Author Guidelines

The Journal accepts manuscripts in nine peer-reviewed categories that comprise what is regarded as the “Research Well.” Non–peer-reviewed material is not included in this section. The Journal does not publish: market research studies; studies that lack testable hypotheses, nonvalidated scientific methods; literature reviews or other sections from theses or dissertations; pilot studies with very small sample sizes that do not conform to scientific design; or pseudoscience that lacks scientific rigor, has no control group, or generally offers random findings. No papers are published without Institutional Review Board approval or note of exemption.

Structural requirements of each category are discussed in the section “MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION.” Word counts specified for each manuscript category do not include the abstract (when required), tables/figures, and references. Peer-reviewed categories include:

Categories include:

The Transfer of Copyright, Authorship Agreement, and Conflict of Interest Form can be downloaded from EES at http://ees.elsevier.com/adaj/img/JADA_Copyright_Authorship_CoI.pdf.

The American Dietetic Association holds the copyright on all material published in the Journal or on the Journal's Web site. All authors must sign and date this statement that transfers their article's copyright to the Association and submit it with their manuscript. (Signatures reproduced by photocopy or fax are acceptable and legally binding.) Manuscripts submitted by authors who were employees of the US federal government at the time their work was conducted and written are not subject to the Copyright Act; therefore, these authors do not have to submit a statement of copyright transfer but must inform the Journal of their status as federal employees. Authors who transfer their copyright will not lose the right to reprint material from their articles but will be required to acknowledge and credit the American Dietetic Association in all reprints. If a manuscript is not accepted, or is withdrawn before publication, transfer of copyright is null and void.

All persons designated as authors must meet the criteria for authorship detailed in the Authorship Agreement. The Journal follows the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org). An explanation for the addition or removal of an author must be provided with direct verification from the added/removed author. See “Acknowledgments” and “Funding/Support Disclosure” sections for guidelines on how to recognize other contributors to the work.

Authors must inform the Journal in writing of any financial arrangements, organizational affiliations, or other relationships that may constitute a conflict of interest regarding the subject matter of the manuscript. See “Conflict of Interest Disclosure” section for more details.

The Transfer of Copyright, Authorship Agreement, and Conflict of Interest Form can be submitted via EES, e-mailed to [email protected], faxed to 312/503-1583, or sent via mail to Claire Zulkey, Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 680 N Lake Shore Dr., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611.

In studies involving human participants, authors must provide a statement in the manuscript regarding ethical approval, the use of Institutional Review Board-approved protocol, signed consent forms, and compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines.

Authors are encouraged to acknowledge persons other than coauthors who have made substantial contributions to the development of their study or manuscript. Permission from all persons named in the acknowledgments must be obtained prior to submission to the Journal and authors must inform the Editor-in-Chief in writing that such permission has been obtained. This statement can be included in the “Comments” section in EES when submitting a manuscript. A statement in the Transfer of Copyright, Authorship Agreement, and Conflict of Interest Form verifies that written consent was obtained from those acknowledged. Any personal acknowledgments should also be submitted as a separate attached page with the manuscript.

All financial and material support for the research and the work should be clearly and completely identified and submitted in EES as a separate attached page with the manuscript. Inclusion of an external Data Safety and Monitoring Board is strongly recommended for all industry-sponsored research. If there is no funding or support, a page should be attached stating as such.

A conflict of interest may exist when an author (or the author's institution or employer) has financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence (or bias) the author's decisions, work, or manuscript. All authors are required to disclose all potential conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations (other than those affiliations listed in the author page of the manuscript) relevant to the subject of their manuscript. Authors should err on the side of full disclosure and should contact the editorial office if they have questions or concerns.

All such disclosures must be submitted in EES as a separate, unsigned, attached page with the manuscript. Authors without conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations relevant to the subject of their manuscript, should include a statement of no such interests. Failure to include this information in the manuscript may delay the review of the manuscript.

Authors are expected to provide detailed information about all relevant financial interests and relationships or financial conflicts within the past 5 years and for the foreseeable future (including, but not limited to employment/affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria, speakers' bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, or patents filed, received, pending, or in preparation), particularly those present at the time the research was conducted and through publication, as well as other financial interests (such as patent applications in preparation), that represent potential future financial gain. Although many universities and other institutions have established policies and thresholds for reporting financial interests and other conflicts of interest, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association requires complete disclosure of all relevant financial relationships and potential financial conflicts of interest, regardless of amount or value. If authors are uncertain about what constitutes a relevant financial interest or relationship, they should contact the editorial office.

