Advances in Communication and Swallowing

Author Guidelines

Advances in Communication and Swallowing (ACS) is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality, original research. ACS publishes manuscripts in English (only) and accepts experimental, review and theoretical discussion papers, employing quantitative and/or qualitative methods. ACS aims to foster research capacity in the field of communication and swallowing sciences and, as such, supports and encourages submission from both new and experienced researchers.

Please read these instructions carefully as any manuscripts not complying with these guidelines will be returned to the authors for revisions prior to any review being undertaken.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

By submitting an article to this journal, every author agrees to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Privacy Policy and the IOS Press Ethics Policy.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal’s editorial management system. The manuscript should be uploaded as one file with tables and figures included at the end. Note that the submitted files must be editable (e.g., MS word).

Please be sure to read carefully the section “Preparing your paper” below, and to include the following files:

• Title page
• Manuscript
• Reporting guidelines checklist

Manuscript Types

Below is a description of the manuscript types which will be considered by the ACS Editorial Board. Authors should state the reporting guideline that they have followed in their methods section (detailed information in the section "Preparing your paper").

Original article
A full text article reporting original research using either quantitative or qualitative methods. Case reports will be considered if they adhere to appropriate reporting guidelines. Authors should adhere to relevant reporting guidelines for different study designs (see EQUATOR). Submissions must not exceed 250 words for abstract and manuscripts should be approximately 3500–4500 words. Please include no more than 40 references for research articles and a maximum of eight tables and figures. Case reports will be considered (maximum word count for case reports it 2000 words) if they adhere to appropriate reporting guidelines.

Review article
A review of theoretical or clinical topics which will typically be in the format of a scoping or a systematic review. Authors should adhere to relevant reporting guidelines (e.g., PRISMA 2020 or PRISMA-SCR). Submissions must not exceed 250 words for abstract and manuscripts should be maximum 4500 words. Please include no more than 50 references for review articles and a maximum of eight tables and figures.

Protocol
Protocols for review articles and intervention studies will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Recruitment to these studies must not yet be complete and ethical approval must have been obtained (where relevant). Manuscripts should include Introduction, Methods and Discussion sections and they should be maximum 2500 words in length. Please include no more than 40 references for research protocols and a maximum of five tables and figures.

Spotlight on...
These invited manuscripts are a condensed review article focusing on current research or clinical issues within the broad field of communication and swallowing. Invited authors may chose to prepare these review articles as a Tutorial or a Brief Report. Manuscripts provide cutting edge perspectives from multidisciplinary experts on topics including, but not limited to, emerging evaluations, innovative interventions, novel research methods, and patient perspectives. Submissions must not exceed (i) 250 words for abstract (ii) 2500 words excluding references for main body of manuscript, excluding references (iii) 40 references, and (iv) 3 displays (images/tables/figures).

Letter to the editor
Letters relating to articles recently (within six months) published in the ACS journal. Letters (i) should not exceed 500 words and five references; (ii) should have one table/figure maximum (iii) should have no abstract or key points.

Publication fee

ACS does not charge a publication fee. All articles accepted for publication in ACS are currently published freely available at no fee.

Open Access option

The IOS Press Open Library offers authors an Open Access (OA) option. By selecting the OA option, the article will be freely available from the moment it is published, also in the pre-press module. In the Open Library the article processing charges are paid in the form of an Open Access Fee. Authors will receive an Open Access Order Form upon acceptance of their article. The current fee for publishing your article Open Access CC BY-NC 4.0 is €1500/US$1500. To publish under a CC BY 4.0 license, as mandated by certain funding agencies, the fee is €2150/US$2150.
Check to see if you may be eligible to a discount or waiver due to the open access institutional deals.
Open Access is entirely optional.

