AIMS AND SCOPE

PAIN Research is an official publication of the Japanese Association for the Study of Pain (JASP). PAIN Research is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that advances basic, experimental, applied or clinical approaches for pain. This journal publishes a global forum in all aspects of pain research and management as “Research Reports”, “Technical Reports”, “Short Communications”, “Case Reports”, “Micro Reports”, “Reviews” or “Mini-Reviews”. PAIN Research also welcomes submissions reporting the results of pain-related abnormal sensations such as itch, hypoesthesia, paresthesia and dysesthesia.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

1. Notice

Submissions that have been published or accepted, or are under consideration for publication, with essentially the same content, will not be considered. This restriction does not apply to results published as an abstract, letters to editors, or as submissions for symposia. Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, logical and direct style. The criteria for acceptance are the novelty, originality, and significance of the research, as well as scientific and ethical soundness, in pain and its related fields. Manuscripts are usually peer reviewed by the Section or Associated Editors and two anonymous reviewers. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board, who reserves the right to refuse the publication.

2. Article sections

Articles are published under the following sections:

• Basic Section
• Clinical Section

Authors can select the section in which they prefer their article to appear, but final decision is the editor’s.

3. Article types

¹Manuscript only-does NOT include abstract, references, figure legends
²Tax/VAT excluded. If the number of printed pages exceeds the number specified above for each article, additional fees will be charged.
³APCs in USD (or GBP, EUR etc.) change according to the exchange rate against the Japanese yen at 1$ ≈ 130 yen (April 1, 2023).

Research Reports
Reporting original research work that has not been published in a journal previously. Presentation of an abstract in a scientific meeting or in a registry does not preclude its publication in the journal. The abstract is limited to 250 words, and main text should not exceed 4,000 words. A total of 8 figures and/or tables and 60 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed eight printed pages.

Technical Reports
The purpose of Technical Reports is to update new technology, instrumentation, method, observation, project, statics, software, databases or other tools to inspire many pain researchers. This article type will also consider protocols for planned clinical research, prior to their performance, in the case that they are timely, cover pertinent topics, and encompass a large body of data. The abstract is limited to 250 words, and main text should not exceed 4,000 words. A total of 8 figures and/or tables and 60 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed eight printed pages.

Short Communications
Short Communications are completed projects of smaller scope of topical interest. Generally, no pilot studies or preliminary results will be accepted. The abstract is limited to 150 words, and main text should not exceed 1,500 words. A total of 3 figures and/or tables and 15 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed three printed pages.

Case Reports
Case reports must provide an original description of unreported, unexpected or unusual presentation of pain or pain-related abnormal sensations, an unexpected event in the course of observing or treating a patient, or a new perspective of case which poses a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Series of case reports are preferred than single case reports. The abstract is limited to 150 words, and main text should not exceed 1,500 words. A total of 3 figures and/or tables and 15 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed three printed pages.

Micro Reports
Micro Report is a brief report on original research. This article type will consider the manuscript containing novel and important findings obtained from the pilot study. We will also consider negative results, which have been conducted rigorously with appropriate controls and replication. The abstract is limited to 100 words, and main text should not exceed 1,000 words. A total of 1 figure and/or table and 10 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed two printed pages.

Reviews
Review is a critical overview of an important topic, field, discovery, or innovation in basic, experimental, applied or clinical researches on pain. These reviews are expected to include the authors’ own recent interesting and significant results, and should be well-illustrated with high-quality figures. Any topics will be considered, but priority will be given to those addressing a major current problem and those with up-to-date literature reviews. We also accept either systematic review, and/or meta-analysis. Reviews may be invited by the Editorial Boards or submitted by authors. All Reviews are subject to peer-review. The abstract is limited to 250 words, and main text should not exceed 8,000 words. A total of 300 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed 20 printed pages.

