General Instructions (2024)

Rheumatology's Aims and Scope
Preparing your manuscript
1. Article types
2. Authorship
3. Title page
4. References
5. Statements
6. Figures, tables and videos
7. Graphical abstracts
8. Supplementary material
9. Clinical trial registration and reporting guidelines
10. Style
11. Preprint policy
12. Required Forms
Submitting your manuscript
Peer review process
1. Decision
2. Revision
3. Appeals/Rebuttals
Publishing your manuscript
1. Post-acceptance guidelines
2. Copyright and permissions
3. Open Access
4. Availability of data and materials
5. Advance Access
6. Promoting your research
Other
1. Misconduct
2. Disclaimers
3. Name Change Policy
Frequently asked questions

1. Rheumatology's Aims and Scope

Rheumatology strives to support research and discovery by publishing the highest quality original scientific papers with a focus on basic, clinical and translational research.It is an official journal of the British Society for Rheumatology, and is published by Oxford University Press.The journal covers a wide range of paediatric, adolescentand adult rheumatological conditions from an international perspective. Find out more about the global impact of Rheumatology via our interactive infographic.

Rheumatology welcomes proposals from authors on novel and emerging therapies within rheumatology.We are also particularly interested in research that can be followed-up with a series of podcasts, videos and other online media. Keep up to date by following us on Twitter @RheumJnl.

We publish original articles, reviews, editorials, guidelines, concise reports, meta-analyses, original case reports, clinical vignettes, letters and matters arising from published material. Please see our Article Types (section 2A) for more detailed information, including word counts.

We encourage our authors and reviewers to add their ORCID IDs to their ScholarOne Manuscripts profile, and track their research impact with Web of Science researcher profile.

Submitted manuscripts are peer reviewed in a two-stage process while aiming for rapid publication of all papers both online and in print. We also offer Open Access publishing options and support Author Self-Archiving to facilitate the wider dissemination of research.

If you are unsure as to whether your manuscript fits within our Aims and Scope, please send anabstract of no more than 250 words toeditorial@rheumatology.org.uk.

Guidelines for reviewers

2. Preparing Your Manuscript

All manuscripts must contain a title page(section 2C)disclosure statement, funding statement and data availability statement. An ethics statement must be included if applicable. For more information on statements, please go to section 2E.

For general information on manuscript file types and formatting, please refer to the Oxford University Press author resource centre.

2A. Article Types

Original Article

Original articles are based on clinical, laboratory, therapeutic and translational research.

Title page
Abstract (250 words, divided into Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusion)
Clinical trial registration number (for all RCTs)
Keywords (up to 10 – please note that the word count refers to individual words, not phrases)
Key messages (up to 3, maximum 15 words each)
References (up to 50)
Tables/figures (up to 6, not including supplementary material)
Word count: 3,500

Please use this submission template.

Systematic review and meta analysis

These are based on data from original research, and should be accompanied by a PRISMA checklist. Meta analyses include the use of statistical methods.

Title page
Abstract (250 words, divided intoObjectives, Methods, Results and Conclusion)
Clinical trial registration number (for all RCTs)
Keywords (up to 10 - please note that the word count refers to individual words, not phrases)
Key messages (up to 3, maximum 15 words each)
References (up to 150)
Tables/figures (up to 6 not including supplementary material)
PRISMA checklist
Word Count: 3,500

Please follow this submission template.

Concise Report

Concise reports are condensed versions of original articles. They may also be case series in which a clear clinical message can be inferred.

Title page
Abstract (250 words, divided into Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusion)
Clinical trial registration number (for all RCTs)
Keywords (up to 10 – please note that the word count refers to individual words, not phrases)
Key messages (up to 3, maximum 15 words each)
References (up to 20)
Tables/figures (up to 2, not including supplementary material)
Word count: Up to 2,000

Please follow this submission template.

Review

We welcome reviews, including hypothesis articles. Review articles should be of interest to physicians and clinicians working in rheumatology and should reflect the trends and progress in that field. Although these articles are usually commissioned, Rheumatology does consider unsolicited reviews. Please email editorial@rheumatology.org.uk a brief outline of your proposed review, along with a working title and authorship list.

Title page
Abstract (unstructured, 150 words)
Keywords (up to 10 - please note that the word count refers to individual words, not phrases)
Key messages (up to 3, maximum 15 words each)
References (up to 150)
Tables/figures (up to 6, not including supplementary material)
Word Count: 4,000

Please follow this submission template.

Editorial

An Editorial is a short opinion piece on a relevant topic, which may comment on an article in an issue or be an independent piece on a current issue. We prefer editorials to be topical and to be supported by references. Although editorials are usually commissioned, Rheumatology is happy to consider unsolicited Editorials. Please write a brief summary of your proposed editorial and email it to editorial@rheumatology.org.uk.

