BJUI AUTHOR GUIDELINES The Editor of BJUI welcomes original contributions on topics of interest and importance to urologists, whether written by urologists, nephrologists, radiologists, nurses or basic scientists. We are able to offer fast publication and encourage colour illustrations wherever appropriate. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES Submission and Peer-review Submissions are considered on the conditions that they are previously unpublished, and are not offered simultaneously elsewhere; that all authors have read and approved the content; that all authors have declared all competing interests; and that the work complies with the Ethical Policies of the Journal, and has been conducted under internationally accepted ethical standards after relevant ethical review. It is imperative that authors read this policy and complete any necessary documentation prior to your submission. When submitting a manuscript it is with the understanding that the manuscript (or its essential substance) has not been published other than as an abstract in any language or format and has not been submitted elsewhere for consideration for print or electronic publication. This journal employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to this journal you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works. The journal operates a stringent peer-review process. All manuscripts will be reviewed by the Editors, members of the Editorial Board, or other expert reviewers. At the discretion of the Editors, a manuscript may be returned immediately without full review, if deemed not competitive (for originality and quality) or outside the realm of interests of the majority of the readership of the Journal. Any statistical analyses will be assessed by a statistician. The decision (reject, revision, accept) letter will be conveyed through BJUI ScholarOne Manuscripts, coming directly from the Associate Editor who has assumed responsibility for the manuscript's review. If revision is requested the revised manuscript must be returned within two weeks for minor, or 6 weeks for major, revisions. If it is not submitted within this time frame, it may be treated as a new submission and may be sent out for review to different reviewers. Editorial decisions are based not just on the technical merit of the work, but also on other factors such as the priority for publication and the relevance to the Journal's general readership. All papers are judged in relation to other submissions currently under consideration. Acceptance of papers is based on the originality of the observation or investigation; the quality of the work described; the clarity of presentation; and the relevance to our readership. Rebuttals to rejected manuscripts are strongly discouraged and requests for resubmission of rejected manuscripts are generally not granted.
Publication Ethics BJUI is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics and subscribes to its recommendations (Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE]: guidelines on good publication practice, www.publicationethics.org.uk). Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics are also available from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/publicationethics/ (Graf C, Wager E, Bowman A, et al., Int J Clin Pract 2007; 61 [suppl 152]: 126). The Editors reserve the right to reject a paper on ethical grounds. All authors are responsible for adhering to guidelines on good publication practice. Guidelines for the reporting of health research Authors should consult and follow the relevant guidelines for reporting health research data, such as the CONSORT guidelines for randomised, controlled trials, and the PRISMA statement for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. The Equator Network collects together key reporting guidelines for health research, including CONSORT and PRISMA. BJUI requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication, in accordance with the ICMJE clinical trial registration policy. The ICMJE accepts registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov For basic/translational research, authors should consult and follow the relevant guidelines for reporting and depositing their data, such as the REMARK guidelines for tumor marker prognostic studies and the MIAME guidelines for all types of microarray analyses. The NLM s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives page lists the major biomedical research reporting guidelines. In all cases, the guidelines followed should be outlined in the cover letter submitted with the article, and any accession numbers assigned to the relevant submissions to repositories should be quoted in the manuscript text. For the reporting of complications after urologic procedures, authors should use the Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications and follow the EAU guidelines panel assessment and recommendations, to ensure uniform reporting. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS Article Categories Original articles will be published under the headings below, and authors will be asked to indicate their preferred category upon submission: Urological Oncology; Robotics and Laparoscopy; Upper Urinary Tract; Functional Urology; Sexual Medicine; Translational Science or Surgical Education. Article Types Reviews are only commissioned by the Editor. Please check the Systematic Review and Metaanalysis Guidelines appended to the end of this document before commencing work on your Review Article.
Guideline of Guidelines are only commissioned by the Editor. These should be a maximum of 3000 words long, with as many references as necessary. It must include up to 5 bullets of key messages; please also include a few lines on the methodology of how the article was produced (statistical or otherwise). You can include other figures and tables as required. The article does not require an abstract. Comments should be 800 1000 words, with up to 6 references. Original Articles on clinical and scientific aspects of urology and its associated specialities should be no more than 4000 words (word count excludes figures, tables, references and abstract) with no limit on references, and include the following: a. An abstract, sub-divided into: Objectives (which must start with 'To...' and be followed by a simple statement of the objectives, with no discursive material); Subjects/patients (or materials) and methods; Results; and Conclusion. b. A list of 3-6 key words c. Text, subdivided into: Introduction; Subjects/patients (or materials) and methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; References d. Legends to illustrations e. Tables and their legends. Please ensure that any Tables and Figures are cited in the text. All clinical trials must be registered prior to patient enrolment in accordance with The ICMJE s clinical trial registration policy. Translational Science Section The Editor and Associate Editors of the Translational Science section of BJUI are committed to publishing the highest quality scientific and translational papers following peer-review. To help authors pre-review their potential papers we recommend that you consider the following criteria: 1. High priority will be given to: - translational studies with appropriate rationale and selection of in vitro and in vivo models - papers with an insight into the mechanisms of action of initial observations. 2. Lower priority will be given to studies that: - are observational with no information relevant to disease pathogenesis or mechanisms of action - only use one cell line or model system - are largely confirmatory in a well-established body of research - are not supported by robust and appropriate statistical analysis. Surgical Education Original articles on topics including simulation, health services research, leadership and other non-technical skills. Step-by-Step Brief articles (no more than one printed page) describing a surgical procedure in a series of clear steps, to accompany a high-quality narrated surgical video, of up to 3 minutes in length, which describes the technique in clear steps. Editorials are only commissioned by the Editor. They should be 500-800 words in length (no abstract) and can include up to 6 references. You may include a single figure or table if you wish.
Letters Letters to the Editor are no longer published in the main BJUI journal, but we will continue to publish them on the BJUI website (www.bjui.org) as an important part of the scientific debate. - As such, letters are not submitted to PubMed for indexing. - Letters to the editor should be 500 words or less, preference is given to concise letters. - Writers are limited to one letter published on the website per month. - Letters must include full author contact details. - All letters will be peer-reviewed, and we reserve the right to reject letters, or to edit them if they are accepted. - If accepted, letters are sent to the authors of the paper being discussed, to give them the chance to make a response that will (if accepted) be published at the same time as the letter. - Letters will not be open for public comment; replies must be submitted to the Editorial Office for review. Format All manuscripts should start with a title page detailing: (1) the title of the article, (2) initials and names of each author, and (3) the name(s) of their institution(s). Correspondence during submission will be with the submitting author. All authors should be listed with their institutions on the title page of the manuscript. A correct e-mail address for all authors is essential. A covering letter should be included with the submission and should confirm that the paper has not been submitted elsewhere. All manuscripts must include a full Conflicts of Interest statement for all authors. References These should conform to the Vancouver style. The references in the text should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear and indicated by Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g. [1]. If there are six or fewer authors, all should be listed. If there are more than six, then the first three should be listed followed by et al. Examples: 1. Hall SA, Link CL, Hu JC, Eggers PW, McKinlay JB. Drug treatment of urological symptoms: estimating the magnitude of unmet need in a community-based sample. BJU Int 2009; 104: 160 8. 2. Wright FS, Howards SS. Obstructive injury. In Bremner BM, Rector FC eds, The Kidney, 2nd edn, Vol.II. Chapt 38. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1981: 2009 44. - References to unpublished work, including papers in preparation, should be kept to a minimum and should be mentioned in parentheses in the text as unpublished work, not in the reference list. The names of all contributors to the work should be given. - Unpublished observations, personal communications and abstracts published only in proceedings of meetings should be quoted within the text of the manuscript, in parentheses. Information from manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted should be cited in the text as unpublished observations. Illustrations Where possible, please provide high-quality digital artwork files (see https://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp ). Magnification should be given with a scale bar or in the legend; magnification values in caption should be correct for enlargement/reduction of the illustration. Figures or tables reproduced from a previously published work must have the original source quoted and the permission of the copyright holder. Colour figures may be submitted and will be published free of charge. All histological illustrations should be supplied in colour. Authors wishing any submitted material (e.g. slides) to be returned should clearly identify as such.
Units/Abbreviations Authors should follow the SI system of units (except for blood pressure which will continue to be expressed in mmhg) (Grange RI. BJU. 1996; 78:961-63). Numbers are written in full to nine; numerals are used from 10 upwards. Authors should limit their use of abbreviations and they should be used consistently throughout the text. Videos Submission Videos may be submitted to accompany a manuscript, videos received without a manuscript submission will not be considered. If your article includes a video/s, please state this in your covering letter. Ideally, videos should be uploaded when you submit your manuscript, and designated as a 'Supplementary File'; however, ScholarOne limits total combined files with a submission to 100MB, so if this is not possible, or if a video is produced after your manuscript is accepted, please contact the Editorial Office to arrange to share the video file/s with us using Dropbox or FTP transfer. Videos should be no more than 3 minutes long focussing on the main procedure, if surgery related. Formats/ file types We will accept digital files in.mp4,.mov and.m4v formats. Content Contributors are asked to be succinct, and the Editors reserve the right to require shorter video duration. Legends for the video segments should be placed at the end of the article. The video should be high quality (both in content and visibility). The video should make a specific point; particularly, it should demonstrate the features described in the text of the manuscript. In addition, the content of the video sequence should directly follow the content of the video legend. The content of the video should not display overt product advertising. Educational presentations are encouraged. Patient Consent The corresponding author must confirm in the covering letter that he or she has received a signed release form from each patient videoed authorizing the offline and/or online distribution of this video material. Patients should not be identifiable from the video. Publication The video will be hosted on Wiley Online Library the same day as the manuscript is published; it may also be hosted on YouTube if featured on www.bjui.org. A reference link to the video will be provided. The Editors reserve the right to request additional video editing by the authors (which may delay publication) and to edit video submissions prior to posting and/or distribution, including the insertion of a voice-over by the Editor. Videos may also be rejected. Supporting Information Online Supporting Information can include additional explanatory notes, data sets, lists, figures or tables that will not be published in the print edition of the journal and which are ancillary to, rather than central to, the article. Supporting Information must be approved by the Editor and will be published exactly as supplied, so it is the author's responsibility to ensure that the material is clearly laid out, adequately described, and in a format accessible to readers. Figures and tables in Supporting Information should be referred to in the main text and labelled Figure S1, Figure S2, or Table S1, etc., in the order cited. Full guidelines and information on acceptable file formats may be found at: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp.
SUBMISSION Submit your contribution online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjui. You will need your entire manuscript and any supporting files in electronic format, and full names and correct email addresses for all authors. Full instructions, and the required user ID and password can be obtained by visiting the site. Support is provided through the 'Get Help Now' function of the site, by e-mailing support@scholarone.com or the Editorial Office editorial.office@bjui.info. Authors unable to submit their manuscript online should contact the Editorial Office. FORMS Copyright Information If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Author Services; where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper. For authors signing the copyright transfer agreement If the OnlineOpen option is not selected the corresponding author will be presented with the copyright transfer agreement (CTA) to sign. The terms and conditions of the CTA can be previewed in the samples associated with the Copyright FAQs below: CTA Terms and Conditions http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp For authors choosing OnlineOpen If the OnlineOpen option is selected the corresponding author will have a choice of the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreements (OAA): Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License OAA Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial -NoDerivs License OAA To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright FAQs hosted on Wiley Author Services http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/copyright--license.html. If you select the OnlineOpen option and your research is funded by The Wellcome Trust and members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license supporting you in complying with Wellcome Trust and Research Councils UK requirements. For more information on this policy and the Journal s compliant self-archiving policy please visit: http://www.wiley.com/go/funderstatement. You will be offered the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreement (OAA): Creative Commons Attribution License OAA
To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright FAQs hosted on Wiley Author Services http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/copyright--license.html. Conflicts of Interest BJUI employs the ICMJE conflicts of interest disclosure form. All corresponding authors will need to collect and keep on file ICMJE COI forms from each co-author, and add a full Conflicts of Interest statement to their manuscript that includes everything stated on the ICMJE COI forms for each co-author and themselves. It is not necessary to submit the COI forms to the Journal. OPEN ACCESS POLICY OnlineOpen OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee (currently $3000) to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley Online Library, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive. For the full list of terms and conditions, see: http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/onlineopen#onlineopen_terms. Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the payment form available from our website at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/onlineopenorder Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform the Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen if you do not wish to. All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the Journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit. NOTE TO NIH GRANTEES Pursuant to NIH mandate, Wiley-Blackwell will post the accepted version of contributions authored by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central upon acceptance. This accepted version will be made publicly available 12 months after publication. For further information see www.wiley.com/go/nihmandate. HINARI Free online access to the Journal is available within institutions in the developing world through the HINARI initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO). AUTHOR SERVICES Free access to the final PDF offprint of your article will be available via Author Services only. Please therefore sign up for Author Services if you would like to access your article PDF offprint and enjoy the many other benefits the service offers. Please visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor for more information. Proofs The corresponding author will receive an e-mail alert containing a link to a secure website where the proof can be downloaded as an Acrobat PDF file. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. In the absence of the corresponding author, please arrange for a colleague to access the e-mail to retrieve the proofs. Corrections should be returned to the Production Editor within three days of receipt. Corrections should be kept to a minimum. Extensive changes may be charged to the author.
