DAP P&P Charter | Dog Aging Project

The success of the Dog Aging Project (DAP) will be judged largely on the number, quality, and impact of its scientific publications. The DAP Proposals and Publications Committee has a role to play in the ultimate success of the DAP. The overarching goals of the DAP Proposals and Publications Committee are to support scientific research conducted by DAP investigators and other researchers, and to promote and record the dissemination of scientific findings and discoveries as peer-reviewed articles and presentations at scientific meetings. A guiding principle for the Committee is to act as a facilitator of high-quality research and to support the dissemination of that research.

Purposes

Specific Purposes of the Proposals and Publications (P&P) Committee are:

Develop and coordinate a timeline for core papers and ensure appropriate authorship for such papers.
Avoid duplication of efforts or overlapping efforts among investigators.
Avoid and mitigate conflicting reports among DAP manuscripts.
Enhance the quality of investigations through review of Topic Proposals. For example, the Committee might
1. offer suggestions on analytic plans
2. nominate co-authors with complementary expertise.
Provide a mechanism for DAP investigators, their collaborators, and other investigators at non-profit educational and research institutions to obtain access to DAP data for the purpose of conducting scientific research and with the intent of publishing results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Specifically, an approved Topic Proposal is required for data access.
Enhance the quality of scientific publications through review of articles prior to submission. P&P Committee review differs from journal peer review. Criteria for P&P Committee review are described in detail below.
Ensure fair, appropriately inclusive, and justified authorship on DAP publications.
1. For example, authorship should appropriately recognize the scientific contributions of individuals whose work helped produce the data.
Provide material to be included in submitted articles.
1. Correct funding statements.
2. Statement of thanks to participants.
3. "Boilerplate" paragraphs on the DAP study design and conduct, including appropriate references.
4. "Boilerplate" paragraphs on methods such as clinical or laboratory measurements, including appropriate references.
Track publications and abstracts for the benefit of DAP investigators and progress reports.
1. The Committee will maintain a searchable database of approved Topic Proposals. An approved topic proposal can have status: proposal approved, penultimate draft under review, penultimate draft approved, article published (with citation).
2. Accordingly, the P&P Committee will maintain a bibliography of published articles arising from the DAP. This is a way to monitor the impact of the DAP in the scientific literature and very useful for progress reports.
3. The DAP will maintain a database of accepted and published conference abstracts.
Support the careers of junior investigators by nominating junior investigators as co-authors for appropriate research opportunities.

Policies

The purview of DAP P&P policies surrounding Conference Abstracts, Topic Proposals, and Manuscripts are all research efforts that cite the U19 grant as well as all affiliated research projects such as pilot projects, work funded by administrative supplement grants, and the Phase II rapamycin trial.

Communications between DAP investigators and the P&P committee will be considered confidential and will not be disclosed, other than to the DAP Executive Committee upon request. This includes discussion of authorship and review of Topic Proposals, manuscripts, and abstracts.

DAP leadership will make final review decisions in the event there is disagreement within the P&P Committee or investigators do not agree with the results of P&P review.

Procedures for Topic Proposals, Manuscripts, and Conference Abstracts

We propose the following procedures for investigator interaction with the P&P Committee:

Topic Proposals. Every article begins with a Topic Proposal (see below). A Topic Proposal should be submitted in the planning stages of an investigation and prior to data analysis. The P&P Committee will review Topic Proposals by conference call approximately twice a month.
1. The requirement for investigators to submit a Topic Proposal is waived for research projects underway before March 6, 2020, as long as a penultimate manuscript draft is submitted to the P&P Committee by the end of 2020. However, investigators are encouraged to submit a Topic Proposal even though one is not required, as this will allow the P&P to track DAP research and help all investigators avoid overlapping efforts.
2. Access to DAP data requires a Topic Proposal approved by the P&P Committee. After a Topic Proposal approval, an investigator will also need to sign a Data Use Agreement before getting access to the data.
3. Some articles will cite the U19 grant because of salary support but the research is not DAP research. These articles are exempt from the requirement to be preceded by an approved Topic Proposal (but articles must be submitted to the P&P prior to journal submission).
Manuscripts - Pen Drafts. When investigators complete the work on an approved proposal and have a draft of an article to submit to a journal, the draft must be submitted to and approved by the P&P Committee before submission to a journal. This draft is called the "penultimate draft" or "pen draft" because it represents work the authors plan to submit pending changes required by the P&P Committee's review.
1. P&P review of article pen drafts is described in detail below. Articles citing the U19 grant due to salary support that do not present results of DAP projects need to be submitted to the P&P for tracking purposes but will not be reviewed by the P&P.
2. Following approval of the pen draft, the DAP encourages investigators to post articles on bioRxiv. Submission to bioRxiv is not required; investigators who do not want to post their article on bioRxiv may be asked their reasons for not wanting to do so.
3. It is anticipated that DAP investigators and their collaborators will revise manuscript drafts as needed to obtain P&P approval. For unaffiliated investigators reporting research using DAP data, if the manuscript is not approved by DAP P&P and the investigators choose to proceed to publish without inclusion of DAP investigators as co-authors, the submitted and published article must include the following statement: "This manuscript was not approved by the Dog Aging Project. The opinions and conclusions contained in this publication are solely those of the authors, and are not endorsed by the Dog Aging Project or the National Institute of Aging and should not be assumed to reflect the opinions or conclusions of either.”
Manuscripts - During Journal Review, upon Acceptance, and Publication. After a Pen Draft has been approved, investigators use the P&P website to update the P&P Committee on a paper's status. Similarly, investigators report via the website when an article has been accepted for publication (with journal information, etc.). Authors are responsible for ensuring that their published article complies with NIH policies for deposition to PubMed Central. Authors report their paper's PMID and PMCID using the P&P website.
Conference Abstracts. Abstracts submitted to scientific meetings are submitted to the P&P Committee prior to (preferably) or at the same time as submission to the meeting. In rare instances where the Committee has major concerns about an abstract that has already been submitted, members of the committee or the DAP leadership will discuss with the investigators a solution such as modifying or withdrawing the submitted abstract.
1. Preferably, a submitted abstract is associated with an approved topic proposal. When an abstract does not correspond to an approved topic proposal, the P&P review will more carefully evaluate the potential for overlap with other DAP investigations and the potential for conflicting reports. If the investigators plan for a submitted abstract to develop into a publication, then the abstract submission creates the opportunity to remind the investigators to submit a Topic Proposal.
2. Investigators notify the P&P Committee when an abstract has been accepted (with meeting information, etc).

Content of Topic Proposals

A variety of research will be done in the DAP and research will range from hypothesis-driven to exploratory/hypothesis-generating. When preparing a Topic Proposal, researchers should keep the following goals in mind:

The Topic Proposal should define the research question or scope with sufficient detail so that the P&P Committee can evaluate for possible overlap with existing, approved Topic Proposals. In addition, when a submitted Topic Proposal is approved, future researchers will need to evaluate their proposals for overlap with all existing approved proposals.
The Topic Proposal identifies the DAP data that will be used in the investigation.
The Topic Proposal should provide sufficient background and detail to demonstrate how the proposed research fits into the current scientific landscape, and demonstrates that the research team has sufficient expertise to complete the proposed research.
Topic Proposals internal to the DAP should include a tentative authorship plan (see below).

The person submitting the Topic Proposal will need to attest that all authors have read and approved the Proposal prior to submission.

A typical Topic Proposal will be 1-3 pages and could contain the following sections. This outline is intended to provide constructive guidance rather than be restrictive or prescriptive. Investigators do not have to follow this outline; a proposal that satisfies the guidance above will be accepted and evaluated.

Title, summarizing the research aims or the research question to be investigated.

Authors -- members of the research team for this project and named authors for the resulting publication. Topic Proposals that are internal to the DAP should include a tentative authorship plan that identifies or describes author order. The purpose of requiring a tentative authorship plan is to ensure that co-investigators discuss authorship early in the research project.

