About Journal

Chinese Journal of Nephrology (the Journal) established in March, 1985, is published monthly in Chinese by the Chinese Medical Association, and is a peer reviewed medical journal for doctors, medical researchers, and health workers in the field of Nephrology. The Journal reports the latest research progress and clinical experience in Nephrology.

Chinese Journal of Nephrology is now indexed by CNKI, Wanfang Data, CSCD, etc. The impact factor of the Journal was 0.891 in 2019, ranking the first among all Nephrology journals in China. The journal is available both in print and online.

1. Aim and Scope

Chinese Journal of Nephrology publishes articles of significant progress and latest findings in scientific research and clinical practice in both China and overseas in order to enhance academic exchange and cooperation. It is aimed at a wide domestic and international readership among clinical, teaching and research professionals in Nephrology and other related fields. It publishes a variety of writings, such as original research articles, reports of innovations, lectures, clinical experiences, case reports, reviews, perspectives, discussions, letters and brief introductions.

2. Online Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website:

http://www.cjn.org.cn/journalx_szb/authorLogOn.action?mag_Id=7 or https://cmaes.medline.org.cn/Login/Login.aspx

First-time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their username and password. If you experience any problems, please contact the editorial office by email:cmaszb@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

3. Journal Policies

3.1. Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts are reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted only to Chinese Journal of Nephrology and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The Editorial team may subject any manuscript submitted for consideration of publication in Chinese Journal of Nephrology to plagiarism-detection software.

This does not preclude consideration of a manuscript that has been rejected by another journal or a complete report that follows publication of preliminary findings elsewhere, usually in the form of an abstract. Copies of any possibly duplicate published material should be submitted with the manuscript under consideration, with a statement in the cover letter as to why the manuscript currently being submitted is not a duplicate publication.

3.2. Disclosure of Conflicts

Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest.Authors without conflicts of interest, including relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations, should indicate such in their disclosures and include a statement of no such interests in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:" For example: “Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: A has received honoraria from Company Z. B is currently receiving a grant (#12345) from Organization Y, and is on the speaker's bureau for Organization X - the CME organizers for Company A. For the remaining authors, no relevant conflicts of interest were declared.”

3.3. Financial Support and Competing Interests

A financial disclosure section is part of the submission process and must be completed by each author at submission. This information is for review by the Editors but will be published if relevant to the content of the accepted manuscript.

The primary purpose of the disclosure section is to determine whether authors have received any commercial financial support that could create a conflict of interest. In addition to monetary interests, a potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that a relationship (such as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties) affects his or her scientific judgment. Please review ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts.

3.4. Human and Animal Rights

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national). If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

3.5. Ethics and Consent

Our policy on research ethics is made to ensure that all articles published by Chinese Journal of Nephrology report on work that is morally acceptable, and expects authors to follow the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. To achieve this, we aim to appraise the ethical aspects of any submitted work that involves human participants, whatever descriptive label is given to that work including research, audit, and sometimes debate.

3.5.1. Ethics Approval

Research involving human participants, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Further information and documentation to support this should be made available to the Editor on request. Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. In rare cases, the Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information.

3.5.2. Retrospective Ethics Approval

If a study has not been granted ethics committee approval prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained, and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.

3.5.3. New Clinical Tools and Procedures

Authors reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical setting, for example as a technical advance or case report, must give a clear justification in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need. Such justification is not required if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors’ institution. Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.

3.5.4. Consent to Participate

For all research involving human participants, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. For manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups (for example, unconscious patients) where there is the potential for coercion (for example prisoners) or where consent may not have been fully informed, manuscripts will be considered at the editor’s discretion and may be referred to an internal editorial oversight group for further scrutiny. Consent must be obtained for all forms of personally identifiable data including biomedical, clinical, and biometric data. In the case of articles describing human transplantation studies, authors must include a statement declaring that no organs/tissues were obtained from prisoners and must also name the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) via which organs/tissues were obtained. Documentary evidence of consent must be supplied if requested.

3.5.5. Clinical trial registry

Chinese Journal of Nephrology requires registration of clinical trials. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.chictr.org.cn/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http:// www.isrctn.org/; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp; and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr and any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/index.html).

3.5.6. What Happens When Chinese Journal of Nephrology Considers a Study to be Unethical?

We believe that editors have a duty to take on issues of unethical audit or research, not to seek punishment for the authors, but to prevent unethical practice and to protect patients.

If the Editor, with or without the advice of its ethics committee and/or COPE, considers the work in a submitted article to be ethically unsound the editor may seek further advice or recommend investigation or action. The fact that the article would have been rejected anyway for other scientific or editorial reasons would not prevent the editor from taking such further action on serious ethics problems.

