Information for Authors

Submission of Manuscripts

Authors should submit manuscripts electronically (.doc or .docx) to ajgg@ajgg.org.
Before submission, please ensure that your article meets the requirements detailed below.

Before Submission

General

All articles submitted to the AJGG should conform to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (in any language), and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Although the editors and referees make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its editors, or the publisher.

Reporting Guidelines

To improve the quality and clarity of published articles, AJGG recommends the use of reporting guidelines in the preparation of manuscripts, such as those advocated by the EQUATOR Network (for example, CONSORT for randomised trials, or CARE for case reports).

Funding

Any sponsor(s) of the research involved, along with grant number(s) should be provided.

Conflicts of interest

All authors must provide a statement reporting any conflicts of interest. Where none exist, please state ‘The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.’ Authors may use the ICMJE Conflict of Interest form.

Ethics

All studies must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
For all studies involving living humans (including those involving only tissue, retrospective studies, and database studies), an appropriate Institutional Review Board must be consulted. A statement must be included in the manuscript that provides the name of the IRB, approval number (or waiver), and how patients provided informed consent (unless this requirement was waived by the IRB).
For studies involving animals, appropriate ethics approval is required.
Further details on the AJGG ethics policies can be found on the Journal Policies page.

Data availability

The authors shall make available the complete data on which the manuscript is based. A statement describing how the data can be accessed must be included in the manuscript (e.g., “The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.”). For clinical trials and other large datasets, it is recommended that data are deposited in a public repository and shared using a permanent identifier (such as a DOI).

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscript types

Original articles should be no more than 4000 words, number of tables plus figures not more than eight, and references not more than 30.
Review articles should be no more than 4000 words, number of tables plus figures not more than eight, and references not more than 60.
Case reports should be no more than 1000 words, number of tables plus figures not more than two, and references not more than 10.
Letters to the Editor should be no more than 1000 words, and references not more than 5.
Editorials are by invitation only.

Language

Manuscripts submitted in English or Chinese (in traditional Chinese characters) are acceptable. For Chinese manuscripts, an English abstract must be provided at first submission.

Authors

All authors should provide their title, full name, qualifications (maximum of two), and affiliation (where the study was conducted). The full address, e-mail, and telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author should also be provided.

Abstract

A structured Abstract of no more than 250 words should be provided for Original articles and Review articles. Abstracts should include the headings: (Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions). For manuscripts submitted in Chinese, an English abstract should also be provided. No abstract is required for Case Reports.

Key words

A maximum of 10 key words should be provided, selected from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

References

The references should be numbered in the order in which they were first cited in the text. At the end of the article, the full list of references should be presented in Vancouver style. List all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first three and add ‘et al’. Examples are shown below:

Journal articles
1. Ferguson JM, Hill H. Pharmacokinetics of fluoxetine in elderly men and women. Gerontology 2006;52:51-8.
Books and monographs
2. Allen SC. Ageing and the respiratory system. In: Brocklehurst JC, Tallis RC, Fillett H, editors. Textbook of geriatric medicine and gerontology. 4th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1992:739-68.
Electronic material
3. United Nations. General Assembly 56th Session. Road map toward the implementation of the United Nations millennium declaration. United Nations 2001; http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals. Accessed 1 March 2006.

Tables

Tables should be typed on separate sheets and numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. A brief title should be provided at the top of each table; legends and footnotes should appear immediately below the table and should follow the sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡

Figures

Figures can be submitted in the forms of photos, drawings, or computer graphics. Drawings, diagrams and graphs should be in black and white. Colour photos are published at the expense of the authors. A brief title and detailed legend should be provided for each figure, and all marks and symbols used must be described. The magnification of illustrations should be given where appropriate.

Units

SI Units should be used where possible or included in parenthesis.

Peer review process

The AJGG follows a single-blind peer review system. After initial checks by the Editorial Office, all submissions are screened by the Chief Editor(s). Papers that do not meet these requirements are rejected or returned to the authors for revision before peer review. New or revised papers that meet the minimum requirements of the journal are sent for peer review. All papers are reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. In the event of disagreement between the two reviewers, the paper is sent for a third review. The final decision rests with the Chief Editor(s).

After submission

Copyright

In consideration of the action taken by the AJGG for reviewing and editing purposes, authors will be asked to sign a Disclaimer and Copyright Transfer Form after acceptance of an article.

The AJGG publishes articles under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For any use other than that permitted by this license, written permission must be obtained from the AJGG.

Editing

Accepted manuscripts undergo technical editing and copy-editing, so that style and language are consistent with international standards and AJGG style, and to ensure that articles can be clearly understood by our international readers. The corresponding author is sent the edited manuscript (galley proof). A few days are usually given for the authors to check the paper, respond to any queries, and to suggest changes. After acceptance, only minimal changes will be allowed; substantial changes will incur charges, and the addition of new material may require another round of peer review. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the copyeditor.

Proofs

The corresponding author is sent the final version (page proof) of the manuscript to proofread. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors read and approve the final version of the manuscript.

Reprints

Reprints are available from the Editorial Office (ajgg@ajgg.org). Quotes for reprints will be provided on request.

Costs to Authors

There are no submission or page charges for publication in the AJGG. However, the Journal may charge for substantial alterations or excess figure(s) or table(s) added after acceptance of the manuscript - HK$200 per layout page.

Sharing Your Article

Authors are encouraged to share their articles as widely as possible, to maximize readership and impact. Authors are recommended to always share articles with the DOI. This is a number beginning ‘10.12809/ajgg’ that should be shared as a URL (eg,https://doi.org/10.12809/ajgg). This will always link to the most recent version of the manuscript.

Preprints

Preprint servers, such as medRxiv and ResearchSquare, are becoming a popular way to disseminate research early. However, these papers are not peer reviewed before being made available to the public. Submissions of papers previously posted to a preprint server will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. Please contact the Journal for enquiries.

Version of Record

This is the final published version of the manuscript. This can be downloaded from the AJGG website and shared freely, including uploading to an institutional data repository. However, please be aware that certain types of re-use are restricted by the Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)used by the AJGG. It is recommended that the article DOI is used to share.