HEPATOLOGY

Instructions for Authors (this page)
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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]

SCOPE

HEPATOLOGY publishes original research on the biology and diseases of the liver in both humans and experimental models.

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/hepatol

GENERAL INFORMATION

To submit your manuscript electronically and for complete instructions on how to do so, go to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hep. HEPATOLOGY utilizes an anonymous peer-review process to evaluate manuscripts for publication.

Copyright of all material published in HEPATOLOGY 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_Hepatology.

Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications in HEPATOLOGY 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.

The Journal uses anonymous peer review in evaluating manuscripts for publication. The Editor can choose to Early Reject a manuscript without peer review if the manuscript is incomplete or unlikely to be accepted. The Editor allows a single resubmission only after the initial disposition. A manuscript requiring more than a single revision or returned beyond three months of the date of the initial decision will be considered a new submission.

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. Editors may subject any manuscript submitted for consideration of publication in HEPATOLOGY 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 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 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(s) will result in a corrigendum.

English Language Assistance

HEPATOLOGY 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:

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). Manuscripts submitted to and published in Hepatology 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 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.

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 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 endorses the recommendations of the ICMJE regarding the registration of clinical trials. Trials must be registered in a registry that is a primary register of the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP. The trial registration number must be included on the title page of any manuscript reporting a registered clinical trial. Trials should be registered by the time of first participant consent.

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. Reporting guidelines can be found on the EQUATOR Network, which also gives general information on how to choose the correct guideline and why guidelines are important. At the minimum, your article should report the content addressed by each item of the identified checklist or state that the item was not considered in the study (for example, if you did not use blinding, your article should say so). Meeting these basic reporting requirements will greatly improve the value of your manuscript, may facilitate/enhance the peer review process, and may enhance its chances for eventual publication. Authors may use the following free online tool to assist in selecting the correct guidelines for their research: https://www.penelope.ai/equator-wizard.

Randomised Controlled Trials
All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in HEPATOLOGY 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. Manuscripts describing randomized control trials should also include in the text of the manuscript the following information: The identity of those who designed the protocol and analyzed the data; A statement indicating that at least one author had access to all of the data and can vouch for the integrity of the data analyses; Disclosure of any funding sources and their role, if any, in the writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit it for publication; Statements of role, if any, of medical writer or editor.

Authors of manuscripts reporting clinical trials must submit a proof of institutional review board approval from all participating centers, the original approved protocol, patient information sheet and statistical analysis plan, and all subsequent amendments to either document. All these documents must be in English language. If the manuscript is accepted, the protocol and statistical analysis plan will be published as an online supplement.

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 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_Hepatology.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. 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:

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 Manuscripts describe original research and must be no longer than 6,000 words (including references, but not including the title page, abstract, figure legends or tables), and structured abstract of 250 words. 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, with a maximum of 6 panels per figure. Claims to novelty or priority, for findings or techniques, should be avoided. We encourage you to submit additional methodological details, nonessential figures or portions of your manuscript as supplementary material for online publication only. 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

Editorials are invited by the Editor, Deputy 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 9 references in addition to the paper being discussed.

Review Articles of basic, clinical and translational topics should be no longer than 9,000 words (excluding references). Three to six key points must be included. The reference list need not be exhaustive. Authors interested in contributing reviews are requested to first contact the Editor, Deputy Editor, or one of the Associate Editors with an outline of the proposed article. Please note that systematic reviews and meta-analyses are considered to be original research and should be submitted through the standard submission process.

Letters to the Editor may be subjected to peer review and undergo editing for clarity and brevity and should be no longer than 500 words (including references) and include no more than 5 references and one figure. The Letters to the Editor section is not intended for the publication of original data. The titles of all letters should begin “Letter to the Editor:” Letters to the Editor will be published online only.

Observations in Hepatotoxicity are published periodically in HEPATOLOGY. Material published in this section is intended to be case-based novel presentations or mechanistic insights of drug or herbal and dietary supplement induced hepatotoxicity. The format should include a brief introduction, presentation of the case (up to three), and discussion. The authors must ensure that the case contains elements needed to fully assess causality, as described elsewhere. (Agarwal VK, et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2010;8:463-470). The maximum word length is 750 words, including the summary and references. There must be no more than 3 authors. There is a maximum of two figures or tables and 5 references.

Special Articles are on a variety of topics and may include AASLD practice guidelines, meeting reports, and comments on social policy. The length of the article is decided by the Editor on a case-by-case basis.

