THE SAS JOURNAL IS NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS ONLINE
through Elsevier's Electronic Submission
(EES) site. Please go to http://ees.elsevier.com/sasjournal/ to register and begin the submission process.
Editors and
reviewers may also use this link to register and participate in peer review.
The SAS Journal complies with International Committee
of Medical Journal Editors' Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts, available at: http://www.icmje.org. Potential authors
should pay close attention to the requirements concerning human rights and disclosure of financial and other conflicts of interest.
Following manuscript submission, authors will receive notification that the manuscript has been filed for review. After preliminary review,
a member of the peer review team will again contact the authors with an approval or rejection notification based on our established submission
guidelines. If the manuscript is approved, the peer review process begins. If the manuscript is rejected, a member of the peer review
team will outline changes to be made before resubmission is possible. The peer review process itself, carried out for approved manuscripts,
may result in acceptance or rejection. A member of the peer review team will outline changes to be made before either production or resubmission
is possible. Manuscript production may impose further technical requirements, such as images of higher resolution, on accepted manuscripts
at this stage.
All manuscript pages, blinded and unblinded, should be provided as Word files or rich text files.
ABSTRACT
COMPONENTS
A structured abstract is a required component of each manuscript submission. The abstract must include 5 paragraphs
and total 300 words or less. If abstract is not formatted correctly, the article will be returned to the author for the necessary revisions.
The abstract must contain the following subheadings:
Background (with clear statement of primary research question)
Methods
Results
Conclusions / Level of Evidence
Clinical relevance (when applicable)
At least 3 key words should be included following the abstract so SAS Journal visitors can easily locate articles by topic.
MANUSCRIPT COMPONENTS
Body copy should be double spaced with standard margins (1? top and bottom, 1.25? left and right). Pages
should be sequentially numbered. A complete manuscript must include the following sections with each section clearly labeled by the following
section headers:
Introduction
State the problem that led to the study including a concise review of the literature. State
your hypothesis and the purpose of the study.
Materials and methods
Describe the study design (prospective, retrospective, inclusion
and exclusion criteria, duration of study) and the study population (demographics and length of follow up).
Statistical Methods
Discuss the statistical framework of the study that supports your hypothesis and conclusions. Statistical data should include n and p-values;
any relevant charts, graphs, or tables that further strengthen the argument.
Results
Include findings of the study as exemplified
by the statistical results. Explanation of relevant tables, charts, and graphs.
Discussion
Provide an overview of the study.
Compare and contrast results with expectations and/or standards. Discuss any inconsistencies in data or results, unexpected conclusions,
etc.
ILLUSTRATIONS
High-resolution electronic pictures, illustrations, charts, and graphs must be submitted as separate
files from the manuscript in TIFF or EPS format. JPEG images are also acceptable, but not a preferred format.
Electronic image files
may be embedded into a Microsoft Word or PDF document TO SHOW PLACEMENT ONLY. Electronic image files must meet the following specifications:
Resolution: 300 dots-per-inch (dpi)
File Size: 4 by 6 inches
Color specifications: RGB or B&W
Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint files are not acceptable submission formats.
REFERENCE GUIDELINES
All references must
be properly cited according to the American Medical Association (AMA) standards. If claims are not supported by clinical study results
and/or the standard cross-referencing of other publications, the manuscript will not be eligible for submission. Manuscript guidelines
also require that:
The submission be seen, reviewed, and approved by all contributing authors
Copyright transfer form
is completed and signed by all listed authors
Lead author?s contact form is completed and includes address, telephone number,
and e-mail
References are numbered sequentially
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Unblinded Title
Page
List the title of the manuscript and the author's names in the order in which they should appear. Provide a complete mailing
address for each author. Clearly designate the lead author and provide her/his mailing address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail
address.
Blinded Title Page
The SAS Journal has a policy of blinded peer review. All manuscripts submitted for publication must
include a Blinded Title Page. This page does NOT mention the authors' names, initials, or the institution at which the study was completed.
Page headers may include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with the SAS Journal's policies in this
respect will be returned to the lead author.
IRB Approval
A copy of the letter granting approval from the institutional review
board or the animal utilization study committee is required. This letter may be submitted by post mail, by fax, or in PDF format online.
The author must reference the manuscript title and corresponding authors on the fax cover sheet or in an accompanying letter.
When
informed consent has been obtained, it must be indicated in the submitted manuscript and will be noted in the published article.
Copyright Transfer and Author Agreement
Material appearing in the SAS Journal is covered by copyright. All authors must sign a Copyright
transfer and Author agreement form upon submission of the manuscript to The SAS Journal.
The form must reference the manuscript title,
assigned SAS Journal manuscript number and corresponding author. This form must be submitted by post mail, by fax, or in PDF format.
Conflict of Interest
If there is a conflict of interest, please supply full disclosure of financial arrangement between any author
and any company whose product or competing product plays a prominent role in the manuscript in the space provided below.
OPTIONAL
ITEMS
Authors may submit additional materials with each manuscript, including:
Cover letter
Figures
and/or tables: figures must be submitted electronically. Each figure and/or table must be labeled separately and attached as a separate
file. Tables should be submitted in their original file format
Acknowledgements
AUTHOR RIGHTS
As an
author, you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:
Reproduce (print or electronic) the article for your
own personal use, including for educational purposes
Reproduce and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the
article to research colleagues for their personal use only. Reproductions must not be used commercially or systematically, e.g., via
an e-mail list or list server)
Post a pre-print version of the article on Internet Web sites including electronic pre-print
servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers of sites
Post a revised personal version of the final text
of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional Web site or server,
with a link to the SAS Journal homepage, sasjournal.com
Present the article at a meeting or conference and distribute reproductions
to the delegates attending such a meeting
For your employer, if the article is a `work for hire', created within the scope
of your employment agreement. Your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intracompany use (e.g., training)
Retain patent and trademark rights, and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article
Include the
article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
Use the article
or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of
your article in the journal)
Prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise
reuse portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the SAS Journal
POLICY
STATEMENTS
Ethical Standards
When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors must indicate whether the procedures followed
were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and
with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the
Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly
approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should be asked to indicate whether the institutional
and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. Institutional approval or exemption from review will be noted
in the published article.
Informed Consent
Patients have a right to privacy that must not be infringed without informed consent.
Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, will not be published in written descriptions, photographs,
and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed
consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be
published. Authors should identify individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance. Identifying
details should be omitted if they are not essential.
Conflicts of Interest
Public trust in the peer review process and the credibility
of published articles depend in part on how well conflict of interest is handled during writing, peer review, and editorial decisionmaking.
Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author's institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships
that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests,
or competing loyalties). These relationships vary from those with negligible potential to those with great potential to influence judgment,
and not all relationships represent true conflict of interest. The potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual
believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock
ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine
the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself.
(Adapted from ICMJE)
