Authors

BMJ Open Gastroenterology adheres to the highest standards concerning its editorial policies on publication ethics and scientific misconduct. The journal follows guidance produced by bodies that include the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To view all BMJ Journal policies please refer to the BMJ Author Hub policies page, including information about our Editors’ roles and responsibilities.  Authors are required to submit a statement that their study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why) and that participants gave informed consent. Our Editors will consider whether the work is morally acceptable as determined by the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. In addition to this, in line with General Medical Council guidelines, an article that contains personal medical information about an identifiable living individual requires patients explicit consent (in the format of a signed BMJ patient consent form) before we will publish it. Please find further details on BMJ research ethics policies (human participants and animals) and consent for publication; including a link to the downloadable consent form.

To make the best decision on how to deal with a manuscript, BMJ Open Gastroenterology needs to know about any competing interests authors may have; this includes any commercial, financial or non financial associations that may be relevant to the submitted article. Authors must download and complete a copy of the ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form. In addition to this BMJ Open Gastroenterology ensures that all advertising and sponsorship associated with the journal does not influence editorial decisions, is immediately distinguishable from editorial content and meets all other BMJ guidelines. Please find more information about competing interests and a link to the form. We take seriously all possible misconduct. If an Editor, author or reader has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behaviour they should forward their concerns to the journal. The publisher will deal with allegations appropriately following ICMJE and COPE guidelines. Corrections and retractions are considered where an article has already been published; corrections, expressions of concern or a retraction notices will be published as soon as possible in line with the BMJ correction and retraction policy.

When publishing in BMJ Open Gastroenterology, authors choose between two licence types – CC-BY-NC and CC-BY (Creative Commons open access licences require payment of an article processing charge). As an author you may wish to post your article in an institutional or subject repository, or on a scientific social sharing network. You may also link your published article to your preprint (if applicable). What you can do with your article, without seeking permission, depends on the licence you have chosen and the version of your article. Please refer to the BMJ author self archiving and permissions policies page for more information.

Preprints foster openness, accessibility and collaboration by allowing authors to make their findings immediately available to the research community and receive feedback on an article before it is submitted to a journal for formal publication. BMJ fully supports and encourages the archiving of preprints in any recognised, not-for-profit server such as medRxiv. BMJ does not consider the posting of an article in a dedicated preprint repository to be prior publication.

Preprints are reports of work that have not been peer-reviewed; Preprints should therefore not be used to guide clinical practice, health-related behaviour or health policy. For more information, please refer to our Preprint policy page.

BMJ Open Gastroenterology submissions are predominantly unsolicited, all articles submitted are subject to peer review. The journal operates single anonymised peer review whereby the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author; usually two external reviewer reports are obtained before an Original research or Review article is accepted for publication. Articles authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team are independently peer reviewed; an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for their own article. For more information on what to expect during the peer review process please refer to BMJ Author Hub – your paper’s journey. BMJ is committed to transparency. Every article we publish includes a description of its provenance (commissioned or not commissioned) and whether it was internally or externally peer reviewed. BMJ requests that all reviewers adhere to a set of basic principles and standards during the peer review process; these are based on the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Please refer to our peer review terms and conditions policy page.

Plagiarism is the appropriation of the language, ideas or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one’s own original work. BMJ is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. BMJ runs manuscripts through iThenticate during the peer review process. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting www.ithenticate.com. Reader responses, questions and comments to published content are welcomed by BMJ Open Gastroenterology; these should be submitted electronically via the journals website. Please find further details on how to publish a response and the terms and requirements.

BMJ and the British Society of Gastroenterology are committed to ensuring that good quality research is published. Our article transfer service helps authors find the best journal for their research while providing an easy and smooth publication process. As part of this service, once authors agree to transfer their manuscript all versions, supplementary files and peer reviewer comments are automatically transferred, without the need to resubmit or reformat. Authors who submit to Gut and whose work is rejected on the grounds of priority will be offered the option of transferring to Frontline Gastroenterology or BMJ Open Gastroenterology.

