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Create a Free AccountThe American Journal of Pathology
Instructions to Authors
The American Journal of Pathology (AJP), the official journal of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) and published by Elsevier, Inc., seeks high-quality original research reports, reviews, and commentaries related to the molecular and cellular basis of disease. The editors will consider basic, translational, and clinical investigations that directly address mechanisms of pathogenesis or provide a foundation for future mechanistic inquiries. Examples of such foundational investigations include data mining, identification of biomarkers, molecular pathology, and discovery research. Foundational studies that incorporate deep learning and artificial intelligence are also welcome. High priority is given to studies of human disease and relevant experimental models using molecular, cellular, and organismal approaches. Case reports typically do not meet the criteria for inclusion.
Manuscript Categories. Regular Articles are categorized in the Table of Contents according to the following research topics: Animal Models; Biomarkers, Genomics, Proteomics, and Gene Regulation; Cardiovascular, Pulmonary and Renal Pathology; Cell Injury, Repair, Aging, and Apoptosis; Epithelial and Mesenchymal Cell Biology; Gastrointestinal, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Pathology; Growth Factors, Cytokines, and Cell Cycle Molecules; Immunopathology and Infectious Diseases; Machine Learning, Computational Pathology, and Biophysical Imaging; Matrix Pathobiology; Metabolic, Endocrine, and Genitourinary Pathobiology; Molecular Pathogenesis of Genetic and Inherited Diseases; Musculoskeletal Pathology; Neuropathology; Ocular Pathobiology; Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering, and Hematopoietic Elements; Tumorigenesis and Neoplastic Progression; and Vascular Biology, Atherosclerosis and Endothelium Biology. Not all topic areas will appear in each issue, as this is dependent on the content of original research accepted for publication. Upon acceptance, authors will be asked for their preference of topic category assignment; however, the Editors will make the final determination regarding topic category placement. There are no official limits to word count or number of tables and figures that can be included in Regular Articles, authors should consider their budgetary restrictions when preparing their manuscript. The Editors reserve the right to request reduction of text length or removal of data.
Short Communications are intended to provide a forum for the rapid publication of timely and significant findings, in brief. Manuscripts in this category should be concise but definitive, may be more descriptive and less mechanistic than Regular Articles, and must not exceed 12 double-spaced typed pages (excluding references and legends) and a maximum of 4 combined figures and tables; this limit is not to be circumvented by inclusion of excessive Supplemental Data. Categorization of manuscripts in this category is at the Editor's discretion.
In addition to original research articles, the Journal publishes articles categorized as Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Biological Perspectives, Commentaries, Guest Editorials, and Perspectives. Authors who wish to publish a Review or Mini-Review should send their curriculum vitae along with an outline of the proposed article for prior approval by the Editor-in-Chief; proposals should be emailed to ajp@asip.org. Reviews have a maximum of 6,000 words, 150 references, and 4 tables or figures (one of which is mechanistic); Mini-Reviews have a maximum of 4,000 words, 75 references, and 2 tables or figures (one of which is mechanistic). Supplemental data should not be overly utilized to expand beyond these listed parameters. Biological Perspectives are submitted by invitation only and provide streamlined, mechanistic insight into the current state of research in the discussed topic. Commentaries are submitted by invitation only and relate to a concurrently published manuscript. All invited papers are subject to the same review process as unsolicited articles. Guest Editorials and Perspectives are published by invitation only.
Review Process. The Editors perform an initial evaluation on all submissions to determine whether they believe the manuscript is within the scope of AJP and will also achieve a sufficient priority score to warrant publication. Priority is determined by the Editors' assessment of the manuscript relative to other papers being considered. The aim is that expeditious treatment will enable authors whose manuscripts do not meet these criteria to submit their manuscript elsewhere as soon as possible (average time to desk rejection in 2022 was 2.7 days). For manuscripts approved for external review, the Editor-in-Chief assigns an Associate Editor according to their expertise. The Associate Editor will solicit reviewers (typically, two to three external reviews are sought). Authors are encouraged to propose potential reviewers during the submission process. Authors may also request that specific reviewers not be used due to prior collaborations, known conflicts of interest, or direct competition. The Editors will make every effort to respect requests that are well-founded; however, the Editors do have the authority to utilize such a reviewer if it is necessary for expert peer review. It is the practice of the Journal to conduct a blinded peer-review process. The peer-review process is kept completely confidential; it is considered a violation of this confidentiality for authors to identify or attempt to communicate directly with peer reviewers or Associate Editors regarding their manuscript. All editorial communications should be directed through the Editorial Office at ajp@asip.org. The reviewer comments and Associate Editor's recommendation are evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief for disposition and transmittal to the authors. Every effort is made to complete the review process within 35 days of the date received.
Review Decisions. Only a portion of manuscripts will be accepted for publication. A number of worthy manuscripts will be rejected based on priority or for being out of scope. The Journal will advise authors whether the manuscript is accepted, eligible for resubmission after minor or major revisions, or rejected. A manuscript may be returned to the authors without outside review if the Editors find it inappropriate for publication in this Journal. Appeals (rebuttals) to rejection decisions must be submitted within 60 days to be considered.
Journal Scientific Integrity Policy. The Journal has developed principles for defining proper conduct and scientific misconduct as well as procedures for handling such matters. General guidelines are described below; detailed information can be viewed at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity. To report suspected misconduct relating to authors, reviewers, or Editors, send written complaint to the Editorial Office at The American Journal of Pathology, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 350, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9975 or ajp@asip.org. Issues relating to staff conduct should be directed to the ASIP Executive Officer at American Society for Investigative Pathology, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 350, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9975 or WBColeman@asip.org.
Authors
Authorship. Authorship is defined as 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) 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. Authors should meet all four conditions. When a group serves as a coauthor, the list of members (individuals or institutions) should be included in the Acknowledgements. When submitting a manuscript to the Journal, the corresponding author takes responsibility on behalf of all authors for the authorship, authenticity, and integrity of the research being reported. A current and functional email address needs to be provided for each author at submission; professional and institutional email addresses are strongly preferred. All coauthors will receive a notification email at the time of submission that requests their confirmation to be affiliated with the manuscript. Authors added at revision also need an email address provided in the system and will be sent the confirmation email request. Any change made to the list of authors (addition, removal, change in order) after manuscript acceptance requires consent of all authors and editorial approval.
Author Conduct. Authors should take special care that manuscripts submitted to the Journal are prepared in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see http://www.icmje.org); in particular the ethical considerations regarding authorship, conflicts of interest, redundant publication, and treatment and confidentiality of research subjects should be carefully adhered to. Additionally, the Journal takes great care to secure the confidentiality and integrity of the peer-review process; it is considered a violation of this confidentiality for authors to identify or attempt to communicate directly with peer reviewers or Associate Editors regarding their manuscript. All editorial communications should be directed through the Editorial Office at ajp@asip.org. The Editors will consider any deliberate ethical violation in either the reported research or the manuscript preparation and review to be actionable misconduct, the potential results of which may be manuscript rejection or public article retraction, reporting of conduct to the authors' governing institutions, and/or the denial to consider any future submissions to the Journal. Willful misconduct does not include incidents of honest misjudgment or inadvertent error. Detailed information regarding possible misconduct can be found in the Journal Scientific Integrity Policy at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity.
Manuscript Submission. Manuscripts should be submitted online via the Editorial Manager system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/ajpa/default.aspx). Detailed instructions on preparing and submitting files can be found on the author submission website at the above URL. Authors having difficulty submitting files online should contact the editorial office for assistance. Manuscript text, figures, tables, and supplemental data files can be emailed to the Editorial Office at ajp@asip.org. The cover letter must state any conflicts of interest (both financial and personal), affirm that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not being considered concurrently by another publication, and affirm that all authors and acknowledged contributors have read and approved the manuscript. Submissions will be eligible for review when the manuscript has not been previously published and is not under copyright at another publication (print, online, or in a non-English journal). Previous presentation of an abstract, poster, webinar, or oral presentation is permissible. Manuscripts appearing on a preprint server are eligible for submission to AJP.
Manuscript Preparation
General Information
Manuscripts should be prepared in the style of the Journal and in accordance with The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see http://www.icmje.org). The required file format for text is Microsoft Word. Standard abbreviations can be found in the CSE Style Manual: Scientific Style and Format (8th ed., 2014). All pages of the manuscript should be double-spaced and numbered (including references, tables and figure legends); line numbers should also be included to assist reviewers in making comments. Other formatting specifications (eg, font size and type, margin settings, etc) are left to the authors' discretion, as papers accepted for publication will be reformatted according to the print specifications of the Journal. Manuscripts not prepared in accordance with the submission guidelines detailed below may be returned to the authors. Authors are encouraged to include a list of nonstandard abbreviations to aid reviewers; however, the Journal does not publish abbreviations or keywords as part of the final article. In addition, authors should be ready to comply with Editors' requests for copies of any similar works in preparation, copies of cited manuscripts that are submitted or in press, and/or supporting manuscript data (eg, data not shown but summarized in the manuscript) that may aid the review process. The Editorial Office screens content for high similarities between accepted manuscript text and previously published content (PubMed-indexed and online-only material) by using the online plagiarism detection tool iThenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/about).
Initial Submissions
Initial submissions to AJP can be submitted in any format. Authors will be required to include all necessary manuscript, figure and supplemental data files along with a cover letter. Figures and tables can be embedded in the main text file or provided separately. Figures will need to be of sufficient resolution with legible labels. Stylistic requirements will not be imposed on initial submissions, authors who are invited to revise and resubmit will be provided additional instructions with their first decision letter. The following sections detail the requirements for manuscripts that have been through one round of external review and are recommended for revision or acceptance. Requirements below will need to be met prior to publication of an accepted manuscript.
Title Page. The title page must include a concise title accurately reflecting the findings of the work. Manuscript titles should not be formatted as a question and single word titles with a descriptive sub-title are not preferred. Full names (not initials) of all authors; department, institution and address where each author was affiliated at the time the research was performed; number of text pages, tables, and figures; a short running head (40 characters or less); grant numbers and sources of support (including departmental or institutional funding when no extramural funding was received); and name, mailing address, phone, fax, and email address of the corresponding author(s). Departmental affiliations should be in English. The Journal allows for two co-corresponding authors maximum. If an author changes employment after the study was performed, the new affiliation information for that author should be included as a footnote. Any relationships held by the author or an immediate family member (eg, employment, consultancies, board membership, stock ownership, funding, honoraria, expert testimony, patents or royalties, travel reimbursements, industry-supplied free reagents, etc) with any organization or entity having a direct financial or personal interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the article should also be clearly stated. Disclosures not directly related to the manuscript are also encouraged to be included for transparency.
Graphical Abstract. Including a graphical abstract for online publication is an optional feature. Authors are encouraged to generate a summary figure that clearly summarizes the main findings of the manuscript. This file will need to be a TIF, JPG, or PDF file and submitted under the Graphical Abstract file type. Assistance with generating a graphical abstract can be found here: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/visual-abstract. Authors can also include this summary figure as part of the main text, where it will require a dedicated legend and will be published in the printed version of the manuscript. Graphical Abstract files that are not also incorporated into the main text will be published online only.
Abstract. An abstract of 220 words or less should be prepared on a separate page and should be intelligible to the general reader without reference to the text. The abstract should clearly summarize the background, methodology, results, and significance of the study. Structured abstracts are not Journal style and will need to be revised to eliminate section headings. Abbreviations, external website links, and citations should be avoided.
Text. The remaining sections of the text, which should include Introduction, Methods (including any applicable Ethics statements), Results (including any applicable data sharing information), and Discussion (in this order), need not begin on new pages. Conclusions, Acknowledgements and Author Contributions are optional sections that appear after the Discussion if authors choose to include them. Commonly-abbreviated terms should be spelled out in their first occurrence and then may be referenced in abbreviation through the remainder of the manuscript. The Journal requires the use of official gene and protein symbols, to facilitate standardization of scientific communication. Consult the Human Genome Organisation Gene Nomenclature Committee website (http://www.genenames.org) for human gene names and symbols, the Mouse Genome Informatics Database (http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen) for mouse gene names and symbols, and UniProt (http://www.uniprot.org) for protein names and symbols. For a complete list of other approved nomenclature organizations (eg, bacteria, viruses), please contact the Editorial Office. Note that genes, loci, alleles, and genotypes are styled as italic; proteins, gene products, phenotypes, mRNAs, and cDNAs are not.
In Regular Articles and Short Communications first-person personal pronouns (I, me, my, we, us, our) should be kept to a minimum. Replace active verbs with passive verbs, especially with regard to eliminating first-person personal pronouns. Use present tense for figure legends since the data is static and is viewable now (except for describing what was done in an experiment) but past tense in the Results because this describes results that WERE obtained in the past. Headings in the Results section should be in present tense.
For Materials and Methods, authors should describe experimental and statistical methods in enough detail that other researchers can replicate results and evaluate claims. The Journal is a signatory of the NIH Principles and Guidelines for Reporting Preclinical Research (see http://www.nih.gov/about/reporting-preclinical-research.htm). Inclusion of method or reagent details as supplementary material is not acceptable. In addition, linking to protocols online is not permissible as there is no guarantee that the information will remain unchanged and accessible in perpetuity. The sequences of oligonucleotides, if not previously published, should be provided. Novel DNA or protein sequences should be deposited to an appropriate database (eg, Genbank, EMBL, SWISS-PROT), with the accession numbers included in the manuscript. When providing supplier information for materials sources, company name and location (city and state, or city and country) should be provided. When describing reagents such as antibodies, cell lines, animal strains, bacteria, and viruses, authors should include the source, characteristics, dilutions, strain, species, sex, authentication, etc. as necessary for repetition of the experiments. Website references to company or commercial information are not permitted. All novel materials and the procedures to prepare them should be described in sufficient detail to allow their reproduction (eg, DNA constructs, analytical software). Materials that are approved for investigational-use only should be clearly indicated.
Methods should state whether sample size was determined statistically prior to experimentation, whether samples were randomized (and how), whether data acquisition was blinded (particularly for subjective scoring methodologies), and what criteria were used to include/exclude data points or subjects. Experimental procedures should include the number of replicates performed and the number of samples in each experimental condition. Special care should be taken to assure that statistical methods are appropriate, with clearly defined statements of the statistical test(s) used, sample size, and measures reported (eg, mean, median, SD, SEM, confidence intervals). The Editors will seek the assistance of statistical experts as necessary to fully evaluate the validity of statistical methods reported.
Publication in the Journal implies that the authors agree, upon reasonable request, to share any materials or data that are integral to the results presented in the article, including whatever would be necessary for a skilled investigator to verify or replicate the claims. This may include original software code used in the data analysis. Agreement to share reagents or software code does not preclude the authors from implementing a Data Use Agreement. Authors must disclose upon submission any restrictions on the availability of materials or information, such as for patented or dual-purpose materials.
Reporting guidelines for specific study designs (eg, randomized controlled trials) can be found online via the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network (see http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines). Authors must affirm that the research protocol was approved by the appropriate institutional review boards or ethics committees for human (including use of human cells or tissues) or animal experiments and that all human subjects provided appropriate informed consent and/or that regulations concerning the use of animals in research were adhered to. If race/ethnicity is reported, authors should state who determined race/ethnicity, how the options were defined, and why race/ethnicity was important in the study. Authors should be prepared to provide study protocol number(s) if requested.
Authors should obtain permission from all individuals named (by full name) in the Acknowledgments who contributed substantially to the work reported (eg, data collection, analysis, or writing/editing assistance) but did not fulfill the authorship criteria. Likewise, authors should receive permission from all individuals named as sources for personal communication or unpublished data. Such permissions should be affirmed by the corresponding author in the cover letter. The list of members of a group author should also be included in this section. A list of individual Author Contributions may be placed at the end of the manuscript. Author initials should be used, and authors should be grouped according to applicable responsibility with each responsibility separated by a semi-colon. "A.B., C.D., and Y.Z. performed experiments and analyzed the data; W.X. and Y.Z. secured funding and designed the experiment." The corresponding author is also encouraged to include a statement of ethical assurance, such as, "X.X. is the guarantor of this work and, as such, had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis."
References. References should begin on a new page, be double-spaced and numbered in order of citation in the text, including citations in tables and figure legends. Citations that first appear in tables, figures, or supplemental data should be numbered according to the item's first call out in the text; a separate reference list should not be prepared for supplemental data. Complete author citation is required, the use of "et al" is only acceptable for sources with more than 35 authors. In this instance, list the first 6 author names and then et al. References should conform to the style of the Journal. Examples follow:
Journals: van Riel D, Leijten LM, Kochs G, Osterhaus AD, Kuiken T: Decrease of Virus Receptors during Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Virus Infection in Humans and Other Mammals. Am J Pathol 2013, 183:1382-1389
Electronic Journals: Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Med 2009, 6:e1000097. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097
Preprints: Pfau SJ, Langen UH, Fisher TM, Prakash I, Nagpurwala F, Lozoya RA, Lee W-CA, Wu Z, Gu C: Vascular and perivascular cell profiling reveals the molecular and cellular bases of bloodbrain barrier heterogeneity. bioRxiv 2021. [Preprint] doi:10.1101/2021.04.26.441465
Books: Frosch MP: Central Nervous System. Robbins Basic Pathology, 9th Edition. Edited by Kumar V, Abbas AK, Aster JC. Philadelphia, PA, Saunders, 2012, pp. 811-850
In press: To be used only for papers accepted for publication. Cite according to previous instructions with (in press) in place of volume and page numbers. Include digital object identifier (DOI) when available for online early publications (Epub ahead of print). Accepted manuscripts that are not yet in press (no DOI available) should not be included in references and are considered unpublished data.
Submitted Papers/Unpublished Data: Cite in text only as (unpublished data).
Product Inserts: Cite in text only: (Affymetrix technical note: Globin Reduction Protocol: A Method for Processing Whole Blood RNA Samples for Improved Array Results. Santa Clara, CA).
Web sites: Cite in text only. See Data Supplements section below for proper use of web site references. Use the DOI when available. Include the name of the institution sponsoring the web site, URL address with direct linkage to the referenced information, and date of last access.
Data References: This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.
Tables. Tables should be typed double-spaced and submitted after the main text on separate pages, as part of the manuscript. The required file format for Tables in the main text is MS Word; figure file formats (including those embedded in the text) are unacceptable. Tables should be black and white text only and should not include figures or other non-typeset images. Color or gray shading is not permitted. Emphasis may be represented by bold, italics, and underlining which is then explained in a table legend. Nucleotide sequences should be capitalized, not lowercase. Table footnotes can be noted with symbols of the authors' choosing. All symbol use in the body of the table will need to be clearly explained in the table legend.
Figures. Authors should give considerable care in preparing figures. Resolution and quality of submitted images is the responsibility of the author; as a routine, the Journal does not provide figure enhancement services. Images (such as graphs and schematics) should have a white background; color, black, or gray is generally unacceptable. Authors are encouraged to carefully consider whether bar or line graphs should be submitted in grayscale or color, paying special attention to the ability of a reader to distinguish between different data points. Patterns should not be used to fill in bars in bar graphs. Authors should refrain from using three-dimensional bars for single sets of data. All labels in figures need to be sized so they will be legible in print. Figures may consist of multiple related panels (labeled A, B, C, etc) described under one figure legend. Each figure (with all of its related panels) should be arranged on a single page, with panels reading from left to right, as it should appear in final publication. Text labels in figures should use a professional looking font such as Arial; Comic Sans should be avoided. Figure panels submitted on separate pages will be arranged at the publisher's discretion and authors may be encouraged to split figures if deemed necessary by the Editors. Figures should be sized to fit one column (8 cm) or two columns (17 cm). Maximum page length is 22.5 cm. Figures deviating from these dimensions will be sized at the publisher's discretion. Unwanted background material should be excluded, and edges should be straight. Scale bar measures included in images need to be legible to the reader and be replicated in the figure legend. If a scale bar is used, scale bars must be present on every applicable image. Ensure that numbers >10,000 are set with commas. Add spaces before unit of measure (eg, not 2kDa but 2 kDa). Set with space on either side of math symbols (eg, 2 + 2 = 4; not 2+2=4). Text in Figures can be capitalized as title case, or initial cap only, but must be consistent throughout all figures. X and Y axes should be aligned, when possible. Ensure that X and Y axis labels are phrased consistently: eg, "Time, days"; or "Time (days)"; avoid using simply "Days."
Figure Legends. Figure legends should be submitted in a list as part of the manuscript (separate from the figure files) and should adequately describe all descriptors: arrows, arrowheads, scale bars, insets, asterisks, boxes/circles/etc. in line graphs, and any other notations. Histology images should have all staining methods described, and either the magnification or the measure of the scale bar in the image should also be included. Descriptive text, rather than graphics inserted into the text, should be used when possible (eg, closed circles, open boxes, etc.); alternatively, a legend key should be included in the figure. Statistical significance (eg, P values) should be clearly defined using symbols of the authors' choosing. All symbol use in Figures needs to be explained in the corresponding figure legend.
Preparation of Images (Ethics): Taking photographs of the same source under varied fields of view, light intensity, magnifications, or contrast conditions without disclosing that the data are not unique to the present study constitutes suspect scientific conduct. Further, unless serial sections are used, the publication of identical-appearing images labeled with different staining techniques in different papers raises legitimate questions. Finally, reuse of one's data (ie, "self-plagiarism") is a copyright violation if the authors signed over copyright to the publisher; the reuse of such copyrighted images is at the sole discretion of the publisher, with proper attribution of the original publication a requirement of reuse. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel or blot, or from different gels or blots, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (eg, using dividing lines) and in the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable only if they are applied to the whole image, whether experimental or control image, and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original (Portions adapted with permission from the JCB). Any evidence of inappropriate manipulation may prompt the Editors to request an explanation and access to original data, which the authors must make available. Information can be found in the Journal Scientific Integrity Policy at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity.
Digital Art: Digital figure files are required for publication. The American Journal of Pathology's requirement for color images is RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color mode. Images submitted in RGB will retain the vivid reds, greens, and blues of the original digital files for online publication. The preferred file formats for digital figures are PDF, TIFF, and JPG. Use of PowerPoint (PPT) files is discouraged due to known conversion errors when consolidating to PDF as well as when processed through the production pipeline. For detailed instructions on preparing digital art for submission or production, visit https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions or contact the Editorial Office (ajp@asip.org).
Data Supplements and Non-Traditional Media. Figures and tables that are critical to the evaluation and understanding of the research presented, but which cannot be accommodated via the print medium (eg, video), will be considered part of the manuscript submission. Details of reagents (ie, oligonucleotides, antibodies) should be part of the main manuscript and not Supplemental Data (see Materials and Methods). Such files will be peer reviewed and published on the Journal website if the manuscript is accepted. Inclusion of supplementary material is at the discretion of the Editors, and data may be moved to the main article at their request. Supplemental figures (PDF, TIFF, or JPG), tables (MS Word or Excel), and legends (MS Word) should be prepared as above. Supplemental material published on the Journal website is subject to the same copyright as applies to the printed article. Online data will remain associated with its article and is not subject to any modifications or updates after publication. As of January 1, 2016, authors of accepted manuscripts are no longer charged for supplemental data being published on the Journal website. However, authors are still encouraged to minimize the size of their supplemental data files.
Complex data sets such as microarray data and gene sequences should be deposited in a reliable public archive. Microarray repositories should comply with the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) guidelines (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/info/MIAME.html). Examples include Gene Expression Omnibus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo) and Array Express (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress). Tissue microarray data exchange specifications can be found at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/3/5. Otherwise, the data may be published as supplemental data on the Journal's website (http://ajp.amjpathol.org).
Other materials that are not required to understand and evaluate the article may be stored on an institutional website and referenced as a URL within the manuscript text. In this case, the authors must assume responsibility for maintaining a live, unrestricted link to the material from the URL published within the article, in perpetuity. Failure to maintain a live, unrestricted link may result in retraction of the article by the Editors. Material that has been published previously (print or online) is not acceptable for posting as supplementary data. Instead, the appropriate reference(s) to the original publication should be made in the text and references.
The Editors will make the final determination as to whether a given data set is essential to the manuscript and whether they will require publication of the material on the Journal website. Failure to relinquish required materials for online publication can result in the reversal of a manuscript's acceptance.
For more information, please see the Research Data section below.
RESEARCH DATA
This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project. Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.
Data linking. If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that give them a better understanding of the research described. There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page . For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect. In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).
Mendeley Data. This journal supports Mendeley Data, enabling you to deposit any research data (including raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols, and methods) associated with your manuscript in a free-to-use, open access repository. During the submission process, after uploading your manuscript, you will have the opportunity to upload your relevant datasets directly to Mendeley Data. The datasets will be listed and directly accessible to readers next to your published article online. For more information, visit the Mendeley Data for journals page.
Data Statement. To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data statement page.
Article Transfer Service. This journal is part of our Article Transfer Service. This means that if the Editor feels your article is more suitable in one of our other participating journals, then you may be asked to consider transferring the article to one of those. If you agree, your article will be transferred automatically on your behalf with no need to reformat. Please note that your article will be reviewed again by the new journal. More information. Copyright. Copyright of published manuscripts is held by the American Society for Investigative Pathology, which must receive the assignment of copyright from the authors of accepted manuscripts. For US government employees, the above assignment applies only to the extent allowable by law. Details regarding copyright transfer and author rights will be presented by Elsevier, Inc., at the time of article production.
Authors wishing to republish images, tables, or text previously published elsewhere should provide proof of permission with their submission and should include the appropriate attribution in the figure or table legend or in the text. It is the responsibility of the authors, not the Journal, to obtain such permission from the copyright holder.
Publishing in The American Journal of Pathology automatically places authors in compliance with NIH Public Access Policy (see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm, Submission Method A). Any article noted as being funded by NIH, Wellcome Trust, or MRC or other groups for which Elsevier, Inc., has a transfer agreement (https://www.elsevier.com/about/open-science/open-access/agreements; such list is subject to change) will be deposited in PubMed Central (PMC), to be made available to the public twelve or six months after final print publication (as stipulated by the funding agency). Authors therefore should NOT complete a separate deposit of their material but will be contacted by PubMed Central for grant verification once the article has been received by the PMC article system.
Contact healthpermissions@elsevier.com regarding permission to deposit manuscripts in other government-sponsored repositories in cases where The American Journal of Pathology does not have a system in place to automatically deposit materials on behalf of its authors. Deposit of accepted or published manuscripts in any non-AJP repository without prior permission by the Journal is a violation of copyright.
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Embargo Policy. All information regarding the content of submitted or accepted manuscripts is strictly confidential. Information contained in or about accepted articles cannot appear in print, audio, video, or digital form or be released by the news media until the Journal embargo date has passed, not to exceed the publication date of the article. For detailed information on embargo release dates or for news media requests for preprint copies of specific articles, contact asipproduction@elsevier.com.
Financial Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest. All authors must disclose any current or former relationships held by the author or an immediate family member (eg, employment, consultancies, board membership, stock ownership, funding, honoraria, expert testimony, patents or royalties, travel reimbursements, industry-supplied free reagents, etc) with any organization or entity having a direct financial or personal interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the article. Authors should err on the side of full disclosure and should contact the Editorial Office if they have questions or concerns. This information should be provided at the time of submission and reiterated as part of copyright assignment. Failure to do so may result in manuscript rejection or editorial retraction of the article. Further information can be found in the Journal Scientific Integrity Policy at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/ajpa/content/integrity. Upon manuscript acceptance, all coauthors will be instructed to formally disclose all potential conflicts.
Publication Charges. As of January 1, 2016, there are no longer separate charges for color figures, black & white or grayscale figures, or composed tables. Corresponding authors who are current, dues-paying Regular Members of ASIP at the time of submission will be charged US $99 per page. All other Society members and nonmembers will be charged US $195 per printed page. Manuscripts arising from research in developing countries may be eligible for waiver of publication charges only if all authors are located in a qualifying country (for a list of eligible countries, see Group A and Group B countries at https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/). Otherwise, page charges will be applied to all non-editorial content. Review, Mini-Review, Commentary, and Editorial submissions publish at no cost to the authors.
Approval of Fees and Invoicing. Upon submission of an article, the corresponding author must state their agreement to pay the publications costs, as outlined above. A final invoice will be presented by Elsevier, Inc., immediately after publication; full payment is expected at that time. Failure to pay publication charges may result in the authors' inability to publish future articles in The American Journal of Pathology.
Open Access. In addition to publication charges outlined above, authors may elect to participate in the Journal's Open Access program. Articles published under Open Access will utilize the Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), allowing users to access and share the article easily. CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) will be made available only when required by the funding agency. All other copyright restrictions regarding reuse still apply. Cost to participate is US $2240 for corresponding authors who are current, dues-paying Regular Members of ASIP at the time of submission. All other Society members and nonmembers will be charged US $2800. Fees must be received before article restriction is lifted. Instructions for obtaining Open Access will be presented by Elsevier, Inc., at the time of article production.
Reprints. Reprints should be ordered when page proofs are returned; an order form is included with the proofs. Late reprint orders may result in additional fees. Author reprints will be supplied in CMYK color mode because it is a printed medium, but electronic reprints will be supplied in RGB color mode for visualization on screen. There is no extra charge for color reprints. Each coauthor is eligible to receive one complimentary electronic (secure PDF) reprint. No hardcopy complimentary reprints are provided.
Proofs. Article proofs are prepared and corrected using Elsevier's Proof Central online interface (https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/proof-central). Once the proofs are ready, the corresponding author will be contacted by email with a link to access the manuscript in Proof Central. Electronic page proofs will be provided in RGB, thus reflecting the online quality. Image files will be converted to CMYK for the printed journal; all images published online will be in RGB. Full instructions on completing proof corrections will be provided with the downloaded proof. The author should check the proofs carefully, mark any printer's errors, and answer queries as requested. Author changes should be kept to a minimum. Proof corrections and replacement figures (if any) must be returned within 48 hours to avoid any delay in publication.
Cover Figure. The cover figure is selected by the Editors from illustrations appearing in the current issue. Authors are encouraged to suggest a figure for consideration or include an additional cover figure submission along with their manuscript submission. Cover figures are published at no charge to the author.
Editorial Communications. All correspondence concerning editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief at The American Journal of Pathology, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 350, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9975, or emailed to ajp@asip.org. Appeals (rebuttals) to editorial decisions must be submitted within 60 days to be considered. Letters to the Editor will be printed at the Editors' discretion in the Correspondence section. The Editors will consider all refutations of previously published work, according to our usual standards of quality, with the original authors given the opportunity to respond to such criticisms.
Corrections are published upon request and after editorial review. Retractions are published upon request of authors or their institutions and may also be published by the Journal following a determination of scientific misconduct. Notes of Concern are published in response to editorial concerns relating to scientific or publishing misconduct by authors or reviewers or to alert the scientific community of an ongoing investigation.
[Revised: October 2022]
Instructions to Authors
The American Journal of Pathology (AJP), the official journal of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) and published by Elsevier, Inc., seeks high-quality original research reports, reviews, and commentaries related to the molecular and cellular basis of disease. The editors will consider basic, translational, and clinical investigations that directly address mechanisms of pathogenesis or provide a foundation for future mechanistic inquiries. Examples of such foundational investigations include data mining, identification of biomarkers, molecular pathology, and discovery research. Foundational studies that incorporate deep learning and artificial intelligence are also welcome. High priority is given to studies of human disease and relevant experimental models using molecular, cellular, and organismal approaches. Case reports typically do not meet the criteria for inclusion.
Manuscript Categories. Regular Articles are categorized in the Table of Contents according to the following research topics: Animal Models; Biomarkers, Genomics, Proteomics, and Gene Regulation; Cardiovascular, Pulmonary and Renal Pathology; Cell Injury, Repair, Aging, and Apoptosis; Epithelial and Mesenchymal Cell Biology; Gastrointestinal, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Pathology; Growth Factors, Cytokines, and Cell Cycle Molecules; Immunopathology and Infectious Diseases; Machine Learning, Computational Pathology, and Biophysical Imaging; Matrix Pathobiology; Metabolic, Endocrine, and Genitourinary Pathobiology; Molecular Pathogenesis of Genetic and Inherited Diseases; Musculoskeletal Pathology; Neuropathology; Ocular Pathobiology; Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering, and Hematopoietic Elements; Tumorigenesis and Neoplastic Progression; and Vascular Biology, Atherosclerosis and Endothelium Biology. Not all topic areas will appear in each issue, as this is dependent on the content of original research accepted for publication. Upon acceptance, authors will be asked for their preference of topic category assignment; however, the Editors will make the final determination regarding topic category placement. There are no official limits to word count or number of tables and figures that can be included in Regular Articles, authors should consider their budgetary restrictions when preparing their manuscript. The Editors reserve the right to request reduction of text length or removal of data.
Short Communications are intended to provide a forum for the rapid publication of timely and significant findings, in brief. Manuscripts in this category should be concise but definitive, may be more descriptive and less mechanistic than Regular Articles, and must not exceed 12 double-spaced typed pages (excluding references and legends) and a maximum of 4 combined figures and tables; this limit is not to be circumvented by inclusion of excessive Supplemental Data. Categorization of manuscripts in this category is at the Editor's discretion.
In addition to original research articles, the Journal publishes articles categorized as Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Biological Perspectives, Commentaries, Guest Editorials, and Perspectives. Authors who wish to publish a Review or Mini-Review should send their curriculum vitae along with an outline of the proposed article for prior approval by the Editor-in-Chief; proposals should be emailed to ajp@asip.org. Reviews have a maximum of 6,000 words, 150 references, and 4 tables or figures (one of which is mechanistic); Mini-Reviews have a maximum of 4,000 words, 75 references, and 2 tables or figures (one of which is mechanistic). Supplemental data should not be overly utilized to expand beyond these listed parameters. Biological Perspectives are submitted by invitation only and provide streamlined, mechanistic insight into the current state of research in the discussed topic. Commentaries are submitted by invitation only and relate to a concurrently published manuscript. All invited papers are subject to the same review process as unsolicited articles. Guest Editorials and Perspectives are published by invitation only.
Review Process. The Editors perform an initial evaluation on all submissions to determine whether they believe the manuscript is within the scope of AJP and will also achieve a sufficient priority score to warrant publication. Priority is determined by the Editors' assessment of the manuscript relative to other papers being considered. The aim is that expeditious treatment will enable authors whose manuscripts do not meet these criteria to submit their manuscript elsewhere as soon as possible (average time to desk rejection in 2022 was 2.7 days). For manuscripts approved for external review, the Editor-in-Chief assigns an Associate Editor according to their expertise. The Associate Editor will solicit reviewers (typically, two to three external reviews are sought). Authors are encouraged to propose potential reviewers during the submission process. Authors may also request that specific reviewers not be used due to prior collaborations, known conflicts of interest, or direct competition. The Editors will make every effort to respect requests that are well-founded; however, the Editors do have the authority to utilize such a reviewer if it is necessary for expert peer review. It is the practice of the Journal to conduct a blinded peer-review process. The peer-review process is kept completely confidential; it is considered a violation of this confidentiality for authors to identify or attempt to communicate directly with peer reviewers or Associate Editors regarding their manuscript. All editorial communications should be directed through the Editorial Office at ajp@asip.org. The reviewer comments and Associate Editor's recommendation are evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief for disposition and transmittal to the authors. Every effort is made to complete the review process within 35 days of the date received.
Review Decisions. Only a portion of manuscripts will be accepted for publication. A number of worthy manuscripts will be rejected based on priority or for being out of scope. The Journal will advise authors whether the manuscript is accepted, eligible for resubmission after minor or major revisions, or rejected. A manuscript may be returned to the authors without outside review if the Editors find it inappropriate for publication in this Journal. Appeals (rebuttals) to rejection decisions must be submitted within 60 days to be considered.
Journal Scientific Integrity Policy. The Journal has developed principles for defining proper conduct and scientific misconduct as well as procedures for handling such matters. General guidelines are described below; detailed information can be viewed at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity. To report suspected misconduct relating to authors, reviewers, or Editors, send written complaint to the Editorial Office at The American Journal of Pathology, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 350, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9975 or ajp@asip.org. Issues relating to staff conduct should be directed to the ASIP Executive Officer at American Society for Investigative Pathology, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 350, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9975 or WBColeman@asip.org.
Authors
Authorship. Authorship is defined as 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) 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. Authors should meet all four conditions. When a group serves as a coauthor, the list of members (individuals or institutions) should be included in the Acknowledgements. When submitting a manuscript to the Journal, the corresponding author takes responsibility on behalf of all authors for the authorship, authenticity, and integrity of the research being reported. A current and functional email address needs to be provided for each author at submission; professional and institutional email addresses are strongly preferred. All coauthors will receive a notification email at the time of submission that requests their confirmation to be affiliated with the manuscript. Authors added at revision also need an email address provided in the system and will be sent the confirmation email request. Any change made to the list of authors (addition, removal, change in order) after manuscript acceptance requires consent of all authors and editorial approval.
Author Conduct. Authors should take special care that manuscripts submitted to the Journal are prepared in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see http://www.icmje.org); in particular the ethical considerations regarding authorship, conflicts of interest, redundant publication, and treatment and confidentiality of research subjects should be carefully adhered to. Additionally, the Journal takes great care to secure the confidentiality and integrity of the peer-review process; it is considered a violation of this confidentiality for authors to identify or attempt to communicate directly with peer reviewers or Associate Editors regarding their manuscript. All editorial communications should be directed through the Editorial Office at ajp@asip.org. The Editors will consider any deliberate ethical violation in either the reported research or the manuscript preparation and review to be actionable misconduct, the potential results of which may be manuscript rejection or public article retraction, reporting of conduct to the authors' governing institutions, and/or the denial to consider any future submissions to the Journal. Willful misconduct does not include incidents of honest misjudgment or inadvertent error. Detailed information regarding possible misconduct can be found in the Journal Scientific Integrity Policy at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity.
Manuscript Submission. Manuscripts should be submitted online via the Editorial Manager system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/ajpa/default.aspx). Detailed instructions on preparing and submitting files can be found on the author submission website at the above URL. Authors having difficulty submitting files online should contact the editorial office for assistance. Manuscript text, figures, tables, and supplemental data files can be emailed to the Editorial Office at ajp@asip.org. The cover letter must state any conflicts of interest (both financial and personal), affirm that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not being considered concurrently by another publication, and affirm that all authors and acknowledged contributors have read and approved the manuscript. Submissions will be eligible for review when the manuscript has not been previously published and is not under copyright at another publication (print, online, or in a non-English journal). Previous presentation of an abstract, poster, webinar, or oral presentation is permissible. Manuscripts appearing on a preprint server are eligible for submission to AJP.
Manuscript Preparation
General Information
Manuscripts should be prepared in the style of the Journal and in accordance with The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see http://www.icmje.org). The required file format for text is Microsoft Word. Standard abbreviations can be found in the CSE Style Manual: Scientific Style and Format (8th ed., 2014). All pages of the manuscript should be double-spaced and numbered (including references, tables and figure legends); line numbers should also be included to assist reviewers in making comments. Other formatting specifications (eg, font size and type, margin settings, etc) are left to the authors' discretion, as papers accepted for publication will be reformatted according to the print specifications of the Journal. Manuscripts not prepared in accordance with the submission guidelines detailed below may be returned to the authors. Authors are encouraged to include a list of nonstandard abbreviations to aid reviewers; however, the Journal does not publish abbreviations or keywords as part of the final article. In addition, authors should be ready to comply with Editors' requests for copies of any similar works in preparation, copies of cited manuscripts that are submitted or in press, and/or supporting manuscript data (eg, data not shown but summarized in the manuscript) that may aid the review process. The Editorial Office screens content for high similarities between accepted manuscript text and previously published content (PubMed-indexed and online-only material) by using the online plagiarism detection tool iThenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/about).
Initial Submissions
Initial submissions to AJP can be submitted in any format. Authors will be required to include all necessary manuscript, figure and supplemental data files along with a cover letter. Figures and tables can be embedded in the main text file or provided separately. Figures will need to be of sufficient resolution with legible labels. Stylistic requirements will not be imposed on initial submissions, authors who are invited to revise and resubmit will be provided additional instructions with their first decision letter. The following sections detail the requirements for manuscripts that have been through one round of external review and are recommended for revision or acceptance. Requirements below will need to be met prior to publication of an accepted manuscript.
Title Page. The title page must include a concise title accurately reflecting the findings of the work. Manuscript titles should not be formatted as a question and single word titles with a descriptive sub-title are not preferred. Full names (not initials) of all authors; department, institution and address where each author was affiliated at the time the research was performed; number of text pages, tables, and figures; a short running head (40 characters or less); grant numbers and sources of support (including departmental or institutional funding when no extramural funding was received); and name, mailing address, phone, fax, and email address of the corresponding author(s). Departmental affiliations should be in English. The Journal allows for two co-corresponding authors maximum. If an author changes employment after the study was performed, the new affiliation information for that author should be included as a footnote. Any relationships held by the author or an immediate family member (eg, employment, consultancies, board membership, stock ownership, funding, honoraria, expert testimony, patents or royalties, travel reimbursements, industry-supplied free reagents, etc) with any organization or entity having a direct financial or personal interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the article should also be clearly stated. Disclosures not directly related to the manuscript are also encouraged to be included for transparency.
Graphical Abstract. Including a graphical abstract for online publication is an optional feature. Authors are encouraged to generate a summary figure that clearly summarizes the main findings of the manuscript. This file will need to be a TIF, JPG, or PDF file and submitted under the Graphical Abstract file type. Assistance with generating a graphical abstract can be found here: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/visual-abstract. Authors can also include this summary figure as part of the main text, where it will require a dedicated legend and will be published in the printed version of the manuscript. Graphical Abstract files that are not also incorporated into the main text will be published online only.
Abstract. An abstract of 220 words or less should be prepared on a separate page and should be intelligible to the general reader without reference to the text. The abstract should clearly summarize the background, methodology, results, and significance of the study. Structured abstracts are not Journal style and will need to be revised to eliminate section headings. Abbreviations, external website links, and citations should be avoided.
Text. The remaining sections of the text, which should include Introduction, Methods (including any applicable Ethics statements), Results (including any applicable data sharing information), and Discussion (in this order), need not begin on new pages. Conclusions, Acknowledgements and Author Contributions are optional sections that appear after the Discussion if authors choose to include them. Commonly-abbreviated terms should be spelled out in their first occurrence and then may be referenced in abbreviation through the remainder of the manuscript. The Journal requires the use of official gene and protein symbols, to facilitate standardization of scientific communication. Consult the Human Genome Organisation Gene Nomenclature Committee website (http://www.genenames.org) for human gene names and symbols, the Mouse Genome Informatics Database (http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen) for mouse gene names and symbols, and UniProt (http://www.uniprot.org) for protein names and symbols. For a complete list of other approved nomenclature organizations (eg, bacteria, viruses), please contact the Editorial Office. Note that genes, loci, alleles, and genotypes are styled as italic; proteins, gene products, phenotypes, mRNAs, and cDNAs are not.
In Regular Articles and Short Communications first-person personal pronouns (I, me, my, we, us, our) should be kept to a minimum. Replace active verbs with passive verbs, especially with regard to eliminating first-person personal pronouns. Use present tense for figure legends since the data is static and is viewable now (except for describing what was done in an experiment) but past tense in the Results because this describes results that WERE obtained in the past. Headings in the Results section should be in present tense.
For Materials and Methods, authors should describe experimental and statistical methods in enough detail that other researchers can replicate results and evaluate claims. The Journal is a signatory of the NIH Principles and Guidelines for Reporting Preclinical Research (see http://www.nih.gov/about/reporting-preclinical-research.htm). Inclusion of method or reagent details as supplementary material is not acceptable. In addition, linking to protocols online is not permissible as there is no guarantee that the information will remain unchanged and accessible in perpetuity. The sequences of oligonucleotides, if not previously published, should be provided. Novel DNA or protein sequences should be deposited to an appropriate database (eg, Genbank, EMBL, SWISS-PROT), with the accession numbers included in the manuscript. When providing supplier information for materials sources, company name and location (city and state, or city and country) should be provided. When describing reagents such as antibodies, cell lines, animal strains, bacteria, and viruses, authors should include the source, characteristics, dilutions, strain, species, sex, authentication, etc. as necessary for repetition of the experiments. Website references to company or commercial information are not permitted. All novel materials and the procedures to prepare them should be described in sufficient detail to allow their reproduction (eg, DNA constructs, analytical software). Materials that are approved for investigational-use only should be clearly indicated.
Methods should state whether sample size was determined statistically prior to experimentation, whether samples were randomized (and how), whether data acquisition was blinded (particularly for subjective scoring methodologies), and what criteria were used to include/exclude data points or subjects. Experimental procedures should include the number of replicates performed and the number of samples in each experimental condition. Special care should be taken to assure that statistical methods are appropriate, with clearly defined statements of the statistical test(s) used, sample size, and measures reported (eg, mean, median, SD, SEM, confidence intervals). The Editors will seek the assistance of statistical experts as necessary to fully evaluate the validity of statistical methods reported.
Publication in the Journal implies that the authors agree, upon reasonable request, to share any materials or data that are integral to the results presented in the article, including whatever would be necessary for a skilled investigator to verify or replicate the claims. This may include original software code used in the data analysis. Agreement to share reagents or software code does not preclude the authors from implementing a Data Use Agreement. Authors must disclose upon submission any restrictions on the availability of materials or information, such as for patented or dual-purpose materials.
Reporting guidelines for specific study designs (eg, randomized controlled trials) can be found online via the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network (see http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines). Authors must affirm that the research protocol was approved by the appropriate institutional review boards or ethics committees for human (including use of human cells or tissues) or animal experiments and that all human subjects provided appropriate informed consent and/or that regulations concerning the use of animals in research were adhered to. If race/ethnicity is reported, authors should state who determined race/ethnicity, how the options were defined, and why race/ethnicity was important in the study. Authors should be prepared to provide study protocol number(s) if requested.
