Annals of Clinical Epidemiology
Guide for Authors
Aims and Scope
Manuscript Types
Journal & Ethics Policies
Peer Review Process
Copyright, Open Access and Fees
Manuscript Preparation
Online Manuscript Submission
Accepted Manuscripts
Contact

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Aims and Scope
Annals of Clinical Epidemiology (ACE) publishes peer-reviewed, open-access articles in allareas of clinical epidemiology. Supported by the Society for Clinical Epidemiology (SCE),
the journal aims to promote high-quality medical research, cultivate clinicians who have a
researcher’s mindset, and contribute to address the various challenges facing medicine today.
To support its goal of publishing the most up-to-date clinical and epidemiologicalinformation, ACE provides authors worldwide with full peer-review services by subject
experts.
ACE publishes Original Articles, Review Articles, Study Protocols, Short Reports, Letters to
the Editor, and Seminars. The journal also welcomes original articles with nonsignificant
results to avoid publication bias in epidemiological research. Articles are continuously
published online for a broad audience of researchers, clinicians, and health professionals. The
journal is published four times each year (January, April, July and October).

Manuscript Types
The journal welcomes 6 manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review.
Original Articles
Original Articles are full and comprehensive reports describing original research. They arepresented in the standard format described in ‘Manuscript Preparation’ section.
Review Articles
Review Articles present novel or unique overviews of recent or important developments inthe field. They must be insightful and address the question(s) of interest using appropriate andfully presented evidence; exhaustive general summaries will not be published. Review
Articles can explore several topics of importance in a broader subject area. They arecommissioned by the Editor in Chief, and the journal welcomes proposals from interested
authors.

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Study Protocols
Study Protocols provide detailed accounts of the hypotheses, rationales, and methodologies ofongoing or proposed large-scale studies, including randomized controlled trials, prospective
cohort studies, and disease registries. Study protocols for meta-analyses will not be accepted.
Short Reports
Short Reports cover small-scale research or research that is in the early stages ofdevelopment. This includes preliminary studies with a simple research design or a small
sample size that have produced limited pilot data and initial findings that indicate or justify
the need for further investigation.
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor examine or comment upon a recent article appearing in ACE. As ageneral rule, they should be submitted within 4 weeks of the article’s publication in ACE.
Seminars
The editorial board selects and invites authors of Seminars. Seminars are educational
overviews on a variety of topics, including (i) clinical overviews of specific diseases(epidemiology, diagnosis, treatments, and prevention); (ii) overviews of novel andconventional statistical and epidemiological methodologies, (iii) introduction to large
healthcare databases in specific countries or regions, and (iv) introduction to emerging
research areas related to clinical epidemiology.
Summary of manuscript type guidelines
Manuscript type
Original Article
Review Article
Study Protocol
Short Report
Letter to the
EditorSeminar*Maximum
word limit(main text)*
4,000
4,000
4,000
1,500
500

No.
figuresand tables
No limit
No limit
No limit
Up to 3Up to 1

No.
references

Abstract(words)Keywords

No limit
No limit
No limit
Up to 20
Up to 5

250
250
250
None
None

3–5
3–5
3–5
3–5
3–5

4,000

No limit

No limit

250

3-5

Word limit does not include the abstract, figure legends, or references.

