The journal editors, Ann Moore and Gwen Jull, welcome the submission of papers for publication.

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online at http://ees.elsevier.com/ymath.
Use the following guidelines to prepare your article.
You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the Author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It can be advantageous to print this "Guide for Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.

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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. Reliability Studies will only be accepted if they are innovative and add to the current body of knowledge within manual therapy.

Word Count
Manuscripts should not exceed the following word counts:
Original Research Articles using quantitative data - 3500 words (Abstract (up to 250 words), Keywords, Acknowledgements and 'in-text' references are included in the word count).
Original Research Articles using qualitative data - 4000 words (Abstract (up to 250 words), Keywords, Acknowledgements and 'in-text' references are included in the word count).
Reviews - 3500 words, but Systematic Reviews may be longer, up to 4000 words (Abstract (up to 250 words), Keywords, Acknowledgements and 'in-text' references are included in the word count).
Technical and measurement notes - 2000 words (Abstract (up to 250 words), Keywords, Acknowledgements and 'in-text' references are included in the word count).
Case reports and professional issues - 2000 words (Abstract (up to 250 words), Keywords, Acknowledgements and 'in-text' references are included in the word count).
Masterclass - 3500 words (Abstract (up to 250 words), Keywords, Acknowledgements and 'in-text' references are included in the word count).
Letters to the Editors - 500 words

These word counts include Abstract, Keywords (where required), Acknowledgements and the references contained within the article. The reference list at the end of the article, figures/tables, title and author information and Appendices are not included in the word count. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words.

Presentation of Typescripts
Your article should be typed on one side of the paper, double spaced with a margin of at least 3cm. One copy of your typescript and illustrations should be submitted and authors should retain a file copy. Rejected articles will not be returned to the author except on request. Authors are requested to include line numbers to their manuscript in word prior to submission.

Authors are encouraged to submit electronic artwork files. Please refer to http://www.elsevier.com/authors for guidelines for the preparation of electronic artwork files. To facilitate anonymity, the author's names and any reference to their addresses should only appear on the title page. Please check your typescript carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. It is not possible to change the content of accepted typescripts during production.

Papers should be set out as follows, with each section beginning on a separate sheet: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, and captions to illustrations.

Title
The title page should give the following information:
• title of the article
• full name of each author
• you should give a maximum of four degrees/qualifications for each author and the current relevant appointment
• name and address of the department or institution to which the work should be attributed
• name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence and to whom requests for offprints should be sent.

Keywords
Include three or four keywords. The purpose of these is to increase the likely accessibility of your paper to potential readers searching the literature. Therefore, ensure keywords are descriptive of the study. Refer to a recognised thesaurus of keywords (e.g. CINAHL, MEDLINE) wherever possible.

Abstracts
This should consist of 250 words summarising the content of the article. Abstracts should be used for Original Research, Professional Issues and Case Reports as well as for Technical and Measurement Notes papers.

Text
Headings should be appropriate to the nature of the paper. The use of headings enhances readability. Three categories of headings should be used:
• major ones should be typed in capital letter in the centre of the page and underlined
• secondary ones should be typed in lower case (with an initial capital letter) in the left hand margin and underlined
• minor ones typed in lower case and italicised
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'. Avoid sexist language.

References
The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author. The journal uses the 'name and year: Vancouver' Reference style.

Reference management software
This journal has a standard template available in the reference management package EndNote (http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal style which is described below.

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Avoid citation of personal communications or unpublished material. Citations to material in press (i.e accepted for publication) is acceptable. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Citation of material currently under consideration elsewhere (e.g. "under review" or "submitted") is not accepted.

In-text citations:
All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first chronologically, then alphabetically.

Examples:
"...sensitivity and variable specificity (Kerry and Rushton, 2003; Gross et al., 2005; Ritcher and Reinking, 2005)"

Bibliographic List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:
Chien A, Sterling M. Sensory hypoaesthesia is a feature of chronic whiplash but not chronic idiopathic neck pain. Manual Therapy 2010; 15(1): 48-53.

