JRCR - updated author guidelines for 2011

Abstract

This article describes updates on author guidelines for manuscripts submitted after February 1^st 2011 to the interactive Journal of Radiology Case Reports.

EDITORIAL

After being accepted for being indexed in the prestigious NLM literature database Medline/PubMed (1), we felt encouraged to further improve the quality and educational value of the articles published in the Journal of Radiology Case Reports (2) by adding new requirements for manuscript submission (3,4):

• More stringent selection criteria

• Manuscript template

• Cover page

• Online author list

• Table format

• Table contents in discussion

• Q/A explanations in discussion

• References

• Annotated figures

• Figure zips

• Reviewers

• Pictorial review articles

• Section “Signs in Radiology”

More stringent selection criteria

We receive an increasing number of submissions which keep our editorial team and our reviewers to their limits. Therefore, we have to be increasingly selective which submission to forward for review - to keep also the workload for our reviewers reasonable. For this reason it is at least required that the submission 100% complies with our author guidelines. From February 1, 2011 on, ALL manuscripts that do NOT comply with the new author guidelines (see next points) will be immediately rejected – without initial review.

Manuscript template

It is MANDATORY for ALL manuscripts to use the manuscript template (5). This guarantees that the author does not miss any required information and also that the manuscript is provided in the correct format. Any submissions which do NOT use the provided manuscript template will be immediately REJECTED – independent of provided contents and quality of the work.

Cover page

The cover page has to be complete AND included as the FIRST page of the submitted manuscript.

Online author list

ALL author information (including, names, affiliations and addresses) have to be provided on the cover page as well as ONLINE in the metadata section of the manuscript.

Table format

Required tables: summary table and differential table

These tables include condensed information found in the manuscript discussion section. ALL information provided in the tables HAS to be included in the discussion section of the manuscript.

The summary table contains high yield information about the reported entity. Mandatory fields include:

• ➢ etiology

• ➢ incidence

• ➢ gender ratio

• ➢ age predilection

• ➢ risk factors

• ➢ treatment

• ➢ prognosis

• ➢ findings on imaging

The differential table contains differential diagnoses of the reported entity (including the entity itself). Each differential diagnosis belongs in a separate row respectively and each imaging modality belongs in a separate column, including pertinent imaging findings.

Imaging modalities include:

• ➢ X-Ray

• ➢ US

• ➢ CT

• ➢ MRI - T1

• ➢ MRI - T2

• ➢ MRI - DWI

• ➢ Pattern of contrast enhancement (avid, none, homogeneous, heterogeneous etc.)

• ➢ Scinitigraphy/SPECT

• ➢ PET

Both tables need to be completed with up-to-date knowledge found in the current literature. Do NOT submit these tables as lists or images– these need to be provided as true tables.

Table contents in discussion

The summary and DD tables provide a quick overview about the presented entity and it’s differential diagnoses. However, ALL information provided in the tables HAS to be included in the discussion section of the manuscript.

Q/A explanations in discussion

ALL information provided in the question and answers (Q/As) has to be included in the discussion section of the manuscript. The purpose of the Q/As is to examine the knowledge gained from the manuscript.

References

In the past, some references were not provided in the correct format by some authors. This might have been due to copying from an erroneous source or mistyping. To guarantee a correct reference and linking for our readers we now require from the authors to provide the PubMed ID at the end of the reference.

Reference format is now required as following (example):

Roentgen A, Hounsfield G, Fourier J. Title. Radiology Case. 2011 Jan;5(1):30-31. PMID: 12345

How to get the PubMed ID?

Please go on http://www.pubmed.org (5) and enter your reference into the search box. If the reference is correct, the abstract you will then see the abstract of that reference. The PubMed ID is located to the left bottom of the abstract and displayed in the format “PMID: #”, with “#” being the PubMed ID (Figure 1, red box and arrow). If the reference is not entirely correct, PubMed will display a list of similar articles found in their database. Each listed article has its PubMed ID displayed left below its reference ID (Figure 2, red box and arrows). Please copy this PubMed ID and add it to the end of your reference as seen above. Of course, please provide the reference also correctly (no typos etc.)

Figure 1.

How to get the PubMed ID for an article: The PubMed ID is located to the left bottom of the abstract and displayed in the format “PMID: #”, with “#” being the PubMed ID (red box and arrow). URL: www.pubmed.org

Figure 2.

How to get the PubMed ID for an article: If the reference is not entirely correct, PubMed will display a list of similar articles found in their database. Each listed article has its PubMed ID displayed left below its reference ID (red box and arrows). URL: www.pubmed.org

Annotated figures

Figures HAVE to be annotated (arrows, asterisk etc. – NO text) and saved in an external image editor – BEFORE embedding into the Word document. Creation of annotations on the images within the Word document is not permitted. These annotations might shift during the editorial process and distort the figure.

Figure zips

The zip file containing ALL figures provided in the manuscript have to be provided in HIGH quality and the best resolution within ONE single zip file. This zip file should be labeled “Figures.zip” and uploaded as a supplemented file at the time of initial manuscript submission.

Reviewers

We appreciate the time and effort our reviewers donate to improve the quality of this journal. As an appreciation, we honor our reviewers who comply with our review guidelines in our hall of fame and our special yearly issue. However, we require that all reviewers comply 100% with our reviewer guidelines (6) which are available at http://www.radiologycases.com/index.php/radiologycases/about/editorialPolicies#peerReviewProcess.

Especially responding to the review request within the required deadline AND providing the review within the requested deadline are of uppermost importance – in respect to our authors who are eagerly waiting for a decision. Our reviewers are evaluated by an automatic rating system on a 5 point scale. Rating is determined by timely response and quality of the review. If a reviewer does not respond 3 times within one year he/she will be automatically removed from our system. If a reviewer receives a total score of less than 3.5 (out of 5), he/she will not be honored in our hall of fame and yearly special journal issue.

Pictorial review articles

To emphasize our educational goal of this journal, we now also accept pictorial review articles. These articles glance by providing an abundance of image examples of the discussed topic, including educational information to understand the etiology, findings, and implications for the daily practice. The required format is as following:

• ➢ Full cover page

• ➢ Review section including discussion and multiple imaging examples. Discussion should include etiology, detailed imaging findings and how to implement this knowledge into the daily Radiology practice.

• ➢ Teaching point

• ➢ References

• ➢ Figure legends with good description of findings and technique

• ➢ Abbreviation section

• ➢ Summary table

• ➢ Q/As pertinent to the article

Section “Signs in Radiology”

The format is similar to a pictorial review article and should contain:

• ➢ Full cover page

• ➢ Discussion with several imaging examples - one figure is not enough! Discussion should include historic background, detailed imaging discussion and potentially differential diagnoses and how to differentiate them on imaging.

• ➢ Teaching point

• ➢ References

• ➢ Figure legends with good description of findings and technique

• ➢ Abbreviation section

• ➢ Summary table

• ➢ Differential table

• ➢ Q/As pertinent to the article

Date of effect

These new requirement take effect on February 1, 2011 and includes new submissions as well as revisions of manuscripts that have been submitted prior to this date.

The manuscript template (7) has been updated accordingly and is mandatory to use.

More information about the author guidelines can be obtained on the journal website (8).