Author Instructions
All manuscripts should be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts.
Sexual Health is an international journal for the publication of original work, review and comment in the fields of sexual health including HIV/AIDS. Submission of a paper implies that the results reported have not been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere. Abstracts from conferences would not normally be regarded as publications, but where material has been widely disseminated in report form the Editor should be consulted. The Journal assumes that all authors of a multi-authored paper agree to its submission. The Journal will use its best endeavours to ensure that work published is that of the named authors except where acknowledged and, through its reviewing procedures, that any published results and conclusions are consistent with the primary data. It takes no responsibility for fraud or inaccuracy on the part of the authors. All papers are refereed to international standards. Authors may suggest the names of suitable referees.
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Open access
- Submission of manuscripts
- Format-free submission
- Editorials
- Research Papers
- Reviews
- Short Reports
- Method Matters (New) – 3000 words
- Position Statements (New) – 3000 words
- Letters to the Editor
- Comment and Response
- Ethics approval
- Consent
- Clinical Trials
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- Acknowledgements
- Preparation of manuscripts
- Use of inclusive language
- Use of referencing software
- Tables
- Figures
- Page proofs and corrections
- Reprints
- Address for submissions
Publishing Policies
Sexual Health insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at http://www.publish.csiro.au/sh/PublishingPolicies.
Peer review
Sexual Health is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review. The Editors and Special Issue Editor are responsible to maintain high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and work together with the Joint Editors and Editorial Board to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by an Editor or the Special Issue Editor, who may reject a paper before peer review when it is outside the journal’s scope or is of insufficient quality. Joint Editors select reviewers and after at least two review reports are received, they make the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. The final decision is made by an Editor or the Special Issue Editor.
Under our single-blind policy, reviewers’ names are not disclosed to the authors. To increase transparency, reviewers may choose to sign their reports. We ask reviewers and authors not to directly contact each other while the manuscript is under consideration, rather keep all communication through ScholarOne with the Editor’s involvement.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for Sexual Health should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see http://www.publish.csiro.au/sh/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
For details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Open access
Authors may choose to publish their paper Open Access on payment of a publication fee; they will be notified of the option when their paper is accepted and the choice is made at the proof stage. See Open Access for more details.
Submission of manuscripts
To submit your paper, please use our online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts, which can be reached directly through this link or from the link on the journal´s homepage. If a first-time user, register via the ´Register here´ link, or use your existing username and password to log in. Then click on the ´Author Centre´ link and proceed.
A covering letter must accompany the submission and should include the name, address, fax and telephone numbers, and email address of the corresponding author. The letter should also contain a statement justifying why the work should be considered for publication in the journal, and that the manuscript has not been published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. Suggestions of possible referees are welcome.
If you encounter any difficulties, or you have any queries, please contact publishing.sh@csiro.au.
Format-free submission
Sexual Health offers format-free submission to simplify and streamline the submission process. Authors can now submit without worrying about formatting to the journal's specific requirements, presenting their manuscript in the format they want, with references in the style they choose.
Manuscript and figures can be submitted as a combined file, or authors can submit files separately if preferred.
There are some basic items that must be included in manuscripts to allow a comprehensive peer review:
- all author names and affiliations
- author statements necessary to allow the editors and reviewers to transparently assess the work – Conflicts of interest, Declaration of funding and Data availability statement
- references can be in any format as long as they are in a consistent style throughout the manuscript and include all elements (such as author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, article title (where required), year of publication, volume & issue/book chapter, and pagination/DOI)
- ethics approval and relevant details must be included if applicable
- word limits must be adhered to
- line numbers should be added.
Formatting to the journal style is mostly applied by the production team post-acceptance. For manuscripts that reach revision stage, some formatting for production may be requested.
Editorials – 1500 words
These should be provocative pieces dealing with current issues or controversies in sexual health. Authors should contact the editor before preparing and submitting an editorial.
Research Papers – 4000 words
These should be large pieces of original work dealing with any area of sexual health. Each paper must follow the appropriate guidelines for its design. For example, CONSORT guidelines for randomised controlled trials, PRISMA for meta-analyses, or STROBE guidelines for observational studies. Please see http://www.equator-network.org/ for reference.
Reviews – 4000 words
The Journal welcomes structured reviews, including scoping reviews and systematic reviews. The methodology of reviews should be clearly stated. Scoping and systematic reviews should conform to the current PRISMA guidelines. The journal generally does not consider narrative reviews unless discussed first with the editors.
Short Reports – 1500 words
These should include focused areas of research or important new information.
Method Matters (New) – 3000 words
These articles are usually requested from experts and thought leaders in the subject and are meant to facilitate learning, mentorship, and capacity building. These are not systematic reviews or scoping reviews. They could present practical advice about implementation or a new method or technique. Interested authors should email the Editors in Chief, Drs. Jason Ong and Joseph Tucker, prior to submission.