Journal & Ethics Policies
The journal upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing.
Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read andcomplied with the journal’s policies. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with thisGuide for Authors and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)‘Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in
Medical Journals’ (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) and the Principles ofTransparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (a joint statement by the Committee
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on Publication Ethics [COPE], the Directory of Open Access Journals [DOAJ], the World
Association for Medical Editors [WAME] and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers
Association [OASPA]; http://doaj.org/bestpractice).
The journal reserves the right to reject without review or retract any manuscript that the
Editor believes may not comply with these policies.
The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers and publisher regarding
research and publication ethics are described in full below.
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (inpart or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for
publication elsewhere.
Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or
published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server
does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’ section).
For acceptable secondary publication, authors should consult the ICMJE Recommendations.
If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been madeon its suitability for publication in ACE, they should first withdraw it from the journal.
Submission
The journal welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.
Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, warrant it
is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.
Originality
The submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is an original work. Upon
submission, the manuscript will be automatically checked for plagiarism. The journal utilizes
the iThenticate plagiarism screening service to determine both text overlap and manuscript
originality. More information on this service, and opportunities for authors to pre-screen theirwork, can be found at www.ithenticate.com. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, theauthors are considered to be in agreement with this screening. Materials that were previously
published in any language in another journal or online were considered secondary
publications and were not permitted. Note that non-peer-reviewed manuscripts posted topreprint servers are not considered secondary publications.
Preprints
To support the wide dissemination of research, the journal encourages authors to post theirresearch manuscripts on community-recognized preprint servers, either before or alongsidesubmission to the journal. This policy applies only to the original version of a manuscript that
describes primary research. Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response toreviewers’ comments, accepted for publication, or published in the journal should not be
posted on a preprint server. Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be postedon the preprint server.
Authors should retain copyright in their work when posting to a preprint server.
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Scooping
When assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the Editor will not be
influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on community-recognized preprint servers
after the date of submission to ACE (or after the date of posting on a preprint server, if themanuscript is submitted to the journal within 4 months).
Authorship
Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list.
Changes to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of
author names, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the
Editor.
Authors are encouraged to consider the ICMJE Recommendations on ‘Defining the Role ofAuthors and Contributors’. The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on four criteria:
making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition,
analysis or interpretation of data for the work; drafting the manuscript or reviewing it
critically for important intellectual content; approving the final version of the manuscript for
publication; and agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work. Any contributor
who has met all four criteria should be an author of the manuscript. Contributors who do notmeet all four criteria should not be authors of the manuscript but may be included in the
Acknowledgments section instead.
In consonance with the COPE's position statement and WAME's recommendations, ACE does
not allow Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models(LLM) to be listed as authors as those tools cannot meet the ICMJE's criteria for authorship.
Image integrity
Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to aminimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly
described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original
data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual
parts of an image. The Editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images fromthe authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or
retracted.
Reproducing copyrighted material
If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors
must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.
If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission
from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors
must cite the original work in their manuscript.
Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is firstsubmitted.
Availability of data and materials
Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public
repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company
details in their manuscript, as appropriate.
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Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Material, or bylinking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital
repositories (e.g., Dryad Digital Repository, figshare, J-STAGE Data). All data sets should bemade available in full to the Editors and reviewers during the peer review process, and must
be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors commit to preserving their data
sets for at least three years from the date of publication in the journal.
The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any
data, materials and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.
Animal/human research