Please note that the article transfer service does not guarantee acceptance but you should receive a quicker initial decision on your manuscript. Contact the Article Transfer Service Manager for more information or assistance.

BMJ Open Gastroenterology is an open access journal and levies an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 2,275 GBP (exclusive of VAT for UK and EU authors). There are no submission, colour or page charges. There is a 30% discount for articles where the corresponding author is a British Society of Gastroenterology member, or a 50% discount where the corresponding author is a British Society of Gastroenterology trainee member. There is a 25% discount is available where the corresponding author has reviewed for BMJ Open Gastroenterology within the previous 12 months. These discounts cannot be combined.

BMJ journals offer waivers for the full Article Processing Charge (100% discount of the APC) where all authors are based in low-income countries. See full waiver list*. Requests for waivers should be made before or during initial submission**. If an article reports funding from a funder with an open access mandate or policy that covers paying APCs, BMJ expects that the APC will be paid. Visit our author hub to learn more about our waivers policy and how to request one. You might be eligible for institutional funding. A number of institutions have open access agreements with BMJ which can either cover the whole cost of open access publishing for authors at participating institutions or can allow authors to receive a discount of the Article Processing Charge (APC). Visit BMJ’s open access agreements page to find out whether your institution is a member and what discounts you may be entitled to. *These lists are based on the HINARI Core Offer Groups A and B, and the World Bank Country and Lending Groups released in July. **Please note that applications for waivers or discounts should be made during initial submission and not after an article has been accepted. Editors are not involved in this process and the ability to pay has no bearing on editorial decisions. Payment will not be required unless your article is accepted. Accepted articles will not be published until payment has been received. BMJ does not refund APCs once paid.

BMJ Open Gastroenterology mandates ORCID iDs for the submitting author at the time of article submission; co-authors and reviewers are strongly encouraged to also connect their ScholarOne accounts to ORCID. We strongly believe that the increased use and integration of ORCID iDs will be beneficial for the whole research community. Please find more information about ORCID and BMJ’s policy on our Author Hub.

A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in BMJ Open Gastroenterology; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed. Find out more about responses and how to submit a response.

The guidelines listed below should be followed where appropriate and used to structure your article. Completed applicable checklists, structured abstracts and flow diagrams should be uploaded with your submission and will be published alongside the final version of your paper.

• CONSORT Statement For reporting randomised controlled trials: please use the appropriate extension to the CONSORT statement, including the extension for writing abstracts
• SRQR For reporting qualitative research
• COREQ For reporting qualitative research
• STARD For reporting diagnostic accuracy studies
• STROBE For reporting observational studies in epidemiology
• Checklist for cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies (combined)
• PRISMA For reporting systematic reviews
• PRISMA-P For reporting systematic review and meta-analysis protocols
• PRISMA-ScR For reporting scoping reviews
• MOOSE For reporting meta-analyses of observational studies
• SPIRIT For reporting protocols for RCTs
• STREGA For reporting gene-disease association studies
• TRIPOD For reporting studies developing, validating, or updating a prediction model, whether for diagnostic or prognostic purposes.
• CHEERS For reporting health economic evaluations

The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network provides a comprehensive list of reporting guidelines.

Please review the below article type specifications including the required article lengths, illustrations, table limits and reference counts. The word count excludes the title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements, contributions and references. Manuscripts should be as succinct as possible. For further support when making your submission please refer to the resources available on the BMJ Author Hub. Here you will find information on writing and formatting your research through to the peer review process and promoting your paper. We encourage authors to ensure that research articles are written in accordance with the relevant research reporting guideline. You may also wish to use the language editing and translation services provided by BMJ Author Services.

Original research should follow the basic structure of Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, and tables and figures as appropriate. Research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc) should be submitted as Original research. Please include the research type in your title to make the nature of your study clear. Please include the key messages of your article after your abstract using the following headings. This section should be no more than 3-5 sentences and should be distinct from the abstract; be succinct, specific and accurate.

