General instructions for Authors

Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods publishes articles on current methods of investigation used in pharmacology and toxicology. Pharmacology and toxicology are defined in the broadest sense, referring to actions of drugs and chemicals on all living systems. With its international editorial board and noted contributors, Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods is the leading journal devoted exclusively to experimental procedures used by pharmacologists and toxicologists.


Electronic supplementary material
The journal encourages Authors to submit electronic supplementary material - particularly movies or animation sequences - to further demonstrate methodological procedures described in the article.


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 are 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. Video files: please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.


Ethics in Publishing
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

Conflict of Interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Submission Declaration
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 copyright-holder.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). 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: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Retained Author Rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Role of the Funding Source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding.

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.

Language Services
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.

Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (http://www.elsevier.com/jpm) 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.


Publication Policy.
The Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods is an international journal, publishing papers concerning all aspects of the methodology of pharmacology and toxicology (including safety pharmacology):

1. "Original articles": description and characterization of a new or modified disease model, method, technique, apparatus or approach to analysis of data. This may include interspecies comparisons that contrast drug actions from a model relevance perspective;

2. "Brief communications" detailing simple modifications of an existing model, method, technique, apparatus or approach to analysis of data;

3. "How To" articles that provide step-by-step guidance on the execution of a specific technique;

4. "Appraisal of state-of-the-art" or "Historical review" of particular models, methods, techniques or apparatus;

5. "Methods in drug discovery" - perhaps the most important category. Here, by showing how a method was used to select a drug that was eventually found to be clinically effective, the author establishes validation of the method.

Papers focused on the actions of drugs are beyond the scope of the journal. Manuscripts will be evaluated by a member of the board of editors of the Journal, and a panel of international reviewers. An editorial decision will normally be made within 4 weeks of receipt of the manuscript, and publication will normally take place within 3 months of final acceptance.

Preparation of Manuscripts.

Essential Title Page Information
Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address"' (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

"How to", "appraisal of state of the art", "historical review" and "methods in drug discovery" articles have special instructions available on request (michael.curtis@kcl.ac.uk), from the journal web page, or from the extended Instructions printed in the first issue of each volume. The following format should be used for "original articles" and "brief communications", with the manuscript typed double-spaced throughout, and its sections numbered according to the format 1., 2. 2.1. 2.1.1, 2.2. etc.

1. Title page: This should include the title (no more than 120 characters), a short title for the running head, name(s) of author(s), place(s) where the work was undertaken, name address phone fax and email of corresponding author and (if appropriate) the current address of co-authors.

2. Abstract: This must not exceed 300 words and should be subdivided into four subsections headed: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.

3. Key terms: Up to 10, in alphabetical order. This should include the species studied, and the word "methods".

4. After the abstract the text should be numbered in sections from 1. Introduction, with subsections (e.g., 2.1. Statement on use and care of animals) as appropriate.

5. In the text, the referencing style should be author names and year, not numbers (e.g., Zamora 2002 for a single author; Knight & Iwelumo 2004 for two authors, and Ward et al., 1979 for 3 or more authors).

6. Introduction: This must outline the reason for the study and justify the approach taken.

7. Methods: This must begin with a statement of ethical approval by a domestic regulatory authority, or (if human subjects are used) the Declaration of Helsinki (Brit Med J 1964; ii:177). Methods should be sufficiently detailed to permit the reader to replicate the study. Published methods should be described in brief with appropriate citation. Full details of the experimental material should be given (including type and source of materials).

8. Results: This section should be concise and must not contain repetition of the methods. Data in the text must not replicate data in tables or figures. SI units must be used.

9. Discussion: The potential value of the data to pharmacological or toxicological research methods must be clearly explained, with appropriate reference to existing methods and their limitations. This section must not contain paragraphs dealing with topics that are beyond the scope of the study.

10. Statements on conflict of Interest and Source of Funding. A conflict of interest exists when an author or the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's actions. All submissions to Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the article.

At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of Interest Statement," all authors must disclose any financial, personal, or their relationships with other people or organizations within 3 years of beginning the work submitted that could inappropriately influence the work submitted. Examples of conflicts include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that there are none. Investigators should disclose potential conflicts to participants in clinical trials and other studies and should state in the manuscript whether they have done so. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods may decide not to publish on the basis of a declared conflict, such as the financial interest of an author in a company (or its competitors) that makes a product discussed in the paper.

All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgment at the end of the text. Authors must also describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in a study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the study sponsor(s) had no such involvement, the authors should so state.References in the following style: Regular papers: Knight, L., Hart, G. E., & Mayo, K. (2005). A new method for improving goal attainment in waterlogged conditions. Journal of Water Quality Management, 25, 1-11. Books: Knight, D. (1998). Free Transfer Methods and Generalized Bonus Models, 2nd ed. Brighton, UK: Falmer Press. Chapter in book: McGhee, M. (2003). Motivation methods in a strategy of two halves. In: M. Perry, J. C. Bain (Eds.), The Maintenance and Improvement of the Physiology and Metabolism of the Seagull (pp. 424-442). Hereford: Survival Press.

11. Figure legends, Tables

12. Figures (colour is permissible, web pre-publication colour is free but paper colour printing will incur a page charge).

Submitting a manuscript and a cover letter
Send the manuscript as an email attachment to michael.curtis@kcl.ac.uk using Microsoft Word (text and figures) and PowerPoint (figures). Make sure that a cover letter, signed by all the authors, is also submitted by this means (as a pdf) or posted to MJ Curtis PhD, Cardiovascular Division, Rayne Institute, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH. This must be signed by all the authors and state that "the manuscript contents are original and have not already been published or accepted for publication, either in whole or part. No part of the manuscript is under consideration for publication elsewhere and will not be submitted elsewhere if accepted by Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods."

Instructions for 'How To' Articles

Publication Policy.

The Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods is an international journal. We publish papers concerning all aspects of the methodology of pharmacology and toxicology including:

"How To" articles that provide step-by-step guidance on the execution of specific techniques.

Preparation of Manuscripts.

The manuscript should be typed double-spaced throughout. The following format should be used.

1. Title page: This should include the title (no more than 120 characters), a short title for the running head, name(s) of author(s), place(s) where the work was undertaken, name address phone fax and email of corresponding author and (if appropriate) the current address of co-authors.

2. Abstract: This must not exceed 300 words and should be subdivided into four subsections headed: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. For How To articles, up to 80% of this will be methods, but the structure allows context.

3. Key terms: Up to 10, in alphabetical order. This should include the species studied, and the word "methods".

4. Introduction: For How To articles, this section will be very brief, and will simply identify the therapeutic area, the goal of the method, and give mention to published (less detailed, presumably) descriptions if available. It is unlikely that many papers will be cited in this section.

5. Methods: This section should be sufficiently detailed to permit the reader to replicate the study. It should be a full recipe, with step by step instructions. I prefer the bulk of the descriptions in prose, but tables summarising sequences of procedures are a good accompaniment to the text. Subcomponents of the method that have been described in detail in the literature should be described in full, but appropriate citation of the original source method is mandatory. The use of subheadings is strongly encouraged (remember to number them as, e.g., 1.1., 1.2., 1.2.1., 1.2.2., 1.3., etc). Full details of the experimental material should be given (including type, product code and supplier of materials). This section must begin with a statement of ethical approval by a domestic regulatory authority, or (if human subjects are used) the Declaration of Helsinki (Brit Med J 1964; ii:177).

6. Results: This section should be concise and must not contain repetition of the methods. Data in the text must not replicate data in tables or figures. SI units must be used. For How To articles, some representative data showing that the recipe works is essential. It would be especially useful, too, if data is contrasted with that using other methods (if no author-derived comparative data is available, please reproduce data from the literature in a table, citing the source). It is essential for the reader to know that the method works, and works well.

7. Discussion: The potential value of the data to pharmacological or toxicological research methods must be clearly explained, with appropriate reference to existing methods and their limitations. This section must not contain paragraphs dealing with topics that are beyond the scope of the study.

8. Statements on conflict of Interest and Source of Funding. A conflict of interest exists when an author or the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's actions. All submissions to Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the article.

At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of Interest Statement," all authors must disclose any financial, personal, or their relationships with other people or organizations within 3 years of beginning the work submitted that could inappropriately influence the work submitted. Examples of conflicts include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that there are none. Investigators should disclose potential conflicts to participants in clinical trials and other studies and should state in the manuscript whether they have done so. Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods may decide not to publish on the basis of a declared conflict, such as the financial interest of an author in a company (or its competitors) that makes a product discussed in the paper.

All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgment at the end of the text. Authors must also describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in a study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the study sponsor(s) had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

9. References in the following style: Regular papers: Knight, L., Hart, G. E., & Mayo, K. (2005). A new method for improving goal attainment in waterlogged conditions. Journal of Water Quality Management, 25, 1-11. Books: Knight, D. (1998). Free Transfer Methods and Generalized Bonus Models, 2nd ed. Brighton, UK: Falmer Press. Chapter in book: McGhee, M. (2003). Motivation methods in a strategy of two halves. In: M. Perry, J. C. Bain (Eds.), The Maintenance and Improvement of the Physiology and Metabolism of the Seagull (pp. 424-442). Hereford: Survival Press. Articles in Special Issues: Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added (in the list and text) to any references to other articles in this Special Issue.

10. Figure legends, Tables

11. Figures (colour is permissible, web pre-publication colour is free but paper colour printing will incur a page charge)

Submitting a manuscript and a cover letter
Commissioned articles, send as an email attachment, using Microsoft Word (text and figures) and PowerPoint (figures), to the Associate Editor or Conference Organiser who invited your article. Unsolicited articles send to michael.curtis@kcl.ac.uk. Make sure that a cover letter, signed by all the authors, is also submitted by this means (as a pdf) or posted to MJ Curtis PhD, Cardiovascular Division, Rayne Institute, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH. This must be signed by all the authors and state that "the manuscript contents are original and have not already been published or accepted for publication, either in whole or part. No part of the manuscript is under consideration for publication elsewhere and will not be submitted elsewhere if accepted by Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods."

Instruction to Authors of 'Appraisal of State of the Art' and 'Historical Review' articles

Publication Policy.
The Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods is an international journal, publishing papers concerning all aspects of the methodology of pharmacology and toxicology. You are invited to write one of the following of your choice:

"Appraisal of state-of-the-art" or "Historical review" of particular models, methods, techniques or apparatus.

Appraisal articles are about the current best models. The review needs to describe the current best model, and discuss the evidence (or lack of) to support the idea that the model is good. A good model should demonstrably detect drugs that work in man, and demonstrably have few false positives. This evidence should be presented. The review should contrast the current best model with other available but inferior models, thereby illustrating why one is the state-of-the-art model.

Historical reviews can be more personal and less formal. Senior figures in a field may have decades of experience with models. It is of immense value and interest to the research community to learn the history of the development of a model, understand why one model was abandoned and another developed, and get insight into the thinking behind a model, and the impact of good and bad models in drug development in a particular field. In addition, in many fields many models are still used that are transparently inadequate - it would be of great value to obtain a candid expose from an experienced practitioner as to why this might be, including insight into personal perspective as it changed over the years.

Preparation of Manuscripts.
The manuscript should be typed double-spaced throughout. The following format should be used. Sections (excluding the abstract) must be numbered according to the format 1., 2. 2.1. 2.1.1, 2.2. etc.

1. Title page: This should include the title (no more than 120 characters), a short title for the running head, name(s) of author(s), place(s) where the work was undertaken, name address phone fax and email of corresponding author and (if appropriate) the current address of co-authors.

2. Abstract: This must not exceed 300 words.

3. Key terms: Up to 10, in alphabetical order. This should include the species considered, and the word "methods".

4. Text to be divided into sections according to author choice

5. References in the following style: Regular papers: Cullip, D., Hart, G. E., & Roberts, B. (2003). A new method for improving goal attainment in waterlogged conditions. Journal of Water Quality Management, 25, 1-11. Books: Knight, D. (1998). Free Transfer Methods and Generalized Bonus Models, 2nd ed. Brighton, UK: Falmer Press. Chapter in book: McGhee, M. (2003). Motivation methods in a strategy of two halves. In: M. Perry, J. C. Bain (Eds.), The Maintenance and Improvement of the Physiology and Metabolism of the Seagull (pp. 424-442). Hereford: Survival Press.
Articles in Special Issues: Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added (in the list and text) to any references to other articles in this Special Issue.