Mini-Reviews
Mini-Review is a short overview of an important topic, field, discovery, or innovation in basic, experimental, applied or clinical researches on pain. These reviews are expected to include the authors’ own recent interesting and significant results, and should be well-illustrated with high-quality figures. Mini-Reviews can be only invited by the Editorial Boards. All Mini-Reviews are subject to peer-review. The abstract is limited to 250 words, and main text should not exceed 4,000 words. A total of 150 references are permitted. The body of the article should not exceed 10 printed pages.

4. Preparation of Manuscript

Manuscript text should be prepared using standard fonts, with double-spacing, and saved in MS-Word (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf). Papers should be written in standard English, and insert page numbers at the bottom center. For authors whose native language is not English, the Journal strongly recommends brushing up the English of the manuscript by consulting English-speaking scientists before submission. PAIN Research can publish additional materials as “Supplementary materials” with a special link guiding from the manuscript to this material.

Structure of Manuscript

1. Manuscript

• Title page
• Abstract and keywords
• Main text
• Acknowledgements
• Declarations
• References
• Figure legends

2. Tables
3. Figures
4. Supplementary materials
5. Graphical Abstract

1) Manuscript
Title page
The title page should include:

• Article section (basic or clinical section)
• Article type (Research Reports, Technical Reports, Short Communications, Case Reports, Micro Reports, Reviews or Mini-Reviews)
• The complete title of the manuscript. Titles should be no more than 25 words.
• Full names of all authors
• The affiliations and addresses of all authors at which the research was conducted
• The name, address, telephone and e-mail address of the corresponding author

Abstract and keywords
The abstract should not exceed 250 words in Research Reports, Technical Reports, Reviews and Mini-reviews, 150 words in Short Communications and Case Reports, and 100 words in Micro Reports. It should describe the background, purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the research briefly. In any article types, no specific subheadings are required in abstract. It should contain only standard abbreviations and no references. A list of 5 keywords or short phrases (3 keywords or short phrases in Short Communications, Case Reports and Micro Reports) suitable for indexing should be included following the abstract.

Main text
In Research Reports and Technical Reports, main text contains the separate sections of Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Discussion;
Introduction should give a short and clear statement of the relevant background and the rationale of the study.
Materials and Methods should include explicit, concise descriptions of all new methods or procedures employed. Commonly used methods may only cite the original source. The description should be such that the reader can judge the accuracy, reproducibility and reliability of the work.
Results should include experimental data but not extended discussions of its relative significance. Results are more easily grasped by readers if they are presented in graphic or tabular form rather than discursively. Data should not be repeated in the text, Tables, and Figures.
Discussion should be pertinent to the results. Speculation is to be based on data only; be concise and clear. Lengthy discussions will necessarily mean a delay in accepting manuscripts for publication. The text should be written with a logical connection between the introduction and conclusions.
In other article types, no specific headings are required in main text.
The limitation of word number in main text depends on the article type.
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgement of technical help, material support, etc. should be placed in a separate section following the main text. The sources of financial should be given in the separate section “Declarations”.

Declarations
The following statements and declaration should be included in a separate section ‘Declarations’ following the main text. If the article is accepted for publication, the disclosures will be published in the section.

Fundings
All sources of funding that have supported the work should be declared. The statement should include the name of the funding organization and grant number of any grants received. Please use the author initials to refer to each author’s fundings.

Example statements:
“This study was partly supported by [X] (Grant numbers [xxxx] and [xxxx]). [AA] has received research support from Company Y.”
“The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received for this manuscript.”

Competing interests
All financial or non-financial interests that are related to the research directly relevant to the content of the manuscript must be declared. Please use the author initials to refer to each author’s competing interests.

Example statements:
“Financial interests: [AA] and [BB] declare they have no financial interests. [CC] has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company X. [CC] has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company X and Company Y, respectively. [DD] has received travel support from Company Z.”
“Non-financial interests: [EE] has served on advisory boards for Company X. [FF] is an unpaid member of committee Z.”
If the authors do not have any competing interests, please state ” The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest”.

Author contributions
The contribution of every author to the research and preparation of the manuscript should be specified. Please use author initials to refer to each author’s contribution.

