Hepatology Communications

Instructions for Authors (this page) Reprint Ordering Permissions Requests AASLD Abbreviations Visual Abstract Template Hepatology Communications

Instructions for Authors

Scope

Journal Policies

Article Types

Manuscript Preparation and Formatting Instructions

Online Manuscript Submission, Forms, and Licenses

Note: These instructions comply with those formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For further details, authors should consult the following article: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” New Engl J Med 1997, 336:309–315. The complete document appears at http://www.icmje.org. Manuscripts that do not comply with these Instructions cannot be considered for publication and will be sent back to the authors.

The Editorial Office is pleased to answer any questions you may have about preparing your manuscript in accordance with our guidelines.

Email: [email protected].

PRE-SUBMISSION MANUSCRIPT CHECK
Prior to submitting, we recommend that you run your manuscript through the PaperPal Preflight service, which instantly checks your manuscript and helps you address the most common errors and omissions.

Check your Manuscript in Paper Preflight:
https://preflight.paperpal.com/partner/lww/hepatolcom

SCOPE

Hepatology Communications is a peer-reviewed, online-only, Open Access journal for fast dissemination of high quality basic, translational, and clinical research in hepatology. Hepatology Communications maintains high standard and rigorous peer review. Because of its Open Access nature, authors retain the copyright to their works, all articles are immediately available and free to read and share, and it is fully compliant with funder and institutional mandates. The journal is committed to fast publication and author satisfaction. 

GENERAL INFORMATION

To submit your manuscript electronically and for complete instructions on how to do so, go to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hepcomm. Hepatology Communications utilizes an anonymous peer-review process to evaluate manuscripts for publication. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the title, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.

Papers transferred to Hepatology Communications from other journals may undergo a second round of peer review either by the Editorial team or by new peer reviewers (if reviews are not transferred with the manuscript or the Editor-in-Chief feels another round of review is required).

Copyright of all material published in Hepatology Communications is vested in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. In accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, all manuscripts must be accompanied by a Copyright Transfer and Author Agreement Form signed by all authors. The agreement can be found here: https://bit.ly/CTA_HepatologyCommunications.

Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications in Hepatology Communications are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Editor(s) or publisher, and the Editor(s) and publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material. Neither the Editor(s) nor the publisher guarantees, warrants, or endorses any product or service advertised in the journal, nor do they guarantee any claim made by the manufacturer of such product or service.

JOURNAL POLICIES

Originality

The Editors require that each manuscript is an original contribution and that it has not been, and will not be, submitted elsewhere while it is under consideration for publication in Hepatology Communications. Editors may subject any manuscript submitted for consideration of publication in Hepatology Communications to plagiarism-detection software. Manuscripts dealing with material that has appeared or is in press, in brief or preliminary form in other publications will not be considered unless the prior publication is a meeting abstract reporting only summarized information and does not exceed one printed page. The ICMJE has provided details of what is and what is not duplicate or redundant publication. If you are in doubt (particularly in the case of material that you have posted on a web site), we ask you to proceed with your submission but to include a copy of the relevant previously published work or work under consideration by other journals. Authors must draw attention to any published work that concerns the same patients or subjects as the present paper in a covering letter with their article.

Hepatology Communications will consider for review articles previously available as preprints on non-commercial servers such as ArXiv, bioRxiv, etc. Authors may also post the submitted version of their manuscript to non-commercial servers at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Authorship

Hepatology Communictions expects that each person listed as an author has participated sufficiently in the intellectual content, the analysis of data, and/or the writing of the manuscript to take public responsibility for it. Each author must have reviewed the manuscript, believes it represents valid work, and approves it for submission. Moreover, should the Editors request the data upon which the manuscript is based, the authors shall produce it. We ask all authors to confirm that they have met the criteria for authorship as established by the ICMJE, believe that the paper represents honest work, and are able to verify the validity of the results reported.

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article. Authorship credit should be based only on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data for the work; 2) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4 must all be met. Acquisition of funding, the collection of data or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship. All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgements section.

If the concept and idea for your manuscript originated with anyone other than the senior or corresponding authors, please provide details in the manuscript cover letter. Specifically state in the cover letter whose idea the study was, especially if the idea came from someone who is not an author. If any of the authors were provided financial incentives or honoraria for their work on this manuscript, please provide details in the manuscript cover letter.

