Manuscript Preparation

Table of Guidelines and Limitations

The following table lists the maximum counts for the various components of submissions. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in a submission being returned for modification and delay the review process. For a list of possible publication charges please see Article Processing Charges.

*All listed authors must meet authorship criteria and limits may be instituted on a case by case basis at the Editor’s discretion

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts must be typed in English and double-spaced with page numbers. 

Click on the links below to go directly to each section.

Title Page Visual Abstracts Disclosures
Manuscript Order Materials and Methods References
Cover Letter  Author Contributions Figures/Tables
Abstract Acknowledgments Supplemental Material

 

Title Page

All article types are required to have a title page that should include:

  • manuscript title
  • all authors’ full names (first name, middle initial, last name)
  • highest academic degrees and affiliations
  • name, address, and telephone number, e-mail address of the corresponding author
  • word count for the abstract and the word count for the text, excluding references, figures, and tables

The title of the manuscript should be non-declarative and descriptive of the work, should be 15 words or fewer, and could include a sub-title to describe the study type (such as “randomized controlled trial”, or “systematic review and meta-analysis”). In addition, please include a running head of 7 words or less. Restrict use of abbreviations to terms that are common in nephrology (such as CKD, AKI, ESRD, and eGFR) and used frequently throughout the manuscript. Define each abbreviation at first use in the manuscript text and in each Table and Figure for which it is used (if needed).

 

Manuscript Order

Original Investigation articles

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Disclosures
  • Acknowledgments (include funding information)
  • References
  • Tables (all cited) with appropriate descriptive titles
  • Figures and legends (all cited)
  • Supplemental Material PDF (optional)

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Cover letter

A cover letter is optional and may be used to explain unusual circumstances of a submission, such as similarity to and differences from other work published or previously submitted. See "Duplicate Submission/Redudant Publication" for additional information.

 

Abstract

Original Investigations must include a structured abstract consisting of four paragraphs labeled as follows:

  • Background
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Conclusions

The use of abbreviations is strongly discouraged. Any abbreviations used must be defined in the abstract. The species used must be identified. Restrict conclusions to those directly supported by study data. Review articles require an unstructured abstract. No other article types require abstracts.

 

Visual Abstracts

The Kidney360 Editorial Team will create a Visual Abstract for all accepted Original Investigation articles.  They will develop the Visual Abstract to fit with the approved Kidney360 style and format.  Authors will have the opportunity to review, and edit as necessary, the Visual Abstract prior to publication.  Kidney360 may use the Visual Abstract in any Tweets and in any other appropriate materials.

 

Materials and Methods

Our Editors consider the Methods section a critical element in the manuscript. The information provided in the Methods section should be readable and complete enough to give the reader a fundamental understanding of what studies were performed and the core principles of the methodology. Additional technical information about methods may be included in the Supplemental material, but reference to Supplemental material should not be needed to understand the core experimental steps and principles.

The Methods section is not included in the word limits. It should include, as appropriate, oversight of animal or human studies, the population studied, animals used, cell lines and/or the data resources used, the experimental design(s), outcome measures, and measurement methods. Authors are encouraged to ensure that the description of the study design, analytic approach and presentation of results meets the standards for publication by reviewing the relevant checklist, prior to submission, available through Author Resources.

Please also see our ASN Journal Policies page for additional details about what may need to be included in your Methods section.

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Author Contributions

A statement of the contribution of each author to the manuscript is required for all submissions. The statement should describe the contribution of each author, following the criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Authorship credit should be based on

  1. substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. drafting the article 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.

The full text of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals is available here.

The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) journals have adopted the following statement of editorial policy from the Information for Authors of the Annals of Internal Medicine: “Medical writers and industry employees can be legitimate contributors, and their roles, affiliations, and potential conflicts of interest should be described when submitting manuscripts. These writers should receive acknowledgment on the byline or in the acknowledgments section in accord with the degree to which they contributed to the work reported in the manuscript. The Editors consider failure to acknowledge these contributors (“ghostwriting”) as unacceptable.” Kidney360 reserves the right to retract articles that do not meet the above criteria for authorship.

 

Acknowledgments

This statement should include acknowledgment of scientific contributions and financial support for the research.