Example statement:
“All authors contributed to the study conception and design. [AA], [BB] and [CC] performed material preparation, data collection and analysis. [AA] and [BB] analyzed and interpreted the data. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [AA], and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

In addition to the above, manuscripts that report the results of studies involving human and/or animal subjects should include the following declarations:

Ethics approval
Authors of research involving human or animal subjects should include a statement that confirms that the study was approved by the appropriate ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee and approval number, if available). For research involving animals, authors should supply detailed information on the ethical treatment of their animals. These statements should be disclosed in the Declaration section, but not in Materials and Methods section. If a study was granted exemption or did not require ethics approval, this should be detailed.

“The protocol for this research project has been approved by the Ethics Committee of [X University] (Date …/Approval No. ….) and it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki.”
“This is an observational study. The [Y Research Ethics Committee] has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.”
“All procedures using animals were performed according to the ethical guidelines of Animal Research Committee of [X University] (Date …/ Approval No. ….)”.

For detailed information on relevant ethical standards and criteria, please refer to the sections on “Ethics Policies”.

Consent for participation
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from the participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children). All presentations of case reports must have consent for participation. A statement confirming that consent for participation has been received from all participants should appear in the section. If the study did not require it, please indicate “not applicable”.

Example statement:
“Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
“Written informed consent was obtained from the parents of the patients.”

Please refer to the section on “Ethics Policies” for additional help.

Consent for publication
Individuals may consent to participate in a study, but object to having their data published in a journal article. If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication. A statement confirming that consent for publication has been received from all participants should appear in the section. If the study did not require it, please indicate “not applicable”

The authors can use their institutional consent form, but do not have to send them on submission. The Editorial Bord may request to confirm the consent at any stages.

Example statement:
“The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication.”

Please refer to the section on “Ethics Policies” for additional help.

References
Citation
Only reference that have been published or accepted for publication should be cited at the appropriate point in the text by numbers in parentheses. The authors should avoid citing any paper written in a language not normally used for international scientific publications (including Japanese) and does not have an English abstract.

Examples:
Pain research spans many disciplines (5).
The present findings were supported by the previous reports (12, 13).
These effects have been widely investigated (3–5, 10).

Unpublished observations and personal communications should be avoided.

Reference list
All references must be listed at the end of the manuscript in numerical order according to the first mention in the text, and have at least one corresponding in-text citation.

• The name of the author(s) should be followed by the full title of the paper as it appeared in the original together with the source of the reference, the volume number, the first and last page numbers, and the year of publication in parentheses.
• All authors must be listed in the references; the use of ‘et al.’ is not acceptable.
• Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the National Library of Medicine’s Index Medicus, please refer to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals
• If available, please include DOIs in reference list.

A sample of the most common entries in reference lists appears below.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

1. Charlton E: Ethical guidelines for pain research in humans. Committee on Ethical Issues of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Pain 995: 277–278 (1995). doi: 10.1016/0304-3959(95)90040-3.
2. Caterina MJ, Schumacher MA, Tominaga M, Rosen TA, Levine JD, Julius D: The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway. Nature 389: 816–824 (1997). doi: 10.1038/39807.
3. Noguchi K, Morita Y, Kiyama H, Ono K, Tohyama M: A noxious stimulus induces the preprotachykinin-A gene expression in the rat dorsal root ganglion: a quantitative study using in situ hybridization histochemistry. Brain Res 464:31–35 (1988). doi: 10.1016/0169-328x(88)90015-0.

BOOK

4. South J, Blass B: The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London (2001)

CHAPTER IN A BOOK

5. Gold MS: Molecular Biology of Sensory Transduction. In: Wall and Melzack’s textbook of pain, 6th ed. (McMahon SB, Koltzenburg M, Tracey I, Turk D, eds), pp31–47. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier (2013)

Figure legends
Manuscripts including figures must include their legends describing accurately what the figure depicts. Figure legends should be listed after the reference list on a separate page in numerical order, not in the figure file.