Introduction/Background/Rationale. This section should include references. This section can often be adapted by authors for the first section of the resulting article.

Research Topic. The specific research question that will be addressed or research aims. When appropriate, state hypotheses to be tested. For exploratory studies, the scope of exploration.

Data. What DAP data sources will be used (HLES data, sequencing data, etc.)? Which DAP cohorts will be included (e.g. DAP Pack, Foundation cohort, Precision cohort, TRIAD cohort, other sources)? List any major inclusion/exclusion criteria (e.g., only intact dogs), especially criteria that will greatly limit sample size. Are additional assays or experiments planned or anticipated? Power analyses can be included, and should be included if power is a concern due to small sample sizes.

Analysis plan. Investigators are encouraged to include an analysis plan for hypothesis-driven research. A typical analysis plan identifies the statistical methods to be employed, and identifies potential confounding variables and other important covariates. The proposal could also describe plans to address issues such as missing data or multiple testing, particularly if these are key issues for successfully completing the research.

References.

An example of a topic proposal is appended.

Approved Topic Proposals will be accessible to all DAP investigators under a policy that they cannot be shared outside the DAP without explicit permission from the lead author. Topic Proposal titles and a summary of the proposal will be publicly available.

Nomination of Co-Authors

P&P nomination of co-authors: The committee's review of Topic Proposals, abstracts, or penultimate drafts may lead the committee to nominate co-authors, particularly for submissions internal to the DAP. A co-author is a person contributing substantially to the research and not necessarily a member of the writing group. When the committee nominates a co-author, the committee will share the reason for the nomination. Nominations of co-authorship would likely be because:

a. Nominated co-author has complementary expertise to contribute to the research, with a particular emphasis on identifying junior investigators with complementary expertise for whom the proposed research represents a career development opportunity.

b. The scientific contributions of the nominated co-author have helped make the proposed research possible (e.g., systems to collect reliable and comparable data).

P&P Manuscript Review

P&P Committee manuscript review is not the same as journal peer review. The criteria for P&P Committee review of papers (penultimate drafts) reporting DAP and DAP-affiliated research are:

Authorship is appropriately inclusive. All co-authors are included and have approved the submitted draft. Authors nominated by the P&P Committee are either included or a statement is provided explaining why this is not the case (e.g., nominated co-author declined to participate).
The manuscript or abstract is consistent with the approved Topic Proposal. The reported results do not extend beyond the approved Topic Proposal, particularly when the ability of other investigators to publish their work in these areas would be compromised.
The description of the Dog Aging Project is accurate and appropriately detailed.
The scientific rigor is consistent with DAP standards.
The interpretation of results is appropriate. Conclusions do not extend beyond what the data can support. The paper or abstract does not employ unjustified causal language or make premature clinical recommendations.
The manuscript is well-written. Manuscripts include a clear and accurate abstract.
Funding sources are properly acknowledged.
Either the title or abstract of the paper includes "The Dog Aging Project."
1. Example title: "Associations between age at spay or neuter and lifespan: Results from the Dog Aging Project."
2. Example abstract text: "Using data from The Dog Aging Project, this study investigates…"
3. This requirement will facilitate searches for DAP publications.
4. Articles citing the U19 grant for salary support that do not present DAP research or use data from the DAP or affiliated research projects are exempt from this requirement. Other exceptions can be approved by the P&P Committee on a case-by-case basis.

P&P Website

The P&P website (https://pubs.dogagingproject.org/) is roughly similar to a journal's manuscript submission system. Investigators submit Topic Proposals, penultimate draft manuscripts, and conference abstracts through the website. Reviewers enter their comments in this system, which has the functionality to notify investigators of the results of P&P review. The system also collects data on published articles (journal information, PMID, PMCID).

P&P Coordinator

The P&P coordinator organizes meetings for the Committee and sets agendas; communicates with investigators submitting materials to the P&P for review; helps maintain P&P resources; and ensures that manuscript information is kept up-to-date on the P&P website.

Appendix

An sample topic proposal is available here.