Article Types Accepted

Research Articles* report significant findings from original research across the broad areas of the clinical and translational sciences. Research Articles should include a structured Abstract of no more than 250 words followed by an Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, References, Figures and Tables. The paper should be no more than 5000 words in length, include no more than 50 references, and may have up to 7 figures or tables. Additional materials may be submitted as Supplementary Material; however, this should be limited to information that is not critical to a reader's understanding of the results that are presented in the main text.

Brief Reports* describe research results that are succinct and that may or may not represent a shift in paradigm. Despite their short length, Brief Reports should include the appropriate experimental support of the conclusion and, where appropriate, the mechanism or mechanisms that are responsible for the observed results. Brief reports should be 2000 words or less, should contain no more than 3 figures or tables, and should contain no more than 20 references. Brief Reports should begin with an unstructured abstract of no more than 100 words.

Letters provide an opportunity for authors to describe an important piece of work that is a stand-alone observation that shifts the paradigm or will open a larger and longer series of experiments that might be undertaken by multiple laboratories or groups. For example, a Letter may report the results of a proof of concept study in a large animal subsequent to fuller reports in small animals or the association of a biomarker with a new phenotype. Brief discussions of articles that are published in JCTS may also be submitted as letters. These must be submitted within 3 weeks of final publication of the article the letter discusses. The cited article should be included as the first reference. Letters must be no longer than 750 words, include no more than 1 figure or table, and should have no more than 10 references. No abstract should accompany a letter.

Special Communications* describe and discuss programs that are designed to enhance Clinical and Translational Science at a single site or in a larger consortium. For example, a description of a novel mentoring program, a discussion of alternative methodologies for enhancing the number of K scholars who attain independent funding, or an initiative designed to enhance enrollment in investigational cohorts would be applicable for submission as a Special Communication. Wherever possible, quantitative analysis rather than qualitative analysis of the innovation or program should be provided. They should be less than 3500 words, include no more than 4 figures or tables, and should include no more than 30 references. Special Communications should be accompanied by an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words.  

Review Articles* that are timely, of high quality and that review a topic in the clinical and translational sciences are encouraged. Review Articles should be no longer than 6000 words (excluding tables, figure legends, and references), include no more than 8 figures and/or tables, and no more than 125 references. An abstract of no more than 200 words should accompany each submission.

Editorials comment on specific articles published by JCTS or general topics in translational science of timely interest. The Editors will invite all editorials. They should be no longer than 1500 words, may include no more than 2 figures or tables, and should include no more than 20 references. Editorials do not require an abstract but should include a summary of the discussion in the first two sentences of the text.

Perspectives are brief manuscripts representing opinions or pro-con statements regarding topics relevant for clinical and translational science. Although in some cases the Editors will invite authors to submit perspectives, authors wishing to submit a perspective may contact the Editors by email to discuss the topic and the content of the manuscript. Perspectives should be no longer than 1000 words, do not require figures or tables but may include no more than a total of 2 figures or tables, and should include no more than 20 references. Perspectives do not require an abstract.

Conference Papers represent summaries of conferences or meetings focused on Clinical and Translational Science that include a broad constituency. This could for example include a summary of presentations of a national or regional meeting where the content is deemed of general interest. Authors are urged to discuss a Conference Proceeding with the Editor-in-Chief prior to the submission, although manuscripts will be reviewed as described if they are submitted without a previous discussion. They should be less than 2500 words, include no more than 2 figures or tables, and should include no more than 20 references. The authors of a Conference Proceeding have an option to include an abstract of no more than 150 words. 

Translational Science Case Studies* describe and discuss the value of a clinical or translational science health intervention, including the health problem addressed, the intervention’s scope, and its impact on clinical care, public health, or policy. They should include a review and graphical depiction of the milestones in the development of the intervention, including but not limited to early discoveries, approvals, and evidence of distribution (landmark publications, grants, patents, or treatment guidelines) as well as a description of the factors essential to successful translation, including but not limited to key stakeholders, collaborations and team science, serendipitous events, discoveries, policies, technologies, infrastructure and other academic-, industry-, and community-based supports. A description of barriers or impediments to successful translation, including how they were overcome or mitigated, if applicable, is encouraged as well as a description of the status of dissemination and implementation of the intervention, including the context, extent of use, and local, national or international impacts. Finally, a description of current directions of the case, including but not limited to new directions, remaining knowledge gaps, and any lessons learned or important postscripts for researchers is encouraged. Manuscripts should be 4000 words or less, include no more than 4 figures or tables, and should include no more than 30 references. Translational Science Case Studies should be accompanied by an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words. 