• Figure legends begin with the figure number in bold type (Fig. 1, Fig. 2).
• For figures with multiple panels, the first sentence of the legend should be a brief overview of the entire figure. Explicitly reference and describe each panel.
• Figure legends should include sufficient detail to be intelligible, define all symbols, and include essential information.
• If applicable, include clearly labeled error bars in all graphs and describe them.
• If applicable, provide the P value, magnification, or scale bar information.
• If applicable, indicate the number of independent data points (n) represented in each panel.
• If applicable, identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of figure legends.

2) Tables
Tables should be submitted as separate files in an editable MS-Word (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf), or can be attached with the manuscript test after Figure legends. All tables must be referred to in the text in numerical sequence (Table 1, Table 2). Do not duplicate data by presenting it both in the text and in a table.

• Each table should include a brief informative title above the table and its legend at the foot of the table.
• Table titles begin with the table number in bold type (Table 1, Table 2).
• Legends should include sufficient detail to be intelligible, define all symbols, and include essential information.
• Do not use color or shading, bold or italic fonts, or lines to highlight information. Indention of text and sometimes, additional space between lines is preferred.
• Avoid multipart tables (Table 1A, Table 1B).
• Do not use vertical lines to separate columns.

3) Figures
Figures must be numbered independently of tables and referred in the text in numerical sequence (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). Do not duplicate data by presenting it both in the text and in a figure.

• The title of figure should be part of the legend and not appear as text on the figure file.
• Figures must be submitted as separate image files in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format. Figures prepared as .doc/.docx, .ppt/.pptx, or .xls/.xlsx files will not be accepted.
• Color figures should be in RGB format and supplied at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Monochrome (bitmap) images must be supplied at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. Grayscale images must be supplied at a minimum of 300 dpi.
• Figure size that they are to appear: 1 column (maximum width 8.5 cm), 1.5 columns (maximum width 11.6 cm) or 2 columns (maximum width 17.6 cm). They should be the smallest size that will convey the essential scientific information.
• Figures with multiple-panels should be prepared on a single page and submitted as one file. Each panel should be labeled by a letter in bold type (A, B, C, D, etc.) at the upper-left corner of each panel.
• Color should only when necessary to accurately convey the information represented by the image. Grayscale generally provides a more faithful representation when a single quantity is displayed. Color illustrations should be accessible to color-blind readers.
• Use textures or different line types rather than colors in bar plots or graphs.
• All photographs documenting results should include a scale bar.
• All symbols used in a figure should be explained in the legend.
• The electrophoresis of protein molecular weight size markers or nucleic acid size markers must be indicated and labeled appropriately on all figure panels showing gel electrophoresis.

4) Supplementary materials
Authors can provide Supplementary materials including data sets, appendices, additional figures or tables, movie files, animations, etc., if they enhance the overall usefulness of the manuscript and are relevant to more fully understanding and utilizing the manuscript. Supplementary materials will be linked to the original paper via online, but which is not included in the typeset PDF file. Supplementary materials should be submitted as separate documents, and will be subjected to peer-review.

• Supplementary materials must be referred in the text of the main manuscript.
• Supply a concise, descriptive caption for each Supplementary material.
• Supplementary materials will not be copyedited or typeset, and be published exactly as received files.
• Style and formatting of supplementary materials should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
• Supplementary material files should be no larger than 5 MB each.
• Please use the following terms:
  – for tables: “Table S1”, “Table S2” etc.
  – for figures: “Figure S1, “Figure S2” etc. The figure legends should be included in the figure’s file.
  – for parts of the manuscript’s text: “Methods S1”, “Results S1”, or “Appendix S1”

5) Graphical Abstract
Graphical abstract is an image that summarizes the main findings of the research to help readers to appreciate and understand the central message at-a-glance. Graphical abstracts consist of clear images, charts, graphs, chemical structures, or other informative illustrations that show the most striking feature of the paper in visual form. It will be presented in the Table of Contents and other materials. A full-color figure in the actual size, no larger than 1,200 pixels square with a resolution of 300 dpi, should be submitted as a separate image file in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format. Do not include proprietary logos, images, or product names in the figure.

