Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation publishes original papers on any aspect of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease including human clinical studies. All submissions must be in English. Manuscripts should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org). The Journal is published in electronic format.

Types of Manuscripts That Will Be Considered

• Original Research Articles Related to COPD
  • Human Clinical Studies
  • Epidemiology
  • Outcomes Research
  • Basic Science
• Review Articles
  • Clinical
  • Basic
• Perspectives or Short Communications
• Practice Guidelines Related to COPD
• Letters to the Editor

Submission of Manuscripts

To submit your manuscript, send it by email to COPD@njhealth.org. Manuscripts that do not conform to guidelines will be delayed or returned. All questions related to manuscripts should be addressed to:

Tina Watson, Editorial Assistant
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation
By email at COPD@njhealth.org or by telephone at 303-398-1801

A completed International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest is required from each contributing author prior to initiation of Peer Review. Visit the Journal website: journal.copdfoundation.org to download the ICMJE Conflict of Interest Form. An Assignment of Copyright Agreement is required after a manuscript is accepted for publication. When inquiring about a manuscript, please refer to the assigned manuscript number. Inquiries will be accepted from the Corresponding Author only.

By virtue of submitting a manuscript to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, the authors certify that (a) the material is original, has not been published except in abstract form, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere, including publicly accessible websites or e-print servers, (b) all authors have read the manuscript and approve its submission, and (c) all clinical trials have been registered in a public trial registry.

If some or all of the dataset for a submitted manuscript was also used for the results in another manuscript, this must be stated explicitly in the "Author Comments" area even when the results are presented in the transmittal letter.

Authors may list up to three recommended reviewers (include e-mail address) they believe are qualified to review the paper.

Before submission, authors should ensure that there is no major repetition of language or content from previously published papers.

Copyright Form. Upon submitting a revised version of a manuscript that has been approved for re-submission, the corresponding author, on behalf of all of the authors, must complete the Assignment of Copyright Form and submit it to COPD@njhealth.org. Visit the Journal website: journal.copdfoundation.org to download the Copyright Form.

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate signed permission to reproduce any material from another copyrighted source.

Manuscript Preparation

Please use 12-point type with 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins. Use double spacing throughout. All papers should be organized to include: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, declaration of interest, references, figure legends, tables, and figures. Each of the preceding elements should begin on a separate page. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the abstract.

Title Page

• The title page should include a concise and descriptive title;
• the first name, middle initial, last name and credentials for each author;
• the departmental and institutional affiliation of each author;
• the telephone number as well as the email address of the corresponding author.
• A running head of no more than 50 characters (including characters and spaces) should be included.
• A list of the abbreviations contained within the text.
• A list of keywords that best represent the key topics of the article
• A statement of funding support for the article’s research and work including but not limited to grant support, funding sources, provision of equipment and supplies and role of the sponsor.

Abstract. A concise abstract of no more than 250 words is required.

Text. The body of the article should include an introduction and methods, results and discussion sections.

Declaration of Interest. Disclose any real or apparent conflicts of interest including financial and consulting relationships. Disclose, if necessary, writing assistance using an agency or freelance writer.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation will not consider manuscripts that are funded in any part by tobacco companies.

References. References should be typed double-spaced beginning on a separate sheet and numbered in the order that they appear in the text.

Examples of References. Follow U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) Style Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts and the American Medical Association style guidelines. (NOTE: Formatting of references that adhere to the Uniform Requirements will be accepted without challenge in manuscripts and any necessary formatting changes necessary to have them match AMA style guidelines will be made by manuscript editors ).

• Journal Articles
  Author AB, Author2 CD, Author 3 EF. Article title in lowercase. Journal Name italicized and abbreviated. Publication Year; Volume (Issue): Page Numbers. doi:

(Notes: For journal articles with references with more than six authors, list only the first three, followed by et al. Abbreviate the titles of journals according to the style used in the NLM-Index Medicus.)

• Books
  Author AB, Author2 CD. Book Title. Edition. Publisher City: Publisher; Year.

Tables. Tables should be grouped on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. Footnotes to the table should be placed below the table. (NOTE: Please use lowercase, superscript letters [a, b, c] rather than symbols [ *,^,#] for marking footnote references within the tables)

Figures. All figures should be submitted as digital files of sufficiently high resolution (300 dpi or higher) to enable journal reproduction. Illustrations should not be embedded in the text but should be submitted as separate files. Acceptable formats include JPG, TIFF, PowerPoint.

Genomics Data. Genomics data should conform to Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment (MIAME) guidelines. Primary genomic data should be placed in appropriate public repositories such as the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). GEO supports data from microarray-based experiments that measure gene expression, or detect genomic gains and losses (array CGH), detect SNPs, or identify protein-binding genomic regions in conjunction with ChIP-chip, or locate transcribed regions. GEO also accepts non-array-based high-throughput data, including SAGE, MPSS, and some peptide profiling techniques such as MS/MS. Instructions for data submission can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/info/submission.html.

Clinical Trials. Reports on clinical trials should conform to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement.

Online Data Supplements. Authors may submit materials supporting the manuscript to be posted as an Online Data Supplement of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.

If material is being submitted for an Online Data Supplement, please include the following statement on the title page of the main manuscript, "This article has an online data supplement." The supplementary material must be submitted simultaneously with the manuscript and will undergo peer review.

Image Manipulation. Electronically submitted figures must be accurate representations of actual research images. Specific features within an image should not be enhanced, obscured, moved, deleted, or added.

Human and Animal Studies. We endorse the recommendations concerning human research that are contained in the Declaration of Helsinki. All manuscripts containing human studies should conform to these recommendations. All manuscripts reporting human research must contain a statement in the text that the institutional review board for human studies approved the protocols and written consent was obtained from the subjects or their surrogates if required by the institutional review board.

Use of animals in research should be compliant with all subsequent revisions of the Health Research Extension Act (public law 99-158, 1985 Animals in Research). All animal experiments must conform to the revised:
Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council. Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press; 1996.

These documents can be obtained at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/olaw.htm.

Revisions

Revised manuscripts should use a red font instead of a black font to indicate the portions of the manuscript that have been changed.

Publication Fees

Authors will be billed an $800.00 publication fee at the time an article is accepted for publication.