About Arthritis Research & Therapy

Scope

Arthritis Research & Therapy - an online journal

Content overview

Archived content

Supplements

Peer review policy

Publishing policy

Scope

Arthritis Research & Therapy - an online journal

Content overview

Archived content

Supplements

Peer review policy

Publishing policy

Scope

Arthritis Research & Therapy - an online journal

Content overview

Archived content

Supplements

Peer review policy

Publishing policy

Scope

Arthritis Research & Therapy - an online journal

Content overview

Archived content

Supplements

Peer review policy

Publishing policy

Scope

Arthritis Research & Therapy is an international, peer-reviewed online and print journal, publishing original research, reviews, commentaries and reports. The major focus of the journal is in mechanisms of, and translational laboratory and clinical research into localised and systemic immune-inflammatory and degenerative diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Phase I, II and III clinical trials are also published.

The journal is edited by Professor Peter Lipsky and Professor Sir Ravinder N Maini, supported by an international Editorial Board representing the subject areas within the journal's scope.

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Arthritis Research & Therapy - an online journal

All articles in Arthritis Research & Therapy are published in full online shortly after acceptance. Selected articles are also featured in a bimonthly print issue. Articles are published in PDF format suitable for printing, and a full text xml version that allows readers to:

• Link to the abstracts of articles from the reference list
• Download the reference list
• Search PubMed for other articles published by the authors
• Email the article to a friend
• Post a comment expressing their opinions on the article
• Find citations to the article via Google Scholar and ISI Web of Science

Online publication allows authors to include additional files such as films or large datasets. In addition to the journal content, the website provides several other facilities for readers:

• Email updates - register to receive regular updates and tables of contents of the latest articles published in Arthritis Research & Therapy
• Search - search for articles in Arthritis Research & Therapy, other journals published by BioMed Central, or the whole of PubMed.
• Search alerts - store searches and choose to receive new results by email
• Top 20 most accessed articles - keep up to date with what everyone else is reading
• RSS feed - have new articles delivered to your news headline reader

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Content overview

Arthritis Research & Therapy contains the following types of articles:

• Editorials
• Commentaries
• Reviews
• Research articles
• Meeting Reports
• Letters
• Archived content
• Supplements

See below for a brief description of each.

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Editorials
Editorials focus on interesting research articles recently published in Arthritis Research & Therapy, explaining the implications of the article and putting it in context. They are commissioned by the journal.

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Commentaries
These are short, opinionated, narrowly focused articles of contemporary interest. Most are commissioned, although unsolicited commentaries are welcome and are routinely peer reviewed. Commentaries raise a topic currently under discussion, expanding on the underlying issues and suggesting what should happen next. See the instructions for authors for more information.

• General commentaries raise a topic currently under discussion, expanding on the underlying issues and suggesting what should happen next.
• Research-related commentaries focus on interesting research articles recently published in Arthritis Research & Therapy, explaining the implications of the article and putting it in context.

See the instructions for authors for more information.

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Reviews
Reviews provide a full and factual account of recent developments within an area of research. Most are commissioned, although unsolicited reviews are welcome and are routinely peer reviewed. Additional material (supplementary data, more references, diagrams, videos, etc) is welcomed for the online version. Arthritis Research & Therapy publishes two types of reviews:

• In-depth reviews provide substantial coverage of a subject in a single article written by one author, with or without co-authors.
• Multi-author thematic reviews explore a subject in a series of concise, narrowly focused review articles. Each series is coordinated by a leading authority in the field and the articles are written by specialists on each topic.

See the instructions for authors for more information.

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Research
Arthritis Research & Therapy invites studies of exceptional interest related to the rationale and treatment of arthritis, autoimmune disease and diseases of bone and cartilage, and basic research relevant to these conditions. Clinical studies will usually be phase I and II clinical trials.

To ensure the best possible service to authors and readers, we offer:

• a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer-review
• continuous publication - articles are published online, with a full citation, as soon as they are ready for publication

In addition to publication online, abstracts of all research articles are published in the bimonthly print issue.

