Standing and new policies and procedures for Arthritis Care & Research

● Clinical research. An international consortium of medical journal editors is now requiring that clinical trials be registered in a public database, of which several are available around the world. ACR53:484–7). Upon electronic submission of manuscripts to AC&R, authors will be asked to mark a check box indicating whether the submitted work has been registered as required. Manuscripts reporting data from trials that have not been registered will not be reviewed. ● Institutional Review Board (IRB) certification. Manuscripts describing studies involving human subjects must have been approved by local IRBs or other appropriate ethical review boards. Upon electronic submission of manuscripts to AC&R, authors will be asked to mark a check box indicating whether the submitted work has been so approved. Manuscripts reporting data from studies that have not been approved will not be reviewed. ● Open Access. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) now requests that authors of reports funded in whole or part by the NIH deposit these reports within 1 year of publication into an open public database (PubMedCentral). Details regarding this NIH policy are available at http://nihms.nih.gov/. John Wiley & Sons, the publisher of AC&R, is working closely with NIH to develop a process for depositing this content on behalf of authors when the NIH system is fully operational, with the understanding that the NIH will not make these articles open until 12 months after publication in the journal. AC&R, through its Web site for electronic submission of manuscripts, will ask authors to mark a check box indicating whether the submitted work has received NIH support (intramural or extramural, grant, cooperative agreement, or contract). ● E-pub ahead of print. Currently AC&R is able to publish manuscripts less than 6 months after acceptance, and to provide them as electronic publication (e-pub) ahead of print 10–14 days before the print publication date. Since provision of electronic availability earlier than this would require release of unedited and unpaginated documents,AC&R intends to continue its current policy. All electronic content of the journal is available to Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP)/ACR members at no charge. Issues dating back to 1999 are currently available at http://www.rheumatology.org/ publications/acr/index.asp?aud mem. All post-1998 content of AC&R is now being made openly accessible to nonsubscribers/nonmembers at no charge, 1 year after publication. In addition, all “backfile” content of AC&R, dating back to volume 1 (1988), has been added and is accessible electronically at no charge to members and on a pay-per-view basis to others. ● Obituaries. AC&R will continue to publish obituaries of past officers of ARHP and Editors of AC&R. ● Duplicate submission. All journals, including AC&R, require that manuscripts submitted for consideration are not under simultaneous consideration at any other journal and are not duplicative of other published work. The Editors reemphasize this policy. Manuscripts found to be in violation of this policy will be summarily rejected.