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Guide for Authors
The British Journal of Medical and Surgical Urology welcomes original scientific articles of clinical interest. Please keep to the word counts stipulated below. On the whole the journal does not publish reviews unless they have been commissioned by or, at the very least, discussed with the editors.
Please submit your paper online at http://ees.elsevier.com/bjmsu, where you will be guided through the submission process.
Presentation of manuscript
General. Please write your text in good English (British usage). Italics are to be used for expressions of Latin origin; for example, in vivo, et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).
Type the entire manuscript using double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins. (Avoid full justification, i.e. do not use a constant right-hand margin.) Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. Consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively.
Provide the following data on the title page (in the order given).
• Title. Concise and informative. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g. a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, and post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a ‘present address’ (or ‘permanent address’) may be indicated as a footnote to that author’s name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main affiliation address.
For original articles, the format of your manuscript should comply with the following:
Abstract. A concise and factual abstract is required of no more than 200 words sub-divided into an objective (a short statement of the aims, not a long paragraph of background information), subjects/patients (or materials) and methods, the results (no long lists of detailed values, but stating the main findings) and a conclusion, essentially assessing whether the aims have been met. References should be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords. Immediately after the abstract, provide a list of 3-6 keywords, using English spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, ‘and’, ‘of’). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence in the article. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.
Introduction (max 300 words). State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Experimental/Materials and methods. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Results.
Discussion (max 800 words). This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is sometimes appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions. The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
Nomenclature. Please supply, as a separate list, the definitions of field-specific terms used in your article.
Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements, including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.
References. See separate section below.
Figure legends, tables, figures, schemes. Present these, in this order, at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from the main text file (see Preparation of illustrations).
Text graphics. Present incidental graphics not suitable for mention as figures, plates or schemes at the end of the article and number them ‘Graphic 1’, etc. Their precise position in the text can then be defined similarly. See further under the section, Preparation of illustrations. Ensure that high-resolution graphics files are provided, even if the graphic appears as part of your normal wordprocessed text file.
Tables. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
Nomenclature and units. Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.
Supplementary data (including multimedia and video). The journal accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files allow the author to submit supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more, which will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of the recommended file formats (for detailed guidance on formats for supplementary files, including movies, go to http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/file_formats).
For the “case which changed my practice”/case report section of the journal, manuscripts should comply with the following:
They should not exceed 700 words. They should include a brief summary of the case followed by a discussion and for a “case which change my practice” submission, a clear statement of what you have learned from the case. Illustrations (X-rays, clinical photos) are encouraged, but must contain nothing which could identify the patient. Consent to use any such materials must be obtained from the patient prior to publication and authors will be asked to confirm that they have done so on the copyright transfer form.
There should be no more than 7 relevant references.
If there is no interesting clinical message cases will not be accepted for publication.
General guidelines
Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and Authorship design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.
Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The potential for conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer or editor has financial or personal relationships that may inappropriately influence his or her actions. Editors and reviewers for the journal are responsible for disclosing to the Editor-in-Chief any personal or financial relationship that may bias their work during the peer review process. Corresponding authors are required to submit a conflict of interest statement as a separate submission item. Where an author has no competing interests, they must nonetheless provide a statement to confirm this. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to publish all declared competing interests.
Authors are specifically asked to reflect on financial conflicts of interest (such as employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria and paid expert testimony) as well as other forms of conflict of interest, including personal, academic and intellectual issues. Authors will not be able to complete their submission without providing a conflict of interest statement. For queries, please contact the journal editorial office directly: bjmsu@elsevier.com
Role of the Funding Source
All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.
Randomised Controlled Trials
All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in the British Journal of Urological Medicine and Surgery should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. The British Journal of Urological Medicine and Surgery has adopted the proposal from the ICMJE which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number (ISRCTN) should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org.
Ethics
Work on human beings that is submitted to the British Journal of Urological Medicine and Surgery should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Patients’ and volunteers’ names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used.
Animal experiments require full compliance with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles, and local licensing arrangements, and the journal will not accept papers for publication if doubts exist over the standards of care and humanity shown to experimental animals. For this reason a clear statement of the care principles used should be included in the text.
Guidelines on publication ethics adhered to by this journal are to be found at the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) website at www.publicationethics.org.uk.
Submission of articles
Submission and peer review of all papers is now conducted entirely online, increasing efficiency for editors, authors, and reviewers, and enhancing publication speed. Authors requesting further information on online submission are strongly encouraged to view the system, including a tutorial, at http://ees.elsevier.com/bjmsu.
A comprehensive Author Support service is also available to answer additional enquiries: authorsupport@elsevier.com.
It is essential to give a fax number and e-mail address when submitting a manuscript.
Copyright
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder. Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a ‘Journal Publishing Agreement’ (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.
Citations in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as ‘in press’ implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given. At the end of the text, list the references in the order in which they appear in the text.
Citing and listing of web references: As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g. after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000;163:51-9.
Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk W Jr, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age. New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999, pp. 281-304
When there are more than six authors, list the first six followed by ‘et al.’ For further details you are referred to ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals’ (see www.icmje.org. Journal names should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus: www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html.
Preparation of illustrations
For information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. To help authors submit high-quality artwork early in the process, the Artwork Quality Control Tool automatically checks the submitted artwork and other file types when they are first uploaded against the artwork requirements outlined in the Artwork Instructions to Authors. Each figure/file is checked only once, so further along in the process
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as ‘graphics’ or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files, and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used.
• Provide all illustrations as separate files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
Colour illustrations
If you submit usable colour figures then, at no additional charge, these figures will appear in colour online (regardless of whether or not they are reproduced in colour in the printed version). For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, which they are requested to correct and return within 48 hours. Elsevier now sends PDF proofs that can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe website: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post.
Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
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