Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease
Journal Highlights
- Indexed In: PubMed Central (PMC), Scopus, and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- International scope and impact
- Publication is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC)
- Submit here
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease (CJKHD)is a peer-reviewed open access journal which focuses on basic research to clinical research to health services delivery research, in the field of kidney health, acute or chronic kidney diseases, dialysis, kidney transplantation and organ donation. Please see the Aims and Scope tab for further information.
This journal is published on behalf of the Canadian Society of Nephrology.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Submission Information Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjkhd.
Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.
Open access article processing charge (APC) information
Publication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
The APC for this journal varies depending on the article type and membership.
Members of the Canadian Society of Nephrology receive a 17% discount on the APC.
The Article Processing Charge for this Journal is $2,000.
The APC for Research Letters, Research Case Reports, and Educational Case Reports is $1,200 USD.
The APC for Shorter articles is $1600.
The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.
Authors currently working in any of the countries listed on the Research4Life A or B list may be eligible for a waiver. Please note that all authors on the manuscript must be from one of these countries to be eligible.
Contact
Please direct any queries to cjkhd@sagepub.com.
Useful Links
- Submission Page
- Please refer to the Submission Guidelines tab for more information before submitting your manuscript.
- SAGE Open Access Main Page
- SAGE Open Access FAQs
The Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease, the official journal of the Canadian Society of Nephrology, is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal. We encourage high quality submissions in the field of kidney health, from basic scientists, clinical and health services delivery researchers; we cover acute or chronic kidney diseases, dialysis, kidney transplantation and organ donation. Our open-access policy maximizes the dissemination (SH) of the work, and its potential for citation. We do not focus on whether results support hypotheses or their potential impact in the field, but rather the quality of the work and its thoughtful interpretation. Our supportive peer-review process aims to improve the work in a collegial and timely way. We promote and advocate for kidney health as it impacts national and international communities.
Many of these principles were included in our inaugural editorial. We write specifically about supportive peer review in a 2021 editorial, Can peer review be kinder? Supportive peer review: a re-commitment to kindness and a call to action.
The journal logo, a variation on the tree of knowledge and of life, is symbolic of the ethos of the journal. Through a philosophy of thoughtful, constructive, and timely reviews of publications, we hope to foster the growth in knowledge, and thus in wellness of patients living with kidney disease.
Philosophy and Policies
1. Land acknowledgement. The editor-in-chief lives and works in the city of Hamilton, situated upon the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. This land is covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, which was an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek to share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. She further acknowledges that this land is covered by the Between the Lakes Purchase, 1792, between the Crown and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Our editors, many of our reviewers and some of our authors live across Turtle Island (North America). We recognize that we must do more to learn about the rich history of this land so that we can better understand our roles as residents, neighbours, partners, and caretakers. We offer our gratitude to the First Nations for their care for, and teachings about, our earth and our relations. In our work, we honour the Indigenous teachings of leading, learning, looking and listening. Our purpose is to promote the clear communication of facts that are true and ideas that are wise to improve the health and well being of all people. By improving, publishing and disseminating the work of others, we seek to promote kidney health, prevent kidney disease, and to help people with kidney disease to lead their most fulfilled lives. We acknowledge and implement the seven teachings: wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth. May we honour those teachings in all our work.
2. Equity, diversity and inclusion. CJKHD minimizes racism and gender bias by maintaining an editorial team and editorial board that includes a high proportion of women and men from various ethnicities. Our team is explicitly committed to respect, equity, diversity and inclusion in all our activities. Notably, the two editors-in-chief (founding and current) are both women. (SH) As the journal of the Canadian Society of Nephrology|Société canadienne de néphrology we aim to reflect the multiple perspectives and inclusiveness of our national society. For feasibility and to aid dissemination, our publications and peer-review processes are conducted in English. Staff and editors at the journal will provide a French abstract for most publications. We explicitly strive for gender and geographic balance in the selection of associate editors, in the editorial board and among reviewers. We acknowledge the importance of relationships in all our work. We seek to treat all equally, all kindly, and all with the respect that they deserve.
