Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology
(ASIA-PAC J CLIN ONCO ) 《Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology》

Author Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology. Please consult the following instructions to help you prepare your manuscript, and feel free to contact us with any questions. To ensure fast peer review and publication, manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review. We are looking forward to your submission.

The Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology is an online journal. Online-only publication is the quickest route to publication and your accepted article will appear in an e-only published issue in a fully indexed and fully citable form. Editor's choice articles will also appear in print.

1. AIMS AND SCOPE

The Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology is a multidisciplinary journal of oncology that aims to be a forum for facilitating collaboration and exchanging information on what is happening in different countries of the Asia-Pacific region in relation to cancer treatment and care. The Journal is ideally positioned to receive publications that deal with diversity in cancer behavior, management and outcome related to ethnic, cultural, economic and other differences between populations. In addition to original articles, the Journal publishes reviews, editorials, letters to the Editor and short communications. Case reports are generally not considered for publication, only exceptional papers in which Editors find extraordinary oncological value may be considered for review. The Journal encourages clinical studies, particularly prospectively designed clinical trials.

2. EDITORIAL REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer reviewed by two anonymous reviewers and the Editor. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.
Manuscripts should be written so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. They should be written in a clear, concise, direct style. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of scientific content, the Editor or the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

3. PRE-SUBMISSION RESOURCES

Author Services
Prior to submission, we encourage you to browse the 'Author Resources' section of the Wiley 'Author Services' website: http://authorservices.wiley.com/default.asp. This site includes useful information covering such topics as copyright matters, ethics, electronic artwork guidelines, and how to optimise articles for search engines.

Pre-submission English-language editing
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found athttp://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/english_language.asp. Japanese authors can also find a list of local English improvement services at http://www.wiley.co.jp/journals/editcontribute.html. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.

4. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Contributions may take the form of Original Articles, Review Articles or Letters to the Editor. Case Reports will only be considered if they are of exceptional scientific or educational interest.

Manuscript categories
i. Original Articles

Word limit: 3,500 words maximum excluding abstract and references
Abstract: 250 words maximum and must include subheadings (Introduction, Method, Results, Conclusion)
References: up to 50
Figures/Tables: up to 5
Description: Full-length reports of current research in either basic or clinical science

ii. Review Articles

Word limit: 5,000 words
Abstract: unstructured, preferably less than 200 words
References: up to 75
Figures/Tables: 3-7
Description: Reviews are comprehensive analyses of specific topics. If a review longer than 5,000 words is required to discuss the topic in depth, the author should submit two reviews, each discussing a different aspect of the topic.

iii. Letter to the Editor

Word limit: 500 words maximum
Abstract: not required
References: 5 maximum
Figures/Tables: 1 in total (maximum)
Description: Letters may be submitted to the Editor on any topic of discussion; substantial clinical observations as well as letters discussing papers published in recent issues. Letters to the Editor are not subjected to peer-review, but publication is at the discretion of the Editor or Publisher. Submissions may be edited for length, grammatical correctness and journal style. Authors will be asked to approve the editorial changes that alter the substance or tone of a letter or response. Letters that offer perspective on content already published in APJCO can use an arbitrary title, but a Response from Authors must cite the title of the first Letter: e.g. Response to [title of Letter]. This ensures that readers can track the line of discussion.

iv. Case Report

Word limit: 1,500 words
Abstract: not required
References: 10
Figures/Tables: 1 in total (maximum)
Description: Case Reports are generally not considered for publication, only exceptional papers in which the Editors find extraordinary oncological value may be considered for review.

Manuscript Style
Manuscripts should follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ revised ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication’, as presented at http://www.ICMJE.org/.
Spelling.    The journal uses US spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
Units.    All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units.
Abbreviations.    Abbreviations should be used sparingly. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
Trade names.    Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name, and the name of the manufacturer, in parentheses.

Parts of the manuscript

Manuscripts should be presented in the following order: (i) title page, (ii) abstract and keywords, (iii) text, (iv) acknowledgments, (v) references, (vi) appendices, (vii) figure legends, (viii) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) and (ix) figures. The title page and figures (if consisting of images) should be uploaded as separate files.
Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.
All articles submitted to the Journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to so may result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication.

Title page
The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) the full names of the authors and (iii) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out together with (iv) the full postal and email address, plus facsimile and telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.
The title should be short, informative and contain the major key words. Do not use abbreviations in the title. A short running title (less than 40 characters) should also be provided.
Abstract and key words
All original articles must have a brief structured abstract that states in 250 words or fewer the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study. Divide the abstract with the headings: Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusion. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references.
Five key words, for the purposes of indexing, should be supplied below the abstract, in alphabetical order, and should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.
Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate sheet with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, , should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.
Figures
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. Figures should be sized to fit within the column (80.5 mm), intermediate (110 mm) or the full text width (168 mm). Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration.
Figure legends   
Type figure legends on a separate page. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.
Acknowledgments
The source of financial grants and other funding must be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors’ industrial links and affiliations. The contribution of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged. Personal thanks and thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.
References
The Vancouver system of referencing should be used (examples are given below). In the text, references should be cited using superscript Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear. If cited in tables or figure legends, number according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.
In the reference list, cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when seven or more, list the first three followed by et al. Do not use ibid. or op cit. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list, but should be cited in the text only (e.g. Smith A, 2000, unpublished data). All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in Index Medicus.
We recommend the use of a tool such as Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.
Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

Journal article
1  Chow YS, Jeong J (1993) Charitable Contributions by Low- and Middle-Income Taxpayers: Further Evidence with a New Method. National Tax Journal 45, 33-39.
Online journal article not yet published in an issue
An online article that has not yet been published in an issue (therefore has no volume, issue or page numbers) can be cited by its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The DOI will remain valid and allow an article to be tracked even after its allocation to an issue.
2. Murphy K, Tyler TR, Curtis A (2009) Nurturing regulatory compliance: Is procedural justice effective when people question the legitimacy of the law? Regulation & Governance. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-5991.2009.0143.x
Book
Fujita M, Krugman P, Venables AJ (2001) The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Chapter in a book
4. Anderson K, Tyers R (1990) How Developing Countries Could Gain from Agricultural Trade Liberalization in the Uruguay round. In: Goldin I, Knudsen O (eds) Agricultural Trade Liberalization: Implications for Developing Countries, pp. 387-424. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.
Appendices
These should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the writer’s name should be included below the title.
Supporting Information
Supporting information is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background and may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. This Material can be submitted with your manuscript, and will appear online, without editing or typesetting. Guidelines on how to prepare this material and which formats and file sizes are acceptable can be found at: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppinfo.asp.
Please note that the provision of supplementary material is not encouraged as a general rule. It will be assessed critically by reviewers and editors and will only be accepted if it is essential.

5. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/apjco. Authors must supply an email address as all correspondence will be by email. The journal to which you are submitting your manuscript employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to this journal, you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works.

Submission requirements
Each submission must include: a covering letter, title page, copyright form and manuscript. The length of the manuscripts must adhere to the specifications under the Manuscript Categories section.

Covering letter
Papers are accepted for publication in the Journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the covering letter.
The covering letter must also contain an acknowledgment that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript. In keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, each author’s contribution to the paper is to be quantified.
Please note that the cover letter does not require a detailed or lengthy description of the content or structure of the manuscript itself.

Title page
The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) the full names of the authors and (iii) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out together with (iv) the full postal and email address, plus facsimile and telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote. The title should be short, informative, and contain the major key words. Do not use abbreviations in the title. A short running title (less than 40 characters) should also be provided.

Copyright
We no longer require FAXs or other hardcopy of the Copyright Transfer Agreement. Instead we have introduced a convenient new process for signing your copyright transfer agreement electronically (eCTA) that will save you considerable time and effort. If your paper is accepted, the Author whom you flag as being the formal Corresponding Author for the paper will receive an e-mail with a link to an online eCTA form. This will enable the Corresponding Author to complete the copyright form electronically within ScholarOne Manuscripts on behalf of all authors on the manuscript. You may preview the copyright terms and conditions here.

Conflict of interest
Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest by disclosing at the time of submission any financial arrangements they have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Such information will be held in confidence while the paper is under review and will not influence the editorial decision. If the article is accepted for publication, the Editor will usually discuss with the authors the manner in which such information is to be communicated to the reader.
If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorization to reproduce the material, must be attached to the covering letter.

Ethics
Manuscripts must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in an appropriate version of the 2000 Declaration of Helsinki as well as the Declaration of Istanbul 2009. It should also be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects of the study should be omitted.
Reports of animal experiments must state that the 'Principles of Laboratory animal care' NIH publication Vol 25, No. 28 revised 1997; http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not96-208.html, were followed, as well as specific national laws (e.g. the current version of the German Law on the Protection of Animals) where applicable.

6. POST-ACCEPTANCE

Author Services
Author Services is a Wiley service that provides useful information for authors, enables authors to track accepted articles through the production process, enables authors to gain free access to their published articles and nominate up to 10 colleagues to be provided with free access to their published articles.

Proofs
It is essential that corresponding authors supply an email address to which correspondence can be emailed. Notification of the URL from there to download a Portable Document Format (PDF) typeset page proof, associated forms and further instructions will be send by email to the corresponding author. The purpose of the PDF proof is a final check of the layout, and of tables and figures. Alterations other than the essential correction of errors are unacceptable at PDF proof stage. The proof should be checked, and approval to publish the article should be emailed to the Publisher by the date indicated; otherwise, it may be signed off on by the Editor or held over to the next issue.

OnlineOpen
OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley Online Library, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive. For the full list of terms and conditions, seehttp://wileyonlinelibrary.com/onlineopen#OnlineOpen_Terms
Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the payment form available from our website at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/onlineOpenOrder
Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform an Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen if you do not wish to. All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

Offprints
A free PDF offprint will be supplied to the corresponding author after publication. A minimum of 50 printed offprints will be provided upon request, at the author’s expense. These paper offprints may be ordered online. Please visithttp://offprint.cosprinters.com/, fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields. If you have queries about offprints please email 

Color Figure Publication Fees
A charge of US$530 for the first three color figures and US$265 for each extra color figure thereafter will be charged to the author. This charge applies only to color figures in the print edition. See 'Color on the Web Service' for details about color figures in the online edition of the journal.

Color on the Web Service
If you do not wish to pay for color production in print, your color figures can be reproduced in color online for free. This only applies to figures which are appropriate for reproduction in color online, but black and white in the printed journal. This is not possible for some figure types such as line figures where the figure would have to be altered for print publication (changing colors to grey shading) therefore making the print and online figures different.

7. WILEY JOURNALS ONLINE

Visit Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology home page at: Wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ajco for more information, and Wiley Online Library's web pages for submission guidelines and digital graphics standards.

8. EDITORIAL OFFICE ADDRESS

Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology
Editorial Office
155 Cremorne Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121
Australia

Email: 
Tel: +61 3 9274 3129; fax: +61 3 9274 3342