Manuscript preparation
Peer review
Copyright, open access and author archiving
Publication charges and read-and-publish agreements
ERJ Open Research publishes clinical and experimental work relating to all aspects of respiratory basic science, clinical translational science and clinical medicine, including cell biology, epidemiology, immunology, pathophysiology, thoracic imaging, paediatric pneumology, occupational medicine, intensive care, sleep medicine, thoracic surgery and thoracic oncology. In addition to such original material, editorials, reviews, series articles, letters to the editor and correspondence will be considered for publication.
All submissions to ERJ Open Research are handled via the ScholarOne Manuscripts platform, which provides detailed instructions of how to follow the submission process. If you experience problems or require assistance with the submission process, you can view the ScholarOne help page here, otherwise please contact the submission helpline direct on +44 114 2672868 or email Caroline Ashford-Bentley.
Manuscript preparation
- The European Respiratory Society's manuscript preparation guidelines (new tab) are provided in a separate page. They should be read in conjunction with the journal-specific information below.
Presentation of manuscripts should be consistent with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically using the online submission at ScholarOne Manuscripts. This should briefly comprise: Your manuscript document in .docx, .doc or .rtf format. This should include a title page, which should be a separate page before the start of the manuscript, and include the title, full author names, author affiliations, and correspondence address. Please insert tables to your main text file before references, using the insert Table function in your word processing program. Figures files should be limited to a maximum of four panels (A-D) and uploaded separately to the manuscript documents, in either JPEG, TIFF or EPS format and be high quality (300dpi). Detailed instructions on how to submit are available on the website itself and the process is self explanatory. If you experience problems, or have any questions about the submission process, please contact manuscripts coordinator via email Caroline.Ashford-Bentley@ersnet.org, or call direct on +44 114 2672868.
| Article type | Word limit | Figures and tables* | References | Online supplement | Abstract |
| Original research | 3000 | 8 | 40 | Accepted | Yes, 250 words |
| Study protocol | 3000 | 4 | 40 | Accepted | Yes, 250 words |
| Editorials | 1500 | 2 | 30 | Not accepted | No |
| Review articles | 5000 | 5 | 200 | Accepted | Yes, 250 words |
| Mini-review articles | 3000 | 4 | 75 | Accepted | Yes, 250 words |
| Research letters | 1200 | 1 | 15 | Not accepted | No |
| Correspondence | 800 | 1 | 10 | Not accepted | No |
*The number of figures and tables in the above summary refers to the combined total; for example, letters can have either one figure or one table, not one of each.
Peer review
When you have completed your submission, you will be notified by e-mail and provided with a manuscript number for future reference.
Each manuscript will be reviewed by the chief editor and an associate editor. Manuscripts that are not regarded as sufficiently original, high in priority or otherwise suitable for publication in ERJ Open Research may be rejected after review by the editors. We will aim to communicate such a decision to you quickly so you can consider other publication routes for your work.
Manuscripts not rejected at this stage will be subjected to single-anonymised peer review by (typically two) external reviewers and statistical advisors. "Single-anonymised" means that the reviewers will know authors' identities, but authors will not know the reviewers' identities. Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality, and to recuse themselves from reviewing a manuscript if they have a conflict of interest. Their role is to provide objective advice to the editors about whether a manuscript is likely to be suitable to publish in the journal, and about how it should be improved before publication. Even if they do not believe the manuscript is suitable for the journal, they are encouraged to provide feedback to the authors.
After your manuscript has been reviewed, you may be asked to revise it in line with reviewer comments. When submitting your revised manuscript, you should provide two copies: one clean copy of the revised manuscript, and one copy in which the changes from the original version are clearly highlighted. Alongside your revised manuscript, you should provide a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ and editors’ comments.
The reviewers and associate editor will recommend their decisions to the chief editor, who will then be responsible for the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript.
If your manuscript is rejected after peer review, and you wish to appeal the decision, please e-mail a letter of rebuttal to: erjor.editors@ersnet.org
In the appeal letter, you should clearly state your name, the title of your manuscript and the manuscript number. It will help us to handle your appeal if you can provide specific point-by-point responses to any comments made by the editors and reviewers in support of their original decision. We will respond to all appeals as soon as possible, but in some cases it may take some time to make a final decision. The decision of the chief editor is final and only one appeal will be considered per manuscript.
ERJ Open Research uses iThenticate plagiarism detection software. Manuscripts showing a high degree of similarity to previously published work will be closely examined and any appropriate action will be taken by the Chief Editor.
Serving members of the editorial board may submit their own manuscripts to ERJ Open Research but, of course, cannot participate in the peer review of their own manuscript, either as an editor or a reviewer. Where authors are also serving members of the editorial board, this is declared in the Conflict of Interest section of the published article.
Copyright, open access and author archiving
Copyright
Submission of the manuscript implies that if and when it is accepted for publication, all authors will grant to ERS a worldwide and exclusive licence to produce, publish, sell, distribute and make available, and to further sub-licence their article in print, digital and other media formats, including abstracts and supplementary material. This enables ERS to ensure maximum international copyright protection against infringement, and to disseminate your article, and the relevant publication, to the widest possible readership. Depending on which Creative Commons licence you choose to publish your work, elements of that licence may override the exclusivity of this grant.
