14th October 2008
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14th October 2008 |
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Editor: Dr Richard Ellis Contributions to the journal should be submitted online at http://imm.edmgr.com Individuals wishing to submit a paper should submit online at the above address for their paper to be considered for publication by the Editors. See below for details of the file requirements and full instructions.
SCOPE AND TYPES OF CONTRIBUTION International Musculoskeletal Medicine publishes research and review papers about pain and dysfunction in the musculoskeletal system. It wishes to encourage better treatment by improving the evidence base for best practice. And to encourage better understanding of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction, it publishes papers dealing with its causation and the mechanisms underlying chronicity as well as the mechanisms for obtaining satisfactory relief.
CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION By submitting to International Musculoskeletal Medicine, authors acknowledge and accept that papers are considered for publication on the basis: 1. that the paper presents original work that is not being considered or reviewed by any other publication, and has not been published elsewhere in the same or a similar form; 2. that all authors are aware of, and have consented to, the submission to International Musculoskeletal Medicine; 3. that due regard has been paid to ethical considerations relating to the work reported; 4. that the paper contains, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no libellous or unlawful statements.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE AND FILE REQUIREMENTS There is no word limit set on submissions to International Musculoskeletal Medicine, but the Editor should be contacted in advance of the submission of papers in excess of 5000 words. Articles must be submitted online at http://imm.edmgr.com If you have not already done so, you will need to register to obtain a username and password. (Select the 'REGISTER' option from the main navigation bar at the top of the homepage.) Information on the submission procedure is provided online, but you will be asked to provide the information and files listed below. Failure to conform to these requirements may delay typesetting and publication of your paper. Authors will be asked to submit their work according to the requirements of the journal. In the event of queries with the submission process, please contact the Editor at UKjom2@aol.com For an initial submission you must upload:
You will be asked to input separately the title, abstract and keywords for the article and contact details for all authors. This information may be cut and pasted. You must also download, complete and return the author agreement. Supplementary information such as datasets, animations, models or videos must be submitted offline, by way of emailing them directly to the Editor; but you will need to indicate that an item of this type is being included in the submission.
When submitting a revised article you must upload:
The preferred file format is Word (.doc) or rich text format (.rtf), but Word-compatible word processor files (e.g..wpd) will also usually be acceptable. Do not upload a PDF file at the revise stage. Failure to comply with this may lead to delay with publication as we will need to seek source files from authors in order that the paper can be typeset for publication.
Please ensure that figures will be legible and comprehensible at final size and are of sufficiently high resolution (see guidelines below). Permitted file formats are TIFF (.tif), JPEG (.jpg) and EPS (.eps).
It is not necessary to upload, for a second time, files that were uploaded with the initial submission and have not been altered. However, please note that PDF is NOT an acceptable format for revised submissions. Text files and separate figure files are required in order not to delay publication should your article be accepted.
REVIEWING AND EDITORIAL PROCESS The Editor-in-Chief will initially assess all original submissions, including those commissioned by the editorial team. Contributions considered relevant to the aims and scope of the journal and likely to be of publishable quality will be sent out for external review. The journal's policy is to obtain at least two independent reviews of each article. Referees will be encouraged to provide substantive, constructive reviews that provide suggestions for improving the work, and distinguish between mandatory and non-mandatory recommendations. The Editor-in-Chief will then make a decision about publication in the journal. He will inform the contributors in writing of his decision, and the reasoning behind it, and will provide contributors with copies of the external reviews. All manuscripts accepted for publication are subject to editing by the publisher for presentation, style and grammar. Any major redrafting is agreed with the author but the Editor's decision on the text is final.
COPYRIGHT Contributing authors must transfer copyright in the work to the Society of Orthopaedic Medicine and the British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine, in all forms and languages, and for the full period of copyright, so that all published articles carry the standard copyright line © Society of Orthopaedic Medicine and the British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine (with the year of publication).