For all accepted manuscripts, each author's disclosures of conflicts of interest and relevant financial interests and affiliations and declarations of no such interests will be published. Decisions about whether such information provided by authors should be published, and thereby disclosed to readers, are usually straightforward. Although editors are willing to discuss disclosure of specific conflicts of interest with authors, the Journal's policy is one of complete disclosure of all potential conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations (other than those affiliations listed in the author page of the manuscript) relevant to the subject of their manuscript. If an author's disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is determined to be inaccurate or incomplete after publication, a correction will be published to rectify the original published disclosure statement, and additional action may be taken as necessary, as outlined by and in compliance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org).

Any direct quotations, figures, or tables that have appeared in copyrighted material must be accompanied by written permission for their use from the copyright owner and original author, along with full source information. Images of brand name products must have written consent from the manufacturer to be reproduced. Any photographs of identifiable persons must be accompanied by signed releases showing informed consent. Since articles appear in both the print and online versions of the Journal, the permission must specify “permission to publish in all forms and media.” Failure to obtain print and electronic permission may result in the images not appearing in the print and/or online version.

Each manuscript must include a separate attached authors' page that lists: (1) the title of the manuscript; (2) two to four key words or descriptive phrases; (3) word counts for the abstract and the text (excluding references, tables, and figures); (4) full names, academic degrees, and affiliations (position title, organization, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address) for all authors both at the time the work was completed and at present if affiliations have changed since the work was completed; (5) identification of the corresponding author; and (6) name and address of author who will handle reader requests for reprints, if this is different from the corresponding author. Type authors' names in the order they should appear in the published article. To be listed as an author on a manuscript, authors must have contributed to one or more of the following elements of the paper: conception and design, obtaining funding, acquisition of data, data management, statistical analyses and interpretation, or drafting or revision of the manuscript. It is the lead author's responsibility to assure that each co-author satisfies these criteria. Refer to the subsection titled “Credentials” in the section titled “JOURNAL STYLE” for more information about listing degrees and credentials on the authors' page.

The manuscript title should be specific and informative, conveying the findings of the research (eg, “Dietary fiber lowers serum cholesterol” rather than “Effects of dietary fiber on serum cholesterol”). The manuscript title should appear on the abstract, the first page of the manuscript text, the authors' page, and all correspondence and disclosure statements.

Authors should prepare a structured abstract for manuscripts submitted to the Original Research category and a conventional (unstructured) abstract for manuscripts submitted to the Research & Practice Innovations, Review, and Research and Professional Briefs categories. Abstracts should be understandable without reference to the main text and should be written for a general journal readership. Descriptions of the abstract forms follow.

Tables and figures should be limited to those required to clarify an article. Each table or figure should be understandable by itself and not require the reader to refer to the text. Present data only once, either in tabular or graphic form or in the text. Authors should list the title and number of each table and figure on a separate attached page submitted with their manuscript. Acceptable file types for tables and figures are: TIFF, EPS, PDF, and Microsoft Office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel). The preferred font type for tables and figures is Helvetica Condensed; however, any font type in the Helvetica family is acceptable.

Software developers are cited parenthetically in the text after the first mention of a software package. Software citations should include the name, version number, and release date of the software as well as the name and headquarters location (city and state) of the software developer. [Example: All statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Analysis Software (version 9.1.3, 2006, SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC).] If software incorporates a nutrient database, provide information in the text about the database. This should include the release date for the database, a description of substantial modifications made to the database, and an explanation of how missing nutrient data for foods were handled (ie, indicate whether values were extrapolated and evaluate the effect of any missing values on dietary totals for the nutrients of interest). Do not include information about software or databases in the list of references or the abstract.

Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and indicated consecutively, with superscript symbols (*, †, ‡, §, etc), throughout the text. Double space footnotes on a separate sheet of paper.

Number references consecutively in the order they are mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and figure legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses; do not use superscript numbers. References cited in tables or legends should be numbered in the order in which a table or figure is presented in the manuscript. References should be typed double space on pages separate from the manuscript's main text. Note: Do not use the footnote function in Microsoft Word for references. Include references at the end of the manuscript.

Currently the Journal does not support EndNote for references lists. EndNote may be used to create references but the field codes must be removed from the document before submitting the manuscript. Please follow the manufacturer's instructions for removing field codes for the version of EndNote used to create the references. A shortcut in Word for removing the field codes is also available by selecting the entire document (Ctrl+A) and then pressing (Ctrl+Shift+F9).

