Submissions
Author Guidelines
Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.
Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.
An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.
Instructions for Authors and Journal Policies
4.3. Duplicate Submission or Prior Publication
5. Article Types and Requirements
6. Editorial Policies and Ethical Standards
6.2. THORAC Express (Fast Track)
6.3. Principles for Publication of Research Involving Humans
6.3.2. Ethics Approval for Case Studies
6.3.3. Consent for Publication
6.4. Use of Animal in Research
6.5. Clinical Trial Registration
6.7. Research and Publication Integrity
6.8. Data Sharing and Accessibility
6.10. Authorship and Responsabilities
6.10.1. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
6.10.5. Role of Medical Writer
6.10.8. Author Identifiers (ORCID)
6.10.9. Deceased or Incapacitated Authors
6.10.10. Correction to Authorship
6.10.11. Potential Conflicts of Interest for Authors
6.11. Role of the Funding Source
6.13. Mandatory Forms and Signatures
7. Manuscript Preparation Guidance
8.2.3. Editorial Expressions of Concern
8.2.4. Removal of Published Content
8.3. Misconduct Handling Policy
8.3.2. Data Falsification and Fabrication
9. Publication Process After Acceptance
11. Supplement Publication Policy
THORAC Instructions to Authors
1. Aims & Scope
The journal aims to publish high-quality articles on clinical and experimental thoracic oncology. This open access journal publishes a variety of articles including original articles, review articles, case series, case reports, images in thoracic oncology, editorials, letters to the editor, guidelines, consensus, perspectives, and other content to improve clinical practice. Articles addressing health services, health care policy, and socioeconomic issues of relevance to thoracic oncology are welcome.
THORAC has adopted its current name in 2024 and is the continuation of Revista do Grupo de Estudos Cancro Pulmão founded in 2014.
2. Editorial Freedom
The THORAC adopts the definition of editorial freedom of the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) described by the World Association of Medical Editors, establishing that the Editor-in-Chief assumes full authority over the editorial content of the journal. The Grupo de Estudos do Cancro do Pulmão (GECP) as owner of the THORAC does not interfere in the process of evaluation, selection, programming, or editing of any manuscript and the Editor-in-Chief has full editorial independence.
3. Platinum Open Access
THORAC is a platinum open access journal and does not charge any author fees (APC - article processing charges). All articles published by THORAC are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication without charges.
Link to THORAC license Agreement
4. Submission Policies
Studies must be scientifically valid, following standards relevant to the field, and written in good English. Submission of a manuscript requires that the authors have complied with all policies in this document. Submission to THORAC implies that the content has not been published before in any language, in whole or in part, except as a brief abstract in the proceeding of a scientific meeting; and the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors as well as by the responsible authorities. The THORAC will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
4.1 Preprint Policy
THORAC accepts articles previously published on preprint servers. THORAC will consider for peer review articles previously available as preprint. If the article is accepted for publication, authors are requested to update any pre-publication version with a link to the final published article.
4.2 Permissions
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their manuscript. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
4.3 Duplicate Submission or Prior Publication
During submission, authors must state that neither the manuscript nor any significant part of it is under consideration for publication elsewhere or has appeared elsewhere in a manner that could be construed as a duplicate or prior publication of the same or similar work. Abstracts for scientific meetings are not considered previous publication but should be cited in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript. Posting of un-refereed manuscripts to a community preprint server by the author will not be considered prior publication; see the Preprints policy section above for additional information.
All articles must be submitted through our submission system. Submit manuscript!
Please read the instructions and make sure to download the required files that must be signed and sent along with your article: Download required files
4.4. Declarations
- Cover Letter
- Ethics Approval
- Consent for Publication
- Conflict of Interests statement
- Authors' contribution statement
- Acknowledgements
- License Agreement
- Personal Communications
- Use of Copyright-Protected Material
Before submitting a manuscript, authors must prepare the following documents:
The Cover Letter (template available here) should be written and signed by the corresponding author and include the relevant data to justify the article’s publication and its originality. Moreover, the cover letter must state that the manuscript has not been submitted to any other journal than the THORAC, has not been previously published, adheres to the structure and style of the THORAC, complies with ethical and legal guidelines, and indicates sources of funding (if applicable).