Authors who wish to reproduce material from previously published sources or where the copyright is owned by a third party, such as sections of text, tables or images, must obtain written permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) and the author(s)/artists of the original material. A line giving the full source of the material should be included in the manuscript. If material from the author's own published work is to be used, permission must still be obtained from that publisher Copyright is required for use in all formats (including digital) and in perpetuity. For more information, please see the copyright advice for authors section of the Maney website
PRESENTATION OF PAPERS These instructions are in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (the 'Vancouver' system). BMJ 1991; 302 (6772). See also: http://www.icmje.org/index.html Papers should be submitted in English and should follow the following format: title page; structured abstract; keywords; main body of text; conclusion; acknowledgements/disclosure statements; references; figure legends; figures and tables. Both UK and US spellings are acceptable. Content Emphasis should be placed on randomized controlled clinical trials. Where such information is available, the results of meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials, data from systematic reviews and evidence-based medicine should be included and critically reviewed. Title page The title page should give the following information: (1) title of the article; (2) first name(s) or initial(s) and surname of each author; (3) address of the department or institution to which the work should be attributed; (4) full postal address of each author; (5) name, telephone, email address and fax number of the author responsible for correspondence and to whom requests for offprints should be sent. (This is particularly important where the corresponding author is not the first named author.) Structured abstract This should consist of not more than 250 words summarising the contents of the article. It is important, especially for indexing services, that this must be intelligible independently of the article. It should be presumed that the reader has some knowledge of the subject but has not read the paper. Structured abstracts are essential for research and review papers, and should be submitted under the headings: 1. Objectives, 2. Methods, 3. Results, and 4. Discussion. Papers that are significantly technical in nature should include a Technique/Technical Development and/or Instrumentation section(s), as appropriate. Abstracts for Case Reports do not follow the above format, but contain: i) Objective and Importance ii) Clinical Presentation iii) Intervention (or Technique) iv) Conclusion headings. For the sake of brevity, descriptions under each heading need not be in complete sentences and may be formulated in phrases. Abstracts will be critically reviewed and evaluated for direct and accurate conciseness to the manuscript's content. Keywords Authors are asked to supply up to five keywords (in alphabetical order) to be used as an aid to coding and indexing. Please consult the subject classifications on the website as part of the submission process. Acknowledgements Acknowledgements should be placed before the reference list. Sources of support, for example in the form of grants, should be included where relevant.
Disclosure statement Each submission needs to have a disclosure statement from the authors detailing any financial support they have received in conjunction with the generation of their submission. References These should represent the most recent and pertinent literature available. It is essential that references are thoroughly checked as the Publisher cannot detect inaccuracies. Please indicate the 3-10 most important references clearly (e.g. by an asterisk). References should be presented following the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals ('the Vancouver system'). References should be indicated in the text by a number in superscript, sequentially as they occur. A correspondingly numbered reference list should be provided at the end of the paper, e.g.
International Musculoskeletal Reviews endorses CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials). Please see www.consort-statement.org for further information. Tables Authors are actively encouraged to use tables where appropriate. Use only one tab (not spaces) to separate each column in a table. Authors need not worry aboutthe alignment of columns on the screen, but if a table is presented on paper, set each tab asappropriate. Alternatively, use the Word table template from the drop-down menu. Each table should also be presented on a separate page of hard copy or file and should contain only horizontal rules. Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text and their position indicated in the text (e.g. Table 1). Do not submit tables as photographs. Care should be taken to ensure that all units are included.A short descriptive title should appear above each table and any footnotes, suitably identified, should appear below. Ensure that each table is cited in the text. Statistics When statistical significance is attributed, cite the specific method of analysis and use the lower case italic p (p<0.05). Abbreviations, Nomenclature, and Symbols These generally should conform to those found in the CBE Style Manual, 6th Edition, 1994, published by the Council of Biology Editors, Inc., 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814. The use of standard international units is encouraged and should be accompanied by the appropriate notation. Identification of Product Manufacturers Any medications, materials, and devices must be identified by full non-proprietary name as well as brand name and the manufacturer's name, city, state, and country. Place this information in parentheses in the text, not in a footnote.
ILLUSTRATIONS Authors must provide high resolution digital files of all figures to the specification laid out below. Colour policy including new FREE ONLINE colour All illustrations must be suitable for reproduction in black and white. Colour is available in the printed journal only if the author is prepared to pay the additional cost of colour reproduction, an estimate of which is available on application. Please contact the Editor initially, or the Managing Editor, Caitlin Meadows (email: c.meadows@maney.co.uk). It is now possible for colour illustrations to be published in the online version of International Musculoskeletal Medicine free of charge. Images submitted in colour will be published in black and white in the printed journal (unless otherwise agreed as outlined above) but will be posted online in colour. Authors should be aware of this development when obtaining permission to use material from third parties. Line Illustrations All line illustrations should present a crisp black image on an even white background 127x173 mm, or no larger than 203x254 mm. Figures should be submitted appropriately lettered in capitals. The size of letters should be appropriate to that of the illustration. It is important to take into account the necessary size reduction. Be certain that the symbols utilized will be distinguished after reduction. If illustrations are computer generated, please avoid the use of grey tints. Solid black, solid white or hatched areas are acceptable. Graphs with coloured lines and keys, contour maps, model outputs, etc. will not reproduce adequately if converted direct to greyscale. In particular, red and blue convert to similar grey levels and will not be distinguishable. Suitable labelling or reformatting must be used to ensure clarity. Image file formats and resolution Each figure must be supplied in digital form as a separate, clearly named file. Acceptable file formats are TIFF, JPEG and EPS. If supplying EPS files ensure that all fonts are attached. Figures embedded in Word documents are not suitable for reproduction. Images should be saved at a resolution of at least 600 dpi at final size(dpi=dots or pixels per inch; 600dpi=240 dots per centimetre). Do not save at the default resolution (72dpi). Crop any unwanted white space from around the figure before sizing. Halftones (photographs) should be supplied as greyscale images. Line drawings or diagrams should be scanned as line art or produced to the appropriate resolution using a standard package such as PhotoShop. Diagrams with shaded or toned areas or line/tone figures should be submitted as greyscale images. Colour figures for printing should be provided in CMYK format Each figure must be supplied in digital form as a separate, clearly named file. Acceptable file formats are TIFF, JPEG and EPS. If supplying EPS files ensure that all fonts are attached. Figures embedded in Word documents are not suitable for reproduction. Permissions The author will be required to provide written evidence of permission to reproduce images (in both printed and online formats) from the copyright owner for the use of any illustrative mater in the journal and will be liable for any fee charged by the owner of the image. The caption should include relevant credit of the permission of the copyright holder to reproduce the image and all captions should be listed at the end of the main text after the bibliography. Supplementary material Supplementary material such as videos, animations, models or datasets will be accessed via a hyperlink from the online version of the paper. There is not therefore a requirement to use specified file or software formats but be aware of the need to use commonly available platforms and to minimise file size for ease of downloading. You may submit supplementary files online as part of the submission process.
PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY Where illustrations must include recognisable individuals, living or dead and of whatever age, care must be taken to ensure that consent for publication has been given. If identifiable features are not essential to the illustration, please indicate where the illustration can be cropped. In cases where consent has not been obtained and recognizable features may appear, it will be necessary to retouch the illustration to mask the eyes or otherwise render the individual 'officially' unrecognisable. ABBREVIATIONS AND UNITS All measurements should be expressed in metric units. For more detailed recommendations, authors may consult the Royal Society of Medicine publication entitled Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Biological and Medical Editors and Authors or USA equivalent. PROPRIETARY NAMES Proprietary names of drugs, instruments etc. should be indicated by the use of initial capital letters. AUTHORSHIP The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This will be all those who have made a substantial contribution to the concept and design, conduct, analysis or writing up a study. Authors may if they wish supply details of their individual contributions to the work, but we do not insist on it, and the data will not be published. Contributions would be expected to fall into one of the following categories, though one of these may not be sufficient on its own to warrant authorship: - Conceiving and designing the study - Obtaining funding and/or ethical approval - Collecting the data - Analysing the data - Interpreting the data - Writing the report in part or wholly - Revising the report Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content relevant to their own contribution. We do not require all authors to sign the initial letter accompanying submission. However, all authors must sign the declaration form sent with the Editor's response at the conclusion of peer review. In addition, at least one author should be designated as the guarantor for the integrity of the data on which the paper is based. This will normally be the author for correspondence. PUBLISHING ETHICS International Musculoskeletal Medicine supports the ethical principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) available on their website http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/. It is important that authors understand the need for the research undertaken to conform to the Helsinki declaration. The authors will normally have to confirm that the study has been approved by a named Research Ethical Committee to be considered for publication. In addition the authors must ensure that there is no risk of duplicate publication. All authors of any kind of article submitted must declare any competing interests by completing a standard form, which will be sent to all authors at the conclusion of the peer review process. This should be returned with the revised manuscript. COPE has given guidance on the definition of competing interests: that they may influence the judgement of author, reviewers, and editors; that they may be personal, commercial, political, academic or financial. As a rough guide, they have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived. In addition, all authors must declare that, where relevant, patient consent has been obtained and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain patient confidentiality report (see http://jama.ama-assn.org/ifora_current.dtl for full requirements of informed consent).
FOLLOWING ACCEPTANCE Proofs Following typesetting, proofs will be emailed to the designated author as a PDF file for corrections together with a copyright transfer form: only corrections of typographical errors will be accepted at this stage. Corrected proofs must be returned to the Editorial Office within 72 hours of receipt. Authors will receive a PDF file of the final version of the paper on publication and will be sent details on how to order hard copy reprints with their proofs.
E-Prints Under Maney's open access policy, authors will receive a PDF file of the published version of their paper. This PDF may be forwarded to co-authors without separate permission being required from the publisher. The PDF cannot be used for commercial purposes. International Musculoskeletal Medicine must be cited as the original source of publication and a link to www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/imm included with any listing. This PDF may be posted on authors' individual websites or that of their institution. Authors are entitled to make copies of the article for reasonable personal use only. Authors may still purchase printed offprints if required; an offprint order form will be sent out to the corresponding author with their proofs.
FURTHER INFORMATION For further information or clarification contact the Editor, Richard Ellis UKjom2@aol.com
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