INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological and Medical Sciences are published monthly by The Gerontological Society of America. The Society was founded in 1945 to promote the scientific study of aging, to encourage exchanges among researchers and practitioners from the various disciplines related to gerontology, and to foster the use of gerontological research in forming public policy. The Society's 6,000 members include leading gerontological researchers, educators, and practitioners in biological, medical, behavioral, and social sciences and the humanities.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

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.

Manuscripts should be prepared carefully according to the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style. 9th Ed. (1998). This manual is available at many academic and technical bookstores: some aspects are summarized below.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that it has not been published or is not under consideration elsewhere. If accepted for this journal, it is not to be published elsewhere without permission. As a further condition of publication, the corresponding author will be responsible, where appropriate, for certifying that permission has been received to use copyrighted instruments or software employed in the research and that human or animal subjects approval has been obtained. In the case of co-authored manuscripts, the corresponding author will also be responsible for submitting a letter, signed by all authors, indicating that they actively participated in the collaborative work leading to the publication and agree to be listed as an author on the paper. These assurances will be requested at the time a paper has been formally accepted for publication.

Manuscript Preparation for Articles Describing Original Research

Preparing the manuscript. Manuscripts, including references and tables should be double spaced, formatted for 8½ x 11" paper using 1" margins. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page and including all pages of the submission. Submission of manuscript text files in Microsoft Word is encouraged. Failure to comply with these aspects of submission will delay handling of the manuscript.

Title page. A title page should include the title of the manuscript, the author’s full
name(s) and affiliations; corresponding authors complete mailing address: to include name, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers. A short running page headline not to exceed 40 letters and spaces should be placed at the foot of the title page.

Abstract. An abstract of not more than 150 (for Biological Sciences) and 250 words (for Medical Sciences) should be typed, double spaced, on a separate page. It should state the purpose of the study, basic procedures (study participants or experimental animals and observational and analytical methods), main findings, and conclusions. NOTE: For Medical Sciencies only, the abstracts must contain the following headers: background, methods, results, and conclusions. Biological Sciences does not require a structured abstract.

Text. The text of observational and experimental articles is usually (but not necessarily) divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. Articles may need subheadings within some sections to clarify their content. The Discussion should not merely restate the results but should interpret the results. Conciseness of expression is imperative. NOTE: For Medical Sciences only, the text WITH references, title page information, and abstract cannot exceed 4800 words. Please also include tables, figures, and captions in this count as well.

Text references. Number references in the text in the order in which they appear. Use arabic numbers in parentheses, not superscripts.

Reference list. Type double spaced. List references by number in the order in which they were first cited in the text. NOTE: For Medical Sciences only, the references should be limited to 40 references. The reference style should conform to that given in the AMA Manual of Style. For periodicals, utilize the title observation as given in Index Medicus and list all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first three and add et al. Examples are shown below.

Journal article

Milunsky A. Prenatal detection of neural tube defects, VI: experience with 20,000 pregnancies. JAMA. 1980;244:2731–2735.

Books and other monographs

Stryer L. Biochemistry. 2nd ed. San Francisco, Calif: WH Freeman Co; 1981;559–596.

Part of a book

Kavet J. Trends in the utilization of influenza vaccine: an examination of the implementation of public policy in the United States. In: Selby P, ed. Influenza: Virus, Vaccines, and Strategy. Orlando, Fla: Academic Press; 1976:297–308. Notations of ‘‘unpublished work’’ or ‘‘personal communications’’ will not be accepted without documentation.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments, preliminary reports or abstract presentation, and current location of authors, if different from the title page, may be indicated. Acknowledgements and details of support must be included at the end of the text before references and not in footnotes (see below under Funding). Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Give name and mailing/e-mail addresses of author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Please note that acknowledgement of funding agencies should be given in the separate Funding section.