3. Supportive review. Manuscripts selected for peer review are reviewed by at least two peer reviewers, and by an associate editor and deputy editor. We select reviewers whom we expect to write kindly and constructively. If the reviewer is new to reviewing for our journal, we provide them with information on this policy and suggestions for implementation. We write reviews and editorial comments as we would wish to be written to ourselves, ‘as if we were writing to a treasured mentor or most junior trainee’. We reserve the right to remove sentences from reviews that are written harshly or unkindly, or to withhold a review completely if it is thought to be unhelpful. When reviewers’ suggestions are difficult to reconcile, or if reviewers request additional work that the editors believe to be outside the scope of the original submission, we use editorial comments to provide guidance. We consider our role as offering suggestions for improvement, rather than criticism. We honour the principles of wisdom, love and respect in this policy.
4. Clear and rigorous review. Our associate editors will clearly indicate the major obstacles to publication. We expect authors will respond with openness to feedback, integrity, and clarity, so that most publications will require a single round of scientific revision. Our editors will work to improve the clarity of the peer-review process by identifying additional issues, reconciling conflicting opinions, and highlighting the issues that are most important. Acknowledgement of the limitations of the work in the body of the work and in the abstract is critically important. We honour the principles of bravery, honesty, humility and truth in this policy.
5. Explicit recognition of inter-expert variation in design and analysis choices. Because experts often disagree on the optimal design or analysis for a study, we take a pragmatic approach in terms of what we require of authors. Even if we ourselves, or our peer reviewers, would have conceived a plan differently, we generally do not suggest a complete change, unless the original plan is likely to give misleading results. We recognize that for most clinical work, a change in design at a late stage in a project is impossible and that having to change an analysis plan often changes every table and every figure in a manuscript. We use editorial comments to provide perspective and emphasis and to suggest approaches when reviewers disagree. We honour the principles of respect, honesty, humility, truth in this policy.
6. Timely review. We aim to provide authors with a review within 4 weeks of receiving a manuscript, or to notify authors of the delay and the proposed timeline if we cannot. We honour the principles of respect, honesty and humility in this policy.
7. Avoiding publication bias. We aim to publish work that is good, even if it is not high-impact, and even if the results are what are sometimes called 'negative'. We pay a great deal of attention to the language used in interpretation and we check that authors do not overstate the importance of their work. If the work is done and internally valid, we believe it should be published, with clear statement of all its limitations. We include a statement on limitations in the abstract of all primary research. We honour the principles of respect, humility and truth in this policy.
8. Community of science. We explicitly recognise the difficult path that many manuscripts take towards publication, that many manuscripts are not published in the first journal to which they are submitted, and that these realities are part of the nature of the scientific and publishing communities. We recognize that the community of peer reviewers is effectively the same for each journal and is a limited resource. Furthermore, peer reviewers are also investigators whose primary work is the generation of new knowledge; there is an opportunity cost to every additional peer review obtained. This informs our portable review policy, our easy formatting policy, and our editorial review of revisions policy. We honour the principle of respect and the importance of relationships in this policy.
9. Portable review. Because we recognize that we are one community, and because we do not think it reflects badly on the quality of our journal or scientists’ work to openly acknowledge that many manuscripts are seen by more than one journal before publication, we will accept peer review from other journals whose impact factor is 4 and above. Respected journals in fields with lower citation numbers and lower impact factors (eg, pediatrics, transplantation and fundamental science) will be considered on a case-by-case basis; in this setting please contact us, provide the name of the journal and the peer review, before responding to it.
Authors with peer review from a journal with an impact factor of 4 or above; and authors whose journal and peer review has been pre-reviewed by the editors should respond to the peer review as if they had received it from us. They should submit a clean and redline draft, and a point-by-point response to reviews. An editorial team consisting of the editor-in-chief, all deputy editors and an assigned associate editor will review the peer review, the source of the peer review (as a surrogate for knowing the identities of the reviewers), and the response to the peer review, as well as the clean submitted manuscript, and determine whether further peer review is warranted. A manuscript may be accepted at this point with editorial suggestions only, or accepted as is; or further peer review may be requested. To facilitate this process, at the top of the response to reviews the submitting authors should attest:
a. The journal which arranged the peer review
b.The date on which they originally received the peer review
c. A statement that the review as replicated below is the whole review, without omissions or editing, and including all reviewer and editorial comments.
