Instructions to Reviewers

Introduction

The American Journal of Pathology uses an online system of review in the hope of increasing convenience and accuracy for reviewers and achieving greater production efficiency and cost effectiveness for authors. We greatly appreciate your participation in electronic peer review and want to make this an easy and enjoyable experience. Please contact the Editorial Office if we can be of assistance at ajp@asip.org or 301-634-7959.

The original password in the system is the same as your user name. We recommend that you change the password and use the “Can’t remember your password?” feature at the log-on site (http://www.rapidreview.com/ASIP2/SMLogon.jsp) to have it emailed to you, as needed. Once logged in, click on the manuscript title, then click on "View MS in PDF" to print a review copy of the manuscript and figures. We recommend that you prepare your comments to the editors and authors as word processing documents and copy them into the system. When you are ready to submit your review, click on “Fill Out Review Form” to proceed.

Reviewer Conduct

The Journal believes strongly in the importance and integrity of the scientific peer-review process, and detailed information regarding reviewer conduct can be viewed at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity. You must disclose to the Editors any current or former affiliations (eg, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony) with any organization or entity having a direct financial or personal interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript that could bias your opinions of the manuscript. You should also consider potential conflicts of interest arising from personal relationships or academic competition, and you should disqualify yourself from reviewing the manuscript if you believe it to be necessary. By agreeing to review this manuscript, you implicitly affirm that any potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed to the Editors and that you are able to provide an impartial review of this manuscript.

The manuscript is considered a privileged communication. When reviewing a manuscript for the Journal, you take responsibility for maintaining its confidentiality. You should not retain copies of submitted manuscripts for personal use after completing your review. You may not make any use of the work described in the manuscript or take advantage of the knowledge gained by reviewing it until and unless it is published. It is the practice of The American Journal of Pathology to conduct a blinded peer-review process; it is considered a violation of this process for peer reviewers to identify themselves or attempt to communicate directly with authors regarding the reviewed manuscript without the express permission of the Editors. The Editors will consider any deliberate ethical violation during peer review of a manuscript to be actionable misconduct, the potential results of which may be reporting of conduct to your governing institution, dismissal as a peer reviewer for the Journal, and/or the denial to consider any future submissions to the Journal. Willful misconduct does not include incidents of honest misjudgment or inadvertent error.

If necessary, the manuscript may be discussed with a colleague in an effort to reach a decision. In such instances, you must inform your colleague of the manuscript’s confidentiality and ask that they disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Information regarding additional assistance (colleague’s name and disclosure information as well as a description of the level of assistance) should be included in the "Confidential Comments to the Editor" portion of the online reviewer form.

Finally, as the authors of the manuscript are eagerly awaiting a decision regarding publication, we respectfully ask that you complete your review in a timely manner, ie two weeks. Any delays in completing a review should be brought to the immediate attention of the Editorial Office so that we may assess the situation and make adjustments as needed.

Manuscript Review Instructions

Please make an overall appraisal of the manuscript’s suitability for publication in The American Journal of Pathology based on the following guidelines:

1. The manuscript should provide significant new information or concepts.
2. The data should be clearly presented with (a) an introduction stating the objectives and background, (b) precisely described experimental procedures, (c) clearly described results with tables and figures presented with maximum clarity, (d) a discussion that provides accurate interpretation of the data and their relation to other published work or the work of others, and (e) a relevant and concise bibliography.
3. The title should be succinct (accurately reflecting the major findings of the work), and the abstract should stand alone (clearly summarizing the background, methodology, results, and significance of the study).
4. The paper should conform to the Journal scope and manuscript preparation guidelines outlined in the Instructions to Authors (see http://ajp.amjpathol.org/misc/ifora). Writing style and English usage may be briefly commented upon.
5. The Journal has developed a Scientific Integrity Policy (see http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity) for defining scientific misconduct (eg, fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, or redundant publication). Suspected misconduct should be reported in writing to the Editorial Office at The American Journal of Pathology, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 20814-3993 or ajp{at}asip.org.

We value your opinion and the time and care taken to prepare this review for The American Journal of Pathology.

Revised: April 2007