Thank you for choosing to submit your paper to us. These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal’s requirements.


For general guidance on every stage of the publication process, please visit our Author Services website.


For editing support, including translation and language polishing, explore our Editing Services website

This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Contents list

• About the journal
• Peer review
• Preparing your paper
• Guidelines by article type
• Formatting
• References
• Checklist
• Using third-party material in your paper
• Financial and competing interests disclosure
• Clinical Trials Registry
• Complying with ethics of experimentation
• Consent
• Health and safety
• Submitting your paper
• Data Sharing Policy
• Publication charges
• FastTrack and RapidTrack publication
• Copyright options
• Complying with funding agencies
• Accepted Author Version (AAV)
• Open Access
• My Authored Works
• Article reprints

About the journal

Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality, review articles, original research, editorials and drug evaluation articles on drug delivery. Please see the journal's Aims & Scope for information about its focus and peer-review policy.

Please note that this journal only publishes manuscripts in English.

Peer review

Taylor & Francis is committed to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. Once your paper has been assessed for suitability by the editor, it will then be double blind peer-reviewed by independent, anonymous expert referees. Find out more about what to expect during peer review and read our guidance on publishing ethics.

Preparing your paper

All authors submitting to medicine, biomedicine, health sciences, allied and public health journals should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Guidelines by article type

This journal publishes the following article types. Please follow the links to view the guidelines for each article type. You can also visit the Expert Collection page on our Author Services website.

• Review Article
• Original Research
• Technology Evaluation
• Key Paper Evaluation
• Meta-opinion
• Meeting Report
• Letter to the Editor
• Editorial

Formatting

Papers should be submitted in Word format.

File formatting: Keep all formatting to a minimum. Do not assign ‘styles' to headings, extracts or paragraphs. Make sure that the ‘normal' style is used throughout the text. Turn off the automatic hyphenation feature.

Spacing and headings: Headings, sub-headings and title paragraphs should be used to divide the text. Please use numbers (Arabic numerals) to indicate a hierarchy of headings/sub-headings (i.e., 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 2.1.1, 2.1.2 and so on).

Spelling: All articles will be published in American English. Authors are advised to check their work for English spelling and grammar prior to submission. The Editorial Office can assist with the process of preparing and submitting a manuscript with Taylor & Francis Editing Services, offering authors: English language editing, translation (from Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese or Japanese into English), manuscript formatting and figure preparation.

Please see our formatting guide for full instructions.

If you are not able to use the template via the links (or if you have any other template queries) please contact us here.

References

Please use this reference guide when preparing your paper. An EndNote output style is also available to assist you.

Papers or patents of particular interest should be identified using one or two asterisk symbols (* = of interest, ** = of considerable interest), and annotated with a brief sentence explaining why the reference is considered to be of interest.

Checklist: what to include

1. Author details. Please ensure everyone meeting the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) requirements for authorship is included as an author of your paper. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs and social media handles (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn). One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article. Authors' affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted. Read more on authorship.
2. A structured abstract should cover (in the following order) .
3. A structured abstract of no more than 200 words. A structured abstract should cover (in the following order):
   • Introduction: Authors are required to describe the significance of the topic under discussion.
   • Areas covered: Authors are required to describe the research discussed and the literature search undertaken.
   • Expert Opinion/Commentary: Authors are required to summarise briefly their Expert Opinion/Commentary section.
   References must not be included in the abstract.
   Read tips on writing your abstract.
4. You can opt to include a video abstract with your article. Find out how these can help your work reach a wider audience, and what to think about when filming.
5. 5-8 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
6. Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows: For single agency grants: This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx]. For multiple agency grants: This work was supported by the [Funding Agency 1]; under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency 2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency 3] under Grant [number xxxx].
7. Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research. Further guidance on what is a conflict of interest and how to disclose it.
8. Geolocation information. Submitting a geolocation information section, as a separate paragraph before your acknowledgements, means we can index your paper's study area accurately in JournalMap's geographic literature database and make your article more discoverable to others. More information.
9. Data Availability Statement. If there is a data set associated with the paper, please provide information about where the data supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper can be found. Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).  Templates are also available to support authors.
10. Data deposition. If you choose to share or make the data underlying the study open, please deposit your data in a  recognized data repository prior to or at the time of submission. You will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-reserved DOI, or other persistent identifier for the data set.
11. Supplemental online material. Supplemental material can be a video, dataset, fileset, sound file or anything which supports (and is pertinent to) your paper. We publish supplemental material online via Figshare. Find out more about supplemental material and how to submit it with your article.
12. A maximum of five figures. Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour). Figures should be saved as TIFF, PostScript or EPS files.
13. A maximum of five tables. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Please supply editable files.
14. Equations. If you are submitting your manuscript as a Word document, please ensure that equations are editable. More information about mathematical symbols and equations.
15. Units. Please use SI units (non-italicized).

