You are here

Science Progress


eISSN: 20477163 | ISSN: 00368504 | Current volume: 106 | Current issue: 4 Frequency: Quarterly

Science Progress (IF 2.1) is an open access, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal, aiming to provide a platform for researchers in all areas of scientific exploration:

  • Agricultural Science
  • Biology & Life Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Computer & Information Sciences
  • Earth Sciences
  • Ecology & Environmental Sciences
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Medicine & Health Sciences
  • Physics
  • Science Policy 

The journal welcomes all scientifically rigorous research, regardless of novelty.

The journal is indexed in PubMed Central, MEDLINE, Scopus, EBSCO, DOAJ and SCIE.

Submit your article today at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scienceprogress.

Please see our Submission Guidelines for more information.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).

Publication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons licence. The APC for this journal is currently 2650 USD.

The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.

Please direct any queries to SCI.queries@sagepub.co.uk 

Science Progress is a SCIE ranked, multidisciplinary journal that aims to provide a platform for the entire, global scientific community. This journal aims to facilitate greater collaboration between the different research streams by bringing all of the disciplines together.

The journal will explore innovations within journal publishing, offering process options such as the Transparency and Openness Promotion guidelines and other open science initiatives in order to provide authors with the best home for their research.

Science Progress welcomes all scientifically rigorous research suitable for a global audience, including replication studies and negative/null results. All articles are subjected to rigorous peer review. As an open-access journal, we aim to publish accepted articles online as quickly as possible in order to ensure your work is immediately and widely accessible.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Note: In silico research should have supporting evidence of their downstream effects in vivo or in vitro.

As an author, you will be asked to select a subject area, in order to ensure the appropriate editorial team reviews your article, subject areas are:

Agricultural Science

Biology & Life Sciences

Chemistry

Computer & Information Sciences

Earth Sciences

Ecology & Environmental Sciences

Engineering & Technology

Medicine & Health Sciences

Physics

Science Policy

  

Editors
Deepika Chaudhary, PhD SAGE Publishing, India
Elaine Ellerton, PhD SAGE Publishing, USA
Assistant Managing Editor
Shobhna Devrani SAGE Publications, Dehradun, India
Agricultural Sciences - Section Editors
Habib Ali, PhD Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Pakistan
Ilija Djekic, PhD University of Belgrade, Serbia
R. Pandiselvam, PhD ICAR - Central Plantation Crops Research, India
Biology & Life Sciences - Section Editors
Ravi Pratap Barnwal, PhD Panjab University, India
Matteo Bozzo, PhD Università di Genova, Italy
Sule Dogan, PhD Mississippi State University, USA
Walid El Sharoud, PhD Mansoura University, Egypt
R. Pandiselvam, PhD ICAR - Central Plantation Crops Research, India
Wei Xu, PhD The University of Toronto, Canada
Liangjiao Xue, PhD Nanjing Forestry University, China
Biology & Life Sciences - Editorial Board
Pinky Kain, PhD Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Tatiana G. Kutateladze, PhD University of Colorado School of Medicine, USA
Patricia J. McLaughlin, DEd The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Geerat J. Vermeij, PhD University of California, Davis, USA
Chemistry - Editorial Board
Laurent Matuana, PhD Michigan State University, USA
Ananda Kumar Srinivasan, PhD Anna University, India
Alessia Battigelli, PhD The University of Maine, USA
Computer & Information Sciences - Section Editors
Qian Yin, PhD Beijing Normal University, China
Computer & Information Sciences - Editorial Board
Gregory Zacharewicz, PhD IMT - Mines Ales, France
Earth Sciences - Section Editors
Olev Vinn, PhD University of Tartu, Estonia
Earth Sciences - Editorial Board
Jidong Zhao, PhD Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Ecology & Environmental Sciences - Section Editors
Hongbo Duan, PhD University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Heejung Kim, PhD Kangwon National University, Republic of Korea
Sigrid Kusch-Brandt, PhD University of Southampton, UK
Jiao Zhang, PhD Tsinghua University, China
Ecology & Environmental Sciences - Editorial Board
Abhishek Kumar Awasthi, PhD Nanjing University, China
Norbert Edomah, PhD Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria
Chris Rhodes, PhD Fresh-lands Environmental Actions, UK
Bing Zhang, PhD Shenyang University of Technology, China
Shelley WW Zhou, PhD Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong
Engineering & Technology - Section Editors
Shahid Adeel, PhD Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan
Ming-Feng Ge, PhD China University of Geosciences, China
Bao-Jie He, PhD Chongqing University, China
Faruque Hossain, PhD Kennesaw State University, USA
Ning Wang, PhD Dalian Maritime University, China
Engineering & Technology - Editorial Board
Ghazi G. Al-Khateeb, PhD Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan
Armando Cartenì, PhD University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Nguyen Dinh Duc, PhD Vietnam National University, Vietnam
Soney C. George, PhD Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, India
Selim Gürgen, PhD Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Turkey
Michael Hillman, PhD The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Songsong Liu, PhD Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Payam Shafigh, PhD University of Malaya, Malaysia
Medicine & Health Sciences - Section Editors
Andrea Alexandre, MD Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Italy
Leonardo Franz, MD University of Padova, Italy
Rohan Jagtap, DDS, MHA, OMFR, FPFA, FADI, FACD The University of Mississippi Medical Center, USA
Woon-Man Kung, MD Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taiwan
Qian Liu, MBBS Tianjin Medical University, China
Arduino Mangoni, MD, PhD Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia
Anna Prats Puig, PhD University of Girona, Spain
Zhongjie Shi, MD, PhD Wayne State University, USA
Luca Testarelli, DDS, PhD Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Garry M. Walsh, PhD University of Aberdeen, UK
Shasha Zhou, PhD Shanghai Children's Hospital, China
Medicine & Health Sciences - Editorial Board
Aristeidis H. Katsanos, MD McMaster University & Population Health Research Institute, Canada
Anastasios Koulaouzidis, MD, PhD University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Paul Zarogoulidis. MD, PhD Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Physics - Section Editors
Abbas Amini, PhD Western Sydney University, Australia
Hamid Reza Karimi, PhD Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Grzegorz Lesiuk, PhD Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland
Z. John Ma, PhD University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA
Physics - Editorial Board
Vincenzo Bianco, PhD University of Genoa, Italy
Subramani Devaraju, PhD Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, India
Statistical Advisory Board
George Kelley, DA, FACSM West Virginia University, USA
Wei Xu, PhD The University of Toronto, Canada
Editor Emeritus
Terence J Kemp The University of Warwick, UK
  • Clarivate Analytics: BIOSIS Previews
  • Clarivate Analytics: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)
  • EBSCO
  • ProQuest
  • PubMed Central (PMC)
  • PubMed: MEDLINE
  • Scopus

