General Policy

CANCER DIAGNOSIS & PROGNOSIS (CDP) is an international online open-access bimonthly journal designed to bring together original high-quality works and reviews on experimental and clinical research advancing knowledge on the diagnosis and prognosis of all types of human cancer, leukemia, and metastasis. CDP is aiming at improving prompt disease management and quality of life of cancer patients through a precise early diagnosis and prognosis. The topics of CDP include 1. Experimental development of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers; 2. Clinical application of new biomarkers; 3. Evaluation of combinations of past and emerging biomarkers; 4. Molecular pathology and proteomics in the discovery of new biomarkers and systemic cancer staging; 5. Genetic, epigenetic, and chromosomal markers; 6. Use of biomarkers in the selection of the proper cancer management; 7. Use of biomarkers in assessing response, restaging, and prognosis after surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and/or immunotherapy; 8. Use of diagnostic procedures including combinations of biomarkers and imaging in the selection and assessment of the proper cancer management; 9. Novel surgery technologies in improving diagnosis and prognosis. Each submitted article should include a concrete conclusion constituting a “new piece of knowledge” backed by scientific evidence.

CDP provides for the prompt online publication of accepted articles within 1-2 months from final acceptance. Manuscripts will be accepted on the understanding that they report original unpublished works that are not under consideration for publication by another journal and that they will not be published again in the same form. All Authors should sign a submission letter confirming the approval of their article contents. All material submitted to CDP will be subject to peer-review, when appropriate, by two referees, and will be urgently treated with absolute confidence. The journal reserves the right to improve manuscripts’ grammar and style.

CDP requires that all manuscripts be prepared in accordance with the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals” as published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). We also support and adhere to the “Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing” (a joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA).

The Editors and Publishers of CDP accept no responsibility for the contents and opinions expressed by the contributors. Authors should warrant due diligence in the creation and issuance of their work.

Authorship

To be considered an author of a research article, a person must have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. All authors must also have been involved in drafting or revising the manuscript and must have given final approval of the version to be published. Any changes to the authorship of a manuscript must be approved by all authors, including any additions, deletions, or rearrangements of author names. Acknowledgements should be included in the manuscript to recognize individuals or organizations that contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship. The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal during the submission, review, and publication process. This person is also responsible for ensuring that all authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and for providing contact information for readers who have questions or comments about the research. All authors must disclose any financial or other conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the research. This information should be included in the manuscript. Authors must adhere to ethical guidelines and standards in the conduct of their research, including obtaining informed consent from study participants, minimizing harm to subjects, and protecting their privacy and confidentiality. Any ethical issues or concerns should be disclosed in the manuscript. Authors should provide access to the data and materials used in the research, including any software or algorithms, so that other researchers can replicate or build upon the findings. Data should be deposited in a recognized repository and the repository information should be included in the manuscript. Authors should ensure that their research is reproducible, meaning that other researchers can obtain similar results using the same data and methods. This can be achieved by providing detailed descriptions of methods and procedures, including any statistical analyses, in the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest refer to any financial, personal, or professional relationships or activities that could be perceived as potentially influencing the objectivity, integrity, or credibility of the research being published. Authors must disclose all potential competing interests, including those that may be perceived as conflicting, to the journal. This includes relationships or activities that have occurred within the past five years and those that are ongoing or anticipated. Reviewers and editors must also disclose any potential competing interests that could influence their ability to provide unbiased and objective reviews of manuscripts. The journal will carefully evaluate manuscripts that disclose potential competing interests and may seek additional information or clarification. The journal may also require authors to revise their manuscript or provide additional disclosures. Any conflicts of interest will be published along with the manuscript to provide transparency and allow readers to evaluate the potential impact on the research. The journal may take a number of steps to manage potential conflicts of interest, such as requiring authors to recuse themselves from the review process or seeking additional reviews from independent reviewers. If a conflict of interest is discovered post-publication, it will be added in the next available issue as an addendum.

Ethical Policies and Standards

Authors must adhere to ethical principles in the conduct of their research, including obtaining informed consent from human subjects, minimizing harm to subjects, and protecting their privacy and confidentiality.