Position Statements (New) – 3000 words
These articles present a review of emerging evidence that informs the position statement of professional societies, non-governmental organisations or other groups on hot topics in sexual health. Usually, there are not enough data for a formal guideline procedure, so they represent an interim consensus recommendation. A position statement should give a balanced review created by a taskforce of individuals from different institutions. This should include a brief summary of the methods. An example of a position statement can be found on our website.
Letters to the Editor – 600 words (one figure or table)
These can include either original research or commentary on published work in sexual health. Letters need to include a 100 word unstructured abstract.
Comment and Response – 700 words
Comment pieces (about 700 words and 10 or so references) are welcome on a paper published in the Journal within the last 3 months. The Journal may invite replies from the authors of the original publication.
Ethics approval
In reporting research regarding human subjects, authors are required to document that a formally constituted review board (Institutional Review Board or Ethics committee) has granted approval for the research to be done, or that the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki regarding human experimentation have been met. Investigators who do not have access to an institutional review board are required to provide a statement to the editor outlining why it was not possible to gain formal ethics approval. If the study is judged exempt from review, a statement from the committee is required. Authors should make an ethics statement within the manuscript to this effect. Authors should also state that the research was undertaken with appropriate informed consent of participants or guardians. CSIRO Publishing also follows CSIRO’s own guidelines on ethical human research.
Consent
All trials involving patients or human volunteers must have ethics committee approval, which must be explicitly stated in the paper. Volunteers must have given written informed consent. All case reports must have the consent of the patient for publication. When reporting on deceased patients make certain that they cannot be identified. Manuscripts not meeting these criteria will be rejected.
Clinical Trials
Articles on clinical trials should contain abstracts that include items the CONSORT group has identified as essential. When reporting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) include the trial registration number at the end of the abstract. When reporting on a RCT, list the trial registration number at the first instance of using the trial acronym whenever a registration number is available.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
1 Wang L, Edwards D, Bailey A, Carr L, Boreham C, Grosjean E, Anderson J, Jarrett A, MacFarlane S, Southby C, Carson C, Khider K, Palu T, Henson P. Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset]. Canberra: Geoscience Australia; 2021. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
2 Fiddes S, Pepler A, Saunders K, Hope P. Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset]. Zenodo; 2020. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
3 Digital Earth Australia. Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset]. Canberra: Geoscience Australia; 2021. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest
Under a subheading ´Conflicts of Interest´ at the end of the text all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with organisations or people that could inappropriately influence their work. If there are no conflicts of interest, please include the statement "The authors declare no conflicts of interest".
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading 'Declaration of Funding' at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: "This research did not receive any specific funding".
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
Preparation of manuscripts
General presentation. The work should be presented clearly and concisely in English. The title should reflect the key points of interest in the paper. The names and addresses of all authors should be presented on the first page, together with the full postal address and email address (or facsimile number) of the corresponding author. The introduction should indicate the reason for the work and include essential background references.
Please ensure that all studies conform to the relevant guidelines;
CONSORT statement - Required for all randomised controlled trials
PRISMA statement - Required for all systematic reviews
EVEREST statement - Required for all economic evaluations
STARD statement - Required for all diagnostic research papers
STROBE statement - Required for all observational studies
STROBE-RDS statement - Required for Respondent-Driven Sampling Studies
SQUIRE statement - Required for all quality improvement studies.
Title. The title should be concise and appropriately informative and should contain all keywords necessary to facilitate retrieval by modern searching techniques. The title must include a study descriptor, e.g. ‘a systematic review’, ‘an observational study’.
Keywords. A minimum of 8 key words or phrases are required to improve online discoverability of your work. These terms can be repeated from the title if necessary. List the keywords under the abstract, with terms separated by commas
Summary text for the Table of Contents. Please provide a three-sentence paragraph of 50 to 80 words written for interested non-experts, such as journalists, teachers, government workers, etc. This text will be included with your title in the table of contents that is available online; it is an opportunity to encourage people to read your article. The text should be free from scientific jargon, and written at the level of an article in a science magazine. Your first sentence should engage the reader, convincing them that this is an important area. The second sentence should introduce the problem addressed in the paper, and state your main discovery. The final sentence should describe how the results fit into the bigger picture (i.e. implications or impact of the discovery).
Abstract. The Abstract should be fewer than 250 words for Research Papers, Short Reports or Case Reports (structured) or Reviews (unstructured) or 100 words for Letters and Editorials (unstructured) and should state concisely the scope of the work and give the principal findings. The structured Abstract should be organised under the following headings for original research: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. For Reviews, Letters and Editorials there should be no headings. It should be complete enough for direct use by abstracting services. Acronyms and references should be avoided. Please ensure you include as much data in the Abstract as possible. For example, include absolute numbers (n/N) and not just percentages, P values, Odd ratios and relevant 95% confidence intervals.
References. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text using Arabic numerals in parentheses. References should be in the Vancouver style as described in:
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. [http://www.icmje.org/].
