Annals of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism

Instructions for authors

Enacted: August 30, 2007
Recently revised on December 31, 2024

1. GENERAL INFORMATION
2. RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS
3. PUBLISHING POLICIES
4. COPYRIGHT AND OPEN ACCESS
5. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
6. PEER REVIEW AND EDITORIAL PROCESS OF ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS
8. ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE
9. CONTACT US

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

General principles

Languages
Manuscripts should be written in English. Medical terminology should conform to the most recent edition of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary.

Word processors and format of manuscript
Manuscripts must be submitted as MS Word (2003 or higher) files using a standard, plain format in grammatically correct English. Manuscripts must be typed in English, double-spaced, and 11-point type, and all pages must be numbered consecutively. Each section should begin on a separate sheet and follow in that order. The title page should be separated from the main text manuscript file.

Abbreviation of terminology
Abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible. One word should not be expressed through an abbreviation, although more than two words may be expressed through an abbreviation. The full term for which the abbreviation stands should be used at its first occurrence in the text. Abbreviations should not be present in the title. Common abbreviations, however, may be used, such as DNA.

Units
The use of International Standardized (SI) units is encouraged. These are available at NIST (https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html). Arabic numbers should be used, and all units use SI units (International Systemic of Units). Use a comma after thousands (e.g., 10,000).

Machine and equipment
When the use of reagents or devices is reported in the text, the name of the manufacturer should be indicated. Regarding devices, reagents, and medicine, information on the manufacturing company should be provided in parentheses.

Statistics
Statistical methods must be described, and the program used for data analysis and its source should be stated.

Original articles

The manuscripts for original articles should be organized in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Main text, References, Tables, Figure legends, and Figures.

Title page

• The title page must include the article title, the author's names (including ORCID), affiliations, corresponding authors' names and contact information, running title, and declarations.
• Authors and affiliations: First, middle, and last names should be included for each author. For authors with different affiliations, the authors should be marked “1,” “2,” “3,” and so forth in Arabic numerals, which should appear in superscript at the top-right-hand corner of the author’s name and before the affiliation.
• ORCID: We recommend that the ORCIDs of all authors be provided. To have an ORCID, authors should register on the ORCID website (https://orcid.org). Registration is free to every researcher in the world.
• Corresponding author: The corresponding author’s name and e-mail address should be included.
• Running title: A running title of less than 50 characters, including letters and spaces, should be included in English. If the included running title is inappropriate, the Editorial Board may revise it.
• Article information:
- - Conflict of interest: If there are any conflicts of interest, authors should disclose them in the manuscript. Disclosures allow editors, reviewers, and readers to approach the manuscript with an understanding of the situation and background of the completed research. Please consult the COPE Guidance (https://publicationethics.org/) on conflict of interest. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should include the following sentence: "The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose."
- - Funding: Funding for the research should be provided here. Providing a FundRef ID is suggested, including the name of the funding agency, the country, and, if available, the number of grants provided by the funding agency. If the funding agency does not have a FundRef ID, please ask the agency to contact the FundRef registry (fundref.registry@crossref.org). A detailed description of the FundRef policy can be found on the Crossref website (https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/).
- - Authors' contribution: The journal uses the CRediT taxonomy to define authors' contribution. Each author on a paper may have one or more CRediT contribution roles. CRediT author contribution statements should be provided during the submission. More details on CRediT are available at https://credit.niso.org/
  [Examples of CRediT author statement]
  Conceptualization: OOO, OOO. Data curation: OOO, OOO. Formal analysis: OOO, OOO. Funding acquisition: OOO, OOO. Investigation: OOO, OOO. Methodology: OOO, OOO. Project administration: OOO, OOO. Resources: OOO, OOO. Software: OOO, OOO. Supervision: OOO, OOO. Validation: OOO, OOO. Visualization: OOO, OOO. Writing–original draft: OOO, OOO. Writing–review & editing: OOO, OOO. (OOO: initial of author)
- - Acknowledgments: Persons or institutes that contributed to the paper but did not meet the criteria for authorship are acknowledged here.
- - If any sections are irrelevant to the manuscript, please include the heading and write "Not applicable." for that section.