Using third-party material in your paper

You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission. More information on requesting permission to reproduce work(s) under copyright.

Financial and competing interests disclosure

Please include a disclosure of interest statement, using the subheading "Financial and competing interests disclosure." If you have no interests to declare, please state this (suggested wording: The authors report no conflicts of interest). For all NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the disclosure of interest statement. Read more on disclosing conflicts of interest.

Clinical Trials Registry

In order to be published in a Taylor & Francis journal, all clinical trials must have been registered in a public repository at the beginning of the research process (prior to patient enrolment). Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section. The registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization. For a list of registries that meet these requirements, please visit the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). If your country does not require registration, you can still register your trial with http://clinicaltrials.gov/ or https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu/. The registration of all clinical trials facilitates the sharing of information among clinicians, researchers, and patients, enhances public confidence in research, and is in accordance with the ICMJE guidelines.

Complying with ethics of experimentation

Please ensure that all research reported in submitted papers has been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner, and is in full compliance with all relevant codes of experimentation and legislation. All papers which report in vivo experiments or clinical trials on humans or animals must include a written statement in the Methods section. This should explain that all work was conducted with the formal approval of the local human subject or animal care committees (institutional and national), and that clinical trials have been registered as legislation requires. Authors who do not have formal ethics review committees should include a statement that their study follows the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent

All authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements on privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants. Please confirm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person's parent or legal guardian) in any research, experiment, or clinical trial described in your paper has given written consent to the inclusion of material pertaining to themselves, that they acknowledge that they cannot be identified via the paper; and that you have fully anonymized them. Where someone is deceased, please ensure you have written consent from the family or estate. Authors may use this Patient Consent Form, which should be completed, saved, and sent to the journal if requested.

Health and safety

Please confirm that all mandatory laboratory health and safety procedures have been complied with in the course of conducting any experimental work reported in your paper. Please ensure your paper contains all appropriate warnings on any hazards that may be involved in carrying out the experiments or procedures you have described, or that may be involved in instructions, materials, or formulae.

Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice. Authors working in animal science may find it useful to consult the International Association of Veterinary Editors' Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare and Guidelines for the Treatment of Animals in Behavioural Research and Teaching. When a product has not yet been approved by an appropriate regulatory body for the use described in your paper, please specify this, or that the product is still investigational.

Submitting your paper

The Expert Collection uses ScholarOne Manuscripts to manage the peer-review process. If you haven't submitted a paper to this journal before, you will need to create an account in the submission centre. Please read these guidelines and then submit your paper in the relevant Author Centre, where you will find user guides and a helpdesk.

This Expert Collection journal accepts article proposals and presubmission enquiries via direct email to the editorial team. Please read these guidelines and then submit your paper to the Commissioning Editor. Please see our contacts page for details.

Please note that this Expert Collection journal uses Crossref™ to screen papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper to Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review and production processes.

On acceptance, we recommend that you keep a copy of your Accepted Manuscript. Find out more about sharing your work.

Data Sharing Policy

This journal applies the Taylor & Francis Basic Data Sharing Policy. Authors are encouraged to share or make open the data supporting the results or analyses presented in their paper where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid privacy or security concerns.

Authors are encouraged to deposit the dataset(s) in a recognized data repository that can mint a persistent digital identifier, preferably a digital object identifier (DOI) and recognizes a long-term preservation plan. If you are uncertain about where to deposit your data, please see this information regarding repositories.

Authors are further encouraged to cite any data sets referenced in the article and provide a Data Availability Statement.

At the point of submission, you will be asked if there is a data set associated with the paper. If you reply yes, you will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-registered DOI, hyperlink, or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s). If you have selected to provide a pre-registered DOI, please be prepared to share the reviewer URL associated with your data deposit, upon request by reviewers.

