Authors’ guidelines

Authors’ guidelines of Pediatric Respiratory Journal

1. Aim and scope

Pediatric Respiratory Journal is a peer-reviewed journal designed to promote understanding and advance the treatment of respiratory diseases in children. It is an open access journal, published online quarterly in English.
The Journal deals with original contributions on translational, clinical, and epidemiologic research, and case reports, on the most common acute and chronic respiratory illnesses, as well the genetic and rare diseases of children.
PRJ emphasizes the developmental implications of the epidemiological, morphological, physiological, pharmacological, and sociological components of these conditions, as well as the impact of disease processes on families and the future perspective in pediatric respiratory medicine.

2. Before Submission

1. Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they do not contain previously published material, have not been published previously and are not currently under review at another journal or elsewhere. Conference presentations (including summaries, abstracts and posters) and doctoral (PhD) or master (MSc) theses are exempt, but should be acknowledged in the title page.
2. The Authors of manuscripts that include illustrations, tables and/or sections of text that have been published previously elsewhere must request permission to reproduce the material from the copyright holder. This permission must be presented in written form during submission of the manuscript. In the absence of such permission, all materials received will be regarded as the Authors’ own work.
3. All the manuscripts that do not respect the Author Guidelines will be returned to the Authors.
4. Manuscripts reporting the results of research conducted on human subjects must include a declaration in the Methods section that the study protocol was approved by the competent Ethics Committee, in accordance with the ethical standards established in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1946 (World Medical Association. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA 2013 Nov 27;310(20):2191-4. Doi: 10.1001/ jama.2013.281053), and that informed consent was obtained from all participants before enrolment in the study. All details that could reveal the identity of a patient (including initials of the patient’s name and unnecessary reference to personal data such as occupation and residence) must be omitted from the text and illustrative materials.
5. If experiments have been conducted on animals, the study must have been conducted in accordance with the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the use of laboratory animals, and such adherence must be explicitly stated in the manuscript.

3. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication

1. Each Author must complete and sign a Conflict of Interests disclosure form, which specifies all economic, personal and professional relationships that might become a conflict of interests, or might be perceived as a possible conflict of interests, or might influence the activities described in the manuscript. All the declarations will appear after the Acknowledgements section of the article, in the specific paragraph entitled Compliance with Ethical Standards.
2. Under proofreading before the publication, the Editorial Office will send the Corresponding Author the Conflict of Interests disclosure form, alongside with the Journal Publishing Agreement. The documents should be compiled and signed by each author and returned to editorialoffice@pediatric-respiratory-journal.com by the Corresponding Author.
3. The Authors will be held responsible for any false declarations or noncompliance with the instructions specified above.
4. The Editorial Office reserves the right to reject any manuscript that does not conform to the above-described instructions.

4. Submission procedure

To submit a manuscript, the Corresponding Author needs to register in the official platform, available at the following link:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/pedresjournal/default1.aspx and follow the guided procedure.
It will thus be possible to upload the manuscript, which must be in Word format and with line numbers to facilitate the reviewers.

5. Peer-review timing

The Journal is committed to evaluate articles as quickly as possible, while maintaining scientific excellence and rigor. Expected time to the decision after each (re)submission: 30 days.

6. Peer-review procedure

The decision to publish a manuscript will be based on the peer-review, as well as the acceptance of an article will be based on criteria of originality, relevance, and scientific content of the contribution. Manuscripts will be rapidly, strictly and fairly peer-reviewed by international experts of the Scientific Community.
Specifically, PRJ applies a single-blind, transparent, fair, and constructive review process.
Each manuscript will be thoroughly evaluated by at least two expert referees beyond the Journal’s Editors. Authors may suggest the names of up to three referees.
Before taking the final decision, the Editor may ask the Authors to modify the text based on the comments of the reviewers, to which the Authors should respond point by point.
Statements made in the manuscripts are the responsibility of the Authors and not of the Editors. The opinions expressed in the articles are those of the Authors and may not reflect the position of the Editors.