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references. References should be typed in numerical order and should include:
- Journals: author´s name and initials, title of paper, name of journal (in full or abbreviated according to the list in Index Medicus), year of publication, volume number and first and last page numbers
- Books: author´s name and initials, full title, edition, place of publication, publisher, and year of publication. When a chapter in a book is referred to, the name and initials of the author of the chapter, title of the chapter, ´In:´, book title should precede name and initials of the editor etc as above.
Names of journals no longer published or not in Index Medicus should be given in full.
Units. Measurements of length, height, weight and volume should be reported in metric units (metre, kilogram, or litre or their decimal multiples).
Temperatures should be given in degrees Celcius, blood pressures should be given in millimetres of mercury.
All haematological and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI).
Mathematical equations. Mathematical equations should be editable and not embedded pictures.
Use of inclusive language
These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
Use of referencing software
If using ´EndNote´ software, you can obtain the style file for this journal at http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp.
Tables
Editable tables should be prepared in Word using the 'Table' tool (not tabs), without any hard returns within cells, or can be set up in Excel. Number each table and refer to it in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of appearance. There is no need to add instructions on the placement of tables as long as each table is referred to in the text. Do not provide tables as images.
Table titles should be concise and clear and should fully explain the table. Use sentence case throughout the table. Supporting information relating to the whole table and definitions for any symbols, abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should be included as table footnotes. Additional information relating to specific cells should be placed as table footnotes using superscript capital letters as identifiers. Symbols for units of measurement should be placed in parentheses beneath the column heading.
Tables should appear at the end of the main document, not within the text. Keep tables as simple as possible, without excessive subdivision of column headings.
Figures
Figures should be supplied as separate files but the captions should be included in the main document (at the end). Refer to each figure in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and number each figure according to the order in which it appears in the text. There is no need to add instructions on placement of figures as long as each figure is referred to in the text. If your figure has multiple parts label with (a), (b), (c), etc. and place the labels in the top left of each image where possible. Figure parts can be supplied as separate images if needed. Please make sure all images are supplied are at highest possible resolution.
Format
Where possible, line diagrams (graphs, charts, etc.) should be provided as editable files and prepared using either a graphics or chart/graph program such as MacDraw, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Excel, Sigmaplot, Harvard Graphics or Cricket Graph and files should be saved in one of the following formats: encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Illustrator or Excel (provided the Excel files have been saved with the chart encapsulated in it). The submission of scanned images or illustrations prepared in a paint program, e.g. Photoshop (and PICT and JPEG files) is discouraged, because of the difficulty in making editorial corrections to these files. If illustrations must be created in a paint program, save the file as a TIFF or EPS (these files should be 600 dpi for line drawings and 300 dpi for halftone figures). Photographs can be supplied in the highest resolution possible.
Fonts
Please prepare figures using a standard sans serif font. Arial preferred. Font sizes for main axis labels, part labels should not be more than 8pt. Legends and data points should be 7pt font size where possible. Font should never be smaller than 5pt to ensure readability.
Style
- Use sentence case for text within figures
- Use Australian English spelling (ise, not ize, etc.) throughout
- Use 'and' not '&'
- For ranges in numbers (5–10) or minus signs (–20) please use an en rule rather than a hyphen as this is clearer for the reader.
Graphs
Should be prepared with one main x and y axis line. Grid lines are not required. Line weight of x- and y-axes should be ~1.0 (not below 0.7). State on the axes of a graph what is being measured and give the appropriate units in parentheses. Ensure any symbols/colours used are explained in a legend on the figure, or in the caption. Ensure numbers on axes have the same number of decimal places.
Maps
Ensure north is identified and a scale is provided. Ensure any symbols used are fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. If maps are taken from Google Earth (or similar) please ensure attribution information is retained either on the figure, or provided in the caption.
Photographs
Ensure that permission has been gained by the copyright holder of the photograph and include a photographer credit in your caption. If your photograph contains people, please ensure that they have provided permission for their image to be published.
Captions
Captions should be concise and clear and should fully explain the figure. Explain any symbols or abbreviations used in the caption of the figure, or in a legend. If your figure has multiple parts, ensure each part is explained in the caption. If your figure is a photograph, ensure the photographer is credited in the caption.
If your figure files are too large for upload to ScholarOne please ensure you let CSIRO Publishing know as soon as your paper is accepted and an alternative transfer will be arranged. Note: Figures used in the final paper will be based on what is provided – if the quality is low in the original, it will remain low in the final publication.
Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Page corrections and proofs
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author for checking prior to publication. At this stage only essential alterations and correction of printer errors may be undertaken.
Reprints
Reprints may only be ordered before publication. An order form is sent to the corresponding author with the final page proofs.
To submit your paper, please use our online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts.
For general enquires about submitted papers please contact:
Sexual Health
CSIRO Publishing
Locked Bag 10
Clayton South, Vic. 3169
Australia
Telephone +[61 3] 9545 2136
Email publishing.sh@csiro.au