6. Figure legends, Tables

7. Figures (colour is permissible, web pre-publication colour is free but paper colour printing will incur a page charge)

Submitting a manuscript
Unsolicited articles send to michael.curtis@kcl.ac.uk; commissioned articles send to the Associate Editor or Conference Organiser who invited your article). The preferred format is Microsoft Word. Figures should be pasted in at the end of the text document for the benefit of manuscript reviewers. Figures may alternatively be submitted as PowerPoint documents. Colour figures will appear at no charge on the web for download, but we charge for colour printing. If email submission is not possible, the manuscript may be submitted by post, in the same format, on a standard floppy disc (please do not send paper copies). Unsolicited manuscripts will undergo rapid transmission to appropriate editor and reviewers by email, with the intention of significantly reducing the time taken for decision on acceptance, and publication time. Invited articles are handled by the person making the invitation. A cover letter must be posted to M.J. Curtis PhD, Editor-in-chief, JPT Methods, Cardiovascular Division, The Rayne Institute, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK. This must be signed by all the authors and state that "the manuscript contents are original and have not already been published or accepted for publication, either in whole or part. No part of the manuscript is under consideration for publication elsewhere and will not be submitted elsewhere if accepted by Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods."

Instruction to Authors of 'Methods in drug discovery' articles

Publication Policy.
The Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods is an international journal, publishing papers concerning all aspects of the methodology of pharmacology and toxicology. You are invited to write a "methods in drug discovery" article.

These articles are specifically intended to showcase, for the wider audience, exactly how methods were applied by a pharmaceutical company in the preclinical development of one of their own drugs. While it is appreciated that companies may wish to keep certain information confidential, it would be of great interest to the reader to be able to understand the logic (or lack of) behind the choice of each preclinical test used in the drug's development. Demonstration that use of a series of models, methods, techniques and apparatus gave rise to a drug that works in man is the closest we can get to a methods validation - a much neglected area. The reader would also benefit by having revealed the logic behind the decision-making that allowed the successful drug to proceed in development, while analogues and other compounds were dropped. Consideration of whether this decision was making based on proof, or on the exercise of judgement, or a mixture of both will be of value to the author as well as the reader as it will identify weak areas in the process for future improvements in pharmacological and toxicological methods.

Preparation of Manuscripts.
The manuscript should be typed double-spaced throughout. The following format should be used. Sections (excluding the abstract) must be numbered according to the format 1., 2. 2.1. 2.1.1, 2.2. etc.

1. Title page: This should include the title (no more than 120 characters), a short title for the running head, name(s) of author(s), place(s) where the work was undertaken, name address phone fax and email of corresponding author and (if appropriate) the current address of co-authors.

2. Abstract: This must not exceed 300 words.

3. Key terms: Up to 10, in alphabetical order. This should include the species considered, and the word "methods".

4. Text to be divided into the following sections:

Brief overview of evidence that drug X is now established as being clinically effective

Original hypothesis that triggered the search for a drug if type X

Preclinical models used in defining drug X's properties (subsections in sequence, explaining logic behind choice)

Outcome of tests (subsections in sequence, explaining logic behind successive decision making)

Conclusions

5. References in the following style: Regular papers: Cullip, D., Hart, G. E., & Roberts, B. (2003). A new method for improving goal attainment in waterlogged conditions. Journal of Water Quality Management, 25, 1-11. Books: Knight, D. (1998). Free Transfer Methods and Generalized Bonus Models, 2nd ed. Brighton, UK: Falmer Press. Chapter in book: McGhee, M. (2003). Motivation methods in a strategy of two halves. In: M. Perry, J. C. Bain (Eds.), The Maintenance and Improvement of the Physiology and Metabolism of the Seagull (pp. 424-442). Hereford: Survival Press.

6. Figure legends, Tables

7. Figures (colour is permissible, web pre-publication colour is free but paper colour printing will incur a page charge)

Submitting a manuscript
Unsolicited articles send to michael.curtis@kcl.ac.uk; commissioned articles send to the Associate Editor or Conference Organiser who invited your article). The preferred format is Microsoft Word. Figures should be pasted in at the end of the text document for the benefit of manuscript reviewers. Figures may alternatively be submitted as PowerPoint documents. Colour figures will appear at no charge on the web for download, but we charge for colour printing. If email submission is not possible, the manuscript may be submitted by post, in the same format, on a standard floppy disc (please do not send paper copies). Unsolicited manuscripts will undergo rapid transmission to appropriate editor and reviewers by email, with the intention of significantly reducing the time taken for decision on acceptance, and publication time. Invited articles are handled by the person making the invitation. A cover letter must be posted to M.J. Curtis PhD, Editor-in-chief, JPT Methods, Cardiovascular Division, The Rayne Institute, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK. This must be signed by all the authors and state that "the manuscript contents are original and have not already been published or accepted for publication, either in whole or part. No part of the manuscript is under consideration for publication elsewhere and will not be submitted elsewhere if accepted by Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods."Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

AUTHOR INQUIRIES
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.