*These article types are eligible for coverage on our transformative agreement. To find out if you're eligible for one of these deals, please use our new checker tool.

Format of Manuscripts

Cover Letter: All manuscripts should include a cover letter from the corresponding author stating that: 1) all authors have reviewed the manuscript and approved its submission; 2) the manuscript has not been published previously either in whole or in part with the exception of an abstract or abstracts; and 3) the manuscript is not under consideration by any other journal or other form of information dissemination. The authors should disclose any conflicts of interest and should provide the address (email) for correspondence regarding the manuscript.

General requirements: Manuscripts must be in English and should conform to the American Medical Association Manual of Style, Stedman's Medical Dictionary, and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary should be used as references for spelling and usage. All pharmacological agents should be referred to by their generic or chemical names, although the commercial name may be provided in parenthesis after its first use in the text. Trade names may not be used in any form in the title of the manuscript. When a generic name is not yet available, the common letter–number combination used to identify the drug should be used. A figure detailing the chemical structure of the compound should be included if it has not been published previously. Trade names should not be used for devices, with the exception of the first description of the device wherein the trade name should appear in parenthesis and should be capitalized.

Manuscripts must be double-spaced, margins should be no less than 0.8 inches throughout. The preferred fonts are 12 pt Arial, Cambria, or Helvetica. References should be numbered in order of appearance in the text.

When submitting the manuscript, include the manuscript, tables, and figures all merged into a single Word file. In the event of acceptance, this file will be posted as an Accepted Manuscript (AM) to Cambridge Core prior to FirstView publication. Please make sure the manuscript is formatted exactly as it should appear in the AM version, with no information included that you would not want posted (we will remove highlighting and accept TrackChanges prior to posting the AM, but that is all). The Accepted Manuscript will eventually be replaced with the final copy-edited and typeset Version of Record. 

Keywords: Authors are required to include 5 keywords for their paper at the time of submission.

Title Page: This should include the complete title of the manuscript (not to exceed 170 characters); the names and affiliations of all authors; the name and address of the corresponding author, including telephone number and email address. The affiliations of the authors should be noted by superscript numerals. Any conflicts of interest should appear on the title page or it should be noted that there are no conflicts.

Abstract: The abstract should be placed on a separate page and should conform to the word limits listed above for the specific article type. Abstracts for Research Articles should be structured to include: 1) an Introduction that provides enough background information for the reader to understand the rationale for the research; 2) a brief discussion of the Methods used to undertake the work; 3) a succinct description of the principal Results; and 4) the Conclusions that can be drawn from the results. The Abstract will often appear independently of the complete manuscript and should therefore provide a succinct presentation of the most important aspects of the study. It should also serve to encourage the reader to review the complete text to fully understand the work.

Introduction: This section should provide the requisite background information to enable a reader to understand the rationale for the work and to appreciate the significance of the findings. For example, the introduction should allow the general reader to understand how the findings advance the field.

Materials and Methods: This section should provide sufficient information and detail to allow other investigators to replicate the experiments in their fullest detail. When experimental conditions were used that had been detailed in previous publications by the same authors, these methods can be referenced without a detailed description. If methods were used that were described by others, the authors should take care to ensure that any changes in the protocols are noted. Routine laboratory measures or those described in purchased kits may simply be referenced and the authors should note that manufacturer's instructions were followed as appropriate. For clinical studies, this section should include a careful description of how the study population was identified/recruited, as well as the methodology used for obtaining informed consent. A complete discussion of the software and methods used for statistical analysis should be included. If animals were used in the studies being reported, the authors should note their adherence to the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or their equivalent, and the approval of the individual Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee.

Results: This section should succinctly report the observation of the studies conducted. In general, studies performed in animals should, to the extent possible, include data on animals of both sexes, include randomized assignment, and incorporate blinding of the personnel evaluating the animals' responses to interventions.

Randomized Clinical Trials: The methods and results section for randomized controlled trials should conform to the recommendations of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) Group. CONSORT provides a standard way for reporting trial design, analysis, and interpretation and includes a 25-item checklist of items that should be included, as well as a flow diagram that describes patient allocations and helps both in evaluation and interpretation of trial results. JCTS urges investigators to use both the checklist and the flow diagram in preparing manuscripts for submission—both can be obtained from www.consort-statement.org. The reporting of clinical observational studies should follow the STROBE guidelines and include the accompanying checklist in the submission.