Article description	Abstract	Word limit	Tables/Figures	References
Research articles Research Articles report on original research. They must describe significant and innovative observations. Consideration for publication is based on the article’s originality, novelty, and scientific soundness, and the appropriateness of its analyses. The article must be subdivided into the following sections: introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions.	Unstructured abstract, max. 350 words or by invitation graphical abstract † + Highlights box *(see the related notes below)	The text should be 3000-5500 words (8 to 16 typed, double-spaced pages) not including abstract, tables, figures, references.	Min. 4 Max. 6-8	Max. 60
Review articles Reviews are summaries of recent insights in specific research areas of a topic that has direct relevance in the field. Key aims of Reviews are to provide systematic and substantial coverage of mature subjects, evaluations of progress in specified areas, and/or critical assessments of emerging technologies. They should discuss a topic of current interest, outline current knowledge of the subject, analyze different opinions regarding the problem discussed in a balanced manner, be up to date on the latest data in the literature. Normally these are authored by individuals who have themselves made a significant contribution to the original literature on the topic under review and are acknowledged authorities in the field.	Unstructured abstract, max. 350 words.	The text should be 2000-4000 words not including abstract, tables, figures, references.	A minimum number of 3 display items is required including figures and tables or boxes for important but marginal topics.	Max. 150
Systematic Reviews, Meta-Analysis Please select "Systematic Review” as Category. A systematic review identifies, selects, and gives a critical appraisal of the relevant research to a given issue/question including a structured analyses of the data that are cited in the review.	Unstructured, 250 words max.	3500 words maximum, excluding abstract, figure legends, and references. Please supply a word count.	Total of no more than 6 figures and/or tables.	Max. 150. If more, justification should be provided.
Brief reports Brief Reports are short announcements of research results. They must contain data derived from cutting-edge research and be of potential interest to a large proportion of the readership. They are independent, concise reports representing a significant contribution to the field. Such communications should represent complete, original studies and should be arranged in the same way as full-length manuscripts.	Unstructured abstract, max. 200 words.	The text should be limited to 2500 words not including abstract, tables, figures, references.	Max of 2 figures and/or tables (combined total).	Max. 20
Perspectives Perspectives are intended to review concepts in a field of interest to Pediatr Respir J based on the writer own assessment. They should provide a new view with the goal of sparking debate and open up future research avenues.	Unstructured abstract, max. 200 words.	The text should be between 2000 and 3500 words not including abstract, tables, figures, references.	A minimum number of 2 display items is required.	Max. 75
Opinions Opinions are short articles intended to convey the author’s viewpoint: on an issue that is critical to the research community; on the strengths and weaknesses of a hypothesis or scientific theory; on a research study. In the latter cases they should provide constructive criticism and be supported by available evidence. Opinion articles should not contain unpublished or original data.	Unstructured abstract, max. 200 words.	The text should be limited to 2500 words not including abstract, tables, figures, references.	A minimum number of 2 display items is required.	Max. 20
Rostrum Rostrum articles are commissioned by the editors. Authors wishing to submit a rostrum article should contact the editorial office before submitting the manuscript. Structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.	Max. 250 words	4500 words maximum, excluding abstract, figure legends and references. If the manuscript is longer, reasons for increase in length, figure or table number or reference number should be included on the cover page	Total of no more than 10 figures and tables.	Max. 75
Commentaries A commentary is a thorough analysis referred to a work already published in the field of interest to Pediatr Respir J, written to draw attention to its possible impact. They should be written by expert in the field.	No abstract	The text should be between 1500 - 2000 words not including tables, figures, references.	Max. of 2 figures and/or tables (combined total).	Max. 20
Meeting Reports	No abstract	The text should be between 2000 and 3500 words not including tables, figures, references.	Max. of 2 figures and/or tables (combined total).	Max. 20
Letters to the Editor Letters are encouraged if they directly concern articles recently published in the journal. If accepted, the editors reserve the right to submit such letters to the authors of the articles concerned prior to publication, in order to permit them to respond in the same issue of the journal. In exceptional cases, Letters may also address data published in another journal or general subjects related to matters discussed in the journal.	Unstructured abstract, max. 200 words.	The text should be limited to 2500 words not including abstract, tables, figures, references.	Max. of 2 figures and/or tables (combined total).	Up to 6 references and one of the references must be to the article discussed.
Editorials Editorials are discussions related to a specific topic, article or issue written by an editor or other member of the publication staff.	No abstract	The text should be between 1500 - 2000 words not including tables, figures, references.	Max. of 2 figures and/or tables (combined total).	Max. 6
Interviews These types of articles are usually written by the editors who use a question/answer format to interview leading scientists or eminent characters to provide an authoritative view on a particular aspect related to the field of interest to Pediatr Respir J.	No abstract	The text should be limited to 2500 words not including tables, figures, references.	Max. of 2 figures and/or tables (combined total).	Max. 20
Case reports Accurate and transparent data collection from episodes of care informs the delivery of high-quality individualized healthcare. Therefore, case reports submitted to Pediatric Respiratory Journal should make a contribution to medical knowledge, must have educational value, highlighting the need for a considerable change clinical practice or diagnostic/prognostic approaches. The ones that describe preventive or therapeutic interventions are discouraged, as these generally require stronger evidence. Should adhere to international case report guidelines supporting the measurement of: (1) Clinician and Patient-assessed Outcomes (COA), (2) effectiveness of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs), and (3) the Return On Investment (ROI).	See Pediatr Respir J’s Case report format below	limited to 1500-1800 words	Max. of: 1-2 tables and 3 figures.
Correspondence and Replies Correspondence concerning recent publications in the Journal will be considered for publication and accepted based on their scientific quality, and available space in the Journal. Once approved by the Editor, the Correspondence and relevant Reply (if any) will both be published in the same issue. Title: For Correspondences referring to an article: all correspondence should have the following title: "Comment on [referred author's name]. Please note that all Replies should have the title “Reply to [Corresponding author's name]." Salutation: Start with the salutation “To the Editor”. Signature: Close with the author's name(s), academic degree(s), institutions(s), and location(s).		Max. 1000 words, excluding graphics (if any) and references.	Total of no more than 2 figures and tables	Max. 7; article being discussed as first reference. Replies should include the Correspondence to which they are replying as one of the references
Clinical Trials Description of the results of interventional studies related to health. They can include: pilot studies, safety and efficacy trials, surrogate endpoint studies, and proof-of concept studies. Clinical Trials Articles should have the following format: 1) Abstract, 2) Introduction, 3) Materials and Methods, 4) Results, 5) Discussion.	Abstract with the clinical trial registry number	The text should be limited to 12000 words.	Max. 15 tables and figures.	Max. 120-150