5. Scientific Policy

Nomenclature
The nomenclature used for chemical compounds must be in accordance with the guidelines published by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Alternatively, naming may conform to the nomenclature in the index of Chemical Abstracts or the Ring Index. The nomenclature style must be internally consistent within the manuscript.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations must be spelled out in full and followed by the abbreviation in parentheses when first used in the Abstract and in the main text. Thereafter, the abbreviation only should be used. Please limit to a minimum the use of abbreviations in the Abstract and the Title.

Units
Measurements of length, height and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, liter). Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius and blood pressures in millimeters of mercury or kPa with the alternative units in parentheses. All other measurements including laboratory measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI).

Drug Names
Generic names of drugs should be used where possible. When quoting from specific materials on proprietary drugs, authors must state in parentheses the name and address of the manufacturer.

6. Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted via the online manuscript submission, review, and tracking system “Editorial Manager^®” at https://www.editorialmanager.com/pain-res/. We will not accept any manuscripts submitted as an E-mail attachment or by post. New users will be required to register and create an account. Once a user is logged in the web site, submissions should be made via the Author Center.

Before entering the submission web site, please refer to this “Instruction for Authors” for overall guidelines for how your manuscript should be structured and formatted. Then, be sure to refer to the “Tutorial for Authors” (Author Manual) available at the submission web site, which will provide you with more detailed, technical, and other important information.

During the submission process, authors will be asked to select one Section Editor and two Associate Editors whose specialties are listed in the Editorial Board member list. Authors will be also asked to give the name, institutions and e-mail addresses of five potential suggested reviewers (at least two reviewers). The journal may consider these requests but is under no obligation to honor them; the Editors have complete discretion over the selection of reviewers. Authors may request no more than five opposed reviewers who do not wish to be reviewed.

ORCID
As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, Pain Research encourages all authors to provide an ORCID ID when submitting a manuscript. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated.
If authors do not have an ORCID ID, please follow this link to create one.

Brief guidelines for electronic submission procedures

1. Prepare the text (title page, abstract, main text, acknowledgements, declarations, reference list, legends for Figures, and Tables) and cover letter by MS-Word. Tables can be prepared with a separate file.
2. Prepare the Figures and a Graphical abstract using applications that are capable of generating high-resolution image files. Figure legends should not be included in the file.
3. Login as an author to Editorial Manager^®. You are required to have your login ID. If you do not have one, you can easily get an ID by registering your name and E-mail address or by ORCID.
4. Click “Submit New Manuscript” and then select article type.
5. On the “Attach File” page, upload the files by selecting the appropriate entry item such as i) Manuscript, ii) Table(s), iii) Figure(s), iv) Cover letter, v) Supplementary materials, vi) Graphical Abstract and vii) Others. Cover letter, Manuscript, Table(s), Figure(s) and Graphical Abstract will be built into a single PDF file; Supplementary materials will be accessed via PDF file with links; Others will not be included in PDF file, but will be accessible to the Editorial Office and Editor only as a companion file; include the COI statement; a certificate of approval issued by the ethical committee for experiments using human subjects; an “In Press” article to be referred to; or appended data/information necessary for the manuscript.
6. On the “General Information” page, select article section (Basic or Clinical Section), and identify submission’s areas of interest and specialization by selecting 1 to 3 classifications.
7. On the “Suggested reviewers” page, enter the name, institutions and e-mail addresses of 2 to 5 potential suggested reviewers with specific reason for your suggestion. You can suggest no more than five opposed reviewers who you would prefer not to review this submission.
8. On the “Additional information” page, answer the questionnaires. You can suggest one Section Editor and two Associated Editors.
9. On the “Comments” page, if you have any additional comments you would like to send to the publication office, enter them.
10. On the “Manuscript data” page, enter the full title (limit 25 words), Abstract (limit 250/150/100 words), Keywords (limit 5/3 keywords), and all authors. These fields will be populated with information collected from your uploaded submission file. Please review these fields to be sure we found the correct information and fill in any missing details
11. After automatically building a formatted PDF file, download and check the file by clicking “View Submission”. If needed, make corrections by clicking “Edit Submission”. Then, you must approve the submission before it is sent to the Editorial Office by clicking “Approve Submission”. In addition to the Action links of the left, the Author may be required to accept terms of submission, by clicking the checkbox next to ‘I accept’.

