Clinical Chemistry - IFA - Author Requirements

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Author Requirements

Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding of the following:

Each author has participated significantly in the work in a substantive way and is prepared to take public responsibility for its content;
Each listed Author must have

participated in conception, design, analysis, or interpretation;
drafted or critically revised the Manuscript; and
read and approved the final submitted Manuscript and its revision.

Alteration to authorship or contributorship

Any change in authors and/or contributors after initial submission must be approved by all authors. This applies to additions, deletions, change of order to the authors, or contributions being attributed differently.

Any alterations must be explained to the editor. The editor may contact any of the authors and/or contributors to ascertain whether they have agreed to any alteration.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Uniform Guidelines for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (1) specifically state that “all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as a person who . . . provided purely writing assistance" be named in the acknowledgments.
Important contributions to an article should be recognized and appropriately attributed in that article.

Good medical writers and editors can make valuable contributions to the publication process, often improving the clarity of the communication, broadening the scope of literature review, providing an extra level of data review, adding balance and objectivity, and shortening the time needed for manuscript development.

The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) http://www.amwa.org believes that these important contributions deserve recognition.
Readers benefit from knowing about the involvement of professional writers and editors.

Disclosing the editorial contribution and the source of funding of the writer and editor allows the reader to make informed judgments about the objectivity of the article.

Note that the AMWA position statement recommends acknowledgment of pertinent professional or financial relationships as well as acknowledgment of the contributions of writers and editors.

It also recommends that the person being acknowledged be given the opportunity to grant or refuse permission for the acknowledgment.

Adding an author to your manuscript

If you add an author to your manuscript after the first submission, our journal policy requires that you submit a letter explaining why this author has been added. The editor will examine this letter and determine if authorship can be changed after first submission.

We require you to upload a copy of this letter into our system as supplementary data. To do so, simply upload the extra file with your manuscript in the category "Supplemental Files" (See the ‘Preparing your Supplemental Data for Submission section‘ or you may wish to include the information in your current cover letter area.

If you are unable to upload or include the letter, please e-mail the letter as an attachment to clinchemed{at}clinchem.aacc.org. Be sure to include the manuscript number on all correspondence.

Copyright

Upon acceptance, all authors are required to read and sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement. Each author will be invited via e-mail to sign a statement confirming that the manuscript does not contain material for which publication would violate any copyright or other personal or proprietary right of any person or entity. US Federal employees will need to be identified. Each author must be registered with our online submission system to access, read, and electronically sign the copyright agreement.

Manuscripts will be held until all copyrights are received. In the event copyrights are not received at the date of publication, the manuscript will not be published.

Manuscripts will not be prohibited from publication solely on the basis of a web-posting of a talk at a medical or scientific meeting that presents all or part of the content of the submitted manuscript.

Authors are expected to retain – for a minimum of 1 year after publication – the raw data from laboratory or clinical studies and to present this data upon request of the Editor if the data is contested.

Authors are expected to identify to the Editor any other manuscripts (in print, accepted, have been submitted, in preparation) that relates to the submitted manuscript, especially if any patients or results are described in both.

Questions related to the possibility of perceived redundant publication or fragmentation of results should be directed to the Editor.

Conflict of interest

Author affiliations, sources of support, and commercial associations must be listed in the manuscript, and any other potential conflicts of interest must be acknowledged.

Associations such as consultancies, equity interests, or patent-licensing arrangements may be disclosed to the Editor in a covering letter at the time of submission. Such information is held in confidence while the paper is under review and does not influence the editorial decision on reports of research; after review of the manuscript is completed, relevant information is added to the paper before it is published.

Authors of editorials are expected to be free of significant financial associations with companies that may be affected by topics discussed in the manuscript.

The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) recognizes the valuable contributions of biomedical communicators to the publication team. Biomedical communicators who contribute substantially to the writing or editing of a manuscript should be acknowledged with their permission and with disclosure of any pertinent professional or financial relationships. In all aspects of the publication process, biomedical communicators should adhere to the AMWA code of ethics at http://www.amwa.org/default.asp? .

1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Ann Intern Med 1997;126:36-47.[Medline]

Studies with human subjects

Authors are responsible for ensuring compliance of human studies with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1996: http://www.wma.net/e/humanrights/policy_meetings.htm. Approval by the appropriate institutional committee on human research (Institutional Review Board) must be documented in the manuscript and, unless excepted by that committee, informed consent of all participants studied for the report must be included.

Animal studies

Authors are responsible for ensuring that studies of animals are in accordance with the Committee on Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The information can be found in the Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. Washington, DC: Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, National Research Council, 1985:83pp.