The Journal of Emergency Medicine

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Manuscripts are accepted for consideration with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere except in abstract form and are not currently under review elsewhere. All manuscripts must be submitted to The Journal of Emergency Medicine (JEM) via our online manuscript and peer review system at http://ees.elsevier.com/jem/ .

Manuscripts must be accompanied by (a) a cover letter including the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the author to whom correspondence should be sent; (b) written permission of author(s) and publisher(s) to use any published material (figures, tables, or quotations of more than 100 words); and (c) releases signed by patient(s) or guardian(s) for any recognizable patient photographs (if releases are unavailable, the subjects' eyes will be masked to prevent identification).

When submitting a paper for publication in JEM, authors are required to disclose any financial arrangements which may be interpreted as having the potential to bias the outcome of the study. For instance, if an author has received financial support from a company, and that company's product, or a competitor's product, is discussed in the paper submitted for publication, it is important that this association is revealed. Disclosure information will be held in confidence by the Editors and will not be considered as a factor in the review of the paper. If the paper is accepted for publication, the Editor will require specific disclosure and will then decide, with the author, the most appropriate means for publishing the disclosure.

Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, a copyright transfer will be sent to the author(s). This transfer must be signed, dated, and returned to the Editor-in-Chief.

STYLE

Sources. Manuscripts are to be prepared according to the CBE Style Manual (5th ed.) by Council of Biology Editors, Inc. (Council of Biology Editors, Inc., Bethesda, MD 20814 USA; 1983). Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary (WB Saunders, Philadelphia) should be used for spelling of medical terms, and Webster's Ninth New International or New Collegiate dictionaries (G. and C. Merriam Co., Springfield, MO) for spelling and hyphenation of nonmedical terms. For further information on general style (grammar, capitalization, and so on), see A Manual of Style (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago).

Numbers. Use numerals for all units of measure and time; and for all numbers greater than ten. Spell out the numbers one through ten only for general usage (e.g., "we considered only two possibilities"). Spell out numbers beginning a sentence.

Abbreviations. Only standard abbreviations, as recommended in Medical Style and Format by Huth, may be used without definition. Terms appearing frequently within a paper may be abbreviated, but should be spelled out at first citation, with the abbreviation following in parentheses.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

All new manuscripts must be submitted to JEM online at http://ees.elsevier.com/jem/ . Complete instructions are available on the website. If authors experience any difficulty during the submission process or require any assistance, please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Use double spacing throughout the manuscript, including the abstract and reference section. Use font size 12. The authors' names and institutions should not appear within the body of the manuscript or on the figures so that author anonymity may be maintained during the peer review process. Organize the manuscript in the order indicated below, with each component beginning on a separate page and with a running title and page number typed in the upper right-hand corner of each page. Please provide continuous line numbering for the entire manuscript. (In Word, go to File/Page Setup/Layout tab/Line Numbering/Add line numbering/Continuous).

Title Page. Page 1 should include: (a) the title of the article (80 spaces maximum); (b) the authors' full names (first name, middle initial, surname) with degrees; (c) affiliations (the name of department (if any), institution, city, and state or country where the work was done) indicating which authors are associated with which affiliations;(d) acknowledgments of grant support and of individuals who were of direct help in the preparation of the study; (e) the name and address of the author to whom reprint requests are to be sent; and (f) running title (not more than 30 spaces).

Abstract and Keywords. Page 2 should include the title of the article followed by a structured abstract of no more than 250 words. For original contributions and any study of interventional design, please include the following sections in the abstract: Background; Study Objectives; Methods (with optional subheadings of Design, Patients, or Setting); Results; and Conclusion. For all other article types and case reports, please include the following sections in the abstract: Background; Objectives; Case Report (or Discussion for Review Articles); and Conclusion. Following the abstract, please list five keywords for indexing. Visual Diagnosis and Letters to the Editors do not require an abstract.

Text. Manuscripts should be organized in one of the following formats: 1) For research studies: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion; 2) For case reports: Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, and Conclusion. There should be a subheading under the Discussion section for Limitations. Other descriptive headings and subheadings may be used if appropriate.

• Every effort should be made to avoid medical jargon (such as "high index of suspicion," instead suggest an alternate like be vigilant or high level of suspicion, search for, clinically suspicious, etc.)
• Use the term emergency physician, not emergency medicine physician, and emergency department (ED) rather than emergency room (ER).
• Please eliminate the term "and/or" throughout the manuscript and use "or" instead. In this context, "or" implies "and" and is cleaner and more concise.
• The preferred term is "dysrhythmia", not "arrhythmia"
• Please spell out "examination" rather than "exam"
• Temperatures should be given in Celsius; Fahrenheit equivalents may follow in parentheses

All research studies (with the exception of case reports, reviews, letters to the editor, and visual diagnosis) require Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Human Subjects committee approval. A statement of IRB approval or exemption in the manuscript is required.

For studies, the methods, apparatus (including manufacturer's name and address), and procedures should be identified in sufficient detail to allow other investigators to reproduce the results. Case Reports should include units when reporting test results. References should be given for all discussions of previous studies and for all non-standard methods used. For experiments in which humans were studied, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accord with the standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. For experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or the National Research Council's guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. For drugs and chemicals, the generic name should be used at first mention and preferably thereafter. Trade names may appear in parentheses and should be capitalized. Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers should not be used.