^† By invitation, Authors must provide an original image that clearly represents the work described in the paper. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the submission system when uploading files.
Image size: please provide an image with a minimum of 1328 x 531 pixels (w x h) using a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. If you are submitting a larger image, please use the same ratio (500 wide x 200 high).
Font: please use Times, Arial, Courier or Symbol with a large enough font size as the image will be reduced in size for the table of contents to fit a window 200 pixels high.

• File type: preferred file types are TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files.
• No additional text, outline or synopsis should be included . Any text or label must be part of the image file. Please do not use unnecessary white space or a heading “graphical abstract” within the image file.

*Highlights box
Each Research Article will be accompanied by a highlights box that provides answers ( no longer than 35 words each) to the following questions:

1. What is already known about this topic?
2. What does this article add to our knowledge?
3. How does this study impact current management guidelines?

7.2. Adherence to research reporting standards

Pediatric Respiratory Journal encourages authors to make every attempt to adhere to recognized research reporting standards for many study types, such as:

• CONSORT for randomized trials
• STROBE statement for observational studies
• PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Authors are encouraged to refer to and follow available guidelines from EQUATOR Network ( https://www.equator-network.org )

7.3 Case report format

1. Title – The diagnosis or intervention of primary focus followed by the words “case report”.
2. Keywords – 2 to 5 keywords that identify diagnoses or interventions in this case report (including “case report”).
3. Abstract – (unstructured).
4. Introduction –Briefly summarizes why this case is unique and may include medical literature references.
5. Patient information:
   – primary concerns and symptoms of the patient.
   – Medical, family, and psychosocial history including relevant genetic information.
   – Relevant past interventions and their outcomes.
   – De-identified patient specific information
6. Clinical findings – Describe significant physical examination (PE) and important clinical findings.
7. Timeline – Historical and current information from this episode of care organized as a timeline (figure ortable).
8. Diagnostic assessment
   – Diagnostic methods (PE, laboratory testing, imaging, surveys).
   – Diagnostic challenges.
   – Diagnosis (including other diagnoses considered).
   – Prognostic characteristics when applicable.
9. Therapeutic intervention
   – Types of therapeutic intervention (pharmacologic, surgical, preventive).
   – Administration of therapeutic intervention (dosage, strength, duration).
   –Changes in therapeutic interventions with explanations.
10. Follow-up and outcomes
    – Clinician- and patient-assessed outcomes if available.
    – Important follow-up diagnostic and other test results.
    – Intervention adherence and tolerability (How was this assessed?).
    – Adverse and unanticipated events.
11. Discussion
    – Strengths and limitations in your approach to this case.
    – Discussion of the relevant medical literature.
    – The rationale for your conclusions.
    – The primary “take-away” lessons from this case report (without references) in a one paragraph conclusion.
12. Patient perspective – The patient should share their perspective on the treatment(s) they received.
13. Informed consent – The patient should give informed consent.