Authors should use relevant, current citations from the professional and scientific literature. References from professional publications may be included based on the context in which they are included. References from nonscholarly publications are not acceptable. Exceptions may be made based on the context in which the reference is included. Updated references (including access dates for Web site sources) are expected for manuscripts that have undergone a long turn-around time for review and/or revision. No matter how well known a book or source material (eg, Dietary Reference Intakes, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, MyPyramid), it must be included in the list of references if it is mentioned in the manuscript. Avoid using abstracts or presentations as references; full reports, either published or in press, are preferred. Theses and dissertations published in other journals may be used as references. Topics in the American Dietetic Association's Evidence Analysis Library may be referenced as well, when appropriate. Personal communications may not be cited as references but may be noted parenthetically in the text. All personal communications should be dated, and authors must secure the approval of the person quoted. Unpublished data, such as an article submitted for publication but not yet accepted, should be cited parenthetically in the text with a date and the notation “unpublished data.” Articles accepted for publication but not yet published can be included in the list of references with the notation “In press.” Inclusive page numbers must be provided for all periodical articles cited. Page numbers are not required when an entire book is cited, but specific page numbers are needed when only a chapter or section of a book is cited. Provide a page number for all material quoted directly from any source. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and adequacy of all references cited in their manuscript. For more information on references, see the subsection “Reference Style” in the “JOURNAL STYLE” section.

Plagiarism. In instances where plagiarism is suspected, the Journal follows the protocol set forth by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/flowcharts).

To keep the byline for each article uncluttered, the preference for Journal articles is to list the highest academic degree(s) of the authors. For food and nutrition professionals, only credentials and certifications from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (eg, RD, DTR, CSP, CSR, CSG, CSO, CSSD); state licensure (LD, LDN, or CDN); and fellowships, such as FADA, may be listed. Designations of state licensure and credentials not from the Commission on Dietetic Registration are not included. If an author has a doctorate, master's level degrees should not be included unless the master's degree is in a different or specialized field. Academic degrees below the master's level are omitted. For credentials issued outside the United States, indicate the country of origin in a footnote.

Numbers below 10 are spelled out unless followed by a unit of measure or a percentage. Express all numbers larger than 10 as Arabic numerals. Numbers that begin a sentence are always spelled out. The number of significant digits reported should be realistic and supported by the original data (eg, 2,125 kcal, not 2,124.8 kcal; 105 lb, not 105.734 lb). For sample sizes smaller than 100, frequency must be given (eg, two of seven, not 29%); percent may also be provided if necessary. Also, do not include a decimal and zero after a whole percent number (Correct: 72%, Incorrect: 72.0%).

Abbreviate units of measure when used with numerals (5 g, 1,000 kcal). Chemical formulas should be written out, unless they are used to economize space in the column headings of a table; however, the formulas should be expanded in the footnotes. Always provide the complete form of an acronym the first time it is mentioned in the text (note that if an abbreviation has been spelled out in the abstract, it still must be spelled out in the text for first-time use). An acronym or abbreviation is permitted if it is used three or more times within the manuscript text. Avoid excessive use of acronyms and abbreviations. Avoid author-invented abbreviations and acronyms.

All clinical laboratory values must be expressed in Conventional Units, (eg, lipids should be expressed in mg/dL) with Système International (SI) units in parentheses in the manuscript text, for example: triglycerides 100 mg/dL (1.13 mmol/L). Authors must provide the conversion factor to SI units as a footnote in tables and figures. The exception to this is the use of kilocalories; the Journal will continue to use kilocalories instead of kilojoules. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. A table of normal values in both Conventional and SI units and the appropriate conversion factors appears on The Journal of the American Medical Association Web site: http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/vol294/issue1/images/data/119/DC6/JAMA_auinst_sitable.dtl. Authors should refer to this table when converting data and use it as a guide for choosing the appropriate number of significant digits.

When specific products used in the research are referred to by a trade name, give the manufacturer's name and location parenthetically after the first mention. When possible use generic names for food and drugs. Registration or trademarks are not required.

The Journal follows the AMA Manual of Style, 10th ed, for references. One exception is that reference citations in the Journal must list all authors' names; use of “et al” is not acceptable. Abbreviate periodical titles according to the US National Library of Medicine's lists of biographic data found at: ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals/lsiweb.pdf. If a title does not appear on this list, provide the complete title. Published and updated dates, if available, and access dates for Web sites cited must be included. For example: Smith J. Risk factors for cancer. Cancer Risk Factors Web site. http://www.cancerriskfactors.gov. Published December 1, 2000. Updated January 15, 2008. Accessed February 1, 2008.

Authors must use the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), not the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances. Information on the DRIs can be found at: www.iom.edu/CMS/3788/21370/21372.aspx. If for any reason an author wishes to report nutrient intakes without using the stated DRIs, intakes may be reported, but adequacy should not be assessed.

Use of personal prounouns (eg, I, our, we) should be used sparingly, if at all, in Journal submissions except Letters to the Editor.

The Journal will follow the guidelines set forth by the National Institutes of Health. This can be found at: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-01-053.html.