References to a book:
Richardson CA, Jull G, Hodges P, Hydes J. Therapeutic exercise for spinal segmental stabilisation in low back pain. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1999. p. 1-170.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Toupet M, Gage P, Heuschen S. Vestibular patients and aging subjects lost use of visual input and expend more energy in static postural control. In: Vellas B, Toupet M, Rubenstein L, et al., editors. Balance and gait disorders in the elderly. Paris: Elsevier; 1988. p. 183-98.

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9. For further details you are referred to "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-34), see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php

Figures and Illustrations
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/authors

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. Ensure that each table is cited in the text.

Preparation of supplementary data. Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material (e-components) 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/wps/find/authors.authors/authorartworkinstructions

New guidance for Randomised controlled trials
Clinical Trials that commence after 1st June 2013 must be registered to be considered for publication in Manual Therapy. Authors will be asked to state the trial registration number during the submission system as well as at the end of the manuscript file. From January 2014 Manual Therapy will not be able to accept any unregistered Clinical Trial papers. By 2015 the journal will not be able to publish any Clinical Trials that are unregistered prior to recruitment of the first participant.

All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication in Manual Therapy should refer to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. It may be helpful to authors to complete the CONSORT checklist.

Manual Therapy has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (see Editorial: Clinical trial registration in physiotherapy journals: Recommendations from the International Society of Physiotherapy Journal Editors), 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 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 http://www.icmje.org.

Further initiatives:
To improve the quality of reporting of other categories of research, Manual Therapy supports the initiatives available through the EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of health Research) which houses a database of all reporting guidelines for health research (http://www.equator-network.org/). These include:
PRISMA: For systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
STARD: For tests of diagnostic accuracy.
MOOSE: For meta-analysis of observational studies.
COREQ: Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research.
CHERRIES: Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys.

Submitting Case Reports
The purpose of the Case Report is to describe in reasonable detail the application of manual therapy to a clinical use. Cases of particular interest are those of an unusual presentation, rare conditions or unexpected responses to treatment. The following points will assist authors in submitting material for consideration by the Editorial Board:

• The Case Report should be between 1500 - 2000 words in length excluding references and illustrations. Longer studies will be considered by the Editorial Committee if of an exceptional quality.
• An abstract is required and the introductory paragraph should provide the reader with an overview of the study in general.
• The method of presentation to the treating practitioner should be detailed along with the symptoms and their behaviour. A body chart illustrating the symptoms is considered essential.
• The history (present and past) should be reported. Relevant work and leisure activities should also be presented in this section.
• The objective examination findings should be detailed in a concise manner.
• Treatment of the condition should be reported along with results. It is essential to clearly state what was done to achieve the reported results.
• The management of the condition should then be discussed with references to the literature to support what was done. Authors should remember it is a reasoned article rather than a purely factual report.
• The Case Report should conclude with a brief summary.
• Case Reports should be submitted online at http://ees.elsevier.com/ymath

For further details on the Case Report section please contact: Jeffrey D. Boyling, Jeffrey Boyling Associates, LONDON, UK.Tel: +44 (0) 7814 880 370E-mail: jeffboyling@yahoo.co.uk

Submitting a Masterclass
The purpose of the Masterclass section is to describe in detail clinical aspects of manual therapy. This may relate to specific treatment techniques, a particular management approach or management of a specific clinical entity.
• The article should be between 3500 - 4000 words in length excluding references.
• A short summary should precede the main body of the article overviewing the contents.
• The introduction should review the relevant literature and put the subject matter into context.
• The main body of the text will describe the technique or approach in detail.
• Clinical indications and contraindications should be outlined when relevant.
• Illustrations are considered an essential part of the Masterclass in order to fully inform the reader and a minimum of six photographs or line drawings are required.

