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Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice and Policy

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Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. We may post articles in advance of official publication.

Fees and charges 

There are no fees or charges associated with publishing manuscripts in PCD. The journal is available free of charge.

Types of articles

PCD publishes a variety of article types, including editorials, essays, original research reports, reviews, community case studies, and announcements. Visit the section on types of articles for complete descriptions, including guidelines on article length.

Copyright 

The author hereby grants, transfers, and assigns to the United States Government for the full term of copyright and all extensions thereof the full and exclusive rights comprised in the copyright in and to the report, article, or other paper (the “work”) published by PCD and the material and contributions contained therein, any Revised Editions thereof and all derivative works based thereon, and all other proprietary rights thereto, in all languages and forms, and in all media of expression now known or later developed, throughout the world. The United States Government will commit the work to the public domain and allow it to be used and reproduced by anyone without permission. An author that includes materials that are copyrighted by a third-party agrees to obtain written permission to ensure that the United States Government may place the work, including said material, in the public domain. If the work was funded by an NIH grant, the author and United States Government agree that author retains the rights necessary to provide the manuscript to (and for display by) PubMed Central.

How to submit a manuscript

PCD uses Manuscript Central for manuscript submission and tracking. Before submitting your manuscript, however, please read all instructions provided for authors in the following sections: types of articles, manuscript requirements, and how to submit a manuscript. Submit a manuscript by visiting PCD Manuscript Central.

Editorial review process

After your article has been accepted for publication, it undergoes a thorough editorial and production process. You will be able to see it at least once (during the proofing stage) before it is published electronically and usually twice (first following an initial edit and second during the proofing stage).

PCD editors review your manuscript in its Word version for organization, clarity, and style. At this point, we adapt your paper to conform to our specifications, which rely primarily on the AMA Manual of Style, 10th Edition. We may make minor changes, but we may also make substantive changes. All changes are made toward one purpose: to make all articles as readable and accurate as possible.

After we make those initial changes, we will send you (the corresponding author) the revised copy by e-mail. Usually, we have a number of queries, and all queries are available for you to see as comments in the Word Track Changes mode. We ask you to respond to these queries by using the comments tool, by embedding the responses (using the highlighter tool, different color font, or Track Changes mode) within the text itself, or by enumerating responses in a return e-mail. You are responsible for indicating changes clearly in the manuscript — unless you highlight them, we will not be able to spot them. It is during this phase of the process that you review the manuscript for scientific accuracy. If by making changes we have changed meaning, please let us know. Please also point out any typographical errors.

After you have responded to our initial questions, the Word document is converted to HyperText Markup Language (HTML), in which the article is displayed in its online format. We review it again for readability and accuracy in HTML, and occasionally we have additional queries for authors. After we have reviewed the HTML carefully, we send you an e-mail with a link and a password so that you can proof the article online. You will have 48 hours to review the proof online. We discourage you at this point from making extensive changes. Rather, we ask you to check details, such as footnotes, table values, and the spelling of authors’ names. Please pay special attention to symbols. During file and font conversions, symbols (e.g., ≤, ≥) and other special formats (especially superscripts) are sometimes lost or changed. During the electronic proofing stage, you will also be able to “click around” the article to see how the links work.

After we make all changes to the HTML version, we convert the HTML document to a PDF (Portable Document Format). Authors do not see the PDF until the article is published online.

Because of our production process, documents produced by PCD, including PDF versions, translations of abstracts, generated images, and other documents or media are not released to the author or to anyone outside of PCD before publication.

 



 



The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors’ affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above. URLs for nonfederal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. URLs do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the federal government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of Web pages found at these URLs.


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This page last reviewed May 15, 2008
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