Tables

Each table should be typed, double spaced, on a separate sheet. Number the tables consecutively using Arabic numbers and supply a brief title at the top for each. Legends and footnotes for the table are typed immediately below the table and should follow the sequence cited in the AMA Manual of Style: *, _, _, §, ||, {, #, **, __, etc. Units in which results are expressed should be given in parentheses at the top of each column and not repeated in each line of the table. Ditto signs are not used. Avoid overcrowding the tables and the excessive use of words. The format of tables should be in keeping with that normally used by the journal; in particular, vertical lines should not be drawn. Please be certain that the data given in tables are correct.

Illustrations

Figures should be submitted in TIF, EPS, PDF, or JPG formats at sufficient resolution to be clear, sharp images when reduced to print size (see below under Figures).

Captions for tables and illustrations

Type captions double spaced on a separate page with numbers corresponding to the illustrations. Explain symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters used in illustrations. Explain internal scale and identify staining method in photomicrographs. Captions for tables and illustrations should be adequate to interpret the content of the table or figure without reference to the text.

Abbreviations

Ensure that the use of abbreviations is clear, and each one is defined in the text at its first mention only.

High-Priority Manuscripts. High-priority manuscripts are identified by the Editor or Deputy Editor and the appropriate Associate Editor as: (a) well written and requiring no/minimal revisions; (b) describing a well-designed experiment; and (c) pertaining to an important or topical subject. Such manuscripts will be processed within weeks and published within 3 months of acceptance. Manuscripts should be prepared as described above

Perspectives. Perspectives are usually invited by the Editor, although unsolicited Perspectives may be submitted for consideration. Perspectives are not comprehensive reviews; rather they are focused treatments of controversial or insightful issues of immediate concern. Manuscripts should be prepared as described above in “Manuscript Preparation for Articles Describing Original Research” and should be less than 2000 words.

In Focus. In Focus articles are usually invited by the Editor, although unsolicited articles may be submitted for consideration. These are focused treatments of controversial or insightful issues of immediate concern. In Focus articles are limited to 500 words. Manuscripts should be prepared as described above in “Manuscript Preparation for Articles Describing Original Research.”

Letters to the Editor.. Letters must be typewritten, double spaced, approximately 500 to 750 words. If appropriate, a copy will be sent to the author of the original article to provide an opportunity for rebuttal. Letters and rebuttals will be reviewed and are subject to editing. Usually both letter and rebuttal will be published in the same issue.

Comments on recently published articles may be submitted in the format of Letters to the Editor but will be published under the heading ‘‘Commentaries on Recent Publications.’’ Comments on articles published in any peer reviewed journal are welcome.

Guest Editorials. Guest editorials may be invited but unsolicited editorials may also be submitted. These should not exceed one printed page. Manuscript preparation should follow the guidelines as described above in “Manuscript Preparation for Articles Describing Original Research.” The decision to publish will be exclusively the Editor’s.

Reviews in Depth. Reviews in Depth are invited by the editor and are intended to be comprehensive in nature but are limited to 5000 words. They will address topics on which considerable literature is available and will synthesize the state of knowledge in a particular area, presenting both positive and negative aspects of the subject. Manuscript preparation should follow the guidelines as described above in “Manuscript Preparation for Articles Describing Original Research.”

Figures

Please be aware that the requirements for online submission and for reproduction in the journal are different: (i) for online submission and peer review, please upload your figures either embedded in the word processing file or separately as low-resolution images (.jpg, .tif, .gif or.eps); (ii) for reproduction in the journal, you will be required at revised submission stages to supply high-resolution .tif files (1200 d.p.i. for line drawings and 300 d.p.i. for colour and half-tone artwork) or high-quality printouts on glossy paper. We advise that you create your high-resolution images first as these can be easily converted into low-resolution images for online submission. For useful information on preparing figures, visit http://dx.sheridan.com where you can also test whether your figures are suitable for production by using the proflight tool at http://dx.sheridan.com/onl/.

Please note that all labels used in figures should be in upper case in both the figure and the caption. The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material.

Color figures.
Please contact the production editor for information about color.