Discussion: The Discussion section should place the results in the context of what is already known and should describe the specific conclusions that can be drawn from the results. It should include a section that explicitly discusses any potential limitations of the experimental design. The Discussion section should also detail how the results may impact the field in the future. The Discussion should not be a place to review in detail everything that is known already about the specific field nor should it repeat in detail the findings already described in Results.

Author contributions: Please indicate the contribution for each author. Authors may make more than one type of contribution. Contributions can include conception and design of the work, collection or contribution of data, contributions of analysis tools or expertise, conduct and interpretation of analysis, and drafting of the manuscript, among other critical intellectual contributions. Please also indicate which author takes responsibility for the manuscript as a whole.

Acknowledgments: Authors can use this section to acknowledge and thank colleagues, institutions, workshop organisers, family members, etc. that have helped with the research and/or writing process. It is important that that any type of funding information or financial support is listed under ‘Financial Support’ rather than Acknowledgements so that it can be recorded separately. We are aware that authors sometimes receive assistance from technical writers, language editors, artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication. Such assistance must be noted in the cover letter and in the Acknowledgements section, along with a declaration that the author(s) are entirely responsible for the scientific content of the paper and that the paper adheres to the journal’s authorship policy. Failure to acknowledge assistance from technical writers, language editors, AI tools and/or writing agencies in drafting manuscripts for publication in the cover letter and in the Acknowledgements section may lead to disqualification of the paper. Examples of how to acknowledge assistance in drafting manuscripts: 

• “The author(s) thank [name and qualifications] of [company, city, country] for providing [medical/technical/language] writing support/editorial support [specify and/or expand as appropriate], which was funded by [sponsor, city, country]." 

• “The author(s) made use of [AI system/tool] to assist with the drafting of this article. [AI version details] was accessed/obtained from [source details] and used with/without modification [specify and/or expand as appropriate] on [date(s)]

Competing interests: Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. 

If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. 

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”. 

Funding statement: Within this section please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers, for example: “This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number XXXXXXX)”.

Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and space, and where research was funded by more than one agency the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with “and” before the final funder. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors’ initials, for example: “This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (AB, grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (CD, grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (EF, grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (AB, grant number GGGG), (EF, grant number HHHH).”

Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.” 

Figure Legends: Figures should be numbered as they appear in the text of the manuscript. Figure legends should be double-spaced and begin with a brief title. Nomenclature and symbols used in the figures should match those used in the text. All abbreviations and symbols should be defined in the figure legend.

References: References formatting should follow the American Medical  Association Manual of Style. References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and should be double-spaced. The reference numbers should be identified in square brackets within the text. Abstracts should not be included as references. Unpublished data should not be included in the reference section but may be noted in the text in parenthesis (unpublished data); however, authors are strongly discouraged from discussing unpublished data unless absolutely necessary to the interpretation of their results. Manuscripts that are in press or personal communications may be included as references in the text and should be given a number and placed in the reference section in order of appearance with the other references. Personal communications, however, should be used sparingly if at all and should not be used alone to support an important conclusion. References should include names, the full titles and inclusive pagination (when applicable). List all authors when there are six or fewer; for seven or more references, list only the first three and add "et al." Abbreviate journal names according to the journals list in PubMed. Examples of proper formatting follow:

Journal article:

Gonzales S, O’Keefe L, Gutzman K, et al. Personas for the translational workforce. J Clin Transl Sci. 2020; 4: 286–293. doi: 10.1017/cts.2020.2

Wuchty S, Jones B, Uzzi B. The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge. Science 2007; 316: 1036–1039. 

Book: Frechtling J, Raue K, Michie J, Miyaoka A, Spiegelman M.The CTSA National Evaluation Final Report. Rockville, MD: Westat, 2012.

Book chapter: Goldsmith M, Morgan H. Team building without time wasting. In: Goldsmith M, Lyons L, Freas A, eds. Coaching for Leadership: How the World's Greatest Coaches Help Leaders Learn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2000:103–109.

Website: Clinical & Translational Science Awards Program (CTSA), Center for Leading Innovation & Collaboration (CLIC). Common metrics secondary common metrics, (https://clic-ctsa.org/common_metrics) Accessed February 16, 2018.

Tables: Each table should have a table legend that is brief and descriptive. All abbreviations and symbols should be defined in the table legend.

