Official Publication of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM).

Medical Engineering & Physics is an international journal published for the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine by Elsevier Ltd.

Scope
Medical Engineering & Physics serves a diverse range of disciplines involving the application of engineering and physics to medicine and biology. The subjects covered include artificial organs, biomaterials, biomechanics, biosensors, clinical engineering, computer modelling, imaging and image processing, medical engineering design, medical informatics, neural engineering, physiological signal processing, rehabilitation engineering and tissue engineering (particularly mechanical effects).

Publication condition
A manuscript submitted to this journal can only be published if it (or a similar version) has not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. A violation of this condition is considered fraud, and will be addressed by appropriate sanctions. Two manuscripts are considered similar if they concern the same hypothesis, question or goal, using the same methods and/or essentially similar data.

Manuscript types
The following types of manuscript may be submitted for consideration:
• Reviews, 10,000 words. We would like to increase the number of reviews published and so potential authors are actively encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief at mep@elsevier.com with a short summary of their proposed topic.
• Full papers, describing original work, should normally be about 5000 words.
•Short Communications, typically 2000 words. These manuscripts report important observations that are usually preliminary in nature.
•Technical Notes, should normally be between 5000 and 5500 words with a maximum of 5 illustrations.
• Book reviews, normally up to 500 words.
•Letters to the Editor, normally up to 500 words.


Refereeing
All contributions, with the exception of Letters to the Editor, will be submitted anonymously to referees selected by the Editor-in-Chief. The names of referees will not be disclosed. The decision to accept or reject a paper is taken by the Editor-in-Chief on the basis of advice from the referees, members of the Editorial Board and\or the Associate Editors. Authors whose native language is not English may wish to make use of a language editing service before submitting their manuscript: Details of such services are given at http://authors.elsevier.com/LanguageEditing.html. Authors are solely responsible for the factual accuracy of their papers. On acceptance for publication, papers may be subject to editorial amendment.

Submissions
Authors are requested to submit their original manuscript and figures online via http://ees.elsevier.com/mep/. This is the Elsevier web-based submission and review system. You will find full instructions located on this site - a Guide for Authors and a Guide for Online Submission. Please follow these guidelines to prepare and upload your article. Text files should be provided in Word format if possible; if you cannot upload such files, please provide a word count of your article. Once the uploading is done, our system automatically generates an electronic pdf proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be managed via this system.

On first submitting an article, authors must suggest three referees (all of whom should be from different countries that the authors. Email addresses must be provided. It is at the discretion of the Editors as to whether any of these referees are used to review the manuscript.

Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (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, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Acknowledgement of other contributors
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

Conflict of interest
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 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.

Role of the funding source
All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

Ethics
Work on human beings that is submitted to Medical Engineering & Physics should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work.

Structure of manuscript
If you would like advice on how to structure your manuscript, then you may wish to consult the following reference: Brand RA and Huiskes R. Structural outline of an archival paper for the Journal of Biomechanics. J Biomech 2001;34:1371-4 This paper is available free via the Journal of Biomechanics' website ( http://intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/jbio). Although it was written for that journal, its general comments are equally applicable to Medical Engineering & Physics.

Abstract
Papers should be provided with a summary of between 100-200 words, explaining why and how the work was done, and what were the results. Abstracts are often featured in secondary source publications and will attract readers if they are succinct, quantitative and avoid unnecessary jargon. The incorporation of appropriate keywords will help ensure that the paper is referenced properly in scientific databases. Authors should, if possible, indicate under which of the Journal's main subject areas their manuscript falls.

Illustrations
Information relating to the preferred formats for artwork may be found at http://ees.elsevier.com/mep/.

Almost all illustrations will be reduced in size to fit a single or double column width. The authors should ensure that lettering and numerals on the figures will remain legible after reduction. Figure captions should be typed in double spacing on a separate sheet and numbered consecutively.

Colour illustrations will be considered if pertinent to the scientific understanding; prices are available on application. Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparaton of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/authorartworkinstructions. Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.

Tables
Tables should be accompanied by a suitable caption at the top. Column headings should be brief, and indicate units of measurement in parenthesis.

References
These should be indicated in the text by superior numerals that run consecutively throughout the paper. The references should be grouped in a section at the end of the text in numerical order and take the form; author's surname and initials, title, journal title, year of publication, volume number, page numbers. If in doubt authors should always write the journal title in full. References to a book should take the form: author's surname, followed by initials; title of book in single quotes; editors (if any); volume number/edition (if any); name of publisher, place of publication; year of publication and page number(s). Where a paper is cited more than once in the text, the same superior number should be used on each occasion. References to `submitted' works should not be made and references to conference proceedings should be avoided. Where references are cited `in press', a copy of the relevant manuscript should accompany the submission to help the reviewing process. `Personal communications' are not acceptable as references.

Mathematical formulae
All symbols used in mathematical formulae should be defined in the text. The proof of a formula should be provided in an appendix or reference made to where the proof is shown.

Units and abbreviations
SI units should be used. On graphs, if values are recorded in non-SI units then additional scales in SI units should be used. If a large number of symbols are used it is helpful if authors submit a list of these symbols and their meanings.

Randomised controlled trials
All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in Medical Engineering & Physics should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. The Journal has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt. Further information can be found at www.icmje.org

Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines. Patients' and volunteers' names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used.

Supplementary Data
Elsevier now 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 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: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/authorartworkinstructions.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see http://ees.elsevier.com/mep/). 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. 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, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238 7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Agreements with Funding Bodies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in this journal to comply with manuscript archiving requirements of the following funding bodies, as specified as conditions of researcher grant awards. Please see www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/fundingbodyagreements for full details of the agreements that are in place for these bodies:

• Arthritis Research Campaign (UK)
• British Heart Foundation (UK)
• Cancer Research (UK)
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA)
• Medical Research Council (UK)
• National Institutes of Health (USA)
• Wellcome Trust (UK)

These agreements and policies enable authors to comply with their funding body's archiving policy without having to violate their publishing agreements with Elsevier. The agreements and policies are intended to support the needs of Elsevier authors, editors, and society publishing partners, and protect the quality and integrity of the peer review process. They are examples of Elsevier's ongoing engagement with scientific and academic communities to explore ways to deliver demonstrable and sustainable benefits for the research communities we serve.

Authors who report research by funding bodies not listed above, and who are concerned that their author agreement may be incompatible with archiving requirements specified by a funding body that supports an author's research are strongly encouraged to contact Elsevier's author support team (AuthorSupport@elsevier.com). Elsevier has a track-record of working on behalf of our authors to ensure authors can always publish in Elsevier journals and still comply with archiving conditions defined in research grant awards.

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 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
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.For full instructions on the electronic submission of artwork, please visit the following web address: http://authors.elsevier.com.