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(Revised January 2002)
Consult the online version of the "Guide for Authors" at http://submit.nutrition.org for additional information and future updates.
GENERAL
Manuscripts for The Journal of Nutrition must be based on original, unpublished research and will be peer reviewed. Submission implies that the data have not been published (other than in abstracts), are not under consideration by another journal, and will not be released before publication.
Regional correspondents, whose role is to assist authors outside the United States, are listed with the editorial staff at the front of The Journal. If requested by authors, they will review manuscripts for appropriateness, scientific merit, methodology, form, and use of English. Acceptance for publication will be subsequently determined by the usual peer review and editorial processes.
The Journal publishes receipt date, date of completion of the initial review, and date of acceptance of the revised manuscript for each research article. Manuscripts not revised and returned within 120 days will be treated as new submissions. The date of acceptance will be the date when all requested revisions have been returned to the editorial office.
TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS
Research articles.
Reports of original research of interest to the general community of nutritional scientists will be published as research articles. Studies of the biochemical and molecular action of nutrients, nutrient-gene interaction, nutrient metabolism, nutrient requirements, interactions and toxicity, human nutrition and metabolism, community and international nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, nutritional neurosciences, nutrition development and aging, and methodological developments will be considered.
Research communications.
Manuscripts that concisely describe the results of studies that are complete but limited in scope will be published as research communications. These manuscripts will be limited to four Journal pages and will have a special format. Guidelines for the preparation of research communications are included in the "Instructions for Authors" at http://submit.nutrition.org.
Reviews.
Most reviews published in The Journal of Nutrition will be part of a series entitled "Recent Advances in Nutritional Sciences" in response to invitations by the editor. These reviews will be published in a four-page format and will provide a recent rather than historical review of the subject matter. More comprehensive reviews and commentaries will be published as "critical reviews."
Issues and opinions.
Short essays presenting scientific viewpoints on issues in nutrition and limited to three Journal pages may be submitted.
Letters to the editor.
Comments on recently published Journal of Nutrition articles and other issues will be considered. Both the letter and the reply, including references, are limited to one Journal page and will be reviewed prior to acceptance.
Biographies and historical perspectives.
These manuscripts are invited by the biographical or historical editor. Suggestions of subjects and authors are welcomed by the editor.
Commentaries.
Commentaries relative to publications containing noteworthy findings will be published at the invitation of the editor.
Other.
Extensive reports of research, monographs, compendia, proceedings of symposia, etc., will be reviewed and considered for publication in The Journal or as a separately bound supplement. Initial contact and arrangements to cover the cost of publication should be made with the American Society for Nutritional Sciences (ASNS) headquarters.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
Effective January 1, 2002, manuscript submissions to The Journal of Nutrition should be made using the online submission system at http://submit.nutrition.org. Detailed instructions on the submission procedure are available online in the "Instructions for Authors" (http://submit.nutrition.org) and in Help files throughout the manuscript submission system. If you experience problems, contact The Journal of Nutrition manuscript office: jnsubmit@asns.faseb.org or use the "Feedback" tab in the manuscript submission system.
Users are required to register when accessing the online submission system for the first time. To submit a manuscript, enter the Author Area and select the "Submit a new manuscript" hyperlink. You will be presented with a series of fields for entering your manuscript metadata and letter of submission and will then be asked to upload manuscript files. Preferred formats for manuscript text files are Word and WordPerfect. Figures can be embedded within the manuscript file or submitted as separate files. Preferred formats for image files are GIF, TIFF, EPS and JPEG. If images are not embedded, each figure should be submitted in a separate file.
If you are unable to access the online submission system, you may send your submission to The Journal of Nutrition Manuscripts Office. Include one print copy of the manuscript and figures, a letter of submission, a copyright release form and a diskette containing electronic files for the manuscript, figures (each in a separate file if not embedded in manuscript file) and the letter of submission. Submissions must include electronic files for the manuscript and the letter of submission. If you are unable to submit electronic files for figures, submit hard copies according to the guidelines provided in the "Tables and Figures" section. Send submissions to: Manuscripts Editor, The Journal of Nutrition, American Society for Nutritional Sciences, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3990. Tel: 301-530-7052; Fax: 301-571-1892.
The letter of submission should include a statement that the paper has been read and approved by all authors, information about previous or concurrent publication of any part of the work, and a statement of all financial or other contractual agreements that may cause conflicts of interest. All sources of financial support should also be included in the manuscript as a footnote to the title. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from any person mentioned in a personal communication or acknowledgment. Authors can request that their paper receive "accelerated handling" to expedite review and publication, but this process is at the discretion of the editor.
As publisher of The Journal of Nutrition, the ASNS holds the copyright on all Journal articles. The 1978 copyright law requires that specific copyright transfer be obtained from all authors of each manuscript. Transfer of copyright forms that can be photocopied are printed in the January issue of The Journal and are available online in the "Instructions for Authors" (http://submit.nutrition.org). An original signature is required from each author. Copies of the completed form may be signed by each author independently, if necessary. All signed transfer of copyright forms should be mailed or faxed to The Journal of Nutrition Manuscripts Office when manuscripts are submitted.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Papers should be completely double-spaced with numbered lines and submitted in the format indicated below. Authors should consider papers published in recent issues of The Journal of Nutrition as models and should consult the CBE Style Manual (1). Specific items to include in manuscripts are:
Title page.