We honour the principles of wisdom and respect, and the importance of relationships and responsibility in this policy.
10. Parallel review. Because we recognize that we are one community, we explicitly recognize the importance of peer-reviewers’ time, and that the body of people with expertise to review any particular manuscript is a limited resource. For this reason, for guidelines that have already been through external peer review, and for study protocols that have already undergone external peer review, we do not always conduct independent peer review. Instead, we ask that previous peer review which has already shaped the manuscript be submitted along with the manuscript, along with evidence of response to peer review. We critically appraise the processes submitted for completeness and integrity to inform our decision about the need for further peer review. We don’t consider research ethics approval alone to meet this criterion. Some work may be accepted in this stream without further peer review. We honour the principles of wisdom and respect, and the importance of relationships and responsibility in this policy.
11. Easy formatting. Given the high rejection rates of many print journals, we explicitly recognize that many manuscripts are submitted to more than one journal at different times in the process of attempting to publish scientific work. We regard the time spent in complying in detail with each journal’s formatting requirements prior to peer review to be an inefficiency and an unnecessary burden on the research community. For most original research publication types, we are therefore prepared to review work that is submitted in any standard scientific format. Formatting changes to comply with our house style are instead requested at time of response to peer review. We honour the principles of respect and humility, and the importance of relationships and responsibility in this policy.
12. Editorial review of revisions. Rather than sending back to the original peer reviewers, our editors review revised manuscripts in detail and determine whether the authors have responded to peer review. The original peer reviewers will be consulted selectively on issues that the editor does not feel qualified to judge. This reduces the burden on reviewers, who are not asked to look at revised manuscripts months after they made their initial decisions, and improves turn-around time for authors. We honour the principles of wisdom and respect, and the importance of relationships and responsibility in this policy.
13. Timely publication. Delay in author submission of revisions is one of the major obstacles to timely publication. When authors receive supportive feedback within 4 weeks of submission, we anticipate that it will be cognitively easier for them to respond: immediately in many cases. If additional experimental work or complex re-analyses are necessary, there will be an inevitable lapse of time, but we encourage all authors to respond as soon as they are able. Once accepted, work can be published in PDF within 4 - 6 weeks. We honour the principles of wisdom and respect, and the importance of relationships and responsibility in this policy.
14. Recognition of limitations. All scientific work is limited. We challenge authors to explicitly recognise the limitations of their own work without fear that it will reduce the likelihood of publication. We will acknowledge limitations in full text and abstracts, and will work with authors to highlight the importance of their findings without overstating them. We recognize also that authors, reviewers and we ourselves as an editorial team may make mistakes. When we realise we have made a mistake, we will work to correct it. We honour the principles of bravery, honesty, humility and truth in this policy.
15. Openness to creativity and innovation. We would like to hear from authors and others working in kidney health and disease what they would like to read or to write. Authors with an idea for an unusual publication type or work of art that would interest our readership should contact the editors. We honour the principle of respect in this policy.
16. Open access publication. We want our work to be available, in full text, to anyone with internet access worldwide. This is critical to the dissemination of findings to inform kidney care and research internationally, and particularly important for those working in resource-limited environments. Authors retain the copyright to their published content with full rights to reproduce and reuse provided correct attribution is given. Our article processing charge compares favourably with those of other open-access journals and with colour charges and page charges levied by print journals. An article processing charge paid by the authors renders us independent of the pressures of support by advertising and by pharmaceutical multinationals. Reduced article processing charges are offered to members of the Canadian Society of Nephrology|Société canadienne de nephrology. We waive the article processing charge completely for commissioned work and for work that is particularly important to the mandate of the Canadian Society of Nephrology|Société canadienne de néphrology or the International Society of Nephrology. Our publisher, SAGE, waives the article processing charge for articles where the corresponding author comes from a country designated as Group A or B by Research4Life2. We are most grateful that our journal is subsidized at arms’ length by our society, the Canadian Society of Nephrology|Société canadienne de néphrology, and recognize and honour our relationship with our society.
