S1".

The maximum file size for supplementary materials is 5MB each. Please keep the files as small as possible to avoid frustrating readers who would otherwise have to download large files.

Abbreviations:

Abbreviations should be presented in one paragraph, in the format: "term: definition". Please separate the items by ";".

E.g. HIV: human immunodeficiency virus; SIV: simian immunodeficiency virus; ...

Ethics Committee Approval and Patient Consent:

Experimental research involving human or animals should have been approved by author's institutional review board or ethics committee. This information can be mentioned in the manuscript including the name of the board/committee that gave the approval. Investigations involving humans will have been performed in accordance with the principles of Declaration of Helsinki. And the use of animals in experiments will have observed the Interdisciplinary Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, Testing, and Education by the New York Academy of Sciences, Ad Hoc Animal Research Committee, or the corresponding appropriate authorities in other countries.

If the manuscript contains photos or parts of photos of patients, informed consent from each patient should be obtained. Patient's identities and privacy should be carefully protected in the manuscript.

Competing Interests:

Competing interests that might interfere with the objective presentation of the research findings contained in the manuscript should be declared in a paragraph heading "Competing interests" (after Acknowledgment section and before References). Examples of competing interests are ownership of stock in a company, commercial grants, board membership, etc. If there is no competing interest, please use the statement "The authors declare no competing interest".