Author Guidelines

Aims & Scope

Article Types

Original research

Full reports of empirical studies in digital health: clinical trials, cohort and case–control studies, diagnostic accuracy studies, implementation and evaluation of digital interventions. Limit 6,000 words (excluding abstract, references, tables and figure legends), structured abstract of no more than 250 words, up to 8 display items (tables and figures combined).

Systematic reviews & meta-analyses

Must follow PRISMA 2020 and be registered in PROSPERO (or an equivalent registry) before data extraction begins. Limit 7,000 words, up to 10 display items. The completed PRISMA checklist and flow diagram are mandatory uploads.

Brief communications

Preliminary or confirmatory findings of clear significance, pilot studies, and technical notes describing validated tools, datasets or pipelines. Limit 2,500 words, unstructured abstract of 150 words, no more than 3 display items.

Reviews and perspectives

Invited or submitted critical syntheses of an active field — telemedicine, wearable sensing, clinical AI, health informatics or digital public health. Limit 8,000 words. Authors of unsolicited reviews should send a one-page outline to the editorial office before submission.

Study protocols

Protocols of funded or registered studies, formatted per SPIRIT (trials) or SPIRIT-AI / CONSORT-AI extensions where an AI component is involved. Limit 5,000 words.

Letters to the editor

Comment on articles published in the journal within the preceding 12 months. Limit 800 words, one table or figure, up to 8 references. No abstract.

Submission Checklist

Confirm every item before submitting; incomplete submissions are returned to the authors.

• 01Cover letter naming the corresponding author and stating the significance of the work in no more than 150 words.
• 02Main manuscript file (Word or LaTeX) with continuous line numbering and page numbers.
• 03Title page as a separate file: full title, running head (≤50 characters), all author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs and the corresponding author's e-mail address.
• 04Structured or unstructured abstract within the limit for the article type, followed by 4–6 keywords drawn from MeSH where possible.
• 05References formatted in APA style (7th edition), with DOIs for every entry that has one.
• 06Tables and figures supplied as separate files, each cited in the text in numerical order.
• 07Reporting checklist appropriate to the study design (CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, STARD, TRIPOD+AI, etc.), completed and uploaded.
• 08Ethics approval statement naming the institutional review board and approval number, plus the trial registration number where applicable.
• 09Statements of competing interests, funding, author contributions (CRediT) and data availability on the title page.
• 10At least three suggested reviewers, none from the authors' own institutions and none with a recent co-authorship.

Preparing Your Manuscript

Manuscript structure

Title page, abstract and keywords, main text (Introduction; Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusions for original research), abbreviations list where needed, declarations, references, then tables and figure legends. Methods must describe the setting, participants, intervention or exposure, outcomes, statistical methods and software (name and version).

Typesetting

A4 or US Letter, 2.5 cm margins, double line spacing, 12 pt body text in a standard serif or sans-serif face. Number every line and every page. Use heading levels sparingly — no more than three levels. Define every abbreviation at first use.

Title and abstract

Titles must be specific and no longer than 25 words; do not use abbreviations. Structured abstracts use the headings Background, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions and end with the trial registration number where applicable.

Tables

One table per file, created with the table tool — never as images or tabbed text. Number with Arabic numerals in order of citation. Each table needs a concise title and footnotes defining abbreviations. Avoid vertical rules; use horizontal rules sparingly.

Figures

Vector artwork (PDF, EPS) preferred; raster images at a minimum of 300 dpi for photographs and 600 dpi for line art, TIFF or PNG. Single-column width 8.5 cm, double-column 17.5 cm. Lettering must remain legible at final size (no smaller than 7 pt). Colour figures are published online at no charge; supply greyscale-safe palettes where possible.

Nomenclature and units

SI units throughout. Generic (non-proprietary) drug and device names. Report genes and proteins per HGNC nomenclature. Machine-learning models must be described with enough detail for replication: architecture, training data provenance, hyperparameters and evaluation protocol.

Statistics

Report exact P values (except P < .001), effect sizes with 95% confidence intervals, and the statistical tests used. Distinguish prespecified from post-hoc analyses. A statistical review is performed for all papers making inferential claims.

Data availability

Every article must include a data availability statement. Datasets should be deposited in a recognised repository (e.g. Figshare, Zenodo, OSF) with a DOI; code should be shared under an open licence. If data cannot be shared, state why.

References — APA Style (7th Edition)

Ethics & Policies

Research ethics

Studies involving human participants must state approval by an institutional review board and confirm that the Declaration of Helsinki was followed. Informed consent is required for identifiable data; for retrospective analyses of de-identified data, state the consent waiver granted by the board.

Trial registration

Clinical trials must be registered in a WHO primary registry or ClinicalTrials.gov before enrolment of the first participant. The registration number appears at the end of the abstract.

AI-assisted writing

Generative AI tools may assist with language editing but cannot be listed as authors and must not be used to generate results or references. Any substantive use of such tools in drafting must be disclosed in the acknowledgements.

Authorship

All listed authors must meet the four ICMJE criteria. Contributions are described using the CRediT taxonomy. Changes to the author list after submission require written agreement from every author.

Competing interests & funding

Declare all relationships that could reasonably be seen as a conflict, with or without payment, within the past 36 months. State the role of the funder in study design, data collection, analysis and the decision to publish.

Misconduct

The journal screens all submissions with similarity-detection software and investigates suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, image manipulation and data fabrication following COPE flowcharts.

Peer Review & After Acceptance

Manuscript Template

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Chinese Journal of Digital Health — Manuscript Template (LaTeX)
% References follow APA style (7th edition).
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[margin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace,lineno,graphicx,booktabs}
\usepackage[round]{natbib}
\doublespacing
\linenumbers

\title{Title of the Manuscript (\texorpdfstring{$\leq$}{<=}25 words)}
\author{First A. Author, Second B. Author*}
\date{}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\section*{Abstract}
% <= 250 words. Structure: Background, Objective, Methods,
% Results, Conclusions. End with the trial registration number
% where applicable. No references or undefined abbreviations.

\noindent\textbf{Keywords:} % 4-6 keywords, MeSH preferred

\section{Introduction}
\section{Methods}
% Setting, participants, intervention/exposure, outcomes,
% statistical methods and software (name and version).
\section{Results}
\section{Discussion}
\section{Conclusions}

\section*{Declarations}
% Ethics approval and consent; competing interests; funding;
% author contributions (CRediT); data availability.

\bibliographystyle{apalike}
\begin{thebibliography}{99}
\bibitem{zhang2024} Zhang, L., \& Kumar, S. (2024). Wearable sensors
  for continuous glucose monitoring. \textit{Chinese Journal of
  Digital Health, 1}(1), 12--24. https://doi.org/10.0000/cjdh.2024.012
\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}