Notes for Contributors - Progress in Palliative Care

Submissions are welcomed, particularly on topics of current interest, which will stimulate and provoke discussion. Original papers as well as reviews are considered, and will be subject to peer review. 

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Mellar Davis, The Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44195, USA. Email: DAVISM6@ccf.org

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript and illustrations electronically via email, where possible, or by post to the Editor-in-Chief at the address above. Authors are encouraged to discuss their contribution informally in advance of submission with the Editor-in-Chief or local editorial board member. The Editor-in-Chief cannot accept responsibility for damage or loss of material or disks. A paper is considered for publication on the understanding that it has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal in the English language.

Papers that contain the results of human and/or animal studies will only be accepted for publication if it is made clear that a high standard of ethics was applied in carrying out the investigations. In the case of invasive studies of humans, papers should include a statement that the research protocol was approved by a local ethical committee.

The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to make editorial and literary corrections. Any opinions expressed or policies advocated do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Editor-in-Chief or Publisher.

CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION

By submitting to Progress in Palliative Care, 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 Progress in Palliative Care;

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 statement.

COPYRIGHT

In order for us to ensure maximum dissemination and copyright protection of material published in the Journal, copyright must be explicitly transferred from author to Maney Publishing.

A form for this purpose will be sent to the principal author, and must be signed by the principal author before any paper can be published.

We make assurances that no limitation will be put on authors' personal freedom to use material contained in the paper without requesting permission, provided acknowledgement is made to the Journal as the original source of publication.

PRESENTATION OF SUBMISSIONS

These instructions are in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. BMJ 1991; 302: 6772. See also www.icmje.org

Papers should be in English and approx. 1500-3000 words in length. Longer contributions will be considered, although authors are recommended to discuss their contribution with the Editor-in-Chief in advance of submission.

Please ensure that your submission is accompanied by a letter signed by all authors attesting to the fact that the work is original, and specifies the contribution of each author in terms of od conception, design, execution, analysis and write-up.

Electronic submission. We encourage submission of the final version of papers via email. We also accept 3.5” disks prepared on IBM-compatible computers or high density disks prepared on Macintosh PCs.

Please ensure that all sections of your paper are in a single file in the order set out below and with references in the correct style. Figures will be handled separately and should be supplied as separate files or hard copies; only include duplicate copies on disk if they can be supplied as TIFF, JPEG or EPS files. Tables, with their captions, and figure legends should be included in the main text file after the reference list.

Instructions for formatting electronic submissions. Please read these carefully.

Set your line spacing to double spacing.

Do not justify your text - range left allow it to run ragged on the right-hand margin. Many word processing packages have the justification mode automatically turned on and this must be turned off.

Turn off the automatic hyphenation option. Only use hyphens when they are part of a word.

Never use the lower case letter l for the number 1. Never use the capital letter O for the number zero 0.

Never use the carriage return (enter) at the end of lines within a paragraph. Use the carriage return only at the end of paragraphs or after a heading.

Use normal type for headings. Capitalize the first letter of the first word only. They should be ranged left and not centred. Do not underline headings. Do not type them in bold or italic, or type a colon or full stop after them.

Please use single quotation marks. Only use double quotation marks for quotes within quotes.

Always insert a space between a number and a unit, e.g. 5 mm.

Do not indent lists. However, if preparing a list within a list, use a tab, not a space to indent the sublist. Bullets, numbers, alphabet characters or dashes may be used but please use rationally and 

consistently.

FULL PAPERS

Papers should be set out as follows, with each section beginning on a separate sheet: title page, summary, text, acknowledgements, references, tables, captions to illustrations.

Title page. The title page should give the following information: (1) title of the article; (2) one first name and name 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, fax number and email address of the author responsible for correspondence and to whom proofs and requests for offprints should be sent. (This is particularly important where the corresponding author is not the first named author.)

Abstract. This should consist of not more than 250 words summarizing the contents of the article. It is important, especially for indexing services, that the abstract should be intelligible without reference to the full text or to literature references. The abstract must stand alone, and it should be presumed that the reader has some knowledge of the subject but has not read the paper. It should include an introduction, methods and enough detail that the study could be easily replicated, Results and Discussion.

Keywords. Authors are now requested to supply up to five keywords (words or phrases in alphabetical order) to be used as an aid to indexing.