Introduction of the AASLD President is invited by the Editors/AASLD Governing Board and should be no longer than 2,500 words with one figure or table and no references.

Obituaries are invited by the Editors and should not include 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 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.

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.”

Author contributions. HEPATOLOGY endorses the ICMJE definition of authorship (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html ): 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Individuals who contributed to the work but whose contributions were not of sufficient magnitude to warrant authorship should be identified by name in the acknowledgments section. Please provide a statement listing all authors’ contributions to the manuscript using the CRediT taxonomy (https://www.casrai.org/credit.html).

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. Original articles should include a structured abstract of no more than 250 words using the following headings: Background & Aims, Approach & Results and Conclusions. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the results. Nonstandard abbreviations, references, or footnotes should not be used. Acronyms and abbreviations must be defined in the abstract to allow the abstract to stand alone.

Main Body:

Introduction. The introduction contains a statement of the purpose of the work, the problem that stimulated it, and a brief summary of relevant published investigations. Provide the minimum background information that will orient the general reader. Do not engage in a literature review.

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.

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 will make cloned DNA, hybridomas, mutant animals, and other resources available to qualified investigators.

Statistics. HEPATOLOGY endorses the guidelines on the reporting of statistics issued by the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/preparing-for-submission.html#d): “Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to judge its appropriateness for the study and to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as P values, which fail to convey important information about effect size and precision of estimates. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated). Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the statistical software package(s) and versions used. Distinguish prespecified from exploratory analyses, including subgroup analyses. In addition, the following specific guidance, adopted from the Journal of HEPATOLOGY, should be followed:

  • Complex analyses should be performed with the assistance of a qualified statistician and should be extensively described in the supplemental material to ensure reproducibility of the results together with an access to the primary results in public database or upon request. Unqualified use of such analyses is strongly discouraged.
  • The underlying assumptions of the statistical methods used should be tested to ensure that the assumptions are fulfilled.
  • For small data sets and if variable distributions are non-normal, distribution free (non-parametric) statistical methods should be used. The actual p values – whether significant or not – should always be presented (not n.s.).
  • Confidence intervals convey more information than p values and should be presented whenever possible. Continuous variables can always be summarized using the median and range which are therefore preferred. Only in the infrequent case of a normal distribution are the mean and standard deviation (SD) useful.
  • Complex analyses (including Cox and logistic regression analysis) should be presented in sufficient detail: i.e., variable scoring, regression coefficients, standard errors and any constants. Odds-ratios or relative risks are not sufficient documentation of such analyses.
  • The handling of any missing values in the data should be clearly specified. The number of statistical tests performed should be kept at a minimum to reduce spurious positive results. Explorative (hypothesis generating) analyses without confirmation using independent data are discouraged.
  • Figures showing individual observations e.g., scatter plots are encouraged. Histograms may also be useful. Tables should indicate the number of observations on which each result is being based. A statistical review of the paper will be sought from an expert where necessary.

Data Deposition. HEPATOLOGY 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 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 readers at the Journal’s Web site.

Cell Lines. Experiments utilizing cell lines should wherever possible be replicated in more than one cell line. When primary cell lines are utilized, at least three separate batches should be used. Whenever cell lines are used, authors should include the following information:

  • The source of the cells used: For established cell lines, this should include a reference to the published article that first described the cell line, or the cell line repository or company the cell line was obtained from, the catalogue number, and whether the cell line was obtained directly from the repository/company or from another laboratory
  • Cell line authentication is recommended – e.g., by karyotyping, isozyme analysis, or short tandem repeats (STR) analysis – and may be required during peer review or after publication. Where cell line authentication is carried out, this must be described in the methods section. Authors should be able to provide the test results upon request. Mycoplasma contamination testing status must also be reported.
  • In order to minimize the use of cross-contaminated or misidentified cell lines, authors should check established cell lines using the ICLAC Database of Cross-contaminated or Misidentified Cell Lines (https://iclac.org/databases/cross-contaminations/)
  • It has recently become clear that a number of commonly used HCC cell lines have become cross-contaminated with other cells, including HeLa, the oldest and most widely used human cell line, derived from a cervical carcinoma. For further details, please see the Editorial in the Journal of HEPATOLOGY (https://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(17)32206-7/fulltext). For this reason, HEPATOLOGY will no longer consider BEL7402, SMMC7721, MHCC97L, BEL7404, QGY7701, QGY7703, QSG7701 and SKHEP1 as HCC cell lines, unless authors are authors are able to demonstrate their origin through STR, hepatic gene expression and specific gene mutations.
  • Histological type of liver cancer in originating tumor tissue should be appropriately considered in using liver cancer cell lines. For example, Hep G2 and HuH-6 cells were derived from hepatoblastoma (HB) tissue (PMID: 19751877, 57894). Therefore, it is misleading and inaccurate to use the lines as models of HCC, unless the scope of the study is to assess specific characteristics of the lines (e.g., specific molecular/physiological features, response to certain interventions) shared with HCC. This point should be clarified and appropriately justified in the manuscript.

