Note: Most CA articles are solicited reviews. With the exception of the American Cancer Society's Cancer Statistics articles, original research articles submitted for publication are generally not accepted for peer review. Case Reports and Letters to the Editor will not be considered for peer review or publication.
• Manuscripts must be submitted to CA via ScholarOne Manuscripts. Please contact the CA Editorial Office at (404) 327-6411 or ca.edoff@cancer.org if you have any questions about submitting your manuscript online.
• All manuscripts must be submitted electronically using CA’s ScholarOne Manuscripts Web site available at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ca. Manuscripts may not be submitted by e-mail.
• Submit text files only as .DOC, .DOCX, or .RTF file formats. Other file formats are not permitted and should be converted to .DOC or .DOCX.
• Authors are required to e-mail or upoload any permissions that may have been obtained for figures or tables or any permissions required for patient consent. Please include the permanent manuscript ID on all correspondence (example: CA-17-0000).
Pre-submission Requirements: Unsolicited Manuscripts
CA requires pre-submission correspondence (consisting of an outline and abstract describing the proposed article) for review by the Editors before any unsolicited manuscript can be submitted for peer review. All unsolicited manuscripts submitted without the Editor's approval of a pre-submission outline and abstract will be returned without review. Please e-mail an abstract, full author list, manuscript length, and information about the author to the Editorial Office for consideration (see Editorial Office contact information below).
Manuscript Types
• Review Articles: These articles should be literature reviews of cancer types, therapeutic modalities or strategies (including palliative care), or important issues in cancer prevention or early detection. Manuscripts of this type should be 25 to 40 double-spaced pages in length including references. Articles on very rare cancer types and highly specialized information on individual drugs or procedures are generally not appropriate for CA.
• Editorials/Guest Editorials: Editorials are usually solicited; however, unsolicited editorials may be considered in some cases. Topics usually relate to the content of an article featured in the issue. Editorials are four to six double-spaced pages in length.
• Commentaries: Commentaries are usually solicited. They present a point of view of general interest to the CA audience.
• Department Articles: These articles cover current topics of interest to CA’s readership. Manuscripts should be 15 to 30 double-spaced pages in length. The length of solicited department articles will be addressed by the Editorial Office before submission. Departments include:
• Complementary & Alternative Methods (CAM) refers to products and regimens that individuals may employ either to enhance wellness, relieve symptoms of disease and side effects of conventional treatments, or cure disease. CAM articles provide evidence-based information on promising complementary and alternative methods, and inform clinicians of methods that may harm patients.
• Environmental Carcinogens articles deal with actual, potential, or perceived environmental and workplace carcinogens. Authors should highlight ways to advise patients about environmental exposures known or perceived to cause cancer by providing clear, concise information and advice that is based on laboratory and epidemiological research.
• Emerging Trends in Basic Science articles cover issues related to basic research (including molecular and cellular biology, epidemiology, immunology, radiation physics and biology, information technology, and related fields). They should be geared toward clinicians with limited time who want to remain up to date on advances in basic science research and the current and future clinical implications of that research.
• Perspectives: Research in Context is a section designed specifically for busy clinicians. It features practical, concise information that is accompanied by insight from noted experts in the fields of cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. This section is written in-house and external submissions are not accepted.
• Patient Pages are written to provide general information on specific topics for patients and caregivers. Patient Pages are usually related to the content of the particular issue in which they appear. Patient Pages may be photocopied and given directly to patients. This section is written in-house and external submissions are not accepted.
Supplements
CA requires submission of an outline, which includes details on length, subject, authors (if available), and sponsorship information. Any supplement information that is received without the aforementioned items will be returned. This information must be provided for consideration by the Editors to determine appropriateness for CA's audience. All editorial materials, including supplements, are subject to peer review, and there is no guarantee of publication. All supplement costs must be borne by the authors or sponsoring group. Financial disclosures related to support should be provided in the cover letter. Copies of any related in-press publications should accompany manuscripts submitted to CA.
Manuscript Format
Manuscripts should follow the AMA Manual of Style (10th ed.)2 for grammar, punctuation, and style, and should meet the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals1established by the ICMJE for general authorship guidelines.
Title Page
The following items are required on the title page:
• Manuscript title.