7.4 Cover letter

A cover letter must be included with each manuscript submission.
You should include:

1. The affiliation and contact information of your corresponding author.
2. A brief explanation of why the work is appropriate for PRJ.
3. Confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are
   currently under consideration or published in another journal.
4. The names and contact information of at least three reviewers you
   consider suitable
5. The names of any referees you would like excluded from reviewing.

Finally, you should state whether you have had any prior discussions with a Pediatric Respiratory Journal Editorial Board Member about the work described in your manuscript.

If the manuscript is longer than previously indicated, reasons for increase in length, figure or table number or reference number should be stated here. Acceptance of longer manuscripts is subjected to acceptance by the the EiC and the AE. The decision will be taken according to the scope and importance of the communication.

7.5 Essential title page information
7.5.1 Full title
The full title of the manuscript should be concise and specific. Manuscripts must be submitted with both a full title (max. of 100 characters).

7.5.2 Authors’ full names

7.5.3 Authors names should be listed in the following order: first name, middle initial, last name.

7.5.4 Authors’ institutional affiliations including city and country
Each author should list a department, university or hospital or research institution, city and country (please avoid writing your academic position such as resident, fellowship, assistant or associate professor).

7.5.5 A running title
Not exceeding 40 characters and spaces.

7.5.6 The name, address and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript
At least one author should be designated as Corresponding Author (identifying the corresponding author with an asterisk), and his or her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section. It is also advisable to indicate the ORCID identification.

In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author’.

7.5.7 Word count; number of tables and figures

8. Main text file

The text file should be presented in the following order and be line
numbered throughout:

1. A statement with potential conflict of interests related to the manuscript content;
2. Financial support;
3. Abstract and keywords;
4. Main text;
5. Acknowledgments;
6. Impact statement;
7. References;
8. Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
9. Figure legends;
10. Appendices (if relevant);
11. Compliance with Ethical Standards.

NOTE: Figures, Tables and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

i. Conflicts of interests
Authors must include financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony), personal, political, intellectual (organizing education) or religious interests, according to the ICMJE recommendations. A competing interest should not prevent someone from being listed as an author if they qualify for authorship (see below). If there is doubt about whether interests are relevant or significant, it is prudent to disclose.

ii. Financial support
In addition to a list of the sources of funding, Authors are also expected to provide the relevant grant numbers, where possible, and list the Authors associated with the specific funding sources.
Authors are also required to state whether the funding sources were involved in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

iii. Abstract and keywords
A concise and factual abstract is required, according to the articles’ type, see the table above. The abstract should recapitulate in an abbreviated form the Purpose of the study, Results (along with the main methods used) and Conclusions. Vague, uninformative statements and too basic, general sentences should be avoided. Important terms relevant to the content of the manuscript should be incorporated into the abstract to assist indexers and searchers. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason,
references should be avoided. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first
mention in the abstract itself.
Immediately after the abstract, please provide a maximum of 5 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, ‘and’, ‘or‘). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

iv. Main text
The main text should include:

1. Introduction
   Should establish the rationale for the research and contain only the
   essential information and citations.
2. Materials and methods
   Provide a detailed description of the materials and methodologies used.
   Indeed, new sequence information must be deposited to the appropriate database prior to submission of the manuscript. New high throughput sequencing (HTS) datasets (RNA-seq, ChIP-Seq, degradome analysis,…) or other high throughput data must be deposited in public databases such as the GEO database, the NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive (SRA), or others. The Authors should clarify all the ethical aspects related to their research (see instructions in the Ethical Approval and Trial Registration Statements paragraph below ) including availability of data and materials. Copy of all the uncropped original experimental data at publishing resolution must be retained for five years and shown upon request from the Journal. Failure to produce such data on request can constitute a reason for possible retraction by the Journal.
3. Results
   Present the results of the research clearly and exhaustively. Should give answers to the aim/s aforementioned in the introduction and provide main findings and trends.
4. Discussion
   Analyze critically the results obtained and their possible translational and clinical implications. Should compare and contrast the results with relevant researches, provide possible alternate explanations to interpret the results and include possible limitations and shortcomings. It should make clear whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or no conclusions can be derived.
5. Conclusions
   Present the relevance of the results, their potential impact and, if possible, future perspectives.
6. Supporting information
   Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

NOTE: Acronyms, abbreviations, units of measurements
Pediatric Respiratory Journal recognizes the adoption of the International Systems of Units (SI-Units). Acronyms, abbreviations, and units of measurements without a legend and/or incomprehensible are not permitted. When necessary, a list of abbreviations may be inserted after the abstract.

v. Acknowledgments

vi. Impact statement
The impact statement is single sentence (typically 15-30 words) that summarizes the most important finding of the work: it needs to complement (rather than repeat) the title and should avoid acronyms that are not well known to a broad readership.
The style of writing should conform to English usage and syntax. Authors whose mother tongue is not English are urged to have their manuscripts checked for linguistic correctness before submission. Slang, technical jargon, obscure abbreviations and abbreviated phrasing should be avoided.

vii. References
Please, ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). References should follow the Vancouver System, as indicated below:

1. the order number corresponding with that of appearance in the text;
2. the first six Author’s surname(s) followed by the initial letter of the names and et al.;
3. the title of the work, in the original language;
4. for journals: usual title abbreviations according to international nomenclature and in the order: year, volume number, issue number (in parenthesis), first and last page numbers of the work and doi.

For example : Le Vu S, Bertrand M, Jabagi MJ, Botton J, Drouin J, Baricault B, et al. Age and sex-specific risks of myocarditis and pericarditis following Covid-19 messenger RNA vaccines. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):3633. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31401-5

Books
Name of the Author/Editor, title, publisher/institution, town where published, first and last page number of the work.
For example: Roger K (Ed). The Respiratory System. Britannica Educational Publishing, New York, 2011:pp:11-72.

NOTE: do not write the references using uppercase, small caps or italics. For abbreviation of titles, use the international standards from Index Medicus.

Web links and URLs
All web links and URLs, including links to the authors’ own websites, should be given a reference number and included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, as well as the date the site was accessed.
For example: Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC). Available from: https://www.choc.org/news/7-common-respiratory-diseases/. Accessed: May 20, 2013.

If an Author or group of Authors can clearly be associated with a web link, such as for weblogs, then they should be included in the reference.

Article within a journal
Smith JJ. The world of science. Am J Sci. 1999;36:234-5.

Article within a journal (no page numbers)
Rohrmann S, Overvad K, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Jakobsen MU, Egeberg R, Tjønneland A, et al. Meat consumption and mortality – results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. BMC Medicine. 2013;11:63.

Article within a journal by DOI
Slifka MK, Whitton JL. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Dig J Mol Med. 2000. doi:10.1007/s801090000086.

Article within a journal supplement
Frumin AM, Nussbaum J, Esposito M. Functional asplenia: demonstration of splenic activity by bone marrow scan. Blood. 1979;59 Suppl 1:26-32.

Book chapter, or an article within a book
Wyllie AH, Kerr JFR, Currie AR. Cell death: the significance of apoptosis. In: Bourne GH, Danielli JF, Jeon KW, editors. International review of cytology. London: Academic, 1980:pp. 251-306.

Online First chapter in a series (without a volume designation but with a DOI)
Saito Y, Hyuga H. Rate equation approaches to amplification of enantiomeric excess and chiral symmetry breaking. Top Curr Chem. 2007. doi:10.1007/128_2006_108.

Complete book, authored
Blenkinsopp A, Paxton P. Symptoms in the pharmacy: a guide to the management of common illness. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 1998.

Online document
Doe J. Title of subordinate document. In: The dictionary of substances and their effects. Royal Society of Chemistry. 1999. Available from:
http://www.rsc.org/dose/title of subordinate document. Accessed: Jan 15, 1999.