For purposes of the submission process, it is assumed, that the corresponding author speaks for his or her coauthors and certifies that all listed authors participated meaningfully in the study and that they have seen and approved the final manuscript.

Authors who use AI tools such as Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots or image creators in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. These technologies should only be used to improve readability and language of the work and should not be used to replace researcher responsibilities such as producing scientific insights, analyzing and interpreting data, or drawing conclusions. These technologies should be applied with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that may be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics. 

Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Any attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility.

Changes to Authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor(s). To request such a change, the Editor(s) must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor(s) consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

English Language Assistance

Hepatology Communications publishes only in English. Authors lacking facility with English syntax should seek the appropriate editorial assistance prior to submitting their manuscript. Material requiring major editorial work might be returned without peer- review. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we encourage such authors to consider using Wolters Kluwer Author Services*.

Wolters Kluwer Author Services

Wolters Kluwer, in partnership with Editage, offers a unique range of editorial services to help you prepare a submission-ready manuscript:

• Premium Editing: Intensive language and structural editing of academic papers to increase chances of journal acceptance.
• Advanced Editing: A complete language, grammar, and terminology check to give you a publication-ready manuscript.
• Translation with Editing: Write your paper in your native language and Wolters Kluwer Author Services will translate it into English, as well as edit it to ensure that it meets international publication standards.
• Plagiarism Check: Helps ensure that your manuscript contains no instances of unintentional plagiarism.
• Artwork Preparation: Save precious time and effort by ensuring that your artwork is viewed favorably by the journal without you having to incur the additional cost of purchasing special graphics software.

For more information regarding Wolters Kluwer Author Services, please visit http://wkauthorservices.editage.com.  

*Note that the use of such a service is at the author's own expense and risk, and does not guarantee that the article will be accepted.

Abbreviations, Nomenclature and Symbols

AASLD has compiled a list of abbreviations that are sufficiently common in the field as to not require them to be defined on first use, and the AMA Manual of Style also includes abbreviations that can be used without expansion. For all other abbreviations, do not abbreviate unless a term is used more than three times in the manuscript. In this case, the term should be spelled out the first time it is used in the text, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses, and then the abbreviation should be used for all other instanced in the text. Abbreviations used in figures and tables should be defined in each legend, so that figures and tables can stand alone as much as possible. All abbreviations introduced in the text and the figure and table legends should be included in the list of abbreviations for the title page footnote. Express temperatures as degrees Celsius and other measurements in SI units.

Recently a multi-stakeholder effort developed a consensus on a change in nomenclature and diagnostic criteria for MASLD (formerly NAFLD) and NASH (formerly MASH). Manuscripts submitted to and published in Hepatology Communications should employ this revised terminology wherever scientifically appropriate. If the revised terminology is not used, a justification should be given within the paper.

Ethics

All articles dealing with original human or animal data must include a statement on ethics approval within the Methods section, not in the supplementary material...

Research involving human subjects submitted to  Hepatology Communications must abide by the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects outlined in the 2013 Declaration of Helsinki, abide by the 2018 Declaration of Istanbul,  and be approved by the appropriate ethics and/or institutional review committee(s).

A sentence affirming that A) all research was conducted in accordance with both the Declarations of Helsinki and Istanbul, B) all research was approved by the appropriate ethics and/or institutional review committee(s), and C) written consent was given in writing by all subjects must be included within the Methods section of the manuscript. Please include the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number, where applicable. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Declarations of Helsinki and Istanbul, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. Studies exempt from Institutional Review Board approval must note this exemption in their methods section. All waivers of informed consent must be noted in the methods section. Papers without such explicit statements will be returned without review.

This sentence could read, for example:

Ethical approval for this study (Ethical Committee N° NAC 207) was provided by the Ethical Committee NAC of Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland on 12 February 2015. All research was conducted in accordance with both the Declarations of Helsinki and Istanbul. Written consent was given in writing by all subjects.

