Instruction for Authors

1. About the journal
2. Peer review process and policies
3. Conflict of Interest (COI)
4. Copyright
5. Ethical issues
6. Charges
7. Accepted manuscripts
8. Manuscript submission
9. Article types
10. Preparing your manuscript
11. Editorial Office contact information

1. About the journal

The Environmental and Occupational Health Practice (EOH-P), a peer reviewed journal of the Japan Society for Occupational Health, which takes a broader approach than JOH, welcoming papers from across the occupational health and allied areas. EOH-P primarily seeks to publish reports on knowledge gained through practice, which has important empirical value for occupational health. It also seeks to publish papers on environment issues.

More specifically, the scope of this journal covers papers describing practical activities and good practice in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), as well as reports on environmental issues that remain problematic, such as exposure to high concentrations of toxic substances in the fields of not only occupational setting but also natural or urban environment. The journal also actively discusses issues and topics without much previous coverage, such as OSH in medium and small-sized enterprises and for immigrant workers, as well as OSH problems encountered in general clinical care. The journal also welcomes practitioners’ expressing concerns for future research.

EOH-P also accepts reports on the development or usage of tools for OSH activities, exploratory research that has the potential for expansion (including scale development studies), and methodology studies detailing new initiatives or adjustments useful for work practices. The journal’s publication criteria are based on the rigor of the methodology and the appropriate interpretations so that studies reporting negative results are also considered for publication. Specialized OSH videos and open data are welcomed as supplementary files.

Six fields and the areas they cover in the EOH-P

Toxicology
Toxicology in chemical substances including experimental and epidemiological studies, exposure assessment and biological monitoring in working conditions or environment.

Ergonomics
Interdisciplinary research concerning interactions among humans and other elements of physical, psychosocial, cognitive, and organizational environments for optimizing health, safety, well-being, and system performance.

Mental health/psychosocial factors
Factors associated with the mental health of workers; psychosocial factors at work and health outcomes.

Occupational health practice/Occupational health practitioner
Role and activities of occupational health practitioners; regulations related to occupational health practice.

Health promotion
Factors that contribute to many health and safety problems among workers, measures for protection and health promotion of the health of workers.

Epidemiology
Epidemiological studies, trends of health problems in workers, international surveys, studies utilizing risk factors beyond the workplace such as socioeconomic factors and specific epidemiological methodologies.

2. Peer review process and policies

The Journal operates single-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is known to the editors and to the reviewers, but that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors.

The Editorial Board decides whether a contribution will be sent for peer review, and if so, it will consider the peer reviewers’ reports and make the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript for publication. The Editorial Board reserves the final right to decide the section (manuscript type) in which the paper will be published if it is found to be acceptable for publication.

Submission of a manuscript to the EOH-P implies that it has not been published elsewhere, that it does not duplicate material already published in any language elsewhere, and that it is not in submission elsewhere.

Preprints As an author, you retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels and this does not prevent submission to the Journal. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including adding your published paper’s DOI.

Screening for Misconduct Manuscripts will be screened using iThenticate to help detect publication misconduct including plagiarism and redundant publication.

Embargo policy
Accepted manuscripts are embargoed until they appear online at EOH-P-in-press. No information in accepted manuscripts can be communicated to the media prior to lifting of the embargo.

Authorship
Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author.

The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving these cases.
Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content, write code, or process data) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
EOH-P supports the use of ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), which is a unique and persistent identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher.
The submitting authors are required to provide an ORCID iD at the time of submission. Upon acceptance of a manuscript, the author’s iDs will be deposited to Crossref to enable authors to link their unique identify with their research work and displayed in the Journal’s website.

Advertising Policy
The journal does not use commercial advertising on journal websites. It may include the logos of non-profit academic organizations and institutions on its site without advertising purposes.

3. Conflict of Interest (COI)

Conflict of Interest and Sources of Funding Authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts of interest (COI) exists or not. This includes, but not limited to, agreements for research support (including research funding and provision of equipment or materials), honoraria (such as lecture fees), consulting, employment, promotional fees, advisory role, stock ownership, patent/licensing fees and any other financial, institutional or personal relationships with biotechnology manufacturers, a pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that has any interest in the subject matter, materials, or process (es) discussed in the manuscript.
Authors Any possible COI related to the study presented in the manuscript must be disclosed in the title page, with the heading “Conflicts of Interest” by using the following examples for each author:

If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the disclosures will be published as they appear in this section. If there are no COIs, the authors should state “The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest” in the title page.

