Instructions for Authors
OPEN ACCESS OPTION FOR AUTHORS - please see below for further details
All manuscripts must be submitted online. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below please visit the online submission web site. Instructions on submitting your manuscript online can be viewed here.
- Annals of Occupational Hygiene publishes material that significantly extends knowledge on any aspect of occupational health and hygiene. Further details are given in the Aims and Scope, near the start of each issue. The usual categories are Papers, Meeting Reports, and Letters to the Editor. Review Articles are normally specially commissioned, and authors should not submit a review without prior consultation with the Editor-in-Chief. Meeting Reports must convey scientific information of interest to the readership. Letters to the Editor may deal with any topic of interest to the readership, but are usually comments on items already published. Books and software may be submitted for review at the editor's discretion.
- Editorial policy. The Annals aims to conform with the Guidelines on Good Publication Practice and the Code of Conduct for Editors of Biomedical Journals of the UK Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These documents can be found here.
- Quality.All submissions which include scientific data or opinions are normally sent to two referees (reviewers), selected for expertise and having regard to the international nature of the journal. Authors are invited to suggest the names and addresses of up to three independent reviewers (referees) when they submit a paper, but these reviewers will not necessarily be used. After considering reviewers’ comments, the editor will inform the author whether or not the paper is acceptable, and what modifications, if any, are necessary. Reviewers’ anonymised comments will be transmitted to the author with the editor’s decision. The decision will reflect not only technical considerations, but the priority of the material, bearing in mind pressure on space. The editor may make minor editorial changes to accepted material.
- Speed. The editors’ target is to send a decision to the author within two months of receiving a paper. In practice the median time achieved is about seven weeks.
- Appeals. The decision of the editor is normally final, but an author may appeal
(a) if the procedures spelt out here or published by COPE (see paragraph 2) have not been properly followed;
(b) if the author can show that the objections by the editor and reviewers to the paper are based on major misunderstandings;
(c) the author can suggest ways of overcoming the major criticisms of the paper.
Because we receive many more papers than we have room for, the editors have to make a judgement on the importance of a paper, and appeals against this judgement are not normally useful. Appeals should be addressed to the editor who dealt with the submission and copied to the Editor in Chief. Authors may also appeal to the Committee on Publication Ethics if the matter is within its competence. Details are given here
- Submission. The manuscript should be prepared using a word processor using these instructions, and then processed using the on-line submission procedures.
Any hardcopy correspondence should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr Trevor Ogden, The Annals of Occupational Hygiene, BOHS, 5/6 Melbourne Court, Millennium Way, Pride Park, Derby DE24 8LZ, UK.- Originality. Only original work, not published elsewhere, should be submitted. If the findings have been published elsewhere in part, or if the submission is part of a closely-related series, this must be clearly stated and the submitted manuscript must be accompanied by a copy of the other publications (or by a copy of the other manuscripts if they are still under consideration). These should be uploaded in the submission as supplementary files, or in case of difficulty may be sent in hard copy to the Editorial Office.
- For further details of the journal's practice on the topics of the next three paragraphs, see the COPE guidelines.
- Authorship. The corresponding author should be identified in the submission. Full postal addresses must be given for all co-authors. The preferred practice is that persons should only be named as authors if they have made significant identifiable intellectual contributions to the work, and other contributions may be recognised by acknowledgement at the end of the submission, in accordance with the guidance issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. A letter consenting to publication should be signed by all authors of a submission and sent to the Editorial Office.
- Ethics. If requested, authors must produce original data for inspection by the editor. Possible fraud may be referred to the authors’ institutions. Studies carried out on human subjects, other than measurements in the course of their normal work activities, must have been approved by a competent ethics committee using the standards of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association. The ethics committee which gave approval must be named in the paper.
- Conflicts of interest. The source of financial support for the work must be stated in the Acknowledgements, unless it is clear from the authors' affiliations. Other conflicts of interest must be declared to the Editor at the time of submission. These may include financial interest in products described, including stock or share ownership, and payment for consultancy or legal testimony using the material in the paper. These conflicts will not necessarily prevent publication, but the Editor may decide that the declaration should be included in the paper.
- Language. Manuscripts must be in English. Most Annals readers are not native speakers of English, so authors should try to write in a way which is clear to all. British or American styles and spelling may be used, but should be used consistently, and words or phrases which might be unclear in other parts of the world should be avoided. Authors whose first language is not English should seek help from a native speaker or competent translator. The editors are sympathetic to their difficulties, but regrettably do not have time to do major work on English, and major problems may lead to rejection.
- Brevity, and supplementary material. The necessary length of a paper depends on the subject, but any submission must be as brief as possible consistent with clarity. The number of words, excluding the abstract, references, tables and Figs, must be stated as a message to the Editor at the time of submission. If this length is more than 5000 words, a statement must be included justifying the extra length, and papers without this information may be returned unread. It is possible to include supplementary material, such as large data sets, in the on-line edition only, and authors are encouraged to take advantage of this. This material must be included in the submission, but not in the word count.
- Structure. Papers should generally conform to the pattern: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions - consult a recent issue for style of headings. A paper must be prefaced by an abstract of the argument and findings, which may be arranged under the headings Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Keywords should be given after the list of authors.
- Survey design. Sampling surveys should be planned using modern statistical principles so that the quality of the data is good enough to justify the inferences and conclusions drawn.
- Units and symbols. SI units should be used, though their equivalent in other systems may be given as well.