Online database
Healthwise Knowledgebase. US Pharmacopeia, Rockville. 1998. Available from: http://www.healthwise.org. Accessed: Sept 21, 1998.

Supplementary material/private homepage
Doe J. Title of supplementary material. 2000. Available from: http://www.privatehomepage.com. Accessed: Feb 22, 2000.

University site
Doe, J: Title of preprint. Available from: http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/mydata.html (1999). Accessed: Dec 25, 1999.

FTP site
Doe J. Trivial HTTP, RFC2169. Available from: ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2169.txt (1999). Accessed: Nov 12, 1999.

Organization site
ISSN International Centre: The ISSN register. Available from: http://www.issn.org (2006). Accessed: Feb 20, 2007.

Dataset with persistent identifier
Zheng L-Y, Guo X-S, He B, Sun L-J, Peng Y, Dong S-S, et al. Genome data from sweet and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). GigaScience Database. 2011. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100012.

viii. Tables (each table complete with title and footnote)
All tables must be presented in separate files in a text format. Tables must be identified and referred in the manuscript with arabic numerals and accompanied by a brief caption. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.
Tables will not be accepted in PowerPoint, PDF or JPG formats, which require retyping of the text for uniformity of style with journal graphics.

ix. Figures and legends
The figures (i.e., photographs, graphs, and diagrams, including flow charts) themselves should be submitted separately from the manuscript file (one file for each figure). Each figure should be numbered with an arabic numeral (according to its citation in the text). For composite figures, each component should be labeled with lowercase letters ( e.g., Figure 1 a). Photographs, graphs, diagrams, and flow charts must be supplied in one of the following formats: JPG (high resolution:min 300 dpi), TIFF (high resolution:min 400 dpi), or EPS (high resolution:min 600 dpi). Scanned images must be acquired with high resolution and saved in a high-resolution format as indicated above.
Illustrative material included in the article should ideally be unprotected by copyright. For tables or figures that have already been published (by the Authors or others), permission to reproduce must be obtained from the copyright holder (generally, the journal in which the material was originally published) and attached to the submission. Failure to obtain this permission prior to submission can delay publication of an accepted manuscript.
Authors should make sure that photographs of patients contain no identifying features.
In addition, the Publisher reserves the right to not publish images not conforming to these requirements, which could affect the graphical quality of the journal.
A caption should comprise a brief title and a description of the illustration. Captions for figures are to be provided in the text file at the end of the manuscript. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

NOTE: figures must be presented separately, not inserted in the manuscript text and must not contain trade names or bibliographic references.
Figures submitted in color may be reproduced in colour online free of charge. Please note, however, that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white.

x. Appendices (if relevant)

xi. Compliance with Ethical Standards

xi.i. Authorship
PRJ follows the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) which states that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed:
– substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the
acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work;
– drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
– provide approval for publication of the content;
– agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.Contributors who do not meet these criteria, but nonetheless provided important contributions to the final manuscript, should be included in the acknowledgements section. Manuscripts prepared and written by commercial entities (fake-paper factories, “paper mills”) on behalf of researchers listed as Authors on the manuscript do not meet Pediatric Respitratory Journal’s  policies and will not be considered for publication. PRJ will reject suspicious manuscripts before the peer-revision.

xi.ii Author Contributions
All the individual contributions should be specified as an Author Contributions statement, which is mandatory and needed at the time of the submission. It should describe each authors’ tasks.List only 2 initials for each author, without full stops, but separated by commas (e.g. JC, JS). In the case of two authors with the same initials, please use their middle initial to differentiate between them (e.g. REW, RSW) or second letter of the last name ( e.g., RWe, RWa).

