Guidelines for authors

Pediatric Discovery is a Gold Open Access publication and officially sponsored by The National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders of China, and Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. The journal does not charge any submission fees. The Article Publication Charge (APC) is currently waived for accepted manuscripts.
 

1. Aims and Scope
2. Submission
3. Article Types and Requirements
4. Preparing the Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Copyright & Licensing
7. Publication after Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Editorial Office Contact Details

1. Aims and Scope

Pediatric Discovery is an open access and a peer-reviewed international journal. The journal aims to advance the health and well-being of infants, children, and adolescents by disseminating the cutting-edge discovery and knowledge in the field. It provides a platform for publishing and discussing the most important and state-of-the-art basic, translational and clinical discoveries affecting child and adolescent health and disorders in all aspects of pediatric medicine.

 

2. Submission

Please note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/PDI3 

For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected]

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so authors can submit their manuscripts with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Free Format Submission

Pediatric Discovery now offers Free Format Submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before submission, author will need:

  • The manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files—whichever the author prefers. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. If the figures are not of sufficiently high quality the manuscript may be delayed. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for the author to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to author for revision. The manuscript may also be sent back to for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
  • An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? The manuscript, if accepted and published, will be attached to author’s ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
  • The title page of the manuscript, including:
    • The co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
    • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
      • data availability statement
      • funding statement
      • conflict of interest disclosure
      • ethics approval statement
      • patient consent statement
      • permission to reproduce material from other sources
      • clinical trial registration

Open Access

This journal is a gold open access title. Submissions will be subject to an APC if accepted and published in the journal. You can read more about APCs and whether you may be eligible for waivers or discounts, through your institution, funder, or a country waiver. For more information on this journal’s APCs and licensing policy, please visit the journal’s Open Access page. The APCs are currently waived for accepted manuscripts.

Preprint policy:

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

Pediatric Discovery will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. Authors may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication.

Data Sharing and Data Availability

The journal expects authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. All accepted manuscripts are required to publish a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data. If authors have shared data, this statement will describe how the data can be accessed, and include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number) from the repository where the authors shared the data.

Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.

Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s Data Citation policy.

Data Protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, author’s name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication. Please review Wiley’s Data Protection Policy to learn more.

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

Authorship

All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.

Author Pronouns

Authors may now include their personal pronouns in the author bylines of their published articles and on Wiley Online Library. Authors will never be required to include their pronouns; it will always be optional for the author. Authors can include their pronouns in their manuscript upon submission and can add, edit, or remove their pronouns at any stage upon request. Submitting/corresponding authors should never add, edit, or remove a coauthor’s pronouns without that coauthor’s consent. Where post-publication changes to pronouns are required, these can be made without a correction notice to the paper, following Wiley’s Name Change Policy to protect the author’s privacy. Terms which fall outside of the scope of personal pronouns (e.g. proper or improper nouns), are currently not supported.

ORCID

This journal requires ORCID. Please refer to Wiley’s resources on ORCID.

Reproduction of Copyright Material

If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ.

The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and other media" from the publisher of the original source, and for supplying Wiley with that permission upon submission.

 

3. Article Types and Requirements

Pediatric Discovery publishes quarterly in the following article types.

Article Type

Description

Word Limit

Abstract / Structure

Other Requirements

Research Article

Reports of new research findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to the scientific knowledge in cutting-edge techniques areas

~6000 words excluding abstract, references, figures and tables

Yes, non-structured

Up to 8 figures and tables in total, and no limitation on the number of references

Review

Typically written by leading experts; a critical and concise systematic review of the most recent advances in a specific research field and meta-analyses

No limitation

Yes, non-structured

Up to 8 figures and tables in total, and no limitation on the number of references

Rapid Communication

Provides rapid and concise report of a novel finding and is of general interest to the field

1200 words excluding references, figures and tables

None

Up to 1 figure and table in total; up to 5 references

Commentary

Evidence-based opinion pieces involving areas of broad interest and invited commentaries

1200 words excluding references, figures and tables

None

Up to 1 figure and table in total; up to 5 references

Research Highlight

Point to the latest novel findings published in other high-impact journals or researchers’ own findings

1200 words excluding references, figures and tables

None

Up to 1 figure and table in total; up to 5 references

Case Report

Preliminary findings of research in progress or a case report of particular interest

1200 words excluding references, figures and tables

None

Up to 1 figure and table in total; up to 5 references

Clinical Trial

Reports of new clinical trial findings or protocols in cutting-edge techniques areas

6000 words excluding abstract, references, figures and tables

Yes, non-structured

Up to 8 figures and tables in total, and no limitation on the number of references

Protocol

Reports of new clinical and experimental protocols in cutting-edge techniques areas

No limitation

Yes, non-structured

Up to 8 figures and tables in total, and no limitation on the number of references

Consensus Statement

Represents the collective opinions of an expert panel on a clinical topic; suggests treatment strategies based on collective knowledge and clinical experience; best judgment in making recommendations or decisions regarding individual patients

No limitation

Yes, non-structured

Up to 8 figures and tables in total, and no limitation on the number of references

Letter to the Editor

Must email editorial office requesting to submit

1200 words excluding references, figures and tables

None

Up to 1 figure and table in total; up to 5 references

Editorial

Must email editorial office requesting to submit

1200 words excluding references, figures and tables

None

Up to 1 figure and table in total; up to 5 references

 

4. Preparing the Submission

Parts of the manuscript

  • The main text file should be in Word format.
  • The journal uses US spelling.
  • Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter

Please note that submissions must contain the following components in the order stated. Please see below for further details.