https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scienceprogress

Before you submit your research, please make sure your paper meets the below criteria:

  1. All authors must have contributed to the work according to ICMJE's guidelines "Defining Roles of Authors and Contributors". Manuscripts will be rejected if authors fail to meet these requirements. 

  2. Your paper is an original work and has not been published or is currently under review with another journal.

  3. Your work meets all Research Ethics and Reporting Standards. Many study types require a workflow as a figure and/or a completed checklist uploaded as a supplementary file for peer review. Visit here to see if your study type requires a workflow and/or checklist.

  4. Your figures are of acceptable quality and uploaded as separate files. Line art should be 900-1200 DPI, images 300 DPI. Images should be minimally processed to uphold their original integrity. More figure information here. Western Blots must be presented as in this example.

  5. Your references are formatted correctly and numbered as they appear in the text. Please visit here for reference style.  

  6. Please download and include the following forms when submitting your paper (some papers may require multiple forms).

    1. For life science research papers, please download this Data Presentation Checklist and submit it with your paper.

    2. For clinical papers, please download and attach the following Ethics Declaration Form and submit it along with your paper.

    3. For animal research papers, please download the following ARRIVE Guidelines and submit it along with your paper. 

  7. Data and complete methods should be made available so that others may replicate your study. Please view the Data and Presentation Checklist.  If applicable, please see here for more information and data repositories.  

  8. Authors must have an understanding and agreement to pay any applicable article processing charges (APCs).

  9. Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims & scope of the journal will be reviewed.

  10. Full guidelines are below. Submissions that don't adhere to these instructions will be returned prior to peer review. 

Once your manuscript meets all criteria above and below, you can submit it through our online submission system here.

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
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scienceprogress 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.

Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from all countries and backgrounds.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Science Progress 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.

Please read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT

 

Open Access
Article processing charge (APC)
What do we publish?
        Aims & Scope
        Article types
        Writing your paper
Editorial policies
        Peer Review Policy
        Authorship
        Acknowledgements
        Funding
        Declaration of conflicting interests
        Research ethics and patient consent
        Clinical Trials
        Reporting guidelines
Research Data and Open Science Framework Badges
        Publishing policies
        Publication ethics
        Contributor's publishing agreement
Preparing your manuscript
        Word processing formats
        Manuscript preparation
        Data collection and presentation
        Artwork, figures and other graphics
        Supplemental material
        Reference style
        English language editing services
Submitting your manuscript
        How to submit your manuscript
        Title, keywords and abstracts
        Information required for completing your submission
        ORCID
        Permissions
On acceptance and publication
        Sage Production
        Online publication
        Promoting your article
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 https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scienceprogress 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 Science Progress 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.