Title page
Unstructured text
References (up to 10)
Table/figure (up to 1, not including supplementary material)
Word count: Up to 1,000

Editorials are available as free-to-view papers in Rheumatology online.

Please follow this submission template.

Letter to the Editor (Case report)

Case Reports should be submitted in the form of a letter to the Editor. Case reports should provide novel insight into a disease, i.e. where the authors have measured or observed something novel around a mechanism or it is the first observation. Case reports from an educational point of view or a reminder of what was once known and perhaps less well known, or those that are the second orthird example of a disease or a phenomenon, are less likely to be accepted. Patient consent must be obtained prior to submission, and the patient consent declaration form must be sent with your submission to Rheumatology. The forms can be found in section 2L.

Title page
Unstructured text, starts with ‘Dear Editor,’
One key message (maximum 15 words)
References (up to 8)
Table/figure (up to 1, not including supplementary material)
Word Count: Up to 800
Patient consent declaration form

All Letters to the Editor (Case report) will be published online-only within an issue.

Please follow this submission template.

Letter to the Editor (Matters arising)

Matters Arising letters in response to articles published in Rheumatology should be submitted within 3 months of the online publication date of the article the letter refers to. The letter will be shown to the authors of the original article, who will be offered the chance to reply. A reference to the original article must be included in the paper. Replies should reference the first matters arising letter, as well as the original article. The title of the letter should be: Comment on: TITLE OF ORIGINAL PAPER. Replies to comments should be given the title 'Comment on: TITLE OF ORIGINAL PAPER: Reply.

Title page
Unstructured text, starts with ‘Dear Editor,’
References (up to 8)
Table/figure (up to 1, not including supplementary material)
Word count: Up to 800
Reference to original paper

All Letters to the Editor (Matters arising) will be published online-only within an issue.

Please follow this submission template.

Letter to the Editor (Other)

Other letters are short communications on issues affecting the field of rheumatology.

Title page
Unstructured text, starts with ‘Dear Editor,’
One key message (maximum 15 words)
References (up to 8)
Table/figure (up to 1, not including supplementary material)
Word count: Up to 800

All Letters to the Editor (Other) will be published online-only within an issue.

Please follow this submission template.

Clinical Vignette

Clinical Vignettes are a brief clinical report describing a unique image. All Clinical Vignettes must have patient consent, and the patient consent declaration form must be sent with your submission to Rheumatology. Forms can be found in section 2L.

Title page
Unstructured text
References (up to 2)
Figure (up to 1, not including supplementary material)
Word count: Up to 200

All Clinical Vignettes will be published online-only within an issue.

Please follow this submission template.

InSight

InSight papers are novel highly visual short summary pieces of up to 2 pages highlighting key findings of research with short bullet point descriptions. These educational papers are designed for optimum visual engagement and dissemination on social media platforms. InSight papers are published online and in print. For all InSight proposals please contact Emma Welsh, Head of Custom Content (emma.welsh@oup.com) before submitting your article.

Title page
Unstructured text
Clinical trial registration number (for all RCTs)
Keywords (up to 10 – please note that the word count refers to individual words, not phrases)
Key messages (up to 3, maximum 15 words each)
References: 10 maximum
Unlimited tables/figures/box diagrams
Word count: Up to 500

Guideline

Guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for practitioners on treatment and diagnosis of patients. They have an executive summary published in the print and online versions of the issue, and provide a summary of the key points. The full guideline is then published online only with no word limit.

Executive summary
Title page
Key words (up to 10)
References (up to 50)
Tables/figures (up to 6, not including supplementary material)
Word Count: Up to 3,500

Guideline papers are available as free-to-view or open access papers in Rheumatology online.

Obituary

Rheumatology prefers obituaries to be submitted within the first year of the person’s death. All potential obituaries need to be first approved by the Editor before submission. For a pre-submission enquiry please e-mail editorial@rheumatology.org.uk.

Title: Must contain the person’s name
Word Count: Up to 800

2B. Authorship

Authorship list

All individuals listed as authors should quality for authorship according to the following four ICMJE criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement 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.

Contributors who have made substantial contributions (including writing and editing assistance, see below) but do not qualify for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgements section. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) indexes authors and lists the names of collaborators if listed in the Acknowledgements. PubMed rules for this can be found on the PubMed rules page.

Changes to the authorship list are not permitted after a paper has been accepted. For further information about authorship, please refer to theICMJE guidelines.

Members of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) (or Data Monitoring Committee [DMC]) should be independent of the trial and not be involved in the preparation of the manuscript for publication or act as an author on the paper.