17. Dissemination. We send monthly summaries of content to all members of the Canadian Society of Nephrology|Société canadienne de néphrology and to all registrants at our website. Our active publicity campaign reaches out through meetings of societies of nephrology, dialysis, hypertension, and transplantation worldwide to increase the readership of the journal. Those who wish can additionally subscribe to RSS feeds that will push each article as published. At the time of writing in 2022, our twitter account @CanJKHD has >3,200 followers.
1. Levin A, Clase CM, Sood MM, et al. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease: A Unique Launch of a Unique Journal. Canadian journal of kidney health and disease 2014; 1: 1. DOI: 10.1186/2054-3581-1-1.
2. Research4life. Eligibility for access to Research4Life, https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/ (2021, accessed last accessed 2021-11-22).
| Catherine M Clase, MB BChir, MSc, FRCPC | McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada |
| Josée Bouchard, MD FRCPC | University of Montreal, Canada |
| Rachel Holden, MD, FRCPC | Queens University, Canada |
| Manish M Sood, MD FRCPC MSc | University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada |
| Sunny Hartwig, MSc, PhD | University of Prince Edward Island, Canada |
| Aminu Bello, MD,PhD,FRCP, FACP | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Clara Bohm, MD, MPH | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| Darren Bridgewater, PhD | McMaster University, Canada |
| Dylan Burger PhD, ISHF | Kidney Research Centre, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Canada |
| Maoliosa Donald, PhD, MSc, BScPT | University of Calgary, Canada |
| Meghan J. Elliott, MD MSc FRCPC | University of Calgary, Canada |
| Ngan Lam, MD, FRCPC, MSc | University of Calgary, Canada |
| François Madore, MD, MSc, FRCPC | University of Montreal, Canada |
| Thomas Mavrakanas, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASN | McGill University, Canada |
| Amber Molnar, MD MSc | McMaster University, Canada |
| G V Ramesh Prasad, MBBS, MSc, MA, PhD, FRCPC | St. Michael’s Hospital, Canada |
| Claudio Rigatto, MSC MD FRCPC | Seven Oaks Hospital, Chronic Disease Innovation Center, Canada |
| Karthik Tennankore, MD SM | Dalhousie University, Canada |
| Elena Torban, PhD | McGill University, Canada |
| Christine White, MD MSC | Queens University, Canada |
| Joanne M. Bargman | University Health Network, Nephrology, Toronto, Canada |
| Kevin D. Burns | University of Ottawa, Canada |
| Mark Canney | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada |
| Edward G. Clark | University of Ottawa, Canada |
| Sacha DeSerres | Laval University, Canada |
| Beth J. Foster | McGill University, Canada |
| Michelle Hladunewich | Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Canada |
| Julie Ho | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| Greg Hundemer | The Ottawa Hospital, Canada |
| Vanita Jassal | University Health Network, Canada |
| Joanne Kappel | University of Saskachewan, Canada |
| Bryce Kiberd | Dalhousie University, Canada |
| Joseph Kim | University Health Network, Canada |
| Abhijat Kitchlu | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Gregory A. Knoll | University of Ottawa, Canada |
| Paul Komenda | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| Norbert Lameire | Ghent University, Belgium |
| Sara Mahdavi | The Scarborough Hospital, Canada |
| Louise Moist | University of Western Ontario, Canada |
| Gaurav Nanda | Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, USA |
| Sharon Nessim | Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Canada |
| Donal O'Donoghue | Salford Royal Foundation Trust, UK |
| Ann M. O'Hare | University of Washington, USA |
| Neesh Pannu | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Pat Parfrey | Memorial University, Canada |
| Vlado Perkovic | The George Institute for Global Health, Australia |
| Carol Pollock | Sydney University, Australia |
| Neil Powe | University of California, USA |
| Eberhard Ritz | Ruperto Carola University, Germany |
| Steven Soroka | Dalhousie University, Canada |
| Paul Stevens | East Kent Hospitals University, UK |
| Rita Suri | McGill University, Canada |
| Katrine Uhlig | Tufts Medical Center, USA |
| Ron Wald | St. Michael's Hospital, Canada |
| Lori Wazny | University of Manitoba, Canada |
| Sohani Welcher | Nova Scotia Health Authority, Canada |
| Deborah Zimmerman | The Ottawa Hospital, Canada |
| Rami Al Batran | Université de Montréal, Canada |
| William Beaubien-Souligny | Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), Canada |
| Mark Canney | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada |
| Justin Chun | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, USA |
| David Collister | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Mallory Downie | University College London, UK |
