The Veterinary Journal (established 1875) is an international journal of veterinary research that publishes original papers and reviews on all aspects of veterinary science. Contributions reporting investigative work in the scientific disciplines involving veterinary species are particularly welcome where they make a significant contribution to the field. The Editors will be pleased to consider suggestions for Special Issues on subjects of topical importance. The journal also publishes Guest Editorials and occasionally Personal Views, but does not have a Letters section. Book Reviews are published on-line.

Manuscript types

Manuscripts may describe original work in a Full Paper (Original Article) or a Short Communication, or may form a Review of the existing state of knowledge on a particular aspect of veterinary science. Reviews should, in general, be written in support of original investigations. Case Reports are not published.

Animal welfare

Where animals have been used in a study, the institutional ethical or animal welfare Authority under which the work was conducted must be stated, along with the specific authorisation reference number and the date of approval. Such studies must meet Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines (view article). The Veterinary Journal will reject any paper where there is reason to believe that animals have been subjected to unnecessary or avoidable pain or distress.

Reporting standards

The Editors and reviewers use several published guidelines for reporting standards (see Appendix below). Conforming to these reporting standards allows the Editors and reviewers to assess the quality and originality of submissions and offers readers sufficient information to judge the relevance of the work in an appropriate context. Omission of requirements specified in the relevant guidelines for reporting standards may lead to rejection of a manuscript. For further information, please see The Veterinary Journal (2010) 184, 249-250 (view article).

Submission of manuscripts

Submission of manuscripts to The Veterinary Journal is on-line via the Elsevier Editorial System - please see http://ees.elsevier.com/ytvjl. Authors will be guided through the manuscript submission system step-by-step, enabling them to upload files directly from their computer. Options will be given for Authors to select a set of classifications for their papers, as well as a category designation (Original Article, Review, Short Communication etc.), from a given list.

Authors must submit articles in WORD format and not as PDF files. PDF proofs will be automatically generated from uploaded files and these are used for subsequent reviewing. Queries concerning the submission process or journal procedures should be sent by e-mail to: AuthorSupport@elsevier.com .

The Corresponding Author, who is normally the Author submitting the paper, will be asked to confirm that the article is original and is not being considered for peer-reviewed publication elsewhere. Submission also implies that all of the Authors have approved the paper for release and are in agreement with its content. Upon acceptance of the article by The Veterinary Journal, the Author(s) will be asked to transfer the copyright of the article to the Publisher. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.

The Corresponding Author will also be required to confirm that all Authors have made substantial contributions to (1) the conception and 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, and (3) final approval of the version to be submitted. Contributors who do not meet these criteria for authorship 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 Departmental Chair who gave general support.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is globally recognised as a serious academic offence. Please read and adhere to the guidelines for Ethics in Publishing (view article ). The Corresponding Author will be asked to tick a box to confirm acceptance of these guidelines before approval of the PDF and completion of the submission process.

Conflict of interest

At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all Authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications or registrations. Conflicts of interest may also exist where a commercial company donates (or provides funding for a study that uses) drugs, equipment, test kits, vaccines, reagents or other products manufactured or marketed by that company. If no conflicts of interest exist, this should be stated as "None of the authors of this paper has a financial or personal relationship with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence or bias the content of the paper".

Role of the funding source

All sources of funding should be declared in an Acknowledgements section 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.

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 we have established an agreement with. For a full list please see 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. 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 $USD 3,000, excluding taxes.

Learn more about Elsevier's pricing policy
www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing

Prior presentation of data

Prior presentation of results, in the form of abstracts, posters or oral presentations at conferences, must be mentioned clearly in the Acknowledgements, with wording along the lines of: "Preliminary results were presented as an Abstract at the 9th International Congress of Veterinary Virology, Madrid, 4th-7th September 2012."

