Instructions to authors

Please note that the journal now encourages authors to complete their copyright licence to publish form online

The Japanese language guide for authors is available here

Editor-in-chief

Professor J B Vermorken, Oncology, Antwerp University Hospital, Wilrijkstraat 10, 2650 Edegem, Belgium

Aims and scope

Annals of Oncology publishes manuscripts that describe new findings of particular significance in any area related to clinical oncology and clinically oriented basic cancer research. The criteria for acceptance are originality and high scientific quality. Manuscripts should be submitted with a letter specifying that the report is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and that all named authors have agreed to its submission. Papers reporting clinical studies should, where appropriate, contain a statement that they have been carried out with ethics committee approval. Papers disregarding the welfare of experimental animals will be rejected. Studies should be carried out in accordance with the relevant national and local guidelines.

The editorial office will rapidly review the manuscripts in order that new findings may appear with minimum delay. The editorial office will return to authors within 3 weeks, whenever possible, all papers that are found to be of insufficient priority for further consideration. Papers of high interest will be sent out for external review. Authors will normally be notified of acceptance, rejection, or need for revision within 6 weeks of submission. Contributors will be provided with an electronic pdf proof via e-mail and corrections must be returned within two working days of receipt of the proof, by email or fax to +44-(0)1865-355-739. If this deadline is not met, the editorial office may take over the responsibility of proofreading.

Manuscript submission

Online submission
Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below please visit the online submission web site online submission web site. Instructions on submitting your manuscript online can be viewed here or via the online submission web site. Please check for an existing account before creating a new one, by entering your e-mail address in the “Password Help” field, and confirm it by clicking on the “GO” blue action box. You will then receive a message with your log-in details. In case your e-mail address has changed since the last time you accessed Annals of Oncology database, you can ask ScholarOne Helpdesk to send your log-in details to your new e-mail. To do so, you just have to select the orange link “Get Help Now” on the top-right of the page, and fill in your request.

Electronic files for text and figures should be prepared as described below. The file or files should be uploaded as directed.

Please contact the editorial office with any queries regarding submissions.

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.

Ethics

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) or with the Helsinki Declaration (1964, amended in 1975, 1983, 1989, 1996 and 2000) of the World Medical Association. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in any illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or the National Research Council's guide for, or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Manuscript presentation

The journal's language is English. British English or American English spelling and terminology may be used, but either one should be followed consistently throughout the article. Number the pages consecutively with the first page containing the following Headings:

• article type
• title
• author(s) list: first name(s) written with initials only, and followed by the last name - e.g. J. E. Smith
• affiliation(s) list: the affiliation list should be written as follows: Department/Division Name (in English), Affiliation/Institution, City, Country
  
• full address for correspondence,this should be written as follows: title of corresponding author (Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr/Prof ) without academic title (MD, PhD, etc.), Department/Division/Unit Name (in English), Affiliation/Institution, street address, city, postal code, country, country code, telephone and fax number and e-mail address

Summary
Please provide a short summary of 200 words or less. The summary should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. Summaries should be organized and formatted according to the following headings: (1) Background, (2) Patients and methods, (3) Results and (4) Conclusion(s). Authors may substitute 'Design' or 'Materials and methods' for 'Patients and methods' in summaries of Review articles or of papers dealing with basic research.

Key words
Please provide a maximum of six key words in alphabetical order, suitable for indexing.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be explained at first occurrence.

Decimal numerals
To enhance readability and clarity of the text as well as tables and figures, decimal numerals should - with the obvious exception of P-values - be rounded to the unit whenever possible (i.e. in all cases in which the rounding procedure does not change the meaning). Value “N” and “P” should always be written in italic.

Article types

Annals of Oncology publishes material in the form of editorials, original articles, letters and reviews.

Editorials. Editorials are solicited by the editor and are generally related to a paper published in the same issue. Length and format of the editorial will be agreed upon between editor and author.

Original articles. Full articles should generally be no longer than 3000 words, excluding manuscript heading, abstract, references (which are unrestricted in number but must not be excessive), acknowledgements, funding, tables and figures. In the case of Supplementary Material, please indicate if it can be published online only. If so, please upload it in separate file(s) (see Appendices section). There is no limit on the number of figures or tables, but please consider that the journal is limited for space and that it may be possible to present some figures and tables as online-only Supplementary Data. Similarly, it may be possible to present an extended bibliography for online-only presentation.
Figures, tables and references must be prepared according to specific instructions (see below).

When providing word counts please indicate which word processing software and which version you are using.

Letters to the editor. Letters are welcome and will be published if appropriate. They should be no longer than 500 words and a maximum of five references; one table or figure is acceptable if absolutely necessary. No abstract is required.