Science Progress 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.

If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

Open Access

Science Progress 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.

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 license.

The APC for this journal is $2650 USD.

The article processing charge (APC) is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Tax-exempt status can be indicated by providing appropriate registration numbers when payment is requested. Please see further details here.

What do we publish?

Aims & Scope

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

Article types 

Original Research: Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words. The introduction should not exceed 600 words and the Discussion 1,500 words. There is no word limit on Methods and Results however, the manuscript’s readability may suffer if these sections are excessively long. Authors should therefore consider what data and analyses might be appropriate for supplemental information. There is no limit to the number of references.  Manuscripts should be suitable for a global audience, studies of more local interest may be rejected. Studies that use public databases to perform bioinformatic or computational analyses must include robust, external validation using biological methods, in vitro or in vivo, or using independent cohorts.

Reviews: literature reviews, systematic reviews, market reviews and critical reviews will be accepted for consideration. Reviews must contain no more than 5,000 words. There are no limits to figures or references, but authors are advised that the Editorial Board will not accept poorly focused reviews. 

Mini-Review: Mini-reviews are brief biographical profiles, historical perspectives, or summaries of developments in fast-moving areas. They must be based on published articles; they may address any subject within the scope of Science Progress. They should not exceed 3,500 words (excluding the abstract, references and figure and table legends), 4 figures plus tables combined, and approximately 40 references.

Short Reports: Short reports allow authors to publish the results from a small number of experiments, provided that the results are novel or of high importance. Findings should be clear and of interest to most readers. Intended as a short format, these articles should be a maximum of 2,000 words and 2 figures and 10 references.

Meta-Analysis: These should answer a specific research question and be reported according to the PRISMA guidelines. They should also include a PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and a completed PRISMA checklist as a supplementary file. Please refer to the submission guidelines for additional information and the Instructions & Forms box at the top right for the PRISMA checklist and flow chart templates.

Validation Studies: Validation or Replication studies can be submitted to the journal. These should be carried out to validate that a scientific finding is accurate, reliable and reproducible. These may be written in the style of a Brief Communication or a Research Paper with a brief introduction.

Case reports: A case report may include a single case study or case series. They should be based on an interesting observation or a unique case. Case reports should be no more than 1,000 words and include no more than 20 references.

Commentaries
Commentaries are by invitation only. These are short summaries of significant recent and forthcoming papers, published elsewhere, that provide additional insights, new interpretations or speculation on the relevant topic. These manuscripts may include models, which due to space limitations were not included or discussed in the original paper. Commentary material may be peer-reviewed at the Editor's discretion. 

Letters to the Editor: Correspondence to the Editor unrelated to a specific article should not exceed 500 words or have more than 3 references. Correspondence pertaining to a recently published article or to be published concurrently with an article within the journal should not exceed 800 words or have more than 5 references.

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.

Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

BACK TO TOP

Editorial policies

 Peer review policy

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Science Progress utilizes a single-blind 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 Editor who then makes the final decision.

As part of the submission process, you will be asked to provide the names of [X #] peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

  • The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
  • The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
  • Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/ reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

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.

Science Progress is committed to delivering high-quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Web of Science (previously Publons). Web of Science is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Science Progress can opt into Web of Science 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 are not published on the site. For more information visit the Web of Science website.

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.

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.

Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools

If you have used a generative AI tool such as ChatGPT to prepare your submission, please clearly identify AI-generated content within the text and acknowledge its use within your Acknowledgements section. Please note that AI bots such as ChatGPT should not be listed as an author.

Submissions with undisclosed use of AI tools such as ChatGPT may be rejected. In some cases, we may choose to ask the authors to acknowledge the use of these tools or add details to the methods section. Corrective action will be taken on published articles found with undisclosed use of such tools.

Please also see the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) recommendations on chat bots, ChatGPT and scholarly manuscripts.

This policy is likely to evolve as we work with our publishing partners to understand how emerging technologies can help or hinder the process of preparing research for publication. Please check back to this page for the latest information.

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.

 

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.

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 a 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.

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 the use of language polishing services.

Funding

Science Progress 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.

Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Science Progress 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 acknowledgments 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.