PREPARING YOUR PAPER

Reporting guidelines

The Editors-in-Chief require that manuscripts adhere to reporting guidelines relevant to the research design used. These guidelines and accompanying checklists identify essential matters that should be considered and reported upon in your paper. Authors can submit a checklist from the appropriate reporting guideline with your paper as a guide to the Editors-in-Chief and reviewers of your paper.

Reporting guidelines include:

• Observational cohort, case control and cross-sectional studies — STROBE — Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/
• Randomised (and quasi-randomised) controlled trial — CONSORT — Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/
• Study of diagnostic accuracy/assessment scale — STARD — Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies, http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/
• Systematic review of controlled trials — PRISMA — Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/
• Qualitative researchers might wish to consult the guideline Qualitative studies — COREQ — Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/coreq/

General formatting

All submissions must have a title and an abstract, be in A4 format with numbered pages, be double line spaced and have a margin of 2.5cm all around. Lines must also be numbered continuously throughout the text. The body of text must not exceed 12 pt font. Illustrations, figures and tables should be placed at the end of the paper (after the references) and not inserted into text. Placeholders may be inserted to suggest desired positioning of figures etc. All articles should be written in UK English.

Structure
Articles should be structured in the following order:
- Title page
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Main text
- References
- Appendices (as appropriate)
- Table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages)
- Figures
- Figure captions (as a list)

Title Page
The title page should be uploaded as a separate document to enable double blind-peer review. This page should include:
- Article title (should be clear, descriptive, and have up to 150 characters including spaces)
- Author(s) name(s) without abbreviation
- Author(s) affiliation(s): department, institution, city, country
- Complete mailing address of the author to whom all correspondence should be sent, including professional email address
- Running head
- Keywords (up to five)
- Acknowledgments
- Declaration of interest

Authorship
IOS Press has adopted Sage’s Authorship Policy.  Please go to:  Authorship guidelines | SAGE Publications Ltd for details.

Where available, please also include ORCIDs. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF and the online article. Authors' affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted.

Ethics Policies
IOS Press has adopted Sage’s Publication ethics policies.  Please go to:  
Publication ethics and research integrity: policy guidelines for authors | SAGE Publications Ltd for details.

Acknowledgments
This section should contain all acknowledgments, including any funding source to the research. Please supply all funding details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies.
If there are no acknowledgments or funding, then please state "The authors have no acknowledgments".

Conflict of interest
Authors should provide a declaration of interest statement. Financial conflicts of interest can include any financial relationship between the authors and any organization that may have a financial interest in their research or financial interests on the part of the authors themselves. This can include, but is not limited to, employment, stocks or shares, patents, research funding, travel or other expenses, lecture fees, or goods or services. Non-financial conflicts of interest can include any relationship between the authors and any person or organization that could reasonably be seen to compromise (or impact) the impartiality of the authors of an article. This can include, but is not limited to benefits to relatives, close friends or associates, or organizations that the author has an unpaid relationship with (such as consulting or advisory roles, or providing administrative assistance).If here is no conflict, then please state “The authors have no conflict of interest to report”.

Abstract

The abstract should follow the title page, maximum word length 250 words. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study’s purpose, basic methods, main results, and principal conclusions. It should emphasise new and important aspects of the study or observations. The abstract for research papers should follow the structured abstract format. Headings should be in bold uppercase letters followed by a colon.

BACKGROUND:
OBJECTIVE:
METHODS:
RESULTS:
CONCLUSIONS:

Manuscript

Manuscripts are typically divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results/Findings, and Discussion. Manuscripts should be approximately 3500–4500 words. Please include a word count for your paper. Papers should not exceed 30 pages. Manuscripts longer than this should be discussed with the Editors-in-Chief prior to submission.

Introduction

The Introduction should provide the context or background for the study. It should include a statement of the specific aim or research objective of the study or observation. The introduction should not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

Methods

The Methods section should give the methodological framework of the study. The methods should provide sufficient detail on how the study was conducted. The methods should include a description of your selection of participants, including inclusion and exclusion criteria. There should be a clear identification of the methods, materials, and procedures to allow for replicability. Authors submitting review manuscripts should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesising data. These methods should also be summarised in the abstract. Statistical methods should be described with sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results/findings. If used, the statistical software for analysis of results must be specified.

