An International Journal on Research and Development in Veterinary Epidemiology, Animal Disease Prevention and Control, and Animal Health Economics
Guide for Authors
Types of contribution
1. Original research papers (Regular Papers)
2. Review articles
3. Short communications
4. Letters to the Editor
5. Book reviews
Original research papers should report the results of original research. The
material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form. Review articles should cover
subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest. A Short Communication is a concise
but complete description of a limited investigation, which will not be included in a later paper. Short Communications should be as completely
documented, both by reference to the literature and description of the experimental procedures employed, as a regular paper. They should
not occupy more than 6 printed pages (about 12 manuscript pages, including figures, tables and references). Letters to the Editor
offering comment or useful critique on material published in the journal are welcomed. The decision to publish submitted letters rests
purely with the Editor-in-Chief. It is hoped that the publication of such letters will permit an exchange of views which will be of benefit
to both the journal and its readers. Book reviews will be included in the journal on a range of relevant books which are
not more than 2 years old. Book Reviews will be solicited by the Book Review Editor. Unsolicited reviews will not usually be accepted.
Submission of manuscripts
Submission to Preventive Veterinary Medicine now proceeds online via Elsevier Editorial
System - http://ees.elsevier.com/prevet. Authors will be guided step-by-step through uploading files directly from their
computers. Authors should select a set of classifications for their papers from a given list, as well as a category designation (Original
Research Paper, Short Communication, and so on). Electronic PDF proofs will be automatically generated from uploaded files, and used
for subsequent reviewing.
Authors should send queries concerning the submission process or journal procedures to AuthorSupport@elsevier.com.
Authors can check the status of their manuscript within the review procedure using Elsevier Editorial System.
Authors submitting
hard copy papers will be asked to resubmit using Elsevier Editorial System.
Submission of an article is understood to imply that
the article is original and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Submission also implies that all authors have approved
the paper for release and are in agreement with its content. Upon acceptance of the article by the 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.
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.
Acknowledgements
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
Circumstances relating to animal experimentation must meet the
International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals as issued by the Council for the International Organizations
of Medical Sciences. They are obtainable from: Executive Secretary C.I.O.M.S., c/o WHO, Via Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, or
at the following URL: http://www.cioms.ch/frame_1985_texts_of_guidelines.htm. Unnecessary cruelty in animal experimentation
is not acceptable to the Editors of Preventive Veterinary Medicine.
Preparation of manuscripts
1. Manuscripts
should be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by
an English-speaking colleague prior to submission.
Language Editing: Authors
Home provides details of some companies who can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who need assistance before they submit their article or before it is accepted for publication. Authors should contact these services directly.
For more information about language editing services, please email authorsupport@elsevier.com.
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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.
2. Manuscripts should have numbered lines, with wide margins and double spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts,
footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered.
However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary one may refer to sections. Avoid excessive usage of italics
to emphasize part of the text.
3. Manuscripts in general should be organized in the following order: Title (should be clear,
descriptive and not too long) Name(s) of author(s) Complete postal address(es) of affiliations Full telephone, Fax No. and
e-mail address of the corresponding author Present address(es) of author(s) if applicable Complete correspondence address including
e-mail address to which the proofs should be sent Abstract Keywords (indexing terms), normally 3-6 items. Please refer to last
index (Vol. 50/3-4). Introduction Material studied, area descriptions, methods, techniques Results Discussion Conclusion
Acknowledgments and any additional information concerning research grants, etc. References Tables Figure captions Tables
(separate file(s)) Figures (separate file(s)).
4. Titles and subtitles should not be run within the text. They should be typed
on a separate line, without indentation. Use lower-case letter type.
5. SI units should be used.
6. Elsevier reserves the privilege
of returning to the author for revision accepted manuscripts and illustrations which are not in the proper form given in this guide.
Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors should read the Appendix at the end of this Guide, which provides details
on the minimum items of information which an article should contain to allow proper evaluation of its Methods by the journal's referees/Editors.
Maunuscripts lacking this information will be returned to authors prior to refereeing.
Abstracts The abstract should
be clear, descriptive and not longer than 400 words.
Tables
1. Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the
size and lay-out of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.
2. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.
3. Tables should be numbered
according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.
4. Each table should occupy a separate
page of the manuscript. Tables should never be included in the text.
5. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
6. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between
parentheses.
7. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
8.
Any explanation essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.
Illustrations
1. All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) should be submitted as separate files, preferably in TIFF or EPS format.
2. Illustrations should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. References should be made in the text to each illustration.
3. Illustrations should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. Illustrations should be of such a size as to
allow a reduction of 50%.
4. Lettering should be big enough to allow a reduction of 50% without becoming illegible. Any lettering
should be in English. Use the same kind of lettering throughout and follow the style of the journal.
5. If a scale should be given,
use bar scales on all illustrations instead of numerical scales that must be changed with reduction.
6. Each illustration should
have a caption. The captions to all illustrations should be typed on a separate sheet of the manuscript.
7. Explanations should be
given in the figure legend(s). Drawn text in the illustrations should be kept to a minimum.
8. Photographs are only acceptable if
they have good contrast and intensity.
9. If you submit usable colour figures, Elsevier would ensure that these figures appeared
free-of-charge in colour in the electronic version of your accepted paper, regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced
in colour in the printed version. Colour illustrations can only be included in print if the additional cost of reproduction is contributed
by the author: you would receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please
note that because of technical complications which may arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version, should
you not opt for colour in print), you should submit in addition usable black and white figures corresponding to all colour illustrations.
10. Advice on the preparation of illustrations can be found at the following URL: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
Preparation of 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 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 together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.
References 1.
All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. The manuscript should
be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of author's names and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list.
2. In the text refer to the author's name (without initial) and year of publication, followed – if necessary – by a short
reference to appropriate pages. Examples: "Since Peterson (1988) has shown that..." "This is in agreement with results obtained later
(Kramer, 1989, pp.12–16)". 3. If reference is made in the text to a publication written by more than two authors the name of
the first author should be used followed by "et al.". This indication, however, should never be used in the list of references. In this
list names of first author and co-authors should be mentioned. 4. References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically.
The list of references should be arranged alphabetically on authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the
list is also mentioned with co-authors the following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged according publication
dates – publications of the same author with one co-author – publications of the author with more than one co-author. Publications
by the same author(s) in the same year should be listed as1974a, 1974b, etc. 5. Use the following system for arranging your references:
a. For periodicals Dohoo, I.R., Ruegg, P.L., 1993. Herd level measures of health and productivity in Prince Edward Island
dairy herds. Prev. Vet. Med. 16, 241–254. b. For edited symposia, special issues, etc. published in a periodical
Weatherley, A.J., Hong, C., Harris,T.J., Smith, D.G., Hammet, N.C., 1993. Persistent efficacy of doramectin against experimental nematode
infections in calves. In: Vercruysse, J. (Ed.), Doramectin – a novel avermectin. Vet. Parasitol. 49, 45–50. c. For
books Blaha, T. (Ed.), 1989. Applied Veterinary Epidemiology. Elsevier, Amsterdam. d. For multi-author books
Wilson, M.B., Nakane, P.K., 1978. Recent developments in the periodate method of conjugating horseradish peroxidase (HRPO) to antibodies.
In: Knapp, W., Holubar, K., Wick, G. (Eds.), Immunofluorescence and Related Staining Techniques. North Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 215–224. 6.
Abbreviate the titles of periodicals mentioned in the list of references in accordance with BIOSIS Serial Sources, published annually
by BIOSIS. The correct abbreviation for this journal is: Prev. Vet. Med. 7. In the case of publications in any language other than
English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles publications in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated, and
annotation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek, with English abstract)" should be added. 8. Work accepted for publication but not
yet published should be referred to as "in press". 9. References concerning unpublished data and "personal communications" should
not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.
10. Web references may be given. As a minimum, the full URL
is necessary. Any further information, such as Author names, dates, reference to a source publication and so on, should also be given.
11. Articles available online but without volume and page numbers may be referred to by means of their Digital Object identifier
(DOI) code.
Formulae
1. Give the meaning of all symbols immediately after the equation in which they are first used.
2. For simple fractions use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line.
3. Equations should be numbered serially at the right-hand
side in parentheses. In general only equations explicitly referred to in the text need be numbered.
4. The use of fractional powers
instead of root signs is recommended. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.
5. In chemical formulae, valence of
ions should be given as, e.g. Ca2+ , not as Ca++.
6. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols, e.g. 18O.
