SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT HERE

ANNOUCEMENT: The Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases has transitioned to an open access model. From May 1, 2023, submitting authors are required to agree to the article processing charge for open access publication on submission. The default pricing is US$1500 / EUR1500 for a CC-BY NC open access license. There is also an option to select the CC BY 4.0 license for US$2150 / €2150, which is required by certain funders. Waivers should be requested before submission. Invited articles are exempt from the charges. More detailed information can be found on this website through the tab “Open Access”.

SUBMISSION POLICY

By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.

Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article is original and unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Any possible conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, related to the submitted work must be clearly indicated in the manuscript.

The article type (Research paper, Review paper, Editorial, Case Report, Letter to the Editor, etc) should be clearly mentioned in the cover letter to help the editorial process.

This journal operates with single-blind peer review. If the author prefers double-blind peer review, then please submit the manuscript excluding the author listing and make sure the document is anonymized, and list the authors and affiliations only in the cover letter for the Editor. The double-blind peer review can only be activated from first submission onwards.

Note that the manuscript should be uploaded as a Word document. Figures, tables and supplementary material can be uploaded separately. A supplemental file such as a video can also be included with the submission (the file size maximum for a video is 25MB). If the video is too large to submit, please contact [email protected] to arrange a file transfer. For further information about submitting supplementary data please scroll down the page to the header “Supplementary Material”.

Note that the manuscript should be uploaded as one file with tables and figures included. This file can be a Word document, a PDF, or an embedded or zip file (.rar) if separate high resolution figures or a supplemental file such as a video are also to be included with the submission (the file size maximum for a video is 25MB). If the video is too large to submit, please contact [email protected] to arrange a file transfer. For further information about submitting supplementary data please scroll down the page to the header “Supplementary Material”.

Resubmissions should include the manuscript number in the cover letter. The author's replies to the reviewer comments should be included within the revised manuscript itself (at the top). The revised paper should always be a Word document.

Article Publishing Charge The Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases applies a required article publishing charge from May 1, 2023, onwards. More detailed information can be found on this website through the tab “Open Access”.

ETHICS POLICIES AND PATIENT PERMISSIONS

Procedures involving experiments on human subjects should be in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. The author must state compliance in the cover letter and in the Methods section of the article.

Procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects should be in accord with either the guide of the institution in which the experiments were done, or with the National Research Council’s guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. The author must state compliance in the cover letter and in the Methods section of the article.

Preferably patients in figures should be unrecognizable. Authors are responsible for obtaining patient permission for use of the material from all recognizable participants in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal or on the journal’s website. A statement that permission was granted by the patient must accompany the figure legend. Do not use study participants' names, initials, or hospital numbers anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Research Reports

Organization and style of presentation

Title page - Title (should be clear, descriptive and concise) - Full name(s) of author(s) - Full affiliation(s). Delineate affiliations with lowercase letters. - Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation - Running title (45 characters or less, including spaces) - Complete correspondence address, including telephone number, fax number and e-mail address

Leave the author information blank if double-blind peer review is wished for and anonymize your document, but do include the information in the cover letter.

Changes in Authorship When submitting the manuscript the author listing and order should be final. If any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list does need to be made after submission, this can be done only before acceptance and with the Editor’s approval. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (1) the reason for the change in author list and (2) written confirmation from all authors, including the affected author, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in an Erratum.

Please read the IOS Press authorship policy for further information.

Abstract and Keywords -The abstract for research papers should follow the "structured abstract" format: BACKGROUND: OBJECTIVE: METHODS: RESULTS: CONCLUSIONS: The abstract should try to be no longer than 300 words.

- For other papers such as Reviews, the abstract should be clear, descriptive, and self-explanatory, and no longer than 300 words.

- Include a list of 4-10 keywords. These keywords should be terms from the MeSH database.

- Note that ALL articles (except book reviews and letters to the editor) must include an abstract.

