Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine

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GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

The Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine fills a unique niche by providing practitioners with a convenient, comprehensive resource to enhance their practice of veterinary medicine. There is currently no other periodical that provides such detailed, procedure-oriented information, combining the effectiveness of an atlas with the timeliness of a journal. We value your participation as a contributing author and provide these guidelines to ensure the timely publication of your article.

Peer review All submissions will be reviewed by at least 2 anonymous reviewers and evaluated for originality, a clear statement of a hypothesis, experimental design, completeness of methods, thoughtfulness of the discussion, and conclusions that are supported by data. Authors may name up to 5 potential reviewers; however, the Editors retain the right to assign different reviewers as deemed appropriate.

Types of contribution
1. Original Research Papers
2. Review Articles
3. Case Reports

Original Research Papers should report the results of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form. If the authors are uncertain of whether prior presentation or publication in abstract form poses a potential conflict, they should contact the Editors prior to submission. Research papers are required to be organized as follows:

Introduction: should acquaint the reader with the subject and justify the objective(s) of the research. There should be three parts to the introduction: first, a clear description of the nature and extent of the problem to be studied; second, a presentation of the pertinent research by others in the field of the study; and third, a statement of how the authors' study challenges, expands or improves the known material. The hypothesis or objective(s) addressed in the study must be clearly stated in the final paragraph.
Materials and Methods: must contain enough information to allow another scientist to duplicate the study. Materials should be named specifically, including the manufacturer, city, state, and country where the equipment or supplies were obtained. Descriptions of animals should include species, breed, sex, and age should also be included. Husbandry methods, climate, photoperiod and geographic location of the study. A logical description of the experimental methods should follow and include an explanation of the experimental design. It may be useful to prepare a table or schematic diagram to explain the procedures, such as how the animals were divided into groups or how samples were obtained. The method of statistical evaluation must be stated, the treatment and response variables identified, and assignment of experimental units into groups specified.
Results: must contain sufficient information to fully describe the outcome of the research. The use of tables and figures is encouraged, but text should be used to emphasize important points, connect results, and to restate the trend of the idea (the objective already mentioned in the INTRODUCTION). Tables and figures must contain enough information within them and in their respective titles or legends to be understandable without referring to the text.
Discussion: contains an explanation of the meaning of the results. The principles, relationships, and general truths shown by the results should be presented without retelling the results if at all possible. Exceptions or lack of correlation should be pointed out and unsettled points defined. Agreement or disagreement with previous work should be shown. The theoretical or practical implications of the work should be discussed. Finally, the major conclusions and implications should be stated in a brief paragraph.

Review Articles should be current, in-depth articles or discussions focusing on topic-specific diseases or areas in a way that relate to the practicing veterinarian; current review of literature relating to a specific topic; clinical data and research concerning specific diseases or species if there is a practical understanding and application, or if it adds clarity to the article. Images and tables are encouraged to clarify understanding of procedures, techniques, or disease processes.

Case Reports can focus on any exotic species, but by definition, must include core clinical content. Content can focus on a report of a new condition, treatment and follow-up of complex presentations. The format for case reports, generally, is as follows: presentation, history and presenting signs, physical and laboratory evaluation and any other diagnostic assessments deemed relevant, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, summary and discussion, acknowledgements, and references

All questions regarding the organization of article content should be directed to the Editorial Office.

Submission of manuscripts
All manuscripts must be submitted online through the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) for the Journal at

http://ees.elsevier.com/jepm. First-time authors will need to register initially and then submit their papers online. MANUSCRIPTS SHOULD NOT BE SUBMITTED UNLESS COMPLETE (that is, title page, abstract and key words, figures, legends, tables, references, and permissions are included). If the Editor requests any changes to the manuscript, it is the author's responsibility to ensure that a revised version is re-submitted through the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) site.

Because the review process will be conducted in a double-blind format, you will be asked to provide separate files for your title page (containing all of the author details and contact information) along with a blinded version of your paper containing no author details.

If you require assistance with your submission, an author tutorial for the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) is available online via the following link:

http://ees.elsevier.com/eeshelp/EES_Author_Tutorial.html

Our customer support department can also assist you directly with your submission. Their contact information is listed on the Contact Us page for the journal:

http://ees.elsevier.com/jepm/ContactUs.html

Before submitting your manuscript online, please be sure of the following:

You are sending the final version of the manuscript.
All illustrations and legends are included.
Complete contact information is included on the Title Page.

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 ). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Funding Body Agreements and Policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, 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

Authors' Rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to:

http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights .

Ethical Approval
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see

http://www.elsevier.com/authorethics and

http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines .

Informed Consent
The Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine adheres to the principles set forth in the Helsinki Declaration (

http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm ) and holds that all reported research conducted with human participants should be conducted in accordance with such principles. Reports describing data obtained from research conducted in human participants must contain a statement in the Methods section indicating approval by the institutional review board and affirmation that informed consent was obtained from each participant. If patients are identifiable from illustrations, photographs, case reports, or other study data, release forms (or copies of the figures with the appropriate release statement) giving permission for publication must be submitted with the manuscript.

Humane Animal Care
Unnecessary cruelty in animal experimentation is not acceptable. Animal use must be in accordance with the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals, obtainable from: Executive Secretary, Council for the International Organizations of Medical Sciences, c/o World Health Organization, Via Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland; or from their website (

http://www.cioms.ch/frame_1985_texts_of_guidelines.htm ).

Role of the Funding Source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see

http://www.elsevier.com/funding.

