Annals of Human Biology is often sent manuscripts that describe surveys of the morphological characteristics of a sample. Such investigations are not usually hypothesis driven but rather seek to record the physical status of the sample at a particular moment in time. These submissions often pose a dilemma to the Editors of Annals. On the one hand, these papers present new or updated descriptive information, but on the other hand such information may be less compelling as an innovative contribution. The Editors of Annals of Human Biology consider that they have a responsibility to ensure that such surveys are not left unexposed to the scientific community where they may form a valuable source of comparison. However, it is crucial for readers to understand the nature of the study sample so that they can contextualise the representativeness of the data. This will help our field record changing human biology within an historical context.
It has been decided, therefore, that Annals will develop a new section to include a record of such reports under the heading “Human Biological Surveys”. Such surveys would include those carried out with the aim of investigating, for example, secular trends in somatic and developmental characteristics, nutritional surveys of specific groups and morphological surveys.
The section will include descriptions of surveys within a prescribed format. The format will reduce introductory and discussion material to an absolute minimum but will require full description of the source population nationality and ethnicity, recruitment and selection criteria, study sample characteristics, morphological variables, data collection methods, statistical analysis and output according to specific guidelines. The Editors and reviewers will evaluate if important characteristics of the sample that would usually be associated with the levels or values of the morphological traits, such as socio-economic status, need to be described or included in the descriptive analysis.
Guidelines
Manuscripts should be divided into sections entitled Title, Abstract, Background, Sample, Data Collection, Data Management and Statistical Analysis, Results, Comment and References.
Title: the title should clearly state the contents of the survey, e.g., “The heights and weights of London children aged 6 to 18 years in 2005”. Author names and affiliations should follow the title according to the regular guidelines for authors.
Background: this section should include a brief (one paragraph) statement of the historical setting of the survey. For example, a survey that is the latest in a series of surveys of the same general population would simply record this fact and provide references to the previous surveys.
Sample: this section includes a detailed description of the design and characteristics of sample, sample size by sex and age (including a power analysis if appropriate), and other relevant variables.
Data collection: a description of the data collection methods referring to standardised procedures where appropriate, e.g., for anthropometric measurement.
Data management and statistical analysis: a description of any specific data management procedures, e.g., editing procedures, etc., and a description of the statistical procedures used to produce the output data.
Results: the output data in the form of Figures and/or Tables. Tables and Figures should not duplicate content so that, for example, the results of a survey of children's heights would be presented either as Tables of height by age and sex or as Figures but not in both formats.
The text supporting the Figures and/or Tables should amount to no more than three pages of A4, 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced or approximately 750 words.
Comment: this final section of text should contain a maximum of two paragraphs of comment if appropriate.
Within the ‘Comment’ section there should be information regarding access to the dataset, i.e., whether the data is already in a public access domain or will be in the future and, if not, how access may be obtained by interested researchers.
References: a list of references to support the background and comment sections.
All textual and reference formatting should be according to the usual guidelines for authors.