Cephalalgia

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Cephalalgia

 

Please read the guidelines below before visiting the submission site!

Submission site

Manuscript Submission Guidelines:

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & Scope
   3.2 Article types
   3.2.1 Methodological/Statistical Guidelines
   3.3 Writing your paper
   3.3.1 Make your article discoverable
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer review policy
   4.1.1 Fast-track review
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.3.1 Third party submissions
   4.3.2 Writing assistance
   4.3.3 Medical Writers
   4.3.4 Artificial Intelligence
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   4.7 Clinical trials
   4.8 Reporting guidelines
   4.9 Research data
   4.10 Appealing the publication decision
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.1.1 Plagiarism
   5.1.2 Prior publication
   5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Formatting
   6.1.1 Title Page
   6.1.2 Structuring your abstract
   6.1.3 Study highlights bullet points
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplemental material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 How to submit your manuscript
   7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   7.3 Information required for completing your submission
   7.4 ORCID
   7.5 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.2 Online First publication
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further information

Cephalalgia is a medical-neurological journal in the field of headache research, and is the official journal of the International Headache Society.

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cephalalgia to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Cephalalgia will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process, you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Cephalalgia may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal’s author archiving policy.

The Journal requires that studies on headache and cervical pain adhere to the terminology, diagnostic disorders, and criteria within the ICHD (Cephalalgia. 2018 Jan;38(1):1-211.) and studies on facial pain adhere to the terminology, diagnostic disorders, and criteria within ICOP (Cephalalgia. 2020 Feb;40(2):129-221).

If your paper is accepted, the author is requested to include the DOI link for articles posted to a repository.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal

Contact Cephalalgia – email: editorial.cephalalgia@gmail.com

1. Open Access

Cephalalgia is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

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2. Article processing charge (APC)

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. The APC fee includes all article types except Letter to the Editor and Editorials. This APC fee covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.

	Article Processing Charge
Standard APC	$3000
Discounted APC (valid until 1st January 2025)	$2500
International Headache Society (IHS) members*	$1500

 

*requires the first *AND* last author to be IHS members, and the designation selected at the time of submission

More information regarding Open Access can be found here.

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3. What do we publish?

3.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Cephalalgia, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

3.2 Article types

The journal provides an international forum for original research papers, review articles and brief communications. The Journal considers the following kinds of article for publication:

Editorials

They are short, invited opinion pieces that discuss an issue of immediate importance to the research community. Editorials should have fewer than 1000 words total, no abstract, a minimal number of references up to 5, and no figures or tables.

Viewpoints/perspectives

This type of articles are opinion pieces grounded in evidence. These articles should be 500 words in length (main text). A structured abstract up to 200 words in length is required. The reference list should be selective, containing no more than 3 selected references.  Up to 1 figure and 1 table can be included.

Review Articles

Review articles should be up to 4,000 words in length (main text). Longer articles may be acceptable in special cases but should be discussed with the Editor prior to submission. A structured abstract up to 200 words in length is required. The reference list should be selective, containing about 100 selected references. Articles should be liberally illustrated with figures and diagrams (colour encouraged). There is no strict upper limit of figures and tables allowed.

Cephalalgia allows two different types of reviews: narrative review or systemic review, the latter of which must follow the PRISMA Reporting Guidelines, and in the case of meta-analysis, the MOOSE guideline. You are required to completed and uploaded the pertinent guidelines into the manuscript files system

Original research papers

These articles should be 3,000-3,500 words in length (main text). A structured abstract up to 200 words in length is required. The reference list should be selective, containing no more than about 35 selected references. Articles should be liberally illustrated with figures and diagrams (colour encouraged). There is no strict upper limit of figures and tables allowed. Usually, up to 6-8 individual figures and tables can be included.

Based on the type of original research, the pertinent checklist MUST be completed and uploaded into the manuscript files system: Reports of clinical trials should adhere to the tenets of the CONSORT statement. A flow chart MUST be provided describing the progress of patients through the trial. Reports of observational studies should adhere to the tenets of the STROBE statement. Reports of animal studies should adhere to the tenets of the ARRIVE statement.

Brief communications

Brief reports are short articles that deals with: (i) re-analyse part of an article that has previously been published; (ii) present findings, or discuss issues of particular interest to the community, but are not suitable as a standard research article; (iii) case report or small case series. These articles should be in principle around up to 1,500 words in length (main text). A structured abstract up to 150 words in length is required. The reference list should be selective, containing no more than 12 selected references. Up to 2 figures and 1 table can be included. Based on the type of research, the pertinent checklist MUST be completed and uploaded following those mentioned in the “Original research papers”. Case reports should adhere to the tenets of the CARE statement, and CARE checklist MUST be completed and uploaded following those mentioned in the “Original research papers”.

