Guide to Authors

Welcome to the electronic manuscript submission website for International Journal of Obesity. The instructions below are structured so you can quickly and easily answer the following questions:

1. Is my manuscript suitable for International Journal of Obesity? (Scope + Editorial Note)
2. How do I format my manuscript for International Journal of Obesity? (Format of Papers)
3. How do I submit my manuscript to BInternational Journal of Obesity? (Submission of Papers)

OTHER LINKS

• About the journal
• Format of papers
• Preparation of Original Articles
• House style
• Submission of papers
• Editorial policy
• Ethics and bioethics
• Peer review policy
• Corrections
• About npg online services

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Scope

Topics Covered
Molecular, cellular, animal, human experimental and clinical studies, which address issues related to the development and treatment of obesity, and the functional impairments associated with the obese state.

Editors	Richard L. Atkinson, M.D., Director, Obetech Obesity Research Center, Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, Richmond, USA Professor Ian Macdonald, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School, Nottingham, UK
Frequency	12 issues a year
Abstracted in	Current Contents Clinical Medicine Current Contents Life Sciences Elsevier BIOBASE/Current Awareness in Biological Sciences Index Medicus BIOSIS EMBASE/Excerpta Medica Chemical Abstracts SciSearch

Editorial Note

Manuscripts deemed low priority include those that:

1. Are simple prevalence studies involving a single country at a single time-point.
2. Involve co-morbidities of obesity (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease), without having obesity-specific components to them. Recent examples of this have been manuscripts that look at associations between inflammatory markers and diabetes or cardiovascular disease. This information is clearly of medical relevance, but it is not necessarily a high priority for a journal devoted to obesity research.


3. Report the absence of links between obesity and a specific genotype or polymorphism; it is possible that such work could be considered in the form of a letter, but a full manuscript is not justified.


4. Describe anthropometric indices of obesity that might correlate with plasma markers of co-morbidities, but do not include any data relating to outcome of the co-morbidities.


5. Are retrospective studies, secondary analyses of data that arise from studies that were not primarily concerned with obesity or body weight, or clinical “audits” (for example of surgical interventions) that were not designed as appropriately controlled clinical research interventions, unless there is particularly novel information presented that is of importance to the medical literature.


6. Claim to be pediatric articles but which do not deal specifically with children and adolescents up to the age of 18 years.


7. Case reports that do not describe a critical finding or major addition to the literature.

If authors wish to submit articles to the International Journal of Obesity in the above areas, they would need to state clearly in the covering letter and introduction to the manuscript what is novel and informative about the study and why is it a valuable addition to the scientific literature.

FORMAT OF PAPERS

Article Type	Description	Max Word Count
Original Article	These should follow the structure outlined below	Word limit is 5,000 words excluding abstract, references, figures and tables. Abstract should be structured and of 300 words maximum. References: 60 references maximum. There should be no more than 8 display items (e.g. figures, tables).
Short Communications	Short Communications are studies that fall short of the criteria for full Original Articles (e.g. preliminary experiments limited bysample size or duration, or novel hypotheses). Apart from the abstract, there is no obligation to divide the text into sections.	Word limit is 1,500 words. Abstract should be an unstructured paragraph of 200 words maximum. References: 20 references maximum. There should be no more than 2 display items (e.g. figures and/or tables).
Review Articles	Reviews are comprehensive analyses of specific topics that are solicited by the Editor. Prospective authors of reviews should contact Richard Atkinson via the International Journal of Obesity Editorial Office (vfschmidt@earthlink.net) to confirm that the topic is of interest and not already covered by a review in preparation. All review articles will undergo peer review prior to acceptance.	Word limit is 7,500 words. Abstract should be an unstructured paragraph of 200 words maximum. References: 120 references maximum
Editorials (only by invitation of the Editors)	Proposals for Editorials may be submitted; however, authors should only send an outline of the proposed paper for initial consideration.	Word limit is 1,000 words. No abstract required for this manuscript type. References: 10 references maximum
Letters to the Editor	Letters to the Editor will be considered for publication, subject to editing. Letters must contain information critical to a certain area or must be referencing data recently published in International Journal of Obesity. A letter must reference the original source, and a Response to a Letter must reference the Letter in the first few paragraphs. Letters can use an arbitrary title, but a Response must cite the title of the Letter: e.g. Response to [title of Letter].	Word limit is 500 words. No abstract required for this manuscript type. References: Six references maximum
Commentaries (only by invitation of the Editors)	Commentaries discuss a paper published in a specific issue and should set the problems addressed by the paper in the wider context of the field.	Word limit is 1,500 words. Abstract should be an unstructured paragraph of 100 words maximum. References: 10 references maximum. There should be no more than one display item.
Debates	Debates will address an area of research which is of major present interest and for which there are substantially different views. The subject to be debated and the authors producing the opposing views will be selected by the Editors.	Word limit is 2,000 words. Abstract should be an unstructured paragraph of 100 words maximum. References: 20 references maximum. There should be no more than one display item.
Hot Topics	The Editors will occasionally select an Original Article that addresses an issue of major scientific interest and label it as a Hot Topic. The Editors will also occasionally invite authors to submit Original Articles or Reviews that address such Hot Topic areas.
Technical Reports	Technical Reports are original articles that address areas of more methodological interest. The content of these Reports must have direct relevance to the field of Obesity and have the same level of scientific rigour expected of the normal original articles. The word limit, abstract, display items and reference details should be as for original articles	Word limit is 2,500 words. Abstract should be structured abstract and of 300 words maximum. References: 25 references maximum. There should be no more than four display items.
Expert Reports	Expert Reports are articles submitted by a consensus of individuals expert in a given field that opine on a topic in the field of obesity. The article specifications listed are a guide and prospective authors are encouraged to contact Richard Atkinson via the International Journal of Obesity Editorial Office (vfschmidt@earthlink.net) to discuss their report before submission.	Word limit is 2,000 words. Abstract should be an unstructured paragraph of 100 words maximum. References: 20 references maximum. There should be no more than 2 display items.