7. Editorial and peer review

PAIN Research is committed to prompt peer-review and publication of scientific papers. To maintain a high-quality publication, all submissions undergo a detailed review process. All manuscripts are initially screened by the editorial office to ensure adherence to the editorial and submission guidelines. PAIN Research Editor-in-Chief, Section Editors and Associate Editors review all submissions for suitability for the journal; manuscripts may be rejected without review at this stage. Submissions deemed complete and appropriate for the scope of the journal then undergo rigorous single-blind peer review by at least two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. Once all reviews are complete, the Editors-in-Chief makes a final decision and either accepts the manuscript, returns constructive peer-review feedback to the authors, or rejects the manuscript. If a paper is revised and resubmitted it undergoes additional screening by editors and possibly by reviewers, and line editing is performed by the editors. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal’s usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.

8. After Acceptance

Article processing charges: PAIN Research is an open access, peer-reviewed journal, and requires to pay a yen-dominated article processing charge (APC) for publication. APCs in USD (or GBP, EUR etc.) change according to the exchange rate against the Japanese yen. There is no fee to submit an article to the journal; however, the journal charges publication fees at acceptance stage, and the corresponding author will be asked to pay the APC via a payment link by credit card. Fees vary by article type (see table above). If the first author, last author or corresponding author is a JASP member, a substantially membership discount will be applied.

Open access: PAIN Research is fully open access; all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Permitted reuse is defined by the following Creative Commons user license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article. If you need to comply with your funding body policy you can apply for a CC-BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.

Use of the Digital Object Identifier: The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document. When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs: One set of page proofs as PDF files will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. Please mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof, and then scan the pages and return by e-mail. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. To publish your article quickly and accurately, please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that we may proceed with the publication of your article, if no response is received.

JOURNAL POLICIES

1. Editorial Policies

For submitting a manuscript to PAIN Research, all authors must agree to abide by relevant JASP policies.

1) Peer review policy

Authors can recommend five potential suggested reviewers and five opposed reviewers on online manuscript submission system. Reviewers should be experts with international published experience in the field, and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

1. The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
2. The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
3. The reviewer has published with the authors within the previous three years.
4. The reviewer cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

2) Authorship

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have contributed sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Authorship credit should be based on:

1. Substantial contributions to the concept and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data,
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Final approval of the version to be published,

Meeting these criteria should provide each author with sufficient knowledge of and participation in the work that he or she can accept public responsibility for the report.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

3) Copyright

To be considered for publication in PAIN Research, a manuscript cannot have been published previously, nor can it be under review for publication elsewhere. The posting of a brief summary of clinical trial outcomes on a pharmaceutical website will not necessarily count as prior publication nor impede full consideration of a manuscript: The Editors will determine the extent of overlap and decide whether the manuscript contains sufficiently new perspectives or sufficient additional data to count as original. Likewise, the posting of manuscripts to preprint servers will not necessarily count as prior publication. Authors should declare when submitting manuscripts that such data have already been posted.
All content published in PAIN Research is made freely available online to all under an Open Access model. See the “Open Access” section.

4) Funding

PAIN Research requires all authors to acknowledge their fundings in the Declaration section. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation.

5) Conflicting interests

Conflict of Interest must be considered to prevent ambiguity about financial and personal relationships that might bias the submitted work. All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organizations for the past one year prior to submission that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. This disclosure must be included in Declaration section of the manuscript.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

2. Ethics Policies

Authors submitting manuscripts to PAIN Research are expected to conduct their research in strict accordance with the JASP Policies on Ethics.

PAIN Research recognizes its responsibility to ensure that questions of scientific misconduct or dishonesty in research are adequately pursued. Should scientific misconduct or dishonesty be suspected or alleged, PAIN Research follows the recommended procedures outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1) Publication ethics

PAIN Research takes issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article (removing it from the journal); taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; banning the author from publication in the journal, or appropriate legal action.