Antibodies. A table listing any antibodies used (including for immunohistochemistry, immunocytochemistry, or Western blots) should be included in the supplementary data and should include the catalog number (and/or clone number) or primary citation for each antibody, appropriate positive and negative controls, validation of each antibody and any necessary references.

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. In the discussion, present concisely 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:

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.

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 footnoteg, 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.

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).

Artwork submitted to HEPATOLOGY 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.

Image Integrity & Standards: HEPATOLOGY has adopted guidelines for handling image data first established by The Rockefeller University Press. In general, images should be minimally processed and reflect the original data. The basic guidelines for all graphical images are:

More information on these guidelines can be found on the website of the Council of Science Editors (https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/publication-ethics/3-4-digital-images-and-misconduct/). Guidance for specific image types is as follows:

Microscopic Images - HEPATOLOGY has adopted the guidelines of the Journal of Cell Biology regarding the presentation of microscopic images. Editors may request the following data: make and model of microscope; type, magnification, and numerical aperture of the objective lenses; temperature; imaging medium; fluorochromes; camera make and model; acquisition software; and any software used for image processing subsequent to data acquisition. Additionally, please include details and types of operations involved (e.g., type of deconvolution, 3D reconstitutions, surface or volume rendering, gamma adjustments, etc.). If you export files from a microscope or other acquisition device, be sure to use consistent file formats (8 bit, 16 bit, etc.).

Electrophoretic gels and blots - HEPATOLOGY has adopted the guidelines first created by the Nature Publishing Group regarding the manipulation and presentation of gels and blots:

Positive and negative controls, as well as molecular size markers, should be included on each gel and blot—either in the main figure or an expanded data supplementary figure. For previously characterized antibodies, a citation must be provided. For antibodies less well characterized in the system under study, a detailed characterization that demonstrates not only the specificity of the antibody, but also the range of reactivity of the reagent in the assay, should be published as Supplementary Information or in an antibody profile database (e.g. Antibodypedia, 1DegreeBio).

The display of cropped gels and blots in the main paper is encouraged if it improves the clarity and conciseness of the presentation. In such cases, the cropping must be mentioned in the figure legend.

Color Figures: Authors are charged for color figures, the cost being $500 for each page (whole or partial). If you want to avoid color figure charges, remove all color from your figures and tables before upload and submission, including but not limited to colored dots, colored bars or lines, graphs, flowcharts etc. Figures submitted in color for review will be published in color. The publisher will send an invoice for color charges directly to the corresponding author.

Graphical abstract: A graphical abstract is a feature that accompanies a research article and visually conveys the key findings of the study. It is intended to help a reader determine if they would like to proceed reading the research article and to facilitate deeper engagement with the article. This method has been proven to attract more readers to the article and to boost its dissemination.1

An effective graphical abstract presents a clear message. Consider the following:

  1. Focus on the reader’s experience. What does my audience want to quickly learn about my research?
  2. Establish clarity in your message.
  3. Exercise thoughtful restraint. Prioritize the key message over inclusiveness.
  4. Avoid excessive creativity.2

Creating a graphical abstract is NOT just copying and pasting a figure from the manuscript; although a figure from the manuscript can be included in the graphical abstract, attempts should be made to create an abstract that is distinct from the figure itself.

Furthermore, our abstracts must adhere to the Suggested Guidelines for Standardization of Visual Abstracts, which are also depicted in Table 1 of the aforementioned article:

  1. Clearly state the question or purpose of the study.
  2. State the research design (e.g. randomized trial, survey, etc.) in order to clearly delineate the quality of evidence
  3. Include the primary outcome of the study to minimize reporting bias
  4. Report when appropriate P-values or other measures of statistical significance
  5. Citation to the article must be clearly displayed and linked to the actual article
  6. Use language consistent with terms and definitions in the article that are free of editorialization or bias
  7. Only use images for which the author has legal rights to use. If using an image generated from an internet search, please filter the search for images that can be reproduced without permission and that are high quality.

