Advances in Radiation Oncology: Instructions for Authors

Submission Information

This page contains information specific to Advances in Radiation Oncology article types. For the full submission instructions, please visit the ASTRO Journals Author Instructions page.

Please note that Advances is a gold open access journal and if accepted, articles are subject to an Article Publishing Charge. Detailed information on these charges can be found on the ASTRO Journals Author Instructions page.

To submit your manuscript, please use our online submission system.

For questions regarding submissions, please email the editorial office at advances@astro.org.

Copy Editing and Translation Services Available

ASTRO is pleased to partner with Editage to offer a 10% discount for authors seeking copy editing and translation services. Please use this Author Services link to receive the discount. These services are offered for the benefit of authors, and individuals who participate will remain anonymous. Copy editing and translation are provided by Editage.

Scope

Advances in Radiation Oncology is a peer-reviewed, wide-ranging open access journal from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Included in PubMed Central, Advances complements the research in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology●Biology●Physics and Practical Radiation Oncology. The mission of Advances in Radiation Oncology is to provide original clinical research aimed at improving the lives of people living with cancer and other diseases treated with radiation therapy. The purpose of Advances is to provide information for clinicians who use radiation therapy by publishing:

• Clinical trial reports and reanalyses.
• Basic science original reports.
• Manuscripts examining health services research, comparative and cost effectiveness research, and systematic reviews.
• Case reports documenting unusual problems and solutions.
• High quality multi and single institutional series, as well as other novel retrospective hypothesis generating series.
• Timely critical reviews on important topics in radiation oncology, such as side effects.
• Articles reporting the natural history of disease and patterns of failure, particularly as they relate to treatment volume delineation.
• Articles on safety and quality in radiation therapy.
• Essays on clinical experience.
• Articles on practice transformation in radiation oncology, in particular:
  • Aspects of health policy that may impact the future practice of radiation oncology.
  • How information technology, such as data analytics and systems innovations, will change radiation oncology practice.
• Articles on imaging as they relate to radiation therapy treatment.

Advances is a gold open access journal, so authors, readers and patients have free access to all articles. All work published by this journal is thoroughly peer-reviewed by the editorial board and expert reviewers in radiation oncology. Authors retain copyright of their articles and reuse is governed under a Creative Commons license so that readers can freely and easily share information. Learn more about the types of articles sought by the editorial team.

For more information about the scope of all three ASTRO journals, please see our scope document.

Submission Checklist

Title Page Template

ASTRO provides a checklist and title page template to help facilitate new submissions and revisions.

Article Types and Guidelines

Please note that summary documents are no longer required for submissions to Advances.

Scientific Articles

• Manuscript ≤ 3500 words, tables and figures ≤ 6, references ≤ 50.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Abstract (≤ 300 words)
  • Anonymized manuscript
  • References
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)
  • Data Sharing Statement

• Original laboratory and clinical investigations related to radiation oncology, radiation biology and medical physics. Submissions are thoroughly reviewed for scientific originality, significance, relevance and priority, and the topics must be of broad interest to the journal's readers. Advances accepts high-priority manuscripts that report cutting-edge science and that promise to have a strong impact on clinical practice.

Research Letters

• Manuscript ≤ 1500 words, tables and figures ≤ 6, references ≤ 20.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Abstract (≤ 300 words)
  • Anonymized manuscript
  • References (not included in word count)
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)
  • Data Sharing Statement

• Like Scientific Articles, Research Letters focus on original laboratory and clinical investigations. The difference is that Research Letters are often more preliminary in nature.

Critical Reviews

• Manuscript ≤ 6000 words, tables and figures ≤ 10.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Abstract (≤ 300 words)
  • Anonymized manuscript
  • References (not included in word count)
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)

• Critical Reviews are contributions from experts in the field exploring interesting topics.

Teaching Cases

• Manuscript ≤ 2000 words, tables and figures ≤ 6, references ≤ 50.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Abstract (≤ 300 words)
  • Anonymized manuscript
  • References (not included in word count)
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)
  • Data Sharing Statement

• Advances in Radiation Oncology welcomes case reports with high-resolution images, preferably in color, including X-rays or scans of characteristic or classic conditions relevant to radiation oncology, for consideration in the Teaching Case section.

• All identifying information of patients, such as names, dates of birth, dates of service or patient identification codes must be removed. If the case report or the image includes individually identifiable health information, authors must comply with the applicable privacy laws and obtain a HIPAA-compliant patient authorization form.

Brief Opinions

• Manuscript ≤ 2000 words, tables and figures ≤ 6.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Manuscript
  • References (not included in word count)
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)

• Brief Opinion pieces are short articles that are commentary, analysis or opinion pieces about a published article or other topic of special interest.,/p>

Letters to the Editor (and Replies to LTE)

• Manuscript ≤ 400 words, tables and figures ≤ 1.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Manuscript
  • References (not included in word count)
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)

• Letters to the editor remark on work published in Advances in Radiation Oncology and participate in discussion with the authors. Authors of the original work will usually be invited to respond to these comments before publication. 

Errata

• Manuscript ≤ 200 words, tables and figures ≤ 1, references ≤ 5.

• Required Elements:
  • Title page
  • Manuscript
  • References (not included in word count)
  • Figure captions if figures are present
  • Uniform disclosure forms (1 for each author)

• Authors are encouraged to report errors in their work to correct the literature. Errata are published in the printed journal and linked back to the original manuscript electronically. The Editor-in-Chief makes all decisions on whether errata are published.

Revisions

Revisions must include the following elements:

• Detailed Response to Reviewers (anonymized).
• Marked version of the revised manuscript (tracked changes preferred).
• Clean version of the revised manuscript.
• Clean versions of supporting documents.

Please do not include:

• Identifying information on the Detailed Response to Reviewers document.
• The original, unrevised manuscript document.
• Marked version only of all supporting documents (tables, figures, supplemental files).