Author Guidelines

Information for Authors, including editorial standards for the preparation of manuscripts

The Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics (JGG) is the official journal of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG), an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal focusing on frontiers and advances in the field of aging. The aim of the journal is to provide a forum including original research papers, reviews, clinical case reports, and commentaries on the most relevant areas pertaining to aging.
Published on a threemonthly basis, the JGG is an independent international multidisciplinary journal designed for geriatricians and health professionals in geriatrics. The JGG publishes relevant articles covering the full range of disciplines pertaining to aging. Appropriate areas include (but are not limited to) Physiology and Pathology of Aging, Biogerontology, Epidemiology, Clinical Geriatrics, Pharmacology, Ethics, Psychology, Sociology and Geriatric Nursing.
Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org). Authors are also strongly recommended to review the following guidelines and the “template”.
Authors need to register with the journal (http://www.jgerontology-geriatrics.com) prior to submitting their article via the online submission platform (OJS).
Papers must be original and should not be presented simultaneously to more than one journal.
All scientific papers are published in British English. The Editor reserves the right to refuse any article written in an inappropriate English style.
Only papers strictly adhering to the editorial instructions outlined herein will be considered for publication. 
Submission implies that the manuscript has been approved by all co-authors.
A “template” form is available to correctly prepare the manuscript and save it in .doc(x). Further instructions are available on the “template” and indicated below.
The Corresponding Author must fill in and sign the Authorship Statement form and upload it in the submission process.
Paper copies of manuscripts will not be accepted.
The Corresponding Author will receive a confirmation of receipt after submission and check the status of the manuscript via OJS.

Acceptance of original manuscripts will be based upon originality and importance of the investigation. Manuscripts are reviewed by the Editors and by two experts in the field, and all final decision on acceptability will be made by the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor. Authors shall be responsible for the quality of language and style and are strongly advised against submitting a manuscript which is not written in grammatically correct English. Manuscripts are submitted with the understanding that they are original contributions and do not contain data that have been published elsewhere or are under consideration by another journal. Meeting abstracts do not constitute prior publication.

Authors who have genuine cause to believe that the wrong decision has been reached in not accepting their paper for publication have the right to appeal to the editorial board. Such appeals will be considered on procedural and/ or scientific grounds. For more information, please see the Peer Review Policies.

Manuscript format

General instructions
When submitting your manuscript, please follow the instructions relevant to the applicable article category. Your manuscript will be returned if it does not meet these criteria.
Please prepare a complete manuscript in the Word “template” and save it in .doc(x). Do not format the text in any way (avoid styles, borders, shading...); use only character styles such as italics, bold, underlined, super and subscript. Please do not send the text in PDF. Notes to the text, indicated by asterisks or similar symbols, should appear at the bottom of the relevant page.
Text should be arranged as follows:
• A concise and informative title not exceeding 150 characters including spaces (subtitles should be avoided).
• Running title not exceeding 50 characters including spaces.
• The Authors’ first name and surname. List ORCID ID alongside respective authors, when available. Do not add any degrees or titles.
• Name and address of the Institute or Institutes where the work was carried out; if the authors are affiliated with different Institutes, the first author and any others from the same Institute should be indicated with 1 (in superscript), the names of the authors from another Institute with 2, and so on.
• Full name, surname and address of the corresponding author, including telephone, fax and e-mail address.
• Article Type: categorize the article in one of the following types: Original Investigation / Short Communication / Review / Ethics Review / Clinical Experience And Case Report / Clinical Guidelines / Editorial / Commentary / Hypothesis Paper

Please see the table below indicating the Article Types for each Section

Translational Research in Gerontology and Geriatrics
  - original investigations
  - short communications
  - reviews
  - clinical guidelines
  - hypothesis papers
Clinical Geriatrics
 - original investigations
 - short communications
 - reviews
 - ethics reviews
Geriatrics and Gerontology Elsewhere
 - editorials
 - commentaries
 - hypothesis papers
Clinical Observations in Geriatrics
 - clinical experiences and case reports

