Supporting oncology professionals through education
The content on this site is intended for healthcare professionals only
The content on this site is intended for healthcare professionals only
Authorship and the use of Artificial Intelligence assisted technologies
Publication and peer review process
ecancermedicalscience is a member of, and subscribes to the principles of, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
As such, all papers are run through a plagiarism detection tool on submission. Any manuscript or substantial parts of it submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by any other journal and must be solely the work of the author(s) stated.
As part of our commitment to open access and speeding up research, we encourage authors to use preprint repositories for their unpublished studies (for example bioRxiv). Posting your work on a preprint server does not preclude publication in ecancermedicalscience.
We would ask that authors make clear the status of their work when uploading to a preprint repository, and update their article with a link back to the publisher’s website once the paper is formally published.
ecancermedicalscience will ask authors to sign a sole and exclusive licence for all published content. We do not ask authors to transfer ownership of their copyright. We believe this balances the interest of authors and open access principles whilst maintaining the integrity of the journal.
Submission of a manuscript to ecancermedicalscience implies that readily reproducible materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes. Nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences, and atomic coordinates should be deposited in an appropriate database in time for the accession number to be included in the published article. In computational studies where the sequence information is unacceptable for inclusion in databases because of lack of experimental validation, the sequences must be published as an additional file with the article.
Any 'in press' articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.
ecancermedicalscience follows the authorship criteria set out by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations. All authors must meet the following criteria:
As Chatbots and AI assisted technologies cannot approve the final version of a paper to be published or agree 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, they do not meet the minimum criteria for authorship and so cannot be listed as an author on a paper for ecancermedicalscience.
Authors should disclose, on submission, whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies in the production of their article. This should be disclosed (and the use of this technology described) in the covering letter as well as within the article (this would usually be the methods section).
Examples of AI technology include Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators.
Acknowledgment
Receipt of your paper will be acknowledged by email within two working days. This acknowledgment will confirm that your paper has been received and seen by an Editor. It might contain a decision on acceptability.
Peer Review Papers are initially assessed by our Scientific Editor who checks papers for scope/quality issues. If deemed suitable for consideration, the paper will be sent out for peer review. Authors are welcome to suggest potential peer reviewers on submission, however the final decison on reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor. Any author suggested reviewers will be vetted for suitability.
Peer review is conducted in a single-blind manner. Papers are sent to two or more experts and decisions are made on receipt of two comprehensive reports. Statistical reviewers from the European Institute of Oncology and elsewhere may also be used where required.
The Editorial Board may be used to recommend suitable peer reviewers or to provide further guidance on an article. The ultimate responsibility for any decision lies with the Editor.
Reviewers are asked whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and how innovative it is. They will be asked to comment if it is particularly topical or interesting and ultimately, whether or not it should be published in the journal. Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially significant for clinical application or public health. These articles may be given greater prominence and included in an ecancermedicalscience press release.
We aim to have a first decision on articles within two months.
Authors will be able to check the progress of their paper through the submission system at any time by logging in.
Revisions The journal allows a maximum of one revision of any reviewed manuscript. If the author is required to make any revisions this must be done within a period of one month. Please inform the editorial team if you are unable to meet this deadline. A revised article may go back to one or more of the original reviewers to ensure their recommendations have been adequately addressed.
Publication
If the manuscript is accepted, the author will be sent a final version of the article in order for them to make any final corrections. If the editorial team does not receive any comments after a three day period the manuscript will be automatically published. Once an article is accepted, html and pdf versions are published within three weeks on ecancer.org. All published articles will be citable by the digital object identifier (DOI) assigned at the time of online publication.
Appeals
If an author believes that an editor has made an error in declining a paper, we welcome an appeal. In your appeal letter to the editor, please state why you think the decision is mistaken. At least two editors decide whether to invite a revised manuscript and whether re-review, or otherwise, is warranted. Authors who have appealed against a rejection but remain concerned about the editorial process can refer their case to COPE. ecancermedicalscience endorses the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions.
