Submitting your work to the JCI

The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) is a general-interest biomedical journal with a broad readership. Among top-tier research journals, the JCI is alone in providing barrier-free online access, and it has done so since 1996. The JCI is the publication of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and has been published continuously since 1924.

Revised December 11, 2008.

Scope of publication

The JCI publishes original articles of the highest quality pertaining to the genetic, molecular, cellular, or physiological basis of human biology and disease. Single, complete papers are preferred to a series of interdependent ones. The JCI considers two types of manuscripts: Regular manuscripts, which should describe substantial new mechanistic insights into biology and disease; and Technical Advances, which should report new and important research tools and techniques that could have broad impact. Technical Advances optimally will also include application of the technique to a specific question relevant to understanding or treating a disease.

Manuscript submission

The JCI requires manuscripts to be submitted online by corresponding authors. An account is required to proceed with submission; authors can register for accounts or access their existing accounts by following the guidance at https://www.the-jci.org. Briefly, a submission must be prepared as described in Manuscript preparation and format, with particular attention paid to the submission PDF:

• The manuscript must be supplied in a singular PDF and must include all information related to the submission: the complete manuscript text, all figures, and all tables. (Supplemental data, information for reviewers, and PDFs of manuscripts in press must be uploaded separately.)
• Each figure (including all parts, if applicable) and its corresponding legend must be presented together on its own page within the manuscript PDF.
• Each table must be presented complete on its own page within the manuscript PDF.

Other information about the submission — for example, title, author list, and abstract — will need to be supplied as text during the submission process. Once all required information has been supplied, submitters of original and de novo submissions will be asked to pay a processing fee.

Processing fee. A nonrefundable fee of US$70 is required for original and de novo submissions. The fee is not required for revised submissions. Payment by credit card (Visa/MasterCard/American Express only) is strongly encouraged; checks drawn in US dollars are acceptable (a US$25 fee is assessed for returned checks). The JCI does not accept purchase orders or bankwire transfers. Manuscripts will not be considered until payment is received. Please note that the submission fee is charged regardless of whether the manuscript is sent for external review.

Policies

The corresponding author must verify that the manuscript, including related data, figures and tables, has not been previously reported or published, that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere, and that it will not be submitted elsewhere while under review by the JCI . If any related preliminary report (symposia, proceedings, transactions, books, invited articles, etc.) other than an abstract of 400 words or fewer has been published or submitted, a copy must accompany the submission. Related unpublished articles by any of the authors must be submitted online as well for editors and reviewers.

All human and animal studies must have been approved by the authors' institutional review board and a specific declaration must be made within the Methods section. All patients referred to in human studies should be identified by number, not by name, and must have provided informed consent prior to inclusion in the study. All clinical investigation must have been conducted according to Declaration of Helsinki principles. Manuscripts without declaration of ethical approval for experiments included within the Methods section will not be reviewed.

All authors must disclose any commercial affiliations as well as consultancies, stock or equity interests, and patent-licensing arrangements that could be considered a conflict of interest. A detailed conflict of interest policy is available on the JCI website (http://www.jci.org/misc/info.shtml). Specifics of such disclosures will remain confidential until publication, when an appropriate statement regarding any conflicts will be noted in the manuscript. All institutional and corporate funding sources should be credited.

As a condition of publication, authors are required to make materials and methods used freely available to academic researchers for their own use. This requirement includes antibodies, cell lines and the constructs used to make transgenic animals, but not necessarily the animals themselves. Mice generated without the use of constructs must be submitted to a public repository at the time of publication, unless authors can ensure prompt distribution to academic researchers on request. Transgenic animals or mice with induced mutations required to confirm the conclusions of the experiments reported must be made available to academic scientists under appropriate conditions. Other reagents, methods, and cell lines must be made freely available to the academic community. A pictoral representation of the structure of any new drug described in the manuscript must be provided.