Format and layout

Authors submitting papers that are suitable for consideration but do not comply fully with this Guide will be asked to amend the text and re-submit. Model article formats in WORD are available (click to follow link below as appropriate):

• Original Article
• Short Communication
• Review
• Guest Editorial
• Personal View
• Book Review

Articles must be written in the English language. UK or US English is preferred. Important: A high standard of English is required for all submissions. Authors whose first language is not English are strongly advised to consult a native English speaker familiar with their field or use an English language polishing service to meet the required standards prior to submission. The Editors will decide whether the use of English is of a satisfactory standard. If not, the submission will be rejected or returned to the Authors for revision. The model articles should be consulted for formatting and style, and may be used as templates.

Please note that there are a number of commercial organisations that will assist non-English speaking Authors in preparing their manuscripts for publication in international peer-reviewed journals. Further advice is available from Elsevier at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing . Some such services only offer help to improve the use of English and it remains the Authors responsibility to ensure that TVJ's layout and formatting requirements are also met.

Original Articles should be no longer than 3,000 words in length, excluding the Title page, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Tables, Figures and References. Reviews should be about 4,000 words in length and Short Communications up to 1,000 words.

Continuous line numbers are required throughout the text.

Use double-spacing except for the Title page and References, which should be in single spacing. Times New Roman, font size 12 point, is preferred for all text (including Tables, Figures, References and all symbols). A smaller font size may be used in Tables if space is limiting, and line spacing may also be adjusted in Tables where necessary. Formatting must not be customised since this impedes editing. For example, avoid paragraph spacing functions and linking section titles to paragraphs.

Insert a line break between each paragraph and inset the first line of each new paragraph.

Nucleotide sequences

Submission of a manuscript implies that primary nucleotide sequence data will be deposited with an internationally available repository. Sequence reference numbers should be provided, where appropriate, in the main text, Tables, Figures or as an e-only supplementary file (see below).

Title page

A title page must be included at the start of the article. This should give the paper's title, names of Author(s), the name(s) and address(es) of the institution(s) where the work was done and other Authors' addresses where these differ. If the article is a Review or Short Communication, this should be clearly indicated at the left top on the title page. Insert a page break at the bottom of the title page before the Abstract.

Except where all Authors come from the same department, each Author should be identified using a letter superscript (a,b,c etc.), and the Corresponding Author should be designated by an asterisk (*) as follows:

Prevalence of gastric ulcers in endurance horses: A preliminary report.

Jorge E. Nieto a,*, Jack R. Snyder a, Pablo Beldomenico a, Monica Aleman b, James W. Kerr c, Sharon J. Spier b

a Comparative Gastroenterology Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Surgical and Radiological Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA95616, USA
b Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of California, Davis, CA95616, USA
c Napa Equine Veterinary Service, Napa, CA94558, USA

The contact details of the corresponding Author (telephone number and E-mail address but not fax number) should then be given using the following format:

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 530 752 0290.
E-mail address: jenieto@ucdavis.edu (J.E. Nieto).

If it is desirable to indicate that more than one author contributed equally to the work, the numeric superscript (1) should be placed after the names. Then below the corresponding author details you should state:

1 These authors contributed equally to the work.

It is not usually acceptable for all authors to be acknowledged as equal contributors to a study.

Articles

Original Articles should be arranged as follows: (1) Title page; (2) an Abstract of up to 250 words (with no sub-headings), which should emphasise objectives, the experimental procedure, results and conclusions; up to five Keywords in alphabetical order and in Title case should be supplied below the Abstract; (3) the main text must be sub-divided into Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions; (4) Conflict of interest statement; (5) Acknowledgements; (6) Appendix A: Supplementary material (where this is provided; see below); (7) References; (8) Tables; (9) Figure legends; (10) Figures (uploaded as separate files). The sections should not be numbered. Please see the model article provided (view here)

Please note:

• Insert a page break only after the Title page, after the Abstract with Keywords, after the References section, between each Table, and before the Legends to figures.
• The Results and Discussion sections must be distinct and not combined.
• Avoid sub-headings in the Discussion section.
• References must not be included within the Conclusions section.
• The first person (I, we, our) must be avoided in the Abstract, but may be used elsewhere in the paper.