All investigators should ensure that the planning and reporting of human research are inaccordance with the Helsinki Declaration (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medicalethics/declaration-of-helsinki/). For Original Articles, Study Protocols, and Short Reports,
authors must include a statement that the research was approved by the institutional review
board (IRB) of the authors’ affiliated institutions and the approval code issued by the IRB andthe name of the institution, which granted the approval. Those researchers who do not haveaccess to an ethics review committee should follow the principles outlined in the Declarationof Helsinki. Authors must also abide by any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions.
Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes theprocedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the
research and publication of the research. When the informed consent is waived due to areasonable reason (e.g. secondary use of anonymous data), the authors must include astatement about it in their manuscript.
Any data or information such as patient names, initials, hospital patient identification codes(patient IDs), specific dates, or any other information which may identify patients must not bepresented anywhere in the manuscript, including the Figures and Tables. All pictures should
focus on the affected areas only.
Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived fromanimals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines
approved by the authors’ institution(s), national standards or other relevant guidelines.
Specimen collection
Manuscripts describing the collection of archaeological, geological, paleontological or
wildlife specimens or samples should include detailed information on their provenance andcollection methods. Authors must include a statement in their manuscript describing therelevant ethics guidelines, local laws and collection permits under which the research was
conducted.
Clinical trial registration
The journal adheres to the ICMJE policy on Clinical Trials Registration, which recommends
that all clinical trials are registered in a public trials registry at or before the time of first
patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Manuscripts describing
clinical trials must include the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial
registry.
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ACE encourages the authors of manuscript which includes clinical trials to share their deidentified research data including, but not limited to raw data, processed data, software,algorithms, protocols, methods, materials, study protocol, statistical analysis plan, informed
consent form, clinical study report, analytic code.
As required by ICMJE, all manuscripts that report the results of clinical trial must include adata sharing statement with a link to the trial registration. The statement should include thefollowing information:
Available types of data,
Available documents (study protocol, statistical analysis plan, informed consent form, clinicalstudy report, or analytic code)
Available dates
With whom the data are available.
Types of analyses the authors are willing to share the data
Method of requesting the data.
The statement is published alongside their paper.
Reporting guidelines
The journal requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network’s Reporting Guidelines forhealth research. Authors must follow the appropriate guidelines for their specific study
design; examples include CONSORT for randomized trials (http://www.consortstatement.org/), STROBE for observational studies (http://strobe-statement.org/), PRISMA
for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (http://prisma-statement.org/), and STARD for
studies of diagnostic accuracy (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/).
Author competing interests and conflicts of interest
All authors are required to report all potential conflicts of interest within the last three years,
including specific financial interests, that are relevant to the subject of their manuscript.
Items that require disclosure include:• Employment, officers, advisors: 1 million yen or more per year
• Holding stocks and stock options: profit of 1 million yen or more per year, or holding
5% or more of the entire stock• Patent royalties: over 1 million yen per year
• Honoraria (e.g., for a lecture): 500,000 yen or more per year
• Promotional material costs (e.g., manuscript fees): 500,000 yen or more per year
• Research funding: 5 million yen or more per year
• Other (e.g., travel unrelated to research, gifts): 50,000 yen or more per year
Conflicts of interest must be described in the manuscript. In addition, authors should list all
funding sources for their work in the Sources of Funding section of their manuscript.
Confidentiality
The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting theirmanuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about
their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, Editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.
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Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Tools/Technologies
In consonance with the COPE’s position statement, WAME’s recommendations, andICMJE’s Recommendation, ACE does not allow AI-assisted tools/technologies such as
LLMs, chatbots, or image creators to be listed as author or co-author. As described in the
ICMJE, those tools cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of thework, thus they do not meet the ICMJE’s criteria for authorship listed above. The authors(humans) are fully responsible for any materials of the submitted work, including the use of
AI-assisted tools or technologies. AI should not be cited as authors. Authors (humans) arealso responsible for plagiarism including the in text and AI-produced images. Authors must
disclose, upon submission and in the Methods (or similar section), any use of AI-assisted
tools or technologies in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphicalelements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data.
Self-archiving (Green Open Access) policy
Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access, enables authors to deposit a copy of theirmanuscript in an online repository. ACE encourages authors of original research manuscripts
to upload their article to an institutional or public repository immediately after publication in
the journal.
Long-term digital archiving
J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including ACE, with Portico in a dark archive (seehttps://www.portico.org/publishers/jstage/). In the event that the material becomes
unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.
J-STAGE Data has long-term digital archiving and policy practices to ensure the ongoingavailability and access of any ACE-related material.

