Frontline Gastroenterology adheres to the highest standards concerning its editorial policies on publication ethics and scientific misconduct. The journal follows guidance produced by bodies that include the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To view all BMJ Journal policies please refer to the BMJ Author Hub policies page, including information about our Editors’ roles and responsibilities. Authors are required to submit a statement that their study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why) and that participants gave informed consent. Our Editors will consider whether the work is morally acceptable as determined by the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. In addition to this, in line with General Medical Council guidelines, an article that contains personal medical information about an identifiable living individual requires patients explicit consent (in the format of a signed BMJ patient consent form) before we will publish it. Please find further details on BMJ research ethics policies (human participants and animals) and consent for publication; including a link to the downloadable consent form.

To make the best decision on how to deal with a manuscript, Frontline Gastroenterology needs to know about any competing interests authors may have; this includes any commercial, financial or non financial associations that may be relevant to the submitted article. Authors must download and complete a copy of the ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form. In addition to this Frontline Gastroenterology ensures that all advertising and sponsorship associated with the journal does not influence editorial decisions, is immediately distinguishable from editorial content and meets all other BMJ guidelines. Please find more information about competing interests and a link to the form. We take seriously all possible misconduct. If an Editor, author or reader has concerns that a submitted article describes something that might be considered to constitute misconduct in research, publication or professional behaviour they should forward their concerns to the journal. The publisher will deal with allegations appropriately following ICMJE and COPE guidelines. Corrections and retractions are considered where an article has already been published; corrections, expressions of concern or a retraction notices will be published as soon as possible in line with the BMJ correction and retraction policy.

Articles are published under an exclusive licence or non-exclusive licence for UK Crown employees or where BMJ has agreed CC BY applies. For US Federal Government officers or employees acting as part of their official duties, the terms are as stated in accordance with our licence terms. Authors or their employers retain copyright. Open access articles can be reused under the terms of the relevant Creative Commons licence to facilitate reuse of the content; please refer to the Frontline Gastroenterology Author Licence for the applicable Creative Commons licences. More information on copyright and authors’ rights.

When publishing in Frontline Gastroenterology, authors choose between three licence types – exclusive licence granted to BMJ, CC-BY-NC and CC-BY (Creative Commons open access licences require payment of an article processing charge). As an author you may wish to post your article in an institutional or subject repository, or on a scientific social sharing network. You may also link your published article to your preprint (if applicable). What you can do with your article, without seeking permission, depends on the licence you have chosen and the version of your article. Please refer to the BMJ author self archiving and permissions policies page for more information.

Preprints foster openness, accessibility and collaboration by allowing authors to make their findings immediately available to the research community and receive feedback on an article before it is submitted to a journal for formal publication. BMJ fully supports and encourages the archiving of preprints in any recognised, not-for-profit server such as medRxiv. BMJ does not consider the posting of an article in a dedicated preprint repository to be prior publication.

Preprints are reports of work that have not been peer-reviewed; Preprints should therefore not be used to guide clinical practice, health-related behaviour or health policy. For more information, please refer to our Preprint policy page.

Frontline Gastroenterology submissions are predominantly unsolicited, all articles submitted are subject to peer review. The journal operates single anonymised peer review whereby the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author; usually two external reviewer reports are obtained before an Original research or Review article is accepted for publication. Articles authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team are independently peer reviewed; an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for their own article. For more information on what to expect during the peer review process please refer to BMJ Author Hub – your paper’s journey. BMJ is committed to transparency. Every article we publish includes a description of its provenance (commissioned or not commissioned) and whether it was internally or externally peer reviewed. BMJ requests that all reviewers adhere to a set of basic principles and standards during the peer review process; these are based on the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Please refer to our peer review terms and conditions policy page.

Plagiarism is 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. BMJ is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. BMJ runs manuscripts through iThenticate during the peer review process. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting www.ithenticate.com. Reader responses, questions and comments to published content are welcomed by Frontline Gastroenterology; these should be submitted electronically via the journals website. Please find further details on how to publish a response and the terms and requirements.