Reviews. Reviews are generally solicited by the editor, but unsolicited contributions will also be considered. These manuscripts summarize the state-of-the-art in a particular field. Reviews should generally be no longer than 4000 words, excluding manuscript heading, abstract, references (which are unrestricted in number), acknowledgements, funding, tables and figures. In the case of Supplementary Material, please indicate if it can be published online only. If so, please upload it in separate file(s) (see Appendices section). There is no limit on the number of figures or tables, but please consider that the journal is limited for space and that it may be possible to present some figures and tables as online only. Similarly, it may be possible to present an extended bibliography for online-only presentation.

When providing word counts please indicate which word processing software and which version you are using.

Clinical trials

Authors reporting clinical trials may find the guidelines given in the report of Simon and Wittes useful. (Simon R, Wittes RE. Methodologic guidelines for reports of clinical trials. Cancer Treat Rep 1985; 69: 1-3.) Particularly critical is the correct application and presentation of survival analyses: useful guidelines can be found in the appendix of the report by D. G. Altman et al. (Altman DG, De Stavola BL, Love SB, Stepniewska KA. Review of survival analyses published in cancer journals. Br J Cancer 1995; 72: 511-518).

The quality of data reporting on randomized clinical trials will be evaluated following the rules and checklist of the CONSORT statement (CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated Guidelines for Reporting Parallel Group Randomized Trials. Schulz KF, Altman DG, Moher D et al. Ann Intern Med 2010; 152: 1-7); if required, material concerning this statement will be forwarded to the authors. Randomized clinical trials, which have begun after 1 January 1997, must be monitored and carried out in a manner permitting an absolute adherence to the rules of the CONSORT statement, as regards publication of their results. Potentially acceptable manuscripts will be submitted for statistical review.

Phase III trials

Phase III trials may be considered for fast track publication. Please contact the Editorial office.

Figures and tables

For preparation of figures for online submission and peer review please use the submission instructions in the 'Instructions and Forms' section of the web site.

Submission of tables
Tables should be provided in editable format, either at the end of the manuscript text document or as separate Word/text documents. Value “N” and “P” should always be written in italic. Some Excel files may be permissible, please contact the Editorial Office before submitting tables as Excel files. Please note that PDF is not a permissible format for tables. Footnotes are preferable to long explanatory texts in either the heading or body of the table. Footnotes should be identified by superscript letters and be placed immediately below the table.

Submission of electronic figures
Authors should supply the electronic versions of figures in either TIFF or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) format, using PhotoShop compatible software. Other formats, e.g. Microsoft Powerpoint or Microsoft Postscript, may be used, although this is not the preferred format.

Figures should be saved in separate files without their captions, which should be included with the text of the article. Files should be named according to DOS conventions, e.g. 'figure1.tif'. For vector graphics, EPS is the preferred format. Lines should not be thinner than 0.25 pts and in-fill patterns and screens should have a density of at least 10%. Font-related problems can be avoided by using standard fonts such as Times Roman and Helvetica. For bitmapped graphics, TIFF is the preferred format but EPS is also acceptable.

The following resolutions are optimal: black-and-white line figures, 600-1200 dpi; line figures with some grey or coloured lines, 600 dpi; photographs, 300 dpi; screen dumps, leave as is. Higher resolutions will not improve output quality but will only increase file size, which may cause problems with printing; lower resolutions (<300 dpi) may compromise output quality. Please try to provide artwork that approximately fits within the typeset area of the journal. Especially screened originals, i.e. originals with grey areas, may suffer badly from reduction by more than 10-15%.

Each figure and table should be numbered and mentioned in the text. Each figure and table should be accompanied by an explanatory legend. The figure legends should be grouped and placed on a separate page. Figures that are to be printed in black-and-white should not be submitted in colour. Authors will be charged for reproducing figures in colour.

In tables, footnotes are preferable to long explanatory material in either the heading or body of the table. Such explanatory footnotes, identified by superscript letters, should be placed immediately below the table.

Section headings

First-, second-, third- and fourth-order headings should be clearly distinguishable but not numbered.

Appendices

Supplementary material should be collected in an Appendix and placed after the Reference section. Material can alternatively be published online-only as Supplementary Data.

Cross-referencing

In the text, a reference identified by means of an author's name should be followed by the reference number in square brackets. When there are more than two authors, only the first author's name should be mentioned, followed by et al.

Examples.
Winograd [1]
Bullen and Bennett [2]
Wilson et al. [3]

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the References.

Funding

Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear after the 'Acknowledgements' section.

The following rules should be followed.

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply ‘National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI’ (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or ‘NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies). Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency) or grant number 'to [author initials]'.
  
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].’

Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. See Depositing articles in repositories – information for authors for details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.

