Toxicology and Industrial Health

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Toxicology and Industrial Health

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).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tih to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts that meet recognized standards of English language and scientific quality and are within the aims and scope of Toxicology and Industrial Health will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process authors will be required to warrant that they are submitting their original work, that they have the rights in the work, that they 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, and that they have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyrighted works not owned by them.

 

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   2.7 Clinical trials
   2.8 Reporting guidelines
   2.9 Data
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.3 Supplementary material
   4.4 Reference style
   4.5 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 Sage Production
   6.2 Online First publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Toxicology and Industrial Health, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

Briefly, the focus of this journal is scientific work at the intersection of toxicology and industrial/occupational health and industrial hygiene. It specifically does not consider reports the focus of which is the preventative or therapeutic properties of natural products or their extracts.

1.2 Article Types

Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they have not been published previously and are not under consideration by another publication.  Abstracts of presentations at scientific meetings are not considered previous publications but should be noted in the manuscript as a reference or footnote.

The journal publishes several types of articles including papers describing:

• Original research
• Full reviews on subjects of contemporary importance to the toxicology/industrial health/industrial hygiene communities;
• Topical Reviews (short, factual, focused updates on specific subjects of current interest) or preliminary study results;
• Reports or proceedings (which will be published as supplements to issues of the journal at the expense of the organization that submits the proceedings);
• Brief announcements of scientific meetings or courses of interest to readers;

Toxicological evaluations of industrial chemicals and publication of recommended occupational exposure limits. All manuscripts submitted should be no longer than 3,000 words including References, figures, Abstract. The Abstract should be no longer than 250 words. Authors are encouraged to use the most recent and relevant references. Manuscripts exceeding 3,000 will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the editor. 

The journal considers the results of rigorous, well-designed studies that demonstrate “no effect” or that fail to replicate previous work (“negative data”) as important to the advancement of science.  The journal encourages the submission of such manuscripts.

All manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced using 12-pitch Arial or Times New Roman font.

Title Page:  In addition to the title, this page should include the full name and affiliation for each author. Also indicate which author should be the corresponding author and provide a full mailing address, phone and fax numbers and e-mail address. Please include a running title limited to 50 characters and provide up to 6 key words applicable to the content of the manuscript. Choose keywords broad enough to increase the chances of your paper being found on a search (see Section 1.3.1).

Text: Papers are to be organized into Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and References sections. (Please note that Acknowledgements/Conflicts of Interest/Funding statements should be included on a separate page).

References and Text Citations: References are listed alphabetically by surname of the first author at the end of the manuscript. Articles cited within the text are listed as follows:
•    One author by surname of the first author and year of publication (e.g., Kiorpes, 2017);
•    Two authors by the surnames of both authors and year of publication (e.g.,Schick and Glantz, 2005);                            •  •    •    More than two authors by surname of the first author followed by the phrase 'et al.,' and year of publication (e.g., Wickham et al., 2018).

Consecutive citations in the text are placed in chronological order and separated by semicolons (Huo and Yan, 2012a; 2012b).

The style and format for the References section is Sage Harvard with several very specific requirements (see also Section 4.4). For example, do not abbreviate the titles of cited references. All cited journal, book, and document titles must be spelled out in full and in italics. References should include authors' last names and initials (without periods), year (in parenthesis), article title, name of journal, volume, and page range. Note that the article title is all lower case except for the first word, proper nouns or any special words. Names of genera and species should always be in italics.  Include the city and publisher's name for books. For further information, see Section 4.4 or consult the American Medical Association Manual of Style.  Examples for one, three, and more than three authors are listed as follows:

Kiorpes AL (2017) Lies, damned lies, and statistics.  Toxicology and Industrial Health 33: 885-886.

Yu CS, Lin CJ and Hwang JK (2004) Predicting subcellular localization of proteins for gram-negative bacteria by support vector machines based on n-peptide compositions.  Protein Science 13:1402-1406.

Sigrist CJ, de Castro E, Cerutt L, et al. (2013) New and continuing developments at PROSITE. Nucleic Acids Research 41: D344-D347.

1.3 Writing your paper

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.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. 
Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
•  The author has recommended the reviewer
•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

2.2 Authorship

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:

1. 1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
   2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
   3. Approved the version to be published,
   4. 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. 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.

2.3 Acknowledgements

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.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 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.

2.3.2 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.

2.4 Funding

Toxicology and Industrial Health 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 text when funding was provided, or state that: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.”