Peer Review Process
Editorial and peer review process
The journal uses single-blind peer review, which means that the names of the authors are
revealed to the reviewers, but the names of the reviewers are not known to the authors. Whena manuscript is submitted to a journal, the Editorial Office checks that it follows thesubmission guidelines, and if there are serious deficiencies, the Editorial Office reports themto the authors. When approved, the manuscript is assigned to the Editor in Chief, who
performs the initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are notdeemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. For the remaining manuscripts,
the Editor in Chief selects a handling editor who then selects two or three external reviewers.
In principle, more than one reviewer will assess the manuscript within 14 days, based on
ACE’s Role of Peer Review Checklist. Reviewers are selected on the basis of their expertise,
reputation, and previous experience as peer reviewers.
Upon receipt of the report from two reviewers, the handling editor makes the first decision on
the manuscript. If the decision is revision and resubmission of the manuscript, the authors will
have approximately one month to resubmit their revised manuscript.
Authors who are invited to revise their manuscript must note the following:

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Changes in the revised manuscript should be underlined.
Deletions of words and sentences from the manuscript should be noted in the response
letter and can be removed from the revised manuscript.
A cover letter is not required; only a response letter and the revised manuscript need tobe submitted.

The Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use hisor her own judgment to assess how closely the authors have followed the Editor’s and thereviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.
The Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor in Chief regarding the suitability ofthe manuscript for publication. The Editor in Chief is responsible for making the final
decision regarding each manuscript. The journal aims to reach a final decision on publication
within 10–12 weeks of submission for all articles.
The members of the Editorial Board act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers
and making suggestions to improve the journal.
Reviewer selection, timing, and suggestions
Reviewers are selected without regard to geography and need not belong to the journal’s
Editorial Board. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation,
recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal.
Reviewers are asked to submit their first review within 2 weeks of accepting the invitation toreview. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as
possible.
Reviewer reports
It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form.
However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting thereviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information, or recommendations
for publication.
Role of Peer Reviewers
Peer review is vital to the review process of ACE, and the journal’s guidelines for peer
reviewers are supplied below.
(1) Reviewers should provide educational peer reviews.

Some researchers, especially those with less experience, are still developing skills in the
preparation of scientific manuscripts. Peer reviewers of ACE submissions should provide
comments to the researchers that are constructive and educational and help the authors
improve their work. Valuable comments and advice from reviewers motivate researchers torevise their manuscripts and develop their writing skills.
Reviewer comments should be based on an impartial consideration of the facts, exclusive of
personal or professional bias. All comments should be based solely on the paper’s scientificmerit, originality, and quality of writing as well as on the relevance to ACE’s scope andmission, without regard to race, ethnic origin, sex, religion, or citizenship of the authors. If

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you determine that you have a bias during the review of the paper, please contact the editor
immediately.
Please note any suspicious evidence of the ethical misconducts and bring it to the attention of
the editor immediately.
(2) Reviewers should be objective in their evaluation.

In general, the role of reviewers is to evaluate the accuracy of the manuscript’s description of
the research, validity of the methods, results, discussion, and novelty and originality of theresearch.
Reviewers are requested to consider the questions below when preparing their review.
Originality

Does the manuscript report original research or outcomes and/or valid new interpretations?
Does it contain sufficient new content to add to what is already known?
Importance of the paper

To whom would this manuscript be important? (patients, clinicians, researchers, government
agency workers, etc.)
Would the manuscript influence decision-making in the field and could it catalyze newresearch?
Scientific rationale

Is the research question straightforward and well answered?
Has the content and methodology been sufficiently explored to answer the research question?
Methods

Are the methods clearly described and based on reporting requirements, such as those of
STROBE?
Are there any ambiguous statements or exclusionary criteria?
Are the study methods reproducible?
Results

Is the description of the results sufficient to answer the research question?
Are there any redundancies in the text?
Interpretation, Conclusion

Are the results consistent with existing evidence?
Are the conclusions based solely on the results, or are they overly speculative or exaggerated?
Limitations of the study

Does the study have any limitations that may affect the results sufficiently described?
Are any limitations that may not affect the results sufficiently described?

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Abstract

Is the abstract accurate and precise?
Can the main objectives, methods, results, and interpretation of the manuscript be fully
understood from the abstract?
Acceptance criteria
If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements, the Editor may recommend acceptance forpublication in the journal. The journal’s requirements are that manuscripts are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

technically and ethically rigorous
original
within the subject scopecompliant with the requirements as otherwise described in this Guide for Authors.