  • Cover letter
  • Title page
  • Main text
  • Figures/Tables
  • Supporting information

Cover Letters

Each manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter from the corresponding author including full postal address, telephone number, and e-mail address. The letter should state that:

  • Highlight of the current manuscript should be limited to 3 points. No more than 2 short sentences in each point;
  • If material has been reproduced from another source, the authors have authorization from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher) to use it, and have included this authorization within their submission;
  • Conflict of Interest Statement.

Title Page 

The title page should contain: 

  • A brief informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
  • A short running title of less than 40 characters;
  • Author information:
    1. The full names of the authors;
    2. The affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
    3. Detailed information of corresponding author is required including name, affiliation, post-address, an active email address.

Examples:

  1. Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, The University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
  2. The National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders of China, The Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400014, China

Main Text File

The main text file should include and in the order stated below:

  • A short informative title containing the major keywords. The title should not contain abbreviations;
  • A short running title of less than 40 characters;
  • The full names of the authors with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
  • Unstructured abstract and up to 5 keywords;
  • Main text;
  • Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
  • Figure legends: legends should be supplied as a complete list in the text. Figures should be uploaded as separate files (see below).

Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

For the benefit of the reviewers and editors, please include line numbers in author’s main text files.

Main Text

Please keep all parts in order stated as: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Ethics Statement, Acknowledgements, Conflict of interests, Author Contribution, Supporting information, References, Figure legends.

Headings

Please use no more than three levels of displayed numeric headings.

Abstract

Please provide unstructured abstract with 250 words.

Keywords

Please provide up to 5 keywords.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Materials and methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Results

Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Ethics Statement

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate: 
Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:

  • include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
  • include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate

Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval and the ethics approval reference number.

If the manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Consent for Publication: 
If the manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.

Author can use his/her institutional consent form or our consent form if author prefers. Author does not need to provide a copy of the consent form to the publisher, however in signing the author license to publish authors are required to confirm that consent has been obtained.

If the manuscript does not contain data from any individual person, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not necessary.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships. If the author of a manuscript is a member of the journal’s editorial board, he/she should declare editorial membership in the statement.

Author Contribution

The contributions of all authors must be described. The contribution statement will be published with the final article and should accurately reflect contributions to the work.

Reference Style

All submitted manuscripts need to be formatted by using the AMA reference style.

Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figures

Figures should be supplied as separate files. Author should review the basic figure requirements for manuscripts for peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. View Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Supporting Information

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Appendices

Appendices will be published online after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Graphical TOC/Abstract

The journal’s table of contents/abstract will be presented in graphical form with a brief abstract for Research Articles. The table of contents entry must include the article title, the authors' names (with the corresponding author indicated by an asterisk), no more than 80 words or 3 sentences of text summarizing the key findings presented in the paper and a figure that best represents the scope of the paper. Table of contents entries should be submitted to Research Exchange during the initial manuscript submission process. The image supplied should fit within the dimensions of 50mm x 60mm and be fully legible at this size.

Embedded Rich Media

This journal has the option for authors to embed rich media (i.e. video and audio) within their final article. These files should be submitted with the manuscript files online, using either the “Embedded Video” or “Embedded Audio” file designation. If the video/audio includes dialogue, a transcript should be included as a separate file. The combined manuscript files, including video, audio, tables, figures, and text must not exceed 350 MB. For full guidance on accepted file types and resolution please see here.

Ensure each file is numbered (e.g. Video 1, Video 2, etc.) Legends for the rich media files should be placed at the end of the article. The content of the video should not display overt product advertising. Educational presentations are encouraged. Any narration should be in English, if possible. A typed transcript of any speech within the video/audio should be provided. An English translation of any non-English speech should be provided in the transcript.

All embedded rich media will be subject to peer review. Editors reserve the right to request edits to rich media files as a condition of acceptance. Contributors are asked to be succinct, and the Editors reserve the right to require shorter video/audio duration. The video/audio should be high quality (both in content and visibility/audibility). The video/audio should make a specific point; particularly, it should demonstrate the features described in the text of the manuscript.