All sources of funding, from entities such as government or non-profit organizations, which are relevant to the study should be acknowledged in the title page with the heading “Sources of Funding”.

Peer Reviewers Individuals that have a conflict of interest relating to a submitted manuscript should recuse themselves and will not be assigned to oversee, handle, or peer review the manuscript. If during peer review an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

Editors and Editorial Board Members At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an Editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another Editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled.

4. Copyright

EOH-P is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons License.
The following license are available:

• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) license
• Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs (CC- BY-NC-ND) license

All Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust funded authors will be directed to the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY).

Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article. However, anyone may download, reuse, copy, reprint, distribute, or modify articles published in the EOH-P for not-for-profit purposes, if they cite the original authors and source properly. If anyone remix, transform, or build upon the material, the user must distribute their contributions under the same license. For for-profit or commercial use, please contact the author to obtain permission.

5. Ethical issues

The journal’s publication criteria are based on high ethical standards. Clinical research included in articles which reports on human subjects should follow the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, and that the research had been approved by the relevant institutional or national review board prior to the initiation of the study. If no approval from any review board was required, that must be explicitly stated in the manuscript. The members of the Japan Society of Occupational Health (JSOH) may apply to the ethical review committee of Japan Society for Occupational Health (JSOH) for internal review if the review board is not available at their institution prior to conducting the research.

Articles reporting on research on human subjects must obtain the informed consent from the participants. Any data or information such as patient names, initials, hospital patient identification codes (patient ID), specific dates, or any other information which may identify participants must not be presented anywhere in the manuscript including the figures, tables and videos.

Animal experiments are expected to be performed in accordance with Guidelines for Animal Experiments established at each institution.

Clinical trials should be registered before enrollment of the first subject in accordance with the criteria outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). When reporting primary or secondary analyses from a clinical trial, follow these criteria:

• Provide the trial registration number at the end of the Abstract.
• When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference.
• If your data have been deposited in a public repository and/or are being used in a secondary analysis, please state at the end of the Abstract the unique, persistent data set identifier, and repository name and number.
• When submitting the manuscript, you must disclose any protocol alterations and all posting of results of the submitted work or closely related work in registries.
• In reporting randomized clinical trials, you must comply with published CONSORT guidelines.
• Complete the recommended checklist and be prepared to provide it to the editorial office upon request.
• Present the recommended trial flow diagram as a figure in the manuscript or as supplementary material.
• If your manuscript reports on a randomized Phase II/III trial, you must provide a brief description of the statistical plan of the original study that includes the primary and secondary endpoints, power calculation, and sample size.

Where available, registration numbers should be provided not only for the trial you are reporting but also for any other trial mentioned in the manuscript. When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference.

Observational studies For observational studies, including case–control, cohort and cross-sectional studies, the EOH-P requires authors to follow the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement and relevant checklist.

Where such studies include routinely collected health data, the EOH-P requires authors to follow the Reporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely-collected health Data (RECORD) statement and relevant checklist.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses We encourage authors of systematic reviews or meta-analyses of randomised trials and other evaluation studies to follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and relevant checklist.

For meta-analyses of observational studies, we encourage authors to follow the Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines. The study protocol, if there is one, should be submitted as a supporting document, clearly labelled ‘for reviewing purposes only’.

Outcome measurements For outcome measurements such as patient-reported outcome measure, the EOH-P requires authors to follow the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN).

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Authors are required to include a data availability statement in their paper. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list.

6. Charges

Article processing charge (APC) of 60,000 yen (80,000 yen for non-members of JSOH) will be charged upon acceptance of manuscript for publication in EOH-P.
We will waive or discount charges for corresponding authors covered by the Research4Life Initiative(“Group A” and “Group B” countries).
A society membership discount will be applied when either the Corresponding Author or the First Author is a member of the Japan Society for Occupational Health (JSOH) at the time of submission.

The APC must be paid via PayPal™ or bank transfer in Japanese yen (JPY). Instruction for the payment will be sent upon acceptance of the article for submission.
The payment is due within 14 days of acceptance of the article for publication. All manuscript will be withdrawn if the payment is not received by the due date.
The color figure(s) will appear in color free of charge to authors.

Publication of Letters to the Editor will cost 10,000 JPY per Letter not withstanding membership.

7. Accepted manuscripts

Research articles accepted for publication in the EOH-P will appear initially as author-supplied unedited files online in the EOH-P-in-Press section on the J-STAGE website shortly after acceptance. The article will be citable using a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) code. The date the articles was included on the website will be considered the publication date. Any substantive changes at this stage will require an erratum to be published. Articles will be published in order of acceptance as journal space permits.