Ghost writing or writing assistance

Ghost writing is when someone has made a substantial contribution to the research, writing or editing of a manuscript and this role is not mentioned in the paper. Such writers are contributors to the manuscript and, if they are not included in the authorship list, their involvement, affiliations and any funding that was provided for their assistance should be included in the acknowledgement section of the paper.

AI tools

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see theCOPE position statement on Authorship and AIfor more details.

Group authorship

For studies involving a large multicentre group, a joint decision should be made to only list members who qualify for authorship and are willing to accept responsibility for the manuscript.

The involvement of a group in the authorship list should be indicated by the connector ‘and’, e.g.

Eric Hachulla, Patrick Carpentier, Virginie Gressin, Elisabeth Diot, Yannick Allanore, Jean Sibilia, David Launay, Luc Mouthon, Patrick Jego, Jean Cabane, Pascal de Groote, Amélie Chabrol, Isabelle Lazareth, Loïc Guillevin, Pierre Clerson, Marc Humbert, and the ItinérAIR-Sclérodermie Study Investigators

The other members of the group should be listed in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript. All authors must be aware of and agree to the submission of the manuscript to the journal. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) indexes the group name and authors and lists the names of collaborators if they have been listed in the acknowledgements. Please refer to the PubMed rules for more information.

CRediT

The Journal uses the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT), which allows authors to describe the contributor roles in a standardized, transparent, and accurate way. Authors should choose from the contributor roles outlined on the CRediT website and supply this information upon submission. You may choose multiple contributor roles per author. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed in your manuscript as non-author contributors with their contributions clearly described.

2C. Title page

Your manuscript must contain a title page with the following information:

Manuscript title (no more than 140 characters, including spaces)
Authorship list with author names in the following format: first name, middle initial (if desired), last name (e.g. John E. Smith)
Author affiliations in the following format: department, institution, town, state (for USA, CAN, AUS), country (e.g. Department of Academic Rheumatology, King’s College London, London, UK)
One corresponding author, with a full postal address, e-mail address and ORCiD iD provided. This information will be published if the article is accepted.

2D. References

Referencing should be in the Vancouver style, wherein references are identified in the text by Arabic numerals and numbered in the order cited. A reference list should be provided at the end of the manuscript’s main text. Complete information should be given for each reference, including the title of the article, abbreviated journal title, and page numbers. In instances where there are more than six authors, ‘et al’ should be used, otherwise all authors should be listed.

Personal communications, manuscripts in preparation, and other unpublished data should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in parentheses in the text, along with the name of the person and the institution. Authors should obtain permission from the source to cite unpublished data.

Titles of journals should be abbreviated in accordance with Medline. If a journal is not listed in Medline, its name should be written out in full. The University of Manchester has good examples of Vancouver references.

Article citation examples can be seen below.

Example of a journal article:

Hirayama T, Danks L, Sabokbar A, Athanasou N A. Osteoclast formation and activity in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis in rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology 2002;41:1232-9.

When an article has been published online but is not yet assigned to an issue the digital object identifier (DOI) number should be used as in the following example:

Bastin S, Bird H, Gamble G, Cundy T. Paget's disease of bone—becoming a rarity?Rheumatology 2009 published on 16 July 2009. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kep212

Example of a website:

Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Example of a book:

Mitchell SC, Waring RH. S-Oxygenase III human harmacogenetics. In: Damani LA, ed. Sulphur-containing drugs and related organic compounds, Vol. 2B. New York: Ellis Horwood, 1989:101-19.

The accuracy and completeness of the references is the responsibility of the authors.

2E. Statements (funding, conflict of interest, ethics and data availability)

Funding statement

All manuscripts must contain a funding statement, even if no funding was received for the paper. Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.

If no funding was received, the funding statement should be as follows: ‘No specific funding was received from any bodies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors to carry out the work described in this article.’

If funding was received, the sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by...’.

The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 sub-institutions) or 'NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies).

Grant numbers should be complete, accurate and provided in brackets, with a comma to separate multiple grant numbers, e.g. ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’.

Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency).

Where individuals must be specified for certain sources of funding, the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number: ‘to [author initials]’.

A full example of a funding statement is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.] and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [HFY GR667789].’

OUP will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.

Crossref funding data registry: In order to meet your funding requirements, authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about the CHORUS initiative, please visit the site.

Conflicts of interest

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal must contain a disclosure statement indicating any potential financial conflicts of interest that any of the authors may have. If none of the authors have any conflicts, insert a statement saying that the authors declare no conflicts of interest.

A disclosure form should be submitted alongside your revised manuscript. This form should be completed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors.For firstsubmissions, a disclosure statement in the main manuscript document is sufficient.

For additional information on the different types of conflict of interest, see the World Association of Medical Editors’ (WAME) policy statement on conflicts of interest.

