For Authors

Authors are responsible for disclosing any financial or personal relationships that may bias their work. Authors should state explicitly if they do or do not have any potential conflicts of interest on the title page of the manuscript. Each author is also required to state conflicts of interest through the manuscript submission process online. A fillable PDF is available at www.icmje.org. Or, the authors can state their conflicts of interest in the manuscript.

View our Editorial Board Conflict of Interest Policy and Conflict of Interest Disclosures here.

Copyright/Open Access

Articles published in IJPT are open access and are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY). We will publish the following note on the title page of each article:

"Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY"

IJPT is an open access journal and does not charge the author for submission or publication fees.

Data Timeliness

Data from more than five years ago will receive lower priority for publication. However, authors can provide a detailed justification on why the data is still relevant today

Data Sharing Policy

In keeping with the recommendations of the ICMJE, reports on randomized clinical trials must indicate how data are shared. Authors must provide a Data Sharing Statement on the title page of the submitted manuscript. For statement examples and specifics, please refer to the ICMJE's data sharing statement policy here.

Electronic Submission

Manuscript submissions are done electronically through the Editorial Manager site. There is no submission fee. The corresponding author is the primary correspondent during the submission and review process. After submission, the corresponding author will receive a confirmation email that includes the manuscript"s number. All decisions will be sent via email. There are four possible decisions:

• Rejection: the manuscript is questionable in its importance and impact to particle therapy, the originality of the work, the quality of the study, and its priority to the IJPT and its readership
• Major revision: the manuscript contains information of potential importance but editors have a number of major issues raised; the IJPT is willing to reconsider the manuscript if the author addresses these major concerns, but cannot guarantee acceptance
• Minor revision: editors find the manuscript potentially acceptable for publication if authors make some minor adjustments
• Acceptance: editors have selected the manuscript for publication

The corresponding author is also responsible for reviewing and editing proofs if the manuscript is accepted for publication. There are no publication fees.

Embargo

Authors should not disclose the fact that their manuscript has been accepted to anyone, except coauthors and contributors, until it is published, without permission of the editors.

Ethics and Publication

IJPT enforces strict ethical policies and standards during the review process. We use iThenticate to check submissions against previous publications to verify the originality of submissions to our journal. We take issues in ethical publishing very seriously and our staff and editors have a zero tolerance policy in cases of plagiarism, data falsification, inappropriate authorship, and other similar issues.

We will not accept for review any manuscript that is currently under review at another journal. Submissions will not be accepted if it has previously appeared in any other publications. The only exception is if the work has been presented as an abstract at a conference, in which case, authors must state on the title page where and when the work was presented. 

Ethnicity/Race Reporting

If race/ethnicity is reported in the study, explain why it was assessed.  Indicate who classified individuals as to race/ethnicity, the classifications, and whether the options were defined by investigators or participants.

Funding - NIH Grants

IJPT is a Method D submission journal, meaning we will deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript into the NIH Manuscript Submission System. We will start the deposit process. The authors and NIH awardees must approve the paper for processing and approve the paper for PubMed Central display.

Human and Animal Experimentation

• Human subject anonymity
• Manuscripts that are reporting data from studies involving human participants are required to be reviewed by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee, and a statement that the study was reviewed by such a board should be included in the Material and Methods section. Those without a formal ethics committee should follow the Declaration of Helsinki.
• Non-cruel animal experimentation
• Indicate in the text whether the care and use of laboratory animals was followed as directed by the institution or national research council’s guide.

Informed Consent and Patient Details

Studies on patients, research subjects or individuals require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in your submission.

If including case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals, related consents, permissions and releases must be obtained. Written consents must be retained by the author; the author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained only if specifically requested by the IJPT. All elements of dates (except year) that are directly related to an individual, including admission date, discharge date, death date, and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of age 90 or older, should NOT be used.  Read more about the HIPAA Privacy Rule here.

For more information, please review the IJPT Informed Consent Policy.

Manuscript Preparation and Style

Editing – Manuscripts submitted to the IJPT should follow the AMA Manual of Style, 10th Edition and/or Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. The editors reserve the privilege of editing manuscripts to conform with the stylistic conventions established in recent volumes of the IJPT, in these author guidelines, and in AMA Manual of Style, the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, as well as current terminology and accepted usage and practice.

• Abbreviations – Avoid using abbreviations in the title unless space considerations require an exception. Abbreviations should be expanded at first mention in the abstract and in the body of the text.
• Units of Measure – The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. Temperature should be in degrees Celsius.
• Names of Drugs, Devices, and Other Products – Use the generic names of products unless the specific trade name of the drug is essential for discussion.

• Original articles, Reviews, and Technical Reports should have a maximum of 4,500 words (including the abstract, body text, and figure legend).
• Case Reports should have a maximum of 1,500 words.
• Letters to the Editor, or Scientific Letters, do not require abstracts and should have a maximum of 3,500 words.
• Technical Notes - Authors are welcome to write a technical note. This note will not necessarily be "academic," but it will contain practical advice for the mechanical, electrical, or dose-planning aspects of particle treatment. Technical notes should have a maximum of 3,500 words (including the abstract, body text, and figure legend).

• A clear and concise title <100 characters (with spaces)
• Authors’ names, their highest academic degrees, and their institutional affiliation to which the work should be attributed
• Running title of < 40 characters 
• Number of figures and tables: cannot exceed 6 figures and tables combined
• A conflicts of interest notification; if none, state, “The authors have no conflicts to disclose.”
• Data sharing statement
• Indication of the name(s) of the author(s) responsible for any statistical analyses. If a statistician was involved but not included as an author, please provide a full name on the title page and include the name and contribution in the Acknowledgments.
• The corresponding author’s name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address

The abstract for original articles and reports should use the following subheadings: Purpose, Patients and Methods (or Materials and Methods), Results, and Conclusion. It should also emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Word count: 300 words.

Include 3 to 5 keywords after the abstract for indexing purposes.

This section should provide context or a background to the study, including the importance of this study to the field of particle therapy and the objectives of the study. Do not include data or conclusions in this section.

This section should include any information that was available at the time that the plan or protocol for the study was being written, the number of patients included in the study, the materials used, and the experimental and statistical methods.

• Identify the methods, including statistical methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and city/state/country in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the results. 
• Math equations MUST be submitted as editable text (no images).
• Provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well-known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give the reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. 
• Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

This section should include the most important results of the study and include little discussion. The results from the study should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables, and/or illustrations. Do not repeat data found in the tables or illustrations; instead, refer to the tables and illustrations. Math equations MUST be submitted as editable text (no images).

The discussion section emphasizes the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them in the context of the totality of the best available evidence. The study’s limitations and implications should also be stated.

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Any references in tables or figure legends are counted after the reference in the body of the text. In text citations should be Arabic numerals in brackets.  There is a limit of < 50 references for Original Articles, Reports, and Technical Notes. There is no reference limit for Review Articles.

1. Zagoria RJ, Hodge RG, Dyer RB, Routh WD. Percutaneous nephrostomy for treatment of intractable hemorrhagic cystitis. J Urol. 1993;149: 1449-51.
2. [Author Names]. [Article Title]. [Journal Abbreviation]. [Year];[Volume]:[First page]-[last page].

1. Paganetti. Proton Therapy Physics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 2011.
2. [Author Names]. [Book Title]. [Publisher’s City]: [Publisher]; [Year].

1. National Cancer Institute. Cancer Advances in Focus: Prostate Cancer. URL: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/cancer-advances-in-focus/prostate. Last Updated: 9/1/2010.
2. [Author/Institute]. [Webpage Title]. URL: [URL]. Last Updated: [Date of Last Update].

1. Tisell LE. Irradiation to the neck and HPT. In: Kaplan EL, ed. Surgery of the Thyroid and Parathyroid Glands. London: Churchill Livingstone; 1893, 189-99.
2. [Book Chapter’s Author Names]. [Book Chapter Title]. In: [Editors], ed(s). [Book title]. [Publisher’s City]: [Publisher]; [Year], [Pages].

1. Hoppe BS, Michalski JM, Mendenhall NP, Morris CG, Henderson RH, Nichols RC, Regan MM, Sandler HM, Sanda MG, Hamstra DA. Comparative Effectiveness Study of Proton Therapy versus IMRT for Definitive Treatment of Prostate Cancer Based on Patient-reported Outcomes. Presented at: 55th Annual ASTRO Meeting. Atlanta, GA: 2013.
2. [Author Names]. [Title]. Presented at [Conference]. [Conference City]: [Year].

1. National Institute of Health. Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) Version 4.0: 2009. URL: http://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/CTCAE/CTCAE_4.03_2010-06-14_QuickReference_8.5x11.pdf.
2. [Author/Institution]. [Title]: [Year]. URL: [URL].

This section can include contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria, activities, relationships, affiliations, sources of funding and support, sponsors and their role, etc.

Each figure should be saved as a separate file and uploaded individually. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. If a figure has been published previously, submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the figure and acknowledge the original producer in the figure legend. Do not use patient names, initials, hospital numbers, or other identification in the figures or legends. Clinical photographs should be masked or cropped to protect the identity of the patient. Written consent forms from patients must accompany all photographs in which there is any possibility of identifying the patient. If data from another source is presented in a figure, acknowledge the source. If a figure from another source is presented, permission to use that figure must be provided to IJPT and a statement included in the figure legend that such permission was obtained. Accepted file formats are .EPS, .GIF, .TIFF, .JPEG, and .PDF. Submissions should not exceed a total of 6 tables and/or figures. Photographic images: 300 dpi; Line art images: 800 to 1200 dpi.

Figure legends should start on a separate page following the references and be double spaced, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. If data from another source are presented in a figure, acknowledge the source. If a figure from another source is presented, permission to use that figure must be provided to IJPT and a statement included in the figure legend that such permission was obtained.

Number tables consecutively in the order that they appear in the text. Each table should be numbered using Arabic numerals and have a brief title, and tables should appear on separate pages. Tables should be generated from the table creation feature in your word processing program (Microsoft Word, Open Office, etc). Tables in PowerPoint or Excel will not be accepted. Superscript and lowercase letters should be used to denote footnotes (^a,b,c...). If data from another source are presented, acknowledge the source. If a table from another source is presented, permission to use that table must be provided to IJPT and a statement included in the footnotes of the table that such permission was obtained. The submission should not exceed a total of 6 tables and/or figures.

Authors are welcome to submit supplementary material that they believe will add to the understanding of their study at the time of submission. The Editor-in-Chief will determine whether the material is relevant enough to appear with the manuscript upon publication. Acceptable supplemental materials include the following:

• Tables
• Figures
• Videos

Revision Guidelines

Revised papers have a deadline of approximately 14 to 30 days after the date of the decision letter, depending upon the scope of required revisions.

Before you resubmit your paper, please carefully proofread the manuscript to minimize typographical, grammatical, and bibliographical errors. Also, please make sure your resubmission has the following:

• Cover letter
• Point-by-point response to reviewers
• Defined abbreviations throughout paper. 
• A document of your marked revisions. Please highlight any revisions that you have made either by using the highlighting feature or the tracked changes feature in Microsoft Word. Please do not simply use different color print since colors are not distinguishable when printed for review in black-and-white.  
• Revised or original figures and tables.