xi.iii Ethical Approval
– Human studies and subjects
Manuscripts reporting the results of research conducted on human subjects must include a declaration in the Methods section that the study protocol was approved by the competent Ethics Committee, in accordance with the ethical standards established in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1946 (World Medical Association. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA 2013 Nov 27;310(20):2191-4. Doi: 10.1001/ jama.2013.281053), and that informed consent was obtained from all participants before enrolment in the study. All details that could reveal the identity of a patient (including initials of the patient’s name and unnecessary reference to personal data such as occupation and residence) must be omitted from the text and illustrative materials.
– Animal studies
If experiments have been conducted on animals, the study must have been conducted in accordance with the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the use of laboratory animals, and such adherence must be explicitly stated in the manuscript.
– Clinical Trial Registration (if applicable)
Pediatric Respiratory Journal (PRJ) follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) policy about Clinical Trial registration and adopts its definition of clinical trial: “Any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example, drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes). Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration”.
PRJ requires the registration of clinical trials in a public registry, before or at the time of first patient enrollment, to be considered for the publication.
The ICMJE allows publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), including the minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration dataset or in ClinicalTrials.gov (a data provider to the WHO ICTRP).
During the submission, Authors must provide the registration identification number and the URL for the trial’s registry. The studies involving applicable clinical trials should be complied with the FDAAA of 2007 and the results should be reported to clinicaltrials.gov  within 1 year of study completion. Author’s results can be shown in clinical trials registries without it being considered previously overlapping or published publication.
– Clinical Trial submissions
The quality of data reporting on randomized clinical trials will be evaluated following the rules and checklist of the CONSORT statement. 
PRJ requires a clear and accurate description of the study design, conduct, and analysis methods used to obtain the results of clinical trials.
Phase I studies
Phase I studies of single agents will be considered only where there are additional translational research components. Instead, where a remarkable response rate was observed, translational research is not required.
Phase I studies of single agents could be considered if they have the following features:

• has compelling preclinical rationale.
• Includes a new drug class that has not been studied before in the phase I. Comprehends pharmacokinetics in order to determine whether potentially therapeutic blood levels have been achieved, based upon preclinical studies.
• Demonstrates tolerability of the drug at the maximum-tolerated dose, preferably associated with inhibition of a relevant pharmacodynamic end point.
• Demonstrates that the drug has entered phase II or III testing, because of its sufficient interest to investigators.
• Derivative phase I studies of the same drug, but now investigated in a different schedule compared to what was previously reported, will receive lower priority.
• Derivative phase I studies of a new drug of the same class as was previously reported, without compelling evidence of novelty compared to what is known about this drug class, will receive lower priority.

Phase I studies of combination could be considered if they have the following features:

• compelling preclinical rationale for the combination with the inhibition of intersecting pathways.
• Includes novel drug classes that have not been previously combined.
• Comprehends pharmacokinetics in order to determine whether potentially therapeutic blood levels have been achieved for each drug, based upon preclinical studies, and importantly whether an interaction exists between the two agents.
• Demonstrates tolerability for the combination at the maximum-tolerated dose, preferably associated with inhibition of a relevant pharmacodynamic end point.
• Demonstrates that the drug has entered phase II or III testing, because of its sufficient interest to investigators.

Phase II trials
Phase II studies should be considered if they include:

• a clearly expressed definition of the primary end point.
• Hypothesized value of the primary end point that justified the planned sample size.

Analysis of the weakness or of any comparison to historical controls.

– Data Sharing and Data Accessibility
When data is available and linked, authors will need to provide a citation of the data in their reference list.
Data citation: [dataset]Authors; Year; Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version (if any); Persistent identifier (e.g. DOI).
Wherever possible, authors should make major datasets available using domain-specific public archives (for example, GenBank, Protein Data Bank, ClinicalTrials.gov), or generic databases (for example, Dryad, Dataverse, the Open Science Framework or an institutional repository) where a domain specific archive does not exist. A comprehensive catalogue of databases has been compiled by the BioSharing information resource.

xi.iv Publication Ethics
– Plagiarism
Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications explicitly identified should be cited. In case of doubt, the Editors shall require explanations and the full access to the used documents, such as the signed consent forms. The Editors can also proceed with an independent revision of the manuscript to ascertain if the manuscript meets the ethical standards. If any problem emerges, the authors and the institution where the study was conducted will be consulted and updated about the results of such review. The manuscripts could be rejected in case of serious misconduct. Furthermore, in case of serious proven misconduct, all authors of the indict article shall be banned from future publication in PRJ.A fraudulent article or an article previously published elsewhere could be improperly published. In this case, the article will be retracted. Readers will be informed with a notification on the journal web site, and the authors’ institution will be contacted by Editors and/or the Publisher. In case of publication on indexing systems, every appropriate step to identify the fraudulent article will be undertaken, including adding the word “Retraction” in the title.
– Data falsification and fabrication
Data falsification means to manipulate data, images, not convenient results, with the intention of giving a false impression, for example increasing the scientific quality of the study. Any doubt regarding data integrity will be referred to the Editor. The Editor may request the data for inspection or verification. If the original data cannot be provided, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted, depending on the cases.
– Manipulation of images
PRJ strives to avoid misrepresentation of the data collected. Images cannot be modified (enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing or introducing features) to change the overall appearance or appearance of any specific feature. Adjustments of brightness and contrast or colour balance are acceptable, but must be applied to the entire image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original.
Images collected at different times or from different locations or from different parts of the same gel or from different gels should not be combined into a single image, unless specified. In this case, the edges must be clearly delimited (e.g., dividing lines) in the figure and described in the legend.