Include a title which is a declarative statement of key findings and which includes the species studied. Include footnotes disclosing all sources of financial support and previous presentation of the data. List all authors (first name, middle initial, last name) and include their departmental and institutional addresses. Indicate which authors are associated with which institutions by footnotes. Identify a corresponding author and provide a complete mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address. Provide a running title of 
48 characters.
Abstract page.
The abstract must be a single paragraph of no more than 250 words summarizing the relevant problem addressed by the study and the theory or hypothesis that guided the research. The abstract should include the study design/methodology and a clear statement of the results and conclusions. Three to five key words for indexing purposes must be listed at the end of the abstract.
Introduction.
Background to the research conducted and specific objectives should be clearly indicated. This should not be an extensive review of the literature.
Materials and methods.
Documentation of methods and materials used should be sufficient to permit replication of the research. State the source of specialized materials, diets, chemicals, and instruments and other equipment, with model or catalog numbers, where appropriate. Specify kits, analyzers, and commercial laboratories used. Describe modifications of standard assays. Include the name, city, and state (if U.S.) or country of the supplier parenthetically in the text.
Human and animal research.
Reports of human studies must include a statement that the protocol was approved by the appropriate institutional committee or that it complied with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 1983. When preparing reports of randomized clinical trials, authors should refer to the checklist published in the CONSORT Statement and should include a trial profile summarizing participant flow (2
). Research on animals should include a statement that the protocol was approved by the appropriate committee or complied with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (3
). Describe how animals were killed. Describe control and experimental subjects giving age, weight, sex, race, and for animals, breed or strain. Give the name, city, and state or country of the suppliers of experimental animals.
Diets.
Composition of control and experimental diets must be presented. When a diet composition is published for the first time in The Journal of Nutrition, utilize a table or a footnote to provide complete information on all components. If previously described in The Journal, a literature citation may be used. The proximate composition of closed formula diets should be given as amounts of protein, energy, fat, and fiber. Components should be expressed as g/kg diet or µmol/kg diet rather than as percentages. For a discussion of the formulation of purified animal diets, refer to Baker (4
) and to a series of ASNS publications (5
–8
).
Statistical methods.
Describe all statistical tests utilized and indicate the probability level (P) at which differences were considered significant. Indicate whether data were transformed before analysis. Specify any statistical computer programs used.
Present the results of the statistical analysis of data in the body of tables and figures or use superscripts to indicate significant differences and define the superscripts in a table footnote or figure legend. Provide the appropriate statistics of variability. An estimate of the error variance (SD or SEM) of group means should be displayed in figures. Standard ANOVA methodology assumes a homogeneous variance. If error variance is tested and found to be heterogeneous, data should be transformed before ANOVA, or nonparametric tests should be used. For a discussion of variability calculations and curve-fitting procedures, see Baker (9
).
Units of measure.
Most measurements should conform to le Système Internationale d’Unités (SI) (10). The metric system and the Celsius scale (°C) must be used. Concentrations should be expressed on a molar basis. Except for diet composition, convert to substance concentration, e.g., mol/L. The denominator should be L. Do not use M, mM, N, etc. Use one of three acceptable options to express measurements: (a) Use SI units exclusively; or (b) Use SI units and provide conventional units parenthetically in the text and give conversion factors in table footnotes and figure legends; or (c) Use conventional units and provide SI units parenthetically in the text and give conversion factors in table footnotes and figure legends.
Nomenclature.
Chemical and biochemical terms and abbreviations and identification of enzymes must conform to the recommended usage of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (11
). Names for vitamins, related compounds, and abbreviations for amino acids should follow the ASNS nomenclature policy (12
,13
).
Abbreviations.
Use only standard abbreviations [see (1) and current issues of The Journal]. If others are used, define each the first time it is used in the text and prepare an abbreviation footnote. The footnote should be associated with the first abbreviated term in the text and should be an alphabetized listing of all author-defined abbreviations and their definitions. Units of time should be abbreviated as: s, min, h, d, wk, and y; units of length as: nm, µm, mm, cm, m; and units of mass as: Da, µg, mg, g, kg. Radioactivity should be expressed as becquerels (disintegration per second) or as dpm. Standard abbreviations for SI prefixes and other units can be found in Young (10
). Abbreviations and unit symbols should not be followed by a period or pluralized.
Acknowledgments.
Technical assistance and advice may be acknowledged in a section at the end of the text.
Literature cited.
There is no limit on the number of citations allowed; recent literature should be comprehensively cited. The list of references must begin on a new page. Personal communications and unpublished data cannot be included in the Literature Cited section but should appear parenthetically in the text. Personal communications must be written and the affiliation of the person providing the communication indicated in the text. Articles accepted for publication but not published when final revisions are completed on the current article may be cited as "in press." Abbreviate journal names according to BioSciences Information Service (14
). References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends for illustrations by arabic numerals in parentheses. References in tables and legends should be numbered consecutively according to position of cite in the text. Do not use "et al." but include all authors’ names for every article. See current issues of The Journal for style. Internet sources should include the author/editor (if any), title of page, page publisher, url (protocol:site/path/file) and access date. Example: Carotenoids. American Society for Nutritional Sciences. http://www.nutrition.org/nutinfo/content/caro.shtml 1999 (accessed Sept. 5, 2000).
