Guidelines for Article Preparation for Submission

We aim to make this process 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 HRB 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 should present original findings, such as results of exploratory, translational or applied biomedical research, clinical and epidemiologic studies, clinical trials, health services or population health sciences research, or the outcomes of research projects in social sciences and humanities. Null and negative findings and reanalyses of previous studies including metanalysis leading to new results, as well as confirmatory results, are encouraged.

Method Articles describe new experimental, observational or computational methods, or tests/procedures in exploratory, translational or applied biomedical 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 describe in detail any study design. 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 are also considered.

Systematic Reviews should deal with a clearly formulated question and use systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically assess the relevant research.

Software Tool Articles describe new software tools. They 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 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 include single-finding papers that can be reported with one or two illustrations (figures/tables), descriptions of unexpected observations, and lab protocols.

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.

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.

Correspondence articles are short, peer reviewed comments directly relating to one or more articles published in HRB Open Research or elsewhere. Correspondence articles must provide scholarly discussion, supported by evidence from the published literature.

Registered Reports are a form of empirical article in which the methods and proposed analyses are published and reviewed prior to research being conducted. This format seeks to neutralise a variety of inappropriate research practices, including inadequate statistical power, and selective reporting of results. These articles are denoted by a Registered Report badge.