For experiments involving animals you must state the care of animal and licensing guidelines under which the study was performed and report these in accordance with the ARRIVE (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) statement If ethics clearance was not necessary, or if there was any deviation from these standard ethical requests, please state why it was not required. Please note that the Editors may ask you to provide evidence of ethical approval. Please state if you have approval from a National Drug Agency (or similar) and provide details; this can be particularly useful when discussing the use of unlicensed drugs.

Manuscripts that use mice and other in vivo experimental models should include the following information:

• Sex and age of mice (or other in vivo experimental models) for all the experiments;
• The genetic background(s) of the mice or other experimental in vivo models;
• For transgenic or genetic mouse models, whether the controls were sibling littermates or were purchased separately (if purchased separately, were the animals cohoused to minimize potential microbiome effects);
• Specifics of the animal diet composition;
• Whether mice were fasted (and for how long) or not before a challenge or assessment is carried out;
• Type of bedding, caging system, and enrichment used for housing the mice; and
• If interventions were done, were they done during the light or dark cycle.
• Genetic Sequence Data. In papers reporting a novel DNA or amino acid sequence, verify that the data have been or will be submitted either to GenBank or EMBL, and provide the accession number. This information need not accompany the initially submitted manuscript but must be available for inclusion in the final publication. Accession numbers appear as footnotes to the text or in the relevant figure legend. It is understood that authors publishing in Hepatology Communications will make cloned DNA, hybridomas, mutant animals, and other resources available to qualified investigators.
• Manufacturers. Include the names and locations (city and state or country) of manufacturers when mentioning proprietary drugs, tools, instruments, software, etc.

Informed Consent and Patient Details

The protection of a patient's right to privacy is essential. Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the Methods section of your paper. Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals. Written consents must be retained by the author and copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained must be provided to Hepatology Communications on request. Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Registration of Research

Hepatology Communications supports the use of databases to aggregate published data for the use of the wider scientific community, and endorses the policies first adopted by the Science journals regarding data deposition (http://www.sciencemag.org/authors/science-journals-editorial-policies#data-deposition). Prior to publication, data sets (including microarray data, protein or DNA sequences) must be deposited in an approved database and an accession number or a specific access address must be included in the published paper. This information need not accompany the initially submitted manuscript but must be available for inclusion in the final publication. Accession numbers appear as footnotes to the text or in the relevant figure legend. We encourage compliance with MIBBI guidelines (Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigations) and FAIR reporting guidelines (https://www.openaire.eu/how-to-make-your-data-fair).

• DNA and protein sequences: Approved databases are GenBank or other members of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (EMBL or DDBJ) and SWISS-PROT.
• Microarray data: Data should be presented in MIAME-compliant standard format. Approved databases are Gene Expression Omnibus and ArrayExpress.
• It is understood that authors publishing in Hepatology Communications will make cloned DNA, hybridomas, mutant animals, and other resources available to qualified investigators. Raw data submitted with a manuscript may only be electronically published and available to Hepatology Communications readers at the Journal’s Web site.

Reporting Guidelines

Compliance with the relevant reporting guideline is mandatory for submission of the following guidelines. You need to: 1. Submit a completed checklist, indicating the page numbers where compliance was achieved 2. Mention in your methods section that the research is being reported in line with the relevant guideline which should be named and cited.

Randomised Controlled Trials
All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in International Journal of Surgery should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart and ensure that all elements in the CONSORT checklist are covered. A copy of the CONSORT checklist must be uploaded as supplemental material. Refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. Manuscripts that fail to comply with CONSORT guidelines or do not include the CONSORT checklist at the time of submission will not be reviewed for publication.

Systematic Reviews
Systematic reviews should be reported in accordance PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) Guidelines (http://www.prisma-statement.org/) and must include the flow diagram as a figure and the checklist as supplemental material (http://www.prisma-statement.org/2.1.2%20-%20PRISMA%202009%20Checklist.pdf).

Cohort, Case-control and Cross-sectional studies
Cohort, Case-control and Cross-sectional studies should all be compliant with the STROBE criteria (Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology): http://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists - each study type has its own checklist which should be uploaded as a supplemental file.

Diagnostic, Quality Improvement and Qualitative studies
Diagnostic studies should be reported in accordance with the STARD statement criteria (Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies) flow diagram and checklist please see (http://www.stard-statement.org/). Quality Improvement studies should comply with the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) criteria: http://squire-statement.org. Qualitative studies require the Consolidated criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist: http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/6/349.long.

Health Economic Evaluation
Health Economic Evaluation studies should conform to the CHEERS statement: http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1049.pdf%2Bhtml.

Tumor Marker Prognostic study
Tumor Marker Prognostic studies should be reported in accordance with the REMARK criteria: http://www.equator-network.org/resource-centre/library-of-health-research-reporting/reporting-guidelines/remark.

Before and After studies
Before and After studies measuring particular characteristics of a population or group of individuals at the end of an event or intervention, compares them with those characteristics before the event or intervention, and then gauges the effects of the event or intervention. These studies should conform to the STROBE statement: http://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists.

Genetic Association studies
Genetic Association studies must comply with Strengthening the Reporting of Genetic Association Studies (STREGA) an extension of the STROBE statement: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000022.

Experimental Animal studies
Animal studies must be reported in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines (Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) and must include the checklist as supplemental material. An example of a completed checklist can be found at http://www.nc3rs.org.uk/page.asp?id=1357. (The example checklist is based on an original publication by Kilkenny C, Browne WJ, Cuthill IC, Emerson M, Altman DG (2010) Improving Bioscience Research Reporting: The ARRIVE Guidelines for Reporting Animal Research. PLoS Biol 8(6): e1000412. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000412). The institutional protocol number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article.

IDEAL framework
Hepatology Communications welcomes studies reporting in line with the IDEAL framework for interventional therapies: http://www.ideal-collaboration.net.

Qualitative surveys
Qualitative surveys should be reported in accordance with the following criteria: SRQR Guidelines http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/srqr/ For synthesis of qualitative research: http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/entreq/ Interviews and Focus Groups - COREQ - http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/coreq/.

Financial Support and Competing Interests

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work by filling out and submitting the Copyright Transfer and Author Agreement Form. The agreement can be found here: https://bit.ly/CTA_HepatologyCommunications. The primary purpose of the Financial Disclosure section is to determine whether authors have received any commercial financial support that could create a conflict of interest. In addition to monetary interests, a potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that a relationship (such as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties) affects his or her scientific judgment. Please review ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at the following link: http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest.

In addition to completing the financial disclosure questionnaire authors must clearly state all relevant sources of funding concerning this article in the Financial support and sponsorship section and all relevant conflicts of interest in the Conflicts of interest section of the submitted manuscript.

Ownership/Permissions

All figures submitted must be owned solely by the author(s). For figures not meeting this requirement, authors must obtain permission for the use of the figure by Hepatology Communications. Obtaining this permission is the sole responsibility of the author(s). Credit must be included in the figure legend for all figures being printed with permission.

These requirements apply to the following materials:

• Previously published materials such as figures and adapted tables or direct quotations of more than 50 words require permission from copyright holder (usually the original publisher).
• Unpublished data (i.e., from a personal conversation or a manuscript in preparation) require permission from the appropriate investigator.

Photographs revealing unmasked faces or other body parts that could make the subject(s) identifiable (eg, tattoos) require permission from the subject(s) of the photograph (or their parent or guardian). If subject- or patient-consent cannot be reached, photographs must be unidentifiable. As per the IJCME, “Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity.” Authors must explicitly note in the legend of a figure with an identifiable subject that informed consent has been obtained.

Product Information

Medications, materials, and devices must be identified by full non-proprietary name as well as brand name if appropriate. Include the manufacturer’s name and location (city and state, or country). Place this information in parentheses in the text, not in a footnote.

Retractions

Wolters Kluwer is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and also refers to the ICMJE advice on Scientific Misconduct, Expressions of Concern, and Retraction as well as on Overlapping Publications.

ARTICLE TYPES

Original Research Article: Full-length reports of completed basic, clinical, and experimental research reported in accordance with the Reporting Guidelines stated above. The manuscript must be no longer than 5,000 words (excluding references), abstract of 275 words, no more than 50 references, and a title with no more than 120 characters (excluding spaces). Please include all relevant portions of the Methods section, as well as all references, in the main manuscript. See Submission elements below. Manuscripts should contain no more than 8 figures and tables. We encourage you to submit additional methodological details, nonessential figures, or portions of your manuscript as Supplemental Digital Content. References cited in the main text may not be listed in the supplementary materials. The only references that may be listed in the supplement are those cited exclusively in the supplement. All submissions must adhere to the 50-reference limit. For manuscripts that were previously rejected by other journals, you may include the reviewer comments and your response to them as supplementary materials.