Press releases
Your submission could be chosen to be featured in a journal press release, or there may be additional media interest. It is best for someone familiar with the research to be available for comment. You will receive advance notice if your paper is to be included in an ecancermedicalscience press release. The content of your paper and of any interview you give to the media is subject to a strict embargo, which will be communicated to you by the ecancermedicalscience press office.
ecancermedicalscience publishes using a "pay what you can afford" model. If you have funding to publish your work in an open access journal, you will be charged a £1000 ($1640/EURO 1200) article processing fee. If you do not have access to this funding, you do not have to pay the fee. If you have funding but it is less than this amount, please let us know. Authors of commissioned articles and special issue articles are exempt.
If you are not sure whether you are eligible for funding for open access publication, see SHERPA/JULIET for a list of research funders' open access policies.
Articles submitted by industry or medical education companies are subject to the full APC charge of £1000.
Authors will be asked to agree to an exclusive license agreement which states that anyone is free:
to copy, distribute, and display the work;
to make derivative works;
to make commercial use of the work.
Under the following conditions:
Attribution
the original author must be given credit (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work);
for any re-use or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are;
any of these conditions can be waived if the authors give permission.
Statutory fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Further information concerning our copyright policies can be found here.
Open access
ecancermedicalscience is committed to supporting authors in making their research publicly and freely available. The editors encourage authors to post a copy of their peer-reviewed, accepted, and edited paper on their personal or institutional websites any time after publication online. Your document should indicate the article's citation and a link to the ecancermedicalscience homepage.
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page Creative Commons Licence BY 4.0.
Submission of a manuscript to ecancermedicalscience implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content - and that any experimental research that is reported in the manuscript has been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee. Research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration.
Any experimental research on animals must follow internationally recognised guidelines. Papers disregarding the welfare of experimental animals will be rejected. A statement to this effect must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript, including the name of the body which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. Manuscripts may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework, e.g. if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by the value of the knowledge gained.
Authors may find the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) latest report “Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments” or the United Kingdom's Co-ordinating Committee on Cancer Research (UKCCCR) 'Guidelines for the welfare and use of animals in cancer research' helpful, published in the British Journal of Cancer (2010) 102 1555-1557.
Generic drug names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses in the Methods section.
We ask authors of ecancermedicalscience papers to complete a declaration of conflicts of interest, which should be provided as a separate section of the manuscript, to follow the Acknowledgements. Where an author states they have no conflicts of interest, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no conflicts of interest.'
For all articles that include information or clinical photographs relating to individual patients, written and signed consent from each patient to publish must be collected. The manuscript should also include a statement to this effect as follows: "Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient or their relative." This information must be sent with the manuscript.
ecancermedicalscience recommends, but does not insist, that clinical trials are registered prior to submission in a suitable publicly accessible registry. The trial registers that currently meet all of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines can be found at https://www.icmje.org/about-icmje/faqs/clinical-trials-registration/.
If appropriate the trial registration number should be included as the last line of the abstract of the manuscript.
A checklist has been developed for randomised controlled trials (CONSORT). Authors are requested to make use of this when drafting their manuscript and peer reviewers will also be asked to refer to this checklist when evaluating randomised controlled trial studies. For authors of systematic reviews, a supplementary file, linked from the Methods section, should reproduce all details concerning the search strategy. For an example of how a search strategy should be presented, see the Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook. For Case Reports, authors should refer to the CARE Guidelines.
Studies of diagnostic accuracy should be reported according to STARD guidelines.
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organisations that sponsor clinical trials, should adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organisations and communications companies.
The involvement of medical writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines on the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications. If medical writers are not listed among the authors, it is important that their role be acknowledged explicitly. Suggested wording: 'We thank xxxx who provided medical writing services on behalf of ABC Pharmaceuticals Ltd.'.
Questions regarding the submission process or the online submission system should be addressed to editor@ecancer.org