Research involving human subjects must be approved by an institutional review board or ethics committee and must comply with international ethical guidelines, such as the Declaration of Helsinki and Title 45, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects effective December 13, 2001. Informed consent must be obtained from all human subjects and their privacy and confidentiality must be protected. Research involving the use of human fetuses, fetal tissue, embryos and embryonic cells should adhere to the NIH Grants Policy Statement about Human Fetal Tissue Research.

Animal research must follow ethical guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals, including minimizing harm and discomfort to animals and using alternatives to animals whenever possible. The journal may require authors to provide evidence of compliance with ethical guidelines and may reject manuscripts that do not comply. Research involving animals must adhere to the “Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals” approved by the Council of the American Physiological Society. The use of animals in biomedical research should be under the careful supervision of a person adequately trained in this field and the animals must be treated humanely at all times.

Dual-use research is research that has the potential for both beneficial and harmful applications. Authors must assess the potential risks and benefits of their research and take steps to minimize the potential for misuse or harm. The journal may require additional review or oversight of manuscripts that involve dual-use research.

Before starting the study, all used protocols must have an ethical approval from the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or any other appropriate ethics board to ensure that the study meets national and international guidelines for human experimentation. A written statement that acknowledges this, including the name of the Institutional Review Board and the reference/approval number (if any), must be included in the submitted manuscript. If a non-interventional study does not require ethical approval, or if a study is exempt from an ethics committee, then this should be fully detailed in the submitted manuscript. For an approved study, the name of the Institutional Review Board that approved it must also be given. Ethics approval is required for all studies before the research is conducted. Authors should be prepared to provide additional information to the journal editors upon request.

Clinical Trials

All clinical trials submitted to CDP have to be registered in a public registry prior to submission and the trial registry number must be included in the submitted article. Our journal is in accordance with the trials registration policy of the ICMJE. Acceptable registries must meet the following ICMJE requirements: be accessible to the public at no charge, be open to all prospective registrants, be managed by a not-for-profit organization, have a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data, and be electronically searchable. An acceptable registry must include the minimum 24-item trial registration data set at the time of registration and before enrollment of the first participant. Examples of registries that meet these criteria include ClinicalTrials.gov, the Cochrane Renal Group Registry, the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry, and the European Clinical Trials Database. Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) must adhere to the CONSORT statement.

Informed Consent

CDP endorses the recommendations of ICMJE for reporting of research and other material published in medical journals, including reporting and reviewing of animal and human research. When publishing identifiable images from human participants, authors must include a statement that they have obtained an informed consent for their publication. If the participant is deceased, then a consent must be sought from the next of kin. Patient anonymity must be protected by all reasonable measures. All material without an appropriate consent will be removed. The submitted statement can be an appropriate permission from the author and/or publisher of the original work or a written and signed consent to publish from each participant. Authors must protect patient anonymity, whether using original content or reproducing content from a primary source.

Reporting Standards

Manuscripts must present original research that has not been previously published and that makes a significant contribution to the field. Authors must avoid plagiarism, duplicate publication, and self-plagiarism. Manuscripts must include sufficient data and information to allow readers to evaluate the research and reproduce the results. Authors must ensure the accuracy and integrity of their data and provide detailed methods and protocols. Authors must use appropriate statistical methods and report them accurately. They must also describe their methods clearly and provide enough detail to allow other researchers to reproduce the experiments. Authors must present their results clearly and accurately, avoiding exaggeration or misrepresentation. Conclusions must be supported by the data and should not go beyond what is warranted by the evidence. Manuscripts must comply with ethical standards for research involving human subjects and animals, as well as international guidelines, such as the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must obtain informed consent from human subjects and ensure that animal research is conducted ethically. Authors must disclose all sources of funding for their research and any potential conflicts of interest. They must also acknowledge the contributions of others to the research, including assistance with data collection, analysis, or interpretation. Manuscripts must cite relevant and current literature and give credit to the original authors. Authors must avoid excessive self-citation and ensure that their citations are accurate and complete. The journal may reject manuscripts that do not comply with these reporting standards.

