Instructions for Authors

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General Policy

CANCER DIAGNOSIS & PROGNOSIS (CDP) is an international online open-access 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 Manuscripts will be accepted on the understanding that they report original unpublished works that are not under consideration for publication by another journal and that they will not be published again in the same form.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 use of animals in biomedical research should take place under careful supervision of a person adequately trained in this field and the animals must be treated humanely at all times. Such research should adhere to the Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals approved by the Council of the American Physiological Society.

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.

Open Access Policy

CDP appears bimonthly as an online-only open access journal (cancerdiagnosisprognosis.org) and through the IIAR 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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0). Upon acceptance, Authors will be asked to pay an online publication fee of USD 600.00 (effective April 1, 2021) for articles up to 8 online pages (including figures and tables). Each additional excess page will be charged USD 60.00. Color will not be charged. Authors from developing countries may apply for a 25% discount after the acceptance of their paper.

UKRI Open Access Policy

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 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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.

Format

Two types of papers may be submitted: (i) Full papers containing completed original work (without supplementary data), and (ii) review articles concerning fields of recognisable progress. Papers should contain all essential data in order to make the presentation clear. Papers should be written in clear, concise English. Spelling should follow that given in the “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary”.

Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections: (a) First page including the title of the presented work [not exceeding fifteen (15) words], full names and full postal addresses of all Authors, name of the Author to whom proofs are to be sent, key words, an abbreviated running title, an indication “review”, “clinical”, or “experimental” study, and the date of submission. (Note: The order of the Authors is not necessarily indicative of their contribution to the work. Authors may note their individual contribution(s) in the appropriate section(s) of the presented work or before the Acknowledgements); (b) Abstract not exceeding 250 words, organized according to the following headings: Background/Aim – Materials and Methods/Patients and Methods – Results – Conclusion; (c) Introduction; (d) Materials and Methods/Patients and Methods; (e) Results; (f) Discussion; (g) Conflicts of Interest; (h) Contributions; (i) Acknowledgements; (j) References. All pages must be numbered consecutively. Footnotes should be avoided. Review articles may follow a different style according to the subject matter and the Author’s opinion.

Figures (graphs and photographs)

All figures should appear at the end of the submitted document file. Once a manuscript is accepted all figures should be submitted separately in either jpg, tiff or pdf format and at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Graphs must be submitted as pictures made from drawings and must not require any artwork, typesetting, or size modifications. Figures should be prepared at a width of 8 or 17cm with eligible symbols, lettering and numbers. The number of each figure must be indicated. Pages that include color figures are not subject to color charges.

Tables

All tables should appear at the end of the submitted document file. Each table may have 2-10 vertical columns. Once a manuscript is accepted, each table should be submitted separately, typed double-spaced. Tables should be numbered with Roman numerals and should include a short title.

References

Authors must assume responsibility for the accuracy of the references used. Citations for the reference sections of submitted works should follow the form below and must be numbered consecutively. In the text, references should be cited by number in parenthesis. Examples: 1 Kenyon J, Liu W and Dalgleish A: Report of objective clinical responses of cancer patients to pharmaceutical-grade synthetic cannabidiol. Anticancer Res 38(10): 5831-5835, 2018. PMID: 30275207. DOI: 10.21873/anticanres.12924. (PMIDs and DOIs only if applicable). 2 McGuire WL and Chamnes GC: Studies on the oestrogen receptor in breast cancer. In: Receptors for Reproductive Hormones. O’ Malley BW, Chamnes GC (eds.). New York, Plenum Publ Corp., pp 113-136, 1973. 3 Global Health Estimates 2015: Disease Burden by Cause, Age, Sex, by Country and by Region, 2000-2015. Geneva, World Health Organisation, 2016. Available at http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates/en/index2.html. [Last accessed on April 3, 2018] (The web address should link directly to the cited information and not to a generic webpage).

Nomenclature and Abbreviations

Nomenclature should follow that given in “Chemical Abstracts”, “Index Medicus”, “Merck Index”, “IUPAC -IUB”, “Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology”, The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers (6th edition, 1994), and MIAME Standard for Microarray Data. Human gene symbols may be obtained from the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) (http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/). Approved mouse nomenclature may be obtained from http://www.informatics.jax.org/. Standard abbreviations are preferable. If a new abbreviation is used, it must be defined on first usage.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors are kindly requested during the submission of their manuscript to explicitly disclose any conflicts of interest that might affect or be affected by the review process. Such competing interests can include the funding(s), the affiliation(s) or any financial relationship(s) that might be considered as affecting the objectivity of the review. Such factors may include (although they are not limited to) professional affiliation(s), employer/employee relationship(s), paid consultancies, board membership(s), funding, financial support, patent(s) and/or grants within the past five years. A potential conflict of interest does not mean that the work an author presents is compromised or that it will be disqualified from publication. It is important, however, for all potential conflicts to be thoroughly detailed for the reader. If a conflict of interest is discovered post-publication, it will be added in the next available issue as a corrigendum.

Clinical Trials

All clinical trials submitted to our journals 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 (http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/trainTrainer/WHO-ICMJE-ClinTrialsgov-Cross-Ref.pdf or www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform) 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.