Authors should obtain permission from all individuals named (by full name) in the Acknowledgments who contributed substantially to the work reported (eg, data collection, analysis, or writing/editing assistance) but did not fulfill the authorship criteria. Likewise, authors should receive permission from all individuals named as sources for personal communication or unpublished data. Such permissions should be affirmed by the corresponding author in the cover letter. The list of members of a group author should also be included in this section. A list of individual Author Contributions may be placed at the end of the manuscript. Author initials should be used, and authors should be grouped according to applicable responsibility with each responsibility separated by a semi-colon. "A.B., C.D., and Y.Z. performed experiments and analyzed the data; W.X. and Y.Z. secured funding and designed the experiment." The corresponding author is also encouraged to include a statement of ethical assurance, such as, "X.X. is the guarantor of this work and, as such, had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis."
References. References should begin on a new page, be double-spaced and numbered in order of citation in the text, including citations in tables and figure legends. Citations that first appear in tables, figures, or supplemental data should be numbered according to the item's first call out in the text; a separate reference list should not be prepared for supplemental data. Complete author citation is required, the use of "et al" is only acceptable for sources with more than 35 authors. In this instance, list the first 6 author names and then et al. References should conform to the style of the Journal. Examples follow:
Journals: van Riel D, Leijten LM, Kochs G, Osterhaus AD, Kuiken T: Decrease of Virus Receptors during Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Virus Infection in Humans and Other Mammals. Am J Pathol 2013, 183:1382-1389
Electronic Journals: Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Med 2009, 6:e1000097. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097
Preprints: Pfau SJ, Langen UH, Fisher TM, Prakash I, Nagpurwala F, Lozoya RA, Lee W-CA, Wu Z, Gu C: Vascular and perivascular cell profiling reveals the molecular and cellular bases of bloodbrain barrier heterogeneity. bioRxiv 2021. [Preprint] doi:10.1101/2021.04.26.441465
Books: Frosch MP: Central Nervous System. Robbins Basic Pathology, 9th Edition. Edited by Kumar V, Abbas AK, Aster JC. Philadelphia, PA, Saunders, 2012, pp. 811-850
In press: To be used only for papers accepted for publication. Cite according to previous instructions with (in press) in place of volume and page numbers. Include digital object identifier (DOI) when available for online early publications (Epub ahead of print). Accepted manuscripts that are not yet in press (no DOI available) should not be included in references and are considered unpublished data.
Submitted Papers/Unpublished Data: Cite in text only as (unpublished data).
Product Inserts: Cite in text only: (Affymetrix technical note: Globin Reduction Protocol: A Method for Processing Whole Blood RNA Samples for Improved Array Results. Santa Clara, CA).
Web sites: Cite in text only. See Data Supplements section below for proper use of web site references. Use the DOI when available. Include the name of the institution sponsoring the web site, URL address with direct linkage to the referenced information, and date of last access.
Data References: This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.
Tables. Tables should be typed double-spaced and submitted after the main text on separate pages, as part of the manuscript. The required file format for Tables in the main text is MS Word; figure file formats (including those embedded in the text) are unacceptable. Tables should be black and white text only and should not include figures or other non-typeset images. Color or gray shading is not permitted. Emphasis may be represented by bold, italics, and underlining which is then explained in a table legend. Nucleotide sequences should be capitalized, not lowercase. Table footnotes can be noted with symbols of the authors' choosing. All symbol use in the body of the table will need to be clearly explained in the table legend.
Figures. Authors should give considerable care in preparing figures. Resolution and quality of submitted images is the responsibility of the author; as a routine, the Journal does not provide figure enhancement services. Images (such as graphs and schematics) should have a white background; color, black, or gray is generally unacceptable. Authors are encouraged to carefully consider whether bar or line graphs should be submitted in grayscale or color, paying special attention to the ability of a reader to distinguish between different data points. Patterns should not be used to fill in bars in bar graphs. Authors should refrain from using three-dimensional bars for single sets of data. All labels in figures need to be sized so they will be legible in print. Figures may consist of multiple related panels (labeled A, B, C, etc) described under one figure legend. Each figure (with all of its related panels) should be arranged on a single page, with panels reading from left to right, as it should appear in final publication. Text labels in figures should use a professional looking font such as Arial; Comic Sans should be avoided. Figure panels submitted on separate pages will be arranged at the publisher's discretion and authors may be encouraged to split figures if deemed necessary by the Editors. Figures should be sized to fit one column (8 cm) or two columns (17 cm). Maximum page length is 22.5 cm. Figures deviating from these dimensions will be sized at the publisher's discretion. Unwanted background material should be excluded, and edges should be straight. Scale bar measures included in images need to be legible to the reader and be replicated in the figure legend. If a scale bar is used, scale bars must be present on every applicable image. Ensure that numbers >10,000 are set with commas. Add spaces before unit of measure (eg, not 2kDa but 2 kDa). Set with space on either side of math symbols (eg, 2 + 2 = 4; not 2+2=4). Text in Figures can be capitalized as title case, or initial cap only, but must be consistent throughout all figures. X and Y axes should be aligned, when possible. Ensure that X and Y axis labels are phrased consistently: eg, "Time, days"; or "Time (days)"; avoid using simply "Days."
Figure Legends. Figure legends should be submitted in a list as part of the manuscript (separate from the figure files) and should adequately describe all descriptors: arrows, arrowheads, scale bars, insets, asterisks, boxes/circles/etc. in line graphs, and any other notations. Histology images should have all staining methods described, and either the magnification or the measure of the scale bar in the image should also be included. Descriptive text, rather than graphics inserted into the text, should be used when possible (eg, closed circles, open boxes, etc.); alternatively, a legend key should be included in the figure. Statistical significance (eg, P values) should be clearly defined using symbols of the authors' choosing. All symbol use in Figures needs to be explained in the corresponding figure legend.
Preparation of Images (Ethics): Taking photographs of the same source under varied fields of view, light intensity, magnifications, or contrast conditions without disclosing that the data are not unique to the present study constitutes suspect scientific conduct. Further, unless serial sections are used, the publication of identical-appearing images labeled with different staining techniques in different papers raises legitimate questions. Finally, reuse of one's data (ie, "self-plagiarism") is a copyright violation if the authors signed over copyright to the publisher; the reuse of such copyrighted images is at the sole discretion of the publisher, with proper attribution of the original publication a requirement of reuse. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel or blot, or from different gels or blots, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (eg, using dividing lines) and in the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable only if they are applied to the whole image, whether experimental or control image, and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original (Portions adapted with permission from the JCB). Any evidence of inappropriate manipulation may prompt the Editors to request an explanation and access to original data, which the authors must make available. Information can be found in the Journal Scientific Integrity Policy at http://ajp.amjpathol.org/content/integrity.
Digital Art: Digital figure files are required for publication. The American Journal of Pathology's requirement for color images is RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color mode. Images submitted in RGB will retain the vivid reds, greens, and blues of the original digital files for online publication. The preferred file formats for digital figures are PDF, TIFF, and JPG. Use of PowerPoint (PPT) files is discouraged due to known conversion errors when consolidating to PDF as well as when processed through the production pipeline. For detailed instructions on preparing digital art for submission or production, visit https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-and-media-instructions or contact the Editorial Office (ajp@asip.org).
Data Supplements and Non-Traditional Media. Figures and tables that are critical to the evaluation and understanding of the research presented, but which cannot be accommodated via the print medium (eg, video), will be considered part of the manuscript submission. Details of reagents (ie, oligonucleotides, antibodies) should be part of the main manuscript and not Supplemental Data (see Materials and Methods). Such files will be peer reviewed and published on the Journal website if the manuscript is accepted. Inclusion of supplementary material is at the discretion of the Editors, and data may be moved to the main article at their request. Supplemental figures (PDF, TIFF, or JPG), tables (MS Word or Excel), and legends (MS Word) should be prepared as above. Supplemental material published on the Journal website is subject to the same copyright as applies to the printed article. Online data will remain associated with its article and is not subject to any modifications or updates after publication. As of January 1, 2016, authors of accepted manuscripts are no longer charged for supplemental data being published on the Journal website. However, authors are still encouraged to minimize the size of their supplemental data files.
