Notes for Contributors - The Pain Clinic

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Lloyd Saberski, MD

Co-Editor: Dr Steve Levin, MD

Contributions to the journal should be submitted online at http://pai.edmgr.com. 

See below for details of the file requirements, etc.

SCOPE AND TYPES OF CONTRIBUTION

The Pain Clinic, focuses on the clinical methods used and the problems involved in the diagnosis and treatment of persistent and recurrent types of pain. Papers from basic sciences which can contribute to the knowledge of pathophysiological mechanisms of human diseases will be considered. 
 
The journal provides a forum in which pain clinicians can exchange new ideas and experiences and communicate on diagnosis and treatment. These are topics which bridge the gap between many different specialised areas of medicine. An international editorial board, which includes experts in several different fields, reflects and maintains the journal's multidisciplinary nature. 
 

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they present original work that has not been submitted elsewhere or previously published in the same or essentially similar form. Authors must sign a declaration that this is so.

Ethics committee approval should have been granted for all studies involving human participants and a statement to this effect should be included in the paper. The Editor reserves the right to seek a copy of the authorising letter from the relevant ethics committee. 

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE AND FILE REQUIREMENTS

Articles must be submitted online at http://pai.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.

For an initial submission you must upload:

Ÿ a PDF file of the complete paper

Ÿ OR a Word file containing the complete paper

Ÿ OR a Word file containing the text, references, tables and figure captions plus an individual file of each figure, prepared to the specification laid out below.

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, 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:

Ÿ a text file containing the revised text, references, tables and figure captions, prepared to the specification described below. This file must not include graphics. 
The preferred file format is Word (.doc) or rich text format (.rtf), but Word-compatible word processor files (e.g. .wpd) and LaTeX2e files will also usually be acceptable. Do not upload a PDF file at the revise stage.

Ÿ a separate image file of each figure. 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).

Ÿ a response to the referees' comments, as a Word or PDF file.

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.

CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION

By submitting to The Pain Clinic, 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 The Pain Clinic.

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.

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. The peer review process will be double-blind, i.e. neither reviewers nor authors will be informed of the identity of each other. 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

Authors will be required, before publication, to transfer copyright of their article to Maney Publishing (this condition may be waived if Crown, Federal Government (or equivalent) copyright is involved and a licence to publish given. The standard copyright form may be viewed here. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material or illustrations for which they do not hold the copyright.

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. The Pain Clinic must be cited as the original source of publication and a link to www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/pai 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.

ADVICE ON SUBMITTING ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

The introduction should provide an appropriate background to the article, drawing on relevant 

literature and explaining the research question to be addressed. Authors should avoid obviously 

partisan selection and quotation of literature. 

The methods section should demonstrate a clear and documented design or strategy directed 

towards a specific research question. The study design should be appropriate to the aims of the

study and be clearly described. The criteria for selecting the sample should be clearly described 

and justified. A clear description of sampling, recruitment to the study, data collection, and data

analysis should be provided. Full details of interventions should be given for intervention studies. 

This section should also include details of approval from a named Research Ethics Committee, and any arrangements for data oversight.

Authors submitting randomised controlled trials (RCTs) should follow the revised CONSORT 

guidelines, including a completed CONSORT checklist and flowchart of participants in the trial.

Guidance can be found at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/291/1/125/DC4 or JAMA 2003; 291:125.

The results section should contain all the information required by referees and readers to assess the validity of the conclusions. The characteristics of the sample included in the study should be clearly described. For quantitative studies, the section should include details of the response rates and numbers lost to follow-up.

The analysis should be clear and systematic. Results of statistical tests should be reported with 

confidence intervals in order to provide an estimate of precision. No more than six tables should 

be included.

Please include a structured discussion. We recommend that this covers the following sections, 

using sub-headings:

summary of main findings;

the strengths and the limitations of this study;

how and why it agrees or disagrees with the existing literature, in particular including any papers published since the study was designed and carried out;

the implications for future research or clinical practice. 