| Janine F. Farragher | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Danielle Fox | University of Calgary, Canada |
| Santosh Kumar Goru | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Eno Hysi | Ryerson University, Canada |
| Harmandeep Kaur | Unity Health Toronto, Canada |
| Thomas Kitzler | Harvard University, USA |
| Caroline Lamarche | Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, Canada |
| Simon Leclerc | McGill University, Canada |
| Robert Myette | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Canada |
| Ayodele Odutayo | University Health Network, ON, Canada |
| Carol Wang | London Health Sciences Centre Research Inc. (Lawson Health Research Institute), Canada |
| Kevin Yau | St. Michael's Hospital, Canada |
| Ann Young | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Héloise Cardinal | University of Montreal, Canada |
| Jean-Philippe Lafrance | University of Montreal, Canada |
| Joy Maddigan, BN, MN, PhD | Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada |
| David Nicholas | University of Calgary, Canada |
| Donal O'Donoghue | Salford Royal Foundation Trust, UK |
| Norman Rosenblum | The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada |
| Donal O'Donoghue | Salford Royal Foundation Trust, UK |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
CJKHD recognizes that equitable, diverse and inclusive research environments are foundational to excellence, innovation and success within the Canadian and global research landscape. CJKHD is committed to ensuring that the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion are integrated into all of its activities, in an effort to drive deeper cultural change within the research ecosystem. CJKHD disseminates high-quality research and community-engaged scholarship globally, and strongly encourages submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease will be reviewed.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that CJKHD will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the Journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the Journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
Please read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
- Open Access
- Article processing charge (APC)
- What do we publish?
3.1 Aims & scope
3.2 Article types
3.3 Writing your paper
3.3.1 Making your article discoverable - Editorial policies
4.1 Peer Review Policy
4.2 Authorship
4.3 Acknowledgements
4.4 Funding
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
4.7 Clinical Trials
4.8 Reporting guidelines
4.9 Research Data - Publishing policies
5.1 Publication ethics
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
5.3 Human Rights - Preparing your manuscript
6.1 CJKHD policy on language for referring to patients
6.2 Word processing formats
6.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
6.4 Supplemental material
6.5 Reference style
6.6 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
7.1 How to submit your manuscript
7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
7.3 Information required for completing your submission
7.4 ORCID
7.5 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
8.1 Sage Production
8.2 Continuous publication
8.3 Promoting your article - Further information
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.
For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
2. Article processing charge (APC)
If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
Members of the Canadian Society of Nephrology receive a 17% discount on the APC.
|
Manuscript type |
APC |
Discounted APC for Members |
|
All standard manuscript types |
$2,000 |
$1,660 |
|
Research Letters and Case Reports |
$1,600 |
$1,328 |
Consider joining the CSN here.
Before submitting your manuscript to Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health & Disease welcomes submissions of any of the following manuscript types. Please click on the manuscript type to find a formatting guide and description of that type:
- Original Fundamental Research (Basic)
- Original Clinical Research Mixed Method
- Original Clinical Research Qualitative
- Original Clinical Research Quantitative
- Fundamental Research (Basic) Protocol
- Clinical Research Protocol
- Rapid Communication
- Five Things to Know About
- Guidelines
- Guideline Commentaries
- Narrative Review
- Educational Case Report
- Research Case Report
- Fundamental Research (Basic) Letter
- Clinical Research Letter
- Debate
- Opinion Piece
- Program Report
- Conference Abstracts
- Conference Report
- Visual Essay
- Editorial
- Letters to the Editor
-
These should consist of one or two paragraphs totaling no more than 500 words, no abstract, no subheadings and fewer than 8 references. If an abstract is included, it will automatically be made the first paragraph. Letters should not include figures or research material. Letters to the Editor are not charged an APC.