2) Human research

Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013).
In general, submission of a study in which case are represented should be accompanied by the written consent of the subject (or parent/guardian) before publication. While the Editors recognize that it might not always be possible or appropriate to seek such consent, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that this exception applies in their case. The authors must state about the full name and the institution of the review committee with the approval number in the Declaration section of the manuscript as follows:
The protocol for this research project has been approved by the Ethics Committee of [X University] (Date …/Approval No. ….) and it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki. All informed consent was obtained from the subject(s) and/or guardian(s).

As shown in the Declaration of Helsinki, every research study involving human subjects must be registered in a publicly accessible database before recruitment of the first subject. Thus, any research project that assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome must be registered. Registration of retrospective studies is not required, but authors are encouraged to have official approval from an appropriate ethical committee at submission of the study. The authors must disclose the registry and the number of the registration in the Declaration section.

Clinical trials: Clinical trials are subject to all policies regarding human research. PAIN Research follows the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of a clinical trial: A clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells, and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc.

All clinical trials must be registered at or before the time of first patient enrollment in any primary registry of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). Authors must provide the registry name and registry number in the cover letter and methods section.

Papers on clinical trials must adhere to the CONSORT reporting guidelines appropriate to their trial design and provide a completed CONSORT checklist and flow diagram as a figure.

Our policies for clinical trial submissions are designed to promote transparency and reproducibility and ensure the integrity of the reporting of patient-centered trials. Editors and reviewers should carefully review trial protocols and registration details and assess manuscripts according to CONSORT.

3) Animal research

All manuscripts reporting animal studies must include the statement indicating that the protocol and procedures were ethically reviewed and approved, as well as the name of the body giving approval, in the Declaration section of the manuscript. Authors are required to adhere to animal research reporting standards, for example the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting study design and statistical analysis; experimental procedures; experimental animals and housing and husbandry. Descriptions of surgical procedures on animals should include the route of drug administration, drug name, and dose of anesthetic used. Authors must also state whether experiments were performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Co Editor-in-Chief

• Hidemasa Furue
• Masako Iseki

Section Editors
Clinical Science

• Hiroki Iida
• Hideki Oshima
• Takahiro Ushida

Basic Science

• Minoru Narita
• Hideaki Obata
• Emiko Senba

Associate Editors
Clinical Science

• Naomi Hirakawa
• Masako Hosoi
• Koichi Hosomi
• Masahiko Ikeuchi
• Gen Inoue
• Osamu Komiyama
• Takako Matsubara
• Kenji Miki
• Tomohiko Nishigami
• Seiji Ohtori
• Yasushi Sakuma
• Motoki Sonohata
• Toshiya Tachibana
• Shigeki Yamaguchi
• Keisuke Yamaguchi

Basic Science

• Fumimasa Amaya
• Wakako Fujita
• Satoshi Imai
• Fusao Kato
• Atsufumi Kawabata
• Tomoyuki Kawamata
• Mikito Kawamata
• Jiro Kurata
• Naoko Kuzumaki
• Masabumi Minami
• Hirokazu Mizoguchi
• Koichi Noguchi
• Noriyuki Ozaki
• Yoji Saito
• Jun Sato
• Masamichi Shinoda
• Makoto Tominaga
• Makoto Tsuda
• Yasuhito Uezono

Advisory Editors

• Kazuo Hanaoka
• Masabumi Hirato
• Tadashi Hisamitsu
• Yoshiki Imamura
• Yasushi Kuraishi
• Kazuo Toda

HP Managers

• Yusuke Ohmichi
• Hiroki Sakurai

Editorial Officer

• Takayuki Nakagawa
• Masashi Izumi
• Hiroaki Chiba

CONTACT

Contact details for submission
All manuscripts must be submitted online at https://www.editorialmanager.com/pain-res/default2.aspx

Questions may be directed to the editorial office at painres-t@journalsp.com