- Figures.Good quality low resolution electronic copies of figures, which include photographs, diagrams and charts, should be sent with the first submission. It is helpful to reviewers to incorporate them in the word-processor text or at the end. The revised version, after refereeing, should be accompanied by high-resolution electronic copies in a form and of a quality suitable for reproduction. They should be about the size they are to be reproduced, with font size at least 6 point, using the standard Adobe set of fonts. Fine hairlines should be avoided and clear hatching patterns should be used in preference to solid grey shadings wherever possible. They should be on separate pages at the end of the text. All figures should be black and white unless the first author is willing to pay for colour reproduction at standard Oxford University Press rates (available on request). Authors should submit high-resolution electronic copies of the figures when they send the revised version of the paper. These should have a resolution of 600 dpi for line figures, and 300 dpi for half tones), saved as .tif, .jpg, .gif, .bmp or .eps files (with fonts embedded where appropriate). Graphics in Word, Excel and Powerpoint formats are acceptable so long as the resolution is of sufficient quality. Computer-generated graphics should be reproduced in grey-scale if they are to be published in black and white. Colour photographs should be scanned at 300 d.p.i. (600 dpi for colour)
- Tables. Tables should be numbered consecutively and given a suitable caption, and each table typed on a separate page. Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lowercase letters.
- References. References should only be included which are essential to the development of an argument or hypothesis, or which describe methods for which the original account is too long to be reproduced. Only publications which can be obtained by the reader should be referenced. References in the text should be in the form Jones (1995), or Jones and Brown (1995), or Jones et al. (1995) if there are more than two authors. For example:
Jones and Brown (1995) observed total breakdown of control...
or
Total breakdown of control has sometimes been observed (Jones and Brown, 1995). - At the end of the paper, references should be listed in alphabetical order by name of first author, using the Vancouver Style of abbreviation and punctuation. Examples are given below. ISBNs should be given for books and other publications where appropriate. Material unobtainable by readers should not be cited. Personal Communications, if essential, should be cited in the text in the form (Professor S.M. Rappaport, University of California). References will not be checked editorially, and their accuracy is the responsibility of authors.
Simpson AT, Groves JA, Unwin J, Piney M. (2000) Mineral oil metal working fluids (MWFs)—Development of practical criteria for mist sampling. Ann Occup Hyg; 44 165–72.
Vincent JH. (1989) Aerosol sampling: science and practice. Chichester, UK: John Wiley. ISBN 0 471 92175 0.
Swift DL, Cheng Y-S, Su Y-F, Yeh H-C. (1994) Ultrafine aerosol deposition in the human nasal and oral passages. In Dodgson J, McCallum RI, editors. Inhaled Particles VII. Oxford: Elsevier Science. p. 77–81. ISBN 0 08 040841 9 H.
British Standards Institution. (1986). BS 6691: 1986. Fume from welding and allied processes. Part 1. Guide to methods for the sampling and analysis of particulate matter. London: British Standards Institution.
Morse SS. (1995) Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan–Mar;1(1). Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/ EID/eid.htm - Supplementary material. Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available by the publisher as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures (including colour).
It is standard practice for appendices to be made available online-only as supplementary material. All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats. All material to be considered as Supplementary material must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, and will not be edited. Please indicate clearly the material intended as Supplementary material upon submission. Also ensure that the Supplementary material is referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as '(see Supplementary material in online edition)' or '(see Supplementary Figure 1 in online edition)'. - Contributors will receive pdf proofs via e-mail, on which only minor alterations may be made. The corresponding author of a published paper will receive a url for free access to the on-line article; paper reprints may also be ordered when the proofs are returned.
- Papers are normally published soon after clearance of the proofs, on the journal's advance publication website. The journal uses the digital object identifier (doi) system, which enables the paper to be indexed and cited at this stage in a way which remains valid after transfer to an issue. The paper will be later be transferred to the on-line and print editions of an issue of the journal.
- Offprints
Authors will get a free URL link to their article online. Additional offprints can be ordered using the offprint order form.
- OPEN ACCESS OPTION FOR AUTHORS
Annals of Occupational Hygiene authors have the option, at an additional charge, to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. After your manuscript is accepted, as part of the mandatory licence form required of all corresponding authors, you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay to have your paper made freely available immediately. Please note the information here about the Creative Commons licence. If you do not select the Open Access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.
For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for Annals of Occupational Hygiene 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 Annals of Occupational Hygiene:
Regular charge - £900 / $1800 / €1350
List B developing country charge** - £450 / $900 / €675
List A developing country charge** - £0 / $0 / €0
For a corresponding author based at an institution that does not subscribe to the online journal:
Regular charge - £1500 / $3000 / €2250
List B developing country charge** - £750 / $1500 / €1125
List A developing country charge** - £0 /$0 / €0
*Visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jnls/devel/ for list of qualifying countries.
Orders from the UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from elsewhere in the EU you or your institution should account for VAT by way of a reverse charge. Please provide us with your or your institution’s VAT number.
The above Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and colour charges that might apply. - If you choose the Open Access option you will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. You will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether you are based at an institution with an online subscription to Annals of Occupational Hygiene. Therefore please make sure that you are using an institutional computer when accessing the form. To check whether you are based at a subscribing institution please use the Subscriber Test link for Annals of Occupational Hygiene.
Language Editing
Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. If you would like information about one such service please click here. There are other specialist language editing companies that offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.
Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy
For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
