Headache is the official publication of the American Headache Society. It is currently circulated to over 2,000 libraries and represents one of the leading forums for discussion and learning in the field. The journal welcomes the submission of clinical and basic science papers related to head and face pain.

All manuscripts must be submitted through the Manuscript Central online system for submission and review.

The site may be accessed by following this link. A user account must be set up for first-time authors. Returning authors may use their existing account. A series of on-screen instructions will guide you through the upload process. Please make sure your manuscript conforms to the check list below.

Material Suitable for Submission to Headache

Headache welcomes the submission of basic science articles along with original and innovative clinical research. Manuscripts typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Research Submissions – comprehensive presentation of original scientific research or clinical investigation. All Research Submissions must contain an abstract structured as follows: Objectives, Background, Methods, Results and Conclusion. The abstract should be understandable without access to the entire article.
• Brief Communications – presentation of a small series of cases or a single case of significant note. Manuscripts must be educational and draw attention to some important or unique observation.
• Clinical Notes – presentation of an abbreviated report of a single case or a small case series. Clinical notes must consist of no more than 1,500 words (including references and figure/table legends). There should be no more than 15 references. The use of tables and figures must be limited to one each. No structured abstract is required, though all abstracts must be restricted to no more than 3 sentences.
• Review Articles – must include a comprehensive review and critique of the literature on the topic. Manuscripts may include a new hypothesis.
• Special Articles – History of medicine, education, ethics and socio-economic issues in relation to head and face pain.
• Letters-to-the-Editor – may refer to items of interest on head and face pain or may offer criticism of articles previously published in Headache but must be objective, constructive and educational. Letters can include a small table or figure and a few references if necessary and can also be used in lieu of a short article.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are subject to editing according to the 9^th edition of the American Medical Associate Manual of Style: A guide for authors and editors (Baltimore, MD, Williams & Wilkins, 1998). The corresponding author will receive edited proofs for approval and is responsible for all content, including changes made by the editor and his staff.

Manuscript Checklist

• Does your manuscript conform to the style guidelines outlined in the Instructions for Authors? Failure to comply with the strict rules on structured abstracts, the preferred method of reference citation and the requirements for the supply of digital images may result in the initial rejection of your manuscript.
• Have you included the complete qualification and institutional information on all contributing authors? Headache requires that the highest qualifications (e.g. PhD, MD) of every author must be stated. In addition to the full contact details of the corresponding author please list the institution or place of employment for each author including city and country location of that institution.

Several checks are required for all tabular and illustrative material:

• Does your submission include all tables and figures referenced in your manuscript? If you have revised your manuscript to exclude certain tables and figures, please ensure all references to this material have been removed from your manuscript.
• Does your manuscript call out/properly reference each table and figure?
• All tables must be in either MS Word or MS Excel format. Please do not supply PDF’s or PowerPoint slides of your tables. If your tables are embedded in your manuscript they must not be JPEG’s, TIFF’s or any other drawing object. Such files can lead to poor reproduction quality in print which may diminish the impact of your manuscript. Failure to comply may mean you have to supply the file at a later date causing delays in the publication of your manuscript.

• All figures must be in their original file format. A minimum of 300 dpi is required for all image files. The higher the resolution of the file you supply, the superior the reproduction quality. PDF’s are NOT an acceptable file format.
• Please remove all gratuitous use of color and shading from your artwork. What may look good on a PowerPoint slide does not always translate onto the printed page. PowerPoint slides are NOT an acceptable file format.
• Please ensure that all tables and graphs have been fully translated into English and that a decimal point, rather than a comma, is used throughout as per journal style (thus 45,6 becomes 45.6).
• Please check the size dimensions of your figure files before you submit. Files over 4Mb in size may cause download problems for reviewers of your manuscript. If your file size is large please check the height and width dimensions of the figure you have saved.

• If you have submitted a revised version of a manuscript, please make sure you have highlighted all changes and responded to every comment made by the reviewers.
• Please ensure you have included at least three key words and that all abbreviations are clarified in a table following the manuscript abstract.
• All submissions must disclose the source of any sponsorship for the research and any author/coauthor participation along with corporate activity related directly or indirectly to the research or to commercial goods and products within the submission.
• List references in the order in which they first appear in the text (not alphabetically). If a reference is cited more than once, subsequent citations should be to the original number. Failure to comply will result in the return of your manuscript to correct this stylistic error.
• Please read your manuscript to ensure the correct use of English grammar and syntax throughout. The journal uses American English spelling. Please make sure your manuscript consistently uses the correct spelling in both the main text and all tabular/illustrative material.
• Please take responsibility for all material submitted in your name. Not only should you ensure your manuscript is free of stylistic and language errors you should be certain that the version of your manuscript submitted is correct and final. Once your manuscript is accepted for publication only minor typographic errors may be corrected. Any structural adjustment to the manuscript text and the removal or inclusion of sentences will require a further round of review, unless such change has been approved at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.  

 Online Submission