The Journal of Critical Care provides a forum for the publication of original peer-reviewed articles with the goal of improving patient care by integrating critical care systems knowledge into practice behavior. The journal represents the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM), an organization of 42 national intensive/critical care societies representing some 32,000 physicians and allied health professionals. With this responsibility to the WFSICCM comes an international focus in systems research in constrained resource environments.

We accept research articles and review articles as well as those in a seminar or tutorial format. Topics covered are all aspects of Health Services Research, the interface of critical care, anesthesiology, and pain, as well as tutorials for residency education core competencies.

For the seminar format, the articles should be directed to the resident or practicing healthcare professional. We are particularly interested in your up-to-date evaluation of the topic. Dealing with subjects of current and sometimes controversial educational and research themes is acceptable. The seminar format lends itself to a more informal presentation. Express your own viewpoints, but feel free to discuss other viewpoints as well. If you are uncertain, please indicate the degree of your uncertainty. We are looking for an absolutely honest evaluation of the topic.

Manuscripts are accepted for consideration on the condition that they are contributed solely to the Journal of Critical Care. No substantial part of a paper may have been or may be published elsewhere, except for an abstract of 200 words or less.

Manuscripts will be critically reviewed by the Editor with appropriate independent referees drawn from the Editorial Board and other experts. Acknowledgments to other investigators for advice or data must be substantiated by written authorization specifically granting permission to authors. Upon submission, authors will be required to fill out an ethics in publishing form. All submissions must also include a conflict of interest statement

Submission of Manuscripts

All new manuscripts must be submitted online at ees.elsevier.com/jcrc

Authors are requested to submit all text, tables, and artwork in electronic form. In an accompanying letter, authors should state that the manuscript, or parts of it, have not been and will not be submitted elsewhere for publication. Authors are highly encouraged to include a list of two or more potential reviewers for their manuscript, with complete contact information.

Submit items in the following order:

1. cover letter,
2. response to reviews (revised manuscripts only)
3. manuscript file(s)
4. table(s)
5. figure(s)

Papers reporting human experimentation will be reviewed in accordance with the precepts established by the Helsinki Declaration. Such papers must include a statement that the human investigations were performed after approval by a local Human Investigations Committee and in accord with an assurance filed with and approved by the Department of Health and Human Services where appropriate.

Authors who are unable to provide an electronic version or have other circumstances that prevent online submission must contact the Editorial Office prior to submission to discuss alternate options. The Publisher and Editors regret that they are not able to consider submissions that do not follow these procedures.

Philip Lumb, MB, BS, MCCM
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Critical Care
LAC+USC Medical Center
Department of Anesthesiology
2051 Marengo Street, IPT #C4E100
Los Angeles, CA 90033
journal.criticalcare@gmail.com

Preparing the manuscript

Manuscripts must be:

• Arial 10 or New Roman 12 font,
• Double spaced with margins of at least one inch.

The first page of the manuscript must contain the following information:
1) title of paper;
2) author names;
3) name of the institution in which work was done;
4) acknowledgments for research support;
5) name and address of the author to whom communications should be directed.

The second page of the manuscript must contain:

• 3-5 keywords
• 100-200 word abstract

Note: Research papers should contain a structured abstract of no more than 200 words which contain the following:

1. Purpose: Why was this study done?
2. Materials and Methods: What was the source of the data generated? How was it obtained?
3. Results: Findings should be objectively reported and statistical significance indicated (if appropriate).
4. Conclusions: Do not include a summary at the end of the paper.

Authors may submit supplemental material which will be available on line (in the electronic version of the journal) to support your manuscript. Supplemental material may include additional detailed methods (referenced to as E-methods), tables, figures (Fig E1, Table E2, etc.), and appendices (Appendix E1, E2, etc.).

Preparing illustrations and tables

All tables and figures must be cited in the text. Unless necessary for clarity, there should be no more than 2 tables and 3 figures in the main submission unless absolutely necessary for clarity; additional tables and figures may be submitted as electronic supplemental material. Figures should be in black and white or grayscale.

Tables, illustrations and legends are numbered with Arabic numerals (Table 1, Figure 2, etc.) in order of their text citation. Each table should be (double-spaced) on a separate page and should have a title. Maximum table width is 144 characters (i.e. letters and spaces). Use spaces or tabs, not vertical rules, to separate columns. Legends should be double-spaced and not attached to the illustrations themselves. Legends should be sufficiently detailed to allow understanding without reference to the text.

If any illustration has been previously published, a copy of the letter of permission from the copyright holder must accompany the illustration. The source of the illustration should be included among the References to the paper. The figure legend should conclude with "Reprinted with permission" followed by the reference number: Reprinted with permission. (23).

Artwork Instructions (see http://www.elsevier.com/artwork)

Submitting your illustrations, pictures, tables and other artwork in an electronic format helps us produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail. Before you send us your artwork, make sure of the following:

• Files are in the correct format - TIFF, EPS or PDF. Microsoft Office files (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) may also be acceptable, provided they meet certain conditions. For more information, see File Formats (at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/file_formats).
• Color images are provided in the RGB colorspace.
• Physical dimensions of the artwork match the dimensions of the journal.
• Lettering used in the artwork does not vary too much in size. See Sizing of Artwork (at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/sizing_artwork).
• Use descriptive naming conventions. See File Naming (at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/file_naming).

References

References should be cited in the text by number and should not exceed 30 works. Not more than three authors need be cited per reference; if there are more than three authors, use "et al" after the third author's name. References should be compiled at the end of the article in numeric order, and should be styled as follows:

Journal article:
Eissa NT, Ranieri VM, Corbeil C, et al: Effects of positive end-expiratory pressure on the work of breathing in adult respiratory distress syndrome patients. J Crit Care 1992; 7:142-149

Journal article in press
Marini JJ, Ravenscraft SA: Mean airway pressure--Physiologic determinants and clinical importance: Parts 1 and 2. Crit Care Med (in press)

Abstracts
Wang P, Ba ZF, Chaudry IH: ATP-MgCl2 improves renal function following severe hemorrhagic shock. FASEB J 28:A1085, 1990 (abstr)

Editorials
Tracey KJ, Lowry SF, Cerami A: Cachectin/TNF-alpha in septic shock and septic adult respiratory distress syndrome. Am Rev Respir Dis 138:1377-1379, 1988 (editorial)

Complete book
Scharf SM: Cardiopulmonary Physiology for Critical Care. New York, NY, Marcel Dekker, 1992

Chapter of book
Reynolds HY: Normal and defective respiratory host defenses, in Pennington JE (ed): Respiratory Infections: Diagnosis and Management (ed 2). New York, NY, Raven, 1989, pp 1-33

Chapter of book that is part of a published meeting
Till GO, Warren SS, Gannon DE, et al: Effects of pentoxifylline on phagocytic responses in vitro and acute and chronic inflammatory reactions in vivo, in Mardell G, Novick W (eds): Pentoxifylline and Leukocyte Function, Proceedings of a Symposium. Sommerville, NJ, Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals, 1988, pp 124-127

Conflict of Interest

On the cover sheet of each submissions all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

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.

If there are no conflicts of interest to declare, please include a statement to that effect.

Ethical Considerations

Journal of Critical Care considers research and publication misconduct to be a serious breach of ethics, and will take such actions as necessary to address such misconduct. Authors should refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for full information. Authors are also encouraged to visit Elsevier's Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication.

Plagiarism and duplicate submission are serious acts of misconduct. Plagiarism is defined as unreferenced use of published or unauthorized use of unpublished ideas, and may occur at any stage of planning, researching, writing, or publication. Plagiarism takes many forms, from 'passing off' another's paper as the author's own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Duplicate submission/publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions.

NIH Public Access Policy Compliance

To comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, Elsevier will deposit to PubMed Central (PMC) author manuscripts on behalf of authors reporting NIH funded research. The NIH policy requires that NIH-funded authors submit to PubMed Central (PMC), or have submitted on their behalf, their peer-reviewed author manuscripts, to appear on PMC no later than 12 months after final publication. Elsevier will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript, which was accepted for publication and sent to Elsevier's production department, and that reflects any author-agreed changes made in response to peer-review comments. Elsevier will authorize the author manuscript's public access posting 12 months after final publication. Following the deposit by Elsevier, authors will receive further communications from the NIH with respect to the submission.

Note: Authors must declare their NIH funding (or the other funding bodies listed below) when completing the copyright transfer form.

Other Funding Body Policies

Elsevier has also worked with the following funding bodies to ensure that our authors can comply with their policies:

- Arthritis Research Campaign (UK)
- British Heart Foundation (UK)
- Cancer Research (UK)
- Chief Scientist Office
- Department of Health (UK)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Medical Research Council (UK)
- Wellcome Trust (UK)

Proofreading

Contributors are provided with proofs and are asked to proofread them for typesetting errors. Important changes in data are allowed, but authors will be charged for excessive alterations in proof. Galley proofs should be returned within 48 hours.

Reprints

Reprints of articles can be furnished to contributors when ordered in advance of publication. An order form, showing cost of reprints, is sent with proofs. Individuals wishing to obtain reprints of an article that appeared in the Journal of Critical Care can do so by contacting the author at the address given in the journal.

Announcements

Announcements of meetings, conferences, and the like that are of interest to the readership of the Journal of Critical Care should be sent to the Editor at least three months before the first day of the month of issue.

Revised February 2012