A letter to the editor is a brief communication that addresses the contents of a published article. Its purpose is to make corrections, provide alternative viewpoints, or offer counter arguments. Avoid logical fallacies and ad hominem attacks. Letters to the editor must be written in a professional tone and include references to support all claims if appropriate.
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The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
3.3.1 Making your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
4.1 Supportive review
Manuscripts selected for peer review are reviewed by at least two peer reviewers, and by an associate editor and deputy editor. We select reviewers whom we expect to write kindly and constructively. If the reviewer is new to reviewing for our journal, we provide them with information on this policy and suggestions for implementation. We write reviews and editorial comments as we would wish to be written to ourselves, ‘as if we were writing to a treasured mentor or most junior trainee’. We reserve the right to remove sentences from reviews that are written harshly or unkindly, or to withhold a review completely if it is thought to be unhelpful. When reviewers’ suggestions are difficult to reconcile, or if reviewers request additional work that the editors believe to be outside the scope of the original submission, we use editorial comments to provide guidance. We consider our role as offering suggestions for improvement, rather than criticism. We honour the principles of wisdom, love and respect in this policy.
4.2 Portable review
Because we recognize that we are one community, and because we do not think it reflects badly on the quality of our journal or scientists’ work to openly acknowledge that many manuscripts are seen by more than one journal before publication, we will accept peer review from other journals whose impact factor is 4 and above. Respected journals in fields with lower citation numbers and lower impact factors (eg, pediatrics, transplantation and fundamental science) will be considered on a case-by-case basis; in this setting please contact us, providing the name of the journal and the peer review, before responding to it.
Authors with peer review from a journal with an impact factor of 4 or above, and authors whose journal and peer review has been pre-reviewed by the editors, should respond to the peer review as if they had received it from us. They should submit a clean and redline draft, and a point-by-point response to reviews. An editorial team consisting of the editor-in-chief, all deputy editors and an assigned associate editor will review the peer review, the source of the peer review (as a surrogate for knowing the identities of the reviewers), and the response to the peer review, as well as the clean submitted manuscript, and determine whether further peer review is warranted. A manuscript may be accepted at this point with editorial suggestions only, or accepted as is; or further peer review may be requested. To facilitate this process, at the top of the response to reviews the submitting authors should attest:
a. The journal which arranged the peer review
b. The date on which they originally received the peer review
c. A statement that the review as replicated below is the whole review, without omissions or editing, and including all reviewer and editorial comments.
We honour the principles of wisdom and respect, and the importance of relationships and responsibility in this policy.
4.3 Peer review policy
Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease all papers are sent out for review. The covering letter is important. To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the paper suitable for publication. If your paper should be considered for fast-track publication, please explain why.
The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease utilizes a single-anonymize peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the associate editor, who consults the handling deputy editor, and a decision is reached by consensus between the associate and deputy editors.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor / Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
4.5.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
4.5.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
4.7 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.
4.8 Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal. Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants
All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and metaanalyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
5.1.1 Plagiarism
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
5.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page
Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.
5.3 Human Rights
For manuscripts with data derived from kidney transplants, authors must confirm that any work related to the use of transplanted patients has been carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Istanbul (https://www.declarationofistanbul.org/). CJKHD does not accept manuscripts that include data derived from transplants obtained from executed prisoners. Authors must include a statement in the methods of the manuscript that “The data reported are consistent with the Principles of the Declaration of Istanbul.” The source of the donor kidneys must also be identified in the methods of the manuscript.
If authors wish to submit a manuscript related to this issue such as an editorial or review examining the consequences of such practices, they must contact the Editorial Office to obtain permission prior to submitting the manuscript.
