Instructions to author

Preparing for submission in Acta Dermato-Venereologica

Submission of a manuscript is held to imply that it has not previously been published and is not otherwise submitted for publication (except as an abstract, which in that case has to be stated).

Authorship: All persons designated as authors in a paper must participate sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility in its contents. Everyone meeting the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) requirements for authorship should be included as an author of a paper. Any individuals who have contributed to the article but who do not meet these criteria for authorship should be listed by name and affiliation in an ‘Acknowledgments’ section instead. The journal may require authors to justify assignments of authorship. Please note that it should be a maximum of 5 authors for Short Communications.

Length: Articles and reviews should be kept short and written in a succinct manner. Full articles could include up to 40 references. Short Communications (brief definite reports without an Abstract and a maximum of 5 authors and 15 references) should not exceed 2 typeset pages (i.e. ~1,200 words in total and one illustration or up to 3 illustrations if the number of words is proportionally reduced). Illustrative case reports with high educational value may also be submitted as a Quiz (see earlier published quizzes of the journal for suggestions of presentation).

We encourage authors to avoid repetitions and redundant information in their manuscripts. Extensive figures and tables with a compilation of data can preferably be presented as supplementary material. Similarly, extensive methodological descriptions can be presented in toto as supplementary material.

Submission: Submission has to be made online here and does not require any additional postage. Submit the manuscript (including tables and figures) as a styled Microsoft Word file and photographs as separate EPS or TIFF files. For further information please contact the Editorial office.

Language: All papers should be written in English. It is essential that the language be irreproachable. If the Editorial Board should consider it necessary, manuscripts will be subjected to language examination at the author's risk and expense.

Conflict of interest and funding: Authors are responsible for recognising and disclosing financial and other conflicts of interest that might bias their work. They should acknowledge in the manuscript all financial support for the work and other financial or personal connections to the work. If they have no interests to declare, this should be stated (recommended wording: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare).


Ethics, consent, and CONSORT: When reporting studies on human subjects all authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements on privacy and informed consent. Information that could be used to identify patients, in the form of written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees, should not be published unless it is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Where someone is deceased, please ensure you have written consent from the family or estate.

Clinical trials and studies involving animal experiments must be approved by a local ethics committee. Trial registration numbers should be included, and full details in the Material and Methods section.

Studies involving animal experiments must state that their care was in accordance with the institution's or national research council's guidelines for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals. All animal work must have been conducted according to relevant national and international guidelines. Animal experimental procedure should be made as humane as possible and the details of anaesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated.
In order to improve the quality of randomised trials we have adapted to the CONSORT statement.

Statistics: If statistical data are an essential part of the paper the authors are requested to submit an official statement issued by a statistician (with a proper affiliation) regarding the validity of methods used.

Copyright: When publishing articles open access in this publication, the author(s) will retain the copyright in their work. We will however ask the author(s) to sign a license to publish, which gives us the non-exclusive right to publish the Version of Record of the article. This license to publish incorporates the Creative Commons license, CC-BY-NC, which dictates what others can do with the article once it has been published. Please note that authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission for reproducing copyrighted material from other sources.



 

Arrangement of manuscript

 

Manuscripts should normally be divided into Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Please note the following:

  • The title is important; it should be informative without being too long.
  • Textbook knowledge should be avoided in the Introduction; instead the reader should be suggested recent reviews for detailed backgrounds.
  • The Material and Methods section should as far as possible be in the form of references to previous reports.
  • The Results should be presented either in the running text or in Tables and/or Figures without repeating all data.
  • The Discussion should not start with a long introduction but more directly discuss the meaning of the results in relation to previous studies; any limitations of the study should be highlighted.
  • The number of illustrations and tables can be kept minimal in the main paper, but additional supplementary material may be used.

Title page: A separate title page is necessary and should bear a) the title of the article, b) name of the authors, c) the institutions of origin, d) a short title and for Short Communications also the corresponding author's name, address, and e-mail. Please note that it should be a maximum of 5 authors for Short Communications. 