• Abstract (no longer than 250 words) should be clear and concise. See specific instructions for article categories for further indications.
• Key words (max. 5 using MESH terms for indexing purposes).
• Main text: see specific instructions for article categories below.
• Mathematical terms and formulas, abbreviations, and units of measurement should conform to the standards set out in www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf. Use only standard abbreviations. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement. Drugs should be referred to by their chemical name; the commercial name should be used only when absolutely unavoidable (capitalizing the first letter of the product name and giving the name of the pharmaceutical firm manufacturing the drug, with town and country).
• Ethical consideration: all manuscripts submitted to Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics must include a statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate. In case a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should be detailed in the manuscript, together with the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption.
Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If a study has not been submitted to an ethics committee prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. How to proceed in such cases is at the Editor(s)’ discretion.
•  Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment. For retrospective/protocol studies in which only aggregate data (e.g., incidences of TB in a certain region) are analysed, the Ethical Approval by an appropriate Committee is usually not required, as the data cannot be traced back to specific patients.
• Acknowledgements: within this section, list those contributors who have not met the authorship criteria.
• Funding: Authors should describe in the “Funding” section, at the end of the manuscript, all funding sources (e.g. full name of funding organizations, grant numbers). The role of the sponsor, if any, in the study design, in the acquisition analysis and interpretation of data, in drafting the manuscript should be briefly described. If the sponsor has not been specifically involved in the research this should be stated.
• Conflicts of interest: authors must fully disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest of a financial, personal or any other nature that could affect or bias their research. If applicable, authors are also requested to describe the role of the finding source(s) in the study design, data acquisition, analysis and interpretation, and writing of the manuscript. No potential conflicts of interest must also be explicitly stated.
• Authors contributions: the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.
• References should be cited in the text with consecutive numbers (superscript) and listed at the end of the manuscript following the citation order.
Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list.
Multiple citations in the body of the text should be separated by commas. Please use citation range in case of more than two sequential citations. Example: “... has been shown previously 1,4-8,22”.
The format of the references listed at the end of the article should follow the examples indicated below. For papers with more than three Authors, the first three authors must be listed, followed by “et al.”. Abbreviate journal names as in Index Medicus.
DOI name must be included with each reference (when available and preceded by https://doi.org/).

Journal articles
Hou WR, Hou YL, Wu GF, et al. cDNA, genomic sequence cloning and overexpression of ribosomal protein gene L9 (rpL9) of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Genet Mol Res 2011;10:1576-1588. https://doi.org/10.2230-3456-432.
Accepted, unpublished papers
Same as above, but “In press” appears instead of the page numbers or DOI.
Websites or online articles
Huynen MMTE, Martens P, Hilderlink HBM. The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework. Global Health 2005;1:14 (Available: http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/14).
Books
Bates B. Bargaining for life: a social history of tuberculosis. 1st Ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1992.
Book chapters
Hansen B. New York City epidemics and history for the public. In: Harden VA, Risse GB, Eds. AIDS and the historian. Bethesda: National Institutes of Health 1991, pp. 21-28.
Deposited articles (preprints, e-prints, or arXiv)
Krick T, Shub DA, Verstraete N, et al. Amino acid metabolism conflicts with protein diversity; 1991. Preprint. Available: arXiv:1403.3301v1. (Accessed 17 March 2014).
Published media (print or online newspapers and magazine articles)
Fountain H. For already vulnerable penguins, study finds climate change is another danger. The New York Times, 29 Jan 2014 (Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/science/earth/climate-change-taking-toll-on-penguins-study-finds.html, Accessed 17 March 2014).
New media (blogs, websites, or other written works)
Allen L. Announcing PLOS Blogs. 2010 Sep 1 [cited 17 March 2014]. In: PLOS Blogs [Internet]. San Francisco: PLOS 2006 – . [about 2 screens] (Available: http://blogs.plos.org/plos/2010/09/announcing-plos-blogs).
Masters’ theses or doctoral dissertations
Wells A. Exploring the development of the independent, electronic, scholarly journal. M.Sc. Thesis, The University of Sheffield, 1999 (Available: http://cumincad.scix.net/cgi-bin/works/Show?2e09).
• Tables (see “Specific instructions for article categories” below for maximum number of tables required) should be typewritten and numbered consecutively with Roman numerals, at the end of the text after the references. The same data should not be presented twice, both in the text and in the tables. Each table should be provided of a brief title, should be self-explanatory and cited in the text (e.g. Tab. I, Tab. II, etc.). Please insert any notes and explain all the abbreviations below each table.
• Figures (see “Specific instructions for article categories” below for the maximum number of figures required) should be uploaded as separate files (please do not include the figures in the text file) and should be cited in the main text numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (e.g. Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). Figure legends should be indicated at the end of the text file (after References and Tables) and allow the reader to understand the figures without reference to the text. All symbols used in figures should be explained. Remove any information that can identify a patient. Deduct from the text 1,250 characters including spaces for figures a quarter of a page in size, 2,500 characters including spaces half a page in size and 5,000 characters including spaces entire page in size. Every figure legend should have a Title followed by the figure number and a period (i.e.., “Figure 1.”). If a figure contains multiple sections (i.e. A, B, C, D) the letter for these subsections should be in capital letters. Figures should be numbered according to the order of citation.
Two standard widths are used, and figures should fit in one (8.5 x 23.5 cm) or two (17.5 x 23.5 cm) columns. Figures should be submitted in .JPEG or .TIFF format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi for color figures and 600 dpi for black and white figures.
(IMPORTANT: maximum dimension for each single file/image is 2 Mb). Composed figures must be saved as a single file in .JPEG or .TIFF format with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. The individual images within a compound figure must all have the same size (IMPORTANT: maximum dimension for each single file/image is 2 Mb).
If after acceptance the quality of the figures does not match the standards of the Journal, the authors will be asked to resubmit the figures at the required quality.

