Guide for Authors

1. Aims and scope

Computational Diagnostics publishes work connecting computation, artificial intelligence and data science with healthcare, medicine and clinical practice, spanning fundamental methods and algorithms through to clinical validation and real-world patient outcomes. Manuscripts outside this scope are desk-rejected. The full aims and scope are given on the journal page.

2. Types of article

Word limits refer to the main text and exclude the abstract, references, tables and figure captions. They are enforced.

• Original Research: up to 6,000 words.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: PRISMA-compliant, up to 8,000 words.
• Methodological, Computational and Benchmark Studies: up to 6,000 words.
• Clinical Validation Studies: up to 6,000 words.
• Short Communications and Brief Reports: up to 2,500 words.
• Protocols, Perspectives, Commentaries and Editorials: up to 3,000 words.

3. Ethics in publishing

Authors must comply with our Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, which follows the COPE Core Practices. Submission implies that the work has not been published previously, is not under consideration elsewhere, and that its publication is approved by all authors and by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.

4. Studies in humans and animals

Research involving human participants, human data or tissue, or animals, must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and the relevant institutional and national requirements. The manuscript must state the name of the approving ethics committee and the approval reference number, and confirm that informed consent was obtained. For any potentially identifiable individual, written consent for publication is required.

5. Declaration of competing interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships that could be viewed as influencing the work. A competing-interest statement is mandatory in every manuscript. If there are none, state: "The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper."

6. Submission declaration and verification

By submitting, the corresponding author confirms the work is original and that all data are genuine. All manuscripts are screened with similarity-detection software. The overall similarity index must be below 15 percent, with no single source exceeding 3 percent. Image and data manipulation is checked; any manipulation that misrepresents findings is treated as misconduct.

7. Use of generative AI in writing

Generative AI and AI-assisted tools must not be listed as an author and cannot be credited with authorship, because authorship carries responsibility and accountability that only humans can hold. Where such tools have been used to improve readability or language, or to assist the research, authors must disclose this in a dedicated statement naming the tool and describing how it was used. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of the entire work, including any content produced with AI assistance.

8. Author contributions (CRediT)

Every manuscript must include an author-contributions statement using the CRediT taxonomy (for example Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing (original draft), Writing (review and editing), Visualization, Supervision, Funding acquisition). Each named author must have contributed substantially and must approve the final version.

9. Changes to authorship

The author list must be finalised before submission. Any addition, removal or reordering of authors after submission requires the written agreement of all authors, together with the reason for the change, and is subject to editorial approval. Authorship changes are not permitted after acceptance except in exceptional, well-justified cases.

10. Copyright and licensing

Computational Diagnostics is fully open access. Accepted articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence, and authors retain copyright. See Open Access and Licensing for details, including article processing charges.

11. Double-blind peer review

All research articles undergo double-blind review by a minimum of three independent expert reviewers, as described in the Peer Review Policy. To preserve anonymity you must submit two files: a title page containing author details, and a blinded main manuscript with all author names, affiliations, funding identifiers, acknowledgements and self-identifying references removed or masked.

12. Manuscript structure

Research articles should be organised as follows:

1. Title page (separate file): title, all authors and affiliations, corresponding author with a verified ORCID iD, and all required statements.
2. Blinded main manuscript: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions.
3. Back matter: Ethics approval and consent, Funding, Declaration of competing interest, Data availability, Generative-AI declaration, CRediT contributions, Acknowledgements.
4. References.

Number sections and subsections (1, 1.1, 1.2). Define every abbreviation at first use and use SI units throughout.

13. Highlights

Provide 3 to 5 highlights in a separate list. Each highlight must be a single sentence of no more than 85 characters including spaces, written for a general audience, capturing only the core results and novelty. Avoid jargon, acronyms and abbreviations.

14. Abstract and plain-language summary

Provide a structured abstract of no more than 250 words under the headings Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. The abstract must stand alone: avoid references and undefined abbreviations. In addition, provide a plain-language summary of no more than 200 characters in one sentence, which is used for search results, citation cards and structured metadata.

15. Keywords

Provide a maximum of 6 keywords, separated by semicolons, using American spelling and avoiding general, plural and multi-concept terms. Keywords are used for indexing and discoverability.

16. Reporting standards

Authors must follow, and upload the completed checklist for, the guideline that matches the study type:

• PRISMA: systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
• TRIPOD+AI: prediction-model and AI development or validation studies.
• CONSORT-AI and SPIRIT-AI: AI clinical trials and trial protocols.
• STARD and CLAIM: diagnostic-accuracy and medical-imaging AI studies.
• DECIDE-AI: early-stage live clinical evaluation.

17. Data and code availability

A data availability statement is mandatory, following our Data Availability Policy. Where ethically and legally possible, the data and analysis code underlying the results should be deposited in a recognised repository that issues a persistent identifier, and cited in the reference list. For computational and AI studies, sharing of code, model details and evaluation protocols sufficient for independent reproduction is expected.

18. Figures and artwork

• Number figures in the order they appear; provide a self-contained caption for each.
• Submit high-resolution files on acceptance: at least 300 dpi for photographs and 600 dpi for line art.
• Preferred formats: TIFF, EPS, PDF or high-quality PNG. Ensure text in figures is legible.
• Obtain and document permission for any third-party material.

19. Tables

Number tables in order of appearance, give each a concise caption, and place explanatory notes below the table. Tables must be editable text, not images, and must not duplicate results given elsewhere.

20. References

Use APA 7th edition style, listed alphabetically. Include a DOI for every reference where one exists. Ensure that every reference in the list is cited in the text and that every in-text citation appears in the list. Data sets and software should be cited like any other source.

21. Supplementary material

Supplementary files (extended methods, additional tables, code, or multimedia) may be submitted and will be published alongside the article. Reference each supplementary item in the main text.

22. Funding

State all funding sources and grant numbers, and describe the role of the funder in the study. If there was no specific funding, state that the research received no specific grant from any funding agency.

23. Submission checklist

• Title page and separate blinded main manuscript
• Structured abstract of 250 words or fewer, plus a 200-character summary
• 3 to 5 highlights, each 85 characters or fewer
• Up to 6 keywords
• Completed reporting-guideline checklist
• Ethics, consent, funding, competing-interest, data-availability, AI-use and CRediT statements
• Verified ORCID iD for the corresponding author
• References in APA 7th style with DOIs

24. Grounds for desk rejection

A manuscript may be rejected without external review if it falls outside scope, exceeds the similarity threshold, omits mandatory statements or the reporting checklist, lacks a corresponding-author ORCID, is not properly blinded, substantially exceeds the word limit, shows evidence of image or data manipulation, or is not written in adequate scientific English.

25. After acceptance

Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited and typeset. The corresponding author reviews proofs for accuracy. On publication the article is released open access under CC BY 4.0, assigned a permanent identifier, and made available in full text and PDF, with citation metadata provided for indexing services.

26. How to submit

Submissions are made through the online portal. You will need a free account and can sign in with Google or ORCID. After submitting, you can track your manuscript's stage and receive editorial decisions from your dashboard.

Submit a manuscript