4.6 Research Ethics

Research Involving Human Subjects

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

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. Please download the following ARRIVE Guidelines and submit them along with your paper.

Research Involving Animal Subjects

Please ensure that you have followed the guidelines given by NC3Rs (National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research). 

Replace: Use alternate models instead of live animals whenever possible
Reduce: Use as few animals as possible
Refine: Optimize experimentad designe to minimise the suffering and distress of animals subjects.

You must report the approval information from your institutional animal care facility, inlcuding the date of approval and the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board.  Please also include an ARRIVE questionnaire as a supplementary file. Visit ARRIVE for more information. 

Clinical trials

Science Progress endorses 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.

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.

Research involving animals must report approval from your institutional animal care facility along with an ARRIVE questionnaire. Please visit ARRIVE for more information. 

Research Data and Open Science Framework Badges

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, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
  • cite this data in your research

If you wish to apply for Open Data/Open Materials OSF badges, please ensure you mention this in your cover letter, complete the disclosure form and include it with your submission. Any required data/materials should be hosted on a publically accessible website in a format that is time-stamped, immutable, and permanent. 

All authors submitting primary data used in their research articles alongside their article submission, to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. The Editor will also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please see the OSF Wiki or contact the editorial office at: SCI.queries@sagepub.co.uk 

BACK TO TOP

Publishing Policies

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

Plagiarism
Science Progress 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 acknowledgment, 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.

Prior publication
If the 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.

Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Science Progress 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.

Preparing your manuscript for submission

Word processing formats 

Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. PDFs are NOT accepted. 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. TCRT follows IUPAC-IUB nomenclature. There is no need to follow a specific template when submitting your manuscript in Word. However, please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined.

Manuscript preparation

Please add line and page numbers to your document. 

Abstract
The abstract should be 250-300 words and should reflect the results. Describe the purpose of the study and briefly explain how the study was performed. Summarize the most important observations and their significance. Do not use abbreviations in the abstract.

Keywords
Following the abstract, please list 5-6 keywords for indexing the article. Keywords, along with the abstract and title, are central to ensuring that readers can search for and find your article online. For this reason, to aid in search-ability, words in the title should not be used as keywords. For keyword suggestions, please visit the National Library of
Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) website. 

Abbreviations
Please include a list of all abbreviations used in the manuscript. These should be listed in alphabetical order. (Example: MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging; RT, Radiation Therapy)

Introduction
Provide background that allows readers outside the discipline to understand the significance of the study. Include a brief review of important literature in the relevant field. 

Materials and Methods
Please do not use numbering or subheadings. Describe in detail any new methods or protocols used, in order that other investigators can replicate the study. Older, better known methods may be cited in references but should be described enough that the reader may understand the method. Manufacturer names of reagents and equipment used should be included.

For immunohistochemistry, blots, and gels the following should be included: catalog numbers, manufacturer names, and dilutions of antibodies. While the journal does not require use of RRIDs, it is recommended. Raw data for immunohistochemistry, blots, gels, cell assays are recommended to be included at submission and can be uploaded as the Research Data file type.

Specific Reporting Guidelines
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, the approval number, and date of approval. 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.

Human Subject Research
If using human subjects, the title page must include ethics statements that specify:

  • The name of the approving institutional review board (IRB) or equivalent committees, the approval number, and the date of approval. A copy of the ethics form should be included as a supplemental file with the submission. If approval was not obtained, a detailed statement explaining the reason is required. A version of the statement blinded for peer review should be included in the materials and methods section.
  • Nature of Informed consent – oral or written. If oral, how the consent was documented should be stated in the manuscript. If written consent was not obtained, the reasons should be stated in the materials and methods section of the manuscript.

Animal Research (see reporting guidelines)
The methods section of the manuscript reporting animal research must include ethics statements that specify the relevant ethics committee approving the research, the approval number, and date of approval. A copy of the ethics form should be included as a supplmental file with the submission. If ethical approval was not required, reasons should be stated in the manuscript. Relevant details to minimize suffering of the animal should be mentioned. The following ARRIVE Compliance Form must be submitted along with your paper. 

Cell Line Research
The methods section should state the origin of the cell lines. In cases of established cell lines, in addition to origin, the commercial source should be given. If previously unpublished new cell lines were used, the source should be disclosed.

For prospective studies, the type of study needs to be indicated in the abstract and materials and methods section. Studies must be reported according to the relevant Equator network guidelines. The materials and methods section should include a statement that the study has followed the relevant guideline and the guideline should be cited. The completed relevant reporting checklist must be included as a supplemental file at submission. For randomised trials, the CONSORT statement must be followed. Clinical trials must be registered with a publicly accessible database prior to submission. The registration number must be included at the end of the abstract and in the materials and methods section.