Copyediting
Accepted manuscripts will undergo copyediting. The authors of the accepted manuscript are asked to make appropriate changes requested by the Editorial Office. The authors will be asked to submit the corrected manuscript to the Editorial Office as a Microsoft Word file (s).

Page proofs will be made available once to the submitting author.

Offprints
Offprints can be ordered upon acceptance of your manuscript.
Accepted manuscripts can also be accessed from the journal’s page on the J-STAGE website free of charge. Authors can download the PDFS of their accepted articles and send then to colleagues for noncommercial use.

8. Manuscript submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online through the web site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eohp. Authors can suggest preferred/non-preferred reviewers for their manuscript, but the editors are not obliged to use/not to use author suggested reviewers. In the EOH-P editorial process, six field editors and their associate editors will handle submitted papers according to their relevant areas of expertise. Please choose 2 appropriate fields in the order you prefer, as this will help ensure a prompt and efficient editorial process. The editorial board may allocate papers to fields other than those chosen by the authors when appropriate, but authors should endeavor to select the appropriate fields. Selection of inappropriate fields will delay the editorial process.

As described in 1. About the journal, EOH-P accepts reports on the development or usage of tools for OSH activities, exploratory research that has the potential for expansion, and methodology studies detailing new initiatives (i.e., study profiles) or adjustments useful for work practices in above mentioned fields.

The following types of contributions will be considered for publication.

9. Article types

The following types of contributions will be considered for publication.

Articles with new findings and original research results, research methodologies, research materials and interpretations of the authors’ own or of other research results and articles of a similar nature.
Articles should generally use the following format: Introduction, Subjects (or Materials) and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Subheadings and paragraph titles should be used whenever possible.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 40
• Figures/ tables—6 maximum

Review, evaluation or commentary of a number of research reports on a specific theme.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— no limit
• Figures/ tables—6 maximum

Articles with limited but original data and having the same format as Original Article.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 15
• Figures/ tables—2 maximum

Reports on cases of interest in the field of occupational health and/or environment, clinical experiences caused by occupational or environmental hazard concerning scientifical improvement in working conditions or environment.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 15
• Figures/ tables—6 maximum

Reports on investigation into the status of occupational health in workplaces with relevant data. International issues can be published as articles under the heading of “Occupational Health and Safety in the World.”

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 40
• Figures/ tables—6 maximum

Reports on a practical and timely method or technique, well thought out in the occupational field, to improve occupational health practitioners’ activities.
Good Practices should generally use the following format: Issue (or Background), Viewpoint on improvement, Implementation, Effect/Impact/Outcome, and Implication.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—Not required (maximum word count: 250)
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 15
• Figures/ tables—2 maximum

Short articles conveying authors’ own opinions or comments on various aspects of occupational health. Opinion also includes Issues or topics encountered in occupational health practices and should be explored in future research. Scientific based recommendation can be published from scientific committees as articles under the heading of “Recommendation”.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract (or unstructured if appropriate)—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 40
• Figures/ tables—6 maximum

Letters to the Editor on material published in the EOH-P are welcome. When appropriate, the journal may invite replies.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—Not required
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 5
• Figures/ tables—1 maximum

More like a review but written from the author’s point of view. These focus on a specific field or discipline, discuss current advances or future directions, and may include original data as well as personal insights and opinions.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract (or unstructured if appropriate)—maximum word count: 250
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 40
• Figures/ tables—6 maximum

Short, decisive observations and findings that generally relate to a contemporary issue, such as recent research findings, but can also include discussion on difficulties and possible solutions in a field of research.

Each piece should include:

• Structured Abstract—Not required (maximum word count: 250)
• Keywords—maximum of 6 and minimum of 3
• References— maximum of 15
• Figures/ tables—2 maximum

10. Preparing your manuscript

Manuscripts should be prepared in the following manner. Submissions that do not conform to the instructions will be returned unread. The Editorial Office holds the right not to publish an article at any stage of the submission, review, and copyediting if the manuscript does not follow the required format and style.

Manuscripts should be written in English. Non-native English authors are requested to seek the assistance of an English-proficient colleague or commercial English editing services before submission of manuscripts to the journal. Manuscripts with poor readability will not be sent to the review process.

Authors must provide a cover letter with their manuscript. This should state relevant details of any prior publication of the manuscript or material within the manuscript, including online publication as a preprint or academic dissertation. Authors should also declare any possible conflict of interest and/ or study funding.