Ethical Policies and Standards

Presentation of genome sequences should follow the guidelines of the NHGRI Policy on Release of Human Genomic Sequence Data. Research involving human beings must adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and Title 45, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects, effective December 13, 2001. 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. Research involving the use of human foetuses, foetal tissue, embryos and embryonic cells should adhere to the U.S. Public Law 103-41, effective December 13, 2001.

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.

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.

Submission of Manuscripts

Please follow the Instructions for Authors regarding the format of your manuscript and references. Manuscripts must be submitted only through our online submission system at: http://www.iiar-submissions.com/login.html

In case a submission is incomplete, the corresponding Author will be notified accordingly.

Questions regarding difficulties in using the online submission system should be addressed to: email: journals@iiar-anticancer.org

Galley Proofs

Unless otherwise indicated, galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding Author of the submission. Corrections of galley proofs should be limited to typographical errors. Galley proofs should be returned corrected to the Editorial Office by email within 24 hours.

Specific information and additional instructions for Authors

  1. CDP will consider the publication of conference proceedings and/or abstracts provided that the material submitted fulfils the quality requirements and instructions of the journal, following the regular review process by two suitable referees.
  2. An acknowledgement of receipt, including the article number, title and date of receipt is sent to the corresponding author of each manuscript upon receipt. If this receipt is not received within 5 days from submission, the author should contact the Editorial Office to ensure that the manuscript (or the receipt) was not lost in the mail.
  3. Each manuscript submitted to CDP is sent for peer-review (single-blind) in confidence to two-three suitable referees with the request to return the manuscript with their comments to the Editorial Office within 12 days from receipt. If reviewers need a longer time or wish to send the manuscript to another expert, the manuscript may be returned to the Editorial Office with a delay. All manuscripts submitted to CDP, are treated in confidence, without access to any person other than the Managing Editor, the journal’s secretary, the reviewers and the printers.
  4. All accepted manuscripts are carefully corrected in style and language, if necessary, to make presentation clear. (There is no fee for this service). Every effort is made (a) to maintain the personal style of the author’s writing and (b) to avoid change of meaning. Authors will be requested to examine carefully manuscripts which have undergone language correction at the pre-proof or proof stage.
  5. Authors should pay attention to the following points when writing an article for CDP:
  • – The Instructions to Authors must be followed in every detail.
  • – The presentation of the experimental methods should be clear and complete in every detail facilitating reproducibility by other scientists.
  • – The presentation of results should be simple and straightforward in style. Results and Discussion should not be combined into one section.
  • – Results given in figures should not be repeated in tables.
  • – Photographs should be clear with high contrast, presenting the actual observation described in the legend and in the text. Each legend should provide a complete description, being self-explanatory, including technique of preparation, information about the specimen and magnification.
  • – Statistical analysis should be elaborated wherever it is necessary. Simplification of presentation by giving only numerical or % values should be avoided.
  • – Fidelity of the techniques and reproducibility of the results, should be points of particular importance in the discussion section. Authors are advised to check the correctness of their methods and results carefully before writing an article. Probable or dubious explanations should be avoided.
  • – Authors should not cite results submitted for publication in the reference section. Such results may be described briefly in the text with a note in parenthesis (submitted for publication by… authors, year).
  • – References. Each article should address, list and discuss the entire spectrum of current publications relevant to its field.
  • – By following these instructions, Authors will facilitate a more rapid review and processing of their manuscripts and will provide the readers with concise and useful papers.
  1. Following review and acceptance, a manuscript is examined in language and style, and galley proofs are rapidly prepared. Second proofs are not sent unless required.
  2. Authors should correct their galley proofs very carefully and preferably twice. An additional correction by a colleague always proves to be useful. Particular attention should be paid to chemical formulas, mathematical equations, symbols, medical nomenclature etc. Any system of correction marks can be used in a clear manner, preferably in red. Additions or clarifications are allowed provided that they improve the presentation but do not bring new results (no fee).
  3. All Authors will be asked to supply author contribution and conflict of interest forms.
  4. Articles submitted to CDP may be rejected without review if:
    •    – they do not fall within the journal’s policy.
    •    – they do not follow the instructions for authors.
    •    – language is unclear.
    •    – results are not sufficient to support a final conclusion.
    •    – results are not objectively based on valid experiments.
    •    – they repeat results already published by the same or other authors before the submission to CDP.
    •    – plagiarism is detected by plagiarism screening services.

(Rejection rate(2021): 59%)

  1. Authors who wish to prepare a review should contact the Managing Editor of the journal in order to get confirmation of interest in the particular topic of the review and to allow programming of space availability. The expression of interest by the Managing Editor does not necessarily imply acceptance of the review by the journal.
  2. Authors may inquire information about the status of their manuscript(s) by calling the Editorial Office at +30-22950-53389, Monday to Friday 9.00-16.00 (Athens time), or by sending an e-mail to journals@iiar-anticancer.org.
  3. Authors who wish to organize and edit a special issue on a particular topic should contact the Managing Editor.

(This text is a combination of advice and suggestions contributed by Editors, Authors, Readers and the Managing Editor of CDP).

Copyright© 2022 – International Institute of Anticancer Research (G.J. Delinasios). All rights reserved (including those of translation into other languages). No part of this journal may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher.