Down Syndrome Research and Practice
Submissions Requirements

All submissions to Down Syndrome Research and Practice should meet the following requirements.

Cover letter

Please include a cover letter explaining why the manuscript is suitable for publication in Down Syndrome Research and Practice.

Prior publication

All authors are asked to indicate that they have not submitted a similar manuscript for publication elsewhere. If related work has been submitted elsewhere, then a copy must be included with the article submitted to Down Syndrome Research and Practice.

Listed authors

All authors must consent to the submission of the manuscript. All authors will be contacted to confirm their approval. The involvement of any professional medical writer in publication must be declared (see the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines [PDF] on the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications). Please refer to section II.A. of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication for guidance about recognising authorship.

Confirmation of ethics approval

All research involving humans and animals must have been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee, and that board must be named by the authors. In the case of human participants, informed consent must have been obtained, and all clinical investigation must have been conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors should submit a statement from the ethics committee or institutional review board indicating approval of the research.

Informed consent to research

We encourage authors to submit a sample of their participant consent form and may sometimes require a copy. Authors must confirm that informed consent was properly obtained from participants.

For further information, see sections 20-27 of the Declaration of Helsinki and section 8.02 of the APA's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.

Patient privacy and informed consent for publication

Please refer to section II.E. of the Uniform Requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, and informed consent for publication should be obtained if there is any doubt. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the published article.

Competing interests

All authors will be asked to declare whether they have any financial, personal or professional interests that could be construed to have influenced their paper. Reviewers are also asked to declare any interests that might interfere with their objective assessment of a manuscript. Any relevant competing interests of authors must be available to editors and reviewers during the review process and will be stated in published articles.

Epidemiological Studies

Reports of epidemiological studies should use the STROBE initiative as a guide.

Registration of clinical trials

Down Syndrome Research and Practice supports the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on trial registration. All trials initiated after 1 July 2005 must be registered prospectively in a publicly accessible registry (i.e., before patient recruitment has begun), or they will not be considered for publication. For trials initiated before 1 July 2005, all trials must be registered before submission. The trial's registration number must be provided at the time of submission. See the ICMJE's Frequently Asked Questions [PDF] for further information.

CONSORT reporting guidelines for clinical trials

For reports of clinical trials, authors must submit original protocols as supporting information to allow editors and reviewers to assess manuscripts fully. Any deviation from the protocol must be explained. Authors of clinical trials must adhere to the CONSORT reporting guidelines appropriate to their trial design. All reports of the results of randomised clinical trials should include the CONSORT flow diagram, and authors should complete and submit the checklist contained within the CONSORT statement.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials

Reports of meta-analyses of randomized controlled studies should use the QUOROM statement as a guide, and should include a copy of the QUOROM checklist [PDF].