Reviews of both basic and clinical topics should be no longer than 5,000 words (excluding references). The reference list need not be exhaustive. While most reviews are invited by the Editors, authors interested in contributing reviews are requested to first contact the Editor with an outline of the proposed article.

Editorials are invited by the Editor or Associate Editors and should be no longer than 1,500 words (including references) and include no more than one figure or table and 10 references. Please include a title page giving all authors’ names, addresses, email addresses, as well as an Acknowledgement statement. On occasion we will accept unsolicited editorials - “Viewpoints” - which follow the guidelines for Editorials and convey an urgent message or concept.

Research Letters are focused scientific reports of original clinical research studies. Article text must not exceed 1000 words (main text), 10 references and may include up to 1 table or figure. 1-2 additional figures or tables as supplementary material are allowed. Include section headers such as: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This category is intended for clinical research only.

Correspondence: A letter to the Editor that raises issues of importance regarding an article recently published in Hepatology Communications. If accepted, the letter is sent to the authors of the article who have an opportunity to respond. Letters should be 500-750 words. The title should reflect the content of the letter and not be titled the same as the targeted article. Please include a title page giving the author's name, address, and email address, as well as an Acknowledgement statement.

Special Articles are on a variety of topics and may include AASLD practice guidelines, in-depth scientific reviews, and comments on social policy. It's recommended that the length of each article is kept within 5,000 words (excluding references) but is also decided by the Editor(s) on a case-by-case basis. Comprehensive updates based on scientific meetings should include the title and date of the conference.

Protocol Papers are on trials/studies that are a) pre-registered b) ongoing with active enrollment and c) contain a pre-specified statistical analysis plan. The maximum length is 5,000 words not including references.

Consensus Reports should be no longer than 2,000 words and include no more than 9 references.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS

Initial Submission: To simplify the preparation and submission of manuscripts while minimizing the time spent on formatting requirements, Hepatology Communications will allow initial submissions in a single Word document. You may submit your text and artwork as one file. Your artwork can be located within the text. There are no strict formatting requirements.

For revised manuscripts, pay careful attention to the formatting guidelines below.

Manuscripts must be written in clear, grammatical English (see English Language Assistance above). Manuscripts not conforming to journal format will be returned to authors for modification.

• Text should be 1.5-spaced.
• Body text size should be no smaller than 10 pt and no larger than 12 pt.
• Do not add line numbers as the system will generate those when the PDF is built.
• Brevity is appreciated. Authors should avoid repeating the same information in the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion.

Title page, footnotes, abbreviations, and abstract pages must be included in the main body file. Please do not upload separate copies of these documents.

Acceptable document file types for text and tables include .DOC and .DOCX; do not submit a PDF.

Page 1:

Title Page. The following elements are required for every submission:

Title. Include a concise, descriptive and informative title. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. The title should not be a sentence. No proprietary or brand names for drugs or agents may be used in article titles. Please, include the study design in the title; for instance, “randomised controlled trial”, or “systematic review”.

Authors. Author names should be listed in the following order: the full first name, middle initials, last name of each author, medical and/or highest academic degrees, and the name(s) of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.

Manuscripts that include a group or consortium in the author list should also list group members whose contributions meet the authorship criteria defined above. To ensure proper indexing of these authors in MEDLINE, please refer to the guidelines from the ICMJE, noting the specific instruction that when a group name is included in the byline, there should be a note “clearly stating that the individual names are elsewhere in the paper and whether those names are authors or collaborators.”

Address for Correspondence. One author should be designated as the corresponding author. A current email and full mailing address for the corresponding author must be provided.

Financial support and sponsorship. You must make reference to all relevant sources of funding concerning this article. If there were no sources of funding please state: “Financial support and sponsorship: none.”

