Information for Authors

Submission of Manuscripts
Authors should submit manuscripts electronically (.doc or .docx) to ajgg@ajgg.org.

Before submission, please ensure that you 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 Ethics page.

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
The author(s) submitting a manuscript to the journal understand that, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, copyright of the article should be assigned exclusively to the AJGG. After acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a Disclaimer and Copyright Transfer Form.
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.