Clinical Endocrinology

The Clinical Journal of the Society for Endocrinology

Edited by:
J. M. C. Connell, J. S. Bevan, and W. F. Young

Print ISSN: 0300-0664
Online ISSN: 1365-2265
Frequency: Monthly
Current Volume: 70 / 2009
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 34/93 Endocrinology & Metabolism
Impact Factor: 3.398

TopAuthor Guidelines

Instructions for authors

Clinical Endocrinology strongly encourages the online submission of your manuscripts. Original articles should be submitted through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cen. Support for online submission is available by e-mailing to support@scholarone.com. Telephone support is available at +1-434-817-2040 x 334 (Monday through Friday 3:00 am to 8:30 pm EST). The editorial office can be contacted at CENedoffice@wiley.com.

If online submission is not possible, authors should send original papers with a disk to the appropriate regional editor, as listed here. European authors should submit to the Editorial Office, again with a disk. All other manuscripts, including reviews and commentaries, should be administered online or through the Editorial Office.

Papers are accepted on the understanding that no substantial part has been, or will be, published elsewhere. Papers may be subject to editorial revision without notice and remain the copyright of the journal. The Editors reserve the right to make the final decision whether or not a paper is accepted. Authors must indicate in the text the way in which they have complied with the recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki (British Medical Journal, 1964, ii, 177). Experimental human studies should first have been approved by a local Ethical Committee, and a statement to this effect should be included.

An Author's Declaration, obtained from the Journal website, http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cen, under 'Instructions and Forms' or from the Editorial Office of Clinical Endocrinology, must accompany each paper submitted and should be signed by all authors.

In addition, the Editors request that authors provide them with a statement of any competing interests, using a similar form as is used for this purpose by the British Medical Journal. An electronic version of this form is available under 'Instructions and Forms' on the Journal website. Although the Editors will not reject a paper simply because of a competing interest, they will publish a statement of declared interests.

Copyright information
Papers accepted must be licensed for publication in Clinical Endocrinology and a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) must accompany every accepted paper. Authors will be required to license copyright in their paper to the Publisher. Copyright licensing is a condition of publication, and papers will not be passed to the Publisher for production unless copyright has been licensed. To assist authors, the CTA will be supplied by the Editorial Office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form from: http://www.wiley.com/go/ctaaglobal

Note to NIH Grantees
Pursuant to NIH mandate, Wiley-Blackwell will post the accepted version of contributions authored by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central upon acceptance. This accepted version will be made publicly available 12 months after publication. For further information, see www.wiley.com/go/nihmandate.

OnlineOpen
OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley InterScience, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive. For the full list of terms and conditions, see http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/authorresources/onlineopen.html#OnlineOpen_Terms.

Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the payment form available from our website at:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/CEN_OOF.pdf

Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform an Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen if you do not wish to. All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

Please return the signed form by email, as a scanned attachment, to the editorial office at CENedoffice@wiley.com, or by post or fax to:

Carys Thurlby
Clinical Endocrinology
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
9600 Garsington Road
Oxford
OX4 2DQ
United Kingdom

Fax: +44 (0) 1865 47 1 321

All required forms can be obtained from the Journal website http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cen under 'Instructions and Forms' on the log-in screen.

The final version of the hard copy and the file on the disk must be the same. Note the software used, the type of computer and any special (non-keyboard) characters used.

Access to this journal is available free online within institutions in the developing world through the HINARI initiative with the WHO. For information, visit www.healthinternetwork.org

Material storage policy
Please note that unless specifically requested, the Publisher will dispose of all hardcopy or electronic material submitted two months after publication. If you require the return of any material, please inform the Editorial Office or Production Editor as soon as possible.

Original Articles
Manuscripts must be typewritten (double-spaced) on one side of the paper only. The text must be preceded by a structured summary of no more than 250 words, to include the following headings: objective, including a background sentence setting the study in context, design, patients, measurements, results, conclusions.