Research articles in Arthritis Research & Therapy are open access, which means they are universally and freely accessible via the Internet and deposited in at least one widely and internationally recognized open access repository (such as PubMed Central). Authors retain copyright to their articles, and grant any third party the right to use, reproduce and disseminate the article, subject to the terms of the copyright license. To cover the costs incurred by open access publishing we levy an article processing charge for each accepted article. Please click here for more information.

See the instructions for authors for more information.

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Meeting reports
These discuss recent conferences from the author's point of view; they are not meant to be comprehensive. Only selected conferences will be covered. The reports aim to provide readers of the journal with an efficient updating service, focusing on new data from biological and translational research. If you would like to report on a meeting, please contact the Editorial Office.

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Letters
Letters commenting on any article published in the journal are welcome. On occasion we may also invite a reply. We prefer letters to be less than 400 words and contain 5 or fewer references (the first of which should be the Arthritis Research & Therapy article the letter refers to). Authors should also provide their current appointment and full address (including phone, fax, and email). All letters are edited; authors are sent the edited version to approve before publication.

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Archived material

• Non peer reviewed research - Arthritis Research & Therapy's depository for non-peer-reviewed research (preprints) was closed in August 2003. Manuscripts will, therefore, no longer be accepted for this section of the journal but a complete archive of already published material is available online and free to access without a subscription.
• Paper reports are now archival only and cover interesting articles published in other journals.

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Supplements

Publishing a supplement to Arthritis Research & Therapy is an excellent way to disseminate conference material and scientific findings to a specialist audience. Arthritis Research & Therapy accepts the following types of supplement: Proceedings, Review collections, and Meeting abstracts. The journal will also consider supplements containing research articles by special arrangement. All articles submitted for publication in supplements are subject to peer review. Published supplements are fully searchable and freely accessible online and can also be produced in print. All full length articles (proceedings, reviews or research articles) are indexed by PubMed. Meeting abstracts are also included in PubMed, displayed by the title of the supplement. However, PubMed does not index individual abstracts.

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Peer review policy

All articles will be subject to immediate screening by the Editorial Board. Appropriate articles will be sent to up to 4 referees. We make every effort to reach decisions within 5 weeks of submission. If the referees have requested revisions, in general, only one revised version will be considered for further peer-review.

Authors are asked to provide names and contact details for 2-4 referees. However, final selection of referees is the responsibility of the Editorial Board.

All peer review is closed - authors are not given the names of the referees of their article.

Editorial Board members and referees are asked to declare any competing interests they may have in reviewing a manuscript.

On occasion, authors of rejected articles will be offered the opportunity to submit their research article to one of the other journals published by BioMed Central. Where relevant, the referee reports will be passed on to the second journal, which may expedite the peer review process. Referee reports are not passed on to any journal outside of BioMed Central.

If an author is not satisfied with the decision made on their manuscript, they are welcome to contact the Editorial Office with their appeal. A second opinion on the manuscript will be sought where appropriate.

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Publishing policies

Submission of an article to Arthritis Research & Therapy implies that all contributors have read it and agree to its content. Material submitted to Arthritis Research & Therapy must not have been simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere.

Once an article is accepted, it is published in Arthritis Research & Therapy immediately as a provisional PDF file, with a final citation, and will be included in PubMed. The article will subsequently be copyedited and published in both a fully browseable web form and as a formatted PDF; the article will then be available through Arthritis Research & Therapy, BioMed Central and PubMed Central. Research articles are open access, and commentaries, reviews and reports are available via subscription. The print version of the journal is published six times a year and is also available via subscription. All articles become free to access online six months after publication. Letters and editorials are free to access immediately on publication.

With the exception of primary research articles, where the copyright rests with the authors as a default, copyright of material published in Arthritis Research & Therapy belongs to the publisher, BioMed Central Ltd.

Arthritis Research & Therapy offers a high quality reprint service. For more information see our publisher's reprints and permissions policy or contact us.

By being part of BioMed Central, Arthritis Research & Therapy is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For more information on COPE, see www.publicationethics.org.uk.

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