Scientific Misconduct

There are differing definitions of scientific misconduct. We deal with these problems on a case by case basis while following guidance produced by bodies that include the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors?(WAME) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Falsification of data: ranges from fabrication to deceptive reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or wilful suppression and/or distortion of data.

Plagiarism and duplicate publication: the appropriation of the language, ideas or thoughts of another without crediting their true source and representation of them as one’s own original work.

Improprieties of authorship: improper assignment of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, inclusion of individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors.

Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.

Violation of generally accepted research practices: serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.

Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: including but not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, wilful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological or chemical materials.

Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct: this includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known or suspected misconduct, withholding of information relevant to a claim or misconduct, retaliation against persons involved in the allegation or investigation, redundant publication, duplicate publication, a lack of declaration of competing interests and of funding/sponsorship, and other failures of transparency.

Similarity Query

After authors submit their manuscripts, we will detect them on academic misconduct. Firstly, we will detect the similarity of the paper via the manuscript review platform, and then, the system will automatically generate a detection report according to the "Criteria for the Definition of Misconduct in Academic Papers" of CNKI (powered by China Academic Journals (CD Edition) ) . Electronic Publishing House Co., Ltd) or “WANFANG Similarity Detection” (powered by WANFANG Data Co., Ltd.). If the manuscript’s replication ratio exceeds 20%, the Editor of Chinese Journal of Nephrology may believe that there may be plagiarism.

Dealing with Allegations of Misconduct

If an editor has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behavior, we may discuss the case in confidence with committee.

If the case cannot be resolved by discussion with the author(s) and the Editor still has concerns, the case may be reported to the appropriate authorities. If, during the course of reviewing an article, an editor is alerted to possible problems (for example, fraudulent data) in another publication, the editor may contact Chinese Journal of Nephrology in which the previous publication appeared to raise concern.

Readers that suspect misconduct in a published article are encouraged to report this to the relevant journal editor and/or the Publisher for that title.

If the author has any objection to the decision of the manuscript, he can send email to: cmaszb@mail.sysu.edu.cn, our officiawill deal with it in a timely manner.

4. Editorial Peer-review Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Chinese Journal of Nephrology alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The Journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with Chinese Journal of Nephrology for all matters related to the manuscript. On submission, full-time editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to Chinese Journal of Nephrology readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Chinese Journal of Nephrology are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor(s). The selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of full-time editors. Chinese Journal of Nephrology follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Chinese Journal of Nephrology holds a meeting monthly in Beijing or outside Beijing to make the final decision on whether or not to publish a manuscript, with the Chief Editor and editorial board members of Chinese Journal of Nephrology as attendees. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/rejection/amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited by full time editors in the editorial office. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within several days. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending proofs is completed online.

5. Retraction Policy

Chinese Journal of Nephrology should consider retracting a publication if:

Editors have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper crossreferencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication).
It constitutes plagiarism.
It reports unethical research.

Chinese Journal of Nephrology abides by COPE Retraction Guidelines.

6. Responsibilities and Duties

6.1. Authorship Criteria

As stated in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations, credit for authorship requires:

Substantial contributions to the conception and design, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data.
The drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content.
Final approval of the version to be published.
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the four components mentioned above.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The corresponding author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review.

6.1.1. Changes in Authorship

Authors should determine the order of authorship among themselves and should settle any disagreements before submitting their manuscript. Changes in authorship (i.e., order, addition, and deletion of authors) should be discussed and approved by all authors. Any requests for such changes in authorship after initial manuscript submission and before publication should be explained in writing to the editor in a letter or email from all authors and should send the original signed written consent of all authors with authorized unit stamp.

6.1.2. Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, health management studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. One author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as ‘corresponding author’.

6.2. Responsibilities and Duties of Editors

The general responsibilities of the editors of Chinese Journal of Nephrology are listed below:

Decision on the Publication of Articles：The editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to Chinese Journal of Nephrology should be published. The editors may be guided by the policies of the Journal's editorial board subjected to such legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editors may consult with reviewers in making this decision.

Manuscripts shall be evaluated solely on their intellectual merit.

The editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest：Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by anyone who has a view of the manuscript while handling it in his or her own research without the express written consent of the author.

The editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing, e.g., if they are from the same institution or collaborate closely. In this case the chief editor or a suitable editorial board member will make final acceptance decisions for submitted papers.

The editors require skills of proofreading, copy editing, developmental editing, line editing and editing for search engine optimization.