Conflicts of interest. You must make reference to all relevant conflicts of interest concerning this article including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there are no conflicts of interest please state: “Conflicts of interest: nothing to report.”

Keywords: Five keywords that do not appear in the title itself.

List of Abbreviations: Include an alphabetical list of all abbreviations introduced in the article (including tables and figures) and their definitions.

Page 2:

Abstract. Four sections: background; methods; results; and conclusion. Acronyms and abbreviations must be defined in the abstract to allow the abstract to stand alone. Do not exceed 275 words.

Main Body:

Introduction. Provide the minimum background information that will orient the general reader. Identify the research gap addressed by the manuscript and the rationale for the current work..

Methods. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Include appropriate ethical and statistical information.

Results. Present the major findings of the study in graphic form if practicable. Do not illustrate minor details if their message is conveyed adequately by simple descriptive text. Mention all tables and figures.

Discussion. Concisely present the implications of the new findings for the field as a whole, minimizing reiteration of the results, avoiding repetition of material in the introduction, and keeping a close focus on the specific topic of the paper.

Acknowledgments: The acknowledgements section should be headed “Acknowledgements” and contain the following distinct statements in separate paragraphs:

• Assistance with the study. Acknowledgements should be made only to those who have made a substantial contribution to the study. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from people acknowledged by name in case readers infer their endorsement of data and conclusions. If there was no assistance state: “Assistance with the study: none.”

• Presentation (for original articles only). Presentations of preliminary data at, for example, international meetings should be acknowledged separately. If preliminary data was not previously presented please state: Presentation: none.

References: The style of references should conform to the guidelines set forth by the AMA Manual of Style. For specific examples and information regarding references, see the manual or visit online: http://www.amamanualofstyle.com. EndNote users can access a direct download of the JAMA style at http://www.editorialmanager.com/ijsoncology. Authors using other forms of reference management software should use JAMA style.

• All references cited in the text must be both listed and cited by the reference number (footnotes are not accepted).
• Each reference should be cited in the text, tables, or figures in consecutive numerical order by means of superscript Arabic numerals. Use superscript numerals outside periods and commas, inside colons and semicolons. When more than 2 references are cited at a given place in the manuscript, use hyphens to join the first and last numbers of a closed series; use commas without space to separate other parts of a multiple citation (eg, As reported previously,1,3-8,19...The derived data were as follows3,4,12:)
• References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited in the text.
• References in tables and in figure legends must appear in the reference page(s).
• In listed references, use the author’s surname followed by initials without periods. (eg, Doe JF)
• For references with 6 or fewer authors, list all authors. For references with more than 6 authors, list the first 3 authors followed by “et al.”
  • 1 author Doe JF.
  • 2 authors Doe JF, Roe JP III.
  • 6 authors Doe JF, Roe JP III, Coe RT Jr, Loe JT Sr, Poe EA, van Voe AE.
  • >6 authors Doe JF, Roe JP III, Coe RT Jr, et al.
• Full-page ranges should be given in expanded form (eg, 426–429, not 426–9).
• If non-English-language titles are translated into English, bracketed indication of the original language should follow the title.
• Abbreviate and italicize names of journals according to the style in PubMed; refer to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Journals Database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals) if needed.
• In references to journals that have no volume or issue numbers, use the issue date, as shown in example 1 below. If there is an issue number but no volume number, use the style shown in example 2. Conversely, if there is a volume number but no issue number, follow example 3.
  • 1. Author(s). Article Title. Journal Name. Month Year:inclusive pages.
  • 2. Author(s). Article Title. Journal Name. Year;(Issue No.):inclusive pages.
  • 3. Author(s). Article Title. Journal Name. Year;vol:inclusive pages.
• Papers "submitted for publication" but not yet accepted and citations such as "personal communication" or "unpublished data" are not acceptable as listed references and instead should be included parenthetically in the text. This material, with its date, should be noted in the text as “unpublished data” as follows: (J. F. Doe, MD, unpublished data, January 2010).
• Papers denoted "in press" (accepted for publication) should appear in the references.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the references.

Drug Names: Use generic names. The proprietary name may be mentioned in parentheses.

