Instructions for authors
Instructions for Authors
What a manuscript must contain, how to prepare it, and what the journal requires before it can be sent for review.
- Journal
- Journal of Colon And Rectal Cancer
- ISSN
- 2471-7061
- Abstract
- Structured
- Keywords
- 5 to 8
Before you prepare
Start with fit
The journal publishes research on cancers of the colon and rectum across biology, prevention and screening, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and population outcomes. Confirm that the question belongs to that subject before preparing a submission; the full statement, including where the boundary falls, is on the Aims and Scope page.
Authors who are unsure whether a question fits may write to the editorial office before preparing a full manuscript; the address is given with the submission routes below.
The manuscript
What the manuscript must contain
- Title page
- Title, all authors with affiliations, the corresponding author's contact details, and any group authorship. Supplied as a separate file so a manuscript can be anonymized for double-blind review.
- Structured abstract
- Objectives, methods, results and conclusions, stating the primary outcome and its clinical relevance. Avoid abbreviations unless they are standard and defined.
- Keywords
- Five to eight specific terms, including tumor location, staging terms and therapy types where they apply. Use the same terminology in the title, abstract and main text.
- Introduction
- The clinical or scientific context and the gap the study addresses.
- Methods
- Participants or material, interventions, comparators, outcome measures and the analysis plan, in enough detail for the work to be repeated.
- Results
- Findings with effect sizes, confidence intervals and exact p values, and the handling of missing data.
- Discussion and conclusion
- Interpretation held to what the data support, with limitations stated plainly.
- Declarations
- Competing interests, funding, ethics approval and consent, data availability, author contributions and any use of generative AI.
The journal does not publish fixed word, reference, figure or table limits for each article type. Where a limit matters for your manuscript, confirm it with the editorial office before submission.
Preparation
Preparing the material
Reporting and statistics
- Follow the reporting guideline that matches the study design, and supply the completed checklist with the submission.
- Use validated staging and pathology reporting, and name the grading systems used.
- Give the statistical rationale, including how the sample size was arrived at where relevant.
- State the primary and secondary endpoints, and any adjustment for multiple comparisons.
- Name the software and version used for the analysis.
Figures, tables and imaging
- Submit figures at a resolution that stays legible in print, with legends that state the sample size and the method.
- Supply tables in an editable format with descriptive titles, not as images.
- Give the imaging modality and acquisition parameters, and include scale bars on pathology and imaging figures.
- Label supplementary tables and figures clearly and refer to each one in the main text.
References
- Every in-text citation must appear in the reference list, and every reference must be cited in the text.
- Give complete details: authors, title, journal, year, volume, issue and page range.
- Include a DOI for every reference that has one.
- Cite datasets and code by their persistent identifier, not by a bare URL.
Ethics and declarations
- Report the approving ethics committee and the consent procedure, or the basis on which consent was waived.
- Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
- Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement.
- Disclose financial and non-financial competing interests, and all sources of funding.
- Disclose any use of generative AI in preparing the manuscript. AI tools cannot be listed as authors.
- Obtain written permission for any reused figure, table or extended quotation, and cite its source.
Review and submission
Submitting the manuscript
Review model
Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.
Preparing for double-blind review
For double-blind review, remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding details, institution names, and other identifying information from the reviewer manuscript. Provide identifying information separately in the title-page file or submission form.
01
Assemble the files
Main manuscript, separate title page, figures, tables, supplementary material, the cover letter and the completed reporting checklist.
02
Check the declarations
Ethics approval and consent, trial registration where applicable, data availability, competing interests, funding and author contributions.
03
Submit
Use one of the three approved routes below. Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.
04
Respond to review
Address each reviewer point in a tracked response document alongside the revised manuscript.
Alternative route: Simple manuscript submission form
A short form that opens with this journal already selected.
Assisted route: Editorial email
Send the manuscript to the editorial office directly.
Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.
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