Saving time and money in biomedical publishing: the case for free-format submissions with minimal requirements.

BACKGROUND: Manuscript preparation and the (re)submission of articles can create a significant workload in academic jobs. In this exploratory analysis, we estimate the time and costs needed to meet the diverse formatting requirements for manuscript submissions in biomedical publishing. METHODS: We reviewed 302 leading biomedical journals' submission guidelines and extracted information on the components that tend to vary the most among submission guidelines (the length of the title, the running title, the abstract, and the manuscript; the structure of the abstract and the manuscript, number of items and references allowed, whether the journal has a template). We estimated annual research funding lost due to manuscript formatting by calculating hourly academic salaries, the time lost to reformatting articles, and quantifying the total number of resubmissions per year. We interviewed several researchers and senior journal editors and editors-in-chief to contextualize our findings and develop guidelines that could help both biomedical journals and researchers work more efficiently. RESULTS: Among the analyzed journals, we found a huge diversity in submission requirements. By calculating average researcher salaries in the European Union and the USA, and the time spent on reformatting articles, we estimated that ~ 230 million USD were lost in 2021 alone due to reformatting articles. Should the current practice remain unchanged within this decade, we estimate ~ 2.5 billion USD could be lost between 2022 and 2030-solely due to reformatting articles after a first editorial desk rejection. In our interviews, we found alignment between researchers and editors; researchers would like the submission process alignment between researchers and editors; researchers would like the submission process to be as straightforward and simple as possible, and editors want to easily identify strong, suitable articles and not waste researchers' time. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the findings from our quantitative analysis and contextualized by the qualitative interviews, we conclude that free-format submission guidelines would benefit both researchers and editors. However, a minimum set of requirements is necessary to avoid manuscript submissions that lack structure. We developed our guidelines to improve the status quo, and we urge the publishers and the editorial-advisory boards of biomedical journals to adopt them. This may also require support from publishers and major international organizations that govern the work of editors.

Socioeconomic position during pregnancy and pre-school exposome in children from eight European birth cohort studies.

Distribution of environmental hazards and vulnerability to their effects vary across socioeconomic groups. Our objective was to analyse the relationship between child socioeconomic position (SEP) at birth and the external exposome at pre-school age (0-4 years). This study included more than 60,000 children from eight cohorts in eleven European cities (Oslo, Copenhagen, Bristol, Bradford, Rotterdam, Nancy, Poitiers, Gipuzkoa, Sabadell, Valencia and Turin). SEP was measured through maternal education and a standardised indicator of household income. Three child exposome domains were investigated: behavioral, diet and urban environment. We fitted separate logistic regression model for each exposome variable - dichotomised using the city-specific median - on SEP (medium/low vs high) adjusting for maternal age, country of birth and parity. Analyses were carried out separately in each study-area. Low-SEP children had, consistently across study-areas, lower Odds Ratios (ORs) of breastfeeding, consumption of eggs, fish, fruit, vegetables and higher ORs of TV screen time, pet ownership, exposure to second-hand smoke, consumption of dairy, potatoes, sweet beverages, savory biscuits and crisps, fats and carbohydrates. For example, maternal education-breastfeeding OR (95% Confidence Interval (CI)) ranged from 0.18 (0.14-0.24) in Bristol to 0.73 (0.58-0.90) in Oslo. SEP was also strongly associated with the urban environment with marked between-city heterogeneity. For example, income-PM2.5 OR (95%CI) ranged from 0.69 (0.47-1.02) in Sabadell to 2.44 (2.16-2.72) in Oslo. Already at pre-school age, children with lower SEP have consistently poorer diets and behaviours, which might influence their future health and wellbeing. SEP-urban environment relationships are strongly context-dependent.

Exposure to natural environments during pregnancy and birth outcomes in 11 European birth cohorts.