Real world Data (RWD)

Cephalalgia welcomes submissions of observational data if they are meaningful and answer new questions. We are not interested in data that are meaningless, have been published before or deal with a minor clinical problem. To use observational data to full capacity, they should encompass multicenter studies preferably with several hundred patients and add to the existing literature in answering (next to effectivity and side effects) a specific question hitherto not answered in RCT’s. These articles should be 3,000-3,500 words in length (main text). A structured abstract up to 200 words in length is required. The reference list should be selective, containing no more than about 35 selected references. Articles should be liberally illustrated with figures and diagrams (colour encouraged). There is no strict upper limit of figures and tables allowed. Usually, up to 6-8 individual figures and tables can be included.

Letter to the Editor

A Letter to the editor should be an article that raises issues of general interest to the broad readership of Cephalalgia. In case of re-analysis of a previously published article in Cephalalgia or brief research findings, please use “Brief reports” instead. Letters to the editor may be edited for clarity or length and may be subject to peer review at the editor’s discretion. These papers should be up to 750 words in length, and no abstract is needed. The reference list should be selective, containing no more than 5 selected references.

3.2.1 Methodological/Statistical Guidelines

Ethics or Institutional Review Board Approval: Please clearly indicate that the study obtained appropriate approval (or a statement and explanation of why it was not required), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s). For human studies, please also add a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part.

Study Protocol: If your study protocol is registered (ClinicalTrial.gov, etc.), please provide the registration number (required for intervention studies). The trial registration number should appear in the manuscript following the abstract. We encourage the registration of observational study protocols.

Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. General principles for reporting statistical results should follow the SAMPL Guideline.

3.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

3.3.1 Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how best to title your article, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

Cephalalgia operates a conventional single-anonymize reviewing policy in which the reviewer's name is always concealed from the submitting author.

Generally, each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 5-6 weeks of submission.

Obligate external peer-review is not mandatory. After review by the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor, a decision is made whether to send the manuscript for external peer review.

In addition, case reports may be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor without external peer review or with only 1 external peer reviewer.

Please note that in any papers where an editor from the journal is an author the processing of the manuscript is handled by a different Associate Editor and the Editor is totally anonymized from the procedure, has no influence on the final decision, and will never have access to the peer reviewer details.

4.1.1 Fast-track review

Cephalalgia provides a fast-track review option whereby two Associate Editors may review a manuscript within 72 hours and on-line publication occurs within 4 weeks of acceptance.

The cost of such rapid review is $900 USD. This payment is to cover the time of the Associate Editors. Please note that this payment is strictly to facilitate the rapid review process and does not in any way guarantee acceptance or publication of your article.

If you wish to make use of this facility, please choose the ‘fast track review’ option in the article type dropdown menu when submitting your article. If you choose the ‘fast-track’ review option, you are agreeing to pay the $900.00 USD for this service.

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data,
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Approved the version to be published,
4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Author roles:

first authors:
 * These authors contributed equally to this work.  Role positions 1 and 2

last authors:
# These authors share last authorship. Role positions are the last two authors from different institutions.

There is 1 corresponding author, this is not a shared role.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g., conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g., from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

4.3.3 Medical Writers

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g., from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company, and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

4.3.4 Artificial Intelligence

Cephalalgia acknowledges that open AI products can be used to polish and/or translate texts and can help make a manuscript clearer and more comprehensible. The use of AI is allowed but must be clearly stated. The authors would add a disclosure  in the acknowledge section including the AI name, source, and level of input. AI will not be considered as an author.

4.4 Funding

Cephalalgia requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Cephalalgia to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

4.7 Clinical trials

Cephalalgia conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

4.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline. If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

4.9 Research data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
• Cite this data in your research

Peer reviewers may be asked to peer review the research data prior to publication.

• Peer reviewers may be asked to assess compliance with the research data policy
• Peer reviewers may be asked to assess research data files

If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to our Research Data Sharing FAQs for guidance.

4.10 Appealing the publication decision

Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Cephalalgia and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software and an AI detector. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Cephalalgia publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced, and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page. Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. Word templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left- and right-hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. The font colour is black, please do not use coloured font. SI units should be used throughout the text.