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Include individuals or companies which have assisted with your study, including advisors, administrative support and suppliers who may have donated or given materials used in the study.

If there are no acknowledgments, then do still include this section and insert: "The authors have no acknowledgments to report."

Funding

Include all funding sources for the study. If there is no funding involved, then do still include this section and insert: "The authors have no funding to report."

Conflict of Interest

All affiliations or financial involvement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in, or in financial competition with, the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript must be disclosed in the submitted manuscript.

If there is no conflict of interest to declare, do still include this section and insert "The authors have no conflict of interest to report". If an author is also on the Editorial Board of this journal, the following statement should be included in this section: " is an Editorial Board member of this journal, but was not involved in the peer-review process nor had access to any information regarding its peer review.''

Datasets/Data Availability Statement (Required for Research Reports, Short Communications, and Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analyses). All datasets and data articles cited in your manuscript should be included in the reference list of your article (not in a separate box or in the article text). Data references should include: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and identifier (DOI/URL/etc.). Authors should include a Data Availability statement at the end of the manuscript (before the References) to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. Authors are required to deposit sequence or proteomic data into a public repository (eg. GEO, Chorus) and include a link to the repository and data, and encouraged to publicly archive their research data including, but not limited to: software, algorithms, protocols, methods, and/or materials. Exceptions are made if sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements.

Examples for your paper's "Data Availability" statement:

References Authors are requested to use the Vancouver citation style. Place citations as numbers in square brackets in the text. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references at the end of the manuscript. List the references in the order in which they appear in the text. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be listed as (author(s), unpublished data). If an article has a DOI, this should be provided after the page number details. The number is added after the letters 'doi'. Manuscripts will not be considered if they do not conform to the Vancouver citation guidelines.

References must be listed in Vancouver style: [1] Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002;935(1-2):40-6. [2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002. [3] Berkow R, Fletcher AJ, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 16th ed. Rahway (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1992. [4] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGrawHill; 2002. p. 93-113. [5] Canadian Cancer Society [homepage on the Internet]. Toronto: The Society; 2006 [updated 2006 May 12; cited 2006 Oct 17]. Available from: www.cancer.ca/. [6] Tian D, Araki H, Stahl E, Bergelson J, Kreitman M. Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. In press 2002. [7] Fletcher D, Wagstaff CRD. Organisational psychology in elite sport: its emergence, application and future. Psychol Sport Exerc. 2009;10(4):427-34. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.03.009.

Datasets and Data Articles

All datasets and data articles referenced in your manuscript should be cited in the main reference list of your article (not in a separate box or in the article text).

Tables - Number according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables. - Provide each table on a separate page of the manuscript after the references. - Include a brief and self-explanatory title with any explanations essential to the understanding of the table given in footnotes at the bottom of the table. - Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

- Citations in the tables should be numbered and included in the Reference list.

Figure Legends

The author is required to have obtained patient permission from all recognizable participants in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal or on the journal’s website. A statement that permission was granted by the patient must accompany the figure legend. Do not use study participants' names, initials, or hospital numbers in the legend, figure, or anywhere in the manuscript.

Figures- Number the figures according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all figures. - Figures should preferably be formatted in TIF or EPS format. JPG is also acceptable. - Figures should be designed with the format of JHD in mind and preferable sized as they will appear when printed. A single column of the journal is 77mm and two columns are 165mm. - Figures should be at 300 dpi or higher and be cropped to include the figure only (no blank space). CMYK is preferred for color figures. - On figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales to avoid problems if the figure needs to be reduced. - Each illustration should have a brief self-explanatory legend that should be typed separately from the figure in the section of the manuscript following the tables. - Costs for color figures in the print version of the journal are as follows: 1 figure - 650 euro; 2 figures - 900 euro; 3 figures - 1050 euro; 4 figures - 1200 euro; 5 figures - 1350 euro. Cost for each additional color figure will be 150 euro. Color figures are free in the electronic version of the journal. You may opt to send in both black/white figures for print, and color figures for the online PDF (please adjust the figure legend appropriately).