Abstract
All manuscripts should contain a structured abstract. Abstracts should have the following headings: Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. Reference quotations must not be included in the abstract. A maximum of 5 keywords should be listed immediately after the abstract in alphabetical order. These words should be drawn from the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terminology in the United States National Library of Medicine's (NLM) (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/oet/ed/mesh/meshondemand.html). The first letter of the keyword should be capitalized, and the remaining letters should be lowercase; a semi-colon should separate them without a period at the end of the last word.

Main text
The main text of the original article should include Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections.

• Introduction should provide a brief background and aims of the study.
• Methods should provide your selection of the observational or experimental participants, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population in the case of clinical research. In addition, it should provide statistical methods and references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published. Give reasons for using new or modified methods. Clinical trial studies should be presented with the approval of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and informed consent from patients enrolled in that trial. Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.
• Results are listed according to the order of figures and tables presenting the study results. Do not repeat all data in the figures or tables in the text of the results section and emphasize the critical results briefly.
• Discussion should be limited to essential aspects of the study that follow from them. Do not detail the data or previously given information in the Results section. Avoid content unrelated to the results. In the Discussion section, the conclusion should be presented in a clear and concise manner and help the reader understand why your research should matter to them after they have finished reading the paper. A conclusion is not merely a summary of your points or a restatement of your research problem but a synthesis of key points.

References

• References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.
• References should be identified in text with full-size Arabic numerals on the line and in square brackets [ ].
• Up to six authors may be listed. References with seven or more authors should list only the first six followed by “et al." Names should be separated by a comma and one space.
• Journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the list of journals indexed in the NLM Journal Catalog (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/). Journal titles that are not listed in the NLM Journal Catalog should follow the ISO abbreviation as described in Access to the LTWA (List of Title Word Abbreviations; https://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa).
• If not specified below, the references should follow the ICMJE reference style
(https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

[Examples of reference style]
• Journal
Lim CS, Kim H, Han IW, Yun WG, Go E, Lee J, et al. Incidence and risk factors of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease after pancreaticoduodenectomy in Korea: a multicenter retrospective cohort study. Ann Clin Nutr Metab 2024;16:125-33.
• Book
DeVita VT Jr, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: principles and practice of oncology. Vol 2. 4th ed. Lippincott; 1998.
• Chapter in book
Ginberg RJ, Kris MG, Armstrong JG. Cancer of the lung. In: DeVita VT Jr, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: principles and practice of oncology. Vol 2. 4th ed. Lippincott; 1993. 673-758.
• Electronic format
Ang SW, Liew J, Dharmaratnam VM, Yik VY, Kok S, Aftab S, et al. Diagnostic performance of various radiological modalities in the detection of sarcopenia within Asian populations: a systematic review. Ann Coloproctol 2024 Dec 20 [Epub].
https://doi.org/10.3393/ac.2024.00080.0011
• Web sites
Sage Terapeutics. A study with SAGE-547 for super-refractory status epilepticus [Internet]. U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2022 [cited 2024 Nov 20]. Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02477618?term=NCT02477618&rank=1

Tables and figures
ACNM publishes in full color and encourages authors to use color to increase the clarity of figures. An individual should not be recognizable in photographs or X-ray films provided at the time of submission. Authors must submit figures and illustrations as electronic files. Images must be provided in PPT, JPG, TIF, or PDF format. Each figure must be of good quality, have a resolution higher than 600 dpi, and have good contrast and sharpness. Submit files of figures and photographs separately from the text of the paper. Number figures as “Figure Arabic numeral” in the order of their citation (e.g., Fig. 1). If a figure is divided into more than two images, mark each figure with Arabic numerals and a capital letter (e.g., Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B). Authors should submit line drawings in black and white. Figures should be explained briefly in the titles. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes, and use the following symbols in sequence: a, b, c, d (e.g., Rad, radiation; Chemo, chemotherapy; NS, not significant. *P<0.001). The brief title of tables and figures should be described as the verse or phrase in the above line of tables and the section of figure legends, respectively. Only the first character of the title should be capitalized. The first character of each cell in tables is also capitalized. Figure legends must describe all abbreviations and acronyms used in the figure. This section should be typed on a separate page.