 

Disclosures

ASN journals require that authors are required to divulge any potential financial conflicts of interest on all submitted manuscripts, as consistent with the recommendations from the International Committee of Medical Editors (ICMJE). The disclosures as described below should include all sources of revenue paid (or promised to be paid) directly to you or to your institution on your behalf over the 36 months prior to submission of the work. Full disclosures to be reported should include all of the following regardless of whether the authors perceive a direct or actual conflict with the submitted work:

  • Relationships with pharmaceutical firms, device firms or other entities (such as small business start-ups, research support, employment contracts, consultancy, advisory boards, speaker bureaus, membership on Board of Directors, stock ownership and/or stock options).
  • Ownership of intellectual property in any way related to the work under consideration, including, but not limited to, patents and patent submissions.
  • Financial relationships of any kind with entities in the biomedical arena.

Process:

  • In the initial submission, providing complete disclosures for all authors is the responsibility of the corresponding author.
  • The disclosure statement should be placed in the main text of the manuscript immediately following the Acknowledgements.
  • For all manuscripts invited to submit a revision, each author must complete their own ICMJE form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. This form will be sent automatically to each co-author through the system. This is a condition for further consideration of the revised manuscript.
  • If needed, the initial disclosure statement will be edited by the Editors to include the “Disclosure Statement” generated by the ICMJE form for each author.

Failure to comply with the above disclosure statement requirements could lead to the following:

  • Incomplete disclosure of potential conflicts of interest may lead to rejection of submitted manuscripts.
  • For conflicts identified after publication, ASN journals reserve the right to sanction authors for their failure to accurately and completely report the potential financial conflicts of interest. The sanctions may range from issuing a correction, reporting to the authors’ institution, banning authors from submitting work to ASN journals for varying lengths of time, and/or retraction of the published work.

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References

Limit references to 50 per Original Investigation article. List all authors for each article cited. Journal names should be abbreviated according to the BIOSIS list of serials. ASN journals do not allow abstracts to be cited as references. The editors recommend downloading the latest style list for the reference program you are using (e.g., EndNote). Additional reference information is available upon request.

Journal articles and books:

  1. HoldenRM, Harman GJ, Wang M, Holland D, Day AJ: Major bleeding in hemodialysis patients. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 3: 105–110, 2008
  2. Patton MQ: Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, C 3rd Ed., Los Angeles, CA, Sage Publications, 2002

 

Figures

Figures must be cited in the text, in numerical order, using Arabic numerals. Figures of quality sufficient for accurate peer review may be included in the main manuscript file for initial submission. If your manuscript is accepted, the Editorial Office will require you to upload your individual figures in one of the following formats: EPS, Al, TlFF, PDF, or Microsoft Office. Please be sure to use high resolution and maximum quality compression settings if creating PDFs. Please see “Digital Art Guidelines" for details on figure preparation.

 

Tables

Tables must be cited in the text and should be numbered using Arabic numerals in the order first cited. Tables should be included in the article file that is uploaded for submission. Each table should appear on a separate page of the manuscript file, beginning immediately after the references. The table number and title should be included above the table, with the title providing sufficient context to interpret the data presented. Additional information, including all abbreviations used, conversion factors for international units, and any clarifications required to understand reported statistics, should be included in notes below each table. In general, a format for tables that permits portrait rather than landscape presentation is preferred, since this facilitates on-line viewing of the pdf version of the paper.

 

Supplemental Material

Authors may submit supplemental material to accompany their article for online publication. This limited material should be important but not essential to the understanding and interpretation of the article. The supplemental material should be original, not previously published, and non-repetitive of the material in the article.

The supplemental material should begin with a table of contents listing all elements included. The Table of Contents for the supplemental material should also be listed in the manuscript following the Acknowledgments and Financial Disclosures. Upload all supplemental material (except for spread-sheet documents and video files) as a single indexed PDF file.

For studies that report several experimental series, inclusion of a supplemental table summarizing key features of all experimental series is strongly encouraged. The table should list the series, animals used, the intervention, the sample size, outcome measures, whether there was experimenter or observer blinding and figure and table numbers for results.

Supplemental material will be made available to editors and peer reviewers during the review process but is not subjected to the same scrutiny as the main manuscript. If the manuscript is accepted for publication and the editors deem the supplemental material appropriate for online publication, it will be posted online at the time of final publication of the article.

Supplemental material will not be edited or formatted by journal staff; thus, authors are responsible for the accuracy and presentation of all such material. Supplemental material will not be made available to the authors at the proof stage. Questions regarding relevancy of supplemental material may be emailed to vramsey@Kidney360.org.

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