Only those abbreviations listed below may be used in the summary. A single title page must give: (1) the title; (2) a short title; (3) the name(s) of the author(s); (4) the department(s) in which the work was done; and (5) the name, full postal address, fax number and e-mail address of the author to whom the proofs and requests for offprints should be sent, to be headed 'Correspondence'; (6) a list of no more than five keywords (MeSH terms) related to subjects discussed in the paper; (7) an acknowledgement section to include any conflicting interests, and financial disclosure (if none, put `nothing to declare') in the paper; and (8) a word count for the manuscript.

Rapid Communications
Rapid communications should consist of new data of sufficient importance to warrant immediate publication. The submitted paper should be self-contained and not a tentative preliminary communication. It will be refereed very quickly and any revision must be dealt with promptly.
It is expected that the time interval between the acceptance and subsequent publication of the manuscript will be approximately 3 months. If the Editors consider the article unsuitable for publication as a rapid communication it will be processed as a normal paper unless it is withdrawn by the authors.

Correspondence
Correspondence will be considered for publication if it contains constructive criticism on published articles, the authors of which will be given the right of reply. Items of topical interest, including case reports presenting a significant advance in therapy or highlighting substantial scientific advances in understanding the mechanism(s) of the disease process, will also be considered under this heading. Correspondence should not exceed 1000 words and have no more than 5 references.

Case Reports
We receive a very large number of Case Reports and unfortunately, in line with our current policy, we are no longer able to accept them.
Case Reports should be submitted in a shortened form that could be considered for publication in Clinical Endocrinology in our correspondence section. Such a submission should be a maximum of 1000 words in length, may include one table/illustration and no more than five relevant references.

Review Articles and Commentaries
Review articles are normally commissioned, but we welcome suggestions for review titles and authors. Review articles in the 'Clinical Practice Update' category should deal with a defined clinical endocrine topic, and should focus on recent developments in understanding of the clinical presentation, and in clinical endocrine management. Other review articles may take a broader view of the topic and focus more on the basic mechanisms of endocrine dysfunction. Anyone wishing to write a review, clinical practice update or commentary for the journal should first consult the UK Editors (John Connell; John Bevan).

Clinical Questions
Clinical Question articles are focused answers to specific clinical questions. The content is similar to that in a typical 'corridor consultation' something that occurs every day between clinicians, either in person, or by telephone or email. The difference here is that the author will be able to expand and provide additional background for their answer. The manuscripts will be written by invitation only with the goal of one 'Clinical Question' article per issue. The answers to many of these questions rely heavily on clinical experience, and the articles will likely be highly sought after and potentially frequently referenced. These manuscripts should be no longer than 1800 words (excluding Summary) and include no more than two figures and/or tables and 30 references. It is anticipated that most experts will be able to write 90% of the manuscript in two or three sittings. To enhance the listing in Medline and PubMed, a brief unstructured summary should be included.

Clinical Trials
Authors should be aware that the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has recommended that clinical trials should be prospectively registered, and that papers reporting results of such trials should indicate that the trial has been registered (http://www.mja.com.au/ public/issues/182_12_200605/van10384_fm.pdf). Authors are advised to consult the Editorial Office if there is uncertainty about the requirement for the process to be completed.

Papers must be written in clear, concise English. Spelling should follow The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Clarendon Press, Oxford). Avoid jargon and neologisms. The journal is not prepared to undertake major correction of language, which is the responsibility of the author. Where English is not the first language of the authors, the paper must be checked by a native Engligh speaker. Authors may suggest the names of suitable referees if they wish.

Figures and Tables
Digital artwork files for reproduction should preferably be EPS or TIFF and meet our standards, but we may be able to use other formats so please include these (see http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp). Figures should be included with online submissions, either as JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PICT with RTF manuscripts or embedded in the PDF file. Colour reproductions will incur a charge.
Tables should be typed on separate sheets, numbered (with arabic numbers) and have a title.