TABLES, FIGURES, AND AUXILIARY PUBLICATION
Tables and figures.
See current issues of The Journal for style.
Each table (one per page) should have a title that concisely describes the contents. Information concerning methods or explanatory material should be in a footnote to the table rather than in the title. Units of measure should be clearly indicated above the first value in each column or centered over all columns to which the unit applies. Statistics of variability (e.g., SD, pooled SEM) and the significance of differences among the data should be shown.
Tables should be sequentially cited in the text, and the first reference to each table should be in bold face. References cited in tables should be included in the Literature Cited section.
All figures will be reproduced at one-column width (9 cm) unless the complexity of the figure demands a two-column width (18.5 cm). Please consult the online "Instructions for Authors" at http://submit.nutrition.org for information concerning acceptable formats for electronic figure files. If figures must be submitted as hard copy, submit figures in their smallest legible size to facilitate publication. Affix a label to the back of each figure with the manuscript title, author’s name, and figure number, and clearly indicate the top.
Legends for all figures in the manuscript should be compiled and typed double-spaced on a separate page and not on the figures themselves. Color reproduction costs will be charged to the author. Titles should be in the legend and not on the figures. Each legend should contain enough detail, including statistics, to ensure that the figure is interpretable without reference to the text.
Tables or figures adapted or reproduced from another source must acknowledge that source in a footnote and be accompanied by written proof that the copyright bearer has granted permission for use of the table or figure.
Auxiliary publication.
Unusually lengthy descriptions of experimental procedures, extensive data, extra figures, etc. may be deposited with the American Society for Information Science, National Auxiliary Publications Service (NAPS). Information on submitting this material can be obtained from the ASNS office (9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814. Tel: 301-530-7053; Fax: 301-571-1892; email: jnutrition@asns.faseb.org) or in the "Instructions for Authors" at http://submit.nutrition.org. A footnote in the publication will give information on the availability of photoprint or microfiche copies at moderate cost.
CHARGES TO AUTHORS
Authors will be billed for the following items: color reproduction costs ($400/figure), author alterations to manuscript proofs, reprints, and page charges at $60/page. Page charges may be waived by ASNS for acceptable reasons such as the lack of funding from grant or institutional sources as verified by an institutional official. Requests for waivers will not affect review of manuscript or delay publication.
A reprint order form with rate list will be sent with author proofs. Reprints are prepared only when ordered by authors and are printed when The Journal is printed. If authors order at least 100 reprints and their supply subsequently becomes exhausted, they may request permission to reproduce a specific limited number of additional reprints.
LITERATURE CITED
1. Huth, E. J. eds. Scientific Style and Format, The CBE Style Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 6th ed. 1994 Council of Biology Editors Chicago, IL. .
2. for the CONSORT GroupMoher, D., Schulz, K. F. & Altman, E. G. (2001) The CONSORT Statement: revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomized trials. Lancet 357:1191-1194.[Medline]
3. National Research Council (1985) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Publication no. 85-23 (rev.), NIH, Washington, DC. .
4. Baker, D. H. (1987) Construction of assay diets for sulphur-containing amino acids. Methods Enzymol 143:297-307.[Medline]
5. American Institute of Nutrition (1977) Report of the American Institute of Nutrition ad hoc committee on standards for nutritional studies. J. Nutr. 107:1340-1348.
6. American Institute of Nutrition (1980) Second report of the ad hoc committee on standards for nutritional studies. J. Nutr. 110:1726.
7. American Institute of Nutrition (1987a) Guidelines for describing diets for experimental animals. J. Nutr. 117:16-17.
8. American Institute of Nutrition (1993) AIN-93 purified diets for laboratory rodents: final report of the American Institute of Nutrition ad hoc writing committee on the reformulation of the AIN-76A rodent diet. J. Nutr. 123:1939-1951.
9. Baker, D. H. (1986) Problems and pitfalls in animal experiments designed to establish dietary requirements for essential nutrients. J. Nutr. 116:2339-2349.
10. Young, D. S. (1987) Implementation of SI units for clinical laboratory data, style specifications and conversion tables. Ann. Intern. Med. 106:114-129Reprinted, J. Nutr. 1990, 120: 20–35..
11. International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1992) Enzyme Nomenclature, Recommendations 1992 1992 Academic Press Orlando, FL .
12. American Institute of Nutrition (1987b) Nomenclature policy: abbreviated designations of amino acids. J. Nutr. 117:15.
13. American Institute of Nutrition (1990) Nomenclature policy: generic descriptions and trivial names for vitamins and related compounds. J. Nutr. 120:12-19.
14. BioSciences Information Service (1994) Serial Sources for the BIOSIS Previews Database 1994 BIOSIS Philadelphia, PA. .
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