Dose-Response

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Dose-Response will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal

Please Read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & scope
   3.2 Article types
   3.3 Writing your paper
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer Review Policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   4.7 Clinical Trials
   4.8 Reporting guidelines
   4.9 Research Data
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Word processing formats
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplemental material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 How to submit your manuscript
   7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   7.3 Information required for completing your submission
   7.4 ORCID
   7.5 Information required for completing your submission
   7.6 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.2 Continuous publication
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further information

1. Open Access

Dose-Response is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made
freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license
and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of
article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon
acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open
Access FAQs. 

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2. Article processing charge (APC)

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge
(APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely
available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons licence.

Publication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.

The APC for this journal is $2,650 USD. Commentaries are $250 USD, and Letters to the Editor are free of charge.

The APC for members of the International Dose-Response Society is available at a 50% discount. This discount is only for the full APC and does not include Commentaries.

The article processing charge (APC) is payable only if your article is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Tax-exempt status can be indicated by providing appropriate registration numbers when payment is requested. Please see further details here.

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3. What do we publish?

3.1 Aims & scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Dose-Response, please ensure you have read the Aims &
Scope. 

3.2 Article types

The journal will consider original articles, reviews on specific topics, short reports and clinical
cases for publication.

Original articles should comprise an Introduction, Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusion,
Acknowledgements and References or similar.

Review articles should contain a summary, an introduction to the topic, a careful review of the
relevant literature, and conclusions of the reviewed literature and recommendations, if
applicable.

Unsolicited commentaries will be considered for publication. The commentary should include
relevant background information, comments, areas that need further investigation and future
directions. Commentaries are limited to no more than 1,000 words and one figure. If discussing
a paper, include the paper citation in the references. Be sure to include 5-7 key words and a
running title. Please include no more than 8 references (One author, et al., Journal Abbreviation
Year; Volume: Page numbers). Please do not include any tables or an abstract. The APC for
commentaries is $250.

Letters to the Editor should consist of one or two paragraphs totaling no more than 500 words,
no abstract, no subheadings and fewer than 8 references (one author, et al., no titles). If an
abstract is included, it will automatically be made the first paragraph. Letters should not include
figures or research material. Letters to the Editor are not charged an APC.

A letter to the editor is a brief communication that addresses the contents of a published article.
Its purpose is to make corrections, provide alternative viewpoints, or offer counter arguments. Avoid
logical fallacies and ad hominem attacks. Letters to the editor must be written in a professional tone
and include references to support all claims if appropriate. 

3.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on /how-to-get-published  plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

3.3.1 Making your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title,
keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search
engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article,
write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway:
How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

 

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Dose-Response
utilizes a single-anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is
withheld from the author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining 
rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then
makes the final decision.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for
possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by
alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no
involvement in the decision-making process.

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing
authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed
to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all
those who:

(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition,
analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public
responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have
participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the
content.

When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the
individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully
meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone
does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for
authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on
authorship..

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an
Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person
who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support. 

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do
not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors
must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of
input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of
Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

4.4 Funding

Dose-Response requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a
separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author
Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state
that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial,
or not-for-profit sectors.

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Dose-Response to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors
enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles. 
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of
your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists,
please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations. 

4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical
Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct,
Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers
reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant
Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure
that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the
approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants
provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the
manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient
information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized
representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article,
as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in
writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held
by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory
letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

4.7 Clinical trials

Dose-Response conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHOapproved
public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of
consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be
included at the end of the abstract.

4.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type
of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include
a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should
be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and metaanalyses
should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed 
PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The
EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives. 

4.9 Research Data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to
refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the
Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway. 

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Dose-Response and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of
best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we
always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to
protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked
with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized
other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient
acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to
take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction);
retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's
institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action. 

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage
journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be
considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in
doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below. 

5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s
Publishing Agreement. Dose-Response publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses.
The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC
BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is
properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to
visit Sage's OA licenses page

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder
mandates, made at the author’s request. 

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Word processing formats

Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files
are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for
left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point.
Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our
Author Gateway.

• Times New Roman is the preferred typeface
• Title page, abstract page, references and figure legends must be on separate pages. A
running head not to exceed 60 characters, including spaces, must appear only on the
title page, placed near the bottom
• Each page should contain line numbers in the left-hand margin
• All pages must be numbered consecutively in the lower right-hand corner, starting with
the title page and including pages containing tables and figure legends
• At the end of your article, Acknowledgements should appear first, followed by your
Declaration of Conflicting Interests, funding acknowledgment, any notes and then your
references
• Authors should write in clear, concise English. The responsibility for all aspects of
manuscript preparation rests with the authors. Extensive changes or rewriting of the
manuscript will not be undertaken by the Editor

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please
visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines 

6.2.1 Figures

Figures will ideally be submitted within the main text of the document, failing this they should
be submitted separately and be clearly labeled. Art should be created/scanned and saved and
submitted as in either of the below formats:

• TIFF (tagged image file format)
• EPS (encapsulated PostScript)
• PPT (PowerPoint)

Line art must have a resolution of at least 1200 dpi (dots per inch), and electronic photographs;
radiographs, CT scans, MRIs, all medical imaging, and all scanned images must have a resolution
of at least 300 dpi. If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be converted to paths or outlines
or they must be embedded in the files. Color images must be created/scanned and saved and
submitted as CMYK files. Please note that artwork generated from office suite programs such as
CorelDRAW and MS Word and artwork downloaded from the Internet (JPEG or GIF files) cannot
be used. Cite the figures and number them in the order in which they are discussed in the text of
the manuscript.

Given that the journal is only published electronically, there are no additional charges for the
publication of color images. Color reprints, however, will incur additional charges.

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

6.2.2 Legends

Legends must be submitted for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and they should
appear on a separate manuscript page place to follow the references. Use scale markers in the
image for electron micrographs and indicate the type of stain used.

6.2.3 Tables

Create tables using the table creating and editing feature of your word processing software
(e.g., MS Word or Excel). Group all tables at the end of the manuscript, or supply them together
in a separate file. Cite tables consecutively in the text, and number them in that order. Key each
on a separate sheet, and include the table title, appropriate column heads, and explanatory
legends (including definitions of any abbreviations used). Do not embed tables within the body
of the manuscript. They should be self-explanatory and should supplement, rather than
duplicate, the material in the text.

6.3 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc)
alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting
 supplemental files. 

6.4 Reference style

Dose-Response adheres to the AMA reference style. Please review the guidelines on AMA to
ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the AMA output file here.

6.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript
formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit
Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information. 

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7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript

Dose-Response is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system
powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dose-response
to login and submit your article online. 

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to
create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely
that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript
online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title,
keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search
engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your
article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author
Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online. 

7.3 Information required for completing your submission

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and
telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should
be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the
submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must
match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the
required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files
(including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.4 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a
supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique
and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even
those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as
manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their
professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this
journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission
during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID
ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when
prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD
will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and
only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work
can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID
homepage to learn more.

7.5 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the
submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match
what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed on the manuscript should be the institution
where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the
research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this
stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any
additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.6 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any
illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further
information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our
Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway. 

NB: If an author is using their own work they will still require permission if they did not retain
copyright of the previously published article. Papers will not be accepted for publication without
the correct permissions. 

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the
contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for Sage Production,
the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link.
Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online
within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the
APC has been received.

8.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the
production process. Proofs will made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal
Sage Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are
reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names,
affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest
statements, if any, are accurate.

8.2 Online publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to
publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully
citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time
it will be completely free to view and download for all. 

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is
as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help
you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
 

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9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission
process should be sent to the Dose-Response editorial office as follows:

Kristina Moulton, Kristina.moulton@sagepub.com

Please note, manuscripts should be submitted directly to the peer review site for consideration. Email
inquiries with partial descriptions will be directed to submit the manuscript in full at
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dose-response 

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