Authors must submit original nucleotide or amino acid sequence data to GenBank, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), DNA Databank of Japan, or other appropriate, identified, publicly available database in general use in the field that gives free access to researchers from the date of publication. Accession numbers should appear in the manuscript. Microarray data should be made freely available to academic researchers on authors' own web sites or other freely available web site (the URL to be provided in the paper) until a public database is available in accordance with the MIAME convention. Other supporting data sets must be made available to any interested reader on the publication date from the authors directly. Researchers who encounter a persistent refusal by an author of a paper to comply with these guidelines should contact the Executive Editor by e-mail at editors@the-jci.org.

For all experiments involving genetically engineered mice, inbred strain background effects have become an important concern. The Editorial Board generally only considers the following as appropriate controls: the parental wild-type inbred strain (if the engineered animals studied have been backcrossed onto this strain for >4 generations) or littermates. If an alternative control was used, an explanation must be included in the cover letter to the Editor.

Authors may suggest a member of the Editorial Board with appropriate expertise to handle submissions. Authors are encouraged to provide contact information for at least five potential reviewers who have not been collaborators or coauthors within the last three years, nor should they have provided substantial advice or critique of the submitted manuscript. Authors should note reviewers they wish to exclude and reason(s) for exclusion.

Manuscript preparation and format

Manuscripts should be double-spaced (including references, tables. Figure legends may be single-spaced if needed to keep image and legend on same page). Number all pages. Manuscripts average 8,500 words, including all legends and references; however, the JCI does not enforce a strict word limit. In general, authors should follow the Council of Biology Editors Style Manual. Standard abbreviations may be used without definition. A list of JCI standard abbreviations is available at http://www.jci.org/misc/abbreviations.shtml. Nonstandard abbreviations should be spelled out on first use, followed by the abbreviated form in parentheses. Thereafter, they may be abbreviated without definition. On the title page, provide a list of all nonstandard abbreviations used. Undefined abbreviations must not be used. Abbreviate units of measure only when used with numbers.

Start each section (title page, abstract, introduction, results, discussion, methods, acknowledgments, references, figures, and tables) on a new page using the guidelines that follow. Authors are encouraged to provide a concise summary (1-2 paragraphs) of the key findings in the cover letter.

List the manuscript title, first and last names of all authors, their departments, institutions, and full addresses where work was performed. Also include the institutional affiliation of each author, if different from where the work was performed. The complete name, address, telephone and fax numbers (including country code, where applicable), and e-mail address of the corresponding author must be provided.

The manuscript title should be concise while conveying the essential conclusion of the paper. Titles must be no longer than 15 words. Subtitles, colons, and nonstandard abbreviations are unacceptable. For publication, the JCI reserves the right to reword titles, with the final approval of the authors.

The abstract may not exceed 200 words and should state the rationale, objectives, findings, and conclusions of the manuscript. The abstract, like the title, should be written for the journal's general readership. Nonstandard abbreviations, references, and primary data should not be presented in abstracts. For publication, the JCI reserves the right to reword the abstract, with the final approval of the authors.

State source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, or drugs. Authors may include other appropriate acknowledgments (for example, to other scientists for their help or advice).

Footnotes are used only in the author/affiliation section and within tables. Assign author/affiliation footnotes consecutively using superscript numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.). Assign footnotes to tables by superscript capital letters starting from A and continuing in alphabetical order.

Indicate references in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses (do not use superscript). In the Reference section, list references numbered in the order in which they appear in the text in the format shown below (note that the initials of the authors always follow the surnames, and that there should be no space between two or more initials). Include all authors’ names. Use complete article titles. Indicate articles that are in press following the journal name. Abbreviate the names of journals according to PubMed. Spell out names of unlisted journals. Supply inclusive page numbers. Upload all related unpublished manuscripts cited. Submitted manuscripts, manuscripts in preparation, unpublished observations, personal communications, and preliminary report citations must appear parenthetically in the text and not in the References section. Obtain and submit written permission when citing a personal communication or unpublished observation.

The following are examples of references to common source types:

Journal articles

1. Yalow, R.S., and Berson, S.A. 1960. Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man. J. Clin. Invest. 39:1157–1175.

In press

2. Gardner, W., and Schultz, H.D. 1990. Prostaglandins regulate the synthesis and secretion of the atrial natriuretic peptide. J. Clin. Invest. In press.

Complete books

3. Myant, N.B. 1981. The Biology of Cholesterol and Related Steroids. Heinemann Medical Books. London, United Kingdom. 882 pp.

