SCOPE

Human Reproduction publishes full length, peer reviewed papers reporting original research, as well as opinions, debates and clinical case reports of outstanding originality and importance. Mini-reviews forming part of the ‘Developments in Reproductive Biology and Medicine’ series are also occasionally published. These articles aim at summarizing concisely particularly important and rapidly-developing areas of reproductive medicine for which not enough has been published to enable more substantive reviews to be written. The majority of ‘Developments’ reviews will originate from the journal’s Associate Editors but uninvited contributions are also welcomed.

Papers should be within the recognized broad scope of human reproductive biology and reproductive medicine. This includes relevant scientific and clinical aspects of reproductive physiology and pathology, reproductive endocrinology and endocrine therapies. It also includes andrology, contraception, early pregnancy, embryo development, ethical issues, fertilization, gametogenesis, genetic screening (first trimester) , genetic diagnosis (pre-implantation), gonadal function, implantation, infectious diseases, menstrual disorders, psycho-social issues, reproductive genetics, reproductive surgery, reproductive oncology, reproductive epidemiology, and stem cell research. Research which would be classified as clearly in the fields of obstetrics or gynaecological oncology will not normally be published.

Studies using animal models will also be considered providing a clear relevance to human reproduction can be demonstrated.

REVIEW PROCEDURE

All submitted manuscripts are peer reviewed. Each manuscript is allocated to an Associate Editor according to specific subject area. Associate Editors may recommend that papers, which they consider would have only a limited chance of acceptance following full peer review, be sent to two members of the journal’s ‘pre review panel’, composed of former Associate Editors. Where agreement is reached between the panel members and Associate Editor, papers are rejected without further peer review. ‘Pre review’ rejection decisions are normally returned to authors within two weeks of submission. If the recommendation of the panel differs from that of the Associate Editor, the paper is sent for full peer review.

Expert reviewers are selected by the Associate Editors in conjunction with the Editorial Office. The reviewers' reports are considered by the Associate Editor who provides a summary report and a recommendation regarding publication. The final decision is taken by the Editor-in-Chief in collaboration with the Managing Editor. Papers classified by the reviewers and Associate Editors as having only a low or medium priority for publication will not normally be published. The decision and reports are usually returned to the authors within 4 to 5 weeks of submission.

If an author has solid reasons for dissatisfaction with the review process, the Editor in Chief is willing to consider a well supported appeal.

Case reports are considered for review only if they are of sufficiently high originality and importance, both of which are assessed by the Editor in Chief.

Articles submitted by the Editor in Chief, Deputy Editors or by Associate Editors will be considered completely independently of these people.

Human Reproduction operates a 'Fast track' channel for papers that are initially adjudged as having exceptional importance, with the potential to dramatically change current concepts or practices. These papers undergo a rapid (but none the less stringent) peer review and publication process and are typically reviewed within 25 days of receipt, with publication occurring 3 weeks after final acceptance. Successful papers are clearly identified in the published journal.

ETHICS OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING

Please note that all three Human Reproduction journals adhere strictly to the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines) on good publication practice (see Human Reproduction 2001, pp. 1783 1788 and Human Reproduction 2006, pp.2463 2465). Submission of a paper implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published tables, illustrations or text are to be included, then this should be clearly indicated in the manuscript and the copyright holder's permission must be obtained. Copies of such permission letters should be enclosed with the paper. Previously published material can be cited in a later review or commentary article, but it must be expressly indicated using quotation marks if necessary.
Republication of an English language translation is (under certain circumstances) acceptable, provided that full and prominent disclosure of the original source is made.

Failure to comply with these guidelines will be considered a double publishing offence and treated appropriately.

Plagiarism of text from a previously published manuscript by the same or another author is a serious publication offence. Small amounts of text may be used, but only where the source of the material quoted is clearly acknowledged. Fraudulent data or data stolen from other authors is also unethical and will be treated accordingly. Any alleged offence is considered initially by the Editorial Team (comprising the Editor-in-Chiefs of HR, HRU and MHR; the Deputy Editor of HR and members of the Editorial Office) and later by the ESHRE Publication Committee. ESHRE reserves the right to reject papers on this basis alone, to bar authors from advisory positions on the journal or from membership of ESHRE, and to publish details of any transgression both in the printed and online versions of the journal. Other sanctions as recommended by COPE (such as informing the author's institutional head, publishing a notice of retraction etc) may also be considered.