Where Supplementary data are provided (see further information below), use the following wording in the main text after the Acknowledgements:

'Appendix A: Supplementary material

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi: ...'

Tables should be included within the article and placed sequentially after the References, but before the Figure legend(s), with one Table per page.

Figure legends should be included in the main manuscript file after any Tables. Each figure should be uploaded as a separate file (Fig. 1, Fig. 2 etc.).

Short Communications should follow the requirements for full manuscripts, but the text must not exceed 1,000 words and the paper should not be divided into conventional sections. Headings for the Abstract, Keywords, Acknowledgements, Conflict of interest statement and References should be included, but there should be no other headings or subheadings in the main text. There should be no more than 10 references in a Short Communication. An Abstract of not more than 125 words is required and up to five Keywords should be supplied below it. Please see the model article provided ((view here).

Review Articles may be commissioned or proposed. Authors wishing to submit a review article are advised to contact the Editor at tvj@aht.org.uk. Reviews are about 4000 words in length and may cover any relevant aspect of veterinary science or comparative medicine. Reviews should follow the layout for Original Articles, but with the main text subdivided as appropriate to the subject matter, starting with an Abstract and Introduction and incorporating Conclusions and a Conflict of interest statement. Sections should not be numbered. Please see the model article provided (view here).

Guest Editorials are commissioned by the editors; unsolicited Guest Editorials must not be submitted. Commissioned Guest Editorials are usually 500-1000 words in length and must follow the layout of the model article provided (• view here). They usually include references, but should not be divided into sections and no Acknowledgements or Conflict of interest statement are required. Where a Guest Editorial is commissioned to accompany another article, it must refer to that article in the text and the reference should be provided in TVJ format at the end of the Editorial.

Personal Views are commissioned by the Editors; unsolicited Personal Views must not be submitted without the agreement of the Editors. Authors must follow the format of the model article provided (view here). It is at the Editors' discretion whether a Personal View should be sent to reviewers or whether or not it will be published in TVJ. The length of the Personal View must be agreed with the Editors in advance of submission.

Units. Metric units must be used. If other units need to be given, they must be placed in brackets after the metric equivalent. Units, symbols and abbreviations of units should conform to the International System of Units as defined in Baron, D.N., McKenzie-Clarke, H., 2008, Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Authors and Editors in Medicine and Related Sciences, 6th Ed., The Royal Society of Medicine, London (available here). All other abbreviations should be unambiguous and should be clearly explained where they are first mentioned in the Abstract and text. Do not list abbreviations separately.

Note that litre is abbreviated to 'L', millilitre 'mL', (also mmol/L etc.); probability is given as P (upper case italics), as in P<0.05; also note 'Student's t test' and Mann-Whitney U test; correlation coefficient r as in r = 0.92, coefficient of determination, r2 as in r2 = 0.72; standard deviation and standard error should be abbreviated to SD and SE, respectively; hour, minute and second are abbreviated to h, min and s; day, week and year are given in full. For drug dose frequency use e.g. 'three times daily' or '8-hourly' rather than Latin terms such as 't.i.d. or q 8 h. Where centrifugation has been performed, use g values not rpm. Other common abbreviations include 'IV' for intravenous or intravenously, 'IM' for intramuscular or intramuscularly, 'SC' for subcutaneous and subcutaneously, 'PO' for per os or orally; use 'vs.' for 'versus'. Use the abbreviation G for gauge of needle. The symbol for degrees Celsius should be written in the format '°C', with the value separated from the unit by a space, e.g. '37 °C'. Use the WORD symbols for ±, Greek letters etc. Percentages should be referred to as, for example, '15%'or 'Fifteen per cent'when starting a sentence. Note also 'post-mortem'and 'ante-mortem'.

When a number is followed by a unit use the digits as in '10 mL' unless starting a sentence in which case write in full 'Ten microlitres'. When the number describes a quantity of items write the number in full up to ten as 'four sheep' or 'ten tubes' then in digital form thereafter as '24 horses' or '200 blood samples'. Avoid the symbol # or abbreviation 'No.' for 'number'.