For retrospective studies, the type of study needs to be indicated in the abstract and materials and methods section. Studies must be reported according to the relevant Equator network guidelines. The materials and methods section should include a statement that the study has followed the relevant guideline and the guideline should be cited. The completed relevant reporting checklist must be included as a supplemental file at submission.

For systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the study type needs to be indicated in the title, abstract, and materials and methods. Studies must be reported according to the relevant Equator network guidelines. The PRISMA flow diagram should be included as a figure. The study should be registered with PROSPERO and the registration should be included in the submission.

Results
Explain how the results relate to the premise of the study especially in relation to previous related studies and how the present study results might have potential in directing future research.

Discussion 
Describe the interpretation of the data. Any conclusion will be added in this section. Avoid overemphasizing the conclusion.

Conflict of Interests Statement
At the end of the manuscript, before the Acknowledgements section, statements related to conflicts of interest must appear.

Author Contribution Statement
Authors are required to include a statement describing the role and contribution of each author. Every author must meet ICMJE guidelines. If they do not, they can be included in the Acknowledgements section. Paper may be rejected if all authors do not meet author requirements. 

Acknowledgments
List the names of the individuals along with the contributors who have participated in some capacity but cannot be qualified as authors.

Funding
Disclose if any funds were received to conduct the research.

References
Science Progress adheres to AMA reference style. In the references section (i.e., bibliography), please list references in the same order as they were cited in the manuscript. When a website is cited as a reference, provide the date that the website was last accessed.

Unpublished data and personal correspondence may be cited as references within the text itself and are not to be included in the list of references. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of references used, and all text quoted. Manuscripts submitted in any other format may delay the publication of your article.

Data Collection and Presentation
Download and complete this Data Collection and Presentation checklist.

Artwork, figures and other graphics
All figures and illustrations should contain clean and clear graphics, and must be submitted electronically in their original format (e.g., png, jpeg, tif).

Line art must have a resolution of at least 900 dpi (dots per inch). Electronic photographs, radiographs, CT scans, MRIs, all medical imaging, and all scanned images must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be embedded in the files. Color images must be created/scanned and saved and submitted as CMYK files. Please note that artwork downloaded from the internet (JPEG or GIF files) cannot be used.

Ensure that fonts are clear and easy to read should the figures be resized to a 1-column or 2- column format during the layout process of publication. Please use the following guidelines
when preparing your image files:

 

Image Type

Description

Acceptable Formats

Required Resolution

Line Art

An image (such as a simple graph) composed only of lines and text. It does not contain tonal or shaded areas.

PNG, TIFF

900-1200 PPI

Photograph

A photograph containing no text.

PNG, TIFF, JPEG

300 PPI

Combination

Image contains photographs/gradients as well as text or line art.

PNG, TIFF

500-900 PPI

 

For graphics reprinted from another source, provide written permission for reproduction from the copyright owner. Include full credit in the manuscript’s text, figure legends, and/or in the acknowledgment section, as appropriate.

Embed all images in the manuscript and submit separate files for each image in the original format it was created (e.g., png, jpeg, tiff).

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

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online.

Equations
If your manuscript is in .docx format and contains equations, make sure the equations are editable. Equations must be placed in brackets [ ].

Tables
Tables should have a concise title and should not occupy more than one printed page. Indicate in red where to place the Figures and Tables. Create tables in Word format within the manuscript.

Use Arabic numerals to name tables (e.g. Table 1). Cite tables in the text in consecutive order. For each table, provide a table heading that clearly and concisely explains the content of the
table. Indicate table footnotes with lower-case letters in superscript font. Place the information for the footnote beneath the body of the table.

If a table will be submitted as a separate document, the filename should contain the surname of the first author and match its label in the manuscript (e.g., SMITH Table 1).

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 supplemental files.

Reference style
Science Progress adheres to the AMA reference style. Please review the guidelines on AMA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the AMA output file here.

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. 

BACK TO TOP

Submitting your manuscript

How to submit your manuscript

Science Progress is hosted on Sage Track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scienceprogress to log in 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.

Title, keywords and abstract

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

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.

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).

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 in to 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.

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. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway

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.

Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit, or by email 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.

Online publication 

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open-access journal is the speed of 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. 

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.

BACK TO TOP

Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Science Progress editorial office at:  SCI.queries@sagepub.co.uk

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 
 

BACK TO TOP