• Running title: a short version of the title (up to 40 characters including spaces).
• Each author's name, academic degrees, and affiliation (all affiliations must be translated into standard English). Group members who do not meet the formal authorship criteria listed below but who contributed materially may be recognized in the Acknowledgments section.
• Complete mailing address, telephone, fax, and e-mail for correspondence and reprints.
• Total number of each: 1) text pages, including title page, references, and figure legends; 2) tables; and 3) figures.
• Details of all funding sources for the work in question. All financial and material support for the research and the work, including the source and number of grants for each author, should be listed. Please be sure to indicate whether any grants are from the NIH. If the work had no specific funding, this should be explicitly stated.
• All conflict of interest disclosures. If there are no financial disclosures from any authors, please state that as well.
• Articles must contain an abstract of approximately 200 words.
• Keywords: 4 to 10 key words or terms to be used as index terms. Use terms from the medical subject headings list of nlm.nih.gov/mesh.
Photographs With Identifiable Patients
In photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., the physical identification of a patient should be masked whenever possible. If a patient is identifiable, written permission to use the photograph must be obtained from the patient or guardian and sent to the CA Editorial Office upon manuscript submission. Clearly state in the manuscript that informed consent has been obtained.
Drugs and Devices
Use generic drug name (or generic name followed by trade name in parentheses). Include manufacturer and their location (city and country) for drugs and devices.
Abbreviations
Use only standard abbreviations and spell out all abbreviations at first use in the text followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.1
References
Submit references per the following instructions:
• List references double-spaced in a separate reference section immediately following the text.
• Verify all references prior to submission.
• Use the AMA Manual of Style, 10th ed.1 for reference format style and List of Serials Indexed for Online Users11 for standard journal abbreviations (examples to follow).
• Number references sequentially in the order cited in the text; do not alphabetize. Remove automatic numbering and linked citations; number references manually.
• Do not cite personal communications, unpublished observations, and submitted manuscripts. Reference to a paper accepted but not yet published can be listed as ‘‘in press.’’ ‘‘In press’’ references must be updated by the authors as soon as publication data are available.
• Provide names of all authors in a reference when there are six or fewer; if there are seven or more authors, list only the first three, followed by ‘‘et al.’’
• References must be current. Use of references more than 10 years old is discouraged unless they are classic or unique works.
• Reference types. Following are requirements and examples for common reference types:
• Journal references include the specified information listed in the following order—authors, article title and subtitle, journal abbreviation, year, volume number in Arabic numerals, and inclusive pages. Example 1: Cohn KH, Ornstein DL, Wang F, et al. The significance of allelic deletions and aneuploidy in colorectal carcinoma: results of a 5-year follow-up study. Cancer. 1997;79:233–244.
• Book references include the following: authors, title, edition (if other than the first), volume (if more than one), city, publisher, and year. When referencing a book chapter, the order changes as follows: authors of the chapter, title of the chapter, ‘‘In:’’, editors/authors of the book, title of the book, edition (if there are more than one), volume (if there are more than one), city, publisher, year, and inclusive pages of the chapter. Example 2: Givan AL. Flow Cytometry: First Principles. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001. Example 3: Luketich JD, Ginsberg RJ. Diagnosis and staging of lung cancer. In: Johnson BE, Johnson DH, editors. Lung Cancer. New York: Wiley-Liss, Inc., 1995:161–173.
• Electronic sources should include the type of medium (such as ‘‘computer program’’ or ‘‘CD-ROM’’), the version used, and the supplier. References to online sources should include the type of medium (such as ‘‘serial online’’ or ‘‘monograph online’’), the date of that specific reference (if applicable), the uniform resource locator (URL), and the date that the source was accessed. For web pages, please include the name of the page referenced. A source accessed online should always be referenced accordingly, even if it is also published in printed form. Example 4: Nakamura S, Yao T, Aoyagi K, Ikda M, Fujishima M, Tsuneyoshi M. Helicobacter pylori and primary gastric lymphoma: a histopathologic and immunochemical analysis of 237 patients. Cancer [serial online] 1997;79:3–11. Available from URL: http://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cancer [accessed Dec 1, 1998]. Example 5: American Cancer Society. Cancer reference information. Available from URL: http://www.cancer.org/docr007/ CRI/CRI_0.asp [accessed January 26, 2006].