Tables: References to tables should be made in order of appearance in the text and should be in Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g. (Table 1). Each table should be typed on a separate word processing document in 1.5 spacing and uploaded individually. Tables should not be submitted as photographs. Do not embed tables within the manuscript file. Tables are text-only. Do not embed images within the table file. Each table should have a brief title as a heading, appropriate column heads, and any legends. Vertical rules should not be used. Place explanatory matter in the footnotes, not in the heading. Abbreviations are not permitted in table titles. Any abbreviation(s) used in the body of the table, including dashes, must be defined in the footnotes, listed in alphabetical order. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge the source fully, using the name of the first author of the previous series, and include the reference number and year along-side the author’s name. Each series mentioned in a table must be listed in the Reference section. Uncertainty parameters (95% confidence intervals, standard deviations, interquartile ranges, as appropriate) must be provided.

Authors are encouraged to submit non-essential tables as supplemental digital content for publication online only. See Supplemental Digital Content section for more details.

For further information on table formatting, please see the AMA Manual of Style.

Figures and Legends: Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution available. Legends should be supplied for all figures. They are numbered to correspond with the figures and typed double-spaced on a separate page. Figure legends for any supplemental figures being submitted are to be provided separately; see section, Supplemental Digital Content (SDC). Do not put AUROC diagrams in the main text. Instead provide the AUC (95%CI) in the main text. Diagrams, if felt to be necessary, can be placed in the supplement.

• Do not embed figures into the main body file
• Each figure must be uploaded as a separate file. Each file should be saved as the appropriate figure number (eg, Figure 1.tif). Label figures using the Caption/Legend field provided in the File Upload section of ScholarOne (eg. Figure 1, Figure 2). This provides a label for each figure in the PDF generated by ScholarOne. Do not include the author name in the figure file name.
• Cite figures consecutively in the manuscript and number them in the order in which they are discussed.
• All final digital figures for accepted manuscripts must be submitted in EPS, TIFF, or MS Office (DOC, PPT, XLS).
• Art should be created and scaled to the size intended for publication. Image orientation should be the same as intended for publication.
• Artwork generated from office suite programs such as CorelDRAW, MS Word, MS PowerPoint and artwork downloaded from the Internet (low resolution JPEG or GIF files) cannot be used.
• All figures must be designated GRAYSCALE (black and white) or RBG (color).
• Diagrams, drawings, graphs and other line art (purely black and white figures with no shades of gray) should be prepared at a resolution of 1200 DPI.
• Halftones images (black/white or color) should be prepared at a resolution of at least 300 DPI.
• Combination halftones (images containing both pictures and text labeling) should be prepared at 600 DPI.
• Digital art files should be cropped to remove non-printing borders (such as unnecessary white or black space around an image) and should not include embedded “legend” text, figure titles, or figure numbers.
• Composite figures may be either submitted as one single print-quality image that is neatly labelled with uppercase letters using Arial/Helvetica bold font or submitted as separate panels (without labels), eg. Figure 1A.tif, Figure 1B.tif, to be combined during production if accepted for publication.
• Legends for all figures should be brief and specific, and should appear on a separate page at the end of the manuscript document, following the list of references. Legends should indicate the figure number and must be numbered correctly.
• All symbols or abbreviations appearing in an illustration must be defined in the legend; arrows appearing in a figure should be mentioned in the legend.
• Legends of composite figures should be formatted as a single legend containing necessary information about each part/panel.
• Your manuscript may be returned to you for correction if the images are of insufficient quality.
• If photographs of people are used, their identities must be obscured or their written consent to use the photograph must have been obtained. If necessary the Editors may request copies of any consent forms.
• If a figure has been published before, the original source must be acknowledged and written permission from the copyright holder for both print and electronic formats should be submitted with the material. Permission is required regardless of authorship or publisher, except for documents in the public domain.
• Figures may be reduced, cropped or deleted at the discretion of the Editor(s).
• Carefully review the PDF conversion of your submission files to ensure that the figures uploaded without error and appear as intended.

Artwork submitted to Hepatology Communications will be checked for quality. Authors submitting a revised paper will have the opportunity to check the quality of their images and make the necessary changes. This step is required for all revisions.

