DIGITAL HEALTH

DIGITAL HEALTH

Manuscript Submission Guidelines

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & scope
   3.2 Article types
4. 3.3 Writing your paper
5. Peer Review Policy
6. Editorial policies
   5.1 Declaration of conflicting interests
   5.2 Funding
   5.3 Research ethics and patient consent
   5.4 Clinical Trials and CONSORT
   5.5 Reporting guidelines
   5.6 Guarantor
   5.7 Authorship
   5.8 Acknowledgements
   5.9 Statistical Analysis
   5.10 Peer Review
7. Publishing policies
   6.1 Publication ethics
   6.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
8. Preparing your manuscript
   7.1 Journal Styles
   7.2 Word processing formats
   7.3 Corresponding author contact details
   7.4 Publication of Twitter handles
   7.5 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   7.6 Units of measurement
   7.7 Nomenclature
   7.8 Standard abbreviations and symbols
   7.9 Supplementary material
   7.10 Guidelines for submitting video material as part of an article
   7.11 Guidelines for submitting a video abstract (Vidab)
   7.12 Reference style
   7.13 English language editing services
9. Submitting your manuscript
   8.1 How to submit your manuscript
   8.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   8.3 Information required for completing your submission
   8.4 ORCID
   8.5 Permissions
10. How to submit your multimedia material (Video and Audio)
    9.1 Video content
    9.2 Audio content
11. On acceptance and publication
    10.1 Sage Production
    10.2 Continuous publication
    10.3 Promoting your article
12. Further information

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/dhj 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 DIGITAL HEALTH 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, 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.

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

1. Open Access

DIGITAL HEALTH 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 currently 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. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons licence.

The current APC for this journal is $1700. From 1st September 2023, the article processing charge (APC) is $1700.

If the paying party is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, value added tax (VAT) must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to be exempt from paying this tax, except for UK institutions.

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3. What do we publish?

3.1 Aims & scope

A fully peer-reviewed journal, DIGITAL HEALTH presents universally accessible and digestible content on the latest developments in the rapidly emerging field of digital health practices. A unique and dynamic forum, DIGITAL HEALTH provides a vital space for the dissemination of, and engagement with, high quality papers for researchers, clinicians and allied health practitioners, patients, social scientists, as well as industry and government.

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

3.2 Article types

Content Type	Article Types	Abstract word limit	Main Text Word limit
Research Articles	Original research, controlled trials, case studies, feasibility and pilot studies, qualitative and quantitative studies	250	N/A
Research Protocols and Study Designs	-	250	N/A
Review Articles	Literature reviews, systematic reviews, market reviews, critical reviews	250	N/A
Case Reports	Single case study or case series, based on an interesting observation or unique case.	250	1000
Educational Pieces	Tutorials on new methods, best practice, user guides, policy and practice	250	N/A
Current topics and opinion pieces	Digests of policy, regulation and legislation	250	1,500
Editorials		N/A	1,000
Essays		250	N/A
Commentaries		250	800
Brief Communications		250	1,500

* Excludes references, tables and legends

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 Making your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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4. Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a  paper if:

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors.
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper.
• The author has recommended the reviewer.
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for DIGITAL HEALTH all papers are sent out for review. The covering letter is important. To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the paper suitable for publication. If your paper should be considered for fast-track publication, please explain why.

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. DIGITAL HEALTH utilizes a single-anonymize peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the relevant Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor / Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

DIGITAL HEALTH is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for DIGITAL HEALTH can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website. 

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5. Editorial policies

At the end of your article the following declaration statements should be included in the order listed below:

DECLARATIONS
Conflicting interests
Funding 
Ethical approval
Guarantor 
Contributorship
Acknowledgements

Please see the below example of a completed declarations section:

DECLARATIONS
Conflicting interests: MS is an employee of XXX. BF has received grants from XXX. 
Funding: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number XXX].
Ethical approval: The ethics committee of  XXXX approved this study (REC number: XXXX)
Guarantor: BF
Contributorship: BF and NP researched literature and conceived the study. MS was involved in protocol development, gaining ethical approval, patient recruitment and data analysis. BF wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank XXX XXXX for his assistance and guidance in this research.

Please read the following information carefully for additional information regarding these declarations.

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5.1 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of DIGITAL HEALTH 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.

When making a declaration the disclosure information must be specific and include any financial relationship that any of the authors of the article have with any sponsoring organization and the for-profit interests the organization represents, and with any for-profit product discussed or implied in the text of the article.

Any commercial or financial involvements that might represent an appearance of a conflict of interest need to be additionally disclosed in the covering letter accompanying your article to assist the Editors-in-Chief in evaluating whether sufficient disclosure has been made within the Declaration of Conflicting Interests provided in the article.
For more information please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

5.2 Funding

DIGITAL HEALTH 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.” 

5.3 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 for participation in the study and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed patient consent to report individual cases or case series should be also included in the manuscript text where relevant. 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. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.

Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and Editors should so note.

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

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate within the Methods section which guideline/law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

5.4 Clinical trials and CONSORT

DIGITAL HEALTH 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 as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials), would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org .

All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information.

5.5 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.

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

5.6 Guarantor

The Guarantor is the person willing to take full responsibility for the article, including for the accuracy and appropriateness of the reference list. This will often be the most senior member of the research group and is commonly also the author for correspondence. Please state this person’s name as initials.

5.7 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. 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. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

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.

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.

5.8 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.

5.8.1 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.

5.8.2 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.

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.

5.9 Statistical Analysis

Where statistical analyses have been carried out please ensure that the methodology has been accurately described. In comparative studies, power calculations are usually required. In research papers, requiring complex statistics, the advice of an expert statistician should be sought at the design/implementation stage of the study.

5.10 Peer Review

As a means of recognising the significant contribution reviewers make to the publication process DIGITAL HEALTH aims to publish the names of the reviewers of accepted articles within the published manuscript itself. The publication of such names is dependent on both parties (authors and reviewers) consenting to these names being published. As part of the submission process you will be asked to opt in or out of having the reviewers names published within your paper.

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6. Publishing policies

6.1 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.

6.1.1 Plagiarism

DIGITAL HEALTH 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. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized 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.

6.1.2 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.

6.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. DIGITAL HEALTH 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 (e.g. CC-BY).

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7. Preparing your manuscript

• A title page with names and contact details for all authors
• A structured abstract
• The text (usually Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions)
• Declarations
• References
• Appendix (if any)

7.1 Journal Styles

DIGITAL HEALTH conforms to the Sage house style. Click here to review guidelines on Sage House Style.

7.2 Word processing formats

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

7.3 Corresponding author contact details

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.

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 Publication of Twitter handles

As a way of encouraging ongoing discussion within the field, DIGITAL HEALTH authors are offered the option of providing their Twitter handle to be published alongside their name and email address within their article. This way DIGITAL HEALTH readers who have questions or thoughts regarding your paper can tweet you directly. Providing a Twitter handle for publication is entirely optional; if you are not comfortable with DIGITAL HEALTH promoting your article along with your personal Twitter handle then please do not supply it.

By providing your personal Twitter handle you agree to let DIGITAL HEALTH and Sage Publications use it in any posts related to your journal article. You may also be contacted by other Twitter users. DIGITAL HEALTH and Sage Publications will have no control over you or your tweets at any time. If you would like guidance on how to promote your article yourself on Twitter or other Social Media channels please visit https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/increase-usage-citation-using-social-media. 

To include your Twitter handle within your article, please provide this within the Sage Track Submission form when prompted, on the manuscript title page and on the manuscript itself.

Corresponding author:
Professor Joe Bloggs, Department of Digital Health, University of Digital Health, Digital Health Road,
Digital Health, DHJ 2014, UK

Email: JoeBloggs@email.com
Twitter: @profjoebloggs

7.5 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.

Photographic illustrations should be rendered with at least 300 dpi; please use CMYK color conversion if possible. Graphs made with Office software such as Microsoft Excel, can be provided in their original format to facilitate conversion into printable format with preserved quality. Any other line graphs/illustrations should preferably be provided in EPS format with a resolution of at least 600 dpi to prevent ragged lines when printed. A figure image should be at least 160 mm in width at the appropriate resolution. For further guidance on how to prepare your digital image see http://art.cadmus.com/da/index.jsp.

Graphs and images that are unsuitable may be returned to the author for amendment, causing delay in publication.

7.6 Units of measurement

Units of measurement should be expressed in SI and metric units; older conventional units may be added in parentheses.

7.7 Nomenclature

Use the generic or chemical name of any drug, in lower case; the specific trade name (capitalized) may be given in parentheses after the first text reference.

7.8 Standard abbreviations and symbols

Standard Abbreviations and symbols should be used, then defined in full in the first instance unless they are standard units of measurement. Avoid any use of abbreviations in the article title and abstract.

7.9 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.

7.10 Guidelines for submitting video material as part of an article

Video content can be streamed within the HTML version of your article. If you would like to submit a video as part of your article, please read the below video properties guidelines carefully, ensure that you make a note within your manuscript as to where the video would be placed and upload it under the file type ‘Additional Video Content’ when you upload your manuscript via the manuscript submission site.

Please note that an audio-visual release form for each individual contributor to the video. This form should be signed, scanned and submitted as ‘audio-visual release form’. The form is located here.

Video Properties:

• • At least 640 by 480 resolution and at least 20 fps.
  • The video compression should be of high quality. The Journal expects compression technology to evolve and so does not wish to be prescriptive over compression types. Today H.264 codec in an MP4 or AVI contained is a good choice.  MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are portable but have lower quality and larger files than the more modern codecs. We expect videos to be able to play on Windows 8 and back, Linux and Mac so proprietry formats, such as WMV and FLV are discouraged.
  • Note the DIGITAL HEALTH Editors-in-Chief reserve the right to request authors to change the compression codec before publication.

Videos should be below the 50MB mark and any video over this amount should provide a short preview to be hosted alongside the full file. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief.

7.11 Guidelines for submitting a video abstract (Vidab)

A video abstract is a short video introduction to your article, which can be linked to from the Table of Contents on Sage Journals, promoted via Social Media, and shared directly by you with your own networks. It is intended to be an addition to, rather than replacement of, your text abstract.

For further information regarding video abstracts please see the Sage Video guidelines: Video Abstract Guidelines.

Please note that an audio-visual release form for each individual contributor to the Vidab. This form should be signed, scanned and submitted as ‘audio-visual release form’. The form is located here.

7.12 Reference style

DIGITAL HEALTH adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. Please 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 output file here.

7.13 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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8. Submitting your manuscript

8.1 How to submit your manuscript

DIGITAL HEALTH is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dhj 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.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

All papers must be submitted via the online system. If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please refer to the contact details below.

Please note that, in addition to selecting your article type, you will also be asked to select the primary discipline that you believe best matches your paper from the following list:

Clinical Applications and Trials
Engineering, Technology and Health Care
Social Sciences, Public Health and Health Care

This information will be used to select the Editor-in-Chief who is best placed to process your manuscript. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of DIGITAL HEALTH content, there will be instances where more than one Editor-in-Chief is involved in deciding the final outcome of a paper. The Editorial Office reserves the right to transfer your paper to another primary discipline for processing.

If you seek advice on the submission process, please contact the Editorial Office at: digitalhealth@sagepub.co.uk.

8.2 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.

Keywords: 2-10 to accompany the abstract. They should, where relevant, be drawn from the MeSH list of Index Medicus and be chosen with a view to useful cross-indexing of the article.

Abstract: The abstract should accurately and concisely reflect the content of the article, and should be limited to 250 words for text articles and 500 words for audio-visual content. Please avoid reference citations and undefined abbreviations in the abstract. Where applicable the abstract should be formatted under the following headings: Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions.

8.3 Informtion 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.

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).

8.4 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 unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, 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 recognized.

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 ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

8.5 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

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9. How to submit your multimedial material (Video and Audio)

9.1 Video content

DIGITAL HEALTH accepts and reviews videos, which can be published at the article level, as opposed to a component of a text based manuscript. Video content should also include an audio component – be that participants speaking within the video itself or a voiceover.  Please note DIGITAL HEALTH will not edit video material at any stage during the peer review or production process. Any revisions, requested by the Editors-in-Chief, will need to be made by the author group.

All authors submitting video content to be published as an article within the main journal should include as part of the submission:

• • A title page with names and contact details for all authors.
  • A structured abstract of no more than 500 words.
  • An audio-visual release form for each individual contributor to the video. This form should be signed, scanned and submitted as ‘audio-visual release form’. The form is located here.

Authors of video content are also required to fulfil all of the standards and conventions expected of a text article, such as declaration of conflicting interest, patient consent and funding acknowledgements. 

Video Style

The video should open with a white-on-black title page, lasting for a few seconds containing:

• • DIGITAL HEALTH (http://DHJ.sagepub.com).
  • The video title.
  • The authors and their affiliations.
  • Corresponding author contact information.

The video should close with a white-on-black title page, lasting for a few seconds containing:

• • DIGITAL HEALTH (http://DHJ.sagepub.com).
  • The video title.
  • Acknowledgements, funding, conflict of interest and any relevant ethical statements.
  • Corresponding author contact information.

The technical content of the video should be well explained with the use of textual and or audio annotation, as required. Care should be taken to avoid compression artifacts, which impinge on the scientific content of the video; Please be sure to check all graphics carefully after compression, paying particular attention to line graphics – for example graphs with numbered axes.