Ethics

Where applicable, authors should state that their study complies with the Declaration of Helsinki, that the locally appointed ethics committee has approved the research protocol and that written informed consent has been obtained from the subjects (or their legally authorized representative).

All manuscripts in which experiments on animals are reported should include a statement that the experiments were conducted with full compliance with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles and local licensing regulations. The name of the authorizing body should be stated in the paper.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject papers for which the ethical aspects are, in the Board's opinion, open to doubt.

Data availability

Please include a data availability statement at the end of your manuscript. For example statements, see OUP’s research dataguidance.

More information can also be found in section 5D.

2F. Figures, tables and videos

Figures and tables should be included at the end of the main document or uploaded as separate files. All figures and tables must be referenced in the text and numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear.

Each figure/table must have a legend beginning with a brief title (up to 15 words)
Titles should be included as part of the legend, not as part of the figure/table
Legends should be a concise description of the data in the figure/table (up to 100 words each)
All symbols, error bars and abbreviations used in the figure/table should be defined
Common abbreviations form the standard list need not be defined, all others, including those that have been defined in the text will need to be defined in the figure/table legend
Data should only be presented in one form, either a table or figure

Preparing your figures

Prepare your figures at print quality resolution .tif files:

1200 dpi [dots per inch] for line drawings
600 dpi for colour and half-tone artwork
Parts of a figure should be labelled with upper case A, B, C, etc.
Figures should not contain more than one section unless the parts are logically connected
Scale bars should be used instead of magnification factors.
Graphs: 3D graphs should not be used unless necessary. If using hatching, please keep it simple
Forest plots: Please include the tabular information in the figure file with the forest plot.

If the figure files are too large to be submitted online, please email them to the Editorial Office (editorial@rheumatology.org.uk) using a free transfer service such as DropBox or WeTransfer.

For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to Cadmus or theOUP guide for authors.

For online submission, please also prepare a second version of your figures at low-resolution (72 dpi) for use in the review process only; these figures can be saved as .jpg, .gif, .tif or .eps format.

Colour figures

Colour illustrations are accepted, but authors will be required to pay the cost of reproduction (£100per figure). Alternatively, if the colour is not crucial for the image's scientific understanding, colour can be published online only, with a black and white version in the print Journal.

Line drawings

No additional artwork, redrawing or typesetting will be done. Faint or fine-grained stippling or shading or continuous-tone shading will be lost or may appear black on reproduction. Please use a coarse stippling or hatching.

Any previously published material should have relevant written permission of the author and copyright holder for its reproduction for both print and electronic perpetuity. Please include a statement in the figure legend acknowledging the original source.

Image manipulations

Rheumatology does not allow certain electronic enhancements or manipulations of micrographs, gels, or other digital images. Figures assembled from multiple photographs or images must indicate the separate parts with the lines between them. Any adjustments of contrast, brightness or colour must be applied to an entire image or plate equally. Selective enhancements or alterations of one part of an image are not acceptable.

When suspicions are raised regarding the authenticity of an image it is the Journal’s policy to investigate. Rheumatology may ask authors to provide additional documentation of their primary data and/or for copies of the original figures.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work. 

Alt-text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, photographs, and it isn’t required for tables and large datasets (unless the tables are provided as figures).

Alt-text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article.

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.

Preparing your tables

Each table should be typed on a separate sheet with an appropriate legend and footnotes explaining any abbreviations (footnotes should be indicated with an alphabetical letter a, b, c, etc.)
Tables must be numbered in consecutive order in order of appearance in the text
Must be in an editable format (e.g. Word file)
Each table should have a brief, descriptive title (up to 15 words) that is self-explanatory
Data provided in the table must be fully defined including units and a description of how the data is represented (e.g. mean (S.D.); n, %)
All P values must be defined. Bold text can be used to highlight particular information along if an explanation is given in the footnote. Shading in tables is not allowed

Videos

Videos can now be published in the online article with a still image of the video appearing in the print version. Authors should submit videos in mp4 or avi format. Still images to be used in the article must be provided and should represent as best as possible the main subject of the video. Video files should be clearly named as video 1, video 2 etc, and still images should be named ‘video 1 still image’. Any supplementary videos not published in the article should be uploaded as supplementary data. For more information about preparing videos for publication, please see our video and media guide.

2G.Graphical and videoabstracts

Authors of Original Articles, Reviews and Concise Reports are encouraged to submit a graphical abstractor videoas part of the article, in addition to the text abstract. The graphical/video abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article, and will be published as part of the article online and in PDF(videos will appear in PDFs as stills). The graphical/video abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. The file should be clearly named, e.g. graphical_abstract.tiff, video_abstract.mp4. SeePreparing and submitting your manuscript for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphicsand videos, andour handy guidefor creating and submitting video abstracts.

Note that graphical abstracts will be subject to any print reproduction charges that the journal levies for colour figures.