Figures and Micrographs: Figures should be constructed to ensure that labeling is clear and correct. Self-explanatory figures that do not rely heavily on the figure legend are preferred. For micrographs, scale bars should be used rather than providing magnification. The figure legend should clearly indicate the number of images that were obtained when a representative micrograph is provided. Photomicrographs of gels must indicate when two or more separate gels are shown by a line or space to indicate the borders of each original image. There should be no enhancement of images. Molecular weights of proteins should be indicated on all images of gels and it should be clearly indicated when horizontally aligned images are derived from the same gel. Units of measure should be given in SI units. If measurements were made in English units, give metric equivalents.

Figures must be included directly in your submitted manuscript. Each figure can also be uploaded as a separate file. If you choose to upload separate figures in addition to including them in your manuscript file, you may use any of the following formats: TIFF, EPS, or PDF. Refer to the Cambridge Journals Artwork Guide for detailed guidelines for preparing figures.

Supplementary material

Supplemental material should be information that enhances the manuscript but too detailed or extensive to include in the main text. This may include more detailed methodology, or additional tables, graphs, movies, or audio files. 

Seeking permission for copyrighted material

If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance.

When do I need to request permission?

You need to request permission to reuse any material for which you are not the copyright holder. This can include anything created, published, owned, held or produced by a third party, but also other published material that you authored, as the original publisher may hold the copyright.

If you make minor changes to the original material, you still need to seek permission to use it. Cosmetic changes such as tinting, relabelling, or redrawing as is are not enough; material needs to be substantially modified to avoid needing permission to reproduce, and even then the original source still needs to be acknowledged.

Who do I send a permission request to?

Usually the publisher of the original work holds the copyright, unless explicitly stated otherwise. We recommend that you approach the original publisher first, and they will inform you if you need to contact the author.

How do I request permission?

Most publishers have forms on their websites that can be completed electronically, or use automated electronic permissions services like Rightslink® to grant permissions automatically online.

If no electronic form or service is available, you must send an email or letter to the copyright holder. A template permissions request is included below; note for emails no signature is required.

Dear <rightsholder>

<Article title>

I am writing/editing/contributing to an academic work under the provisional title above, to be published by Cambridge University Press in <title of journal>, in <month (if known) and year of publication>.

I request your permission to include the following material in this work:

Author:
Title:
Date of publication: <volume and issue if applicable>:
ISBN <ISSN if journal>:
Page no.(s):
Illustration no.(s):
Table no.(s):

Unless otherwise informed, permission will be assumed to grant the nonexclusive right to use the material in print and electronic editions of the work throughout the world, in all revised editions of the work and as part of a sample of the work made available online for promotional purposes only.

I further request permission for the material to be included in any reprint published under licence from Cambridge University Press.

The source of the material will be fully acknowledged in the usual way. Please indicate below if you have any special requirements: ..............................................................

..............................................................

Please indicate your agreement to this request by <way of reply to this email/signing and returning one copy of this letter>:. The duplicate is for your own records. By your countersignature, you warrant that you control these rights and are authorised to grant this permission.

If this is not the case, I would be grateful if you could let me know to whom I should apply.

Yours sincerely

<Signature lines>:

I/we hereby grant the permission detailed above.

Signed:............................. Date: ..................

When do I not need to request permission?

• Creative Commons – where third party content is published under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY / CC-BY-NC / CC-BY-NC-ND etc.), you may not need to request permission to reuse the content as long as you fully acknowledge the original source. Please check carefully the terms of the license before reusing material. More information about Creative Commons licenses can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.
• Content in the public domain – material that is not under copyright is considered to be in the public domain, and you do not need to request permission to use such material. This includes works for which the copyright has expired and has not since been renewed.

My article includes third party materials and will be published Gold Open Access. What type of permissions do I need to request?

If your article is to be published Gold Open Access, you will have to make sure all of the permissions requested from third party copyright owners includes the non-exclusive right to use the third party materials in the open access version of your article and under an equivalent creative commons licence.

If your article is transformed to a Gold OA publication post-submission, you will need to review the current permissions already in place and determine whether or not the rights originally granted cover the open access version of your article. If not, then you will need to request further permissions from the copyright holder.

How do I acknowledge permission in my paper?

Even if written permission is not required, you must fully acknowledge the original source of any material where you do not hold copyright in your article. The copyright holder will inform you if there is any specific wording required for this acknowledgement. For figures or tables from other sources, you should place this acknowledgement at the end of the caption.