Image Integrity and Standards

Authors must ensure that images are presented accurately and honestly, without manipulation or alteration that could misrepresent the data or lead to incorrect conclusions. Any manipulation of images must be disclosed in the manuscript and explained in the figure legends. Authors must avoid duplicating images within a manuscript or across multiple manuscripts, unless the duplication is necessary for clarity or comparison. Any duplicated images must be clearly labeled and explained in the figure legends. Authors must maintain the integrity of the image data, including raw data and processed images. They must ensure that images accurately represent the data and that any adjustments or enhancements do not distort or misrepresent the data. Figure legends and captions must accurately describe the content of the figures and provide sufficient information to allow readers to understand the data presented. They must also indicate the source of any previously published figures or images. Authors must provide any supporting information, such as original data or images, that is necessary to verify the findings presented in the manuscript. The supporting information must be of sufficient quality and resolution to allow readers to evaluate the data. Manuscripts may be subjected to image analysis software or visual inspection by the journal’s editorial team to ensure the integrity of the images. Authors may be asked to provide original data or additional information to support the images presented in their manuscript. The journal may reject manuscripts that do not comply with these image integrity policies.

Plagiarism and duplicate publication

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, without proper attribution or permission. This can include copying text, data, images, or other materials without permission or proper citation. Plagiarism can take many forms, including verbatim copying, paraphrasing without proper attribution, and mosaic plagiarism (combining text from multiple sources without proper citation). It can also include self-plagiarism or reusing your own work without proper citation or permission. Authors can prevent plagiarism by properly citing all sources of information and obtaining permission to use copyrighted materials. They should also avoid copying text or data without permission and ensure that any borrowed material is properly paraphrased and attributed. All manuscripts will be subjected to plagiarism detection software (iThenticate) and manual review by the journal’s editorial team to identify instances of plagiarism. The journal may also receive reports of suspected plagiarism from readers, other authors, or other sources. Plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in rejection of the manuscript, retraction of published articles, and damage to the author’s reputation. The journal may also report cases of plagiarism to the author’s institution or other relevant authorities. If plagiarism is detected in a published article, the journal may issue a correction or retraction to alert readers to the problem. The authors may also be required to provide an explanation or apology for the plagiarism.

Corrections, Retractions and Matters Arising

Corrections may be issued for errors that do not affect the overall findings or conclusions of a published article. These may include typographical errors, errors in figures or tables, or other minor mistakes. Retractions may be issued for serious errors or ethical concerns that call into question the validity or integrity of a published article. These may include fraud, plagiarism, or other ethical violations, as well as errors that significantly affect the findings or conclusions of the article. Decisions to issue corrections or retractions are based on a careful review of the available evidence and consideration of the potential impact on the scientific record. The journal may consult with the authors, reviewers, and other experts as part of this process. Corrections and retractions are issued through a formal process that involves notifying readers, indexing services, and other relevant parties. The journal may also require the authors to provide an explanation or response to the concerns raised. Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of their published work and are expected to cooperate with the journal’s efforts to address any errors or ethical concerns. They may be asked to provide additional information or participate in a formal investigation. Corrections and retractions can have a significant impact on the scientific record, and may be taken into account by other researchers, funding agencies, and other stakeholders. The journal seeks to ensure that corrections and retractions are issued promptly and transparently, and that the scientific record is preserved and protected.