Disclosure

If there are none, the disclosure should say: 'The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.'
If one or a few authors have a conflict to disclose, further to that statement, there should be an additional statement for those remaining authors who do not have any, e.g. 'All remaining authors have declared no conflicts of interest.'

References

References to books, journal articles, articles in collections and conference or workshop proceedings, and technical reports should be listed at the end of the article in numbered order following the Index Medicus style (see examples below). References to abstracts and Letters to the editor must be identified as such. List all authors if four or less; if five or more, list only the first three, followed by et al. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g. T. Moore, personal communication).

References to books should include the author's name; year of publication; title; page numbers where appropriate; publisher; place of publication, in the order given in the example below.

1. Girling DJ, Parmar MKB, Stenning SP et al. Cancer Clinical Trials: Principles and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

References to articles in an edited collection should include the author's name; year of publication; article title; editor's name; title of collection; first and last page numbers; publisher; place of publication, in the order given in the example below.

1. Brennan MF, Alektiar KM, Maki RG. Soft tissue sarcoma. In DeVita VT Jr, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA (eds): Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology, 6th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2001; 1841-1980.

References to articles in periodicals should include the author's name; year of publication; article title; full abbreviated title of periodical; volume number (issue number where appropriate); first and last page numbers, in the order given in the example below.

1. Folprecht G, Lutz Mp, Schoffski P et al. Cetuximab and irinotecan/5-fluorouracil/folinic acid is a safe combination for the first-line treatment of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor expressing metastatic colorectal carcinoma. Ann Oncol 2006; 17: 450-456.

If an article has been published online but has not yet been given issue or page numbers please use the Digital Object Identifier (doi) number when referencing the article as in the example below.

1. Suzuki S, Kajiyama K, Shibata K et al. Is there any association between retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy and survival benefit in ovarian clear cell carcinoma patients? Ann Oncol 2008. Published on March 19, 2008. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdn059
   

Proofs

Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail as a pdf file. The corrected proof should be returned to the publisher, preferably by email, within two days of receipt.

Offprints

Free URLs will be provided for all articles. The corresponding authors of reviews and articles are entitled to receive 25 printed offprints free of charge. These can be claimed using the Oxford Journals Author Services site. Authors of 'Letters to the editor' may purchase offprints of their letter using the Oxford Journals Author Services site.

Page charges and colour figures

No page charges are levied on authors or their institutions. Colour figures are published at the author's expense only.

Conflict of Interest

At the point of submission, Annals of Oncology policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated – including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?

As an integral part of the online submission process, corresponding authors are required to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. The corresponding author is asked to upload the on-line Conflict of Interest Form during the manuscript submission process (Author Centre/Main Menu/Author Dashboard/Manuscript Submission/Step 5), along with the manuscript file.
This can be done following below steps:

1) Print the Conflict of Interest Form out,
2) fill in all requested data
data should be consistant with the on-line submission record - Author Centre/Main Menu/Author Dashboard/Manuscript Submission/Step 4
3) duly sign it (electronic/printed signature not acceptable)
4) scan it
5) save it as Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf)
6) upload it
(on-line submission: Author Centre/Main Menu/Author Dashboard/Manuscript Submission/Step 5)

If the Corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will then be required to submit a completed Conflict of Interest form to the Production Office. It is the Corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy.

The corresponding author should indicate on behalf of all the authors any conflict of interest or funding sources that might generate a conflict of interest.

If there are none, the disclosure should say: 'The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.'

If one or a few authors have a conflict to disclose, further to that statement, there should be an additional statement for those remaining authors who do not have any, e.g. 'All remaining authors have declared no conflicts of interest.'

Copyright

Copyright of any article published in Annals of Oncology will belong to the author or their designee. However, it is a condition of publication in the journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to publish to ESMO. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and allows the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. As part of the licence agreement, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication and ESMO as the licensee.

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

Permissions

It is the responsibility of the author to obtain written permission for a quotation from unpublished material, or for all quotations in excess of 250 words in one extract or 500 words in total from any work still in copyright, and for the reprinting of figures, tables or poems from unpublished or copyrighted material.

Disclaimer

Opinions expressed in articles, reviews and letters in Annals of Oncology are the views of the authors and contributors and not those of ESMO, JSMO, the publishers or the editorial board.

The authors, editors and publishers do everything possible to ensure the accuracy of drug names and doses but cannot accept liability for damages arising from any errors or omissions in the journal.

Announcements

Classified advertising without cost is available to ESMO members for those recruiting personnel or announcing positions sought, fellowships, practices for sale, meetings and academic posts to be filled. For information regarding advertising, the placement of announcements of meetings or other messages from non-ESMO members contact

Additional information

Additional information can be obtained from:

Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy

For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Oxford Open Option for Authors

• Site Map
• Privacy Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions