As of November 7, 2024, JAD has moved to ScholarOne for all new submissions.
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/alz
Revisions of articles previously handled in Editorial Manager should continue to be submitted through Editorial Manager (editorialmanager.com/j-alz).
Research Reports | Reviews | Short Communications | Revisions
Hypotheses | Commentaries | Editorials | Book Reviews
Ethics Reviews | Ethics Responses | Letters to the Editor
Organization and style of presentation
- Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to consult a professional English language editing service or a native English speaker prior to submission.
- Manuscripts should make it clear how the work is relevant to Alzheimer's disease and within the scope of JAD. Be sure to include "Alzheimer's disease" in both the abstract and keywords.
- Nomenclature for amyloids should follow the 2018 guidelines of the International Society of Amyloidosis (ISA) nomenclature committee (Amyloid 25, 215-219, 2018), e.g., amyloid-β (Aβ) and amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP). Also preferred is Aβ42 and sAβPPα.
- Manuscripts should be double spaced throughout with wide margins (2.5 cm or 1 in), including the abstract and references, with line numbers. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should include a page number centered at the bottom. Do not number headings or subheadings (use bold with initial cap; then italic with initial cap; then italic with initial cap and full stop/period with text following directly after). Footnotes should be avoided.
- There are no page or word limits for Research Reports or Review Articles but manuscripts over 10,000 words (Introduction through Discussion) should be approved by the Editor-in-Chief before submission.
- Abbreviations should be defined at first use and avoided if not used more than 3 times. We do not typically include abbreviation lists in published manuscripts.
- Permission should be obtained to reproduce/adapt figures or tables from another publication and properly acknowledged in the text. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permissions. See our Policy on Copyright for more information.
Title page
- Title (should be clear, descriptive, concise, and avoid the use of abbreviations). Do not use ALL CAPS.
- Full name(s) of author(s). Last names can be bolded to help with proper indexing in PubMed.
- Full affiliation(s). Delineate affiliations with numbers.
- Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
- Running title (45 characters or less, including spaces)
- Complete correspondence address, including an e-mail address
- If you want an anonymous review, the full title page should be included in the cover letter, which is not transmitted to reviewers.
IOS Press has adopted Sage’s Authorship Policy. Please go to: Authorship guidelines | SAGE Publications Ltd for details.
Changes in Authorship
When submitting the manuscript, the author listing and order should be FINAL. If the named authors for a manuscript change at any point between submission and acceptance, an Authorship Change Form must be completed and digitally signed by all authors (including any added or removed). An addition of an author is only permitted following feedback raised during peer review. Completed forms should be uploaded at the Revision Submission stage. All requests will be moderated by the Editor and/or Sage staff. Important: Changes to the author by-line by adding or deleting authors are NOT permitted following acceptance of a paper.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (such as language models, machine learning systems, or similar technologies) cannot be authors of a manuscript. If these models or tools are used to produce content or aid in writing and manuscript preparation, the authors of the manuscript bear the responsibility for the quality and ethical standards of the generated content. Authors must acknowledge the utilization of these tools/technologies in the Methods section if integrated into formal research design or methods or if used for literature searches. If these tools/technologies are used to modify text written by the authors, this should be included in the Acknowledgments section. Authors must include details such as a description of the content created or modified, the name of the language model or tool, its version, extension numbers, and the manufacturer. Examples: "Approximately 15% of the text in this manuscript was generated with the assistance of ChatGPT, version [version number], a language model developed by OpenAI (https://www.openai.com)." or "ChatGPT, version [version number], a language model developed by OpenAI (https://www.openai.com), was used for language refinement of this manuscript.
Abstract and Keywords
- The abstract should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory, and no longer than 250 words.
- A structured abstract for Research Reports and Systematic Reviews should include the following sections: Background, Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Short communications, literature reviews, hypotheses, commentaries, editorials, and ethics reviews require a regular, unstructured abstract. See specific instructions for these article types below.
- Do not include references in the abstract.
- If your submission relates to a clinical trial, include the number and registration date.
- Include a list of 4-10 keywords, alphabetized and including "Alzheimer's disease". These keywords should be terms from the MeSH database.
- Note that ALL articles (except book reviews and letters to the editor) must include an abstract.
- We do not publish graphical abstracts. If you want to include this sort of figure, it must be integrated into the main document or as part of the Supplemental Material.
Introduction
Provide enough information to put your work into context. Be concise. Clearly address the following points:
- What information is already available?
- What is the rationale or reason for your research?
- What problem(s) does it address?
Do not include a comprehensive literature review of your research. End the Introduction by clearly stating the aims of your study.
Materials and Methods
This section should be well structured and detailed enough for others to be able to reproduce your experiments. Use clear sub-headings throughout. Start by describing the materials use, the supplier source, including any relevant catalog information, and supplier location. Use references appropriately to refer to published protocols or methodology. Do not repeat a detailed description of an already-published method or protocol.
If appropriate, clinical trial numbers and registration dates should be included here (as well as in the abstract).
A statement regarding human subjects and/or animals must be included in this section, even if not applicable. See the publisher's policy on Use of Experimental Subjects here: https://www.iospress.com/use-of-experimental-subjects-policy
Results
This section should present the results and summarize the findings of your study. Do not provide any data in great detail. If you need to include additional detailed data, do so in supplemental files submitted with the paper. Consider providing a one-sentence summary at the beginning of each paragraph in the Results section, if you think that this would help the reader in understanding your findings.
Discussion
Begin this section with a brief summary of the main findings. Ensure that you answer all the questions posed in the Introduction. Mention both the strengths and the limitations for your study, as well as applications and implications of your findings. Compare these to other published findings.
Author Contributions
Please identify each author’s contribution(s) to the submission, using the guidelines of the Contributor Roles Taxonomy Project (CRediT), should be provided. Categories include Conceptualization; Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Data Curation; Writing - Original Draft; Writing - Review & Editing; Visualization; Supervision; Project administration; Funding acquisition; Other. See the CRediT website for more details.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors. This information should be entered into the submission questionnaire at the time of submission. If the submission is accepted, the contributions, as entered into ScholarOne, will be added to the manuscript file.
Example Author Contributions Statement:
Michel Jones (Conceptualization; Methodology; Formal Analysis; Investigation); Jennifer Smith (Data curation; Visualization; Writing - Original draft preparation); Jing Wang (Conceptualization; Writing - Review & Editing; Supervision; Project administration).
Acknowledgments
Include individuals or companies which have assisted with your study, including advisors, administrative support and suppliers who may have donated or given materials used in the study. If there are no acknowledgments, then still include this section and insert: “The authors have no acknowledgments to report.”
Funding
Include all funding sources for the study. If there is no funding involved, then still include this section and insert: “The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.”
Declaration of conflicting interests
All affiliations or financial involvement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in, or in financial competition with, the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript must be completely disclosed in the submitted manuscript.
All financial and material support for the research and work must be clearly identified in the manuscript including listing of support that might constitute or give the appearance of influencing the findings. Report all support for the work reported in your manuscript without time limit. For all other items, the time frame for disclosure is the past 36 months.
All authors are expected to provide disclosures to the corresponding author before submission for inclusion in the “Conflict of Interest” statement. Items included in the disclosure statement should cover: consulting fees or paid advisory boards (for the past three years or the known future), equity ownership/stock options (publicly or privately traded firms, excluding mutual funds), lecture fees when speaking at the invitation of a commercial sponsor (for the past three years or the known future), employment by the commercial entity that sponsored the study, grant support from industry, patents and/or royalties, expert witness, and other activities performed for a commercial sponsor.
Additionally, any authors who are Editorial board members of JAD must include this information in the Conflict of Interest section using the following format: “[AUTHOR] is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not involved in the peer-review process of this article nor had access to any information regarding its peer-review."
If there is no conflict of interest to declare, include the statement "The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article."
Questions authors should consider when preparing their conflict of interest statement:
1) Do you receive any consulting fees or belong to any paid/unpaid advisory boards? If yes, please indicate the type and extent of any consulting fees or paid advisory boards. Example: Michael Jones receives consulting fees from StartUp Pharma and is a paid advisor for Pharmaceutical Company.
2) Do you own any equities or stock options (relevant to the work being considered)? If yes, indicate all stocks in publicly or privately traded firms, excluding mutual funds. Example: Jennifer Smith owns stock equity in BioTech, Inc.
3) Do you receive any payments/honoraria for lectures, presentations, or speakers’ bureaus from commercial sponsors? If yes, please describe for activity from the past three years or the known future. Example: Michael Jones has received lecture fees from Pharmaceutical Company.
4) Are you employed by the commercial entity that sponsored the study? If yes, please list this. Example: Jennifer Smith is an employee of BioTech, Inc.
5) Do you receive grant support from industry? If yes, please list the source and dates. Example: Michael Jones received funding from Pharmaceutical Company (2020-2022).
6) Do you have patents and/or royalties, serve as an expert witness, or perform other activities for a commercial sponsor? If yes, please explain. Example: Jennifer Smith has a patent for the pharmaceutical formula used in the reported study.
7) Are you currently an Editorial board member of JAD? If yes, add the required statement.
Example of a final Conflict of Interest statement:
Michael Jones receives consulting fees from StartUp Pharma and is a paid advisor for and received lecture fees and funding (2020-2022) from Pharmaceutical Company.
Jennifer Smith owns stock equity in and is an employee of BioTech, Inc., and has a patent for the pharmaceutical formula used in the reported study.
Jing Wang is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not involved in the peer-review process of this article nor had access to any information regarding its peer-review.
All other authors have no conflict of interest to report.
If there is no conflict of interest to declare, still include this section and insert "The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article."
Datasets/Data Availability (Required for Research Reports, Short Communications, and Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analyses)
All datasets and data articles cited in your manuscript should be included in the reference list of your article (not in a separate box or in the article text). Data references should include: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and identifier (DOI/URL/etc.).
Authors should include a Data Availability statement at the end of the manuscript (before the References) to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. Authors are encouraged to publicly archive their research data including, but not limited to: raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, and/or materials. If the data has been shared, authors are obligated to include a link to the repository, and to reference the data. Exceptions are made if sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements.
Examples for your paper’s “Data Availability" statement:
1. The data supporting the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [DOI and/or URL]. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: [list resources and URLs].
2. The data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
3. The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and/or its supplemental material.
4. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during this study.
All references should be formatted in the style of Sage Vancouver.
Download the EndNote style from EndNote (https://endnote.com/downloads/styles/sage-vancouver/. A .csl file is available here: https://www.zotero.org/styles/sage-vancouver)
- Place citations as numbers in superscript numbers in the text in order of appearance (outside/after punctuation; e.g., "Alzheimer's disease.1"), beginning in the text with tables integrated, and then figure legends. Each citation should be to one manuscript only. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be listed in the text as (Author(s), unpublished data) and should NOT be numbered and included in the reference list. Personal communications should also only appear in the text (e.g., "Person name, personal communication") and not in the reference list.
- List up to 3 authors and then use "et al."
- Please include doi numbers for "in press" articles if available.
- Carefully check for and remove any duplicates (especially when using reference software).
- References should be listed in the order of appearance in the following style:
1. Steen E, Terry BM, Rivera EJ, et al. Impaired insulin and insulin-like growth factor expression and signaling mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease--is this type 3 diabetes? J Alzheimers Dis 2005; 7: 63-80.
2. Murphy MP and LeVine H, 3rd. Alzheimer's disease and the amyloid-beta peptide. J Alzheimers Dis 2010; 19: 311-323.
3. Paxinos G and Watson C. The rat brain in stereotaxic coordinates. 7th ed. London: Academic Press, 2013, p. 480.
4. Perry G, Zhu X, Smith MA, et al. Alzheimer’s disease: advances for a new century. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2013, p. 488.
5. Smith MA. Oxidative stress and iron imbalance in Alzheimer disease: how rust became the fuss! In: Perry G, Avila J, Kinoshita J, et al. (eds) Alzheimer's disease: a century of scientific and clinical research. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2006, pp.305-308.
6. LoBue C, Munro C, Schaffert J, et al. Traumatic brain injury and risk of long-term brain changes, accumulation of pathological markers, and developing dementia: a review. In: Castellani RJ (ed) Handbook of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurodegeneration. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2020, pp.193-218.
7. Prince M, Comas-Herrera A, Knapp M, et al. World Alzheimer Report 2016. Improving Healthcare for People Living with Dementia: Coverage, Quality and Costs Now and in the Future. Alzheimer’s Disease International, London, UK, 2016.
8. Alzheimer Research Forum. Drugs in Clinical Trials: AAB-001, http://www.alzforum.org/drg/drc/detail.asp?id=101 (2023, accessed 7 June 2024).
9. World Health Organization. Dementia, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia (2023, accessed 7 June 2024).
10. Yang HS, Teng L, Kang D, et al. Cell-type-specific Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk scores are associated with distinct disease processes in Alzheimer’s disease. medRxiv 2023 20230605. DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.01.23290850 [Preprint]. Posted 5 June 2023.
If you are using EndNote and the journal names are not properly abbreviating, please try updating your Journals Term List (https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-20-Generate-full-or-abbreviated-journal-names?language=en_US).
Tables
- Number according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.
- Provide each table integrated into the main body approximately where they should be placed.
- Tables should be in an editable format (not inserted as pictures).
- Include a brief and self-explanatory title with any explanations essential to the understanding of the table given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.
- Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
- Citations in the tables should be numbered and included in the Reference list.
- Number the figures according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all figures.
- Figures and their legends should be provided on a separate page, following any tables. Figures can also be integrated in the main body if desired.
- Figures should preferably be formatted in TIF or EPS format. We can also accept PDF or Powerpoint.
- Composite figures (with multiple panels) MUST be preassembled. Panels should be labeled with lowercase letters.
- Figures should be designed with the format of JAD in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%.
- Line art should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi and be saved as an EPS or TIF.
- Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at the final size.
- All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
- Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
- Grayscale figures (including photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, or 600 dpi for combination art (lettering and images) and be saved as a TIF.
- Figures should be cropped to include the figure only (no blank space).
- Do not save figures as JPG; this format may lose information in the publishing process.
- Do not use figures taken from the Internet; the resolution will be too low for printing.
- Do not use color in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color; this can be changed in the settings).
- For figures to be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIF.
- On figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales rather than numerical ones, i.e., do not use scales of the type 1:10,000. This avoids problems if the figure needs to be reduced.
- Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption, which should be included in the manuscript file. Do not embed the legend in the figure file.
- Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity.
- Color figures will be published online at no charge.
- Costs for color figures in the print version of the journal are as follows: 1 figure - 650 euro; 2 figures - 900 euro; 3 figures - 1050 euro; 4 figures - 1200 euro; 5 figures - 1350 euro. Cost for each additional color figure will be 150 euro. Unless the color printing charge is paid, color figures will be automatically adjusted to gray-scale in print. You may opt to send in both black/white figures for print, and color figures for the online PDF (please adjust the figure legend appropriately).
Image integrity
Images submitted with a manuscript for review should be minimally processed. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping or consolidation of images from multiple sources must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure and in the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and if they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds.
Unprocessed data files may be requested to help in manuscript evaluation during the peer review process or may be needed to respond to post-publication issues that may arise with published papers. Unprocessed data and metadata files should be retained, ideally forever.
Unprocessed original images of gels and western blots must be included with submissions as Supplemental Material for reviewers to examine (not for publication). This must include the full blots, not cropped sections, with target proteins, loading controls, molecular weights, and experimental conditions clearly indicated.
Posting or sharing images produced by AI, machine learning, or similar technology is discouraged, except when used for formal research design or methods. Usage is only allowed including a clear description of the content's origin, and the model or tool used (including version and manufacturer). Authors must ensure the accuracy of content generated by these models and tools.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusion of a paper that cannot be included in the printed version for reasons of space or medium (for example, movie clips or sound files). The supplement will be available for download from the publisher's content library site at the time of publication and will be made available in the format in which it was provided.
Supplemental tables and figures must have a separate numbering system from that used for tables and figures that appear in the print version of the paper (the first figure displayed should be labeled "Supplemental Figure 1", the first table "Supplemental Table 1", and so on). References should also be cited in supplements started with "1" and listed separately, all in Sage Vancouver style.
Supplemental files are limited to 10MB, except videos which can be up to 25MB.
Supplemental material for Short Communications is limited to 500 words and 1 table or figure.
Reviews (narrative) should be authoritative and topical and provide comprehensive and balanced coverage of a timely and/or controversial issue. Reviews should be prepared as detailed above for a Research Report, omitting Introduction through Discussion, and include a conclusion. An abstract must also be included. The length of the review article is at the discretion of the author but should be within reasonable limits. The Editor-in-Chief can be consulted regarding reviews of unusual length.
Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, scoping reviews, and any other type articles that include a methods section are typically considered as a Research report or Systematic review and should be formatted as such (with a structured abstract and Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections).
Revisions should be returned within two months of receiving a decision. Authors needing more time should email the Editor-in-Chief for an extension. When submitting a revised manuscript, please indicate your revisions in the text (either in revision mode or by highlighting) and provide a point-by-point response letter to the reviews.
If you choose not to resubmit to JAD after receiving a decision, please inform the editorial office ([email protected]) that you wish to withdraw your manuscript from further consideration. You can also "Decline to Revise" within ScholarOne.
A short communication is an article of original scholarship of unusual interest of less than 2000 words (Introduction through Discussion only; do not include abstract, declarations (Acknowledgments, Funding, Conflict of Interest, Data Availability), references, tables, or figures/legends). An abstract of 100 words or less should be included with no subdivison of the abstract into sections. References should be formatted as above. A total of three tables and/or figures are allowed. Submissions that exceed the word or figure/table limits will be considered a Research Report. Supplemental Material for Short Communications is limited to 500 words and 1 table or figure.
A hypothesis article should be a balanced and insightful consideration of a topic with novel hypotheses well presented and supported. The article should be prepared as a Research Report but without Methods or Results sections. An abstract should also be included.
Commentaries are usually commissioned and of around 1000 words with a short abstract (100 words or less) and no other subdivisions. A commentary is a short work written to discuss, prove, clarify, support, improve, or dispute a published (or soon to be published) article. A commentary typically does not include original data and discusses specific issues within a subject area rather than the whole field, explains the implications of the article, and/or puts it in context. Include an original title for your commentary (do not title it "Commentary on 'Article title'"). References should be formatted as above. If relevant, be sure to include a citation/reference to the article you are commenting on (even if "in press").
Editorials are usually around 1000 words with a short abstract (100 words or less) and no other subdivisions. References should be formatted as above.
Book reviews should be 750 words or less and without sections. While most reviews are commissioned, suggestions can be proposed to the Editor-in-Chief.
Authors can submit comments of 1000 words or less concerning prior articles published in JAD to the Editor-in-Chief through the Editorial Office ([email protected]) for possible inclusion at our online site as a Letter to the Editor. Letters will be shared with the authors of the original article for possible response prior to posting. Letters are not included in the published version of JAD nor are indexed in PubMed.
The goal of an Ethics Review is to address ethical issues that alter progress in Alzheimer’s disease research, clinical practice, and policy. Ultimately the aim is to highlight and target unresolved issues where failure to act or resolve disagreements leads to bottlenecks in productivity in research, policy, and clinical services. Ethics Review is slightly different from a JAD typical review in that that the topics and presentation are balanced but controversial so that they would likely elicit Ethics Responses. Ethics Responses from multiple disciplines and perspectives are encouraged. Whereas addressing controversial topics is encouraged, reviews should focus on constructively moving debates forward to accelerate progress.
Features of an effective an Ethics Review are as follows:
- Clearly identify points of disagreement and agreement in the field noting where empirical data are lacking or present that could resolve disagreements.
- Highlight current empirical findings that are relevant to resolving controversial topics in novel ways with productive cross disciplinary applications.
- Identify novel applications from fields not typically related to Alzheimer’s research and care which could enhance implementation and ethics.
The manuscripts should be consistent with the current standards for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium. As with other JAD reviews, submissions should be authoritative and topical and provide comprehensive and balanced coverage of a timely and/or controversial issue. Reviews should be prepared as detailed above for a Research Report, omitting Introduction through Discussion, and include a conclusion. An abstract must also be included.
The purpose of the Ethics Response is to engage interdisciplinary constructive interaction between the author(s) of the Ethics Review and an author who wishes to provide balance and perspective. Authors of an Ethics Response should provide substantive elaboration and references. There should be a title and the number of words can range between 750 to 1500, with no more than 10 citations (reference limit will be less strictly enforced). An abstract should also be included.
The Ethics Review will be distributed and responses will be requested. Potential authors should give a brief synopsis of their response in no more than 4 sentences by the target proposal date. These proposals will be reviewed and if accepted they will be allowed to write an Ethics Response in time for that second deadline. Acceptance of a proposal is no guarantee that the Ethics Response is accepted. The format of the Ethics Responses will be the same as for a Commentary.
JAD no longer considers Case Reports or Clinical Trial Protocols for publication as of August 1, 2023. These types of articles can be submitted to JAD Reports for consideration.
Kudos
Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at the Kudos section on the "Promote Your Article" page of the IOS Press website.