It is the responsibility of the editor to reject a piece of writing that appears to be plagiarized or ghost written by another sub-editor. He should check that a particular piece is neither self-plagiarized, nor has been published before elsewhere.

6.3. Responsibilities and Duties of Reviewer

The responsibilities of the reviewer of Chinese Journal of Nephrology are summarized as follows:

The reviewer should provide an honest, critical assessment of the research. The reviewer should not manipulate the process to force the authors to address issues interesting or important to the reviewer but peripheral to the objective(s) of the study.

The reviewer should maintain confidentiality about the existence and substance of the manuscript. It is not appropriate to share the manuscript or to discuss it in detail with others or even to reveal the existence of the submission before publication.

The reviewer must not participate in plagiarism. It is obviously a very serious transgression to take data or novel concepts from a paper to advance your own work before the manuscript is published.

The reviewer should always avoid, or disclose, any conflicts of interest. For example, if the reviewer has a close personal or professional relationship with one or more of the authors such that his/her objectivity would be compromised. Scientific merit should be the basis for all reviews.

The reviewer should accept manuscripts for review only in his/her areas of expertise.

The reviewer should agree to review only those manuscripts that can be completed on time. Sometimes, unforeseen circumstances arise that preclude a reviewer from meeting a deadline, but in these instances the reviewer should immediately contact the editor.

The reviewer also has the unpleasant responsibility of reporting suspected duplicate publication, fraud, plagiarism, or ethical concerns about the use of animals or humans in the research being reported.

The reviewer should write reviews in a collegial, constructive manner. This is especially helpful to new investigators. No one likes to have a paper rejected, but a carefully worded review with appropriate suggestions for revision can be very helpful.

7. Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with “ICMJE Recommendations”. The uniform requirements and specific requirement of Chinese Journal of Nephrology are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the Journaand from the manuscript submission site: http://cmaes.medline.org.cn.

Original article is required to provide a structured abstract with no more than 300 words. Other articles are required to provide indicative abstracts with less than 200 words.

7.1. Copies of any Permission(s)

It is the responsibility of authors/contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

7.2. Types of Manuscripts

7.2.1. Editorial/Commentary

Editorials/commentaries are usually commissioned, however, unsolicited editorials/commentaries are also welcome. Editorials/commentaries can be up to 3000 words in length with no more than 30 references and with an indicative abstract less than 200 words.

7.2.2. Guideline/Consensus

Guidelines & Consensuses produced by professional medical society/association/group are reported in this kind of article, with an indicative abstract more than 400 words.

7.2.3. Original Articles

These mainly include randomized controlled trials, studies of screening and diagnostic test, outcome studies, cost effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and basic medical studies.

The text of original articles amounting to about 5000 words (excluding abstract, references and tables) should be divided into sections with the headings abstract, key words, introduction, methods, results, discussion, references.

Abstract: The abstract of original articles is a structured abstract, which includes the following four parts: objective, methods, results and conclusions. The total number words of abstract are no more than 400 words.

Key words: List 2-5 key words according to MeSH.

Introduction: State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation.

Methods: It should include and describe the following aspects:

Ethics: When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration. For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of regional/ national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/ or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants’ names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively. Chinese Journal of Nephrology will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Methods’ section.

Study design: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population.

Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results.

Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement.

Statistics: Quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as, dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Specify the computer software used. P values are encouraged to be reported as the exact value or less than 0.05 or 0.01. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or figures; emphasize or summarize only important observations.

When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.

Discussion: Include summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence; Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research).

Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. New hypotheses may be stated if needed, however they should be clearly labeled as such. About 30 references can be included.

7.2.4. Meta Analysis

Only results of meta analysis are reported in this kind of article. The length of the article is about 5000 words (not including tables, figures, and references), with structured abstract no more than 400 words.

7.2.5. Case Reports

Special cases are reported in this kind of article. The length of the article is about 2000 words (not including tables, figures, and references). The text contains no abstract and key words.

7.2.6. Continuing Medical Education

These articles are usually commissioned, with about 5000 words in length (not including tables, figures, and references). The text contains no abstract and key words.

7.2.7. Reviews

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. The prescribed word count is about 5000 words excluding tables, references and abstract. The manuscript may have about 100 references. The manuscript should have an indicative abstract (less than 200 words) representing an accurate summary of the article.

7.2.8. Academic Contending

Personal views on controversial issues are welcome and the length should be about 2500 words (not including tables, figures, and references). The text contains no abstract and key words.