Not sure how to create a graphical abstract? Download our template to access examples and instructions.

2H. Supplementary material

Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the main text of the manuscript, but would benefit the reader, can be made available as online-only content. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, list of investigators, or additional figures.

All supplementary material must be provided in suitable electronic formats, in a separate file, in its final form. All filesto be considered as supplementary materialmust be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication. Please ensure that the filesintended as supplementary material are clearly indicated as such upon submission and are referred to in the main manuscript.

All supplementary material must be referenced in the main manuscript.
Tables should be labelled as ‘Supplementary Table S1’, ‘Supplementary Table S2’ etc.
Figures should be labelled as ‘Supplementary Figure S1’, ‘Supplementary Figure S2’ etc.
Text (e.g. supplementary methods) should be labelled as ‘Supplementary Data S1’, ‘Supplementary Data S2’ etc.
All supplementary tables, figures and data should have titles, as well as legends where appropriate.

Acceptable formats

A maximum of 10 files is acceptable to make up the supplementary materialunit for the article. The maximum size per file should not exceed 1.5 MB, and files must be as small as possible, so that they can be downloaded quickly. An HTML index page is usually created to link in the supplementary material file(s). Please provide short (2-4 word) titles for each individual file - these will be used to create links to the files from the index page.

Recommendations:

Pick a common cross-platform (PC, Mac, Linux/UNIX, Amiga etc.) format for your supplementary data to allow the greatest access.
Provide text files in MS Word (.doc), HTML files (.html) or RTF (.rtf) format. Files supplied in Word or RTF may be used to create a PDF file.
Provide spreadsheet files in MS Excel (.xls) or CSV format. Please send these to the editorial office to upload for you.
Provide image files in tif, gif or jpg format. Images should be a maximum size of 640 x 480 pixels (9 x 6.8 inches at 72 pixels per inch).
Provide movie or sound clips preferably in mpeg format.*

*Sound clips and movie clips can now be submitted via ScholarOne;there is no limit on file size.

2I. Clinical trial registration and reporting guidelines

Rheumatology requires the registration of all clinical trials in line with the ICMJE and WHO declarations. For submission of a randomized controlled trial, please provide the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry in the last line of the paper’s structured abstract. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) should be reported according to the standard guidelines outlined in the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement.

Any manuscripts submitted to ICMJE journals reporting clinical trial data must contain a data sharing statement, indicating:

Whether the authors intend to share individual de-identified participant data
What specific data they intend to share
What other study-related documents will be made available
How the data will be accessible
When and for how long they will be made available.

Furthermore, clinical trials that begin enrolling participants on or after 1 January 2019 must include a data sharing plan in the trial’s registration if they wish to publish results in ICMJE journals. Any changes to the plan after registration must be disclosed in the data sharing statement when published.

Systematic reviews or meta-analyses of RCTs should be based on the Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses (QUOROM) guidelines.
Meta-analysis of observational studies should be developed according to the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines.
Reports of studies of diagnostic accuracy should be prepared according to the Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) guidelines.

For further information, see Statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

To ensure the highest quality of research reporting, Rheumatology follows the EQUATOR network resource centre for good research reporting. Rheumatology strongly advises authors to follow the standard formats and guidelines provided.

2J. Style

Style and spelling

Oxford English spelling should be used. Authors whose first language is not English are requested to have their manuscripts checked carefully before submission. This will greatly help expedite the review process by helping to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. There are many specialist language editing companies that offer editing services and you can use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services. You may wish to contact AuthorAid, a network which provides free mentoring and English-language editing for researchers in low-and middle-income countries.

Abbreviations

Standard SI units of measurement should only be used. For all other abbreviations please refer to the journal-approved list.

Measurements

Measurements of length, height, weight and volume should be reported in metric units (metre [m], kilogram [kg], litre [l]) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius and blood pressure in mmHg. All other measurements including laboratory measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI).

Materials

When quoting specific materials or proprietary drugs, authors must state in parentheses the name, town/city and state/country of the manufacturer. Drug names should only be referred to by their generic non-proprietary names.

Statistics

Statistical methods must be detailed and should conform to published statistical guidelines.

2K. Preprint policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

2L. Required Forms

Conflict of interest forms

At the revision stage, we will ask the corresponding author to complete the conflict of interest form on behalf of all authors. The corresponding author should contact all authors to ensure the most up to date information is provided.

Patient consent forms

Rheumatology follows the ICMJE guidelines for patient reporting. The patient must be shown the manuscript to be published, and they must also read and sign this patient consent form. This consent form must be archived by the authors for seven years. In order to proceed with publication in Rheumatology, the authors must sign this declaration and enclose it with their submission. The paper will not be published without this confirmation.