Preparation of Original Articles

Abstract
All Original Articles should be prepared with a structured abstract designed to summarise the essential features of the paper in a logical and concise sequence. While not strictly limited, abstracts should contain 300 words or less. Authors are free to choose the most appropriate structure for the abstract but should produce something along the lines of the example given below.

Keywords
Please provide three to six short words or phrases, which best describe your paper. These will be used for indexing your paper in International Journal of Obesity, and also help retrieval from computer databases.

References
Only papers directly related to the article should be cited. Exhaustive lists should be avoided. References should follow the Vancouver format. In the text they should appear as numbers starting at one and at the end of the paper they should be listed (double-spaced) in numerical order corresponding to the order of citation in the text. All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six only should be quoted, followed by et al. Abbreviations for titles of medical periodicals should conform to those used in the latest edition of Index Medicus. The first and last page numbers for each reference should be provided. Abstracts and letters must be identified as such. Papers in press and papers already submitted for publication may be included in the list of references but no citation is required for work that is not yet submitted for publication.

Journal article, up to six authors:
Belkaid Y, Rouse BT. Natural regulatory T cells in infectious disease. Nat Immunol 2005; 6: 353–360.

Journal article, e-pub ahead of print:
Bonin M, Pursche S, Bergeman T, Leopold T, Illmer T, Ehninger G et al. F-ara-A pharmacokinetics during reduced-intensity conditioning therapy with fludarabine and busulfan. Bone Marrow Transplant 2007; e-pub ahead of print 8 January 2007; doi:10.1038/sj.bmt.1705565

Journal article, in press:
Gallardo RL, Juneja HS, Gardner FH. Normal human marrow stromal cells induce clonal growth of human malignant T-lymphoblasts. Int J Cell Cloning (in press).

Complete book:
Atkinson K, Champlin R, Ritz J, Fibbe W, Ljungman P, Brenner MK (eds). Clinical Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplantation, 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2004.

Chapter in book:
Coccia PF. Hematopoietic cell transplantation for osteopetrosis. In: Blume KG, Forman SJ, Appelbaum FR (eds). Thomas' Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, 3rd edn. Blackwell Publishing Ltd: Malden, MA, USA, 2004, pp 1443–1454.

Abstract:
Syrjala KL, Abrams JR, Storer B, Heiman JR. Prospective risk factors for five-year sexuality late effects in men and women after haematopoietic cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 2006; 37(Suppl 1): S4 (abstract 107).

Correspondence:
Caocci G, Pisu S. Overcoming scientific barriers and human prudence [letter]. Bone Marrow Transplant2006; 38: 829–830.

EndNote users should select the International Journal of Obesity output style for the correct reference style.

Personal communications must be allocated a number and included in the list of references in the usual way or simply referred to in the text; the authors may choose which method to use. In either case authors must obtain permission from the individual concerned to quote his/her unpublished work.

House Style

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS

Colour charges

Further information
To find out who to contact for advertising, subscriptions, permissions, papers in production or publishing a supplement, please visit our publisher’s contacts page. Alternatively, you can write to: International Journal of Obesity, Nature Publishing Group, The Macmillan Building, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, UK.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Statement of Ethics

Peer-review policy

Correction and retraction process

Non-Native Speakers of English
Researchers who are not native speakers of English who submit manuscripts to international journals sometimes receive negative comments from referees or editors about the English-language usage in their manuscripts, and these problems can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take at least one of the following steps:

• Have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English.
• Use one of the many English language editing services that are available, such as that offered by Nature Publishing Group Language Editing. An editor will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and to identify problems that require your review.

Please note that the use of Nature Publishing Group Language Editing is at the author's own expense and in no way implies that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted by an NPG journal (or any other journal). The decisions that the editors of any NPG journal make based on the quality and suitability of a manuscript for that journal are entirely independent of whether that manuscript has been language-edited by Nature Publishing Group Language Editing.

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