ETHICS OF STUDIES INVOLVING HUMANS AND ANIMALS

The editors draw the authors' attention to the Declaration of Helsinki for Medical Research involving Human Subjects (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/pdf/17c.pdf)and also to the Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals (DHEW Publication, NIH, 80 23). Studies involving humans and animals or human or animal material should have appropriate ethical approval and, where relevant, the patients' written informed consent. The editors reserve the right to refuse publication where the required ethical approval/patient consent is lacking.

REGISTRATION OF CLINICAL TRIALS

Human Reproduction supports the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in calling for the registration of all clinical trials at their inception. In accordance with this, since January 2007 authors of clinical trials have been required to register their trial with one of the ICMJE recognised trial registries (see http://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf). Upon submission, authors of trials are asked to provide evidence in the form of a trial registry number. This unique identifier will be published at the end of the abstract in accord with ICMJE recommendations.

STATISTICS

Inadequate or incorrect statistical analyses frequently cause rejection or delays in the review of manuscripts. Where appropriate, authors should seek advice from a professional statistician before the manuscript is submitted. As of July 2006 and in addition to the normal peer review procedure outlined above, all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) submitted to the journal are sent to members of a team of professional medical statisticians/methodologists at the University of Cambridge for reviewing.

TO ACCOMPANY MANUSCRIPT AT SUBMISSION

The following form must be completed and should include the following:

* Signatures from each author agreeing to their inclusion in the list of authors in order of appearance on the manuscript, along with a brief description of each author’s role in the study. Human Reproduction adheres strictly to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines regarding ‘Authorship and Contributorship’ (see http://www.icmje.org/index.html) All authors must indicate their individual contribution to the paper. Justification of authorship includes 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and 3) final approval of the version to be published. All authors must meet contributions (1), (2) and (3). Authors’ roles will appear on the paper as part of the title page.

* Human Reproduction is committed to ensuring that all papers submitted to the journal are treated in a fair and unbiased way. As such, authors must declare any interests that they (or others) could consider to lead to a perceived bias. These biases (or perceived biases) can be of a financial, personal or professional nature, including (but not restricted to):

1) financial competing interests, such as stock ownership, paid employment, board membership, patent application (pending and actual), research grants (from whatever source), travel grants and honoraria for speaking or participation at meetings and gifts;
2) personal competing interests, such as membership of lobbying organizations and relationships with editors of Human Reproduction;
3) professional competing interests, such as acting as an expert witness, membership of Government advisory board and organizations and funding bodies.
Competing interest statements should be included in an appropriate position in the manuscript.
The above statements are in line with the recommendations of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) with regard to funding of research (www.wame.org/wamestmt.htm) and competing interests (http://www.wame.org/resources/publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals).

* Human Reproduction no longer requires authors to cover the costs of printing 'essential' colour figures. Included are any figures that can not easily be interpreted in black and white, for example photomicrographs and FACS scans. Non essential figures may be reproduced in colour, but at a cost to the author of ,350/$600 per page. The Editor in Chief / Editorial Office reserve the right to decide upon whether or not a figure needs to be reproduced in colour.

* Note that it is the responsibility of the corresponding author to obtain permission to publish previously published material and submit with their manuscript the permission from the copyright holder.

It is a condition of publication that authors assign a 'licence to publish' to ESHRE. Upon acceptance, a 'licence to publish' form must be completed. Authors may use their own material in future publications provided the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication and permission agreed.

Page charges are NOT levied.

OPEN ACCESS OPTION FOR AUTHORS

From January 2006, authors of accepted papers in Human Reproduction have had the option, at an additional charge, of making their papers freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. Upon acceptance, as part of the mandatory licence form required of all corresponding authors, they are asked to indicate whether or not they wish to pay to have their paper made freely available immediately. If an author does not select the Open Access option, their paper will be published with standard subscription based access and they will not be charged.

For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for Human Reproduction vary depending on the institution at which the Corresponding author is based:

Optional Oxford Open charges:
For a Corresponding author based at an institution with an online subscription to Human Reproduction :
Regular charge per paper B ,800 / $1500
List B developing country charge* B ,400 / $750
List A developing country charge* B ,0 / $0

For a Corresponding author based at an institution that does not subscribe to the online journal:
Regular charge per paper B ,1500 / $2800
List B developing country charge* B ,750 / $1400
List A developing country charge* B ,0 / $0

*Visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jnls/devel/ for list of qualifying countries.