3. Submitting your manuscript

All manuscripts are submitted and reviewed via ScholarOne Manuscripts. All authors must have a ScholarOne Manuscript account. Please check if your co-authors already have accounts before creating new ones by using the search box during submission.

If authors have a registered ORCID ID, this should be entered into the relevant field during the submission process. If you do not have an ID, you can register one for free at ORCID.

All manuscripts submitted for publication must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published figures, tables or parts of text are to be included, the authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission from the copyright holder prior to submission. This permission should be included at the time of submission.

By submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author (only one corresponding author is permitted per submission) and that the Editorial Office and Oxford University Press (OUP) may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. Please notify the Editorial Office and OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication, OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the submission process.

The Editorial Office may contact you with queries about your submission before your paper is assigned to an Associate Editor. Your manuscript will be unsubmitted so that you are able to respond to the queries. You should make the changes as requested and resubmit your manuscript so that we can assign it to an Associate Editor.

4. Peer review process

All submissions will be reviewed by the Editorial team. Papers may be rejected without full peer review and remaining papers will be sent for external peer review. All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential, and reviewers agree to also keep the material as confidential. Rheumatology operates a single-blind peer review process. Authors may be required to produce data on which their manuscript is based, or any supporting documents such as ethical approval letters.

4A. Decision

Your manuscript will receive one of the following decisions:

Reject before review
Reject after review
Minor revision
Major revision
Accept
Transfer

In the case of a transfer decision, the manuscript is offered for transfer to our open access journal, Rheumatology Advances in Practice. Authors of identified papers will be given the opportunity to indicate whether or not their manuscript should be transferred. If the authors agree to transfer their paper, there will be no need for re-submission. Any reviewer comments will also be transferred, resulting in reduced time to decision.

PLEASE NOTE: There will normally be Article Publication Charges (APCs) applied if your paper is accepted byRheumatology Advances in Practice. For details of these charges please visit the RAP website here.

4B. Revision

If you receive a minor or major revision decision, you are granted 28 days to revise and re-submit your manuscript. If you require a longer revision period, please contact editorial@rheumatology.org.uk.

4C. Appeals/Rebuttals

If you have reason to believe that the editorial process has not been fair or well-informed, you may submit an appeal via email to the Editorial Office (editorial@rheumatology.org.uk). The appeal should include:

Author name
Manuscript title
Manuscript ID
Decision date
An explanation regarding why you feel that thedecision was unfair
Specific comments in relation to the reviewer reports
Email and contact details

We will endeavor to respond to appeals as quickly as possible. We will consider one appeal per manuscript.

5. Publishing your manuscript

5A. Post-acceptance guidelines and production

Acceptance checklist

You may be contacted by the Editorial Office to submit any outstanding forms or files, and confirm any final small amendments to your manuscript. Please respond as soon as you can, so your paper can be transferred to Oxford University Press in a timely manner.

Proofs

Page proofs will be submitted to the corresponding author electronically. These should be checked thoroughly for any changes or typographic errors. It is the publisher’s intent to review and correct the proofs and publish the accepted work as soon as possible. To achieve this, it is mandatory that all corrections are returned to OUP within 3 days. Subsequent additional corrections will not be possible, hence please ensure that all amendments are marked up comprehensively in the proofs.

Corrections

Any significant errors will be corrected and a correction noticepublished online and in the print publication. Please inform the Editorial Office as soon as you spot the error and provide details of the paper including authorship, title and manuscript number.

Offprints

All corresponding authors will be provided with a free access link to their article upon publication. The link will be sent via email to the article's corresponding author who is free to share the link with any co-authors.

All authors have the option to purchase up to 10 print copies of the issue in which their article appears at a 50% discount. Orders should be placed using theauthor discount request form. Orders must be made within 12 months of the online article publication date.

5B. Copyright and permissions

Authors must grant an exclusive licence to publish to the journal, published by Oxford University press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. The licence agreement must be completed before publication online.

If previously published figures, tables or parts of text are to be included, the authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission from the copyright holder prior to submission. This permission should be included at the time of submission.

5C. Open access

Rheumatologyoffers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding, further information is provided on ourcomplying with funder policies page. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution. If you are unsure whether the journal meets your requirements, please contact theeditorial office.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Please note that some article types may have different rates for open access.

5D. Availability of data and materials

Rheumatology requires all authors, where ethically possible, to publicly release all data and software code underlying any published paper as a condition of publication. Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their article. This policy applies to all papers submitted to the journal on or after June 2020.

We require that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Before publication, large data sets (including atomic coordinates or electron microscopy maps for macromolecular structures, DNA or protein sequences, and microarray data) must be deposited in an approved database and an accession number provided for inclusion in the published article.

Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available here.

Other databases that aggregate published data for the use of the scientific community are supported by Rheumatology.