ACE publishes original articles that report so-called negative results (i.e., statistically nonsignificant results for the primary outcome) when their objectives and methodology areappropriate, the results are explicitly described, and the discussion is based on the results.
Many journals tend to reject articles with negative results and most articles with negative
results go unpublished, potentially resulting in publication bias. ACE believes that preventing
publication bias will ultimately improve the development of academic research.
If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor
may recommend rejection.
Confidentiality in peer review
The journal adheres to Committee on Publication Ethics’ Ethical Guidelines for Peer
Reviewers and maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors andreviewers will not:1. disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for suchdisclosure
2. discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with themanuscript or its peer review
3. use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
4. use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage tothemselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.
5. upload the manuscript to software or any AI-assisted tools or technologies. It is
required to disclose to the Editorial Office if any AI-assisted tools or technologies areused to facilitate the review.
In addition, reviewers will not reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript or
involve anyone else in the review (for example, a post-doc or PhD student).
Conflicts of interest in peer review
A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that
could influence an Editor’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Suchcircumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author,
working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake inthe work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.
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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
Members of the journal’s Editorial Board and reviewers undertake or are asked to declare any
conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An Editor or reviewer who declares a conflictof interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new Editor orreviewer.
Editors try to avoid conflicts of interest when inviting reviewers, but it is not always possible
to identify potential bias.
Editorial independence
The SCE has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all
editorial decisions. The SCE will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in casesof a fundamental breakdown of the process.
Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely
separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges
has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.
In addition, the Editorial Board follows the recommended procedures outlined by the COPE
International Standards for responsible research publication for authors and editors when
dealing with allegations of misconduct.
Any identified misconducts are subject to investigation by the Editorial Board of the journal.
All misconducts and breach of publication ethics, irrespective of its level, may result in
retraction, publication of formal notice of the misconduct, and formal embargo on futurecontribution to ACE.
Definitions of Publication Misconduct
Please see definitions of publication misconduct here.
Handling Allegations of Misconduct
ACE follows the COPE guidelines and flowcharts for handling allegations of publishing
misconduct pre- and post-publication. For any information that is not mentioned in the COPE
guidelines, please refer to COPE’s flowcharts.
Procedure for Handling Allegations of Misconduct in Submitted Manuscripts:
When editors, reviewers, authors and/or journal staff suspect any instances of ethicalmisconduct during peer review, they should bring them to the attention of the Editor in Chief.
The manuscript will be placed on hold. The Editor in Chief will review the case and make thepreliminary assessment. If the Editor in Chief finds that an explanation from the authors isnecessary, the Editor in Chief will send the corresponding author a notification, which points
out the allegation and requests an explanation.
If the corresponding author does not respond and/or provide sufficient rationale for the raised
concern, or the Editor in Chief is presented with evidence that establishes the ethical breach,regardless of the severity, the Editor in Chief will refer the case to the Editorial Board, which
discusses the allegations, explanations, evidence, possible sanctions, and corrective actions,such as publishing an erratum, expression of concern, or retraction. Possible sanctions may
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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors-official warning to the author-immediate rejection of the manuscript-publication of formal notice of misconduct-formal notice to an author’s institution-formal embargo on future contributions to ACE.
Appeals:
Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal
with the Editorial Board. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidenceof a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or Editor. Appeals are considered carefully by
the Editor in Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the COPE are followed where
and when relevant. For procedures, please refer to the COPE Best Practice Guidelines indealing with complains and appeals.
Errata, expressions of concern and retractions
In order to ensure that retractions, erratum and expressions of concern are handled according
to industry best practice, ACE follows the Retraction Guidelines, provided by COPE.
The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.
A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an
Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication,
the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a publishedarticle should contact the Editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with fulldetails of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over acorrection, the Editor in Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers foradvice. If an Erratum is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
An expression of concern will be issued if the investigation of an issue concerning apublished article raised suspicion but does not provide conclusive evidence, and yet the Editor
in Chief feels the article contains invalid results or has strong concerns that readers should bemade aware of potentially misleading information contained in the article. Also, an expressionof concern may be issued if the investigation requires a considerable amount of time to reacha resolution.
A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been
published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication
ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted
are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The
Editor in Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for
their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor in Chief may
consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published,
any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
The decision to publish Errata, Expressions of Concern or Retractions is made at the sole
discretion of the Editor in Chief.
Editors as authors in the journal