BMJ and the British Society of Gastroenterology are committed to ensuring that good quality research is published. Our article transfer service helps authors find the best journal for their research while providing an easy and smooth publication process. As part of this service, once authors agree to transfer their manuscript all versions, supplementary files and peer reviewer comments are automatically transferred, without the need to resubmit or reformat. Authors who submit to Gut and whose work is rejected on the grounds of priority will be offered the option of transferring to Frontline Gastroenterology or BMJ Open Gastroenterology.

Please note that the article transfer service does not guarantee acceptance but you should receive a quicker initial decision on your manuscript. Contact the Transfer Editor at transfers@bmj.com

Please review the below article type specifications including the required article lengths, illustrations, table limits and reference counts. The word count excludes the title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements, contributions and references. Manuscripts should be as succinct as possible. For further support when making your submission please refer to the resources available on the BMJ Author Hub. Here you will find information on writing and formatting your research through to the peer review process and promoting your paper. We encourage authors to ensure that research articles are written in accordance with the relevant research reporting guideline. You may also wish to use the language editing and translation services provided by BMJ Author Services.

Original research Systematic review Review/Leading article Education in practice Case report Short report Opinion Commentary News Guideline review Curriculum based clinical review Highlights from the literature Inside view Images Letter  Supplement

Original research includes controlled trials, intervention studies, audits, quality assurance studies and innovations in service delivery (such as a change in process or skill mix profile that achieves measurable improvements in patient outcomes and/or costs). Research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc) should be submitted as Systematic reviews. Please include the key messages of your article after your abstract using the following headings. This section should be no more than 3-5 sentences and should be distinct from the abstract; be succinct, specific and accurate.

• What is already known on this topic – summarise the state of scientific knowledge on this subject before you did your study and why this study needed to be done
• What this study adds – summarise what we now know as a result of this study that we did not know before
• How this study might affect research, practice or policy – summarise the implications of this study

This will be published as a summary box after the abstract in the final published article.

Word count: up to 2,500 words Structured abstract: up to 250 words: ‘Objective’, ‘Design/Method’, ‘Results’, ‘Conclusion’ Tables/Illustrations: up to 4 References: limited to those critical to the manuscript

This article type includes all research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc). Please include the research type in your title to make the nature of your study clear.

Please see Original research for more guidance on article requirements.

Reviews are usually commissioned; authors are invited to discuss directly with the Editor possible topics for review. Research reviews that systematically synthesise evidence (e.g. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Scoping reviews, Mixed methods reviews, etc) are classified by the journal as Systematic reviews and must be submitted as such.

Word count: up to 3,000 words Abstract: up to 250 words Tables/ Illustrations: up to 6 References: limited to those critical to the manuscript Please include a bullet point list of 6-7 key points.

Education and practice articles include the ‘How to…’, ‘My approach to…’ series, education and training, and management flow charts.

Introduction setting out the article’s purpose: 150 words Main text (all types except ‘My approach to…’): 2,500 words Main text (‘My approach to…’): 1,200 words Tables/Illustrations: 2-4; discuss with the Editorial Office if more are required. References: limited to those critical to the manuscript.

Case reports are rarely published unless they are novel or there is an important message for clinical practice. A signed BMJ patient consent form is required for all case reports.

Word count: up to 1,200 words (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, and references) Abstract: up to 150 words Tables/ Illustrations: up to 2 References: up to 5

Word count: up to 1200 words (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, and references) Abstract: up to 150 words Tables/Illustrations: up to 2 small tables or images References: up to 5

Opinion articles debate issues with an emphasis on the health economic balance and practicality of delivery, not just the clinical justification.

Word count: up to 1,500, including an introduction setting out the reason for the paper Tables/Illustrations: up to 2

These are commissioned by the Editorial team to provide background and context for published articles.

Word count: up to 1,200 words Abstract: not required Tables/ Illustrations: 1 figure or table References: limited to 5

News articles highlight societies’ news and events of relevance to a wider arena, progress of trials/trials being planned.

Word count: up to 500

Guideline review articles aim to provide a concise summary and commentary of recently published guidelines. The article should draw attention to the key developments in the field, particularly where practice recommendations have changed, or points of controversy and clinical equipoise. Please contact the the editorial office  with potential titles and for more information before submitting.

Word-count: up to 1,200 words Tables/Illustrations: up to 2 References: maximum 10

Frontline Gastroenterology curriculum-based clinical reviews are trainee-focused; mapped to specific competencies in the Gastroenterology curriculum. Topics focus on training in areas that are rarely seen outside of specialist gastroenterology clinics or on generic features of the curriculum such as ethics and medico-legal aspects of care. By mapping articles and associated SCE style questions to the curriculum, trainees will be provided with knowledge-based training.

Word count: up to 2,500 Introduction: State which numbered competency within the Gastroenterology curriculum the article refers along with an accompanying box outlining the competency References: up to 15 (mainly high quality guideline and reviews) SCE Style ‘best of 5’ questions: 2-3 Please contact the editorial office if you are interested in writing a curriculum review.

Each edition will include a breif review of 2-3 current articles in the gastrointestinal and hepatology literature that have a clinical impact on practice.

Please contact the editorial office if you are interested in writing for Highlights from the literature.

Inside view reports unusual images that make an educational point. Since the aim of these articles is to stimulate the reader to think about the case, the title should be ambiguous and not give away the final diagnosis immediately (e.g. “Recurrent vomiting in 90 year old female”). The quality of the image must be at least 300dpi and in TIFF, JPEG, GIF or EPS format. Videos are also welcome and should be in .mov, .avi, or .mpeg format. A signed BMJ patient consent form is required for all case reports.

Inside view has two parts:

1. Introduction – a brief clinical introduction to a case (maximum 200 words) followed by an image and a question designed to stimulate the reader to think about what the image shows. The legend should not indicate the diagnosis but should simply describe the nature of the image (e.g. ‘endoscopic view of second part of duodenum’).
2. Answer – appears later in the issue (maximum 200 words) outlines a brief description of the key diagnostic features of the image, the outcome, and a teaching point. Inside view will not include more than 5 references.

These can also be submitted and should be a clinically relevant and important image or images with up to 200 words of text and 5 references.

A signed BMJ patient consent form is required for all case reports.

The editor encourages submissions of important and topical observations or original exploratory research as a letter to the editor.

Word count: up to 500 words Abstract: not required Tables/ Illustrations: up to 2 References: up to 4

BMJ journals are willing to consider publishing supplements to regular issues. Supplement proposals may be made at the request of:

• The journal editor, an editorial board member or a learned society may wish to organise a meeting, sponsorship may be sought and the proceedings published as a supplement.
• The journal editor, editorial board member or learned society may wish to commission a supplement on a particular theme or topic. Again, sponsorship may be sought.
• The BMJPG itself may have proposals for supplements where sponsorship may be necessary.
• A sponsoring organisation, often a pharmaceutical company or a charitable foundation, that wishes to arrange a meeting, the proceedings of which will be published as a supplement.

In all cases, it is vital that the journal’s integrity, independence and academic reputation is not compromised in any way.

For further information on criteria that must be fulfilled, download the supplements guidelines. When contacting us regarding a potential supplement, please include as much of the information below as possible.

• Journal in which you would like the supplement published
• Title of supplement and/or meeting on which it is based
• Date of meeting on which it is based
• Proposed table of contents with provisional article titles and proposed authors
• An indication of whether authors have agreed to participate
• Sponsor information including any relevant deadlines
• An indication of the expected length of each paper Guest Editor proposals if appropriate