We will normally expect no more than 25 references for an original research paper.

PRESENTATION OF ARTICLES 

 
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

The submission of research papers 
Papers should be set out as follows, with each section beginning on a separate sheet: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgements, references, tables, captions to illustrations. 

Research papers (up to 6000 words and 6-8 illustrations).

Full length accounts of original research. A clear research question and a description of methods, including search strategies and quality appraisal, should be provided. Methods for synthesis, including meta-analysis, narrative summary, etc., should be clearly explained. 

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. Consult the subject classifications on the web site.

Acknowledgements

Sources of support, for example in the form of grants, should be included where relevant. 
Concise acknowledgement of contributors not listed as authors is welcome.

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

For copyediting and typesetting purposes, reference numbers in the text should not be electronically linked to the reference list.

The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author. References should be entered 

consecutively by Arabic numerals as superscripts inside the punctuation mark (e.g. tested27. The. . . ). The references should be listed in numerical order on a separate sheet in single spacing. 

Reference to journals should include the author's name and initials (list all authors when three or fewer; when four 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: 

Rosengren A, Wilhelmsen L, Orth-Gomer K. Coronary disease in relation to social support 

and social class in Swedish men. A 15-year follow-up in the study of men born in 1933. 

Eur Heart J 2004; 25: 56-63

Li Y, Chopp M, Chen J, et al. Intrastriatal transplantation of bone marrow 

nonhematopoietic cells improve functional recovery after stroke in adult mice. J Cereb 

Blood Flow Metab 2000; 20: 1311-1319

References to books should be set out as follows:

Appleby J, Harrison A, Devlin N. What is the Real Cost of Patient Choice? London: 

King's Fund, 2003

Chapter in book: Chamberlain JS, Gibbs RA, Rainier JE. Multiplex PCR for the diagnosis 

of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In: Innes MA, Gelfand DH, White TJ, eds. PRC 

Protocols, San Diego: Academic Press, 1990: pp. 272-281.

Tables

Use only one tab (not spaces) to separate each column in a table. Authors need not worry about 

the alignment of columns on the screen, but if a table is presented on paper, set each tab as 

appropriate. 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.

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. 

WORD LENGTH OF OTHER KINDS OF ARTICLE 

Review articles (up to 7,500 words and 6-8 illustrations)

These will normally be commissioned, but the Editor will be pleased to receive recommendations for new topics. They will provide concise in depth reviews of traditional and new areas of pain medicine.  

Short communications (up to 1,500 words)

Either brief papers describing completed projects of short duration or short papers on incomplete new projects.

The guidance is the same as for original articles with the following exceptions:

- The summary need not be a structured abstract.

- Authors should limit themselves to no more than ten references and two figures or tables.

Technical Reports (up to 1,000 words and 2-3 illustrations)

They will report on work-in-progress on diagnosis, treatment, equipment development or novel 

surgical techniques.

Case Reports (up to 3,000 words and 2-3 illustrations)

ILLUSTRATIONS

Authors must provide high resolution digital files of all figures to the specification laid out below. 

Policy on 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. 

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. 

 
Photographic Illustrations and Radiographs

Photomicrographs should have the magnification and details of staining techniques shown. X-ray film should be submitted to bring out the detail to be illustrated, with an overlay indicating the area of importance. 

All illustrations should be clearly marked. Captions should be typed, double-spaced, on separate sheets from the main text. 

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. 

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.

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. 

PERMISSION FOR REPRODUCTION OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIAL

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 captions in this style: 'Reproduced by the kind permission of . . . (publishers) from . . . (reference).' 

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

The Pain Clinic 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

Following typesetting, you will receive by email PDF proofs for checking together with a copyright transfer form. It is imperative that authors check proofs carefully, particularly numerical data and equations. All corrections should be returned together within three days of receipt, by email fax or first class post/airmail. Corrections should be kept to a minimum and authors may be asked to bear the cost of excessive changes, other than typesetting errors.

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. 

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information or clarification contact lsaberski@ihurt.com