Supplementary Data Supplementary material is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusion of a paper that cannot be included in the printed version for reasons of space or medium (for example, large tables, movie clips or sound files). The supplement will be available for download from the publisher's content library site at the time of publication and will be made available in the format in which it was provided (ie. it will not have any typesetting done).

Supplementary material can be included separately at the time of submission. In the case that the file is too big to submit, these can be submitted separately to the Managing Editor ([email protected]). Supplementary tables and figures must have a separate numbering system from that used for tables and figures that appear in the print version of the paper (the first figure displayed should be labeled "Supplementary Figure 1", the first table "Supplementary Table 1", and so on). References should also be cited in supplements started with [1] and listed separately.

Supplementary files are limited to 10MB, except videos which can be up to 25MB.

Supplementary material for Short Communications is limited to 500 words and 1 table or figure.

Statement on AI The Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases does not allow AI tools to be listed as an author of a paper. AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Reviews Reviews should be authoritative and topical and provide comprehensive and balanced coverage of a timely and/or controversial issue. Reviews should be prepared as detailed above for a Research Report, omitting Introduction through Discussion, and include a conclusion. An abstract must also be included. The length of the review article is at the discretion of the author but should be within reasonable limits. The Editor-in-Chief can be consulted regarding reviews of unusual length.

Systematic reviews or meta-analyses that include a methods section are typically considered as a Research report and should be formatted as such.

Short Communications A short communication is an article of original scholarship of unusual interest of less than 1500 words (not including references). An abstract of 100 words or less should be included with no subdivison of text into sections. References should be formatted as above. A total of two tables and/or figures are allowed.

Hypotheses A hypothesis article should be a balanced and insightful consideration of a topic with novel hypotheses well presented and supported. The article should be prepared as a Research Report but without Methods or Results sections.

Book Reviews Book reviews should be 750 words or less and without sections. Suggestions can be proposed to the Editors-in-Chief.

Letters to the Editor These are short letters to JND that are either: A). Relating to a specific issue/case history. Authors can submit a Letter to the Editor of 1000 words or less for possible inclusion. The Letter should include an abstract (100 words max) but no other subdivisions, and should not include more than 15 references and one figure or table.

B). A response to a specific article published in JND or elsewhere. Inclusion in JND will be based on editorial decision and revision may be requested. Letters relating to a previously published article will be shared with the authors of the original article for possible response prior to publication. The language used in the Letter should at all times remain professional. Letters should not exceed 500 words (excluding references) and should not include more than 5 references and one figure or table. Submit these to [email protected].

Commentaries Commentaries can be around 1000 words with an abstract and no other subdivisions.

REMEMBER TO INCLUDE

In cover letter: - Name, postal address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address of the corresponding author. - Name of an Associate Editor with expertise in the area of the study (if no Associate Editor is suitable, the Editorial Office will handle the submission). - Statement that all authors have contributed to the work, agree with the presented findings, and that the work has not been published before nor is being considered for publication in another journal. - A list of at least 4-6 potential reviewers knowledgeable in the area of the study and potential reviewer conflicts. - Statement that procedures involving experiments on human subjects are done in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. - Statement that procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects are done in accord with either the guide of the institution in which the experiments were done, or with the National Research Council's guide for the care and use of laboratory animals.

In manuscript: - Compliance with guidelines on human experimentation as well as protocol approval by a local Institutional Review Board should be specified. - Compliance with guidelines of animal experimentation as well as protocol approval by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee should be specified. - Statement of all financial and material support for this research and any potential conflicts should also be clearly identified in the the acknowledgment and Conflict of Interest sections. If there is no Conflict-of-Interest then still add this statement.

Resubmissions Resubmissions should include the manuscript number and a reference that the paper is a revision. The point-by-point response to the previous reviews should be included at the top of the manuscript. Please submit a tracked version of the paper so editors and reviewers can easily find the changes, or otherwise highlight the edited sections by color or by another detectable way.