Single ('...') quotation marks should be used for specific extracts, as in: "A PubMed search utilizing the search terms 'canine castration local anaesthesia' returned three publications." Where a reference is cited or a quote given, use single quotation marks and place the text in italic font as: "However, in the 'Recommended Guideline for the Conduct and Evaluation of Prognostic Studies in Veterinary Oncology' developed recently by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists ..." Double ("...") quotation marks should be avoided.

Anatomical terminology. Terminology should comply with the World Association of Veterinary Anatomists Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria (2005) and terms should be given in English where possible
(see: http://www.wava-amav.org/Downloads/nav_2005.pdf).

Currencies. A footnote should be inserted at first use if a currency is given in the text, as in 'UK£5001' and conversion rates provided using the following three currencies US$, UK£ and Euros (€). The footnote should read as appropriate, for example: '£1 = approx. US$1.60, €1.24 at 2 December 2012.' Rates can be updated by the Author at proof stage if necessary. An easy to use currency converter is available here: http://uk.reuters.com/business/currencies.

Manufacturers. Manufacturers and suppliers should be indicated within the text after the name of the product. For example: 'diazepam (Valium, Roche)' or 'using an infusion pump (Medfusion 2010, Medex)'. Addresses/locations of manufacturers should not be given and the use of ® or ™ should be avoided. Note: proprietary names must not appear in the title or Abstract.

Applying capital letters to directions. Compass directions such as North, South, East and West, as well as their derivatives, such as North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West, should be capitalised when they are used to designate defined or recognised geographical regions, or when they are an integral part of a proper name. Examples include "Eastern Europe", "Southern France", "North-East England", "in the North", "down South", "the West Coast" and "the Eastern Seaboard", "the Western Region of Kazakhstan", "Southern California". Compass directions should not be written with capital letters when they indicate general locations or directions without a specific location. Examples include "bluetongue virus initially spread in a north-westerly direction on air currents", "the northern boundary of the quarantine zone", "cases were clustered in the east of the region", "westerly winds". The first letter of each word of a Compass direction should be capitalised when used to refer to people in a region, particularly in social, cultural or political contexts. Examples include "wildebeest are hunted by the Southern tribes", "horses have been an integral part of Western civilisation since the Middle Ages". Words such as northern, southern, eastern, and western that precede a place name usually are not capitalised, since they indicate a general location within a region. When these words are an integral part of the place name, they should be capitalised. For example, write "northern Connecticut", but "Northern Ireland" and "Western Australia".

Websites (URLs). Where a website is appropriate in the text, a footnote should be inserted using sequential numeric superscripts. At the foot of the page, provide the link as follows: '1See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast.' It is the Authors' responsibility to check that all URLs are active and live at proof stage and if not then the text must be amended accordingly.

References. Authors are strongly advised to use reference management software such as EndNote (see here). However, references should be checked carefully for accuracy and corrected manually to ensure the format matches exactly the TVJ style described below.

Only essential references should be included. Text citations can be in either of two ways: (a) with date in parentheses, e.g. as demonstrated by Mills (2011); or (b) with names and dates in parentheses, e.g. according to recent findings (Mills, 2011). If a citation has more than two Authors the first Author should be given followed by et al. in standard text format (not italicised), e.g. Jones et al. (2007) or (Jones et al., 2007). Where lists of references are cited in the text, they should be placed first chronologically and then alphabetically, e.g. (Philbey et al., 2003; Cassidy and Mills, 2005; Litster, 2010). If two or more references by the same Author(s) published in the same year are cited, they should be distinguished from each other by placing a, b, etc. after the year, e.g., (Laven, 2011a, b; Laven and Smith, 2010a, b). Personal communications should be designated as '(E.A. Blomme, personal communication)'.

Papers that are in press may be cited using the year of acceptance where the digital object identifier (doi number) has been allocated. This can be updated to the year of print publication at the proof stage if the cited paper has been published. In the Reference list, quote the doi number where details of the journal volume and page numbers are yet not known.