What permissions information do I need to provide to my journal?

You will be asked to supply copies of any emails or letters granting permission to reuse material with your transfer of copyright or license to publish form.

Patient photographs

Please note that hospitals usually hold copyright for any photographs taken during the course of work done on their premises. Permission to use the photograph in your article also needs to be obtained from the patient in the photograph if the subject of the photograph can be recognised.

Material from the internet

Please be aware that even if a copyright notice is not displayed, content on websites is still protected by copyright and so permission to reuse material will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.

Ethics and transparency policy requirements

Originality: Manuscripts should represent original research or ideas. The authors should note in their cover letter that the manuscript has not been published previously, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. The editors, editorial board and referees will make every attempt to ensure that the published results are valid; however the final responsibility rests with the authors and not with JCTS, its editors, or Cambridge University Press.

Publication Ethics: The Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Editors adhere to the Codes of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines published by COPE.  For further information on Cambridge's Ethical Guidelines, please visit these pages: Publication Ethics and Ethical Standards.

Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose in the cover letter and on the title page of the manuscript all financial interests and non-financial interests with industry or financial agencies within 3 years of submitting a manuscript for consideration that might be perceived by a scientific reader or a member of the general public to be a potential conflict of interest. Potential sources of conflict include corporate appointments, consultant fees, research funding, stock ownership or other equity interests, and patent-licensing arrangements. If no conflict of interest exists with industry or other entities, this should be stated explicitly in the cover letter and on the title page. Potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed for all types of manuscripts, including Original Research, Expedited Reports, Brief Reports, Letters, Special Communications, Review Articles, Comments, and Editorials.

Informed Consent: Research projects involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or an equivalent ethics committee. The authors must indicate in the manuscript whether the appropriate IRB or ethics committee reviewed the study prior to enrollment of patients. The authors should also note whether the study received a waiver from the IRB and describe the reason for that waiver in the text. In studies in which consent has been obtained as part of a general consent form, the authors should denote whether an "opt in" or "opt out" consent construct was used for the study. The authors should describe the procedure used for obtaining consent if relevant to understanding how the study subjects were enrolled. Any study for which either the Editors or the reviewers believe that appropriate informed consent was not obtained prior to patient enrollment will be returned to the authors. If radiation is used in a procedure, the radiation exposure must be defined in the Materials and Methods. Patients have a right to privacy; therefore, images, photographs, and pedigrees must be free of all identifying information. If identifiers are required for scientific clarity, authors must include a statement indicating informed consent was obtained from each patient that specifically approves the use of the identifier.

Animal Rights: Experiments using animals must conform with guidelines provided by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent animal protection committee of the institution at which the work was undertaken. All experiments must be performed in accord with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and under the supervision of qualified veterinarians and animals should be used only when alternative methods of addressing the question have been shown to be insufficient. All surgical procedures must be performed under anesthesia to obviate any suffering and animal facilities must meet all standards set forth by the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal care (AAALAC).

Clinical Research: All clinical trials must be registered in the public trials registry www.clinicaltrials.gov.The authors should carefully review the Federal requirements governing public registration of clinical trials. Alternative registries or foreign registries may suffice if they are publicly accessible, searchable, free to sponsors, provide trial identifiers, and include information on the study design, investigators, inclusion and exclusion criteria, study groups, eligibility criteria, and primary and secondary endpoints. Clinical trials should be reported according to CONSORT guidelines; clinical observational studies should be reported according to STROBE guidelines.

All Cambridge journals adhere to a set of Ethical Standards, as laid out here.

Where research involves human and/or animal experimentation, the following statements should be included (as applicable): "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008." and "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional guides on the care and use of laboratory animals."

We take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously.  Text taken directly or closely paraphrased from earlier published work that has not been acknowledged or referenced will be considered plagiarism.  Submitted manuscripts in which such text is identified will be withdrawn from the editorial process. If a concern is raised about possible plagiarism in an article submitted to or published in the journal, this will be investigated fully and dealt with in accordance with the COPE guidelines. If needed the manuscript can be processed by iThenticate. 

Funding 

Within this section please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers, for example: “This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number XXXXXXX)”.

Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and space, and where research was funded by more than one agency the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with “and” before the final funder. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors’ initials, for example: “This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (AB, grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (CD, grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (EF, grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (AB, grant number GGGG), (EF, grant number HHHH).”

Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.”