7.2.9. Minutes of Meeting

Minutes of an important meeting or other events are reported in this kind of article and the length should be about 2500 words (not including tables, figures, and references). The text contains no abstract and key words.

7.2.10. Letter

Letter to editors should preferably be related to articles previously published in Chinese Journal of Nephrology or views expressed in the Journal. The text contains no abstract and key words, with five or fewer references, maximum of one table or one figure.

7.3. References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct citation of the text. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript before the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Avoid using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.

The commonly cited types of references are shown here. Number references in the order they appear in the text; do not alphabetize. In text, tables, and legends, identify references with superscript Arabic numerals. When listing references, abbreviate titles of journals according to Medline.

Note: List authors and/or editors up to three; if more than three, list the first three authors followed by et al. From Jan. 2016, the available DOI should be added at the end of each reference.

Examples of journal citations

[1] Cui RR, Sun J, Li PF, et al. Secreted frizzled-related protein 1 gene polymorphisms and smoking in large artery atherosclerotic stroke[J]. Chin J Neurol, 2018, 51(1): 14-20. DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.1006-7876.2018.01.004.

[2] Stadler S, Jalili S, Schreib A, et al. Association of sleep-disordered breathing with severe chronic vascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes[J]. Sleep Med, 2018, 48: 53-60. DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.05.001.

Example of a book citation

[1] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, et al. Medical microbiology[M]. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby, 2002: 45-49.

[2] Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr., Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease[M]. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1974: 457-472.

Example of electronic sources citation

[1] Jablonski S. Online multiple congenital anomaly/mental retardation (MCA/MR) syndromes [DB/OL]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). 1999 (2001-11-20) [2002-12-12]. http: //www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/jablonski/syndrome_title.html.

7.4. Tables

Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.
For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: a, b, c, d, e, f , g, h, i.

7.5. Figures

Upload the images in JPG format. The file size should be within 1024 kb in size while uploading.
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for figures not on the figures themselves.
When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.

Chinese Journal of Nephrology reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

7.6. Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives written informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients’ names from figures unless they have obtained written informed consent from the patients.

7.7. Post-publication Discussions and Corrections

When the author discovers any material inaccuracies or errors in his work, he should inform the editorial board of Chinese Journal of Nephrology to correct the error. In cases when the error is discovered after publication on paper, then the publisher in the next issue publishes a note as follows:

Corrigendum, is a statement issued by the publisher informing the reader that an article has been corrected after publication. These corrections may relate to the title, authors or anything else that has confused the full meaning of the article. Errors can be primarily technical through the fault of the author or publisher.

Erratum, is a statement by the authors of the paper, that briefly describes any correction resulting from errors or omissions.

Retraction, is a notice that the article should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature.

Chinese Journal of Nephrology editors follow COPE guidelines on retraction.

8. Copyright

No content published by the journals of Chinese Medical Association may be reproduced or abridged without authorization. Please do not use or copy the layout and design of the journals without permission.

All articles published represent the opinions of the authors, and do not reflect the official policy of the Chinese Medical Association or the Editorial Board, unless this is clearly specified.

9. Article Publishing Fee

Authors have to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) if the article is accepted for publication.

Authors from China: CNY 800 - 1500 per page (the number of pages is calculated based on the final PDF version), an additional fee maybe charged if figures need to be printed in color.

Authors outside China: USD 200 per print page including the cost of all figures (the number of pages is calculated based on the final PDF version).

10. Access and Revenue Sources

The ways in which Chinese Journal of Nephrology and individual articles are available to readers by subscriptions or pay-per-view fees.

11. Archiving Policy

Chinese Journal of Nephrology's website will permanently preserve contents published at least from 2007. If readers find missing papers or inaccessible, please contact us.

The electronic copy of Chinese Journal of Nephrology is permanently preserved by the National Archives of Editions of China from 2022.

12. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Chinese Journal of Nephrology supports the STM article sharing principles to enable research collaboration. Collaboration has always been essential to further research progress. In support of this Chinese Journal of Nephrology works with many commercial and non-commercial organizations providing services for the aggregation, posting, and sharing of journal articles.

13. Advertisement Policy

Chinese Journal of Nephrology publishes advertisements in print, which are subject to the supervision and management of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, and only can be read by special people after being reviewed by special persons. Any kind of misleading advertisements on paper shall be rejected.

Chinese Journal of Nephrology’s website does not publish any advertisement.

14. Marketing

Any direct or indirect marketing activity involved in a manuscript shall be carefully considered and not accepted. Chinese Journal of Nephrology publishes only true and not misleading information to readers.

Instructions for Authors