Notes for Contributors - Ultrasound

 

Editor: Anne-Marie Dixon, Division of Radiography, University of Bradford, Unity Building, 25 Trinity  Road, Bradford BD5 0BB, UK (Email: a.m.dixon@bradford.ac.uk).

Contributions should now be submitted online at http://ult.edmgr.com

Ultrasound: Journal of the British Medical Ultrasound Society welcomes articles for publication. These may include current research, new techniques and/or new equipment, protocols, education and training, and any issues that are relevant to the use of ultrasound in medicine.

The Editor 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. 
 

Stage 1: INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SUBMISSION OF AN ARTICLE TO ULTRASOUND

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

Ÿ OR a PDF file of the complete paper

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 mustnot include graphics. The preferred file format is

      Word (.doc) or rich text format (.rtf)

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'/Editor's comments, as a Word or PDF file. It is not necessary to    

      upload fora second time files that were uploaded with the initial submission and have not been 

      altered.

TYPES OF SUBMISSION

For further information on the following types of submission, please click on the relevant title:

Original Article

Review Article

Case Report

Technical Innovation

Pictorial Essay

Service Redesign Initiative

COPYRIGHT

In order for us to ensure maximum dissemination and copyright protection of material published in the Journal, copyright must be explicitly transferred from the author to the British Medical Ultrasound Society. 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 assure you that no limitation will be put on your 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.

ETHICS

Patient anonymity must be maintained. The author must obtain written consent from patients if there is any risk, however small, of identification from an illustration or article. A statement to this effect must be included in submitted manuscripts when relevant. The Society also requires that any research paper published inUltrasound should have the approval of the local research ethics committee. Papers submitted from overseas should adhere to UK ethical requirements.

Ultrasound does not publish advertising material that has been disguised as a scientific paper. The journal aims to maintain the highest scientific integrity and will work to detect fraud and plagiarism.

PRESENTATION OF TYPESCRIPTS 
 
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.icmj.org/index.html 
 

FULL 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. 
 
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) name with highest academic degree(s), full postal address of each author; (5) name, telephone, email address and fax number of the author responsible for correspondence. 
 
Abstract.This should consist of not more than 200 words summarizing the contents of the article. 
 
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'.

British and US spellings are accepted, but please be consistent throughout your paper.

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 superscriptsfollowing the punctuation mark (e.g. . . tested.27 The. . . ). 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:

Deckler A. Influence of data acquisition on accuracy in carotid plaque volume measurements with 3D ultrasound.Eur J Ultrasound 1996;64:161-168.

References to books should be set out as follows:

Waddell G.The back pain revolution. London: Churchill Livingstone, 1998.

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 images. 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. 
 
 

ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
All illustrations should be clearly labelled with the figure number so that they can be accurately matched up with their relevant caption during the refereeing and typesetting processes.

Please note that Ultrasound now publishes only selected sections in colour. Therefore, illustrations that are to be printed in colour may require payment by the authors. The Editor will be able to confirm whether payment would be required at the time of the selection of accepted papers for each issue. Costs will be discussed with the authors, who will then be asked if they agree to the charges.

NEW: FREE ONLINE-ONLY COLOUR

Maney is pleased to offer a new free colour facility for online images. Figures which appear in black and white in the printed journal can now be viewed online in colour. Authors are asked to submit a tiff file of the colour image(s) to be used in their article when their final submission is uploaded.

 
PROOFS 
 
PDF proofs are emailed to the corresponding author for checking. Corrections, which should be confined to essential typographical amendments only, must be returned by email, fax or post to: The Production Editor, Maney Publishing, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DB, UK (Email: david_amy@materials.org.uk) promptly. All typescripts undergo some editorial modification, so it is important to read your proofs carefully. 
 
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.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further details, please contact either the Editor, Anne-Marie Dixon, or the Managing Editor, Caitlin Meadows, Maney Publishing, Suite 1C Joseph's Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds LS3 1AB, UK (Email:c.meadows@maney.co.uk; tel: +44 (0)113 386 8163).