Video Properties

• • At least 640 by 480 resolution and at least 20 fps.
  • The video compression should be of high quality. The Journal expects compression technology to evolve and so does not wish to be prescriptive over compression types. Today H.264 codec in an MP4 or AVI contained is a good choice.  MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are portable but have lower quality and larger files than the more modern codecs. We expect videos to be able to play on Windows 8 and back, Linux and Mac so proprietary formats, such as WMV and FLV are discouraged.
  • Note the DIGITAL HEALTHEditors-in-Chief reserve the right to request authors to change the compression codec before publication.
  • Videos should be below the 50MB mark and any video over this amount should provide a short preview to be hosted alongside the full file. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief.

How to submit your video

Video content should be submitted via ScholarOne™ Manuscripts, a web based online submission and peer review system. Please visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/DHJ to login and submit your video online.

9.2 Audio content

DIGITAL HEALTH accepts and reviews audio content which can be published at the article level as opposed to a component of a text based manuscript. Please note DIGITAL HEALTH will not edit audio material at any stage during the peer review or production process. Any revisions requested by the Editors-in-Chief will need to be made by the author group.

All authors submitting audio content to be published as an article within the main journal should include as part of the submission:

• • A title page with names and contact details for all authors.
  • A structured abstract of no more than 500 words.
  • An audio-visual release form for each individual contributor to the audio content. This form should be signed, scanned and submitted as ‘audio-visual release form’. The form is located here.

Authors of audio content are also required to fulfil all of the standards and conventions expected of a text article, such as declaration of conflicting interest, patient consent and funding acknowledgements.

Podcast best practice

• • Be considerate to your listeners. Podcasts play in real-time, so be mindful of your users' attention and move the credits listing to the end of the audio recording.
  • Keep your personal discussions personal. Don't expect your listener to continue listening to discussions only relevant to the people creating the podcast.
  • Keep it short. Twenty minutes is about the right length for a podcast. Listeners are likely to be listening while exercising, driving or doing something else. Make your content consumable in a time period that fits this use model.
  • Deliver valuable, informative, engaging and entertaining content that your listeners can't get from any other media. Repurposing content may have its benefits, but you should strive to be a unique source of information for your market.
  • Make it easy for your listeners to find links to content you mention during the podcast by including these in the accompanying abstract.

Podcast Style

The audio content should begin with the following description:

• • This podcast has been published in the journal DIGITAL HEALTH http://DHJ.sagepub.com published by Sage.
  • The podcast title.
  • A list of contributors and their affiliations.
  • Corresponding author contact information.
  • A brief description of the podcast content.

The audio content should end with:

• • This podcast (podcast title) has been published in DIGITAL HEALTH, an Open Access journal published by Sage http://DHJ.sagepub.com
  • Acknowledgements, funding, conflict of interest and any relevant ethical statements.
  • Corresponding author contact information.

Audio Properties

• • Audio content can be submitted in any of the following formats:
    • asf, avi, flv, mov, mp3, mp4, mpeg, mpg, wav, wma or wmv.
  • The file will should be no larger than 50MB. If you wish to produce a podcast with a larger file size, please discuss this with the DIGITAL HEALTHEditorial Office first.
  • The file should be labelled as follows: DHJ followed by volume year, month of submission, an underscore and the leading author’s last name.

For example a podcast submitted to DIGITAL HEALTH in August 2014 by John Smith would have the file name: DHJ1408_smith.

How to submit your podcast

Audio content should be submitted via ScholarOne™ Manuscripts, a web based online submission and peer review system. Please visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/DHJ to login and submit your podcast online.

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10. 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.

10.1 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.The PDF of your article will be available for download on the journal website after publication.

We value your feedback to ensure we continue to improve our author service levels. Upon publication, all corresponding authors will receive a brief survey questionnaire on your experience of publishing in DIGITAL HEALTH with Sage.

10.2 Continuous 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.

10.2.1 Attribution for re-use of Sage Open Access content

If you are re-using Sage Open Access content, it must be accompanied by an attribution that includes the following information about the original work:

• • Author(s)
  • Article Title
  • Journal Title
  • DOI
  • Volume (if applicable)
  • Issue (if applicable)
  • Page numbers (if applicable)
  • Date of publication
  • Sage as the original publisher
  • A link to the original article as published on Sage Journals (where practicable)

For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page.

10.3 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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11. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to relevant Editor-in-Chief or the DIGITAL HEALTH editorial office as follows:

Manuscript Submission Process: digitalhealth@sagepub.co.uk

All other enquiries: Philippa Stevens, Publishing Editor: philippa.stevens@sagepub.co.uk

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