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Instructions to Authors

The International Journal of Epidemiology is produced six times a year and publishes original work, reviews, articles of interest and letters in the fields of research and teaching epidemiology.

All papers are published in English although submission of articles in other languages will not prejudice editorial consideration. The author will be responsible for translation into English if the article is accepted for publication.

It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors assign copyright to the International Epidemiological Association. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication.

Articles are accepted for publication on condition that they are contributed solely to the International Journal of Epidemiology. The editors cannot enter into correspondence about papers considered unsuitable for publication and their decision is final. Neither the editors nor the publishers accept responsibility for the views and statements of authors expressed in their contributions.

Manuscripts should be prepared in the Vancouver Style (see e.g. Br Med J 1979; 1: 532-35) and submitted in triplicate to the Editor, Dr George Davey Smith, Department of Social Medicine, Canynge Hall, Whiteladies Road, Bristol, BS8 2PR, UK. They should not normally exceed 3000 words but review articles may be twice this length. Letters intended for publication should be marked 'For Publication'. Books and monographs for review should also be sent to the Editor. Manuscripts should be typewritten in double spacing on one side of the paper only with margins of at least 2.5 cm. Italics should be indicated by single underlining. Numbers followed by a unit should be written as figures as should all numbers above nine. Figures should not be used to start a sentence and those between 999 and 9999 should not be separated by spaces or commas while those over 10 000 should have a space after the thousand. Per cent should be written as % throughout. Full points should not be used after initials or contractions: J Jones, FRCS, 17 g, dl, Dr, etc. All measures should be reported in SI units followed, in the text, by traditional units in parentheses. For general guidance on the International System of Units and some useful conversion factors, see 'The SI for the Health Professions' (WHO, 1977). There are two exceptions: blood pressure should be expressed in mm Hg and haemoglobin as g/dl. If the data are appropriate, age grouping should be mid-decade to mid-decade or in five-year age groups (e.g. 35-44 or 35-39, 40-44, etc, but not 20-29, 30-39 or other groupings).

Titles

Titles should be short and specific. Subtitles may be used to amplify the main title.

Affiliations

The affiliations of each author must be given. If an author's present affiliation is different from that under which the work was done, both should be given.

Summary

The summary should be no more than 250 words and consist of four sections labelled Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. They should briefly describe the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results and what conclusions can be made from the results. Three to ten keywords should be added to the end of the Summary.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of reference lists. References in Vancouver Style should be in the order they appear in the text and numbered accordingly. These numbers should be inserted above the line whenever a reference is cited (...confirmed by other studies 23). Numbered references should appear at the end of the article and should consist of the surnames and initials of all authors when six or less, when seven or more list just three and add et al., title of article, name of journal abbreviated according to Index Medicus style, year, volume, first and last page numbers,

e.g. Bull Q, Doe J. Epidemiology and public health. Int J Epidemiol 1970; 5: 702-10.

Titles of books should be followed by the place of publication, the publisher, and the year. 'Unpublished Observations', 'Personal Communications' and submitted manuscripts may not be used as reference but should appear in the text. Manuscripts in press may be cited in the references and details added on proof if possible.

Abbreviations

Words to be abbreviated should be spelt out in full the first time they appear in the text with the abbreviations in brackets. Thereafter the abbreviation should be used.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively in arabic numerals and should be kept separate from the text. Particular care should be taken to make tables self-explanatory with adequate headings and footnotes. The position of each table in the text should be indicated (Table 1 here).

Figures

Illustrations should be numbered, given suitable legends and marked lightly on the back with the author's name and the top edge indicated. Original drawings may be submitted although high quality glossy photographs are preferable. They should be kept separate from the text.

Appendices

As a general rule, material of this nature should be incorporated in the text but separate sections can be published after the main text.

Special Notes for Statistical Papers

The correct preparation of statistical manuscripts is particularly important and the precise nature and position of each symbol must be clear. Complex formulae should be drawn out on a separate sheet and attached to the text at the appropriate place.In general, distinction should be made between:

(a) capitals and small letters;
(b) ordinary and bold-faced letters;
(c) certain greek letters and similar roman letters;
(d) subscripts, superscripts and 'ordinary' symbols.

Bold-faced symbols should be underlined with a wiggly line in pencil. Statistical symbols are automatically set in italics and need not be underlined except to prevent ambiguity, e.g. when an isolated letter, such as a, occurs in the text. Symbols should not be used to start a sentence.

Copy Editing

All accepted manuscripts are subject to copy editing.

Proofs

The first author will receive two copies of the page proofs of the article. Proof correction must not be used as an opportunity to revise the paper. Any essential changes should take up the same amount of space if possible. Alterations, other than corrections of printer's errors, are expensive and may be charged to authors.

It is particularly important to read reference lists at the proof stage in case any omissions/errors have been found and noted during copy editing.

The Editors reserve the right to make minor grammatical and other changes at any stage before publication. These are sometimes necessary to make the paper conform to the general style of the Journal. Proofs not returned to the Editorial Assistant within two weeks of the date of postmark may be held over to the next issue.

Reprints

Offprints may be purchased by returning the order form (sent with the proofs) to the Journals Productions Dept, Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.