Peer Review

Peer review is an essential part of the scholarly publishing process, helping to ensure the quality and integrity of published research. The primary purpose of peer review is to evaluate manuscripts for scientific validity, originality, and significance, and to provide constructive feedback to authors. There are different types of peer review, and CDP uses the single-blind, where the reviewers’ identities are concealed from the authors. Reviewers are typically selected based on their expertise and qualifications in the relevant field, and may include both academic researchers and professionals from industry or government. The journal may also consult with the authors, editors, or other experts in selecting reviewers. Reviewers are asked to evaluate manuscripts based on a set of criteria that may include scientific validity, originality, significance, methodology, and interpretation of results. They are also asked to provide feedback to the authors, including suggestions for improving the manuscript. Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality and avoid conflicts of interest when evaluating manuscripts. They should disclose any conflicts of interest or other potential biases that may affect their objectivity. Authors are expected to cooperate with the peer review process and respond constructively to feedback from reviewers. They may be asked to provide additional information or clarify aspects of the manuscript. The editor-in-chief or other editorial staff are responsible for making final decisions on manuscripts based on the feedback provided by reviewers. They may consult with additional experts or the authors as part of this process. Peer review is a valuable tool for evaluating the quality and validity of research, but it has limitations. It is not foolproof and may not catch all errors or ethical concerns. Additionally, the subjective nature of review criteria means that different reviewers may have different opinions on the same manuscript.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an important aspect of the scholarly publishing process, designed to protect the integrity and privacy of authors, reviewers, and editorial staff. The journal will not disclose any information about manuscripts submitted for consideration, including their content, to anyone outside of the editorial process without the explicit permission of the authors. All parties involved in the peer review process, including reviewers and editorial staff, are expected to maintain confidentiality and not share information about the manuscript with anyone outside of the review process. Reviewers should not discuss the manuscript with anyone, including colleagues, without the permission of the journal. Exceptions to confidentiality may include cases where the manuscript contains evidence of potential harm to individuals or the public, or where there are concerns about plagiarism or other forms of research misconduct. In such cases, the journal may need to disclose information to relevant parties, including the authors, institutions, funding agencies, or regulatory bodies. To ensure confidentiality, journals may implement a variety of measures, including secure online submission systems, password-protected access to manuscripts, and nondisclosure agreements with reviewers and editorial staff. Violations of confidentiality can have serious consequences, including legal action, loss of reputation, and exclusion from future publication opportunities.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements in scholarly publishing are used to recognize individuals or organizations who have contributed to the research, but who may not qualify for authorship. Acknowledgements may also be used to disclose sources of funding, technical assistance, or other forms of support. Acknowledgements should be brief and specific and should only include those who have made a substantial contribution to the research. This can include individuals who have provided critical feedback or advice, contributed to experimental design or data analysis, or provided administrative or logistical support. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all individuals or organizations mentioned in the acknowledgements have given their permission to be recognized in the publication. Authors should also disclose any conflicts of interest related to the acknowledgements. Journals may have specific guidelines or requirements for the formatting and placement of acknowledgements. Authors should follow these guidelines carefully to ensure that their acknowledgements are properly recognized and attributed. While acknowledgements are an important way to recognize contributions to research, they should not be used to justify authorship or exclude individuals who meet the criteria for authorship. Authorship should be determined based on the criteria outlined by the journal, and all authors should be listed appropriately in the byline.

Open Access

CDP (http://www.cancerdiagnosisprognosis.org/) appears bimonthly as an online-only open access journal and through the IIAR (https://iiar-anticancer.org/cancer-diagnosis-prognosis/) website. All articles are published with gold open access, which means that the final published version is permanently and freely available to anyone. Our open access articles are distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 international license. Upon acceptance, Authors will be asked to pay an online publication fee of USD 600.00 for articles up to 8 online pages (including figures and tables). Each additional excess page will be charged USD 60.00. Authors from developing countries may apply for a 25% discount after the acceptance of their paper. UKRI-funded Authors retain the right to distribute the final published version of their accepted article, such as via an institutional and/or subject repository (e.g., EuropePMC), under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND) license.

Copyright

Authors retain copyright. The unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium of CDP articles for academic reasons is allowed, provided that the original work is properly cited. The Authors grant the permanent right to the publisher to use any articles published in this journal without any restriction, including academic advertising purposes. PDF, XML, and html files of all articles published in CDP are the property of the publisher.

Self-archiving

When publishing open access content under a Creative Commons license, authors are advised to self-archive the published version, including a link to the published article’s URL on the journal’s website and the DOI number. The linking requirement is in place to ensure the scientific record’s authenticity and integrity, with the published online version being the definitive version of record.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Regarding the use of AI in authorship, we do not currently accept the use of Large Language AI Models (LLMs) (i.e. ChatGPT), since they do not meet our authorship criteria. The use of AI should be properly documented in the Methods section of the manuscript. Furthermore, regarding AI-generated images, we are unable to permit their use for publication. Exceptions to this policy may include images or videos that are specifically about AI. Finally, concerning non-generative machine learning tools that are used to manipulate, combine or enhance images or figures, they should clearly be stated upon submission.