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board, including the Editor in Chief, who is an author
on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process and from viewing details
about their manuscript. Additionally, ScholarOne, the journal’s online submission and peer
review system is designed to anonymize a person in other roles (editor/reviewer) from any
paper he/she has authored. The manuscript submitted by editors of ACE should include astatement that declares their personal conflict of interest with the journal.
A manuscript authored by an Editor of the journal is subject to the same high standards ofpeer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript considered by the journal.
Responding to potential ethical breaches
The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and,
where possible, the guidelines of COPE.

Copyright, Open Access and Fees
ACE is fully Open Access and uses a Creative Commons (CC) license, which allows users toreuse the material published in the journal without charge or the need to ask prior permission
from the publisher or author, as detailed below.
Copyright and licensing
Authors are required to assign all copyrights in the work to the SCE, who then publishes thework under a CC license, as detailed below. Further details are available in the CopyrightTransfer Form, which authors must sign and return via e-mail to the journal’s Editorial
Office.
Articles in the journal are published under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. This license
allows users to share unmodified articles, non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit isgiven.
Some funding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific CC
license. Before submitting your work to the journal, check with the relevant funding bodies toensure that you comply with any mandates.
Article Processing Charge
There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those ofmanaging peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs inthe absence of journal subscriptions, authors of accepted articles (or their representatives) are
asked to pay article processing charges (APCs). There is no submission fee.
The journal charges an APC of 100,000 Japanese yen (not including any relevant taxes) for all
article types except for invited reviews. If the first author or the corresponding author of themanuscript is a member of the Society for Clinical Epidemiology, the journal charges an APC
of 50,000 Japanese yen (not including any relevant taxes). Authors of accepted manuscripts
will be invoiced for the APC before the publication of their manuscript.
Waiver policy

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
Waivers of APCs are provided automatically when the corresponding author is from a GroupA Research4Life country. In cases of demonstrated financial hardship, the journal willconsider a pre-submission application for an APC waiver from any corresponding author
made to the Editorial Office. Applications cannot be made after the peer review process has
begun.
The ability of an author to pay the APC does not influence editorial decisions. To avoid any
possibility of undue influence, Editors involved with the decision-making process for articles
are not involved in any deliberations on waivers.

Manuscript Preparation
For Original Articles and Review Articles, the article’s subject area (and corresponding
subject number) must be specified in our submission system, per the list below. When there
are multiple relevant areas, two or more areas may be specified.
1 Internal Medicine
2 Pediatrics
3 Dermatology
4 Psychiatry
5 Surgery
6 Orthopedic
Surgery

7

Obstetrics and
13 Anesthesiology
Gynecology
8 Ophthalmology 14 Pathology
9 Otolaryngology 15 Clinical Examination
Medicine
10 Urology
16 Emergency Medicine
11 Neurosurgery
17 Plastic Surgery
12 Radiology
18 Rehabilitation
Medicine

19 Nursing
20 Nursing care
21 Dentistry
22 Pharmacy
23 Other

Style
Manuscripts should be prepared using the recent version of Microsoft Word. The manuscript
text should be double-spaced in 12 pt Times New Roman or Arial font.
All pages in each Word file should be numbered at the top right corner, and each line
numbered consecutively in the left margin of the page.
Medicines should be described using their generic names.
English standards
Manuscripts must be written in clear English. Authors can select either American or British
English, but the selected English must be used consistently. Authors whose primary language
is not English must have their manuscripts edited for English by a qualified editor or an
editing service prior to submission; a certificate of English editing of the submitted version of
the manuscript must be uploaded as ‘Certificate of English Proofreading’. If a manuscript is
not clear due to poor English expression, it may be rejected without undergoing peer review.
Cover LetterA cover letter must be submitted which includes:••a brief description of the aims and outcomes of the work and how and why the work is
appropriate for publicationa declaration that the article is not a duplicate publication