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.
Tables
• Submit single-spaced on separate pages in the word processing program used. Tables imported into the word-processing program from spreadsheet programs (eg, Microsoft Excel) should be left in table format and not converted to text. Gridlines should be retained.
• Do not embed tables as graphic files. They cannot be edited by the publisher.
• Limit tables to those that adequately and concisely present findings without redundancy.
• Cite all tables in the text. Number tables consecutively, using Arabic numerals, in the order cited in the text. The table number is followed by a brief descriptive title.
• Include table number, ‘‘continued,’’ and table subheadings on each page if a table exceeds one manuscript page.
• Define all abbreviations used in the table in footnotes to the table.
• Tables submitted as appendices or supplemental materials will be eliminated.
• Obtain written permission to reproduce previously published tabular material. Credits for the reproduced work are included as a footnote to the table and must include author(s), title, either publisher and city (and country, if other than US) or periodical name, volume, page, and year. Signed permission forms must be sent to the CA Editorial Office upon submissions.
Figures and Legends
*Authors are encouraged to submit their figure files in color. There is no charge associated with color figures.*
• Submit only publication quality figures in TIFF or EPS file format.
• The following resolutions are required to ensure print quality: 1200 dpi for line art; 300 dpi for halftones/color (RGB); 600 dpi for combination halftones/color.
• Figures should be sized to one-column width (19 picas, 3.25 inches), or two-column width (40 picas, 6.75 inches), as appropriate.
• Call out all figures in the text. Number all figures sequentially with Arabic numerals in the order cited in the text.
• Provide double-spaced legends on a separate page to include the figure number and a brief description of the figure.
• For typeface within figures, use 6-pt to 12-pt Arial or Helvetica font.
• Gray shading in figures may not reproduce well for publication and should be avoided. Do not use overall background shading in figures. Do not use gray-shaded bars in graphs—use bars with solid, open, or hatched fill. Avoid fine lines and very small type and symbols in figures. Lines should be reasonably dark and type and symbols should be easily read if the figure is reduced for publication.
• Figures with multiple parts should be labeled and referred to as (a), (b), (c), etc.
• Obtain written permission to reproduce previously published figures. Credits for the reproduced work are included in the figure legend and must include author(s), title, either publisher and city (and country, if other than US) or periodical name, volume, page, and year. Signed permission forms must be sent to the CA Editorial Office upon submission.
• Submit photographs and line art only as TIFF or EPS file formats. JPEG or GIF files are not permitted.
• Do not embed figures in word processing programs (eg, Microsoft Word).
• Mask any patient identification in photographs; otherwise, a signed permission statement is required (please see Permissions section).
• The submission of figures that do not conform to journal requirements will cause a delay in publication.
• CA reserves the right to resize and/or crop photographs to fit the journal’s format where appropriate.
Permissions
Use of previously published or copyrighted material.
Information reproduced from another source must be properly cited. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission from the appropriate authors and/or copyright holders to use previously published or copyrighted material. Signed permission statements from the copyright holder for both print and online reproduction must be sent to the CA Editorial Office upon manuscript submission. Permission statements also must be obtained from at least one author when citing unpublished data, in press articles, and/or personal communications.
You can obtain permission to reproduce CA content directly from our website. Just search for the material you wish to reuse on Wiley Online Library. Click on the 'Request Permission' link.
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Supporting Information
Supporting information (SI) will be published in the online version of CA: A Cancer Journal for Cliniciansonly. SI is mentioned in the article text and published online in its original format along with the article. SI will undergo peer review with the rest of the manuscript but will not be copyedited or changed from its original format. It must be relevant but not integral to the paper. It can comprise additional tables, data sets, figures, movie files, audio clips, 3D structures, and other related nonessential multimedia files. Like the manuscript accompanying it, it should be original and not previously published. If previously published, it must be submitted with the necessary permissions. SI is hosted on Wiley Online Library (WOL) in the 'Supporting Information' section of the article and access to 'Supporting Information' is free on WOL. For more information on recommended file types, please visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppinfo.asp.
Optimizing Your Article for Search Engines
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