• What is already known on this topic – summarise the state of scientific knowledge on this subject before you did your study and why this study needed to be done
• What this study adds – summarise what we now know as a result of this study that we did not know before
• How this study might affect research, practice or policy – summarise the implications of this study

This will be published as a summary box after the abstract in the final published article. 

Word count: up to 4,000 Structured Abstract: up to 300 words: 'Objective', 'Methods', 'Results', 'Conclusion' Tables/illustrations: up to 5 References: up to 100 Structured abstract for Systematic reviews Research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc) should instead follow a PRISMA abstract format: 'Objectives', 'Design', 'Data sources', 'Eligibility criteria', 'Data extraction and synthesis', 'Results', 'Conclusions'

Protocols should report planned or ongoing studies. If data collection is complete, we will not consider the manuscript. BMJ Open Gastroenterology will consider for publication protocols for any study design, including observational studies and systematic reviews. More information on protocols can be found on the BMJ Author Hub. Protocols should follow the following structure: Title: This should include the specific study type, e.g. randomised controlled trial. Abstract: This should be structured with the following sections. Introduction; Methods and analysis; Ethics and dissemination. Registration details should be included as a final section, if appropriate. Introduction: Explain the rationale for the study and what evidence gap it may fill. Appropriate previous literature should be referenced, including relevant systematic reviews. Methods and analysis: Provide a full description of the study design, including the following. How the sample will be selected; interventions to be measured; the sample size calculation (drawing on previous literature) with an estimate of how many participants will be needed for the primary outcome to be statistically, clinically and/or politically significant; what outcomes will be measured, when and how; a data analysis plan. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical and safety considerations and any dissemination plan (publications, data deposition and curation) should be covered here.

Please include the key messages of your article after your abstract using the following headings. This section should be no more than 3-5 sentences and should be distinct from the abstract; be succinct, specific and accurate.

• What is already known on this topic – summarise the state of scientific knowledge on this subject before you did your study and why this study needed to be done
• What this study adds – summarise what we now know as a result of this study that we did not know before
• How this study might affect research, practice or policy – summarise the implications of this study

This will be published as a summary box after the abstract in the final published article. 

Review articles are usually commissioned; authors are invited to discuss directly with the Editor possible topics for review. Please include a bullet point list of 6-7 key points. Research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc) are classified by the journal as Original research and must be submitted as such.

Word count: up to 4,000 words Abstract: up to 300 words Tables/ Illustrations: up to 5 References: limited to those critical to the manuscript

Editorials can provide background and context for articles published in BMJ Open Gastroenterology. Editorials can also reflect on a broader issue, providing a forum for authors to discuss ideas and research from a personal viewpoint; these articles should be argument-led but evidence-based. These are often commissioned, but unsolicited submissions are also welcome. If you wish to contribute an Editorial to the journal you are welcome to contact the Editor (info.bmjgast@bmj.com) prior to submission to discuss your manuscript.

Word count: up to 1,200 words Abstract: not required Tables/ Illustrations: 1 figure or table References: up to 5

The BMJ Publishing Group journals are willing to consider publishing supplements to regular issues. Supplement proposals may be made at the request of:

• The journal editor, an editorial board member or a learned society may wish to organise a meeting, sponsorship may be sought and the proceedings published as a supplement.
• The journal editor, editorial board member or learned society may wish to commission a supplement on a particular theme or topic. Again, sponsorship may be sought.
• The BMJPG itself may have proposals for supplements where sponsorship may be necessary.
• A sponsoring organisation, often a pharmaceutical company or a charitable foundation, that wishes to arrange a meeting, the proceedings of which will be published as a supplement.

In all cases, it is vital that the journal’s integrity, independence and academic reputation is not compromised in any way.

For further information on criteria that must be fulfilled, download the supplements guidelines. When contacting us regarding a potential supplement, please include as much of the information below as possible.

• Journal in which you would like the supplement published
• Title of supplement and/or meeting on which it is based
• Date of meeting on which it is based
• Proposed table of contents with provisional article titles and proposed authors
• An indication of whether authors have agreed to participate
• Sponsor information including any relevant deadlines
• An indication of the expected length of each paper Guest Editor proposals if appropriate