Manuscript Policies

Reporting Standards

Clinical studies appearing in ASHA journals must meet recognized standards for reporting. Articles reporting randomized clinical trials must follow the Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials (CONSORT), nonrandomized clinical evaluations must follow the Transparency of Reporting Evaluations of Nonrandomized Designs (TREND), and studies of diagnostic accuracy must meet the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD). Authors should find these standards useful as guides in designing and implementing their studies; however, it is recognized that the standards apply directly to the reporting of studies rather than to their implementation.

Revisions

The editor places time limits on when an author may tender a revised manuscript. Editors may grant deadline extensions as requested by authors. Manuscripts not returned by the specified deadlines, however, will be considered rejected; a withdrawn designation will be assigned only when an author initiates that action.

So long as an author is within the specified time limits of the "Revise" stage, succeeding versions of his/her paper retain the original number (with a revision extension, i.e. .R1, .R2) and go back to the original reviewers, if possible. When an author returns a version of a paper beyond the time limits specified by the editor, it may be considered a new paper and given a new number.

The editor has discretion on whether to send such a paper to the associate editor/reviewers who considered the earlier version or to send it to a new group of reviewers.

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Length

A guideline of 40 pages (including title page, abstract, references, tables, and figures) is suggested as an upper limit for manuscript lengths. Longer manuscripts, particularly for critical reviews and extended data-based reports, will not be excluded from review, but the author(s) should be prepared to justify the length of the manuscript if requested to do so.

Use of Copyrighted Material

The editor should alert any author who incorporates the material of others (figures, tables, etc.) that he or she is responsible for obtaining written permission from the copyright holder for use of that material in the author's paper. No paper that incorporates such material should be accepted until such permission is obtained. The editor forwards any permission letters to the National Office with the accepted manuscript.

Copyright Transfer Form

All authors of an accepted article are required to sign the official Copyright Transfer Agreement, which is located on the ASHA Web site. However, so that final acceptance of a manuscript not be delayed in cases where individual authors are far-flung, it is acceptable for the form to be printed, signed, and returned by individual authors. It is imperative that the official document(s), bearing the signatures of all authors, reach the production office as quickly as possible for filing.

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"Inappropriate" Manuscripts

An editor is to seek the opinion of another qualified individual before returning a manuscript to an author at the outset as "inappropriate." The idea is that the editor not be alone in rendering such a judgment.

Professional Issues Manuscripts

Manuscripts relating to professional issues could appear in any of the journals except JSLHR. Decisions about which of these journals is the most suitable for a given professional issues paper are to be made among the editors, with the caveat that no journal be specified to an author without first getting that journal editor's consent.

Cross-disciplinary Manuscripts

Manuscripts that address topics that apply to all three sections of JSLHR appear at the beginning of an issue under the heading "General Research Issues."

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Manuscript Appeals (revised June 22, 2006)

Authors may disagree with the decision of the Editors of ASHA journals and wish to challenge and appeal those decisions.

a. All appeals concerning decisions of the Editor are first directed to the Editor. In many cases, author-editor disagreements can be resolved directly through discussions between these parties. If no resolution is achieved, the author may file an appeal with the Chair of the Publications Board.

b. The Publications Board Chair discusses the disagreement with both parties to determine whether the dispute involves matters of scientific or technical opinion. If the dispute solely concerns such differing opinions, the appeal is not considered further and the original editorial decision is upheld. The Chair then notifies the author and Editor of the decision.

c. If the Chair concludes that the issue could be the result of personal bias and/or capriciousness in an editorial decision, the Publications Board Chair convenes an ad hoc Publications Board Appeals Committee. This committee is made up of two voting members of the Publications Board and the Publications Board Chair. This committee is charged with the task of determining whether the author's appeal has merit. This decision will be determined by majority vote.

d. If the decision is that there is no merit to the appeal, the Chair of the Publications Board notifies the Editor and the author of the decision.

e. If the Committee determines that the appeal has merit, the Editor is given an opportunity to reconsider the final decision.

f. If the Editor maintains the original decision, the Chair of the Publications Board may assign a new guest Editor and guest Associate Editor for the manuscript. New reviewers are then solicited and the review process is re-initiated.

Irregular Publications/supplements

The Association can issue other scholarly publications irregularly at the discretion of the Publications Board. This enables the Publications Board to respond to the publication needs of the membership through a variety of mechanisms that do not require further Legislative Council action. Supplements allow for the publication of lengthier articles or related papers within the stipulated 9-month acceptance-to-publication interval and at a minimal cost per reader. All supplements must be approved by the Publications Board.

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Editor Transitions

All new manuscripts submitted on or after November 15, in the year of an editor transition, will be reviewed by the incoming editor and her/his team.

If a final decision on manuscripts received prior to November 15 has not been made by March 31, the outgoing editor will have the option of asking the incoming editor to assume responsibility for all manuscripts for which the incoming editor has no conflict of interest. For manuscripts posing a conflict of interest to the incoming editor, editorial responsibility shall remain with the outgoing editor or with a designate.

To maintain consistency, the incoming editor should ask the outgoing associate editor (AE) if she/he is willing to continue processing the manuscript in the role of AE. If the outgoing AE is not willing to continue, the incoming editor will assign a new AE.

If a new AE is appointed to an in-process manuscript, she/he should, wherever possible, ask the original reviewers to review the revised manuscript.

Outgoing editors are asked to be available to the incoming editors with questions about both the editorial process and specific manuscripts in-process at the time of transition.

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