On first review, we are very flexible about the format of the manuscript in order to facilitate reviews of manuscripts that have been prepared without our journal in mind or which have been previously submitted and declined elsewhere. If a manuscript has standard or sensible structure and meets ethical standards, we will send it to an associate editor for consideration for peer review without requesting formatting revisions.
However, if you are preparing the manuscript specifically for CJKHD, please follow these guidelines as you develop your work in order to save effort, should it be accepted after peer review.
Please see the Article Types section (3.2) for formatting guides for each manuscript type.
Once we have received peer review, if your manuscript is potentially eligible for publication after revision, you will receive:
1. Comments from the editorial team
2. Peer review, usually from 2 peer reviewers
3. A reminder to check these guidelines for formatting instructions
When submitting a revision, respond point-by-point to each editor and reviewer comment, and to the formatting revisions. Please upload your point-by-point response, a red-line manuscript, and a clean manuscript, and red-line and clean versions of any tables or supplementary material that has changed, along with publication-quality figures.
We hope that this work-flow will reduce the time wasted in formatting and, for many manuscripts, allow a single round of revisions that covers scientific and formatting issues.
6.1 CJKHD policy on language for referring to patients
Please do not use the names of diseases as an adjective to describe patients: do not write 'dialysis patients', 'diabetic patients', 'transplant patients' or 'diabetics.'
Please use the 'maintenance dialysis' rather than 'chronic dialysis', for example, 'patients treated with maintenance dialysis.'
For patients who have a functioning kidney transplant or who are on dialysis, please use ‘kidney replacement therapy (KRT)' rather than ESRD or ESKD, for example 'patients treated with kidney replacement therapy.'
ESRD and ESKD may still be used where the term retains its administrative meaning. For example, ESRD should be used to refer to the US Medicare program, and ESKD to statistics from the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry (CORR).
Uses 2012 KDIGO terminology for categories of CKD. Do not refer to 'stages' of CKD.
- G for GFR category
- A for albuminuria category
- D for patients treated with maintenance dialysis
- ND for patients not treated with maintenance dialysis
- T for patients with functioning kidney transplants
Here are some examples of how to use this classification in text:
- CKD G3 = category G3, not including patients with functioning transplants. Note the preferred order, which CKD G3 rather than G3 CKD, chosen for consistency.
- CKD G3 A2-3 = category G3 and category A2 to A3. (Boolean 'and', meaning both conditions must be satisfied.)
- CKD G5ND = category G5 not treated with maintenance dialysis
- CKD G3-5D = category G3, or G4, or G5 not treated with maintenance dialysis, or G5 treated with maintenance dialysis. Note that this category includes G5ND, which is implied because of the inclusion of the higher G categories.
- CKD G1T-5T = category G1 to G5 patients with functioning kidney transplants (ie, all patients with functioning kidney transplants)
Use 'kidney failure' only as defined in KDIGO, ie, CKD G5.
In the absence of an accepted term for patients with CKD G5ND who are undergoing conservative care (ie, after an informed decision making process, do not plan to undergo maintenance dialysis, whatever their kidney function or symptoms), please use CKD G5C and define it carefully in your work.
Wherever possible, we prefer 'kidney' to 'renal' or derivatives of 'nephro.'
The terms 'nephrology' or 'renal medicine' can be used if referring to a specific geographic region where this is the correct term for the discipline. Otherwise, we prefer, for example, 'kidney medicine', 'kidney health care providers', 'kidney nurse practitioners', and 'kidney doctors' or 'kidney specialist physicians.'
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word, RTF, or XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
6.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. Please review the guidelines on Sage Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver output file here.
6.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
7.1 How to submit your manuscript
Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cjkhd to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
7.3 Information required for completing your submission
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed on the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
8. On acceptance and publication
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for Sage Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. Your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Canadian Journal of Kidney Health and Disease editorial office as follows: cjkhd@sagepub.com.
Editorial Team contacts:
- Editor-in-Chief: Catherine Clase, clase@mcmaster.ca
- Deputy Editor: Rachel Holden, rachel.holden@kingstonhsc.ca
- Deputy Editor: Manish Sood, msood99@gmail.com
- Managing Editor: Elizabeth Dicks, edicks@mun.ca