Preprints, academic dissertation The submitting author must disclose in their cover letter and provide copies of all related or similar preprints, dissertations, manuscripts, published papers, and reports by the same authors (i.e., those containing substantially similar content or using the same, similar, or a subset of data) that have been previously published or posted electronically or are under consideration elsewhere at the time of manuscript submission. You must also provide a concise explanation of how the submitted manuscript differs from these related manuscripts and papers. All related previously published papers should be cited as references and described in the submitted manuscript.

All papers should be organized to include the following: a title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, figure legends, tables and figures.
Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the abstract. Line numbers should be put in the left margin of each page of the text. Double spacing should be used throughout, and the right margin should be unjustified.

Please include the following:

• The title of the paper
• All author names and affiliations
• Mailing address and email address of one corresponding author
• The number of words in the abstract and the text
• The number of tables and figures

Text abstracts must be written in English. Abstracts should be structured, have a maximum length of 250 words, and must not contain reference citations or abbreviations. The Abstract should be structured using the following subheadings: Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.

For all submissions, give a list of keywords in alphabetical order. The authors are recommended to refer to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) selected from main headings listed in Medical Subject Headings in Index Medicus, published by the National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

The following units and symbols should be used for quantities and measurements: km, m, cm, mm, μm, nm, Å; kg, g, mg, μg; l, ml, μl; The following abbreviations can be used after a slash (/): yr (year), mo (month), wk (week), h (hour), min (minute), s (sec), ms (millisecond), μs.

Please refer to the examples of references listed at the end of these instructions. References should be numbered according to the order in which they appear in the text and should be listed at the end of the text. For more information about this reference style, please see the AMA Manual of Style.
Please ensure that the references include the most current articles and information. Reference numbers should be indicated in the text with numbers followed by a closing parenthesis, e.g. ,…1). …2,3), …1-5).

Tables and figures should be of adequate quality to withstand reduction in size. Each table and figure should constitute a single unit of communications; that is, it should be completely informative in itself without reading the body of the text.

• Instructions for Tables
  – Formatting: Do not use vertical lines.
  – Fonts: Regular fonts only. Do not use bold fonts.
• Odds Ratio and Hazard Ratio
  – Confidence interval for the odds ratio and hazard ratio should be reported.
  – Give 2 significant digits for odds ratio.

p-value
– Include 3 digits after the decimal of precision.
– Do not include the zero before the decimal point except for the values exceeding 1.0(e.g., p<.01).
– The letter “p” must be in lowercase and italicized, and place a hyphen “-” between “p” and “value”. Example: p-value

10.10. Supplementary material

Supplementary material for a paper will be published. Supplementary materials should be submitted in separate files. Please select the “Supplementary Material (for publication)” from the pull-down menu on the manuscript submission system at the time of submission.

• Supplementary material may consist of large quantities of original data that relate to the paper, e.g., appendixes, additional tables and/or figures, etc.
• Legends must be brief, self-sufficient explanations of the supplementary files. Supplementary material is to be numbered and referred to as Supplementary Fig.1, Supplementary Table 1, etc.

After acceptance for publication, supplementary material will be published as received from the author.

Data profiles cover any dataset of use to practitioners as well as researchers in occupational health field. Each profile should provide sufficient detail to enable practitioners and researchers to understand the scope of the resource and how to access and make best use of the data. Please use links to provide more detailed information if necessary. Describe a data resource to which data access is either open via a website or for which the author(s) or their institution have the right to grant at least collaborative access via a straightforward and transparent application process (word counts 2000).

EOH-P accepts video material to support and enhance authors’ occupational health practices or scientific research. Authors who have video files that they wish to submit with their article are encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file’s content.
In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB per file,100 MB in total.

11. Editorial Office contact information

Questions regarding the instructions for authors should be addressed to the journal office via e-mail (eohp@letterpress.co.jp).

Examples of references

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote for reference management and formatting. The Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Style is available in EndNote.
The examples follow the format of the Uniform Requirements of Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.

Journal article
•  King VM, Armstrong DM, Apps R, Trott JR. Numerical aspects of pontine, lateral reticular, and inferior olivary projections to two paravermal cor­tical zones of the cat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 1998; 390: 537-551.

Book

•  Voet D, Voet JG. Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1990.
  Please note that journal title abbreviations should conform to the practices of Chemical Abstracts.

Internet document

•  American Cancer Society. Cancer facts & figures. http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2003PWSecured.pdf. Published January 2003. Accessed March 3, 2003.