In addition, authors may wish to include supplementary material which would be available online only. This may include, for example, podcasts, videoclips, animation sequences, high-resolution colour images, author reflections on the masterclass, and background datasets - please visit the Guide for Authors for further details at www.elsevier.com/math.
For further details and full instructions for authors for the Masterclass section please contact: Karen Beeton, Department of Physiotherapy, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, HATFIELD, Herts, AL10 9AB, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1707 284114Fax: +44 (0)1707 284977E-mail: k.s.beeton@herts.ac.uk

Submitting a Professional Issue
The purpose of a Professional Issue is to raise an issue of professional importance that affects the national or international community. The issue may concern audits, continuing professional development, data collection methods, education, innovation in practice, professional practice, research goals, service delivery or treatment protocols around the globe. It should provide a solid foundation for the development of better patient outcomes whilst improving the quality of professional practice. The following points will assist authors in submitting material for consideration by the Editorial Board:

• The Professional Issue should be no more than 2000 words in length excluding references and illustrations. Longer studies will be considered by the Editorial Board if of an exceptional quality.
• An abstract is required.
• The introductory paragraph should provide the reader with an overview of the issue in general.
• The main body of the text will set out the issue in a reasoned manner.
• The Professional Issue should conclude with a brief summary and the implication to the professional practice of manual therapy.
• Professional Issues should be submitted online at http://ees.elsevier.com/ymath

For further details on the Professional Issue section please contact: Jeffrey D. Boyling, Jeffrey Boyling Associates, LONDON, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 7814 880 370. E-mail: jeffboyling@yahoo.co.uk

Copyright Information
A "Transfer of Copyright" agreement will be sent to authors following acceptance of a paper for publication. A paper is accepted for publication on the understanding that it has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal in the English language. All authors must sign the "Transfer of Copyright" agreement before the article can be published. This transfer agreement enables Elsevier Science Ltd to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, without the author relinquishing his/her proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of a similar nature, and translations. It also includes the right to adapt the article for use in conjunction with computer systems and programs, including reproduction or publication in machine-readable form and incorporation in retrieval systems. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any material for which copyright already exists.

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

Open Access

This journal offers authors two choices to publish their research;
1. Open Access
• Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse
• An Open Access publication fee is payable by authors or their research funder

2. Subscription
• Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our access programs (http://www.elsevier.com/access)
• No Open Access publication fee

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Permitted reuse is defined by your choice of one of the following Creative Commons user licenses:

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text and data mine the article, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author’s honor or reputation, and license their new adaptations or creations under identical terms (CC BY NC SA).

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY): available only for authors funded by organizations with which Elsevier has established an agreement. For a full list please see http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

Elsevier has established agreements with funding bodies. This ensures authors can comply with funding body Open Access requirements, including specific user licenses, such as CC-BY. Some authors may also be reimbursed for associated publication fees. http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

To provide Open Access, this journal has a publication fee which needs to be met by the authors or their research funders for each article published Open Access. Your publication choice will have no effect on the peer review process or acceptance of submitted articles. The Open Access publication fee for this journal is 2500 USD, excluding taxes.

Learn more about Elsevier’s pricing policy http://www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing

Patient Anonymity
Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in your paper. Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients¿ images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request.Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission

English Language Service
Please write your text in good English. Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support site at http://epsupport.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

Permissions Information
Written permission to produce borrowed materials (quotations in excess of 100 words, illustrations and tables) must be obtained from the original copyright holders and the author(s), and submitted with the manuscript. Borrowed materials should be acknowledged in the captions as follows: 'Reproduced by kind permission of (publishers) from (reference)'.

Page Proofs
When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as "drafts".
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding Author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.
A form with queries from the copyeditor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required.The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicatedReturn corrections within 48 hours of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.
Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.

Author Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit http://www.elsevier.com/authors There is also the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions and more at: http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html.Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication.

Changes to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

Checklist
Before submitting your paper, please check that:
• All files are uploaded.
• The reference list is complete and in correct style.
• Written permission from original publishers and authors to reproduce any borrowed material has been obtained.