In the event that the paper is accepted for publication, all authors will be contacted and asked to complete an online form granting ERS a licence to publish the work. All authors must complete this online form before the paper can be published.
For information on ERS author copyright please see https://www.ersjournals.com/authors/copyright-and-reuse.
For permissions and reuse please see https://www.ersjournals.com/reuse/permissions
Open access licensing
The European Respiratory Society will publish accepted manuscripts under the terms of one of the following Creative Commons licences, depending upon the option chosen by the author.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (‘CC-BY’) - under this licence, anyone may share, reuse or adapt the manuscript for any commercial or non-commercial purpose, providing they give credit to the original source and indicate any changes. They may not apply extra restrictions to the content or imply that the original author endorses them or their use.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (‘CC-BY-NC’) - under this licence, anyone may share, reuse or adapt the manuscript for any non-commercial purpose, providing they give credit to the original source and indicate any changes. They may not apply extra restrictions to the content or imply that the original author endorses them or their use.
Commercial purposes include
- copying or downloading articles for further commercial redistribution, sale or licensing;
- copying, downloading or posting by a site or service that incorporates advertising with such content;
- the inclusion or incorporation of article content in other works or services that are then available for sale or licensing, for a fee;
- use of article content by for-profit organisations for promotional purposes;
- use for the purposes of monetary reward by means of sale, resale, licence, loan, transfer or other form of commercial exploitation such as marketing products.
Author archiving
Authors of ERJ Open Research articles are entitled to deposit the final published version of their manuscripts in an institutional (or other) repository for public archiving provided the terms of the relevant Creative Commons licence are adhered to.
For articles with Coalition S or UKRI funding (https://www.coalition-s.org/organisations/), the author retains the right to archive the peer-reviewed "author accepted manuscript" (before copy-editing and publication) under a CC-BY licence without embargo, regardless of the Creative Commons licence under which the version of record is published.
Publication charges and read-and-publish agreements
The European Respiratory Society will impose a charge for publishing articles (other than specially commissioned editorials and reviews, and correspondence in response to a published article) in ERJ Open Research.
ERS has entered into “read-and-publish” agreements with institutions and groups of institutions to publish articles from eligible institutions or countries open access at no extra charge. For more information visit https://www.ersjournals.com/ers-transformative-deals
For articles submitted between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, the charges below will apply.
|
|
Standard price |
Standard price (corresponding author is ERS member)* |
||
|
Editorials, study protocols, letters, correspondence (not in response to a published article) |
€325 |
€293 |
€163 |
Free |
|
Original articles, reviews |
€545 |
€491 |
€273 |
Free |
|
Editorials, study protocols, letters, correspondence (not in response to a published article) |
€545 |
|||
|
Original articles, reviews |
€1095 |
|||
For articles submitted on or after 1 April 2024, the charges below will apply.
|
|
Standard price |
Standard price (corresponding author is ERS member)* |
||
|
Editorials, study protocols, letters, correspondence (not in response to a published article) |
€340 |
€306 |
€170 |
Free |
|
Original articles, reviews |
€570 |
€513 |
€285 |
Free |
|
Editorials, study protocols, letters, correspondence (not in response to a published article) |
€600 |
|||
|
Original articles, reviews |
€1295 |
|||
The country of origin of a manuscript is determined by the location of the home institution of its corresponding author. Country income bands are as defined by the Research4Life initiative.
*European Respiratory Society members paying the standard price will receive a 10% discount.
Payment is via our partner, CCC Rightslink. You will receive an email with instructions when your article is accepted.
Refund policy
If you decide to publish your article with one of our open access licences and pay the article processing charge outlined above, you will be eligible for a refund if:
- We publish your article with an incorrect licence, and we fail to correct and republish the article within 1 month of you having informed us of the error; or
- We fail to deposit your article to PMC within 2 months of final publication of the article on our own website.
In the event that an article is retracted, we will not refund any fees.
After your paper is accepted: getting the most out of your publication
After your manuscript is accepted, it will be passed to the ERS publications office for copyediting and typesetting before publication. The staff will contact you regarding copyright assignment and publication charges, and will send you a proof of your article along with any queries that have arisen during editing. The ERS aims to publish manuscripts as quickly as possible after acceptance, but cannot do so until it receives your responses.
After your paper is published: getting the most out of your publication
Once published online, selected papers will promoted by the ERS communications department, through press releases, ERS marketing channels or social media. If your own institution is carrying out press activity around your paper, please let us know. The ERS has also created an authors’ guide to using social media to gain exposure and feedback.
If you have further ideas and would like help promoting your work, please contact the editorial office: Caroline.Ashford-Bentley@ersnet.org
After your paper is published: correspondence and corrections
If we accept correspondence for publication in response to your article, we will offer you the chance to respond in the journal.
If after publication you learn of errors or omissions in your manuscript that would require a correction or retraction, it is your responsibility to inform the journal. Similarly, if we bring such errors or omissions to your attention, it is your responsibility to engage with the investigation of these errors or omissions.
Please see also our correction policy: https://www.ersjournals.com/authors/research-ms-preparation#CORRECTIONS
To read these instructions in Chinese: https://openres.ersjournals.com/authors/instructions-zh
This page was updated on 15 February 2024