GASTROENTEROLOGY publishes clinical and basic studies of all aspects of the digestive system, including the liver and pancreas, as well as nutrition. The types of articles GASTROENTEROLOGY publishes include original papers, review articles, and special category manuscripts. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ( External link http://www.icmje.org ). Gastroenterology is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (External link http://www.publicationethics.org.uk ).

GASTROENTEROLOGY has a total circulation of approximately 17,000—about 12,000 in the United States and 5,000 in other countries. Eighty percent of subscribers are AGA members. In the United States, about 75% of subscribers are physicians, and about 25% of subscriptions go to residents, medical schools, and libraries. About 68% of the papers published originate overseas.

GASTROENTEROLOGY is abstracted and indexed in Biological Abstracts, CABS, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents, Excerpta Medica, Index Medicus, Nutrition Abstracts, and Science Citation Index. Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest Policy
Plagiarism, Duplicate Submission/Publication Policy
Image Manipulation Policy
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding
Information about Article Types
Author Fees
Submission Checklist
Reporting Clinical Trials
Randomized Controlled Trials
Reporting Meta-Analyses of Genetic Studies
Distribution of Material Described in Published Papers
Manuscript Processing and Review
Publication
Contact Information

ETHICAL STANDARDS

GASTROENTEROLOGY strongly discourages the submission of more than one article dealing with related aspects of the same study. In almost all cases, a single study is best reported in a single paper.

The Journal editors consider research/publication misconduct to be a serious breach of ethics and will take action as necessary to address such misconduct, which includes submission or publication of information that:

(1) Is intentionally erroneous,
(2) Has been published elsewhere by a different author without acknowledgment (plagiarism),
(3) Has been published elsewhere by the same author without acknowledgment (duplicate publication), or
(4) Is subsequently published elsewhere by the same author without acknowledgment, attribution, or permission from the AGA Institute, as holder of the copyright, to reprint or adapt the material.

Each author who submits a manuscript must complete GASTROENTEROLOGY's Copyright Assignment, Authorship Responsibility, NIH Funding, Financial Disclosure, Institutional Review Board/Animal Care Committee Approval and Sponsorship form thereby affirming that:

(1) None of the material in the manuscript is included in another manuscript, has been published previously, or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. This includes symposia proceedings, transactions, books, articles published by invitation, and preliminary publications of any kind except an abstract or poster. If there is any potential overlap with a manuscript previously published by the authors, the related manuscripts must be included for editorial evaluation.
(2) Only people who contributed to the intellectual content, the analysis of data, and the writing of the manuscript are listed as authors and that all authors take public responsibility for the research results being reported.
(3) Ethical guidelines were followed by the investigator in studies on humans or animals and described in the paper. The approval of the institutional review board of animal care committee must be cited in the Methods section of the text.
(4) All authors had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Breaches in these standards may result in proscribed submission for all authors of the concerned manuscript and, when appropriate, notification of the authors' institutions. All authors are fully responsible for the content of the manuscript.

Animal experiments: Studies involving animal experiments should conform to the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines (www.nc3rs.org.uk/ARRIVE), developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to improve standards and reporting of animal research. Please review the ARRIVE checklist and disclose all relevant animal research information as directed.

The publication of abstracts or posters is not considered duplicate publication but should be disclosed in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript submission.

Authorship
Each author must have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content of the paper and must approve of the final version of the manuscript. Authorship should be based on substantive contributions to each of the following:

(1) conception and design of the study;
(2) generation, collection, assembly, analysis and/or interpretation of data;
(3) drafting or revision of the manuscript;
(4) approval of the final version of the manuscript.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY

A. Potential Conflicts of Interest
The following are examples of COI that may occur with editors, authors (including invited authors), and reviewers. Interactions considered pertinent are from the start of the research activity in a specific program until such time that a submission is anticipated to be published or one year from submission date, whichever is longer.

a. Editors: Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts must have no personal, professional, or financial involvement in any of the issues they might judge. Examples of personal involvement with an author include former student, fellow, mentor, or relative. Examples of professional involvement include academic rivalry, being from the same institution or research group as the author, evaluating a manuscript submitted by a member of the board of editors, or collaborating (e.g., co-authoring research article or grant) with an author. Examples of financial involvement include employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties with an entity (or competing entity) discussed in the manuscript.

It is a COI for editors of the AGA Institute journals to hold a position of editorial responsibility for a competing publication. The Ethics Committee reviews disclosure statements submitted by editors and notifies either/both the Secretary/Treasurer and editor of any potential conflicts. The procedures contained in Section C of the "AGA/AGA Institute Policy on Disclosure of Potential Conflict of Interest" apply if a conflict is found to exist.

b. Authors: COI for an author may arise if there exists a financial arrangement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties) with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company that makes a competing product.

c. Reviewers: COI for reviewers exist when they have had an ongoing collaboration, original publications, or grants with the authors within the previous two years, except when part of a multicenter group from a different site; are from the same institution as the authors; or have any financial arrangements (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties) with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company that makes a competing product.


B. Process
Potential COI are to be disclosed at the beginning of the peer-review process.

a. Editors: An associate editor having COI with a submitted manuscript must recuse himself from handling the manuscript and request that the manuscript be reassigned. The editor-in-chief having COI with a submitted manuscript must assign review to one of an associate or guest editor for handling. A manuscript submitted by one of the members of the board of editors must be assigned to a guest editor.

b. Authors: The senior or corresponding author assumes full responsibility for supplying the following information on the title page at manuscript submission:
i. For each author, disclosure of any financial arrangement with any company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or that makes a competing product; or a statement for each author that there is no conflict to disclose.
ii. A disclosure of all funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations.
iii. A list of individuals who provided writing assistance for the manuscript and the source of funds that supported this assistance.

In addition, at manuscript submission, each author must complete and submit to the editorial office a standardized form that transfers copyright to the AGA Institute, verifies authorship responsibility, states NIH funding (if any), discloses all relevant conflicts of interest, and attests that the research protocol was approved by the author's institution and all experimentation was conducted in conformity with ethical and humane principles of research.

Based on the information provided, the editors will determine whether COI exists and decide to either a) reject the manuscript or b) publish the manuscript with the COI disclosed.

c. Reviewers: When invited, reviewers must decline to review a manuscript if a potential COI exists. After review, all reviewers must agree to and initial one of the following statements, which appear in the journals' manuscript tracking system:
i. I, the undersigned Reviewer, certify that I have not had an ongoing collaboration, original publication, or grant with the authors within the previous two years, except in the case of being a part of a multicenter group from a different site, nor am I from the same institution as the authors. I also certify that I do not have any financial arrangements (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants/patents received, and royalties) with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company that makes a competing product.
ii. I have listed any potential conflicts on interest in the Comments to Editors field.

If the reviewer discloses a potential COI after the review, the handling associate editor decides if the review should still be used to judge the manuscript.


C. Sanctions
Should an editor, author, or reviewer fail to disclose a potential COI and this is discovered after publication, the following sanctions may be applied according to the severity of the infraction.

a. Editors:
i. A letter of reprimand and warning as to future conduct from the editor, in the case of an associate editor, or from the Chair of the Publications Committee, in the case of the editor.
ii. Dismissal from the position.

b. Authors:
i. A letter from the editor of explanation and education where there appears to be a genuine misunderstanding of principles.
ii. A letter from the editor of reprimand and warning as to future conduct.
iii. A letter from the editor to the author's institution or funding body.
iv. Publication of a notice detailing the author's failure to disclose the COI.
v. Publication of an editorial detailing the full details of the misconduct.
vi. Refusal to accept future submissions from the author on a sliding scale of one-to-five years.
vii. Formal retraction or withdrawal of the paper from the scientific literature.
viii. Reporting the case to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

c. Reviewers:
i. A letter from the editor of explanation and education where there appears to be a genuine misunderstanding of principles.
ii. A letter from the editor of reprimand and warning as to future conduct.
iii. A letter from the editor to the reviewer's institution.
iv. Refusal to allow the individual to review for the journal on a sliding scale of one-to-five years.


This policy was developed in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

PLAGIARISM, DUPLICATE SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION POLICY

A. Definitions
a. Plagiarism: Unreferenced use of published and unpublished ideas. It may occur at any stage of planning, research, writing, or publication and applies to print and electronic versions.

b. Duplicate Submission/Publication: Occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions.


B. Sanctions
Should plagiarism or duplicate submission/publication be identified, the journal editors will apply the following sanctions according to the severity of the infraction. They will apply sanctions to individual authors depending on their type of involvement with the article, as provided at the time of submission on the title page.

a. A letter of explanation from the journal editors to the authors where there appears to be a genuine misunderstanding of principles.

b. A letter of reprimand from the journal editors as to future conduct.

c. A formal letter from the journal editors to the author's institution, employer, or funding body.

d. Publication of a notice or editorial in journal.

e. Refusal to accept submissions from the author for a range of one-to-five years.

f. Formal withdrawal or retraction of paper from the scientific literature.

g. Journal editors report the case to Office of Research Integrity, which promotes integrity in biomedical and behavioral research supported by the U.S. Public Health Service; monitors institutional investigations of research misconduct; and facilitates the responsible conduct of research through educational, preventive, and regulatory activities.


This policy was developed in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Image Manipulation Policy
A. Definition*
Image manipulation is the misrepresentation of data by selectively altering portions of an image. The expectations for how images should be ethically handled are:
a. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed or introduced.
b. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figur
e (eg, using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. c. Adjustments of brightness, contrast or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to every pixel in the image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. Non-linear adjustments (eg, changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.
*Language used with permission from The Journal of Cell Biology.
B. Process
The journals' graphics staff will screen images at random during the submission process and will review images that editors, reviewers or readers suspect have been manipulated. If manipulation is suspected, the staff and editors will initiate an investigation with the authors and possibly their institutions.
C. Sanctions
Should image manipulation be verified before or after publication of an article, one of the below sanctions will be applied, based on the severity of the infraction. The journal editor-in-chief and board of editors will determine, on a case-by-case basis, the severity of the infraction and corresponding sanction. Sanctions will be applied to individual authors depending on their type of involvement with the article, as provided at the time of submission on the title page.
a. A letter of explanation from the journal editors to the authors where there appears to be a genuine misunderstanding of principles. b. A letter of reprimand from the journal editors as to future conduct.
c. A formal letter from the journal editors to the author's institution or employer.
d. Rejection or withdrawal of manuscript acceptance.
e. Publication of a correction or editorial.
f. Retraction of the published article.
g. Refusal to accept submissions from the author for a range of one-to-five years. For particularly egregious cases or series of cases, a life-time ban may be considered.
The AGA reserves the right, on a case-by-case basis, to report particularly egregious cases to the relevant funding bodies.
This policy was developed in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE).

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) FUNDING

If a manuscript is accepted for publication and was supported by the NIH, the journal's publisher will automatically deposit the manuscript into PubMed Central (PMC) in accordance with the mandatory NIH policy on federally funded manuscripts. To facilitate this process, authors of such manuscripts are asked to provide their NIH grant number on the Copyright Assignment Form under the NIH Funding portion of the form. The publisher will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript when received. Once deposited, authors will receive an email from the NIH containing the PMC-formatted article for approval. Articles become available on PMC 12 months after they have been published.

INFORMATION ABOUT ARTICLE TYPES

Note: Presubmission inquiries will not be considered. To have your manuscript considered for publication, it must be submitted in full via the Journal's manuscript tracking system, Editorial Manager (www.editorialmanager.com/gastro).

Original Articles
Original Articles are full-length reports of original research and will be considered for either the Clinical Research section or the Basic Research section of the Journal. Articles cover topics relevant to clinical and basic studies in these areas of interest. They may discuss nutrition, immunology, cell biology, molecular biology, morphology, physiology, pathophysiology, epidemiology, imaging, or therapy. Both adult and pediatric problems are included. To be published, the work presented in the manuscript must be original; on occasion, confirmatory studies of timely and important observations will also be acceptable. In addition, other considerations for evaluating the acceptability of a submitted manuscript include its importance, the soundness of the experimental design, the validity of the methods, the appropriateness of the conclusions, and the quality of presentation.

Original article submissions to Gastroenterology cannot exceed 6,000 words, including the abstract, figure and table legends, and references. No more than a combined total of seven figures and/or tables are permitted. The editor reserves the right to publish excessively long tables as online-only material. Each figure may have up to six panels (labeled A-F). Your manuscript will be returned to you if it does not meet these criteria.

For step-by-step guidance on how to write a manuscript worthy of publication, watch this self-paced video hosted by Editor-in-Chief Anil K. Rustgi, MD. Dr. Rustgi reviews the individual components of a typical manuscript, matters related to the peer-review process, and critical issues to consider before submitting a manuscript for review.

Reviews in Basic and Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Each issue of GASTROENTEROLOGY will contain a review article by two or more collaborating authors that is solicited by the board of editors (no unsolicited reviews will be considered). Each review article will be divided into two sections, Basic and Clinical, with one section to be overseen by a basic science editor and the other by a clinical editor.

Reviews must not exceed a total of 6,000 words, not including references, figure legends or table legends. A maximum of 150 references are permitted. Authors are also required to include a minimum of four to six figures or illustrations and to work with GASTROENTEROLOGY's medical illustrator in developing them.

Clinical Challenges and Images in GI
Clinical Challenges and Images in GI presents a striking clinical image that is meant to challenge and inform readers. The "Clinical Challenge and Image in GI" is presented as an unknown with the diagnosis hinging on the correct interpretation and integration of the image and clinical data. The answer is presented on a separate page of the Journal. The section is intended to illustrate and teach important medical points. If you would like to submit an image for publication in the Journal, please follow the instructions below.
  • Images can be either clinical, pathologic (gross or microscopic), endoscopic, or radiographic. They should be of high quality (300ppi) and illustrate the diagnosis well.
  • The article must include a title that does not reveal the answer to the challenge. This title will be published should the article be accepted.
  • The case should be described in one typed double-spaced page or less. Format should be as follows: Short pertinent history, physical exam and laboratory findings, and initial clinical course. The image(s) should then be described with all labeled structures explained in the text.
  • The answer should discuss the image findings and the diagnosis in no more than one double-spaced typed page. The diagnosis and discussion should make an important medical teaching point and include from one to three pertinent references. Information regarding the specific patient in terms of follow-up and response to therapy should be given as appropriate.
  • No more than three authors are allowed on each submission. Contributors must provide their names, addresses, phone, and e-mail addresses. Contributors must sign and return the copyright form which assigns copyright to the AGA Institute and attest that the figure has not been submitted or published elsewhere.
  • "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" submissions must be submitted at www.editorialmanager.com/gastro.


Online-Only Clinical Challenges and Images in GI
Due to a high number of "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" submissions and the increasing use of video in reports on clinical cases, GASTROENTEROLOGY has developed a new section, "Online-Only Clinical Challenges and Images in GI," where some accepted images or those that include video clips can be published only online. When an image is accepted for the online-only image section, authors will receive a decision letter requesting approval to publish their article only online. If an author does not agree to these terms the article will not be considered further for publication. If authors choose to have their accepted image published in the "Online-Only Challenges and Images in GI" section, their article will be posted on our website, www.gastrojournal.org, within a few months.

To submit your "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" to GASTROENTEROLOGY, log on to External link http://www.editorialmanager.com/gastro . Authors are required to follow the "Clinical Challenges and Images in GI" guidelines provided above.

Imaging and Advanced Technology
Imaging and Advanced Technology is written by the section editor or, in some instances, by a guest author. It highlights developments, both current and anticipated, in translational science and clinical medicine. Examples include, but are not limited to, chromoendoscopy and detection of aberrant crypt foci, optical imaging and Barrett's esophagus, endoscopy and confocal imaging, nanotechnology, genomics and discovery of IBD genes, and proteomics.

Correspondence
Correspondence offers opinions on papers published in GASTROENTEROLOGY. Such correspondence is evaluated only for articles published within one month of submission of the letter (eg, for the July 2011 issue, letters submitted after August 31, 2011 will not be considered). Those letters deemed of interest to the Journal (typically less than 25% of those submitted) are sent to the authors of the original article for a response; the authors are given 2 weeks to reply. A decision will then be made whether to publish the letter with or without its reply.

Correspondence submissions must not exceed 750 words with no more than 8 references (not included in the word count). Original or unpublished data will not be considered. For the references, use the following format: Jones RS, et al. Gastroenterology 2011; 2: 373 -380 (only first author is listed and article title is not included). The correspondence and the reply cannot include more than 3 authors each. All letters become the property of GASTROENTEROLOGY and are subject to editing by the Journal. Letters are selected based on their relevance and originality. GASTROENTEROLOGY will not publish letters commenting on manuscripts for which letters have already been published.

Editorials
Editorials express opinions on current topics of interest or provide comments on papers published elsewhere in the same issue. Editorials are usually solicited by the Editor.

Covering the Cover
This Month in GASTROENTEROLOGY is written by the section editors. It provides general previews of two clinical articles and two basic articles that appear in the issue and are of particular importance to the GASTROENTEROLOGY readership.

Brief Reports
Each issue of GASTROENTEROLOGY contains one or more "Brief Reports." Topics of reports may include, but are not limited to, identification of the genetic basis of a disease, a description of a unique case series, novel techniques, new animal models of human disease, and mechanistic insights. Submissions to Brief Reports must adhere to the following guidelines:
• Limit of 1000 words, including figure legends but excluding references.
• Limit of 15 abbreviated references; example: Jones RS et al. Gastroenterology 2011; 2: 373-380 (only first author is listed and article title is not included).
• Limit of 2 figures and/or tables
• Abstract must not exceed 100 words and must NOT include subheadings (Background & Aims, Methods, etc.). The abstract must end with a concluding statement.
• Up to 6 supplemental documents may be included (each document may include a figure/table, and one of the six documents must be a detailed Materials and Methods section).
Brief Reports should include the following sections: Abstract, Introductory Paragraph, Results, Discussion paragraph. DO NOT use headers for these sections .

§ Please note that Gastroenterology's submission fee and page charges apply to Brief Reports.

Selected Summaries
Selected Summaries are concise overviews of articles recently published in other journals that are of potential interest to GASTROENTEROLOGY readers. Contributors are selected by the section editor.

Print and Digital Media Reviews
Print and Media Reviews are informative analyses of recently published books or other media relevant to clinical practice and research. Reviews are solicited by the section editor. Unsolicited reviews may be submitted to the Print and Media Reviews Editor for consideration.

Mentoring, Education, and Training Corner
This section focuses on the education, development, and support of young learners and protégés in the field of digestive disease. Expert guest authors will provide reviews on a wide array of topics including career opportunities, steps for success, gender and ethnic diversity, training updates, and balancing home and work life. The material presented in this section will be organized by overarching themes. Submissions are by invitation only, but inquiries by prospective authors will be evaluated.

Notices
Notices are brief announcements of meetings, seminars, and courses with only essential information given. Notices received less than 3 months before publication cannot be guaranteed an appropriate publication date. Mini-Reviews and Perspectives Mini-Reviews and Perspectives are invited articles that inform the clinical and basic research communities about fields in which there have been recent and important advances. They focus on one specific aspect of a field, rather than providing a comprehensive literature survey, and can be controversial, briefly discussing opposing viewpoints.

Mini-Reviews and Perspectives
Mini-Reviews and Perspectives are invited articles that inform the clinical and basic research communities about fields in which there have been recent and important advances. They focus on one specific aspect of a field, rather than providing a comprehensive literature survey, and can be controversial, briefly discussing opposing viewpoints.

Meeting Summaries
This section includes brief reports of symposia, conferences, and meetings in digestive disease research. They include critical commentary, connections among the presentations, and consensus, if any, that emerged from the meeting. The editors encourage authors of potential meeting summaries to propose submissions for this section in advance of scheduled meetings. To ensure relevance, summaries must been submitted within two months after a meeting.

Continuing Medical Education (CME)
Each issue of GASTROENTEROLOGY will contain two to three continuing medical education exams associated with articles that appear in the issue. AGA members can take the exams online free of charge. Non-AGA members are required to pay a $15 processing fee. For CME exams that accompany original articles, readers can claim 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 credit. For CME exams that accompany AGA Institute medical position statements and technical reviews, readers can claim 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 credits.

Author Fees The following is a complete list of fees authors should expect to pay during the manuscript submission process, as well as during the publication process for their accepted manuscripts.

Submission Fee: As of January 1, 2011, authors submitting original basic or clinical manuscripts to Gastroenterology are required to pay a $75 fee at submission via the journal's manuscript uploading system, Editorial Manager. The submission process cannot be completed until the submission fee is paid. This fee applies ONLY to the following original research manuscript types: Basic-Original Alimentary Tract; Basic-Liver, Pancreas, & Biliary; Clinical-Alimentary Tract; Clinical-Liver, Pancreas & Biliary; and Brief Reports. All other article types, as well as solicited content, are exempt from submission fees. The submission fee applies to first drafts of a manuscript and authors will not be charged again when they submit a revision of the same manuscript.

Page Fees: GASTROENTEROLOGY charges authors of original research articles a fee for each printed page published. This applies to accepted articles that are submitted on or after January 1, 2011. Authors will receive invoices for page charges after the corrected proof of their accepted manuscript has been finalized. Page charges for non-AGA members are $100 per page. AGA members who are first or corresponding author at the time of submission will receive a 15% discount on page charges and pay $85 per page. Page charges apply only to unsolicited original research submitted as one of the following manuscript types: Basic-Original Alimentary Tract; Basic-Liver, Pancreas, & Biliary; Clinical-Alimentary Tract; and Clinical-Liver, Pancreas & Biliary; and Brief Reports. Page charges do not apply to solicited content or online supplemental material.

Color Figure Fee: Authors are required to pay for the printing of color figures ($650 for the first color figure and $100 each for additional figures). If the manuscript is reviewed with color figures, it must be published with color figures with printing fees paid for by the author. If the author does not wish to pay for printing color figures, then the figures must be uploaded in grayscale or black-and-white only to allow review of the data as they will ultimately be published in print. Authors may include color images to be published online only by uploading the color files separately as supplemental files.

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

All manuscripts should be double-spaced and should contain the following sections in the order given below:

Cover Letter
GASTROENTEROLOGY strongly encourages authors to suggest two to five referees (include their email address, phone, and fax numbers) and the Associate Editor they believe best qualified to review their paper. Authors may also list a non-preferred Associate Editor and non-preferred referees, but the ultimate selection of an Associate Editor and referees is at the sole discretion of the Editor and Associate Editor, respectively.

State reasons for deviations, if any, from standard format and clarify any potential conflict related to the exclusive nature of the publication. The cover letter must also categorize the manuscript into one of the four following groups: Clinical Alimentary Tract, Clinical Liver/Pancreas/Biliary, Basic Alimentary Tract, or Basic Liver/Pancreas/Biliary.

Title Page
Title-Include animal species. Use no abbreviations. Limit: 120 characters with spaces.
Short Title-Limit: 45 characters.
Authors-Include first names of all authors and name and full location of department and institution where work was performed.
Grant Support-List grant support and other assistance.
Abbreviations-List alphabetically abbreviations not mentioned in the Style Guide, which follows the Instructions to Authors. (Note: In general, the use of abbreviations is discouraged.)
Correspondence-Provide name, complete address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number of corresponding author.
Disclosures-All authors must disclose any potential conflicts (financial, professional, or personal) that are relevant to the manuscript. If the author(s) has nothing to disclose, this must be stated.
Transcript Profiling-Provide accession number of repository for expression microarray data.
Writing Assistance-The names and funding source for individuals who provided writing assistance must be listed.
Author Contributions-List how each author was involved with the manuscript (eg, study concept and design; acquisition of data; analysis and interpretation of data; drafting of the manuscript; critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; statistical analysis; obtained funding; administrative, technical, or material support; study supervision).

Abstract
Abbreviations must be spelled out at least once. Do not use footnotes or references.

Limit: 260 words. Organize according to the following headings: Background & Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and Keywords

Background & Aims: Describe the importance of the study and the precise research objective(s) or study question(s).

Methods: Methods should include information on the following aspects of study design when applicable. The methods section may employ subheadings at the discretion of the author.
-Design-describe the basic study design, e.g., randomized controlled trial, cross sectional study, cohort study, case series, survey, etc. Source of all non-standard reagents need to be explicitly stated.

-Setting-specify whether the study was conducted in a primary or tertiary care setting, in an ambulatory care clinic or hospital, in the general community, etc.

-Participants-indicate the number of study subjects and how they were selected, recruited, and assigned to the intervention.

-Intervention-report the method of administration and duration of the intervention.


Results: Provide the main outcomes of the study including confidence intervals or P values. Report the absolute values and risk differences so that readers can determine the absolute, as well as the relative, impact of the results.

Conclusions: State only conclusions that are directly supported by the evidence and the implications of the findings.

Keywords
Include 3-4 keywords associated with your manuscript, separated by semicolons (e.g., active vitamin D; parathyroid hormone-related peptide; hypercalcemia; bone resorption). The keywords should be different than the words in the title of your manuscript. Should your manuscript be accepted, the keywords will appear with the published manuscript, making it easier to find in literature search engines such as PubMed.

Video Abstracts
Authors are encouraged to submit video abstracts with their manuscripts. Discussion points include the motivation for undertaking the study, a brief overview of methodology, and the highlights of how the results advance the field of digestive disease. The following guidelines apply:
• Acceptable file formats: MPEG, MOV, AVI, or GIF
• Length does not exceed 5 minutes
• Sound and picture is clear (ensure that you capture the video in a quiet and well-lit environment)
• Video is in English; if your native language is not English, we strongly encourage you to submit TWO versions of your video: one in English and one in your native language.
• Author speaks clearly
• Authors are encouraged to show their laboratories and techniques or procedures related to their study
• Authors must introduce themselves at the beginning of the video, sharing their name and institution
• Content is relevant to accepted manuscript
• Content is free of language that is offensive, defamatory, abusive, profane, and threatening


To submit a video abstract with your manuscript, choose the item type "Video Abstract" on the journal's manuscript management system, Editorial Manager.

Body of Paper
Describe ethical guidelines followed (for human or animal studies); cite approval of institutional human research review committee or animal welfare committee; describe in detail hazardous procedures or chemicals involved, including precautions observed.

Outline statistical methods used.

When describing the results of hypothesis testing, report P values and/or confidence intervals; avoid using phrases such as "not significant."

Identify drugs and chemicals used by generic name (if trademarks are mentioned, manufacturer name and city are given).

References
List references using superscripted Arabic numerals by order of appearance in the text. Cite personal communications and unpublished data directly in text without being numbered.
All abbreviations should follow the Index Medicus abbreviations.

Follow GASTROENTEROLOGY requirements for style:

Article (list 3 authors followed by et al):
13. Meltzer SJ, Ahnen DJ, Battifour H, et al. Protooncogene abnormalities in colon cancers and adenomatous polyps. Gastroenterology 1987;92:1174-1180.

Book:
18. Day RA. How to write and publish a scientific paper. Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information, 1979.

Article in Book:
22. Costa M, Furness JB, Llewellyn-Smith IF. Histochemistry of the enteric nervous system. In: Johnson LR, ed. Physiology of the gastrointestinal tract. Volume 1. 2nd ed. New York: Raven, 1987:1-40.

Tables
Tables may either be uploaded separately from the manuscript or embedded in the file that contains your manuscript. Most table editor programs can be placed within the manuscript file successfully. Tables should be prepared without the use of tabs.

Figures
For additional information regarding journal guidelines for figure submissions, please see our Figure Submission FAQs

Images: Images can be clinical, pathologic (gross or microscopic), endoscopic, or radiographic. They should be of high quality (300 ppi or greater, clear, and in good focus) and illustrate the diagnosis well.

Photographs: Remove all names and all other patient identifiers from photos and radiographic studies.

Line Art and Graphs: Graphs, charts and other line art may be reformatted and/or redrawn by our Graphics staff for consistency with the overall style of the AGA Institute journals. Please be sure that any graphs or line art you submit are at a resolution of at least 300 ppi so that they are readable to reviewers. 3-D style is not accepted.

Figure Legends: Please do not embed or flatten the text into the image files. Figure legends should be included in the manuscript body, immediately before the references, or typed and submitted in .doc (Word document) or .rtf (rich text format). This text will be reformatted in the style of the AGA Institute journals.

Gel electrophoresis labels: Protein molecular weight or DNA marker sizes must be indicated on all figure panels showing gel electrophoresis.

Preferred Figure File Formats: The preferred formats for figure files are tiff (.tif) and jpeg (.jpg). For questions regarding the conversion of other file formats to .jpg or .tif, please view our Figure Submission FAQs.

Accepted Figure File Formats: Other acceptable file formats include: .bmp, .gif, .pbm, .pcx, .png, .pct, .msp, .tif, .eps, .xbm, .psd, .ai, .indd, .pdf, and .tga files. When sending image files, please do not embed them in Word. You may submit mixed file formats (image1.jpg, image2.tif, image3.eps, etc.).

Image File Formats not Supported at this Time: Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets, ChemDraw, CorelDraw, Canvas, FreeHand, SigmaPlot, QuarkXpress, and Equation Editor. You may export image files from these programs as PDF, JPEG, or other acceptable file formats. For questions regarding the conversion of these file formats to our preferred formats, please view our Figure Submission FAQs.

File Naming Convention: Figures should be named consecutively such as "figure 1.tif," "figure 2.jpg," etc., with the file extension appended (.tif, .jpg, .eps, etc). Each figure should be saved as a separate electronic file.

Color Files: Figures should be submitted in the CMYK color space. Authors are encouraged to present color figures in a manner that will allow the data to be interpreted by colorblind readers. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology suggests that authors present dual-labeled images in green and magenta rather than in green and red. See the website of the Jfly data depository for Drosophila researchers (External link http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/ ) for more information on how to make figures and presentations intelligible for a colorblind audience.

Font: If your figures include text, an 8 to 10 point font should be used. Acceptable fonts are "sans serif" fonts such as Helvetica, Arial, and Myriad. Examples of unacceptable fonts ("serif" fonts) are Times New Roman, Palatino, and Garamond. Lettering should begin with an upper case letter, followed by lower case lettering.

Multiple Panel Figures: Please submit each panel (image) separately. However, you may submit a multiple panel version to suggest the order in which you would like the panels arranged. You may also include a written, suggested layout. Each individual panel should be of the highest possible quality (300 ppi or higher) at actual print size.

Cost: Authors will be required to pay for the printing of color figures ($650 for the first color figure and $100 each for additional figures). If the manuscript is reviewed with color figures, it must be published with color figures with printing fees paid for by the author. If the author does not wish to pay for printing color figures, then the figures must be uploaded in grayscale or black-and-white only to allow review of the data as they will ultimately be published in print. Authors may include color images to be published online only by uploading the color files separately as supplemental files.


Supplemental Material
We encourage you to submit non-essential figures or portions of your manuscript as supplementary material for online-only publication, as our readership highly values supplementary materials. However, please note that the following items MUST be within the main text and not provided as supplemental information. 1) important materials and methods 2) references cited in the main text. Exceptions that may be included in the supplemental information include tables of primers or antibodies with legends in such tables describing details of the use of such reagents. Also, authors who offer supplementary information must ensure those materials are readily available upon request.

The portions of your manuscript that you would like to be included as supplementary material (including figures and tables) should be uploaded separately from the manuscript as "supporting documents." The supplementary material will not appear in the PDF, though there will be a link to access the file in the PDF of your submission.

REPORTING CLINICAL TRIALS

Authors of manuscripts involving clinical trials must provide full registration of their clinical trial(s). A clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. The trial must have at least one prospectively assigned concurrent control or comparison group in order to trigger the requirement for registration.

Gastroenterology has adopted the recommendations put forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For more information on the ICMJE recommendations, please go to External link http://www.icmje.org . Appropriate online registries include www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.isrctn.org, www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index.htm, www.actr.org.au, www.trialregister.nl or any primary registers that participate in the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trial Platform. The clinical trial registry URL and the clinical trial number must be included in the body of the manuscript and must be provided in the manuscript management system upon submission.

RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

Randomized controlled trials should be presented according to the CONSORT guidelines (External link http://www.consort-statement.org ). At manuscript submission, authors must provide the CONSORT checklist accompanied with a flow diagram that illustrates the progress of patients through the trial, including recruitment, enrollment, randomization, withdrawal and completion, and a detailed description of the randomization procedure. The CONSORT checklist and template flow diagram can be found on www.consort-statement.org. Manuscripts that fail to comply with CONSORT guidelines will not be reviewed for publication.

REPORTING META-ANALYSES OF GENETIC STUDIES

GASTROENTEROLOGY requires all meta-analyses of genetic studies to follow the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGENet) guidelines. To review the guidelines, go to External link http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet/reviews/guidelines.htm .

DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL DESCRIBED IN PUBLISHED PAPERS

Authors are expected to make available materials such as cell lines, cDNA clones, hybridomas, antibodies, biological reagents, unique animals, etc. to any qualified investigator. Prior to the submission of newly cloned genes or nucleic acid sequences, the Journal requires authors to provide an accession number to a publicly accessible, recognized data repository (e.g. GenBank) on the title page of the manuscript.

Transcript profiling (expression microarray) data must be submitted to an appropriate repository (either NCBI's GEO or EBI's ArrayExpress). The data should preferably be MIAME compliant (External link http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAMEMiame.html ). The repository URL and the data accession number must be included, both in the body of the manuscript, and the manuscript management system, upon submission. The full dataset must be available to reviewers either via a download link or on a data disk (5 copies).

Other large datasets produced using genomics technologies (including but not limited to ChIP on Chip, Genotyping, aCGH and Tilling Arrays) must be deposited in an appropriate public repository. Please include the repository URL and the data accession number, both in the body of the manuscript and the manuscript management system, upon submission. If there is no public repository for the submitted data, it is the author's responsibility to provide permanent publicly accessible links to the raw data and access for the reviewers.

Chemical Compounds: Authors must furnish information about the identity and purity of new chemical compounds. Experimental details and characterization data should be provided in either the main text or as supplemental material. Experimental details should be sufficient to allow other researchers to reproduce the synthesis of the compound.

These guidelines are a means of encouraging the free exchange of scientific information and to promote progress in all areas of gastroenterological investigation.

MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING AND REVIEW

Submissions. The Editorial Office receives over 2,000 manuscripts a year. Each new manuscript receives a unique number, and information on the manuscript is recorded on the Editorial Office computer network. The editorial staff releases information on manuscripts only to authors. The Editorial Office will e-mail a letter to the corresponding author acknowledging receipt of a manuscript, whether new or a resubmission.

Submission Fee. As of January 1, 2011, authors submitting original basic or clinical manuscripts to GASTROENTEROLOGY are required to pay a $75 fee at submission via the journal's manuscript uploading system, Editorial Manager. The submission process cannot be completed until the submission fee is paid. This fee applies ONLY to the following original research manuscript types: Basic-Original Alimentary Tract; Basic-Liver, Pancreas, & Biliary; Clinical-Alimentary Tract; Clinical-Liver, Pancreas & Biliary. All other article types, as well as solicited content, are exempt from submission fees. The submission fee applies to first drafts of a manuscript, and authors will not be charged again when they submit a revision of the same manuscript.

Review process. Each manuscript is assigned to an Associate Editor who has expertise on the subject of the manuscript. After review by the Associate Editor, if the manuscript is judged to be appropriate and competitive for publication in GASTROENTEROLOGY, it is sent to experts in the appropriate area for peer review. The Associate Editor chooses two to three reviewers, who remain anonymous. Authors are encouraged to suggest an Associate Editor and two to five reviewers in the cover letter, though final assignments are at the discretion of the editor.

Reviewers provide comments for the editor and for the authors. The Journal expects reviewers to treat manuscripts as confidential communications and not to use the content for their own purposes or make copies of the manuscripts. Reviewers are also expected to declare to the editor any possible conflicts of interest.

Decisions. The single most important criterion for acceptance is the originality of the work. However, a decision to accept a manuscript is not based solely on the scientific validity of its content. Other factors affecting decisions include the extent and importance of new information in the paper compared with that in other papers being considered, the Journal's need to represent a wide range of topics, and the overall suitability for GASTROENTEROLOGY. Decision letters usually, but not always, convey all factors considered for a particular decision. Occasionally, the comments to the authors may appear to be inconsistent with the editorial decision, which takes into consideration reviewers' comments to the editor, as well as the additional factors listed above.

Decisions on peer-reviewed papers are e-mailed to the authors an average of three weeks from the date of submission. We make every effort to contact authors within 4-7 days for manuscripts that are rejected internally without review. All manuscripts are evaluated promptly by at least two members of the Board of Editors prior to making such decisions. Because our overall acceptance rate is 12-16%, typically 40-50% of submissions are rejected internally, and editors are not able to answer any pre-submission inquiries from authors.

PUBLICATION

Accepted manuscripts are sent to the publisher, Elsevier, and are indexed on PubMed soon after acceptance. Within five to seven business days, they will be uploaded to GASTROENTEROLOGY online (www.gastrojournal.org) under "Articles in Press" for preprint viewing by subscribers. Once authors have had the opportunity to review proofs of their manuscripts, these author-corrected proofs will replace the uncorrected proofs, followed by the final articles on PubMed.

There is a press embargo for all studies published in Gastroenterology until they are posted online in our Articles in Press section as a CORRECTED proof. Studies cannot be publicized as accepted manuscripts or uncorrected proofs. In the event a corrected proof is not posted online, the embargo will lift on the first day of the scheduled month of publication. Please see our embargo policy at External link http://www.gastrojournal.org/content/embargo for more details.

Manuscripts are copyedited to make them consistent with Journal style; if a particular section in the manuscript is not clear or requires additional information, the copy editor will direct questions to the author. These questions, or "author queries," will appear in the margins of the proofs that are sent to the author. All abstracts and titles will be reviewed and possibly modified by the Journal's science editor. Authors can review changes at the Accept with Revision stage of their manuscripts. All line art will be reviewed and possibly modified by the Journal's graphics staff. Authors can review changes at the proof stage of their manuscripts.

The time between acceptance and print publication is approximately three months. The corresponding author can expect proofs of the article approximately two months after acceptance. Authors receive proofs for the primary purpose of checking the accuracy of the typesetting; authors are not to revise or rewrite their articles at this stage. If after acceptance of their paper, authors become aware of important information they believe should be added to their manuscript, they should contact the editor of GASTROENTEROLOGY.

Authors are required to return proofs to the publisher within 48 hours. If changes are not returned within 48 hours, the manuscript will move forward in the production process.

Page Fees. GASTROENTEROLOGY charges authors of original research articles a fee for each printed page published. This applies to accepted articles that are submitted on or after January 1, 2011. Authors will receive invoices for page charges after the corrected proof of their accepted manuscript has been finalized. Page charges for non-AGA members are $100 per page. AGA members who are first or corresponding author at the time of submission will receive a 15% discount on page charges and pay $85 per page. Page charges apply only to unsolicited original research submitted as one of the following manuscript types: Basic-Original Alimentary Tract; Basic-Liver, Pancreas, & Biliary; Clinical-Alimentary Tract; and Clinical-Liver, Pancreas & Biliary; and Brief Reports. Page charges do not apply to solicited content or online supplemental material.

Reprints. Forms for ordering article reprints will be sent with proofs to authors and should be returned with the corrected proofs. Authors do not receive free reprints, and therefore are responsible for ordering their own reprints (minimum order, 100) from the publisher.

CONTACT INFORMATION

The address for correspondence is: M. Bishr Omary, MD, PhD, Editor, GASTROENTEROLOGY, AGA, 4930 Del Ray Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-3015; e-mail: gastro@gastro.org; tel: 301-654-2055, ext 664; fax: 301-654-1140



Updated December 2011