Supplemental Digital Content (SDC): Authors may submit Supplemental Digital Content to supplement the information provided in the manuscript. SDC may include the following types of content: text, tables, figures, references peripheral to information provided as SDC, audio, and video. SDC should be consecutively cited in the Main Body text of the submitted manuscript. SDC files will be available via URL(s) placed at the citation points within the article and are not copyedited by the publisher. They will be presented digitally as submitted. Note that journal policies for manuscript submission relating to peer review, patient anonymity, ethics, financial disclosure, copyright, and permissions also apply to SDC. Authors should mask patients' eyes and remove patients' names from supplemental digital content unless they obtain written consent from the patients and submit them as supplemental files at the time of the manuscript submission.

Format, File Type and Size Requirements: SDC may be presented in any format (PDF is preferred), and should indicate the article title and first author for clarity. Supplemental content should include a sequential number if submitting more than one (1, 2, 3, etc.). Each SDC in the file should have a visual header in the following name format (e.g., ''SDC, Figure 1''; ''SDC, Materials and Methods'') and a corresponding citation must appear consecutively in the Main Body text. Note that SDC is numbered separately from non-SDC material. If providing SDC figure(s), a figure legend should be included on the figure itself. When uploading SDC select Supplementary Material for Review” as the file designation. For audio and video files, also include the author name, videographer, participants, length (minutes), and size (MB). Video files should be formatted with a 320x240 pixel minimum screen size. Supplemental videos should be submitted using .wmv, .mov, .flv, .qt, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4 formats only. Videos should not exceed 10 minutes of runtime. Videos must include embedded audio narration in English. For each submission, the SDC file cannot exceed a total size of 10 MB.

For more information, please review Wolters Kluwer’s requirements for submitting Supplemental Digital Content: http://links.lww.com/A142.

ONLINE MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIOM, FORMS, AND LICENSES

New Submissions

Once the manuscript has been created, visit the submission site at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hepcomm to upload the manuscript. Once the manuscript has been vetted for compliance to Hepatology Communication­s’ requirements, a manuscript number will be assigned to the submission. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in your manuscript being returned to you for correction. Faxed, scanned or emailed copies of manuscripts will not be accepted.

Mandatory Forms

Copyright Transfer and Author Agreement

All authors must submit the author agreement and copyright transfer agreement, reflecting the manuscript ID of their submission, found here: https://bit.ly/CTA_HepatologyCommunications. Please be sure to completely fill out the Financial Disclosure section of the form, or write "nothing to disclose" in this section if no financial relationships are applicable. Manuscript files are checked for completed author agreements from all authors at the time of acceptance.

License to Publish Forms

Upon first revision, authors will be required to complete a License to Publish (LTP) form. Authors can also provide these at the original submission stage. LTP forms may be signed by the Corresponding Author on behalf of all authors. Authors retain copyright for all articles. Authors grant the journal a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Manuscripts will not pass to production without completed forms. The LTP form can be completed online at https://bit.ly/HepCommOpenAccess.

Article Processing Charges

The 2024 APCs for Hepatology Communications are $2800 USD for Tier 1 manuscripts (original research articles, review articles, and experimental research) and $650 USD for Tier 2 manuscripts (research letters, editorials, and correspondence). If the first, last and/or corresponding author is an active AASLD member, the manuscript qualifies for a 40 percent discount on the APC. The APC is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by credit card by the author, funding agency or institution. Payment must be received in full for the article to be published.

Creative Commons’ license

Open Access articles will be freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication. Hepatology Communications provides authors the choice of applying any of the Creative Commons 4.0 licenses defined below, to be determined after acceptance.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs: CC BY-NC-ND This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share it with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change the work in any way or use it commercially. Attribution: CC-BY This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered.

Page Proofs / Electronic Proofs

Authors will receive notification via email that the PDF (portable document format) proofs of their article are available. Authors are urged to carefully examine the proofs, correct any inadequacies or inaccuracies, and answer all queries. Only the most critical changes to the accuracy of the content will be made. Changes that are stylistic or are a reworking of previously accepted material will be disallowed. Rewriting sections of text, adapting tables and figures, and/or adding/subtracting references are not permitted at this point in the process. Within 48 hours, corrections or approval should be sent to the Production Editor; a message summarizing the corrections may be sent by email.