AUTHOR MATERIAL ARCHIVE POLICY Wiley-Blackwell will dispose of all hard copy or electronic material submitted, two months after publication. If you require the return of any material submitted, please inform the Production Editor (bju@wiley.com) as soon as possible.
BJUI Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Guidelines In order to assure the highest quality articles, please apply the following guidance: 1. A priori design: Please prospectively register your topic on the PROSPERO website (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero). We d ask you to put particular emphasis on the selection of the main outcomes of the review, which should be patient-important rather than surrogate outcomes. Please also predefine any subgroup analyses you plan to do. Ultimately, the actual analysis performed and the protocol should correspond as to support the validity of your review findings. 2. Literature search: We strongly encourage you to include a team member with dedicated expertise in literature searches. You should search multiple databases (for example: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and others depending on the topic). Study inclusion and exclusion criteria should correspond to those predefined in your PROSPERO protocol. 3. Inclusion of unpublished studies: To avoid publication bias, please describe your searches for unpublished studies, such as abstract proceeding from urological meetings (i.e. BAUS, EAU, AUA, ASCO etc.). Also consider searching dedicated databases for the so-called grey literature. We also encourage you to include studies in other languages than English alone. 4. Provide a list of included and excluded studies: Please provide a PRISMA flow diagram to outline your literature search. This should provide reference numbers for the number of references identified through the search (1), the number of references included after title/abstract screening (2), the number of studies included after full text screening (3) and the number of studies ultimately included (4). Please map multiple references for a single study to a unique study ID. Please provide references for references that reach stages (3) and (4). 5. Study Selection and Data Abstraction: Two independent members of the research team should perform these steps in duplicate. Please pilot test your data abstraction form in advance. 6. Characteristics of included studies: It is important that you provide the readers with sufficient information about the included studies to put the results into perspective, e.g. patient mean age, gender distribution, disease stage, drug dose etc. This is best accomplished in the form of a table. 7. Assessment of scientific quality: Please use a contemporary system such as GRADE (http://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/) to assess the quality of evidence. This should include an assessment of study limitations (risk of bias), for example by using the Cochrane risk of bias tool as well as other domains such as indirectness, imprecision, inconsistency and publication bias. These assessments should be made on an outcome-specific basis. We encourage you to provide a summary of findings/evidence profile. 8. Using quality of evidence ratings in formulating conclusions: Please make sure that your quality of evidence ratings for various outcomes finds explicit reference in our discussion and conclusion. If intervention A is better than intervention B based on high quality evidence, your interpretation should read differently than if it was based on very low quality evidence.
9. Use of appropriate methods to pool study results: For result pooled in a meta-analysis, a test should be done to ensure the studies were combinable, to assess their homogeneity (i.e., Chi-squared test for homogeneity, I 2 ). If heterogeneity exists a random effects model should be used and/or the clinical appropriateness of combining should be taken into consideration (i.e., is it sensible to combine?). If your study includes randomized controlled and observational studies, it is advisable to analyze these separately first and pool them only if the results are similar. 10. Assess the likelihood of publication bias: If the number of studies included is sufficient (usually > 10), please report an assessment of publication bias using graphical aids (e.g., funnel plot, other available tests) and/or statistical tests (e.g., Egger regression test, Hedges- Olken) 11. Conflict of interest reporting: Please abstract information on who funded the individual studies included in your systematic review and report your own potential financial conflicts of interests according to BJU International reporting guidelines. As you report the results of your systematic review, please apply relevant reporting guidelines as found on the website of the EQUATOR Network (http://www.equator-network.org/). These include the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials and MOOSE guidelines for observational studies.