Please, visit the following websites:
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114110/
– https://www.elsevier.com/connect/authors-update/five-things-every-researcher-should-know-about-image-manipulation for greater details.

– ChatGPT use 
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in any aspect of the research process must be clearly disclosed. Specifically, any AI tools employed in data analysis, drafting, or editing must be explicitly mentioned in the “Methods” and in the “Data falsification and fabrication” sections, ensuring transparency and accountability. Furthermore, any figures or visual materials generated or modified using AI must be clearly labeled as such.
Indeed, Large Language Models (LLM) tools will not be recognized as credited authors on research papers.

9. Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Ensure that the following items are present:
(1) one author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact
details:

• e-mail address;
• full postal address;
• ORCID.

(2) All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:

• key words;
• all figure captions;
• all tables (including title, description, footnotes); further considerations:
• manuscript has been “spell-checked” and “grammar-checked”;
• references are in the correct format for this journal;
• all references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and viceversa;
• permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet);
• ethics paragraph.

10. Revised manuscript

Revised manuscripts, if not differently indicated in the decision letter, must be returned within established deadline (three months in case of major revision, one month in case of minor revision) and must include the following items:

• Responses to Comments that includes point-by-point responses to the comments made by the Reviewers, Editor, and Editorial Office for each of them numbered and labelled always as COMMENT and
  RESPONSE.
• Marked Manuscript. Any text that was not part of the original manuscript but has now been added, underline formatting should be applied; to any text that was part of the original manuscript but has now been deleted, strikethrough formatting should be applied. Changes made on Figures and Tables should be clearly visible and provided as separate files labelled as ‘Figure x Marked’ and ‘Table x Marked’. Line numbering must be used in the Marked Manuscript and numbers mentioned in the response to the comments.
• Unmarked Manuscript. The Unmarked Manuscript should be your revised manuscript just as you intend it for publication (if it is accepted). Line numbering need not be used in the Unmarked Manuscript too.

If the deadline for revision cannot be met, authors may justify a request for an extension which will be examined by the editorial office.

11. Online proof correction

Proofreading is the responsibility of the authors regarding content, and of the editors regarding the technical part. The proofs for correction will be sent to the corresponding author indicated in the manuscript. These must be corrected and returned to the editorial office by the date indicated in the accompanying letter and within 5 working days of their receipt.

After this deadline, ex officio correction and/or postponing of publication will occur, depending on the editorial priority of the Editor in Chief.
Responses received after the indicated date and requests for sending to another or more than one Author, different from the one indicated in the manuscript, will not be accepted.

11.1. Correction to Authorship
PRJ will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form (Authorship Change Form_PRJ) and contact either the journal’s editorial office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form.

NOTE: proofreading corrections must avoid modifying the graphics already defined or modifying the content so to require a new peer-review process.

11.2. Post publication corrections
Any request for the correction of the articles post publication must be communicated to the Editorial Office and discussed with the Editor in Chief. Please, write to: editorialoffice@pediatric-respiratory-journal.com.

12. Author licensing

Authors publish open access under the terms of the Creative Commons License, type CC BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License). In order to grant this License, If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal Corresponding Author will receive an email with the Journal Publishing Agreement (as explained in the paragraph 3). The form must be compiled and signed by each Authors of the manuscripts.

13. Contacts

13.1 Editorial Office contact details
In case of needing of editorial support write to: editorialoffice@pediatric-respiratory-journal.com

13.2. Managing Editor contact details
In case of specific needing about the content of the paper write to: editorinchief@pediatric-respiratory-journal.com

PDF Download