Colour
If there is colour artwork in your manuscript, you will be required to complete and return a colour work agreement form before your paper can be published. This form can be downloaded as a PDF from the internet at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/SN_Sub2000_X_CoW.pdf once completed, please return the form to:

Carys Thurlby, Clinical Endocrinology,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
9600 Garsington Road,
Oxford, OX4 2DQ,
United Kingdom.
or by fax to +44 (0) 1865 47 1 321.

Statistics
Special attention must be paid to the appropriate use of statistical methods in both the design and analysis of the study. Authors are advised to consider the recommendations published in the British Medical Journal (1983) 286, 1489-1493. Manuscripts may be reviewed by the Journal's medical statisticians.

Units
SI units should be used throughout, with molar, in preference to mass units wherever possible. Mass units may, however, be used for peptide hormones (e.g. leptin, ghrelin). Pituitary and other hormones expressed in units per litre should quote the appropriate standard reference preparation used in the assay. GH must be expressed in mass units (µg/l) measured against International Standard 98/574. Concentrations should be expressed per litre, rather than per mL or dL and laboratory reference ranges quoted as appropriate.

Abbreviations
In general the Journal follows the recommendations in Units, Symbols and Abbreviations (1988). Royal Society of Medicine, London.
The following abbreviations may be used without definition:
ACTH corticotrophin; ADH antidiuretic hormone, vasopressin; AVP arginine vasopressin; FSH follicle stimulating hormone; GH growth hormone; GnRH gonadotrophin releasing hormone; HCG human chorionic gonadotrophin; hMG human menopausal gonadotrophin: hPL human placental lactogen; IGF insulin-like growth factor: IGFBP insulin like growth factor binding protein; LH luteinizing hormone; OT oxytocin; PRL prolactin; PTH parathyroid hormone; SHBG sex hormone binding globulin; T4 thyroxine; T3 triiodothyronine; rT3 reverse T3: TRH thyrotrophin releasing hormone; TSH thyrotrophin: VIP vasoactive intestinal peptide.
The Biochemical Journal (1975) 145, 1011, enumerates abbreviations for certain compounds and also describes the correct use of chemical names and formulae.
All other abbreviations must be defined where they are introduced.
Chemical symbols and formulae should not be used in the text.

Steroids
Authors should follow the recommendations for steroid nomenclature published in the Journal of Endocrinology (1980) 84, 3-4.

Amino Acids
Abbreviations may only be used in tables and for representing polymers or sequences in the text [see Biochemical Journal (1975) 145, 11].

Isotopically Labelled Compounds
See Biochemical Journal (1975) 145,13-14 and the Radiochemical Catalogue (Radiochemical Centre, Amersham, Bucks).

Solutions
Solutions should be described in terms of molarity (M), not normality (N). For values less than 0.1 M use mM (50 mM not 0.05 M). Buffers: composition, pH and method of adjustment should be given, e.g. 0.1 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate adjusted to pH 7.4 with 2 M sodium hydroxide. Volume ratios - e.g. methanol: water, 8 2 v/v (use 'by vol.' instead of v/v if more than two substances are involved).

References
These should conform to Vancouver style. List up to three authors and use et al. for subsequent authors. The references in the text should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear and indicated by superscript numerals. Examples are given below:

Edge. J.A., Matthews, D.R. & Dunger, D.B. (1990) The dawn phenomenon is related to overnight growth hormone release in adolescent diabetics. Clinical Endocrinology, 33, 729-737.

Russell, W.E. & Van Wyk, J.J. (1989) Peptide growth factor. In Endocrinology (ed. L. J. De Groot), pp. 2504-2524. W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, pp.2504-2524.

References in Articles
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.
EndNote reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

Disclaimer
The Publisher, The Society for the Endocrinology and Editors cannot be held responsible for errrors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this journal; the views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher, The Society for Endocrinology and Editors, neither does the publication of advertisments constitute any endorsement by the advertised.