Submitted papers should not be cited, but instead should be referred to in the text as, e.g. 'J.P. Cassidy et al., unpublished data'. This can be updated at proof stage where appropriate. Where a paper in press is cited in the manuscript, the Authors may be asked to make a copy of the proofs available to the editors and reviewers.

The Reference list at the end of the paper should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. References should be single spaced and a line break should be inserted between each reference. All Authors should be included up to 10, after which you should write 'and others'; Please note that in all cases Journal titles must be given in full. Volume numbers and full page numbers should be provided, but issue numbers should be omitted. Where a Supplement is cited, give the Supplement number e.g. 'Equine Veterinary Journal Suppl. 37' or 'Journal of Reproduction and Fertility 54 (Suppl. 1), 115-126'. Where selected pages only have been consulted, such as in a book, this is given by 'pp. 237-240' or 'p. 456' (see below).

References should be set out as follows:

Journal reference - Yang, Y., Dahly-Vernon, A.J., Blomme, E.A.G., Lai-Zhang, J., Kempf, D.J., Marsh, K.C., Harrington, Y.A., Nye, S.H., Evans, D.L., Roman, R.J., Jacob, H.J., Waring, J.F., 2010. Liver transcriptomic changes associated with ritonavir-induced hyperlipidemia in sensitive and resistant strains of rats. The Veterinary Journal 185, 75-82.

Book reference - Cunningham, J.C., Klein, B.G., 2007. Endocrinology. In: Textbook of Veterinary Physiology, Fourth Ed. Saunders Elsevier, St. Louis, MO, USA, pp. 439-448.

Proceedings - Elbers, A.R., Mintiens, K., Staubach, C., Gerbier, G., Meiswinkel, R., Hendrinckx, G., Backx, A., Conraths, F.J., Meroc, E., Ducheyne, E., Gethmann, J., Heesterbeek, J.A.P., De Clerq, K., Unger, F., Stegeman, J.A., 2007. Bluetongue virus serotype 8 epidemic in North-western Europe in 2006: Preliminary findings. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Dipoli, Finland, pp. 231-245.

Theses - Duz, M. 2009. Assessment of a methodology for determination of H2O2 concentration and pH in exhaled breath condensate in horses with and without lower airway inflammation. Thesis, Master of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow.

Web addresses - FAOSTAT, 2008. Food and Agricultural Organization Statistical Database: Live Animals. http://faostat.fao.org (accessed 15 July 2010).

Tables. Each Table should be typed on a separate page, numbered (1, 2 etc.) and a brief title given directly above each table. Tables should be in portrait format. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by a, b etc. and typed at the bottom of the relevant table. Information in tables should not be duplicated in figures and vice versa. The tables should be placed at the end of the main text after the References but before the Figure Legends.

Figures. The quality of all Figures submitted must be high. The Editors will reject Figures of an unacceptable standard or ask the Authors to replace them. Figures should be referred to sequentially in the text as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Figs. 3a,b and 4, etc. A Legend must be provided for each Figure and placed after any Tables in the main manuscript file. Do not write legends on the figures themselves. Scale bars must be provided on all photomicrographs and electron micrographs.

In preparing figures, Authors should note the following:

•Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
•Save text in figures as ''graphics'' or enclose the font.
•Only use the following fonts in your figures: Times New Roman, Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Symbol.
•Number the figures according to their sequence in the text.
•Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
•Provide all figures as separate files.
•Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
•Ensure that all units and wording in the figures conform to TVJ style (see Units above).
Please note that each figure must be uploaded to the journal website separately and not included in the main manuscript.

Authors are encouraged to read the detailed guide on electronic artwork, which is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Artwork formats

Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, half-tones, and line/half-tone combinations given below):

EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.

TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (half-tones): Always use a minimum of 300 dpi.

TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: Use a minimum of 1,000 dpi.

TIFF: Combinations of bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): A minimum of 500 dpi is required.

DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications, please supply 'as is'.