Please note that from July 2008 the new open access charges will be:

Regular Subscribers - £900/€1350/$1800
Regular Non-subscribers - £1500/€2250/$3000

Orders from UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the EU, we will assume that the service is provided for business purposes, please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.

The above Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and colour charges that might apply.

If an author chooses the Open Access option they will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. They will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether or not they are based at an institution with an online subscription to Human Reproduction. For this reason, it is important that authors ensure that they use an institutional computer when accessing the form. It is also possible for an author to check whether or not they are based at a subscribing institution by using the ‘Subscriber Test’ link for Human Reproduction.

GUIDELINES FOR PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT

Manuscript length
Papers should be of a length appropriate for the amount of information they contain. Failure to restrict the length of manuscripts, especially Introduction and Discussion sections, can negatively influence the reviewers’ and the editor’s decisions.

Style
Manuscripts should be written using clear and concise English, with English standard spelling and conventions. Non English speaking authors are advised to enlist the assistance of a native English speaker, familiar with biomedical terminology. The editors reserve the right to return without review manuscripts that can not be adequately assessed due to a poor standard of English. For Biochemical and Bacterial terminology follow the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) recommendations Genotypes must be italicized; phenotypes should not.

Units of measurement and abbreviations

Units of measurement should be in Systéme International (SI) units and those recommended by the IUPAC should be used wherever possible. Standard units of measurements and chemical symbols of elements may be used without definition in the body of the paper. Abbreviations should be given in brackets after their first mention in the text, and used thereafter. For centrifugation rates give g values rather than rpm, as this will vary according to rotor diameter.

Format
Double spacing on one side of the paper only. Number each page top right. Number lines. Avoid underlining. Differentiate clearly letters O, I and numbers 0, 1. Ensure unusual symbols are written clearly.

Structure (listed in order of appearance in the published manuscript)

Title
Should not exceed 25 words and should be specific and informative.

Running title
Should not exceed 50 characters.

Authors
Give initials and family name of all authors. Declaration of Authors’ roles is required at submission and this information will be listed for each author on the title page of the paper (refer to the section ‘To accompany manuscript at submission’ above for more details regarding authorship).
Address
The department, institution, city and country should be given with postal code for each author. An e mail address will be published for the corresponding author, who should be clearly identified. Current addresses should be provided for all authors.

Abstract
The abstract should be a single paragraph of not more than 250 words which clearly summarizes the findings of the manuscript. Note that online abstracts are published for viewing in isolation to the main body of the manuscript and should be self explanatory. The following structured headings should be used to divide the text of abstracts: BACKGROUND, METHODS, RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS. All papers should clearly describe within the BACKGROUND section the background and objective of the study and within the METHODS section the design, setting, patients, interventions and main outcome measures should be described. Where multiple methodologies have been used, these and the results obtained can be presented in sequence in a combined METHODS and RESULTS section. Mention of the study's single most important limitation should be made in the CONCLUSION section of the abstract. Citations should not appear in the abstract. A structured abstract format is not applicable to Debates, Opinions and Case Reports.

For Randomized Controlled Trials the method of randomization and primary outcome measure should be stated in the Abstract. An ICMJE recognized trial registry number should be included (see above).

Key words

Up to five key words must be supplied by the author. The key words, together with the title and abstract, are used for online searches. They should therefore be specific and relevant to the paper.

Introduction
The introduction should be limited to the specific background necessary to show the importance and context of the current study. The objective of the study should be clearly stated in the final paragraph of the Introduction.

Materials and methods
The names, town and country of origin of all suppliers should be included.

Randomized controlled trials: These should be reported in accordance with the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement: [Moher, D., Schultz, K.F. and Altman, D.G. (2001) The CONSORT statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel group randomised trials. Lancet, 357, 1191 1194], [www.consort statement.org].
Authors must provide the following: (i) A flow chart showing the progress of participants through the trial; (ii) A checklist for editors and reviewers (not for publication) showing that you have described 22 key points in your report. Please click here for the flowchart and here for the checklist. All RCTs are reviewed by a team of journal appointed statisticians.

Systematic reviews with or without a meta analysis: These should be reported in accordance with QUOROM (Quality of Reporting of Meta analyses), [Moher D., Cook, D.J., Eastwood, S., Olkin, I., Rennie D. and Stroup, D.F. (1999) Improving the quality of reports of meta analyses of randomised controlled trials: the QUOROM statement. Quality of Reporting of Meta analyses. Lancet, 354, 1896 1900], [www.consort statement.org/QUOROM.pdf].
Authors must provide the following: (i) a flow chart and (ii) a checklist. Please click here for the flow chart and here for the checklist.