Complex data sets such as microarray data and gene sequences should be deposited in a reliable public archive. Microarray repositories should comply with the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) guidelines (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/info/MIAME.html). Examples include Gene Expression Omnibus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo) and Array Express (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress). Tissue microarray data exchange specifications can be found at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/3/5. Otherwise, the data may be published as supplemental data on the Journal's website (http://ajp.amjpathol.org).
Other materials that are not required to understand and evaluate the article may be stored on an institutional website and referenced as a URL within the manuscript text. In this case, the authors must assume responsibility for maintaining a live, unrestricted link to the material from the URL published within the article, in perpetuity. Failure to maintain a live, unrestricted link may result in retraction of the article by the Editors. Material that has been published previously (print or online) is not acceptable for posting as supplementary data. Instead, the appropriate reference(s) to the original publication should be made in the text and references.
The Editors will make the final determination as to whether a given data set is essential to the manuscript and whether they will require publication of the material on the Journal website. Failure to relinquish required materials for online publication can result in the reversal of a manuscript's acceptance.
For more information, please see the Research Data section below.
RESEARCH DATA
This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project. Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.
Data linking. If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that give them a better understanding of the research described. There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page . For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect. In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).
Mendeley Data. This journal supports Mendeley Data, enabling you to deposit any research data (including raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols, and methods) associated with your manuscript in a free-to-use, open access repository. During the submission process, after uploading your manuscript, you will have the opportunity to upload your relevant datasets directly to Mendeley Data. The datasets will be listed and directly accessible to readers next to your published article online. For more information, visit the Mendeley Data for journals page.
Data Statement. To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data statement page.
Article Transfer Service. This journal is part of our Article Transfer Service. This means that if the Editor feels your article is more suitable in one of our other participating journals, then you may be asked to consider transferring the article to one of those. If you agree, your article will be transferred automatically on your behalf with no need to reformat. Please note that your article will be reviewed again by the new journal. More information. Copyright. Copyright of published manuscripts is held by the American Society for Investigative Pathology, which must receive the assignment of copyright from the authors of accepted manuscripts. For US government employees, the above assignment applies only to the extent allowable by law. Details regarding copyright transfer and author rights will be presented by Elsevier, Inc., at the time of article production.
Authors wishing to republish images, tables, or text previously published elsewhere should provide proof of permission with their submission and should include the appropriate attribution in the figure or table legend or in the text. It is the responsibility of the authors, not the Journal, to obtain such permission from the copyright holder.
Publishing in The American Journal of Pathology automatically places authors in compliance with NIH Public Access Policy (see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm, Submission Method A). Any article noted as being funded by NIH, Wellcome Trust, or MRC or other groups for which Elsevier, Inc., has a transfer agreement (https://www.elsevier.com/about/open-science/open-access/agreements; such list is subject to change) will be deposited in PubMed Central (PMC), to be made available to the public twelve or six months after final print publication (as stipulated by the funding agency). Authors therefore should NOT complete a separate deposit of their material but will be contacted by PubMed Central for grant verification once the article has been received by the PMC article system.
Contact healthpermissions@elsevier.com regarding permission to deposit manuscripts in other government-sponsored repositories in cases where The American Journal of Pathology does not have a system in place to automatically deposit materials on behalf of its authors. Deposit of accepted or published manuscripts in any non-AJP repository without prior permission by the Journal is a violation of copyright.
Elsevier supports responsible sharing. Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.
Embargo Policy. All information regarding the content of submitted or accepted manuscripts is strictly confidential. Information contained in or about accepted articles cannot appear in print, audio, video, or digital form or be released by the news media until the Journal embargo date has passed, not to exceed the publication date of the article. For detailed information on embargo release dates or for news media requests for preprint copies of specific articles, contact asipproduction@elsevier.com.
Financial Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest. All authors must disclose any current or former relationships held by the author or an immediate family member (eg, employment, consultancies, board membership, stock ownership, funding, honoraria, expert testimony, patents or royalties, travel reimbursements, industry-supplied free reagents, etc) with any organization or entity having a direct financial or personal interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the article. Authors should err on the side of full disclosure and should contact the Editorial Office if they have questions or concerns. This information should be provided at the time of submission and reiterated as part of copyright assignment. Failure to do so may result in manuscript rejection or editorial retraction of the article. Further information can be found in the Journal Scientific Integrity Policy at http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/ajpa/content/integrity. Upon manuscript acceptance, all coauthors will be instructed to formally disclose all potential conflicts.
Publication Charges. As of January 1, 2016, there are no longer separate charges for color figures, black & white or grayscale figures, or composed tables. Corresponding authors who are current, dues-paying Regular Members of ASIP at the time of submission will be charged US $99 per page. All other Society members and nonmembers will be charged US $195 per printed page. Manuscripts arising from research in developing countries may be eligible for waiver of publication charges only if all authors are located in a qualifying country (for a list of eligible countries, see Group A and Group B countries at https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/). Otherwise, page charges will be applied to all non-editorial content. Review, Mini-Review, Commentary, and Editorial submissions publish at no cost to the authors.
Approval of Fees and Invoicing. Upon submission of an article, the corresponding author must state their agreement to pay the publications costs, as outlined above. A final invoice will be presented by Elsevier, Inc., immediately after publication; full payment is expected at that time. Failure to pay publication charges may result in the authors' inability to publish future articles in The American Journal of Pathology.
Open Access. In addition to publication charges outlined above, authors may elect to participate in the Journal's Open Access program. Articles published under Open Access will utilize the Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), allowing users to access and share the article easily. CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) will be made available only when required by the funding agency. All other copyright restrictions regarding reuse still apply. Cost to participate is US $2240 for corresponding authors who are current, dues-paying Regular Members of ASIP at the time of submission. All other Society members and nonmembers will be charged US $2800. Fees must be received before article restriction is lifted. Instructions for obtaining Open Access will be presented by Elsevier, Inc., at the time of article production.
Reprints. Reprints should be ordered when page proofs are returned; an order form is included with the proofs. Late reprint orders may result in additional fees. Author reprints will be supplied in CMYK color mode because it is a printed medium, but electronic reprints will be supplied in RGB color mode for visualization on screen. There is no extra charge for color reprints. Each coauthor is eligible to receive one complimentary electronic (secure PDF) reprint. No hardcopy complimentary reprints are provided.
Proofs. Article proofs are prepared and corrected using Elsevier's Proof Central online interface (https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/proof-central). Once the proofs are ready, the corresponding author will be contacted by email with a link to access the manuscript in Proof Central. Electronic page proofs will be provided in RGB, thus reflecting the online quality. Image files will be converted to CMYK for the printed journal; all images published online will be in RGB. Full instructions on completing proof corrections will be provided with the downloaded proof. The author should check the proofs carefully, mark any printer's errors, and answer queries as requested. Author changes should be kept to a minimum. Proof corrections and replacement figures (if any) must be returned within 48 hours to avoid any delay in publication.
Cover Figure. The cover figure is selected by the Editors from illustrations appearing in the current issue. Authors are encouraged to suggest a figure for consideration or include an additional cover figure submission along with their manuscript submission. Cover figures are published at no charge to the author.
Editorial Communications. All correspondence concerning editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief at The American Journal of Pathology, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 350, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9975, or emailed to ajp@asip.org. Appeals (rebuttals) to editorial decisions must be submitted within 60 days to be considered. Letters to the Editor will be printed at the Editors' discretion in the Correspondence section. The Editors will consider all refutations of previously published work, according to our usual standards of quality, with the original authors given the opportunity to respond to such criticisms.
Corrections are published upon request and after editorial review. Retractions are published upon request of authors or their institutions and may also be published by the Journal following a determination of scientific misconduct. Notes of Concern are published in response to editorial concerns relating to scientific or publishing misconduct by authors or reviewers or to alert the scientific community of an ongoing investigation.
[Revised: October 2022]