Where one or multiple data sets are associated with a manuscript, these are not formally peer reviewed as a part of the journal submission process. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the soundness of data. Any errors in the data rest solely with the producers of the data set(s).

Publication charges

For invited content there are no submission fees or page charges for this journal.

Color figures will be reproduced in color in your online article free of charge. If it is necessary for the figures to be reproduced in color in the print version, a charge will apply.

Charges for color figures in print are £300 per figure ($400 US Dollars; $500 Australian Dollars; €350). For more than 4 color figures, figures 5 and above will be charged at £50 per figure ($75 US Dollars; $100 Australian Dollars; €65). Depending on your location, these charges may be subject to local taxes.

FastTrack and RapidTrack publication

All publications in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery are driven entirely by editorial considerations, and independent peer review. As part of the journal's responsive approach to the publication of timely research results, Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery offers an optional, prioritized Fast Track publication for unsolicited articles.

We have the following service options from which you can choose:

FastTrack:

• Overall submission to online publication in 3-5 weeks.
• Peer review comments within 1-2 weeks.
• Publication support fee based on a charge of $7000/€6200/£5500 per article.

RapidTrack:

• Overall submission to online publication in 7-9 weeks.
• Peer review comments in 3-4 weeks.
• Publication support fee of $3900/€3400/£3000 per article.

StandardTrack:

• Still a responsive and competitively rapid service.
• Overall submission to online publication within 14-16 weeks.
• Peer review comments in 8 weeks.

Please note that all manuscripts (irrespective of the service chosen) are subject to strict and rigorous peer review. Acceptance for publication is solely dependent on the peer-review outcome.

If you would like to discuss or select Fast Track publication, please contact the Commissioning Editor before, or on the day of, submission. Please see our contacts page for our Commissioning Editors' details.

Copyright options

Copyright allows you to protect your original material, and stop others from using your work without your permission. Taylor & Francis offers a number of different license and reuse options, including Creative Commons licenses when publishing open access. Read more on publishing agreements.

Complying with funding agencies

We will deposit all National Institutes of Health or Wellcome Trust-funded papers into PubMedCentral on behalf of authors, meeting the requirements of their respective open access (OA) policies. If this applies to you, please tell our production team when you receive your article proofs, so we can do this for you. Check funders' OA policy mandates here. Find out more about sharing your work.

Accepted Author Version (AAV)

This Expert Collection journal publishes manuscripts online as rapidly as possible (3 days providing the copyright form has been received), as a PDF of the final, accepted (but unedited and uncorrected) paper. This is clearly identified as an unedited manuscript and is referred to as the Accepted Author Version (AAV). No changes will be made to the content of the original paper for the AAV version but, after copy-editing, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof, the final corrected version (the Version of Record [VoR]), will be published, replacing the AAV version.

The VoR is the article version that will appear in an issue of the journal. Both the AAV version and VoR can be cited using the same DOI (digital object identifier). To ensure rapid publication, we ask you to return your signed publishing agreement as quickly as possible, and return corrections within 48 hours of receiving your proofs.

Open Access

This journal gives authors the option to publish open access via our Open Select publishing program, making your paper free to access online immediately on publication. Many funders mandate publishing your research open access; you can check open access funder policies and mandates here.

Taylor & Francis Open Select gives you, your institution or funder the option of paying an article publishing charge (APC) to make an article open access. Please contact  openaccess@tandf.co.uk if you would like to find out more, or go to our Author Services website.

For more information on license options, embargo periods and APCs for this journal please go here.

My Authored Works

On publication, you will be able to view, download and check your article's metrics (downloads, citations and Altmetric data) via My Authored Works on Taylor & Francis Online. This is where you can access every article you have published with us, as well as your free eprints link, so you can quickly and easily share your work with friends and colleagues.

We are committed to promoting and increasing the visibility of your article. Here are some tips and ideas on how you can work with us to promote your research.

Article reprints

You will be sent a link to order article reprints via your account in our production system. For enquiries about reprints, please contact the Taylor & Francis Author Services team at reprints@tandf.co.uk. You can also order print copies of the journal issue in which your article appears.

Queries

Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.

Last updated 22-05-2018