TITLES

Titles should be short and specific. Subtitles may be used to amplify the main title.

AFFILIATIONS

The affiliations of each author must be given. If an author's present affiliation is different from that under which the work was done, both should be given.

SUMMARY

The summary should be no more than 250 words and consist of four sections labelled Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. They should briefly describe the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results and what conclusions can be made from the results. Three to ten keywords should be added to the end of the Summary.

FUNDING

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’ - see the full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies for details
Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets 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].

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.

REFERENCES

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of reference lists. References in Vancouver Style should be in the order they appear in the text and numbered accordingly. These numbers should be inserted above the line whenever a reference is cited (...confirmed by other studies 23). Numbered references should appear at the end of the article and should consist of the surnames and initials of all authors when six or less, when seven or more list just three and add et al., title of article, name of journal abbreviated according to Index Medicus style, year, volume, first and last page numbers,

e.g. Bull Q, Doe J. Epidemiology and public health. Int J Epidemiol 1970; 5: 702-10.

Titles of books should be followed by the place of publication, the publisher, and the year. 'Unpublished Observations', 'Personal Communications' and submitted manuscripts may not be used as reference but should appear in the text. Manuscripts in press may be cited in the references and details added on proof if possible.

ABBREVIATIONS

Words to be abbreviated should be spelt out in full the first time they appear in the text with the abbreviations in brackets. Thereafter the abbreviation should be used.

TABLES

Tables should be numbered consecutively in arabic numerals and should be kept separate from the text. Particular care should be taken to make tables self-explanatory with adequate headings and footnotes. The position of each table in the text should be indicated (Table 1 here).

FIGURES

Illustrations should be numbered, given suitable legends and marked lightly on the back with the author's name and the top edge indicated. Original drawings may be submitted although high quality glossy photographs are preferable. They should be kept separate from the text.
Colour illustrations can be reproduced if there is sufficient scientific merit in doing so. Authors will be expected to pay for the cost of colour origination in the print version of the Journal (£350/figure). Alternatively, black and white figures can appear in the printed version of an article with colour versions appearing online (for which there is no charge) – figure legends will need to be suitably worded, e.g. This figure appears in colour in the online version of IJE. Please state your preferred option (i.e. agreement to pay £350/figure for print and online colour or preference for online-only colour with no charge) upon submission via the online submission system.

APPENDICES

As a general rule, material of this nature should be incorporated in the text but separate sections can be published after the main text.

SPECIAL NOTES FOR STATISTICAL PAPERS

The correct preparation of statistical manuscripts is particularly important and the precise nature and position of each symbol must be clear. Complex formulae should be drawn out on a separate sheet and attached to the text at the appropriate place.In general, distinction should be made between:

1. capitals and small letters;
2. ordinary and bold-faced letters;
3. certain greek letters and similar roman letters;
4. subscripts, superscripts and 'ordinary' symbols.

Bold-faced symbols should be underlined with a wiggly line in pencil. Statistical symbols are automatically set in italics and need not be underlined except to prevent ambiguity, e.g. when an isolated letter, such as a, occurs in the text. Symbols should not be used to start a sentence.

COHORT PROFILES

Cohort profiles have a specific format (defined more fully at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ije): How did the study come about? what does the study cover - and how has this changed? Where is the study area?
Who is in the sample? What has been measured? What has been found? What are the main strengths and weaknesses of the study? Can I get hold of the data?
Where can I find out more? References. Funding Acknowledgements.

We define cohort studies as "subsets of a defined population who are or have been exposed or not exposed (or exposed to different degrees ) to a factor (or factors) hypothesized to influence the occurrence of a given disease or other outcome". A dictionary of epidemiology, 5th edition, ed. M Porta, OUP 2008. Clinically-based patient case series followed up over time are do not meet the requirements for Cohort Profiles and are not acceptable for this section.

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.

COPY EDITING

All accepted manuscripts are subject to copy editing.

PROOFS

The first author will receive a pdf proof of the article. Proof correction must not be used as an opportunity to revise the paper. Any essential changes should take up the same amount of space if possible. Alterations, other than corrections of printer's errors, are expensive and may be charged to authors. Corrections should be returned within in 3 days to guarantee inclusion.

It is particularly important to read reference lists at the proof stage in case any omissions/errors have been found and noted during copy editing.

The Editors reserve the right to make minor grammatical and other changes at any stage before publication. These are sometimes necessary to make the paper conform to the general style of the Journal. Proofs not returned to the Editorial Assistant within two weeks of the date of postmark may be held over to the next issue.

REPRINTS

Offprints may be purchased by returning the order form (sent with the proofs) to the Journals Productions Dept, Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. 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.

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 (including colour). All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats (for instructions for the preparation of Supplementary Data please go to here).

All material to be considered as Supplementary Data 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. Please indicate clearly the material intended as Supplementary Data upon submission. Also ensure that the Supplementary Data is referred to in the main manuscript where necessary.