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
The cover letter should also include any other relevant information, such as applications for
APC waivers.
FormatOriginal Articles, Review Articles, Study Protocol and Seminars should be arranged in thefollowing order: (i) Title page; (ii) Abstract; (iii) Main text; (iv) Conflicts of Interest; (v)Sources of Funding; (vi) Acknowledgments; (vii) References; and (viii) Figure legends.
Short Reports and Letters to the Editor should be arranged in the following order: (i) Title
page; (ii) Main text; (iii) Conflicts of Interest; (iv) Sources of Funding; (v)Acknowledgments; (vi) References; and (vii) Figure legends.
Title pageThe title page should be prepared separately from the main document and must include thefollowing:• A concise and informative title (maximum of 200 characters, including letters andspaces)• A running title (maximum of 60 characters)• Name(s), academic degree(s), and affiliation(s), including the city and/or country
name of the author(s)• Corresponding author’s name, affiliation, address including city and/or country name,telephone number, and e-mail address• Type of contribution of the authors• Three-to-five keywords that can be used for indexing purposes
Abbreviations
Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated termwhen it first appears in the text. Do not use abbreviations in the Title. The use of
abbreviations is strongly discouraged in the Abstract. Any abbreviations used in the Abstract
must be defined. Abbreviations should be used only if they appear five or more times in themain text, with some exceptions (e.g., abbreviations for proper nouns, abbreviations forclinical trials, etc.).
Units, numbers and measurements
Use Arabic numerals for numbers, and separate sequences of three digits with a comma (,).
Measurements should be reported in metric units (e.g., meter, kilogram, liter) or their decimal
multiples.
For units used in hematology, clinical chemistry, and other fields, authors should reportlaboratory information using units of measurement following internationally accepted rules
and conventions or the International System of Units (SI). The abbreviation for liter should becapitalized (“L”) in the text and in tables and figures (e.g., g/dL, mg/dL, IU/L, mg/dL,
mEq/L).
Abstract

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
The abstract should be structured, except for Seminars. For Original Articles and Reviews,
divide the text into four paragraphs with the following subheadings: Background, Methods,
Results, and Conclusions. For Study Protocols, divide the text into three paragraphs with thefollowing subheadings: Background, Methods, and Conclusions. Word limits for the Abstract
are provided in ‘Manuscript Types’.
Main text
For Original Articles and Short Reports, the main body of the article should be divided into
the following sections: Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Conflicts ofinterest, Sources of Funding, Acknowledgments, and References.
For Review Articles, Letters to the Editor, and Seminars, use a free format with clear
headings and structure.
For Study Protocols, the main body of the article should be divided into the following
sections: Introduction, Methods, and Discussion. Other headings may be added as
appropriate.
For all article types, Conflicts of Interest, Sources of Funding and Acknowledgments (ifappropriate) should be included after the main text.
Conflicts of Interest Statement
Authors must include a Conflicts of Interest statement, as per the guidelines in ‘Author
competing interests and conflicts of interest’ section.
If there are no conflicts of interest, the authors should declare this; e.g., “The authors declareno conflicts of interest in relation to the work presented in the manuscript.”
Sources of Funding
Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Sources of Funding section.
Acknowledgments
This section should be brief. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be
authors of the manuscript but may be included in the Acknowledgments section.
References
ACE uses a modified Vancouver referencing style. References should be listed in the ordercited in the text and numbered accordingly using Arabic numbers. In the text, citations shouldrefer to the appropriate reference numbers as superscripts (e.g., 6-8), 22)). The citations should
appear outside the punctuation.
References to journal articles should be written in the following order: name(s) of author(s),article title, name of the journal in italic typeface, year of publication, volume number, andpage numbers (the numbers of the first and last pages). This style is in accordance with the
AMA Manual of Style (https://www.amamanualofstyle.com/).
Yasunaga H, Horiguchi H, Kuwabara K, et al. Outcomes after laparoscopic or open distal
gastrectomy for early-stage gastric cancer. Ann Surg. 2013;257:640–646.