Research suggests that maternal exposure to natural environments (i.e., green and blue spaces) promotes healthy fetal growth. However, the available evidence is heterogeneous across regions, with very few studies on the effects of blue spaces. This study evaluated associations between maternal exposure to natural environments and birth outcomes in 11 birth cohorts across nine European countries. This study, part of the LifeCycle project, was based on a total sample size of 69,683 newborns with harmonised data. For each participant, we calculated seven indicators of residential exposure to natural environments: surrounding greenspace in 100m, 300m, and 500m using Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) buffers, distance to the nearest green space, accessibility to green space, distance to the nearest blue space, and accessibility to blue space. Measures of birth weight and small for gestational age (SGA) were extracted from hospital records. We used pooled linear and logistic regression models to estimate associations between exposure to the natural environment and birth outcomes, controlling for the relevant covariates. We evaluated the potential effect modification by socioeconomic status (SES) and region of Europe and the influence of ambient air pollution on the associations. In the pooled analyses, residential surrounding greenspace in 100m, 300m, and 500m buffer was associated with increased birth weight and lower odds for SGA. Higher residential distance to green space was associated with lower birth weight and higher odds for SGA. We observed close to null associations for accessibility to green space and exposure to blue space. We found stronger estimated magnitudes for those participants with lower educational levels, from more deprived areas, and living in the northern European region. Our associations did not change notably after adjustment for air pollution. These findings may support implementing policies to promote natural environments in our cities, starting in more deprived areas.

Stakeholder participation in IPBES: connecting local environmental work with global decision making.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services(IPBES) strengthens the science-policy interface by producing scientific assessments on biodiversity and ecosystem services to inform policy. IPBES fosters knowledge exchange across disciplines, between researchers and other knowledge holders, practitioners, societal actors and decision makers working at different geographic scales. A number of avenues for participation of stakeholders across the four functions if IPBES exist. Stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities, businesses, and non-governmental organization. They represent multiple sources of information, data, knowledge, and perspectives on biodiversity. Stakeholder engagement in IPBES seeks to 1. communicate, disseminate, and implement the findings of IPBES products; 2. Develop guidelines for biodiversity conservation within member countries; and 3. create linkages between global policy and local actors - all key to the implementation of global agreements on biodiversity. This paper reflects on the role of stakeholders in the first work programme of IPBES (2014-2018). It provides an overview of IPBES processes and products relevant to stakeholders, examines the motivation of stakeholders to engage with IPBES, and explores reflections by the authors (all active participants on the platform) for improved stakeholder engagement and contributions to future work of the platform.

Antitumor effects of cisplatin combined with tecemotide immunotherapy in a human MUC1 transgenic lung cancer mouse model.

The goals of the present study were to define the effects of simultaneous cisplatin/tecemotide therapy on tumor development in a human mucin 1 (MUC1) transgenic lung cancer mouse model and to examine the effects of radiotherapy (RTX) on splenocytes, serum cytokines, and immune response to tecemotide. Two hundred twenty-six human MUC1 transgenic C57BL/6 mice were used in five studies designed to assess (i) serum cytokine and immune responses following four weekly 10-µg doses of tecemotide; (ii) the effects of simultaneous administration of cisplatin (2.5 mg/kg × 2 doses/cycle × 4 cycles) and tecemotide (2 cycles × 8 weekly 10-µg doses/cycle) therapy on tumor development, serum cytokines, and immune response; (iii) the dose-response effects of RTX on lymphocyte counts 16 hours following doses of 2 to 8 Gy; (iv) the time course of lymphocyte recovery from 16 hours to 20 days following 8-Gy RTX; and (v) the effects of simultaneous administration of RTX (8 Gy) and tecemotide on the immune response to tecemotide (four weekly 10-µg doses). Serum cytokines were analyzed by multiplex immunoassay, IFNγ immune responses by enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISpot), and lung tumor foci by lung whole mounts. Simultaneous cisplatin/tecemotide therapy resulted in significant and additive reduction in lung tumor foci compared with control mice, with significantly elevated serum IFNγ levels and specific IFNγ immune responses observed in both tecemotide and tecemotide + cisplatin-treated mice. Finally, neither cisplatin nor radiation interfered with the immune response to tecemotide.