Categories of Articles

Research Articles

Manuscripts that report original studies in epidemiology, biomarkers, prevention, or behavioral sciences relating to cancer that are well-documented, novel, and of high scientific merit.

• 250-word abstract
• 4,000 words of text
• 6 tables and/or figures
• 100 references (meta-analyses and similar articles may require more references)

Null Results in Brief

Original reports of null results of important a priori hypotheses tested with sufficient statistical power. Supplementary Material is generally not to be used to provide additional details about study methods or results.

Please indicate in your cover letter that your submission is for the Null Results in Brief category. In order to ensure timely publication, authors of submissions to this category will be permitted to make only minor revisions to the submitted text. In addition, reviewers' comments may not be provided to authors of rejected manuscripts. Relatively rigid criteria are applied during the evaluation. The submitted manuscript should fulfill the following criteria:

1. The manuscript should add to the current knowledge of cancer in humans (not animals or other experimental systems) and be useful to future investigators making decisions regarding replication and/or inclusion in meta-analysis.
2. Although the manuscript should provide sufficient description of the study so that readers can evaluate the results, detailed study methodology must be described elsewhere (e.g., in prior publications), given limitations to manuscript length. Only methods that bear on the actual results, and that have not been previously reported, should be given. More detailed methods should be referenced.
3. The authors should clearly specify hypotheses that demonstrate a biological rationale for the data being presented. Priority will be given to articles that address well-defined biological pathways; previously reported associations of high impact (including genome-wide associations); adequately powered interactions; and genotyping and haplotyping studies that involve multiple genes.
4. For studies about biomarkers, the assays used should be well validated and biologically ;meaningful.
5. The statistical power should be equal to or greater than that in prior empirical publications.
6. Studies reporting single biomarkers (including single SNPs, groups of SNPs within a single gene, single diet nutrients and single metabolites measured in blood or biospecimens) will be given low priority for publication. Higher priority will be given to work reporting multiple components of a single pathway or markers for several pathways.
7. Authors are encouraged to combine as much null data as possible into a single publication. Authors are also encouraged to incorporate null data into papers reporting positive findings for pathway markers.

 

• Include a brief structured abstract (no more than 1-2 sentences each for Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and Impact)
• 800 words of text
• 8 or fewer references
• 2 figures and/or tables

 

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Invited Articles