The Authors Contributorship Statement (template available here) should be filled out by the corresponding author and signed by all authors, specifying the contribution of each author and his/her responsibility for the data validity of the article’s content. Finally, each author should confirm the copyright policy.
Conflicts of Interest Disclosure (ICMJE template, available here). Authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest that could cause a bias (or be seen as a bias) in the conduct of their work in the individual ICMJE template declaration. Consequently, authors must disclose all financial and personal relationships related to the submitted work. They should also identify any benefits associated with the article’s publication, including stock or economic interests in companies or other institutions, wages or awards, grants or other forms of funding, consulting, patent rights, or other financial relations. The existence of conflicts of interest in publishing an article does not constitute a reason for rejection, as long as the said conflicts are appropriately declared. For any queries on what constitutes a relevant financial or personal interest, the authors should contact the Editor-in-Chief.
When applicable, authors should also submit:
- Consent for Publication
- Informed Consent of each participant
- Authorization to Reproduce/use (copyright-protected material) previously published material (for example Figures)
- Declaration of Approval by the Ethics Committees of the institutions involved
- Acknowledgements
- Personal Communications
All documents must be provided during the submission process, preferably through the online platform: https://thoracjournal.com/index.php/tcj/about/submissions
5. Article Types
Manuscripts are submitted to blind peer review by at least two anonymous reviewers except where otherwise stated. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editor-in-Chief and/or the Deputy Editors who reserve the right to reject any material for publication. Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style so that they are intelligible to the reader, including physicians from other specialties and the general public. When contributions are considered suitable for publication based on scientific content, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to modify the texts to remove ambiguity and repetition and to improve communication between authors and the readers. In the case that significant changes are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision. Manuscripts that do not comply with the instructions for authors may be returned for modification before being reviewed.
The THORAC publishes:
1) Editorials;
2) Review Articles;
3) Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis;
4) Original Articles;
5) Case Reports;
6) Images in Thoracic Oncology;
7) Letters to the Editor;
8) Study Protocols;
9) Perspectives;
10) Guidelines/Consensus.
Authors should indicate in the cover letter what type of manuscript is being submitted for publication.
6. Editorial Policies and Ethical Standards
6.1 Peer Review
Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity, and significance to help editor-in-chief determine whether the manuscript should be published in the journal. Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, and direct style. In addition, they must not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Reviewers must respect confidentiality and are not allowed to reveal details of any manuscript in the peer-review process.
If reviewers wish to involve a colleague in the review process, they should first obtain permission from the editor. Reviewers who choose to use AI-assisted technologies to support the review process must declare their use to the editorial team and are responsible for ensuring that any AI-generated content incorporated into the review is accurate and unbiased. All research articles and most other types of articles published in THORAC go through a double-blind peer review process (neither the author nor the reviewer knows each other's identity).
Reviewers are obliged to respect the confidentiality of the peer review process and not reveal details of a manuscript or review during or after the peer review process. If reviewers wish to involve a colleague in the review process, they must first obtain permission from the Editor. Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style.
The manuscript must not have been published in whole or in part or submitted for publication elsewhere. All submitted manuscripts are initially evaluated by the Editorial Team and may be rejected at this stage without being sent to reviewers. THORAC will send manuscripts to external reviewers selected from a pre-existing database or invite new reviewers to do so. Final acceptance or rejection is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief. Letters to the Editor will be evaluated by the Editorial Board but external reviews may also be requested. In the evaluation, manuscripts can be:
- Accepted without changes
- Accepted but subject to minor revisions
- Re-evaluated after major changes
- Rejected
The editorial process consists of 6 stages:
- Once the manuscript has been received, if it complies with the instructions to authors and meets the editorial policy, it is sent to the Editor-in-Chief.
