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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Connective Tissue Research.

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

Checked 2026-08-01
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Article types

Review
Clinical Trial
Original Article
Review Article
Letter
Commentary
Editorial
Protocol
Systematic Review
Lectio

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 250 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
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  • Up to five key words should be listed beneath the abstract.
  • Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.
  • A structured abstract of no more than 250 words is to be provided, divided into the following sections: Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.

Keywords

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

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references in Vancouver style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • References should be cited numerically and listed in the order cited.
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  • All references should be compiled at the end of the article in the CSE (Council of Science Editors).
  • 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.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Use of figures that schematically illustrate important concepts is encouraged.
  • Evaluation of the quality of the data using appropriate statistical software should be part of the presentation in the figures and/or tables.
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • The flat image should conform to our standard requirements for figures.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • 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.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

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

  • Authors must also suggest at least three potential reviewers with no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

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

Ethics statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Where applicable, ethics approval documentation (IACUC for animal studies or IRB for human studies) must be submitted.
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  • Review: 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.
  • Authors may use this Patient Consent Form, which should be completed, saved, and sent to the journal if requested.
  • 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 at the beginning of the research process (prior to patient enrolment).
  • Clinical Trial: 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.

Cover letter

  • Letter: Provide the claims and editor-specific context for the cover letter; Articlo creates an editable companion without inventing content.
  • Letter: All submissions must include a duly signed cover letter on official institutional letterhead.
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  • 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.
  • 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.

Title page and author information

  • The e-mail address of the corresponding author should also be included.
  • At least the corresponding author should use an institutional email address; if none is available, this must be explicitly declared during submission.
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  • All authors are required to provide a valid ORCID ID.
  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • Letter: Authors should provide a cover letter on their institutional letterhead that should include the contact details of the corresponding author with an institutional email address.
  • Letter: Authors should provide an institutional letterhead cover letter that should include the contact details of the corresponding author with an institutional email address included.
  • 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

  • A running head with a limit of 55 characters and spaces should also be provided.
  • You may include a maximum of three 3D models per manuscript.
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  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • Review: These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access.
  • Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
  • All parts of the manuscript should be written in a clear font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, double-spaced, with margins of at least one inch on all sides.
  • Manuscript pages should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper.
  • For all NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the declaration of interest statement.
  • The registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization.
  • Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice.
  • Queries Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • Please include line numbers.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • 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.

Reporting guidelines

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

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.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Authorship and originality

  • This should list the title of the article and the full names (first name, middle initial, surname) and institutional addresses for all authors.
  • All authors should adhere to the following timeframe when submitting revisions of their manuscripts: Minor revisions: 30 days.
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  • All authors should adhere to the following timeframe when submitting revisions of their manuscripts: Major revisions: 60 days.
  • All authors should adhere to the following timeframe when submitting revisions of their manuscripts: Reject and resubmit: 180 days.
  • 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).

Article type and manuscript length

  • To ensure clarity and conciseness, the main text should not exceed 1500 words and should not contain an abstract (excluding references, figure legends and tables), with only 1 figure/table and less than 10 references.
  • The main text and tables should be uploaded as Word documents.
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  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; running heard; abstract; Main text (materials and methods, results, and discussion); Data Presentation; Funding; Declaration of Interests; Acknowledgments; References.

Manuscript structure

  • Results that report on gene expression should be corroborated with data on the levels of the corresponding/matching proteins.
  • Mechanistic interpretation of the findings at the cellular, molecular or biomechanical level should be a part of the discussion.
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  • Clinical Trial: All papers which report in vivo experiments or clinical trials on humans or animals must include a written statement in the Methods section.
  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Use the following structure: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

Language and text style

  • Please use American spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
  • Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”.
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  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.

Study reporting guidelines

  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).
  • Clinical Trial: 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.
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What your package checks

Abstract: 250 words
Paper: 1,500 words
References: Vancouver
Declarations: Ethics, Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman, double spacing, 1" margins

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