Abstract: The abstract not exceeding 150 words and preferably in one paragraph, should state the reason that prompted the study, purpose, methods, the most important findings and as a conclusion the single most important finding. No headlines. In general, abbreviations are not allowed and references should not be used. Below the abstract: Title of the journal; The principal author's complete address, including e-mail. The Abstract should be typed on a separate sheet.

Significance: The significance should not exceed 100 words, and should avoid medical and statistical terms. Try to explain your work as you would to your “neighbour” and emphasize its relevance for clinical practice.

Key words: A list of 3-6 keywords suitable for indexing terms should be typed at the bottom of the Abstract page. Please select your keywords using the follwoing link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/

Pagination: Ensure that all text pages are correctly numbered in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.

Headings: Please use the following headings: ABSTRACT, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, AND REFERENCES.

Subheadings: Use lower case letters italicized or underlined.

References: Should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. No abstracts from proceedings or submitted manuscripts not in press are allowed. Identify references in the text using Arabic numerals in parenthesis (NOT in superscript).

The style of references must follow the Vancouver system (please click here for the EndNote-template), and for the abbreviations of journal titles: please consult the Journals database, hosted at www.nlm.nih.gov

1. Reference to periodicals: Tsutsumi R, Adachi K, Yoshida Y, Yamamoto O. Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome in association with varicella. Acta Derm Venereol 2015; 95: 503-504.
2. Reference to books: Handwerker H. Itch hypothesis. In: Carstens E, Akiyama T, editors. Itch: Mechanisms and Treatment. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press; 2014: p. 2-8. 
3. Journal article in electronic format: Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun 5]; 1(1): [24 screens]. Available from: URL:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Tables and figures: Line drawing and lettering should be large enough to sustain photoreduction. Tables are to be numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. Each table should be typed on a separate sheet and should have a descriptive, self-explanatory title (i.e. no unexplained abbreviations) above the table to which it refers. Highlight an introductory sentence in bold and list footnotes below the table, using a, b, c for referencing. Asterix is used for probability values. Place other explanatory text above the table.
 
All illustrations should be considered as figures. Each graph, drawing, or photograph should be numbered in sequence with Arabic numerals. All figures should have legends, listed on one separate sheet.

Microarray databases: Acta Dermato-Venereologica supports the efforts of the Functional Genomics Data Society to standardize the presentation of microarray data, on which further guidance can be found here. In addition, the journal strongly recommends the supplemental microarray data be deposited in a public database such as Gene Expression Omnibus or Array Express or submitted for peer-review with the initial submission of the manuscript.

 

The review process

 

All manuscripts are first reviewed by one of the Editors. Some papers may be rejected at this stage as they do not meet basic scientific principles or deal with topics beyond the scope of the journal. All other manuscripts will be entered into our peer review system and are usually sent to at least two reviewers with special expertise in the area. The review is single-blinded according to the decided policy of the journal. The manuscript will also be sent to a special statistical consultant for evaluation of the statistical methods used and the statistical results, where considered appropriate.

After receiving the comments from the reviewers, it will be decided by the Editors whether the manuscript should be accepted directly, which in practice is rare, subjected to a minor or major revision before the decision about publication can be made, or rejected at this point. The revised manuscript is usually, if not only minor changes required, reviewed by the reviewers, sometimes including a third reviewer, if there are special reasons, before making the final decision about publication, and if necessary after some further revision. The guidelines to the reviewers can be found on the homepage of the journal here.

 

Submission and publication fees

Submission fee:

A submission fee must be paid during the process of submitting a manuscript. This fee will NOT be repaid even if the manuscript is not accepted for publication in our journal. Fee:

€50 for Short Communication and Quiz
€100 for Full Report


Publication fee

When a paper has been accepted the author(s) will be charged a fee (Article Processing Charge, APC), to cover the costs associated with running the journal. Please note that no articles will be published until the APC has been paid. The APC depend on the article type and article length and follows the HINARI waiver policy for developing countries:

Full reports, i.e. original articles, reviews, special reports, etc.
– A maximum of 5 typeset pages (approx. 4000 words (inclusive of references) + < 4 small illustrations (tables or figures)): €1000
– A maximum of 7 typeset pages (approx 6000 words (inclusive of references) + 4 illustrations (tables or figures)): €1400
– More than 7 typeset pages (more than 6000 words and  4 illustrations (tables or figures): €1600

Short communications* (short case reports, etc) that do not exceed 2 typeset pages (inclusive of references and figures/tables): €400

Quizzes with150-200 words in the case presentation and approximately 900 words in the discussion: €300

*The review process is the same for full papers and brief definite reports, but brief definite reports will be published as "Short Communications". Thus, they are not second or third class but simply contain data that can be communicated in a short, crisp fashion instead of being published as full reports.

 

 

Supplementary material and Video Abstracts



Supplementary material can include for example video- and audio files but also figures, tables, and datasets. Including supplementary material with your article can make it more discoverable, and help maximizing downloads and citations.

Video abstracts can be a good way of getting others to engage with your research, ultimately increasing the visibility and impact of your work. Through a video abstract you can introduce the article in your own words, telling readers what the unique contribution of your article is and why they should read it. We recommend keeping a video abstract short and to the point (no more than a few minutes) and that you use images, charts or tables to help explain the focus of your article. Consider the aim of the video throughout – to get people to read your article. The best video format is MP4 although other video formats such as MOV and MPEG4 are also supported. The minimum dimension is 426 x 240 and the max dimension is 3840 x 2160.

Please make sure to include any supplementary files at the same time as you submit your manuscript, although a video abstract can be sent upon acceptance instead. 

Supplementary material that requires language editing or typesetting from the editorial team will involve a fee of 25 €/supplement (extensive material might count as two supplementary files due to the extra workload involved). Video files will be published free of charge.

 

 

Proofs



Page proofs are sent as PDF files to the corresponding author. It is his or her full responsibility to read and check the proofs against the manuscript. The proof and the Answersheet (with corrections) should be returned to the Editorial Office within four days.

 

 

Supplements


Lengthy papers may be published as supplements, the full cost being borne by the author. Supplements are subject to editorial revision before publication.

 

 

Corrections policy

We follow the STM Association guidelines that “Articles that have been published should remain extant, exact, and unaltered to the maximum extent possible”. Necessary corrections will be made to published articles however as authorized by the Editors of the journal. Any necessary changes will be accompanied with a post-publication notice which will be permanently linked to the original article so that readers will be fully informed of any necessary changes. The Editors will decide the magnitude and the nature of the errors, and decide on corrective actions accordingly.

Minor corrections will be made directly to the original article (such as minor layout changes/fixes, typos or grammatical issue that do not affect the content or meaning).

Major corrections will be dealt with as follows:

  • Erratum (a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes the correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions) – This is used for errors introduced by the publisher that affects the integrity of the article, the reputation of the authors, or the reputation of journal. Hence, the corrected article is not removed, but a notice of erratum is given.
  • Addendum (notification of additional information to an article) – This is published when the Editors decide that an addendum is necessary for the readers’ understanding of a significant part of the published paper. An addendum does not contradict the original publication, but if the author omitted significant information available at the time, this material can be added in this way.
  • Retraction (notice that the paper should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature) – This is used if there is clear evidence that the published findings are unreliable, which may be the result of misconduct or an honest error. The published article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of retraction is given as well as the reason for the action and who is responsible for the decision.
  • Corrigendum (notification of a significant error made by the authors of the article) – This is used when an important error is made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal. All decisions on corrigenda are made by the Editors.

 

 

Peer review appeals and author complaints



We follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals to editorial decisions and complaints about the management of the peer review process. 

The editors don’t expect frequent appeals and rarely reverse the original decisions. The decision to reject a manuscript will often involve the editor’s judgment of priority/ importance/relevance. These are things which authors usually cannot address through an appeal. However, if you believe that there is a case to be made for a genuine appeal please submit an appeal letter to the editorial office detailing the basis for the appeal. Should you as an author wish to comment on aspects of the journal’s editorial management, you are welcome to submit such a comment to the editorial office.