Ochsner Journal is a biomedical journal published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. The Journal publishes primary content—original research, reviews, innovative program and quality improvement articles, case reports, editorials—and does not accept third-party or sponsored content, reprinted articles, association activity reports, general abstracts of the literature, news, or book reviews.
Operationally, Ochsner Journal complies with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and the International Standards for Editors from the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Authorship
Ochsner Journal follows the authorship guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Accordingly, each named author must meet all of the following criteria:
- substantial contributions to conception and design of the work; or the acquisition of data, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- final approval of the version to be published; AND
- 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 work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
A list of the specific contributions of each author is required in the cover letter.
To ensure proper oversight, the corresponding author must be a staff physician or permanent senior staff member. Residents, fellows, and medical students cannot be identified as the corresponding author. The corresponding author's contact information is published with the paper.
Author Verification and Financial/Conflict of Interest Disclosure
In an effort to prevent the fraudulent inclusion of authors, all authors listed on a paper receive an automated notification from ScholarOne when manuscripts are submitted. If the submitting author provides an invalid email address for an author, submission processing is suspended until the submitting author provides a valid email address and the author is notified. If we do not hear to the contrary, we assume that all the notified authors approve the submission.
In addition, an Author Attestation, License for Publishing CC BY, Financial Disclosure, and Permissions for Acknowledgements form signed and dated in pen by all authors must be uploaded to the ScholarOne Manuscripts portal at the same time as the manuscript. This form is required for all article types, including letters and editorials. Manuscripts are not sent for peer review until this form—with physical signatures from all authors—is submitted. Machine signatures (including Docusign) are not accepted. Signatures that are cut and pasted image files are not accepted. Failure to submit an appropriately completed Author Attestation, License for Publishing CC BY, Financial Disclosure, and Permissions for Acknowledgements form delays manuscript processing and may result in immediate rejection.
Any author who has a financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or in financial competition with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript must disclose that affiliation. Examples of financial involvement include employment, stock holdings, consultancies, financial support of research through grants or contracts, participation in a speakers’ bureau, provision of expert testimony, or receipt of honoraria. All authors should prepare a statement revealing any such financial affiliations and include it with the manuscript submission. The manuscript should also clearly identify any financial support of the research described in the manuscript.
Artificial Intelligence Tools
In accordance with the position statement of the Committee on Publication Ethics, the Ochsner Journal policy with regard to artificial intelligence (AI) tools and large language models such as ChatGPT is as follows:
- An AI tool cannot be listed as an author of a paper. Rationale: AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship because they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. Further, AI tools are not legal entities, so they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest or sign the Ochsner Journal licensing agreement.
- Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements, or collection and analysis of data must disclose this use in the Methods or Acknowledgments section of the paper and in the cover letter. This disclosure must transparently and specifically state how the AI tool was used, which tool was used, and which sections of the paper are affected. Rationale: Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscripts, even the parts produced by an AI tool, and are therefore liable for any breach of publication ethics and for any inaccuracies.
Plagiarism
Ochsner Journal uses Crossref Similarity Check plagiarism detection software to check all submissions, including tables and figures, to ensure that none of the material has been previously published. Submissions that are overly duplicative of previously published work are rejected. Submissions with minor duplication are returned to the authors for revision prior to peer review.
Research Ethics and Patient Consent
Ochsner Journal takes research ethics and informed consent seriously. The Methods section of all research submissions involving human or animal subjects must specifically state that institutional review board (IRB)/ethics board or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval was obtained. In cases of IRB waiver, details must be provided. Further, explicit information about how informed consent was obtained must be provided. Case reports will not be considered for publication without the full knowledge and consent of the patient, or in the case of minors, the patient’s parent or guardian. A signed and dated patient consent form is required. Telephone consents will not be accepted. Images of signatures and machine signatures of any type (including Docusign) cannot be accepted. The Ochsner Journal Research Ethics and Patient Consent policy is here.
Preprints and Previously Published Abstracts
Prior submission of a manuscript to a preprint server is not a disqualifier for submission to Ochsner Journal. We will consider articles previously available as preprints, but authors must inform us that the work has been posted on a preprint server and provide the link and/or DOI. If we discover during our plagiarism check that the article is available as a preprint and the author has not provided that information, the paper will be rejected.
Authors are requested to update the prepublication version with a link to the final published article.
Prior publication of a conference abstract is not a disqualifier for submission of the full paper to Ochsner Journal. Authors must inform us that the abstract has been published in a conference proceedings issue and provide the link and/or DOI of the issue. We will investigate copyright to ensure that no violations occur. If we discover during our plagiarism check that the abstract has been published and the author has not provided that information, the paper will be rejected.
Reference Lists
Because references are an important aspect of scholarly publishing, Ochnser Journal expects authors to cite primary sources and to ensure that their reference lists do not contain retracted papers or duplicate references. Papers with substandard reference lists are rejected.
To ensure that the reference lists published in Ochsner Journal do not include retracted articles, we check each citation against the Retraction Watch database. When retracted articles are identified, authors are instructed to remove them from the reference list and substitute a valid reference.