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Toxicology and Industrial Health to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the 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 here

2.6 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 with human subjects, 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.

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.

2.7 Clinical trials

Toxicology and Industrial Health 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.

2.8 Reporting guidelines

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 meta-analyses 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

2.9 Data

Sage acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.

Toxicology and Industrial Health requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles alongside their article submissions to be published in the online version of the journal or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication codes, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editor will also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations.

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

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

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Toxicology and Industrial Health 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 all authors and will 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 plagiarised 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.

3.1.2 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 Toxicology and Industrial Health editorial office: tih@sagepub.com

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement, which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Toxicology and Industrial Health offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred software for submitted manuscripts is MS Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 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

All figures, photographs, or other visual media must be of publication-ready quality.  All images must be focused, crisp, sharp and with adequate contrast.  Print within figures must be readable and free of typographical errors.  Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, authors will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of the accepted article.

4.3 Supplementary material

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 ourguidelines on submitting supplementary files

4.4 Reference style

Toxicology and Industrial Health adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style (see also Section 1.2 “References and Text Citations”).

If authors use EndNote to manage references, download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file using this link.

4.5 English language

Toxicology and Industrial Health is and English-language international journal.  The publishers and editorial staff recognize that for many authors and readers, English is not their first language.  Because of this, it very important that all manuscripts be written in standard scientific English that would be understood worldwide.  Authors should refer to any recent edition of the AMA Manual of Style for guidance in preparing their manuscripts.  Below are some examples of common English grammatical errors and how to avoid them.

Definite and Indefinite articles (“the,” “a,” “an”) are very important in English writing.  The definite article “the” refers to something specific, that has already been identified.  The indefinite articles (“a,” “an”) refer to something general or non-specific.  For example, contrast “the dog” referring to a specific animal vs. the non-specific “a dog.”

Restrictive and non-restrictive clauses.  The word “that” introduces a restrictive clause and is essential to the meaning of the sentence.  The word “which” introduces a non-restrictive clause and provides additional information but is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. A non-restrictive clause (“which”) is always preceded by a comma.

Agreement.  Singular nouns and pronouns take singular verbs; plural nouns and pronouns take plural verbs.  In some complex sentences, the subject noun gets lost and writers match the verb with a noun in a clause or prepositional phrase.  Make sure the subject noun and verb agree.  The word “data” is a plural noun and takes a plural verb, e.g., “the data are presented in Table 2.”

Ameliorate vs Prevent.  Most toxicology studies are designed to demonstrate an interaction or preventative effect when a toxicant and another agent are co-administered.  The result of this interaction is not amelioration.  “Ameliorate” means “to make a bad thing better,” which is the hallmark of a therapeutic, not a preventative interaction. To demonstrate a therapeutic effect, one would need to create a disease or toxicity and then reverse it. 

Due to vs. Because of.  These are often confused and do not mean the same thing.  “Due to” means “caused by”; whereas, “because of” provides an explanation or reason for something.  Authors should avoid the use of “due to” in most instances unless they are implying causality.

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s requirements should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on the Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Toxicology and Industrial Health is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tih to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether there is already an author account in the system before trying to create a new one. If the authors have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that there will be an account created. For further guidance on submitting manuscripts online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

5.1 ORCID

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 one researcher 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 an author already has an ORCID iD, they will be asked to associate it with the manuscript during the online submission process. Sage also strongly encourages all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in the online peer review platforms. It takes only seconds to do. Just click the link when prompted, sign into the ORCID account and the systems are automatically updated. The ORCID iD will become part of any accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to only the authors. The ORCID iD is published with the article so that fellow researchers reading each author’s work can link to their ORCID profile and from there link to their other publications.

For authors who do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

 

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

The submitting author 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 in the manuscript. At this stage please ensure that all the required statements and declarations are included and that any additional supplementary files have been uploaded (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

Please ensure that the Authorship Declaration Form is completed by all co-authors to state their involvement and acceptance of the submitting article and submit along with your article.

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that all necessary permissions have been obtained 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 see the Copyright and Permissions page on theSage Author Gateway

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

The Sage Production Editor will keep the corresponding author informed as to manuscript’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF 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. Note that at the galley-proof stage, the editor may also suggest minor changes to the manuscript or request clarifications from the authors.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! Authors can help disseminate their paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help authors promote their work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Toxicology and Industrial Health editorial office as follows:

tih@sagepub.com