Articlo
Check my manuscript free

Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Annals of Human Biology.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-01
Check readiness freePrepare this manuscript

Article types

Review
Clinical Trial
Review Article
Data Note
Research Article
Lectio
Commentary
Perspective
Editorial
Methods Article
Protocol
Case Report
Letter

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 200 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
Show 7 more
  • Should contain a structured abstract of 200 words.
  • Short reports generally follow the same format as full papers, except that a structured abstract is not required.
  • The abstract structure should be as follows: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.
  • Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section.
  • Manuscripts should be divided into sections entitled Title, Abstract, Background, Sample, Data Collection, Data Management and Statistical Analysis, Results, Comment and References.
  • There are no strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to evaluate a manuscript: abstract, author affiliation, figures, tables, funder information, references.
  • A structured abstract should cover (in the following order): the questions investigated, the design, essential findings and main conclusions of the study under the following sub-headings: Background, Aim, Subjects and methods, Results, Conclusion.

Keywords

  • Provide 3-6 keywords chosen by the author.
  • Should contain between 3 and 6 keywords.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • Typically, they should have a maximum of approximately 1500 words, have no more than two tables or figures, and a maximum of around fifteen references.
Show 6 more
  • All textual and reference formatting should be according to the usual guidelines for authors.
  • For manuscripts submitted in LaTeX format a.bib reference file must be included.
  • All bibliographic entries must contain a corresponding in-text citation.
  • Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • They should be written in an informative style permitting their use, without revision, by abstracting services, give essential details of research findings without further reference to the text, and avoid generalisations and nonessential information.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript.
  • The text supporting the Figures and/or Tables should amount to no more than three pages of A4, 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced or approximately 750 words.
Show 5 more
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Figures should be of sufficient resolution to enable refereeing.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • Tables and Figures should not duplicate content so that, for example, the results of a survey of allele or haplotype frequencies or of children's heights would be presented either as Tables of height by age and sex or as Figures but not in both formats.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, 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].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Data availability statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Authors are required to cite any data sets referenced in the article and provide a Data Availability Statement.

Ethics statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • In settings where ethics approval for non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys) is not required, authors must include a statement to explain this.
Show 6 more
  • Authors should familiarise themselves with our policy on participant/patient privacy and informed consent.
  • Review: All original research papers involving humans, animals, plants, biological material, protected or non-public datasets, collections or sites, must include a written statement in the Methods section, confirming ethical approval has been obtained from the appropriate local ethics committee or Institutional Review Board and that where relevant, informed consent has been obtained.
  • Editorial: Consent All authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements and Taylor & Francis Editorial Policies on privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants.
  • Authors must include a statement to confirm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person’s parent or legal guardian) in any type of qualitative or quantitative research, has given informed consent to participate in the research.
  • Case Report: a clinical case report detailing their medical history, identifiable images or media content, etc), authors must include a statement to confirm that they have obtained written informed consent to publish the details from the affected individual (or their parents/guardians if the participant in not an adult or unable to give informed consent; or next of kin if the participant is deceased).
  • Case Report: For submissions where patients or participants can be potentially identified (e.g.

Blinded manuscript

  • The PDF should be uploaded as the “Manuscript - with author details”/”Manuscript - anonymous” file.

Cover letter

  • Using Third-Party Material in your Paper You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
  • Review: 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.
Show 1 more
  • 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.

Author contributions

  • Submitting authors should be prepared to submit CRediT roles for themselves and their co-authors (where applicable) as part of the submission process.

Supplementary files

  • Lectio: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Letter: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
Show 12 more
  • Review: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Protocol: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Data Note: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Editorial: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Case Report: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Perspective: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Clinical Trial: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Review Article: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Methods Article: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Research Article: Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.
  • Embed or attach the author-supplied supplementary material so Articlo can extract and label it for the package.
  • Within your supplementary file you should also outline any other publications that have addressed similar research questions within the same dataset.

Title page and author information

  • Author names and affiliations should follow the title according to the regular guidelines for authors.
  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
Show 1 more
  • 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.