Results
Unnecessary overlap between tables, figures and text should be avoided.

Discussion
The discussion should begin with a succinct statement of the principal findings, outline the strengths and weaknesses of the study, discuss the findings in relation to other studies, provide possible explanations and indicate questions which remain to be answered in future research.

Acknowledgements
Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies.

Funding
With respect to funding of research, in line with the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) guidelines, http://www.wame.org/wamestmt.htm#fundres the journal considers it the responsibility of the author to protect the integrity of the research record from bias related to the source of funding by fully declaring all sponsorships, the roles played by sponsors in the research as well as institutional affiliations and relevant financial ties. These should be listed in the manuscript after the ‘Acknowledgements’.

Reference citations within the text
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Each reference should be cited by author and date. If there are two authors please list both, if more than two please use first author then et al. Permission to cite personal communications (J.Smith, personal communication) should be obtained by the corresponding author. Unpublished data should be cited as (unpublished data) and should not be included in the reference list. Either of the above should be used only when essential.

References to papers accepted for publication, but not yet published, should be cited as such in the reference list e.g. Bloggs A (2007) In vitro fertilization. Hum Reprod, in press.

Reference list
Please use the following style. Note that correct punctuation and journal abbreviations must be used in order to run the search programs used to edit the manuscript. Incorrectly typed references take a lot of time to correct, for which we reserve the right to charge. Up to 10 authors should be included after which et al. should be used. Refer to the following examples. Abbreviate scientific journals according to established publications.
Biggers JD and McGinnis LK (2001) Evidence that glucose is not always an inhibitor of mouse preimplantation development in vitro. Hum Reprod 16,153 163.
Gekas J, Thepot F, Turleau C, Siffroi JP, Dadaoune JP, Briault S, Rio M, Bourouillou G, Carre Pigeon F, Wasels R et al. (2001) Chromosomal factors of infertility in candidate couples for ICSI: an equal risk of constitutional aberrations in women and men Hum Reprod 16, 82 90.
Elliot WH and Elliot DC (2001) Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Warren MA, Li TC and Klentzeris D (1994) Cell biology of the endometrium: histology, cell types and menstrual changes. In Chard T and Grudzinskas JG (eds) The Uterus. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, pp.94 125.

Tables
Each table should be numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. Please avoid complex constructions. Each item of data should be in a separate cell and should be produced using Word or Excel format. Each table should be self explanatory and include a brief descriptive title. Footnotes to the table indicated by superscript lowercase letters are acceptable but should not include extensive experimental detail. Reference to the tables in the text should be sequential (ie Table I, II etc).
Do not include more tables than is absolutely necessary - non-essential tables may be judged as being suitable for online-only publication.

Figure legends
Each legend must be self contained, with all symbols and abbreviations used in the figure defined.

Figures
Full instructions on preparing the figures are available as part of the online submission instructions. Please follow these instructions carefully as failure to do so will delay publication of your manuscript (please note: the editors reserve the right to charge for extensive changes). In preparing graphs authors should avoid background tints and 3D effects and maintain a consistent label size and aspect ratio (the x/y axis ratio) throughout a paper. Figure and axes titles should be clear and NOT in bold text. Do not include more figures than is absolutely necessary - non-essential figures may be judged as being suitable for online-only publication.

PROOFS

Authors are sent page proofs for checking by the production editor approximately 6 8 weeks after acceptance of the article. Proofs are sent by e mail as PDF files and should be checked and returned within 3 working days of receipt. Extensive changes of an essential nature may be made only by insertion of a Note added in Proof. A charge may be made to authors who insist on amendment to the text at the proof stage. It is the authors' responsibility to check that all the text and data as contained in the page proofs are correct and suitable for publication. We request that authors pay particular attention to author names and affiliations as it is essential that these details are accurate when the article is published.

OFFPRINTS

The publishers supply free electronic access to all articles. If offprints are ordered, these are sent to the address completed by the corresponding author on the offprint order form sent with the page proofs. The form must be faxed or posted to the production office at Oxford University Press [fax: +44 (0)1865 353798]. Late orders submitted after the journal is printed are subject to increased prices. For the offprint form please click here.