Contributors
Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.

Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also

http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Acknowledgements
List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).

Preparation of manuscripts
Authors should have their manuscripts reviewed before submission by persons who have advanced command of English spelling, grammar, syntax and semantics and who are familiar with scientific style.

We accept most word processing formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX is preferred. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of the program used.

Manuscripts should be written in clear, concise and grammatically correct English and formatted according to the instructions listed below. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English-speaking colleague prior to submission. Manuscripts that do not conform to standard English style, usage and grammar, and/or which are not adequately prepared, will be returned to the authors for modification prior to scientific review. Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions
Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc. should be numbered. Also, each line of text should also be numbered consecutively. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Avoid excessive usage of italics to emphasize part of the text.
All manuscript must include the following and must be submitted in the following order:

Title page (to include)
• Title, which should be clear, descriptive and not too long
• Running title, not more than 48 characters
• Names and professional affiliations of all author(s)
• Current and complete postal addresses of all authors and affiliate institutions
• Clearly indicated Corresponding author with complete correspondence information including mailing address, full telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address to which proofs should be sent
Abstract and Key Words: on a separate sheet not more than 250 words. The abstract should include the objective and main findings of the paper. Include at least five keywords for indexing.
Article
References (and reference numbers in the text)
Figure legends (captions)
Figures Tables (if appropriate)

In typing the manuscript, titles and subtitles should not be run within the text. They should be typed on a separate line, without indentation. Use lower-case letter type.

SI units should be used.

When a typewritten character may have more than one meaning (e.g. the lower case letter l may be confused with the numeral 1), a note should be inserted in a circle in the margin to make the meaning clear to the typesetter. If Greek letters or uncommon symbols are used in the manuscript, they should be written very clearly, and if necessary a note such as "Greek lower-case chi" should be put in the margin and encircled.

Elsevier reserves the privilege of returning to the author for revision accepted manuscripts and illustrations that are not in the proper form given in this guide.

Tables

All tables should be referred to in the text by consecutive Arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, etc.).

Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and layout of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.

If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.

Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.

Each table should be typewritten on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should never be included in the text.

Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.

Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.

Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

Any explanation essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.

Illustrations

All digital artwork MUST adhere to the Elsevier Author Artwork Instructions found at the following URL: http://www.elsevier.com/artwork. Any illustrations submitted in a format not acceptable for print will be returned to the author, and a new file requested.

All illustrations should be referred to in the text by consecutive Arabic numerals (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc).

Units should be indicated in the figures.

Each illustration should be identified by its number and the name of the first author. An indication of the top of the illustrations is required in photographs of profiles, thin sections, and other cases where doubt can arise.

Illustrations should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. Illustrations should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%.

Make sure that the size of the lettering is big enough to allow a reduction of 50% without becoming illegible. The lettering should be in English. Use the same kind of lettering throughout and follow the style of the journal.

If a scale should be given, use bar scales on all illustrations instead of numerical scales that must be changed with reduction.

Each illustration must have a caption. The captions to all illustrations should be typed on a separate sheet of the manuscript.

Explanations should be given in the typewritten legend. Drawn text in the illustrations should be kept to a minimum.

Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity. Reproductions of photographs already printed cannot be accepted.

If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures, Elsevier will ensure that these figures appear free-of-charge in color.

Preparation of Supplementary Data
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

References

All publications cited in the text should be presented in a Reference section immediately following the Acknowledgements.

References in the text should be indicated by Arabic numerals in brackets (with multiple citations separated by a comma with no space between comma an next citation, and three or more consecutive citations separated by a hyphen) and should be listed in the Reference section in numerical order with reference number enclosed in brackets. See recent issue of Journal of Equine Veterinary Science for examples.

References should use the following style:

a. For periodicals
Connor EE, Ashwell MS, Dahl GE. Characterization and expression of the bovine growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) receptor. Domest Anim Endocrinol 2002;22:189-200.

b. For books
Betteridge KJ. Embryo Transfer. In: Reproduction in Domesticated Animals, King GJ (Ed.), World Animal Science B9, Elsevier B.V., 1993, pp. 413-418.

c. For multi-author books
Van Zutphen LFM, Baumans V, Beynen AC. Principles of Laboratory Animal Science, Revised Edition. Elsevier B.V., 2001.

Journal names should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html.

In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles of publications in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated, and a notation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek, with English abstract)" should be added.

Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press".

References concerning unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.

The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.

The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071 When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Nomenclature

Authors and editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals.

All biocides and other organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified.

For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the official recommendations of the IUPAC-IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed.

Permissions

Authors, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing an illustration or table from a book or journal article, should make sure that they are not infringing a 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 .

Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained.

A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from http://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 site: http://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) and return to Elsevier 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
Offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

Author Services
Enquiries concerning manuscript preparation or manuscript status should be directed to the Editors-in-Chief.

Authors can also keep a track of the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the "Track your accepted article" feature of Elsevier's Journal Authors Home, http://www.elsevier.com/authors .

Editorial Office:

Thomas N. Tully, Jr., DVM, MS, Dip. ABVP (avian), ECAMS
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences
School of Veterinary Medicine
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Email: ttully@mail.vetmed.lsu.edu

Mark A. Mitchell, DVM, PhD
Co-Editor-in-Chief
University of Illinois
College of Veterinary Medicine
Dept. VCM, 270 SAC
1008 W. Hazelwood
Urbana, IL 61802
Email: mmitch@uiuc.edu

Rev November 2008