Articles in books

4. Innerarity, T.L., Hui, D.Y., and Mahley, R.W. 1982. Hepatic apoprotein E (remnant) receptor. In Lipoproteins and Coronary Atherosclerosis. G. Noseda, S. Fragiacomo, R. Fumagalli, and R. Paoletti, editors. Elsevier. Amsterdam, Holland. 173–181.

Abstracts

5. Packman, C.H., Rosenfeld, S.I., and Leddy, J.P. 1981. Inhibition of the C8/C9 steps of complement lysis by a high density lipoprotein (HDL) of human serum. Fed. Proc. 40:967a. (Abstr.)

Figures and tables

Style:Type appearing within figures (axis labels, for example) should be produced in Helvetica or similar typeface, and it must be of sufficient size and contrast to retain clarity if reduced in size. When using scale bars, please define scales in figure legends, not in the figures themselves. Use standard abbreviations whenever possible. Avoid gratuitous use of color for decorative effect, boxes around graphs and figures, and small type and symbols on large graphs. Whenever possible, do not place labels over any part of a color figure.

Figures must be cited sequentially in the text using Arabic numerals (for example, Figure 7). Provide a short title (in the legend, not on the figure itself), and an explanation in brief but sufficient detail to make the figure intelligible without reference to the text (unless a similar explanation has been given in another figure). Do not exceed 250 words for each legend. Provide a key to any symbols used. Each figure (including all parts, if applicable) and its corresponding legend must be presented together on its own page.

All tables should be double-spaced on manuscript pages. Tables should be self-contained and self-explanatory. Provide brief titles and use superscript capital letters starting from A and continuing in alphabetical order for footnotes (see Footnotes section). Tables with sections (for example, Table 1a, 1b, 1c) are not acceptable. Each table must be presented complete on its own page.

For graphic material, we have adopted a policy taken from The Journal of Cell Biology: No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The groupings of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g. using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.

The Editors reserve the right to consult the Office of Research Integrity or the appointed official at the authors' home institution if the figures appear to have been manipulated.

Accepted manuscripts

The following items are of note to authors of accepted manuscripts, although all authors submitting their work to the JCI should be aware of the journal's policies regarding accepted manuscripts.

The JCI deposits all articles in PubMed Central immediately upon publication. Authors of articles published in the JCI do not need to submit their accepted articles separately to PubMed Central. This satisfies the NIH Public Access Policy and other similar funder requirements.

Authors of accepted manuscripts should be prepared to supply figures as TIFF files produced at appropriate resolution: 1200-DPI bitmap mode for black-and-white images such as graphs and log scales, 600-DPI grayscale mode for images such as gels or blots, and 300-DPI CMYK mode for color images. The JCI cannot accept application files (for example, Powerpoint). Each figure should be no larger than 16 cm in width and 20 cm in height at the appropriate resolution. Authors should also provide hard copy for reference purposes.

Authors of accepted manuscripts may provide related supplemental data to be posted online along with the published manuscript. This data may include figures, tables, videos, or appendices. Before submission, carefully review all files because they will not be checked by a copy editor. The JCI is not responsible for any errors contained in data supplements.

All JCI content is freely available online immediately upon publication (and, in most instances, prior to print publication). The publication charges assessed to authors help support free access to all JCI articles in addition to defraying printing expenses. Authors are billed at the time of publication. Authors will be assessed US$0.22 per word, including the text of legends, tables, and references, based on the word count of the accepted manuscript. Excessive additions made to publication proofs may result in additional charges. Authors will be billed $100 per figure and $50 per table. Authors will be assessed an additional $1,000, regardless of the number of color figures, when a manuscript requires color printing. Color figures can generally be reproduced in grayscale if authors are unwilling or unable to pay for color charges. Authors must inform the JCI upon manuscript acceptance if they wish to convert color figures to grayscale. Supplemental data: Authors will be charged $300 for supplemental data that is posted online with accepted articles. The JCI is not responsible for assuming the cost of correcting errors in supplemental data or the cost of scanning supplemental images.

All authors must assign copyright to the ASCI prior to publication.

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