Please do not:

•Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (spreadsheet, presentation) document.
•Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g. GIF, BMP, PICT,WPG); the resolution is too low.
•Supply files that are too low in resolution.
•Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

All Figures will be published in colour on-line, but colour will only be used in the hard copy of the Journal where it is considered to be essential to the presentation of the paper (colour reproduction charges may apply).

In preparing a manuscript for submission, Authors should note the following guidelines:

•Ensure that any files are not saved as 'read-only'.
•Use two carriage returns to end paragraphs.
•Type text without end of line hyphenation, except for compound words.
•Do not use lower case 'l' (lower case 'el') for 'one' or 'O' (upper case 'oh') for '0' (zero), since they have different typesetting values.
•Be consistent with punctuation and only insert a single space between words and after punctuation.

Preparation of supplementary data

Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. For correct wording when referenced in the text, see above. Supplementary files offer the Author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background data sets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published on-line alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10900233. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data are provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.

NB. All contributions are subject to editorial revision. The Editor's decision will be final.

Proofs

The corresponding Author will be advised by the Editor when the paper has been accepted for publication and it may then be cited as 'In press' with the doi.

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding Author. Elsevier sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader XI, which is available free from http://get.adobe.com/reader/.

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/reader/tech-specs.html. 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 the 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 send 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.

Elsevier will do everything possible to publish an accepted article quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all author corrections are sent back to Elsevier in one communication; Authors should check proofs very carefully before replying, since inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proof reading is the responsibility of the authors, but final Editor corrections may also be incorporated at proof stage.

Once the final corrections have been made, Elsevier will aim to publish the paper electronically within 6-8 weeks. The paper will then be will be notified by allocated a doi number and, once on-line, the paper may be cited as 'published' using its unique doi number. The Corresponding author the publisher when the paper is available on-line and can check its status and doi number using The Veterinary Journal's website http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tvjl (click on Volume/Issues and then Articles in Press). The hard copy version of The Veterinary Journal containing the paper will follow later, normally within 12 months of acceptance.

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: contact Elsevier's Rights Department: phone (USA) +1 215 239 3804 or (UK) or +44 1865 843830, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage http://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-rights-and-responsibilities#permissions.

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

Authors' rights

As an Author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:

• Make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use.
• Make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically, e.g., via an e-mail list or list server).
• Post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites, including electronic pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such a version on such servers or sites.
• Post a revised personal version of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tvjl).
• Present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting.
• For your employer, if the article is a 'work for hire', made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g. training).
• Retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedures described in the article.
• Include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially).
• Use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of your article in the journal).
• Prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or otherwise to re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.

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.

Book reviews

Publishers or Authors wishing to have a book considered for review in The Veterinary Journal should first contact the Books Editor at tvj@aht.org.uk. Book reviews are published in electronic format only.

Author enquiries

For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit the journal's homepage at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tvjl. This also provides the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed.

Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.

Offprints

The Corresponding author will, at no cost, be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. 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.

The Veterinary Journal has no page charges.

Appendix

Reporting Guidelines

Reporting guidelines are available for a broad range of study designs and allow research to be critically evaluated. These guidelines have been designed by international scientific teams to promote the quality of research reporting and to ensure there is a transparent, accurate and complete account of the research. The guidelines are freely available and include the following:

1. Standards for the reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD) http://www.stard-statement.org
2. Standards for the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) http://www.strobe-statement.org
3. Outbreak investigation reports and intervention studies of nosocomial infection (ORION) http://www.idrn.org/orion.php
4. Consolidated standards for reporting randomised clinical trials (CONSORT) http://www.consort-statement.org
5. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) http://www.prisma-statement.org
6. Randomised control trials for livestock and food safety (REFLECT) http://www.reflect-statement.org/statement
7. Enhancing the quality and transparency of health research (including good publication practice for pharmaceutical companies), economic evaluations and qualitative research (EQUATOR) http://www.equator-network.org

For further information see The Veterinary Journal (2010) 184, 249-250 (view article).