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The Editor-in-Chief reviews the manuscript (maximum 5 working days) and validates whether the topic, originality and scientific quality of the article are suitable for publication in the journal. The manuscript is also evaluated for plagiarism, double publication and related issues.
The manuscript may be rejected at this stage, in which case the corresponding author will receive a notification. If the manuscript is not rejected, the Editor-in-Chief sends the manuscript to at least two reviewers. -
Peer review:
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The opinion of at least two experts in the field in question will be obtained, who will assess the technical and methodological aspects of the research (maximum 30 working days).
The reviewer must reply to the Editor-in-Chief with their comments on the manuscript under review and a suggestion as to whether the work should be accepted, revised or rejected. - The Editorial Board will make a decision which may be: to accept the manuscript without changes; to send the reviewers' comments to the authors as established; or to reject.
- When changes are proposed, the authors have 15 days (a period that can be extended at the request of the authors) to submit a new, revised version of the manuscript, incorporating the comments of the reviewers and the editorial board. They must answer all questions and also send a revised version of the manuscript, with the inserted amendments highlighted in a different color.
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The opinion of at least two experts in the field in question will be obtained, who will assess the technical and methodological aspects of the research (maximum 30 working days).
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Editorial review: The Editor-in-Chief has 10 days to make a decision on the new version: reject or accept the new version, or send it for further consideration by one or more reviewers. The aim is to make a decision based on the opinion of the reviewers.
In the event of acceptance at any of the previous stages, the Corresponding Author will be informed. - Final editing (4 weeks): the aim is technical and linguistic editing (and translation), pagination, DOI assignment and correction by the author.
- Publication ahead of print: All manuscripts will be published in advance on the journal's website as soon as they have finished the editing process, until they are incorporated into a final issue of the journal.
The editor's final decision to accept or reject a submitted manuscript is based on the following factors:
- Originality: original subject and/or method, with valuable information and presentation of new results or confirmation of previously verified results.
- Timeliness and/or novelty: topic that is on the agenda of scientific meetings or communications or is new.
- Relevance: applicability of the results to solving specific problems in orthopaedic practice.
- Innovation and significance: advances in scientific and technical knowledge and/or clinical practice.
- Reliability and scientific validity: good methodological quality.
- Presentation: good writing and organization of the text (good logical coherence and presentation of the material).
Although the editors and reviewers make every effort to ensure the technical and scientific quality of the manuscripts, the final responsibility for the content (namely the accuracy and precision of the observations, as well as the opinions expressed) lies solely with the authors.
After evaluating the manuscript, it can be:
- Accepted without changes
- Accepted but contingent on minor modifications
- Revaluated after major modifications
- Rejected
Even though the Editors and Reviewers make every effort to ensure the technical and scientific quality of the manuscripts, the final responsibility for the content (namely the accuracy of the observations as well as the opinions expressed) is the sole responsibility of the Authors.
6.2. THORAC Express (Fast-Track)
THORAC Express is a fast-track publication system available for urgent and important manuscripts that meet THORAC requirements for expedited review and publication. Fast-track publication can be requested through the manuscript submission process, clearly indicating the reason why the manuscript should be considered for expedited review and publication. The Editorial Board will decide whether the manuscript is suitable for expedited publication and will communicate its decision within 48 hours. If the Editor-in-Chief finds the manuscript unsuitable for expedited publication, the manuscript may be proposed for the normal review process or the authors may withdraw their submission. The editorial decision on manuscripts accepted for expedited review will be made within five working days. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the THORAC will aim to publish it ahead of print within 15 days.
6.3. Principles for Publication of Research Involving Human Subjects
6.3.1. Ethics Approval
When reporting a study that involved human participants, their data or biological material, authors should include a statement that confirms that the study was approved (or granted exemption) by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee and reference number) and certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association updated in 2013.
If a study was granted exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the reasons for the exemption).
