International Journal of Lipids - Reviewer Guidelines
Guidance for fair and rigorous lipid review.
Review Focus
Reviewers assess methodological rigor, clarity, and relevance to lipid research practice.
Reviewers assess methodological soundness, data quality, and clarity of conclusions.
Summaries linking lipid outcomes to clinical relevance strengthen translation to care.
Report software versions and packages to support reproducibility.
Provide details on internal standards and extraction protocols.
Explain how missing lipid values were handled during analysis.
Include quality assurance steps for instrument calibration.
What to Evaluate
Methods
Assess appropriateness of lipid models and assumptions.
Transparency
Check reporting of data sources and limitations.
Impact
Judge relevance to clinical and metabolic outcomes.
Confidentiality and conflict of interest policies must be respected.
Define lipid classes and abbreviations clearly for multidisciplinary readers.
If data access is restricted, describe approval processes and timelines.
Summarize participant demographics to contextualize lipid findings.
Provide a rationale for chosen lipid biomarkers or panels.
Report confidence intervals for key lipid effects.
Confidentiality
Treat manuscripts as confidential and report conflicts of interest promptly.
Clear lipid reporting improves interpretability for clinicians and metabolic researchers.
When using lipidomics, report normalization and quality control procedures.
Describe sample storage temperatures and timing to support lipid stability assessment.
Clarify fasting status or dietary controls when relevant to lipid measures.
Highlight how lipid findings inform prevention or therapeutic decisions.
When using animal models, specify strain, diet, and lipid outcome timing.
Review Structure
Provide constructive feedback and support comments with evidence where possible.
- Evaluate lipid assay quality and diagnostics
- Check data quality and transparency
- Assess interpretation and limitations
We encourage authors to document assay conditions so lipid measurements remain comparable.
Provide uncertainty measures for key estimates when applicable.
Include calibration standards and quality control materials for lipid assays.
Report variability across cohorts or sites for multicenter lipid studies.
Discuss biological plausibility for lipid associations observed.
Review Workflow
Accept Review
Confirm expertise and absence of conflicts.
Evaluate
Assess methodology, data quality, and clarity.
Recommend
Provide actionable feedback and decision guidance.
Follow Up
Review revisions when requested.
Transparent reporting of sample handling helps readers interpret lipid stability.
Explain how confounders were selected in observational lipid studies.
Document batch effects and correction methods for multi run lipidomics.
Describe statistical correction for multiple testing in lipidomics.
Describe how lipid ratios or indexes were calculated.