LICENCES, OFFPRINTS AND SUBMISSIONS

It is a condition of publication in the Journals of Gerontology Series A that authors grant an exclusive licence to the Gerontological Society of America. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow 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 Journals of Gerontology Series A is acknowledged as the original place of publication and Oxford University Press as the Publisher.

Information about the Creative Commons licence can be found at http://creativecommons.org/.

Authors will receive electronic access to their paper free of charge. Printed offprints may be purchased in multiples of 50. Rates are indicated on the order form which must be returned with the proofs.

PERMISSIONS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS AND FIGURES

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS and similar licencing agencies where appropriate. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder must be made available to the editors. It is also the author's responsibility to include acknowledgements as stipulated by the particular institutions. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing print and online permissions: please see Guidelines for Authors. Information on permissions contacts for a number of main galleries and museums can also be provided. Should you require copies of this, please contact the editorial office of the journal in question or the Oxford Journals Rights department.

FUNDING

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

The following rules should be followed:

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health ([P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.); and the Alcohol & Education Research Council (HFY GR667789).’

• 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 complete and accurate and provided in parentheses as follows: ‘(grant number ABX CDXXXXXX)'
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘(grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX)’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• 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]'.

Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. See http://www.oxfordjournals.org/for_authors/repositories.html for details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above

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.

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)" or "(see Supplementary Figure 1)."

LANGUAGE EDITING

Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for correct usage of American English. 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.

ADVANCE ACCESS

Advance Access allows for papers to be published online soon after they have been accepted for publication -- reducing the time between submission and publication. Articles posted for Advance Access have been copyedited and typeset but not yet paginated for inclusion in a specific issue of the journal. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes official publication, with full-text functionality, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). The final manuscript is then paginated into an issue, at which point it is removed from the Advance Access page. Both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.

OPEN ACCESS

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. 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 the Journals of Gerontology Series A vary depending on the institution at which the Corresponding author is based: see http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/charges.html for details.

Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and color 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 the Journals of Gerontology Series A. 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 the Journals of Gerontology Series A.

UK VAT charges, if applicable

Orders from UK will be subject to a 15% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the European Union, Oxford Journals 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.

AUTHORS SELF-ARCHIVING / PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY

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

ETHICS

The Journals of Gerontology Series A expects that authors will observe high standards with respect to publication ethics. For example, the following practices are unacceptable: (1) falsification or fabrication of data, (2) plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors' own work, in whole or in part without proper citation, (3) misappropriation of the work of others such as omission of qualified authors or of information regarding financial support. Allegations of unethical conduct will be discussed initially with the corresponding author. In the event of continued dispute the matter will be referred to the author's institution and funding agencies for investigation and adjudication.

Oxford Journals, publisher of the Journals of Gerontology Series A, is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the journal strives to adhere to the COPE code of conduct and guidelines. For further information see http://www.publicationethics.org.uk.

SUBMISSION

Using MC or EM Manuscripts must be submitted online. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions, please visit the Journals of Gerontology Series A Biological Sciences online submission site or the Journals of Gerontology Series A Medical Sciences online submission site. Instructions on submitting your manuscript online can be viewed here.

By email manuscripts must be submitted by email, as attachments.

STYLE

Please see manuscript preparation for full details on the style used in the Journals of Gerontology Series A.

CORRESPONDENCE (EDITORIAL)

The Editorial Office can be contacted as follows:

Huber R. Warner, PhD, Editor
Journal of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences
College of Biological Sciences
University of Minnesota
123 Snyder Hall
1475 Gortner Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108.
tel: 612-625-2247
fax: 612-624-2785
e-mail: jgbs@umn.edu

Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD
Journal of Gerontology Series A: Medical Sciences
National Institute of Health
National Institute on Aging
Harbor Hospital, 5th Floor
3001 S. Hanover Street, NM 540
Baltimore, MD 21225-1233
tel: 410-350-3936
fax: 410-350-3979
e-mail: ferruccilu@mail.nih.gov