Case reports

Case reports describe unique and instructive cases that make an important teaching point or scientific observation, novel techniques, use of new equipment, or new information on diseases that are important to clinical nutrition and metabolism. The manuscripts for case reports should be organized in the following order: Introduction, Case report, Conclusion, and References.

Guidelines

The clinical practice guidelines are usually invited. Clinical practice guidelines are systematically developed statements or recommendations intended to help clinicians and patients make decisions about appropriate healthcare in specific clinical circumstances. A structured abstract is required. The main text is recommended to be described according to the AGREE statement at https://www.agreetrust.org/.

Reviews

Reviews are usually requested by the Editor in Chief. However, unrequested reviews could be considered after contacting the Editor in Chief by e-mail to determine the appropriateness of the review to ACNM. The abstract must have the following headings: Purpose, Current concept, and Conclusion. The main text comprises the Introduction, Main body, and Conclusion sections. Otherwise, it keeps the style and format of the original articles, but the details may be more flexible depending on the contents.

Interesting images

The “Interesting images” section presents clinically interesting or informative images regarding nutrition or metabolism. The section is intended to share experiences and relevant commentary rather than report a specific case or study. The section should include the title, authors' names and affiliations, main text, images, image legends, keywords, and references.

Editorials

Editorials provide invited perspectives on an area of clinical nutrition and metabolism, dealing with very active fields of research, current interests, fresh insights, and debates. An abstract is not required, and a brief unstructured text should be prepared. Although editorials are usually invited or written by an Editor, unsolicited editorials may be submitted.

Letter to the editor

Letters to the Editor should include brief constructive comments concerning a published article, a short, freestanding opinion, or a short, interesting case. Letters to the Editor should be submitted no more than 1 year after the relevant paper has been published. Responses from the author of the relevant paper may be provided. The responses should have the same format as Letters to the Editor.

Table 1 summarizes each publication type's key features and word count limit. The length of each article is negotiable with the editor-in-chief.

Table 1. Key features and word count limits of publication type

Type of article	Abstract (words)	Text (words)^a	References	Tables and figures
Original article	Structured, 250	3,000	40	10
Review article	Structured, 250	5,000	50	10
Case report	200	1,500	20	10
Guidelines	Structured, 250	5,000	100	15
Interesting images	NR	800	10	5
Editorial	NR	1,500	10	5
Letter to the editor	NR	1,000	10	5

NR, not required.
^aThe length of each article is negotiable with the editor-in-chief.

Reporting guidelines

Authors should follow the relevant reporting guidelines for specific study designs, such as randomized controlled trials, diagnostic accuracy studies, meta-analyses, observational studies, and non-randomized studies. Recommended sources include the EQUATOR Network (https://www.equator-network.org/) and the National Library of Medicine (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).
Annals of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism requires compliance with the reporting guidelines summarized in Table 2 for the listed article types. For other study design and reporting guidelines, contact the editorial office at https://e-acnm.org/about/contact.php.

Table 2. Reporting guidelines for specific study designs

Initiative	Type of study	Source
CONSORT	Randomized controlled trials	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/
TREND	Non-randomized controlled study	https://www.cdc.gov/trendstatement/index.html
STROBE	Observational studies	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/
STARD	Diagnostic/prognostic studies	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/
PRISMA	Systematic reviews and meta-analyses	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/
CARE	Case reports	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care/
AGREE	Clinical practice guidelines	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/the-agree-reporting-checklist-a-tool-to-improve-reporting-of-clinical-practice-guidelines/