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
References to books should be written as follows: authors, title, place of publication,
publisher, year of publication, and page numbers cited.
Fletcher RH, Fletcher SW, Fletcher DS. Clinical Epidemiology: The Essentials. 5th
Edition. Philadelphia, US: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2012:11–28.
References to online documents should be written as follows: authors, title, URL, date ofaccess.
World Health Organization. International Classification of Diseases.
http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/, Accessed 2018 Aug 13.
List all authors/editors up to six; if there are more than six authors/editors, list the first threefollowed by “et al.”The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus(NLM Catalog; journals referenced in the NCBI Databases).
If the reference is not written in English, “Article in language” should be appended at the endof the title, and the original name of the journal should be provided.
Including AI-generated material as the primary source in the reference is not allowed.
Figures/ Tables
Do not embed Figures/ Tables in the text. Please submit them separately from the text.
Figures and Tables must be cited in the text and numbered in the order they are cited.
FiguresFigures need to be of sufficiently high resolution for print reproduction. Note that ‘figures’
include line drawings and photographs, as well as charts. Magnifications of photographs
should be indicated in the legends and/or by scales included in the photographs. Illustrations
must be self-explanatory and they should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals(i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). When sub-classification is required, use the lowercase alphabet
following Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1a, Table 3c).
Images should be provided in TIFF, GIF, PNG, JPG, or JPEG format. Color images must be
CMYK. Images (grayscale and color) should be at least 350 dpi.
Each figure should have a short title. Figure legends should be typed together in a separate
sheet(s). Figure legends should include sufficient experimental details to make the figures
intelligible; however, duplicating the descriptions provided in other sections should be
avoided.
TablesNumber tables consecutively using Arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1, Table 2) and include them.
A title should be given to each table. Explanatory material and footnotes should be typed
below the table and should be designated with superscript letters (e.g., a) or b)). Units ofmeasurement should be included with numerical values at the top of columns. Avoid the useof vertical lines or borders. Tables should be used only when they can present the information

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
more efficiently than could be accomplished in the running text. Readers should be able tointerpret the tables without reference to the main text.
Supplementary Material
Supplementary Material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of amanuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit Supplementary Material for online-only
publication. Supplementary Material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and ispublished on J-STAGE Data (https://jstagedata.jst.go.jp/) with its own DOI and linked to the
published manuscript.
As Supplementary Material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as partof their manuscript submission as ‘Supplementary material’. After a manuscript has been
accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the Supplementary Material.

Online Manuscript Submission
Manuscripts may only be submitted electronically via the journal’s ScholarOne system:
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ace
All files must be submitted in the following order: 1) Title Page, 2) Main Document, 3)
Tables, and Figures, 4) Supplementary Materials. The total size of the uploaded files should
be within 20 MB.
All authors will receive an e-mail confirming receipt of their manuscript files.

Accepted Manuscripts
Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited and typeset by the journal’s production
team before publication. The journal has been published four times per year. All
communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.
Proofs
ACE provides authors of accepted manuscripts the opportunity to proofread their article
before publication. Only one round of proofs is sent to the corresponding author.
The author should correct only typographical errors at the proofreading stage. After
publication, further changes, or corrections, can only be made in the form of an Erratum
which will be hyperlinked to the original article.

Contact
Editorial Officec/o Kyorinsha Co., Ltd.
3-46-10, Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo, 114-0024, Japan
E-mail: ace@kyorinsha.com
Editor in Chief
Hideo Yasunaga, MD, PhD

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Annals of Clinical Epidemiology Guide for Authors
Professor, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics,
The University of TokyoJapan
REVISION HISTORYFirst edition: April 1, 2019
First revision: October 6, 2020
Second revision: April 20, 2021
Third revision: January 7, 2022
Fourth revision: September 14, 2022
Fifth revision: July 1, 2024
Sixth revision: July 17, 2024
Seventh revision: August 30, 2024

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