SUBMISSION

Please read these instructions carefully and follow them strictly to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not prepared in accordance with these instructions.

All material to be considered for publication in Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences should be submitted in electronic form via the journal's online submission system. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, instructions on how to submit your manuscript online can be found by clicking here. Authors will set up an account through the website which will be used to upload files. Authors will also be able to log on to the website and check on the status of submissions.

Ethics
Submission of a manuscript to the Journal implies that it has not been published and is not under consideration elsewhere. All authors must have participated sufficiently in the conception and design of the work, and the analysis of the data, as well as the writing of the manuscript to take public responsibility for it. They must also have approved the manuscript for submission. Any affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with a financial interest in the subject matter or materials presented in the manuscript must be declared. All authors must agree to produce the data on which the manuscript is based for examination by the Editor or his assignees upon request in order to document procedures, clarify controversies, or verify results.

CORRESPONDENCE (EDITORIAL)

Kenneth F. Ferraro, PhD, Editor, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, 155 S. Grant, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2114. Email: jgss@purdue.edu

REVIEW OF MANUSCRIPTS

The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences employs double-anonymous peer review to ensure an impartial evaluation. Manuscript files must be uploaded to the website with all identifying information removed, including author identification on the title page and self references in the body of the text. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be required to submit a final version of the accepted paper with the identifying information included.

TYPES OF ARTICLES

a. Original Research Reports. Manuscripts reporting original research should not exceed 8,000 words. Typical length is 5,000 words of text and no more than 10 pages of references, tables, and figures.

b. Brief Reports. These manuscripts also report original research, but should not normally exceed 4,000 words, typically 2,500 words of text and no more than 3 pages of references, tables, and figures.

c. Review Articles. The goal is an integrative presentation of findings on a cutting-edge topic; these may be solicited by the Editor. Manuscript is the same as 4.a.

d. Theoretical or Methodological Articles. Theoretical papers must include an integration and critical analysis of existing views in a specific area as well as proposed resolution(s) of controversial positions. Methodological contributions should be supported with examples based upon empirical data if possible. Manuscript length is the same as 4.a.

e. Commentary or Letters to the Editor. These are used to briefly clarify the interpretation of results or conclusions from articles in the Journal.

STYLE

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), obtainable from APA, 750 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-4242, http://apastyle.apa.org/

MANUSCRIPT STRUCTURE

Please prepare your manuscript text using a word-processing package (save in .doc or .rtf format). Manuscripts should be double-spaced. Please number each page. We recommend that authors spell-check all files before submission.

Authors should submit a single file containing the complete manuscript (i.e., title page, abstract, text, figures and tables), as this makes the reviewing process easier for Editors and referees. Please include the tables and figures at the end of the manuscript, after references, and do not embed them within the text. This applies to the original version of the manuscript and any revised versions. Due to figure file sizes, you may have to submit separate files for figures. Please use short, simple filenames when saving all your documents, and avoid special characters, punctuation marks, symbols (such as &), and spaces. If you are a Macintosh user, you must also type the extension at the end of the file name you choose (.doc, .rtf, .jpg, .gif, .tif, .xls, .pdf, .eps, .ppt, .mov or .qt).

Other helpful hints are: (i) use the TAB key once for paragraph indents; (ii) where possible use Times New Roman for the text font and Symbol for any Greek and special characters; (iii) use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold, Italic, Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters; (iv) please avoid using underline: for cases use italic; for emphasis use bold; (v) clearly identify unusual symbols and Greek letters; (vi) differentiate between the letter O and zero, and the letters I and l and the number 1.

TITLE PAGE

The title page should include the title of the manuscript and word counts for the text and references. A suggested running headline, not to exceed 40 letters and spaces, should be placed at the foot of the title page.

ABSTRACT

On the page immediately following the title page, include a structured abstract of not more than 200 words, double spaced. It should contain four sections: Objectives, Methods, Results, and Discussion.

TEXT

The manuscript text is usually divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Articles may need subheadings within some sections to clarify content. Do not use footnotes or endnotes. Do not use appendices. For citation format, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 5th ed.