Authors are invited to send colour images.

Specific instructions for article categories
Original Investigations and Short Communications
Manuscripts submitted in this category are expected to be concise, well organized, and clearly written.
There are no page or word limits for research reports, but manuscripts over 7,000 words should be approved by the Editor-in-Chief before submission.
– The abstract must be no longer than 250 words, organized as follows:
– Background & Aims
– Methods
– Results
– Conclusions
Do not use abbreviations, footnotes or references in the abstract. An electronic word count of the abstract must be included.
– Three to five keywords at the end of the abstract must be provided.
– The manuscript must be arranged as follows:

• Title page


• Abstract in the Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics format


• Introduction


• Materials and methods (or Patients and methods)


• Results


• Discussion


• Ethical consideration


• Acknowledgements


• Funding


• Conflict of interest statement


• Authors’ contribution


• References


• Tables


• Figure legends


• Figures

Reviews, Ethics Reviews and Clinical Guidelines
Review articles are expected to be clear, concise and updated, and must be accompanied by a title page and a summary.
Review articles are reviewed by the Editors and expert reviewers before a final decision for publication is made.
The JGG welcomes Special Issues on topics that fall within the scope of the journal. Each review included in the Special Issues is handled by a Guest Editor. Those wishing to guest edit a special issue should submit a proposal to the Editor-in-Chief.
An issue of JGG should be about 45,000-50,000 words long, meaning a maximum of eight reviews, assuming that papers are on average 6,000 words long (including abstract, appendices, and tables).
Editorials, Commentaries and Hypothesis Papers
The length of an editorial or a commentary should not exceed 800 words. A maximum of 1 table or 1 figure is allowed. A maximum of 10 references is allowed. No more than 4 Authors may appear in the author list.
Editorials, Commentaries and Hypothesis Papers for the section Geriatrics and Gerontology Elsewhere consist of invited comments on articles as well as guidelines published in the most important clinical journals about aging.
–  The length of a comment should not exceed 1500 words, excluding references.
–  A maximum of 1 table or 1 figure is allowed.
–  References should not exceed 20
–  A title page must be provided.

Clinical Experiences and Case Reports (for the sections Clinical Observations in Geriatrics).
– The maximum length is 3000 words, including the summary and references.
– A maximum of 2 tables and 2 figures is allowed.
– References should not exceed 15.
– A title page must be provided.

After Revisions
If the Authors are invited to submit a revised paper, they should re-upload it on OJS using the same password and username as for the first submission. Please re-name your manuscript as “Revised manuscript n…”.
-  Please include a letter to reviewers describing the point-by-point reply according to the reviewer’s comments.
-  Please be sure to upload all parts of the submission, including both the main manuscript and the figures.
-  Please ensure that you return your manuscript with the changes clearly marked (you can use the Track Changes function in Word or simply highlight where changes have been made).
-  Please do not delete the first version of your manuscript during submission of the revised manuscript. 
If you need assistance, please contact the Editorial office providing the Corresponding Author’s name, title of the manuscript, manuscript number and a clear description of the problem.

After acceptance.
Galley proofs will be sent via OJS to the Corresponding Author for final approval. The Authors are required to carefully check the proofs and return them within 3 days of receipt. Substantial changes in title, authorship, affiliations, content, corrected values and references are not allowed without the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. If the proofs are not received in time, the Authors will have to rely on the Editor’s corrections only. The Authors are responsible for mistakes that have been overlooked. The date of receipt and the date of acceptance by the Scientific Committee will appear on the publication. The article will be published online first after receipt of the corrected proof. A pdf of all articles published are available open access at www.jgerontology-geriatrics.com. Paper reprints will be provided only if requested by the authors (a reprint order form will be sent with proofs), and extra cost will be charged.

Contact information
Editorial Office: Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics
Valentina Barberi
Ph. +39 050 31 30 376 – secretary@jgerontology-geriatrics.com