Only electronic files conforming to the journal's guidelines will be accepted. The preferred format for the text and tables of your manuscript is Word. All figures/images and tables must be uploaded as separate files, whereas the figure legends remain in the main body file. Please note that Cephalalgia does not have a file category called "box".  The file categories are main body, tables, figures, and supporting documents. Do not upload tables as screenshots. Please also refer to additional guidelines on submitting artwork and supporting files below.

6.1.1 Title Page

The first page(s) of your manuscript no matter the submission category all manuscripts are required to include a title page with the following information:

1. Title,
2. All author names and affiliations,
3. Corresponding author contact details,
4. Structured abstract (if applicable to manuscript type),
5. Trial Registration (if applicable to manuscript type),
6. Key words.

6.1.2 Structuring your abstract

Given that Cephalalgia is a journal devoted to headache and facial pain, readers are familiar with these diseases. The journal author guidelines require a structured abstract using 3 or 4 paragraphs without cite of references or abbreviations. Common headings of each paragraph include: Background/Hypothesis, Methods, Results, Conclusion/Interpretation. Word count is based on the types of articles and the information can be found in 1.2 Article Types. Any papers received without a structured abstract will be returned to the corresponding author.

6.1.3 Study highlights bullet points

Cephalalgia publishes original papers on all aspects of headache and facial pain. For original research papers, in the manuscript, you are required to include two to five bullet points with a word limit of 60 in total clearly summarizing the highlights of your research. These bullet points will appear at the end of your manuscript following the conclusion and prior to the reference list.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines. 

Please note that for Cephalalgia the main body of your article should not contain figures or tables.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online and in the print issue. There is no charge for reproducing figures in colour in the printed version.

6.3 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g., datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

6.4 Reference style

Cephalalgia operates a Sage Vancouver reference style. Click here to review the guidelines on Sage Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file.

Please include only one reference list. The source for any table and/or figures should be included in the main reference list and not as separate references. 

All tables and figures should be numbered consecutively and cited in the text as Table 1, Table 2 etc. or Figure 1, Figure 2 etc. (Table and Figure should be spelled out in full, not abbreviated).

Examples: figures/tables should be referenced in the text as follows:
Figure 1, or Figures 1 and 2, or Figures 2 to 4, or Figure 1(a) and (b), or Figure 2(a) to (c).
Table 1, or Table 2 and 2, or Table 2 t o4, or Table 1(a) and (b), or Table 2(a) to(c).
Where the figure citation is not part of the sentence it should be placed in parentheses.

6.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript

Cephalalgia is hosted on Sage track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne© Manuscripts. Please read the Manuscript Submission guidelines below, and then simply visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cephalalgia to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT:

Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. Please ensure the author account data is accurate before proceeding to the manuscript submission. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

If you would like to discuss your manuscript prior to submission, please refer to the contact details below.

7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned to your Author Centre. Common reasons include: inaccurate title page format; the lack of corresponding reporting guidelines, wrongful placement of Tables and Figures.

Specifically, please upload the elements of the manuscripts as single file(s) and in the correct format using the file extension guide herein below:

Document Files: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .rtf.  

Image Files:  .PDF, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tiff. 

Follow these recommendations to ensure that your files will properly convert to HTML and PDF:

Videos: .mp4, .mov

Files

• File names do not include special characters or spaces, except for “_” or “-“;
• File names are less than 20 characters long;
• File names follow a simple format, i.e., "mymanuscript.doc".

Documents

• Do not embed fonts;
• Remove macros;
• Remove hyperlinks from the main body;
• Remove Field Codes (placeholders in Microsoft Word for data that might change in a document);
• Verify your spreadsheet files have only a single tab;
• Reminder, use short file names without symbols.

Images

• Remove thumbnails from image files;
• Verify your images are in single, flattened layer (e.g., no multi-pages TIFs);
• Images must arrive as 300 dpi.

7.3 Information required for completing your submission

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review. The authors are requested to include a cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief of Cephalalgia. Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers, Academic affiliations.

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage, please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.4 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent, and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

Find the ORCID of the Editorial Board here.

7.5 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. ‘Additionally, please ensure you use the generic names for substances, drugs or devices rather than the trade name.  For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been checked for Sage Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.

8.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. 

8.2 Online First publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time, it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Cephalalgia editorial office as follows:

Wendy Krank
Managing Editor
Cephalalgia Editorial Office
Email: editorial.cephalalgia@gmail.com

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