Manuscript must:
- Include statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
- Include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and committee's reference number
Declarations of research ethics compliance must appear in the Methods section of Original Investigations.
Examples of statements to be used when ethics approval has been obtained:
- All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the Helsinki Declaration updated 2013. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the …(No. ...)
- This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki 2013. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of ..(Date.../No. ...).
6.3.2. Ethics Approval for Case Studies
Authors of Case Reports should follow their institution policies about whether ethics approval is required. If such approval is obligatory, the manuscript must include a statement about ethics review/approval. Most institutions will have specific policies on this subject. Since they typically include detailed case descriptions, Case Reports are generally considered to contain identifying information and therefore publication consent must be obtained. Authors should be aware to secure informed consent from the individual (or parent or guardian if the participant is a minor or incapable). See also section on Patient Protections / Informed Consent.
6.3.3. Consent for Publication
Whenever possible, and regardless of the article type, authors should avoid including any information identifying individual patients or participants.
If identifying information is necessary (includind any individual details, images or videos), the patient (or legal representative) must be shown the manuscript and sign a written publication consent.
All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.
Authors can use the THORAC form (Patient Consent for Publication in THORAC), or may use another form that contains equivalent elements. In submission, authors will be required to attest that a signed form has been obtained, and to provide a copy of the form.
In cases where images are entirely unidentifiable and there are no details on individuals reported within the manuscript, consent for publication of images may not be required. The final decision on whether consent to publish is required lies with the editor-in-chief.
Exceptions where it is not necessary to obtain consent:
• Images such as x rays, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, pathology slides unless there is a concern about identifying information in which case, authors should ensure that consent is obtained.
6.4. Use of Animal in Research
Any experiments involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and where relevant conform to national guidelines for animal usage in research.
6.5. Clinical Trial Registration
The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of a clinical trial is "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes". The WHO defines health interventions as “A health intervention is an act performed for, with or on behalf of a person or population whose purpose is to assess, improve, maintain, promote or modify health, functioning or health conditions” and a health-related outcome is generally defined as a change in the health of a person or population as a result of an intervention.
To ensure the integrity of the reporting of patient-centered trials, authors must register prospective clinical trials (phase II to IV trials) in suitable publicly available repositories. For example www.clinicaltrials.gov or any of the primary registries that participate in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.
The trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.
For clinical trials that have not been registered prospectively, authors are encouraged to register retrospectively to ensure the complete publication of all results. The trial registration number (TRN), date of registration and the words 'retrospectively registered’ should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.
6.6. Standards for Reporting
THORAC advocates complete and transparent reporting of research. Authors are recommended to adhere to the reporting guidelines hosted by the EQUATOR Network when preparing their manuscript.
Checklists are available for a number of study designs, including:
- CONSORT checklist for Randomized Clinical Trials
- STROBE checklist for Observational Studies
- PRISMA or MOOSE checklist for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – interventional and observational studies
- SPIRIT or PRISMA-P checklist for Study Protocols
- STARD checklist for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies
- COREQ checklist for Qualitative Studies
- CHEERS checklist for Economic Evaluation of Health Interventions
- STARI checklist for Implementation Studies
- SQUIRE checklist for Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence
- STREGA checklist for Associations between Genetic Factors and Clinical Outcomes
- CARE checklist for Case Reports
6.7. Research and Publication Integrity
THORAC considers irresponsible and unethical research practices to include fabrication (invention of data), falsification (tampering with data, including images), misrepresentation (plagiarism, duplicate publication, misattribution), intentional failure to disclose conflict of interests (COIs), or any other behavior that lessens the reliability or integrity of the research record.
THORAC takes seriously its responsibility to respond to suspicions or allegations of misconduct according to its misconduct handling policy.
For all Original Investigations, authors have a responsibility to report methodology accurately, clearly, and with sufficient detail such that the findings can be independently confirmed, and to retain the underlying data for at least 5 years after study completion, unless questions have been raised regarding the conduct of the research, in which case all relevant data must be retained until all such matters are resolved. Collectively, the authors are responsible for ensuring that the article is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained.
