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Author and Peer Reviewer Instructions

To submit an article, select Submit Article from the left toolbar. You will need to sign up for an author account. Once you've created and logged into your account, you'll have access to the submission portal where you can upload your work.

AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

PEER REVIEWER INSTRUCTIONS

AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

ARTICLE TYPES

ACE-QI publishes a wide variety of articles types.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Original research articles should be no longer than 5000 words (excluding Title Page, Abstract and References) and in IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).

  • Abstract (unstructured, up to 400 words)
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion (and conclusions)
  • References

Original research articles can have up to eight total tables and figures; additional figures and tables can be submitted as supplementary material.

Other Peer-Reviewed Articles

These article types should include any of the following that are applicable: acknowledgments, conflicts of interest, and data sharing/availability.

  • Reviews: Narrative reviews should be no longer than 5,000 words, have no more than eight tables or figures, and have an unstructured abstract of up to 250 words.
  • Brief reports: Brief reports should be no longer than 1,500 words have no more than two tables or figures, have no more than 10 references, and have an unstructured abstract of up to 200 words.

Other Types of Articles

The non-peer reviewed article types below should be no longer than 1,000 words, unless otherwise indicated, and have no abstract.

  • Announcements
  • Letters
  • Commentary
  • Editorials
  • Creative expressions (oncology educators are welcome to share their creative works)
  • Conference material
  • Trainee corner (This category includes trainee-written works of varying length that do not fit in any of the peer-reviewed categories.)
  • Media (This category includes video and other non-text material related to oncology education.)
  • Corrections (When necessary, corrections to or retractions of published articles are made by the authors and journal editors.)

ARTICLE SUBMISSION AND PRESUBMISSION INQUIRIES

Submit articles using the online submission system. You will need to sign up for an author account. Once you've created and logged into your account, you'll have access to the submission portal where you can upload your work.

Authors may submit presubmission inquiries to the editors. Please only send an abstract or summary of your proposed paper; do not send the entire manuscript. Please note that a positive response to your inquiry is not a guarantee of acceptance.

ACE-QI supports open access and applies the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike (BY-NC-SA) 4.0 license to the articles and other works we publish. This allows the articles to be freely accessed and increases readership and citation rates. When you submit your manuscript for publication in ACE-QI, you agree to have the CC BY-NC-SA license applied to your work. This open access license allows the author to retain copyright and allows the public to reuse the work under the following conditions:

  • BY: reuse is only allowed if the original work is appropriately credited
  • NC: reuse is only allowed for non-commercial purposes
  • SA: reuse is only allowed if the new work is made available under the same license as the original

PEER REVIEW

All original research articles submitted to the journal are reviewed by at least two peer reviewers to determine their suitability for publication. ACE-QI uses a double-anonymized peer review process. Reviewers are not aware of the authors’ identities, and the reviewers’ names will not be shared with the authors. Anonymized reviews will appear in the editorial decision letter and will be accessible to the authors and other reviewers. Final decisions will be made by the editor-in-chief.

Authors are welcome to suggest peer reviewers to include or exclude at the time of submission. This can be done in the cover letter. Recommended reviewers should not have a conflict of interest with the authors or their work.

STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES

By submitting an article to ACE-QI, the authors agree that the manuscript has not been previously published, is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and has been approved by all co-authors and the institution at which the study was conducted.

Authors should adhere to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for all articles submitted to Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement (ACE-QI).

Authors should adhere to the appropriate reporting guidelines for reporting research, available from the EQUATOR Network.

Authors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions to use copyrighted materials in their work and for completing any necessary informed consent and release forms. All such forms should be submitted with the manuscript.

All articles must be written in American or British English. Non-native speakers are encouraged to seek professional editing help before submitting their article. The journal follows the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition.

Generative AI tools do not meet the ICMJE authorship criteria and thus cannot be listed as authors on manuscripts submitted to ACE-QI. All authors are responsible for the content of their manuscript. Generative AI tools should not be used to analyze or interpret data, draw conclusions, or generate clinical recommendations. They also should not be used to create or modify text or images. Authors who do use such tools should disclose which AI tools they have used and how they were used in a statement at the end of the manuscript or in the Methods section. This policy will be updated as needed to reflect ongoing advancements in technology and changes to ethical standards. 

FORMAT AND STYLE

All submissions should include:

  • Cover letter
  • Title page with:
    • Title
    • Running title (50 characters, including spaces)
    • Full name, highest academic degree(s), ORCID ID, and affiliations of each author
    • Corresponding author, indicated by an asterisk (*) with their name, address, and email address
    • Acknowledgments, conflicts of interest, and data sharing/availability
    • Suggested article type (see below)
Please format your manuscript according to these typesetting and layout requirements:
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
  • Format your manuscript, including tables, figures, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, and PDF files are accepted).
  • Figures: Use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
  • Page size should be 8.5 × 11 inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top, and bottom) should be 1 inch (2.54 cm), including your tables and figures.

Font

  • Title page, abstract and main body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available.
  • Figure legends—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available.
  • Tables—10-12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available.
  • Footnotes—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available.

Indenting, Line Spacing, Justification

  • Single space the text.
  • All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). Where possible, it should also be right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin).
  • Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. Indents should be 0.5 inches (1.27 cm).
  • Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text except for long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts:
  • Use bold font for first-level headings
  • Use bold italic font for second-level headings
  • Use italic font for third-level headings
  • Insert a line space above headings.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be avoided. If used, footnotes should:
  • appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper with a footnote separator rule (line).
  • be labeled with superscript lower case letters (a, b, etc.) after punctuation.
  • be left and right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin), unless this creates awkward spacing

ADDITIONAL FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCEPTED ARTICLES

  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
  • Format your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, and PDF files are accepted).
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11 inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top, and bottom) should be 1 inch (2.54 cm), including tables and figures.
  • Single-space the text.
  • Use a single-column layout with both left and right margins justified.
  • Use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).