Useful links:
Genbank
International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration
EMBL
DDBJ
SWISS-PROT
Worldwide Protein Data Bank
BioMag Res Bank
Electron Microscopy Data Bank
MIAME
ArrayExpress
Gene names

Data Availability Statement

The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for articles published in Rheumatology. Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.

The Data Availability Statement should be included in the endmatter of your article under the heading 'Data availability'.

More information and example Data Availability statements areavailable.

Data and Software Citation

Rheumatology supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and the recommendations of the FORCE11 Software Citation Implementation Group. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list.

For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the guidance on Citing research data and software.

5E. Advance Access

Advance Access enables us to publish papers online soon after they have been accepted for publication. The unedited form of the accepted article will be published online, usually within 48 hours of the corresponding author completing the licensing agreement. The manuscript then goes through the production process (copy-editing and type-setting) and the final corrected manuscript replaces the unedited version.

As soon as a paper is included in Advance Access, it constitutes publication. The official publication date appears beneath the title of each manuscript article just before its Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

A 'Digital Object Identifier' is an automatically generated unique identifier for intellectual property in the digital environment ('10.1093/rheumatology/keh516' is an example of a DOI).

The DOI is attached to the manuscript once it is accepted for publication and remains the same even if different versions of recognisably the same item appear successively. It appears on every version of the manuscript, including the final versions in print and online, and reprints. DOIs facilitate online searches for particular papers.

Papers published in Advance Access are citeable using the DOI and publication date. An example of an Advance Access citation is given below:

Parodis I, Johansson P, Gomez A, Soukka S, Emamikia S, Chatzidiomysiou K. Predictors of low disease activity and clinical remission following belimumab treatment in systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatology. Advance Access published 15 May 2020, doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kez191.

The same paper in its final form would be cited:

5F. Promoting your research

Publicity

Articles that are considered newsworthy may be selected for press release. If your institution intends to issue a press release about your article, please contact the Production Editor at rheumatology@oup.com after you have received your proofs to arrange an embargo date for the publication of your article.

Press releases are also issued by Oxford University Press for selected content. If you feel your article is suitable for a press release please highlight this to the editorial office, as soon as the article has been accepted.

Author interviews

Your paper may be selected for a podcast or video interview. If so, the Editorial Office will contact you to arrange an interview to discuss your paper. For examples of author interviews, see our podcasts and videos.

Social media

Selected articles published in Rheumatology are shared on the @RheumJnl Twitter feed and Oxford University Press social media channels. Sharing your article online helps to increase the impact of your article. For useful tips and information, see our social media guide for authors.

Tips to promote your research

Rheumatology is committed to disseminating research globally. Publishing in the journal ensures that your research will be discoverable, and read by a wide and diverse audience. To further extend your article’s reach, and its Altmetric score, you may want to consider carrying out some of the below tips.

Add a link to your article in your email signature, on your institutional faculty page, LinkedIn and academic networking site profiles, or post it to a relevant forum
Share a link to your research on your social media channels. To get the most out of social media, see our social media guide for authors
Write about your articles on your blog, or become a guest author on another blog, such as the OUPblog. For blog posts to contribute to your Altmetric score, make sure you include a direct link to your article in the blog post, and email support@altmetric.com to let them know about the post

6. Other

6A. Misconduct

Rheumatology takes publication ethics very seriously. If misconduct is found or suspected after the manuscript is published, the journal will investigate the matter and this may result in the article subsequently being retracted.

An article is reviewed for publication on the understanding that the work it represents has not been submitted for publication elsewhere. All authors will be required to submit a statement confirming that the manuscript represents original work that has not been published, accepted or is currently being considered for publication elsewhere except as an abstract. If you have submitted your manuscript and are awaiting a decision, please do not submit elsewhere. Duplicate submissions are a strain on reviewers and journal office resources.

Rheumatology is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is committed to the highest ethical standards in journal publishing. The Editor may refer cases of misconduct to COPE for advice. All identifying information is removed before a case is sent to COPE.

6B. Disclaimers

Advertising and sponsorship

Rheumatology displays adverts in both the print issue and online. The content of the Journal is independently decided from the advertising planned for the issue and is not made available to advertisers prior to its publication. Advertisem*nt in the Journal is neither a guarantee nor an endorsem*nt by the British Society for Rheumatology, the Editors, the Editorial Board or Oxford University Press.

The Journal will publish adverts that meet appropriate legal requirements and are suitable for the Journal. All adverts are approved by the Editorial Office before publication. Advertisem*nts must be factually accurate and should not be misleading or offensive. No advertiser is given exclusive rights to advertise on the website or in the Journal. The Editorial Office reserves the right to decline any advertisem*nt.