6.8. Data Sharing and Accessibility
In recognition of the increased attention given to reproducibility of research findings, and to enhance opportunities for research collaboration, each manuscript reporting a clinical trial must include a data sharing statement.
THORAC does not currently have a particular data sharing expectation (beyond the stipulation that data be available for editors’ inspection, as detailed in the Research and Publication Integrity section); the requirement is simply that authors be transparent about their data sharing intentions. Data sharing statements should specify the type of data that will be shared (e.g., deidentified, individual participant data underlying the results presented in the manuscript); whether other documents will be available (e.g., study protocol, statistical analysis plan, analytic code); if data will be available, the start and end dates of this availability; with whom data will be shared (e.g., anyone, researchers with a methodologically sound proposal); the types of analyses to be allowed (e.g., any, meta-analysis); and the procedure for requesting access.
Authors are encouraged to review the table in the ICMJE's publication regarding data sharing for further detail on the type of information to be included in data sharing statements and possible wording of such statements. Clinical trials that began enrolling participants on or after January 1, 2019, should include a data sharing plan when registering the trial, and should update the registry record if the plan is subsequently modified.
6.9. Copyright
Articles in THORAC are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
- Authors who publish with THORAC agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors may share and distribute their article on non-commercial websites and repositories immediately upon publication, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
6.10. Authorship and Responsabilities
6.10.1. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
THORAC policies generally follow those provided in ICMJE Recommendations, and the Core Practices of Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).
The recommendations stipulated by the Committee on Publication Ethics regarding the use of artificial intelligence in scientific research writing, as well as on the attribution of authorship of the manuscripts as established, will be strictly followed.
Important note: the THORAC may use software to screen for plagiarism.
Authors must follow the rules of good scientific practice, which include:
- The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
- The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work.
- A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (salami-slicing).
- Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image manipulation).
- No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.
- Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires, surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
- Reuse of Copyrighted Material: Any text, figure, table, or data from other sources must be clearly attributed. For all borrowed material, authors are responsible for applying for permission from the relevant publisher(s) for rights and are responsible for paying any permissions fees. In addition to providing proof of permission to the editorial office, authors must include appropriate wording in the figure legend or a table note to indicate the source of the material.
- Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Perspective, Review) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made.
- Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
- Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission.
- Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented.
- Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.
- At the time of submission, authors must declare whether artificial intelligence (AI)– assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AIassisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.
If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the THORAC will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:
- If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
- If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:
- An erratum/correction may be placed with the article
- An expression of concern may be placed with the article
- Or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.
The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the THORAC platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked.
6.10.2. Authorship
The THORAC follows the criteria on authorship recommended by the ICMJE Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors.
Designated authors should meet all four criteria for authorship in the ICMJE Recommendations:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.
Any potential authorship disputes brought to the editors’ attention will be handled in line with COPE guidelines.
6.10.3. Acknowledgments
Any individual who does not qualify as an author but who contributed to the work described in the manuscript must be named in the Acknowledgements. In particular, if medical writer(s)/editor(s) have been involved, their role must be explicitly acknowledged, and their affiliation/source of funding must be listed. Authors may also express thanks or note assistance in the Acknowledgements.
Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all mentioned in the Acknowledge.
6.10.4. Group Authorship
If authorship is attributed to a group (either solely or in addition to 1 or more individual authors), all members of the group must meet the full criteria and requirements for authorship as described above, and all group member authors must complete Authorship Forms. If all members of a group do not meet all authorship criteria, a group must designate 1 or more individuals as authors or members of a writing group who meet full authorship criteria and requirements and who will take responsibility for the group. Group names should appear at the end of the byline and should not be interspersed within the list of individually named authors. Group authors may not be included for article types with limited numbers of authors (eg, opinion articles).