Article structure and word limits

  • Title: the title should clearly state the contents of the survey, e.g., 'The heights and weights of London children aged 6 to 18 years in 2005'.
  • Should be at between 2500 and 4000 words in length.
Show 29 more
  • A typical paper for this journal should be no more than 5000 words.
  • Research papers, which must report original research, will typically be between 5000 and 8000 words, debating and exploring theoretical and methodological issues, methodological approaches, and original studies relevant to human biology.
  • Review: These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Authors should refer to all data files and datasets that have been deposited in adequate repositories.
  • These should include adequate and appropriate validation to be considered.
  • Any datasets associated with the paper must publish all experimental controls and make full datasets available where possible.
  • If there are concerns about identifying factors in datasets, these should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission.
  • Please note, this is not required for submission but is encouraged.
  • Please note that discounts must be applied at the Charges stage of the submission process when the APC quote is confirmed and may not be considered after submission.
  • Please contact rachel.deevey@outlook.com to find out how to obtain this discount before you submit your article.
  • Note that, regardless of the file format of the original submission, an editable version of the article must be supplied at the revision stage.
  • Structured abstracts are not required for Short Reports.
  • For all NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the declaration of interest statement.
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical trials should be registered prospectively – i.e. before participant recruitment.
  • Editorial: Authors of retrospectively registered trials must be prepared to provide further information to the journal editorial office if requested.
  • Clinical Trial: The clinical trial registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization.
  • All research studies on humans (individuals, samples, or data) must have been performed in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki.
  • Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice.
  • You will also need to upload your LaTeX source files, which should be uploaded as a single zip file alongside your submission and marked as “LaTeX Source Files”.
  • Queries Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.
  • Wherever possible details of the literature search methodology should be provided, i.e. the databases searched (normally Medline and at least one or two other databases), the search terms and inclusive dates, and any selectivity criteria imposed.
  • Data Note: Data notes should only describe the data.
  • Perspective: Commentaries should be short focussed articles that give a perspective on news items and how the issues raised therein relate to Human Biology and specifically current research within Human Biology.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical Trials Registry In order to be published in a Taylor & Francis journal, all clinical trials must have been registered in a public repository, ideally at the beginning of the research process (prior to participant recruitment).
  • The process of obtaining consent to publish should include sharing the article with the individual (or whoever is consenting on their behalf), so that they are fully aware of the content of the article before it is published.
  • Please note that data should only be shared if it is ethically correct to do so, where this does not violate the protection of human subjects, or other valid ethical, privacy, or security concerns.
  • If the data cannot be made open, we recommend it is still preserved in a FAIR-compliant repository with appropriate access and controls in place.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.

Statistical reporting

  • Include or confirm the statistical reporting required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
Show 1 more
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparatio n to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.

Article type and manuscript length

  • Commentary: The commentary articles should be no more than 1000 words in length (including title and author information).
  • Data Note: Data notes should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; data availability statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).
Show 2 more
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; author contributions statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).
  • Structure Your paper should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).

Manuscript structure

  • Data Note: Data notes do not include any interpretation or conclusion of the data (see preparing your paper).
  • Introduction: This should explain the rationale, the objective and the importance for creating the dataset(s).
Show 11 more
  • The full methods description must be sufficiently detailed to allow others to reproduce the data.
  • Data description: This section should be purely descriptive and not offer an interpretation of the data.
  • Background: this section should include a brief (one paragraph) statement of the historical setting of the survey.
  • Comment: this final section of text should contain a maximum of two paragraphs of comment if appropriate.
  • Where directly relevant to the issue under discussion, related articles published in Annals of Human Biology should be cited.
  • Data Note: For Data Notes, authors are required to make the data and materials supporting the results or analyses presented in their paper freely available.
  • Review / Review Article: The body of a review article should be a comprehensive, scholarly evidence-based review of the literature, accompanied by critical analysis and leading to reasonable conclusions.
  • Materials and Methods section should provide the full and detailed procedure description, as a separate text document which should be uploaded together with the data to the data repository.
  • Within the 'Comment' section there should be information regarding access to the dataset, i.e., whether the data is already in a public access domain or will be in the future and, if not, how access may be obtained by interested researchers.
  • Review: For review articles, abstracts should be structured as follows: Context, Objective, Methods (including data sources, study selection and data extraction), Results and Conclusion.
  • Clinical Trial: However, for clinical trials that have not been registered prospectively, Taylor & Francis journals requires retrospective registration to ensure the transparent and complete dissemination of all clinical trial results which ultimately impact human health.

Language and text style

  • Discount codes must be presented at quotation and cannot be applied retrospectively.

Authorship and originality

  • 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).

Study reporting guidelines

  • For animal studies, approval must have been obtained from the local or institutional animal use and care committee.
Save journal and get updates Download complete checklist

What your package checks

Abstract: 200 words
Paper: 8,000 words
Keywords: 3-6 keywords
Declarations: Data availability, Ethics, Artificial intelligence
Format: double spacing

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source