The Journal occasionally publishes sponsored supplementary issues, which are fully peer reviewed. The editorial process is independent of funders or advertisers. If you have any comments about an advertisem*nt in the Journal, please contact the Editorial Office (editorial@rheumatology.org.uk).

Material disclaimer

The opinions expressed in Rheumatology are those of the authors and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the British Society for Rheumatology, the Editors, the Editorial Board, Oxford University Press or the organization to which the authors are affiliated.

Drug disclaimer

The mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations, and the inclusion of advertisem*nts in the Journal do not imply endorsem*nt by the British Society for Rheumatology, the Editors, the Editorial Board, Oxford University Press or the organization to which the authors are affiliated.

The Editors and publishers have taken all reasonable precautions to verify drug names and doses, the results of experimental work and clinical findings published in the Journal.

The ultimate responsibility for the use and dosage of drugs mentioned in the Journal and in the interpretation of published material lies with the medical practitioner, and the Editors and publishers cannot accept liability for damages arising from any errors or omissions in the Journal. Please inform the Editorial Office of any errors.

6C. Name Change Policy

Rheumatologyis committed to working with authors who wish to update their name and/or pronouns following article publication and will make such changes upon request. To update their article(s), authors should contact OUP directly atjournals.corrections@oup.com. OUP and Rheumatologywill respect authors’ privacy throughout the process, and a correction will not be issued. Further information on changing published articles.

7. Frequently asked questions

Q. Am I allowed two corresponding authors?
A. We recommend only one corresponding author to prevent confusion for readers. However, two corresponding authors can be arranged when necessary. Please contact the editorial office to arrange this.

Q. Can we have joint first or last authors?
A. No, but you are welcome to include a statement of equal contribution instead (see below).

Q. Can authors contribute equally to a paper?
A. Yes. On the manuscript, please use an * to indicate which authors have contributed equally on the title page, and add a statement e.g. *Dr John Smith and Dr Elaine Jones contributed equally to this paper.

Q. How do I check the status of my submission on ScholarOne Manuscripts?
A. Log in to your account and go to the ‘Submitted Manuscripts’ tab within your Author Center. There will be a ‘Status’ update. If you have any queries about your paper, please contact the Editorial Office, remembering to include your Manuscript ID number.

Q. Can I make a change to my paper after it has been submitted?
A. Depending on where your paper is in the ScholarOne system, and the nature of the query, the Editorial Office may be able to make changes on your behalf. Please email the Editorial Office with your manuscript ID and a description of the change required.

Q. Can I have an extension on my reviewer report or my manuscript revision?
A. The Editorial Office will deal with these queries on a case-by-case basis. Please contact the Editorial Office remembering to include your Manuscript ID, and how long you wish to have an extension for. The Editorial Office will then do their best to accommodate your wishes.

Q. I am having trouble adding certain files to my manuscript submission.
A. Please contact the Editorial Office who will be able to help you, including the Manuscript ID (if applicable) and the files that you wish to upload. If they are large files over 2MB, please send them to the Editorial Office using a free transfer service such as DropBox or WeTransfer.

Q. I have noticed a mistake on my paper after publication, what can I do to fix it?
A. Please send your corrections to the Editorial Office, who then liaise with the Production team at Oxford University Press on the next steps.

Q. How long will it take to peer review my manuscript?
A. Rheumatology aims to provide a quick service, without compromising a thorough peer review process. The exact time taken depends on many factors, such as responding to Editorial Office queries quickly, finding peer reviewers to accept a review request, how quickly reviews are returned. The usual length of the process is around 6-8 weeks but this may take longer on occasion.

Q. Is there a word limit on my manuscript?
A. Yes, please see our article types (section 2A). The word count applies to the main body of text only – that is from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. Title pages, abstracts, disclosure and funding statements, acknowledgements, tables and figures and references do not count towards the word limit.

Q. Where is the disclosure form and when do I need to use it?
A. You can download the disclosure formhere. It should be completed by the corresponding author in consultation with all authors. Please upload this form when submitting a revised manuscript. For first submissions, a disclosure statement in the main manuscript document is sufficient.

Q. Why has my manuscript been withdrawn?
A. Your manuscript may have been a duplicate submission, or the Editorial Office may have received no response to queries. On occasion, manuscript are withdrawn because they do not meet our aims and scope. If you are unsure as to why your manuscript was withdrawn, please email editorial@rheumatology.org.uk with your manuscript ID number.

Q. I have presented my work at a conference in the form of a poster/abstract. Can I still publish the full paper?
A. Yes, you can still publish the full paper. However, please include a note in the manuscript acknowledgements section to confirm that the work has previously been presented elsewhere, e.g. “This work was presented as a poster at the BSR Annual Conference 2020.”

More FAQs and guidance can be found within the Author Resource Centre.