6.10.5. Role of Medical Writer
If a medical writer was involved in the creation of the manuscript, THORAC need a signed statement from the corresponding author to include their name and information about funding of this person
- • This information should be added to the Acknowledgments and/or Contributors section
- • We require signed statements from any medical writers declaring that they have given permission to be named as an author, as a contributor, or in the Acknowledgments section.
6.10.6. Corresponding Author
One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors as the preferred correspondent with the editorial team during the submission and review process. Any author can be the corresponding author, but only one author can perform this role.
The corresponding author is responsible for the following requirements:
- Ensuring that submission requirements are met and submitting the manuscript to the journal
- Ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors
- Managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication
- Providing transparency on re-use of material; making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate
- Sending corrections and ensuring that the final version of the paper to be published is approved by all the authors
Third party submissions: All manuscripts must be submitted by an author and may not be submitted by a third party.
6.10.7. Author Contributions
THORAC asks all authors to specify their individual contributions. A brief description of the contribution of each individual listed as an author must be provided. Link to Authors Contributorship statement.
Examples of such statement(s) are:
- All authors contributed to the study conception and design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
- AA, BB, and CC: Material preparation, data collection, and analysis.
- DD: Writing the original draft.
- EE: Statistical analysis.
- FF: Conceptualization and supervision.
For more information consult CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy).
6.10.8. Author Identifiers (ORCID)
THORAC strongly encourages every author to register for and use an ORCID iD (a persistent digital identifier) that distinguishes each researcher from others with similar names, when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.
An ORCID iD connects an author’s affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more to ensure recognition for all contributions.
Additional information is available at https://orcid.org/
6.10.9. Deceased or Incapacitated Authors
For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.
6.10.10. Correction to Authorship
It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the list of authors is correct as far as the online submission form and the submitted text are concerned. Any changes to the list of authors, including the removal or addition of authors that occurs between the initial submission and the acceptance for publication will require a written agreement of all the authors, and reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. New authors are required to confirm their full compliance with THORAC authorship criteria. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Changes of authorship (addition or removal) are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!
Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.
In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the THORAC will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the THORAC reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.
6.10.11. Potential Conflicts of Interest for Authors
THORAC conflict of interest (COI) policies generally follow those of the ICMJE Recommendations. Authors must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as a potential COI. A COI may exist when financial or personal relationships with other persons or organizations may inappropriately influence or bias actions. There is a potential for a COI whether or not an individual believes that a relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. COIs can occur as the result of financial relationships, personal and family relationships, or academic competitive pressures.
Editors may use information in COI disclosures as the basis for editorial decisions.
6.10.12. Confidentiality
Authors should treat all communication with the THORAC as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.
6.11. Role of the Funding Source
- All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgment at the end of the text
- At the end of the Methods section, under a subheading “Role of the funding source”, authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication
- If there is no Methods section, the role of the funding source should be stated as an acknowledgment. If the funding source had no such involvement, the authors should so state.
6.12. Cover Letter
Cover letter (template available here), written and signed by the corresponding author, who must justify the publication of the article on the THORAC; point out that the article is original, was only submitted for publication on the THORAC and not previously published; mention that the manuscript adheres to the structure and style standards adopted by the THORAC; point out that the work complies with ethical and legal guidelines (recommendations of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association and has been evaluated and approved by the Ethics Committee, in the case of an original study); and indicate sources of funding
6.13. Mandatory Forms and Signatures
THORAC requests these forms in the manuscript submission:
- Authors’ Contribution statement
- Conflicts of Interest statements (ICMJE forms)
- Statements of role, if any, of medical writer or editor
- Acknowledgments—written consent of cited individual
- Consent for Publication
- Cover Letter
- THORAC License Agreement
- Personal communications—written consent of cited individual
- Use of Copyright-Protected Material—signed permission statements from author and publisher
These statements can be scanned and submitted electronically with your submission. Please note that THORAC will accept hand-signed and electronic signatures.