Financial Disclosure All affiliations with or financial involvement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or in financial competition with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed in the letter of submission.

All financial and material support for this research and work are clearly identified in the manuscript including listing of support specified in the letter of submission that might constitute or give the appearance of influencing the findings, based on the judgment of the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Associate Editor handling the review of the manuscript.

PRE-PRESS AND PROOFS

The corresponding author will receive a pdf proof and is asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors. Please be sure to return your corrections as quickly as possible.

The corrected proofs will be placed in the online contents as a pre-press, and indexed in PubMed as "Epub ahead of print" article, after corrections are received from the authors. The pre-press article is fully citable by using the DOI number. This is not the final version. When the article is published in an issue, the final, updated version replaces the pre-press version.

Note: Any changes to authors or title after acceptance should also be sent to the editorial office ([email protected]) so our records can be updated. After acceptance, any additions or deletions to the list of authors MUST be approved by the Editor-in-Chief, and all authors on the manuscript must also sign off on the changes. Please see the section “Changes in Authorship” above for more information.

OPEN ACCESS

Gold Open Access Publishing (Open Access Option)

The open access option helps authors to comply with major funder mandates. This option allows authors the choice of paying a fee to make their article publicly available on the journal’s website immediately upon publication. The publisher will also deposit the final, published version of the open access article into PubMed Central within a month of the final publication. All open access articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY-NC).

The journal is compliant to publish articles funded by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust, which are under mandate to publish under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). After acceptance of the article, the author can select the preferred CC BY license in the provided open access payment form, which is linked in the acceptance letter. An extra fee applies for CC BY publications.

Green Open Access Publishing (Self-Archiving)

Authors who do not select open access publication may self-archive and post the final manuscript version on their own institution, company or funding agency repositories immediately upon acceptance. Authors that are funded by the NIH, Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust are welcome to deposit their final manuscript version to PubMed Central (Submission Method C) and Europe PubMed Central immediately upon acceptance. In all cases a publication reference and URL to the journal’s website must be provided on the first page of the manuscript.

Alternatively, the author can submit the final published pdf version of the article, which can be ordered from IOS Press. This service costs €150/US$170 and an order form will be sent with the galley proof of the article to the corresponding author. Ordered PDFs will be sent to the author after final publication of the article in an issue. IOS Press holds to no embargo period after final publication. Orders for a PDF of published articles can also be sent to [email protected].

See also the IOS Press Open Library for more information about open access options and you can check if there are any institutional agreements that you might be eligible for.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of your article Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Article sharing Authors of journal articles are permitted to self-archive and share their work through institutional repositories, personal websites, and preprint servers. Authors have the right to use excerpts of their article in other works written by the authors themselves, provided that the original work is properly cited. The consent for sharing an article, in whole or in part, depends on the version of the article that is shared, where it is shared, and the copyright license under which the article is published. Please refer to the IOS Press Article Sharing Policy for further information.

Quoting from other publications Authors, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or tables from a book or journal article, should make sure that they are not infringing a copyright. Although in general authors may quote from other published works, permission should be obtained from the holder of the copyright if there will be substantial extracts or reproduction of tables, plates, or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.

COMPLIMENTARY COPY AND PURCHASE

Complimentary copy The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal receives a complimentary PDF of their published article. The PDF is automatically sent to the corresponding author after the article is published in an issue.

Reprints and other orders

The online link to the published content can be shared freely. For commercial mailings of the PDF, please contact the editorial office ([email protected]). Free print copies of an issue will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues unless agreed upon in advance.

The possibility to place orders for reprints, additional journal copies, or print color figures can be done through an order form to which the corresponding author will be provided a link in the decision letter. If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation. IOS Press email: [email protected].

An author is entitled to 25% discount on IOS Press books. See Author's Discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

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