Be sure that all references are cited in numerical order in the text and all reference numbers are placed at the end of the sentence. All tables and figures must be cited in the text, numbered according to the order in which they appear. Data appearing in tables or figures should be summarized, not duplicated, in the text. All data cited in the text should be checked carefully against the corresponding data in the tables to ensure that they correspond, and all names cited in the text should be checked carefully against the references to ensure that the spelling is correct. Any ambiguous symbols (e.g., the letter O versus numeral 0, the letter I versus the numeral 1) should be identified.

References. Type references double spaced and number them consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, not alphabetically. Identify references in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first mention in the text of the particular table or figure.

The authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the references. For journal articles the following information should be included:
(a) all author names (if more than 6 authors, list the first 3 authors and et al.), surnames followed by initials without periods, (b) the title of the article with the same spellings and accent marks as in the original, (c) the journal title abbreviated as it appears in the Index Medicus or spelled out if it is not listed there, (d) the date of publication, (e) the volume number and (f) inclusive page numbers.
For books, be sure to include the chapter title, chapter authors, editors of the book, title of the book (including volume and edition number), publisher's name and city, year of publication, and appropriate page numbers. Examples of the correct format are as follows:

1. Noble BR. Toward a system of emergency medical care. N Engl J Med. 1976;294:609-11.

2. Kohl S, Pickering L, Dupree E. Child abuse presenting as immunodeficiency disease. J Pediatr. 1978;93:466-8.

3. Goldfrank LR, Kirkstein R. Toxicologic emergencies: a handbook in problem solving. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts; 1978:43-7.

4. Haddad L. Lithium. In: Tintinalli JE, ed. A study guide in emergency medicine. Dallas: American College of Emergency Physicians; 1980:4-18.

"Unpublished observations" and "personal communications" should not appear in the references, but should be inserted in parentheses in the text. Information obtained from manuscripts that have been submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be cited in parentheses in the text: include authors and manuscript title followed by "submitted for publication." Manuscripts that have been accepted for publication but have not yet been published may appear in the reference list: include the authors, manuscript title, and name of journal followed by "in press" in brackets.

Tables. Type each table double spaced on a separate sheet. If the table must exceed one typewritten page, duplicate all headings on the second sheet. Very wide tables are difficult and expensive to typeset and should be avoided by dividing data into smaller tables. Number tables in the order in which they are cited in the text. Every table should have a title, and every column in the table, including the left-hand column, should have a heading. Define all abbreviations and indicate the units of measurement for all values. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines to separate sections. Explain all empty spaces or dashes. If data from any other source, published or unpublished, are used, obtain permission for the use and cite the source in the legend.

Figures. Authors are requested to submit artwork in electronic form. Files should be labelled with descriptive names that do NOT include the name of the author(s). Text, tables, graphics should be uploaded as separate files. Please note that original files, not pdf files, are required. For Visual Diagnosis submissions, all figures are required to have arrows pointing to the key findings (even if it seems obvious to the authors) and figure legends should refer to these arrows. Complete instructions for submission of electronic artwork can be found on the JEM page at the Author Gateway ( www.authors.elsevier.com). Letters, numbers, and symbols should be clear throughout, and should be large enough to remain legible when reduced for publication. Be sure that all spelling is correct, that there are no broken letters or uneven type, and that abbreviations used are consistent with those in the text. Photomicrographs must include a calibration bar of appropriate length (e.g., 1 μmm, 0.1 mm, etc.). Symbols used in micrographs should contrast with the background.

Four-color illustrations will be considered for publication. However, the author will be required to bear the costs of their publication. If four-color art reproduction is too costly, four-color figures can appear online at no additional cost to the author, while black and white figures will be featured in print.

Figure Legends. All legends should be typed double spaced and numbered on a separate sheet with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations and entered into the body of the manuscript text file after the references. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, each should be explained clearly in the legend. For photomicrographs, the internal scale markers should be defined and the method of staining should be given. The legends should permit the figures to be understood without reference to the text. If the figure has been previously published, a credit line should be included.

Article Summary. An "Article Summary" box will appear at the end of the printed version of your paper. The Article Summary is to be written by the authors of all submissions except case reports (Clinical Communications), reviews, letters to the editor, and Visual Diagnosis articles. In the Article Summary, please provide brief answers to the following four questions: 1) Why is this topic important? 2) What does this study attempt to show? 3) What are the key findings? 4) How is patient care impacted? Limit answers to one or two sentences for the first two questions, and no more than three key findings or three ways patient care is impacted.

REVIEW AND PRODUCTION PROCESS

Manuscripts are examined by the Editor, the Section Editor, and at least two reviewers. Decisions of the Editor are final. The authors will remain anonymous to the reviewers. All material accepted for publication is subject to copyediting. Authors will receive page proofs of their article before publication, and should answer all queries and carefully check all editorial changes at this point. Authors are responsible for the scientific content of their articles. Offprints may be purchased using the order form that is sent with the page proofs.

Questions concerning manuscript submission should be directed to:
Terrie Best, Editorial Manager
THE JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE
University of California, San Diego, Medical Center
200 West Arbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92103-8676
Tel: (619) 294-3723
E-mail: jemedit@ucsd.edu

For technical support during the submission process, please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com.



Updated August 2009