7. The repeated writing of chemical formulae in the text is to be avoided where reasonably possible; instead, the name of the compound
should be given in full. Exceptions may be made in the case of a very long name occurring very frequently or in the case of a compound
being described as the end product of a gravimetric determination (e.g. phosphate as P2O5).
Footnotes
1. Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it should be possible to incorporate the information in normal
text. 2. If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers, and kept as short as possible.
Nomenclature
1. Authors and editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International
Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 2. All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their
scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals. 3. All biocides and other organic
compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise
identified. 4. For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the
official recommendations of the IUPAC–IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed.
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,
Oxford, UK: phone (+1) 215 239 3804 or +44(0)1865 843830, fax +44(0)1865 853333, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com.
Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage http://www.elsevier.com/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,
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pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites • post a revised personal version of the
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(e.g., training) • retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure 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
to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal
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body agreements and policies
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Proofs
One set
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If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return
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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
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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
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Authors
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Preventive
Veterinary Medicine has no page charges
Appendix
These minimum items of information are needed by our referees
and Editors to evaluate your paper's methods. Additional information will be appropriate, depending on the topic and objectives of your
paper.
1. For ALL descriptive and comparative studies:
a. Source of subjects
b. Eligibility criteria
c. Sample-size
justification
d. Methods by which the data were acquired
e. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of any tests used. (Analytic
sensitivity and reproducibility might be appropriate alternatives for some studies.)
f. Descriptions of the observed data (including
measures of subject-level variation). (These descriptions should include time, place, "demographics," and relevant management and health
information.)
g. Declaration of the experimental unit
h. Descriptions of the formal random mechanism (e.g., lottery or table
of random numbers) and the list frame (enumerating every eligible subject) used at any step claimed to be "random"
i. Descriptions
of the pilot, repeatability, and validation testing of any questionnaire used to acquire data for the study. Also needed are: the language
of the survey instrument, the time it took to complete, how it was administered, the types of questions (i.e., closed, semi-closed, open),
and the training of any persons administering the survey. Making a copy available to the review process is desirable (in English as well
as the language of administration, if possible).
2. For comparative studies (including both observational and intervention
studies):
a. Numerical descriptions of all tested risk factors or pre-intervention characteristics of the subjects, stratified on
the primary hypothesis of the study
b. Descriptions of how blindness was accomplished for all subjective evaluations
3. For intervention
studies:
a. Approval by your institution's animal-welfare committee
b. Methods by which the owners of the animals gave informed
consent for their animals to be in the trial
c. Methods used for allocation concealment when the animals were determined to be eligible,
and for allocation concealment at random assignment to the various experimental or control groups
d. Description and justification
of the "control" group's "treatment" (e.g., standard therapy, placebo to mimic the delivery system in the absence of a standard therapy,
or "do nothing" to mimic both the treatment and its delivery)
e. Methods used for active monitoring for adverse effects
4. For simulation studies and risk assessments:
a. Distinction between deterministic and stochastic processes
b. Descriptions
of (and justifications for) all choices of distributions and their parameter values
c. Description of numbers, training, experience,
and representativeness of any "experts" used to provide opinions
d. Declaration of the stakeholders for any risk assessment
e.
Distinction between assumptions, input data, calculations from intermediate steps in the modeling process, and model predictions
f. Descriptions of the assumed chance variation and assumed knowledge uncertainty in the inputs, and methods used to deal with those
sources of total uncertainty
g. Sensitivity analyses of key assumptions and of the input variables that had the greatest uncertainty
h. Descriptions of the variability in the "outputs" from stochastic models
5. For statistical-hypothesis tests:
a. Declarations
of the unit of statistical analysis and of the dependent ("outcome") variable
b. Alpha and tails, and any methods used to adjust
for multiple comparisons (to protect experiment-wise alpha)
c. Methods used to adjust for clustering within the data
d. Methods
used to determine that the statistical assumptions were met (e.g., that the data were Gaussian or that the odds ratio or hazards ratio
was constant across the range of the risk factor)
e. Methods used to look for collinearities or other interrelationships among the
risk factors being tested
f. Methods used to select or to retain risk factors within multivariable models (including the test criterion)
g. Clear declaration of any variables "forced into" the model (not allowed to drop out; implies a need to account for that factor) or
offered to the model on a priori grounds despite any screening results (implies that the factor was part of a major hypothesis)
h.
Description of the goodness-of-fit of any models.
