Guidelines for Article Preparation for Submission
Article Guidelines
NIHR Open Research publishes different article types across all the fields funded by the NIHR, including public health, clinical evaluation, technology development, health services and social care.
Each publication must have at least one author whose contribution to the research described in the publication was supported by the NIHR through project funding, infrastructure funding or career development support.
We aim to make the process of publishing on NIHR Open Research easy for authors and, where possible, offer some flexibility in terms of formats and structure. Specific requirements do apply to some article types, however; for more information please choose from the article type-specific guidelines listed below.
Please review the details of NIHR Open Research's post-publication peer
review model and our policies before you
submit.
Manuscripts can be submitted as Word (DOC or DOCX) or rich text format (RTF) files. If you have any questions about suitable file formats, please email us.
Research Articles
Research Articles should present original findings, such as results of translational research, clinical and epidemiologic studies, or clinical trials, as well as qualitative and observational research relating to any of the areas funded by NIHR, including social care and public health. Null and negative findings and reanalyses of previous studies leading to new results, as well as confirmatory results, are encouraged.
Method Articles
Method Articles describe new experimental, statistical, or computational methods, or tests/procedures in translational or applied research, and should have been well tested. This includes new study methods, substantive modifications to existing methods or innovative applications of existing methods to new models or research questions. We welcome technical articles that describe tools that facilitate the design or performance of experiments, provide data analysis features or assist medical treatment such as drug delivery devices.
Study Protocols
Study Protocols describe in detail any study design, including (but not limited to) experimental design of translational and applied research, epidemiological studies and systematic reviews. All protocols for randomised clinical trials must be registered and follow the SPIRIT reporting guidelines. Protocols for Systematic Reviews should also be registered prospectively. Study pre-protocols (i.e. discussing provisional study designs) may also be submitted and will be clearly labelled as such when published. Study Protocols for pilot and feasibility studies will also be considered.
Reviews
Reviews should provide a balanced and comprehensive overview of the latest discoveries in a particular field.
Systematic Reviews
Systematic Reviews should usually be based on medical interventions, effects of tests, treatments and other interventions used in health and social care. Systematic Reviews should deal with a clearly formulated question and use systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically assess the relevant research. Systematic Reviews should be written following the PRISMA reporting guidelines.
Software Tool Articles
A Software Tool Article should include the rationale for the development of the tool and details of the code used for its construction. The article should provide examples of suitable input data sets and include an example of the output that can be expected from the tool and how this output should be interpreted.
Clinical Practice Articles
Clinical Practice Articles describe case series (i.e. group or series of case reports involving patients who were given similar treatment), but should not be based on a single case (single cases are published as Case Reports).
Research Notes
Research Notes include single-finding papers that can be reported with one or two illustrations (figures/tables), descriptions of unexpected observations, and lab protocols.
Data Notes
Data Notes are brief descriptions of scientific datasets that promote the potential reuse of research data and include details of why and how the data were created; they do not include any analyses or conclusions.
Case Reports
A medical Case Report should be original and provide adequate detail of a single patient case. It does not need to describe an especially novel or unusual case as there is benefit from collecting details of many standard cases.
Editorials
Editorials are short personal perspectives about topics relevant to NIHR Open Research’s aims and its gateways. They are usually commissioned from authors closely associated with NIHR Open Research, e.g. Gateway Advisors.