Publication Policy

International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Task Force (INRG)
Publication Policy
Effective 16 January 2024

On behalf of the INRG Executive Committee, the INRG Research Application Review Committee reviews all applications.

Authorship of Abstracts and Manuscripts: Immediately after an INRG application is approved authorship will be considered by the INRG Executive Committee

  • If patients in the study have been contributed by a cooperative group, then the INRG Executive Committee will ask the cooperative group chair to nominate an individual who will be an active member of the research team. Cooperative group chairs will have four weeks to respond with their nominations.
  • If the investigators are requesting data from a single cooperative group or specific clinical trial, the cooperative group chair will nominate an individual(s) who played a key role in generating the data to be actively involved in the analysis of the data and preparing the study abstracts and manuscripts.
  • Involvement of young investigators will be very strongly encouraged
  • Nominated individuals MUST be actively, and intellectually involved in the project to be a co-author.
  • The INRG Executive Committee will determine if “specialty” experts e.g. pathologists should be included in the project.
  • It is anticipated that collaboration with international experts will greatly enhance the research conducted with these data.
  • Based on the extensive work of the cooperative group statisticians, if the cooperative group has contributed patients the cooperative group chairs will be invited to nominate a statistician to participate in the work and be included on the manuscript.
  • Data will not be released to the investigators UNTIL cooperative group representatives have been identified

Authorship will be determined by the primary investigators, in alignment with the above rules

Co-authorship will only be warranted for collaborators who meet the ICJME recommendations for authorship.

The Co-chairs of INRG are not automatically co-authors, they will be co-authors only if they have been actively and intellectually involved in the project.

Acknowledgments: St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the Little Heroes Cancer Research Fund, Children’s Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation, Neuroblastoma Children’s Cancer Foundation, the Super Jake Foundation, the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, and The Matthew Bittker Foundation. Data included in the INRG database were provided by Children’s Oncology Group [COG], Pediatric Oncology Group [POG], Children’s Cancer Study Group [CCSG], German Gesellschaft für Pädiatrische Onkologie und Hämatologie [GPOH], European Neuroblastoma Study Group [ENSG], International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma Group [SIOPEN], Japanese Neuroblastoma Study Group [JNBSG], Japanese Infantile Neuroblastoma Co-operative Study Group [JINCS], Spanish Neuroblastoma Group, the Italian Neuroblastoma Group, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Information: The authors must inform the INRG Executive Committee when an abstract or manuscript arising from the research project is submitted.