6.14 Advertising Policy
The journal sponsors are pharmaceutical industry companies or other companies that generate revenue through advertising. Other expenses are supported by the Grupo de Estudos do Cancro do Pulmão (GECP). Advertising cannot influence the scientific independence of the journal or editorial decisions and must conform to the general and specific health care and medicines legislation. Editorial independence is crucial to scholarly publishing and the editorial team has full authority to decide on the content of the journal. The criteria for editorial decision making regarding journal content do not include any perceived effect on advertising revenue. The editors have the right to review all new advertising proposed for the THORAC and may reject any advertising deemed not in keeping with the journal’s mission.
7. Manuscript Preparation Guidance
7.1 Language
The manuscripts submitted to THORAC must be written in English.
7.2 General Requirements
Manuscripts that do not follow the instructions for authors can be returned for modification before being revised.
It is important that the file is saved in the native format of the word processor. The text should be in a single-column format.
To avoid unnecessary errors, you are strongly advised to use the grammar and spelling checking functions of your word processor.
- Manuscripts should be sent in DOC, DOCX format, and should not be blocked or protected.
- The text of the manuscript should be typed double-spaced. Do not format the text in multiple columns.
- The texts must be formatted in letter "Arial", size 11. Titles and sub-titles must be marked in bold and size 12.
- All margins should be at least 30 mm.
- All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning on the title page.
- Specify any special characters used to represent characters that are not on the keyboard.
7.3. Manuscript Structure
Structure of the Manuscript Front Page (Separate Page)
- Title: Title (concise and objective, preferably with less than 12 words).
- Authors, Affiliations, and ORCID: Name of all authors (clinical or professional name) and respective affiliation (department, institution, city) and ORCID iD.
- Corresponding Author: Address and e-mail of the corresponding author.
- Ethical Considerations: Under the designation Ethical Considerations, indicate whether or not there are conflicts of interest and include information about patient protection.
- Prizes and Previous Presentations: Prizes and presentations of the study, prior to submission of the manuscript, must be mentioned.
Second Page
- Abstract: Abstract (maximum word count according to the article type). Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract.
- Keywords: Keywords (according to the article type) representing the main content of the article. Keywords should be easily searchable in indexing databases using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terminology found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/. In the manuscripts that do not require an abstract, the keywords should be presented at the end.
Following Pages – Manuscript Body
The following pages should include the main text of the article according to the specific sections of each type. After the references, the illustrations should be presented individually on a new page, in the following order: Tables and Figures.
Editorials
Editorials are usually invited opinion pieces, but authors may propose a paper for the Editor-in-Chief consideration.
- Word limit: Up to 2000
- Abstract: None
- Keywords: None
- References: Up to 10
- Figures/Tables: Maximum 2 tables/figures
- Authors: Up to 3
Review Articles
Review articles summarize and interpret existing literature on topics of interest to THORAC readership. Review Articles should be structured as follows: Abstract (maximum 300 words; unstructured); 3-10 keywords; Introduction; thematic sections at the discretion of the authors; Conclusion(s); Acknowledgements, if any; References (up to 70); and figure legends, if any.
- Word limit: Up to 5000
- Abstract: Up to 300; Unstructured
- Keywords: 3-10
- References: Up to 100
- Figures/Tables: Maximum 5 tables/figures
- Authors: No limit
Systematic Reviews with or without Meta-Analysis
Systematic Reviews with or without Meta-Analysis must be structured as Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion(s). The objective of a systematic review should be to produce an evidence-based conclusion. The Methods should give a clear indication of the literature search strategy, data extraction, grading of evidence and analysis. Systematic Reviews should not normally exceed 4000 words, with a total of up to 6 tables and/or figures and up to 100 references.
Authors are strongly recommended to consult the PRISMA statement (http://www.prisma-statement.org/), which is intended to help improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We encourage authors to develop a systematic review protocol (e.g. following PRISMA-P) and register with PROSPERO.
- Word limit: Up to 5000
- Abstract: Up to 300; Structured
- Keywords: 3-10
- References: Up to 100
- Figures/Tables: Maximum 6 tables/figures
- Authors: No limit