Colored Text

  • Set the font color to black. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures; however, color in situations where its conversion to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.
  • Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized Text

  • Whenever possible, use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Foreign Terms

  • Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Titles

  • Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Tables and Figures

  • Original research articles can have up to eight total tables and figures; additional figures and tables can be submitted as supplementary material.
  • To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves.
  • Avoid the use of overly small type in tables.
  • All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

  • Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.
  • Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions using many different levels (e.g., fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.
  • Equations should be numbered sequentially. Equation numbers can be placed on the right or left but should be consistent.
  • Symbols and notations in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but will also help ensure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly. When proofing your PDF document, pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notations drawn from other than standard fonts.

References

The journal follows the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition. It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break—not a page break—and begin your references on the same page, if possible. References should appear after the text. The margins should be both left and right justified.

PEER REVIEWER INSTRUCTIONS

Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement (ACE-QI) adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines on peer review.

Peer Review Model

All original research articles submitted to the journal are reviewed by at least two peer reviewers to determine their suitability for publication. ACE-QI uses a double-anonymized peer review process. Reviewers are not aware of the authors’ identities, and the reviewers’ names will not be shared with the authors. Anonymized reviews will appear in the editorial decision letter and will be accessible to the authors and other reviewers. Final decisions will be made by the editor-in-chief.

Reviewer Guidelines

Reviewers should only agree to review a paper if it is within their area of expertise and they feel that they are qualified to provide an unbiased and comprehensive review.

Conflicts of Interest

ACE-QI adheres to the conflict of interest recommendations of the ICMJE. Conflicts of interest include but are not limited to a close personal or professional relationship with one or more authors (e.g., colleagues in the same department or with whom they have recently co-authored a paper) and papers whose publication (or lack of publication) would result in a significant personal, professional, or financial benefit (e.g., a paper by competing researchers). Reviewers should notify the journal if they have any personal, professional, or financial conflicts of interest in reviewing a paper.

Confidentiality

Please note that all manuscripts submitted for review to the ACE-QI are considered privileged communications and are the authors’ private and confidential property, in accordance with COPE guidelines. Reviewers are expected to preserve the confidentiality of papers they review.

  • Do not share the manuscript, the authors’ identities, or your personal evaluations of the manuscript with others.
  • Do not use the authors’ ideas or findings to influence your own work.
  • Do not create duplicates of the article; please destroy all copies of the article after submitting your review.
  • If you have questions about an article that you have agreed to review, please contact the editors. Please do not include references to your identity in the body of the review.
  • Please obtain permission from the journal before asking a colleague (such as a mentored early career researcher) to review the article in addition to or in lieu of yourself. Note that these individuals must also agree to the journal’s peer review policies and should be acknowledged in the written comments submitted to the editor.

Timeliness

Reviewers are expected to respond promptly to review requests and to submit their reviews by the agreed deadline. Please inform the journal if you experience an unforeseen delay. 

Re-review

By agreeing to review a manuscript, you will also be expected to review any future revisions of the manuscript if necessary. 

Reviewer Comments

  • All reviewers’ comments should be constructive, honest, and polite. Include positive feedback as well as critiques.
  • If you have been asked to only comment on specific parts or aspects of the manuscript, please clearly indicate this in your review.
  • Briefly summarize the paper and its findings.
  • Place the findings of the paper into the context of current knowledge and the existing literature.
  • Describe the significance of the work and state whether it is novel or confirmatory.
  • Address any issues with the paper and indicate whether they are major or minor (see the Article Evaluation Criteria below).
  • Do not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools when writing or revising your review. Copying the authors’ unpublished text and data into such tools is a breach of confidentiality, as the tool may incorporate the content into its database.
  • General comments on grammar, style, or unclear or ambiguous writing are welcome. You may recommend that the paper be edited if the writing deficiencies are substantial.
  • Number your comments and cite page numbers when referencing specific issues in the paper.
  • Provide a recommendation to the editor:
    • Accept
    • Accept with minor revisions
    • Accept with major revisions
    • Reject

Article Evaluation Criteria

Ensure that all articles follow the appropriate EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines, if applicable.

Major Issues

  • Content
    • Is the paper suitable for the journal? Does it fit its designated article type (e.g., original research or case series)?
    • Is the article a valuable contribution to the field? Does it address an important issue or problem?
    • Do the authors describe novel concepts or approaches? Do they challenge existing paradigms or current thinking?
    • Are there any major flaws in the design or conduct of the study?
    • Do the authors provide sufficient evidence to support their case? Are the authors’ conclusions supported by their findings?
    • Have the authors acknowledged and discussed all relevant studies and well-known theories or approaches?
    • Are there any ethical issues, such as plagiarism or figure manipulation? Please describe any ethical concerns in the cover letter, which is sent to the editor only, not the author. Do not share them with the authors.
  • Presentation
    • Is the paper complete and final?
    • Is the paper organized appropriately?
    • Is the paper written in clear, idiomatic English?
    • Are the figures and tables clear and understandable?

Minor Issues

  • Are there any factual, numerical, or unit errors?
  • Are all of the tables and figures appropriate and correctly labeled?
  • Are there any inconsistencies between sections (such as between the abstract and text)?
  • Is there any unnecessary text that could be deleted or shortened?
  • Are there any unclear words or sentences?
  • Are the correct references cited? Are the citations excessive, inadequate, or biased?