Policy on experimental subjects

Please go to:  Publication ethics and research integrity: policy guidelines for authors | SAGE Publications Ltd.

Results/Findings

Results/Findings should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. The most important finding or main findings should be presented first. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasise or summarise only the most important observations. Please indicate in text where tables and figures should be inserted using, for example ‘Insert Table 1 here’.

Tables and figures should be included at the end of the manuscript after the references.

Discussion

The Discussion should emphasise the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat results/findings in detail or other information given in the introduction. For experimental studies, it is useful to begin the discussion by summarising briefly the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of the findings for future research and for clinical practice.

Supplementary data

If there is a data set associated with the paper, please provide information about where the data supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper can be found. Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).

References

References should follow American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines (see APA guidance). Where a reference is cited within the text and contains more than two but less than six authors, cite all authors the first time the reference occurs; thereafter, only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." and the year need be included. In the reference list, references should be listed alphabetically then chronologically under each author. Please include DOI numbers when known. Examples of references in the APA style:

Journal articles

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

Jerrentrup, A., Mueller, T., Glowalla, U., Herder, M., Henrichs, N., Neubauer, A., & Schaefer, J. R. (2018). Teaching medicine with the help of “Dr. House.” PLoS ONE, 13(3), Article e0193972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193972

Books

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

Kesharwani, P. (Ed.). (2020). Nanotechnology based approaches for tuberculosis treatment. Academic Press.

Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.

Book chapter

Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge.

Webpage

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

Please include no more than 40 references for research articles and no more than 50 references for review articles.

Tables & Figures

Tables

Tables should be numbered as Table 1, Table 2, etc. All tables must be referred to in the text. Each table should be provided on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should not be included in the text. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be included in parentheses. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns’ instead leave some extra space between the columns. Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in brief footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Figures

Number figures as Fig. 1, Fig 2, etc. and refer to all of them in the text. Each figure should be provided on a separate sheet. Figures should not be included in the text. Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption.

The online version has no extra charges for colour figures. Colour figures can be included in the print version, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author (more information in the “purchases” section).

For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account:

• line art should be have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, save as EPS or TIFF
• grayscales (including photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (no lettering), or 500 dpi (when there is lettering); save as tiff
• do not save figures as JPEG, this format may lose information in the process
• do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing
• do not use color in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color, you should change the settings)
• for figures that should be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF

Figures should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%. Photographs should have good contrast and intensity.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of your article
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Article sharing
IOS Press adopted Sage’s Article Sharing Policy from 8^th  of July 2024.  Please go to:  Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines | SAGE Publications Ltd for details. If your manuscript was submitted prior to 8^th of July 2024, please contact editorial@iospress.nl with details of your enquiry. 

PROOFS AND PRE-PRESS

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors.

The corrected proof is published online in the journal’s pre-press module. This is not the final version. When the article is published in an issue, the final published version replaces the pre-press file. Pre-press articles are fully citable by using their DOI number.

PURCHASES

How to order reprints, a PDF file, color figures, journals, or IOS Press books

The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal will receive a complimentary PDF Author’s Copy of the article, unless otherwise stated. This PDF copy is watermarked and for personal use only. A free PDF copy will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues. An order form for a PDF file without watermark, color figures, reprints or additional journal copies will be provided along with the PDF proof.

If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation via this contact form.

An author is entitled to 25 % discount on IOS Press books. See Author's discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

KUDOS

Authors of published articles (non-pre-press, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at our authors section.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK

Would you like some pointers on how to help your research achieve a wider reach and greater impact? Please consult our Promotional Toolkit for Authors for tips.

Please visit the IOS Press Authors page for further information.