Standard Graphical Abstract (Static Image)

  1. Use the Powerpoint templates provided here. The text areas should be edited. Use black or white font as they appear throughout the template for the text areas. The color backgrounds should remain as they are in the template. Format 2 (“One Outcome (RCT)”) and format 6 (“Qualitative Data”) have the option for either a colored background or a plain white, so use the option that complements your data and images the best.
  2. Although a figure from the manuscript can be included in the graphical abstract, attempts should be made to create an abstract that is distinct from the figure itself.
  3. Do not exceed 15 words in the Key Question section.
  4. Do not exceed 30 words in the Body of the abstract.
  5. Please view the graphical abstract demonstration and the open source primer on www.surgeryredesign.com for further ideas on how design the abstracts.
  6. Please view other examples under #VisualAbstract on twitter.com/x.com.

References:

  1. Ibrahim AM, Lillemoe KD, Klingensmith ME, Dimick JB. Visual Abstracts to Disseminate Research on Social Media: A Prospective, Case-control Crossover Study. Ann Surg 2017;266(6):e46–8.
  2. Ibrahim AM. Seeing is Believing: Using Visual Abstracts to Disseminate Scientific Research. Am J Gastroenterol 2018;113(4):459–61.

Cover Photograph: Authors with accepted manuscripts may submit artwork for consideration for the cover via email to [email protected]. Single slides or color photographs are preferred, and multiple examples may be submitted. Individual photographs should be of high quality and high resolution. Please reference figure guidelines above for specific resolution and formatting requirements. Photographs should be accompanied by a one to two-sentence caption and a short paragraph legend. Authors are not charged for a cover photograph.

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/hep to upload the manuscript. Once the manuscript has been vetted for compliance to HEPATOLOGY's 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.

Required Forms

All authors must submit the author agreement and copyright transfer agreement, reflecting the manuscript ID of their submission, found here: https://bit.ly/CTA_Hepatology. 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.

If you would like to publish your article Open Access, the appropriate License to Publish agreement will need to be filled out. It can be completed online at https://bit.ly/OALicenseHepatology. Please note: an Article Processing Charge will apply if you opt to publish Open Access. Please view Open Access section below for more details.

Open Access
Authors of accepted peer-reviewed articles have the choice to pay a fee to allow perpetual unrestricted online access to their published article to readers globally, immediately upon publication. Authors may take advantage of the Open Access option at the point of submission. Please note that this choice has no influence on the peer review and acceptance process. These articles are subject to HEPATOLOGY 's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

The article processing charge (APC) is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by the author, funding agency or institution. Payment must be processed for the article to be published Open Access. The 2025 APC fee for HEPATOLOGY is (CCBY-NC-ND) $3,510. If your funder or institution requires the CCBY license (please see below), the APC fee will be (CCBY) $3,900. For a complete list of journals and pricing please visit our Wolters Kluwer Hybrid Open Access Journals page.

Authors retain copyright
Authors retain their copyright for all articles they opt to publish Open Access. Authors grant Wolters Kluwer an exclusive license to publish the article and the article is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons user license. Please visit our Open Access Publication Process page for more information.

Creative Commons license
Open Access articles are freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication under the terms of the Creative Commons License Attribution-Non Commercial No Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) license. This license does not permit reuse for any commercial purposes, nor does it cover the reuse or modification of individual elements of the work (such as figures, tables, etc.) in the creation of derivative works without specific permission.

Compliance with funder mandated Open Access policies
An author whose work is funded by an organization that mandates the use of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license is able to meet that requirement through the available Open Access license for approved funders. Information about the approved funders can be found here: https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-journals/lippincott-open-access/partner/institutions.

Compliance with National Institutes of Health Accessibility Requirements  
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires authors to submit the “post-print” (the final manuscript, in Word format, after peer-review and acceptance for publication but prior to the publisher’s copyediting, design, formatting, and other services) of research the NIH funds to a repository that is accessible online by all without charge. As a service to our authors, Wolters Kluwer will identify to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and will transmit the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the NIH to PubMed Central.

FAQ for Open Access
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-journals/lippincott-open-access/faq

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.