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:

• 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]'.

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).’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A separate file, not merged into the manuscript pdf, should include the manuscript title, author names and affiliations, and acknowledgments, including source of research support. Author contributions to the manuscript should be indicated. For example: A.B. Cox planned the study, supervised the data analysis, and wrote the paper. D.E. Furr performed all statistical analyses and contributed to revising the paper. G.H. Irwin and J.K. Lyon helped plan the study, including instrumentation, and revise the manuscript. Please indicate where correspondence should be addressed; list e-mail address after the zip code. This document will not be sent to reviewers, but will remain with the online submission.

REFERENCES

Include only references cited in the text; do not include references to private communications. Consult the APA Publication Manual, 5th ed., for correct form. Note: For this journal, list up to 10 authors per paper in the reference list before abbreviating with et al.

TABLES

Each table should be double spaced on a separate page. Number tables consecutively and supply a brief title at the top for each. Footnotes to a table are typed immediately below the table. The reference marks are superscript lowercase letters (a,b,c . . .) with the footnotes arranged alphabetically by their superscripts. Asterisks are used only for indicating probability levels of tests of significance. Indicate in the text the preferred placement for each table by noting [Table 1 about here]. Provide a test statistic and/or measure of goodness-of-fit for each multivariate equation (e.g., R2, likelihood ratio χ2).

FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Please upload your figures separately as images (.jpg, .tif, .gif or. eps) set at 1200 d.p.i. for line drawings and 300 d.p.i. for colour and half-tone artwork. Please note that all labels used in figures should be in upper case in the figure and the caption. Captions for figures should be typed double spaced on a separate page and include numbers corresponding to the proper figure. The Journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material.

For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to http://cpc.cadmus.com/da. Figures will not be relettered by the publisher.

Please contact the production editor for information about color.

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

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 data. All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats. All material to be considered as supplementary data must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. Supplementary material cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, and will not be edited. Please indicate clearly all material intended as supplementary data upon submission. Also ensure that the supplementary data is referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as '(see Supplementary data)' 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 articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication, in advance of their appearance in a printed journal. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). When an article appears in an issue, it is removed from the Advance Access page.

Articles posted for Advance Access have been copyedited and typeset and any corrections included. This is before they are paginated for inclusion in a specific issue of the Journal. Once an article appears in an issue, both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

It is a condition of publication for all Oxford Journals that authors grant an exclusive license to Oxford University Press or the sponsoring Society. 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. No article will be published unless the signed license has been received at Oxford Journals. Faxing a copy of the form when requested will assist in the rapid publication of your article. As part of the license agreement, Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication and Oxford University Press as the Publisher. As the Author(s), copyright of the Article remains yours (or your employer’s if your employer claims copyright in your work).

See here for full details of Oxford Journals' copyright policy.

Information about the Creative Commons license can be found here.

Author self-archiving/Public Access Policy

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

OFFPRINTS

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.

PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE FIGURES AND EXTRACTS

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 licensing 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. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing print and online permissions: please see the Guidelines for Authors section at http://www.oxfordjournals.org/access_purchase/rights_permissions.html. Should you require copies of this then please contact the editorial office of the journal in question or else the Oxford Journals Rights department on journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

For a copyright prose work, it is recommended that permission is obtained for the use of extracts longer than 400 words; a series of extracts totalling more than 800 words, of which any one extract is more than 300 words; or an extract or series of extracts comprising one-quarter of the work or more. For poetry: an extract of more than 40 lines; series of extracts totalling more than 40 lines; an extract comprising one-quarter or more of a complete poem.

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 license 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 Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences vary depending on the institution at which the corresponding author is based: 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 Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. 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 Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.

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.

PROOFS

Authors are sent page proofs by email. These should be checked immediately and corrections, as well as answers to any queries, returned to the publishers as an annotated PDF via email or fax within two working days (further details are supplied with the proof). It is the author's responsibility to check proofs thoroughly.