Participant Consent: It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to seek informed consent from any identifiable participant in the rich media files. Masking a participant’s eyes, or excluded head and shoulders is not sufficient. Please ensure that a consent form (https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/licensing-info-faqs.html) is provided for each participant.

 

5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations

Peer Review and Acceptance

This journal operates under a single-blind peer review model. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer reviewed by at least two anonymous reviewers. Manuscripts will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the manuscript meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

Manuscripts authored by Editors or Editorial Board members will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author’s institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.

Pediatric Discovery 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.

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.

Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles

The journal requires that you include in the manuscript details IRB approvals, ethical treatment of human and animal research participants, and gathering of informed consent, as appropriate. You will be expected to declare all conflicts of interest, or none, on submission. Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, animal studies, clinical trial registration, biosecurity, and research reporting guidelines.

This journal follows the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and handles cases of research and publication misconduct accordingly (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).

This journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors.

Species Names

Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.

Genetic Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.

Sequence Data

Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL, or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL, and GenBank on daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: ‘These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345’. Addresses are as follows:

Proteins sequence data should be submitted to either of the following repositories:

Structural Data

For papers describing structural data, atomic coordinates and the associated experimental data should be deposited in the appropriate databank (see below). Please note that the data in databanks must be released, at the latest, upon publication of the article. We trust in the cooperation of our authors to ensure that atomic coordinates and experimental data are released on time.

Example Citations:

  • Antibodies: "Wnt3 was localized using a rabbit polyclonal antibody C64F2 against Wnt3 (Cell Signaling Technology, Cat# 2721S, RRID: AB_2215411)"
  • Model Organisms: "Experiments were conducted in c. elegans strain SP304 (RRID:CGC_SP304)"
  • Cell lines: "Experiments were conducted in PC12 CLS cells (CLS Cat# 500311/p701_PC-12, RRID:CVCL_0481)"
  • Tools, Software, and Databases: "Image analysis was conducted with CellProfiler Image Analysis Software, V2.0 (http://www.cellprofiler.org, RRID:nif-0000-00280)"

Human subject information in databases: The journal refers to the World Health Medical Association Declaration of Taipei on Ethical Considerations Regarding Health Databases and Biobanks.

Appeals and complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision if they feel that the decision to reject was based on either a significant misunderstanding of a core aspect of the manuscript, a failure to understand how the manuscript advances the literature or concerns regarding the manuscript-handling process. Differences in opinion regarding the novelty or significance of the reported findings are not considered as grounds for appeal. To raise an appeal, please contact the journal by email, quoting the manuscript ID number and explaining author’s rationale for the appeal. The editor’s decision following an appeal consideration is final.

To raise a complaint regarding editorial staff, policy or process please contact the journal in the first instance. If the authors believes further support outside the journal’s management is necessary, please refer to Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics.

Refer and Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If the manuscript is not accepted, author may receive a recommendation to transfer the manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

Correction to authorship

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, Pediatric Discovery will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, before accepted if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. [Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”] After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

 

6. Copyright & Licensing

Pediatric Discovery is a fully open access journal. All articles published by Pediatric Discovery can be immediately freely available to read, download and share. The accepted manuscripts will be published under CC BY Creative Commons Attribution License. With the Creative Commons license, the author retains copyright and the public is allowed to reuse the content. The author grants Wiley a license to publish the article and to identify as the original publisher. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used.

If the manuscript is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author 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.

To learn more about Creative Commons Licenses and to preview terms and conditions of the agreements, please click here.

Open Access fees: The Article Publication Charge for open access is currently waived for all accepted manuscripts, which is subject to change without prior notice. For more information on this journal’s APCs and licensing policy, please visit the journal’s Open Access page.

 

7. Publication after Acceptance

Final Check

After a manuscript is accepted, the authors’ files will be assessed by the editorial office to ensure they are ready for production. The authors may be contacted if any updates or final files are required. Otherwise, the manuscript will be sent to the production team.

Accepted Article Received in Production

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The authors will be asked to sign a publication license at this point as well as pay for any applicable APCs.

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online/with their proofs included as a pdf. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email.

Early View

Upon publication, articles are available as full text HTML or PDF in Early View prior to inclusion in an issue and can be cited as references using their Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number.

 

8. Post Publication

Access and Sharing

The submitted version of the manuscript, the accepted version, and the published version (Version of Record) can all be deposited on an institutional or other repository of the author's choice without embargo. Pediatric Discovery's policy on Sherpa Romeo is here

When the article is published online:

  • The author receives an email alert (if requested).
  • The link to the published article can be shared through social media.

Article Promotion Support

To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for the research – so author can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Measuring the Impact of an Article

Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.

 

9. Editorial Office Contact Details

EDITORIAL CONTACT:

Pediatric Discovery Editorial Office
Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University
No. 136 Zhongshan Rd.
Yuzhong District
Chongqing 400014, China

Email: editor@peddiscovery.com

Tel: +86-023-63626877


Pubdate: 2024-07-09    Viewed: 41