Text. Headings should be appropriate to the nature of the paper. In general, those for experimental papers should follow the usual conventions. Other papers can be subdivided as the author desires; the use of headings enhances readability. Do not use 'he', 'his' etc. where the sex of the person is unknown; say 'the patient' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'.

Acknowledgements. Sources of support in the form of grants should be included where relevant.

References. The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author. References should be entered consecutively by Arabic numerals as superscripts following the punctuation mark (e.g. . . tested.27 The. . . ). (according to the 'vancouver' style). The reference list should be listed in numerical order on a separate sheet in double spacing. Reference to journals should include the author's name and initials (list all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first three and add et al.), full title of paper, journal title abbreviated (using Index Medicus abbreviations), year of publication, volume number, first and last page numbers. For example: 

Albert MJ, Faruque SM, Ansaruzzaman M et al. Sharing of virulence-associated properties at the phenotypic and generic levels between enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and Hafnia alvei. J Med Microbiol 1992; 37: 310-14

References to books should be set out as follows: 

Facklam RR, Carey RB. Streptococci and aerococci. In: Lennetti EH, ed. Manual of clinical microbiology, 4th edn. Washington, DC: American Society for Microbiology 1985: 156-7

As a rough guide, approximately 10 references per 1000 words of text would be expected.

Tables. Use only one tab (not spaces) to separate each column in a table. Do not worry about the alignment of columns on the screen, but if you wish to lay the table out on the hard copy, set each tab as appropriate.Each table should also be presented on a separate page of hard copy and should contain only horizontal rules. 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. Please ensure that each table is cited in the text.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Please note that it is the responsibility of authors to produce and supply artwork at their own cost. Illustrations will be handled conventionally, unless supplied as EPS, JPEG or TIFF files on disk. Please supply hard copies since these provide the printer with guidance as to the intended appearance and may be used in cases where the electronic files cannot be opened or converted.

Line illustrations. All line illustrations should present a crisp black image on an even white background 127 x 173 mm (5 x 7 in), or no larger than 203 x 254 mm (8 x 10 in). 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.

Photographic illustrations and radiographs. These should be submitted as clear, highly contrasted black and white prints (unmounted), sizes as above. Photomicrographs should have the magnification and details of staining techniques shown. X-ray film should be submitted as photographic prints, carefully made to bring out the detail to be illustrated, with an overlay indicating the area of importance.

All illustrations should be clearly marked (by a label pasted on the back or by a soft crayon) with the figure number and author's name and the top of the figure should be illustrated with an arrow. Never use ink of any kind. Never use paperclips as these can scratch or mark illustrations. 

Colour illustrations. Illustrations in colour are encouraged, but will be accepted on condition that the cost of origination and publication is paid for by the author. For details, please contact the Managing Editor, Caitlin Meadows, Maney Publishing, Hudson Road, Leeds LS9 7DL, UK (email: c.meadows@maney.co.uk).

Figure legends should be typed, double spaced, on separate sheets from the main text.

Patient confidentiality. Where illustrations must include recognizable individuals, living or dead and of whatever age, great 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' unrecognizable.

Written permission to reproduce borrowed material must be obtained from the original publishers and authors, and submitted with the typescript. Borrowed material should be acknowledged in the figure legends in this style: `Reproduced by the kind permission of . . . (publishers) from . . . (reference)'.

PROPRIETARY NAMES

Proprietary names of drugs, instruments etc. should be indicated by the use of initial capital letters.

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.

PROOFS

Proofs are sent to the author for checking in the form of a PDF file emailed to the corresponding author. It is therefore essential that an email address is provided in order that proofs can be transmitted without delay. The proofs, with any minor corrections, must be returned by fax or email (list corrections, e.g. Line 9, Column 1, p3 change 'Asparin' to 'Aspirin') to the Production Editor (Dr G M Haddock, Woodlands, Ford, Midlothian EH37 5RE, UK. Fax: + 44 (0)1875 320276; Email: 100741.1374@compuserve.com) within 72 hours. All typescripts will undergo copy-editing to improve clarity, readability and consistency, so it is important to read your proofs carefully.

**NEW** E-PRINTS

Under Maney's open access policy, authors will now receive a PDF file of the published version of their paper in place of printed offprints. This PDF may be forwarded to co-authors without separate permission being required from the publisher. The PDF cannot be used for commercial purposes. Progress in Palliative Care must be cited as the original source of publication and a link to www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/ppc 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 desired; an offprint order form will be sent out to the corresponding author with their proofs.