Official Journal of the European Society of Feline Medicine and the American Association of Feline Practitioners

The Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery is an international journal that is published monthly in two formats. The 'classic' editions (published in February, April, June, August, October and December) contain high quality original papers on all aspects of feline medicine and surgery, including relevant basic research. Manuscripts can be submitted as full papers, short communications, case series, individual case reports or letters to the editor. The 'clinical practice' editions (published in January, March, May, July, September and November) primarily contain commissioned opinionated review articles of direct relevance to feline clinical work, along with other relevant clinical articles such as case reports. Offers of reviews and topics for consideration should be directed to the Editors, via the editorial office jfmsclinical@fabcats.org), for initial editorial approval. All submissions (including commissioned reviews and letters) are subject to peer review by the Editors and selected referees. All published articles - in both the 'classic' and 'clinical' editions - are abstracted on PubMed and citable as the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.

Submission of a paper will be held to imply that it has not been, and will not be, published elsewhere in whole or in part, in any language, without the consent of the Editors. Manuscripts are accepted on the understanding that all authors agree to the submission. The copyright of papers accepted for publication belongs to the European Society of Feline Medicine and the American Association of Feline Practitioners, although authors retain the right to use the paper in various ways subsequent to publication (see Authors' Rights later).

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. The Editors reserve the right to reject papers on ethical grounds when, in their opinion, the severity of experimental procedures is not justified by the scientific value or originality of the information being sought by the author(s). In general, the Editors would not support publication of experiments resulting in euthanasia.

Manuscript submission

The editors encourage electronic submission of manuscripts via e-mail to the addresses below. These must be submitted as MS Word documents, with figures/illustrations preferably in TIFF or JPEG format (as outlined later). Only where this is not possible, a hard copy of the manuscript should be sent to the appropriate address below along with an electronic copy (on disc or CD-ROM). The electronic version must match the hard copy exactly.

All papers from the Americas and Japan should be submitted to the Canadian office, other papers to the UK office:

The Editor
Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery
Taeselbury, High Street
Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6LD
UK
e-mail: jfms@fabcats.org

The Editor
Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery
4381 Gladstone Street
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V5N 4Z4
e-mail: hypurr@aol.com

Manuscripts should be double-spaced, and if a hard copy is sent, printed on one side of paper only. Where cited papers appear as 'in press', copies of these papers should be sent with the submitted manuscript (again, via e-mail where possible).

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.

Format of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be written in English or American-English, and the Editors reserve the right to make any literary corrections. Should the use of English be inadequate for journal publication, the author may be requested to solicit linguistic help from someone more proficient in English. Elsevier's Authors Home (on 'Authors Home Page' click on 'Language services') 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

All submissions should have a title page containing the full paper title and the first name, middle initial, and last name of each author, along with each author's professional degree, highest earned academic degree, and diplomate status (for authors who are diplomates of recognized specialty organizations). An e-mail address should be provided for the corresponding author but, if requested, this will appear in the final manuscript.

All pages should be numbered, and in addition line numbers should be included in the margin of the manuscript.

Original Papers
Papers should be as concise as possible, and generally not exceed 3000 words (excluding references and footnotes). Each paper should have a self-contained Summary (of up to 150 words) embodying the main conclusions, followed by Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References and Conflict of Interest Statement.

Review Articles
Review articles on relevant topics are invited for publication. They should provide an update on recent advances in a particular field and the length should not generally exceed 4000 words. Authors wishing to submit review articles should contact one of the Editors at the above addresses, with an outline of the proposed paper prior to submission, to allow consideration by the Editors.

Short Communications and Case Reports
Short communications and case reports should not exceed 1500 words, and include no more than two tables or figures. They should include a brief Summary but generally no other divisions. Manuscripts should be clearly labelled 'Short Communication' or 'Case Report'.

Letters to the Editor
Letters describing case studies or original material will be considered for publication in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery and will be peer-reviewed prior to publication. Letters containing critical comments on papers recently published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery will also be considered for publication in the correspondence section of the journal. Letters should not exceed 1000 words (including references and one table or figure). Where commenting on published papers, the Editors may send a letter to the authors of the original paper for comment so that both letter and reply may be published together.

Additional Guidelines

Tables
These should contain only essential data. They should be on separate sheets in the manuscript. If tables contain laboratory data, wherever possible, both SI and conventional (American) units should be quoted and reference ranges should be provided.

Abbreviations, symbols and drug names
Each scientific abbreviation must be explained at its first occurrence in the paper; for example:
• complement fixation test (CFT).
Medications should be referred to by their recommended International Nonproprietary Name (rINN). A list of these generic names is coordinated by the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/medicines/services/inn. The proprietary name and the manufacturer should be given in parentheses when first mentioned; for example:
• carprofen (Rimadyl; Pfizer).

Measurements
Units of measurement may be expressed in either SI or conventional American units. Reference ranges should always be included for laboratory data, and wherever possible, for ease of understanding by the international community, laboratory data should be quoted in both SI and conventional (American) units.

References

Only papers closely related to the author's work should be referenced and exhaustive lists should be avoided. Cite references in the text sequentially in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text using the Vancouver style, as a superscripted number after any punctuation mark. The referencing style conforms to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals ( http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html), and as used in The Lancet. Maintain the sequence of citation between text, tables and figures.

The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus and Medline (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html.

Journal references:

15 Jones A, Smith BC, Simons D, Laker EF. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations. J Feline Med Surg 2002; 4: 387-92.

For references with up to six authors, list all the authors. If the reference has more than six authors, list the first three followed by 'et al.'

Non-standard references, for example letters or abstracts, are denoted as such '[letter]' or '[abstract]' after the reference title and before the year of publication.

15 Jones A, Smith BC, Simons D, Laker EF. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations [abstract]. J Feline Med Surg 2002; 4: 387-92.

Articles in press:

15 Jones A, Smith BC, Simons D, Laker EF. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations. J Feline Med Surg. In Press 2002.

Articles in journals where an organisation is author:

15 European Feline Coronavirus Consortium. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations. J Feline Med Surg 2002; 4: 387-92.

Articles in a supplement:

15 Jones A, Smith BC, Simons D, Laker EF. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations. J Feline Med Surg 2002; 4 (suppl 1): 387-92.

Book references with single author(s):

15 Jones A, Smith BC. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Chapters within a book:

15 Simons D, Laker EF. Feline infectious peritonitis. In: Jones A, Smith BC, eds. Coronavirus biology and FIP in domestic cat populations. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 211-34.



Electronic material:

Jones A, Smith BC. Feline infectious peritonitis. Feline Advisory Bureau FactSheet, 2002. http://www.fabcats.org/owners/fip/info.html (accessed Sept 15, 2007).

Conference proceedings:

Jones A, Smith BC. Feline infectious peritonitis. Proceedings of the 10th International Feline Coronavirus Congress; 2000 Sept 15-19; London, England. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2001: 1561-63.

Avoid citing a 'personal communication' unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the initials and surname name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.

Preparation of illustrations

Colour, and black and white illustrations
Colour illustrations are included at no cost to the authors, providing the Editors approve them. Remove non-essential areas of an illustration. Where necessary, insert a scale bar in the illustration (not below it), as opposed to giving a magnification factor in the caption.

Preparation of electronic illustrations
Submitting artwork in an electronic format helps reproduction to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.

General points

• High-quality printouts of artwork may be requested where conversion or use of electronic artwork is problematic.
• Uniform lettering and sizing should be used, with a preference for the following fonts in illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Illustrations should be numbered according to their sequence in the text.
• A logical naming convention should be used for artwork files - each illustration should be provided as a separate file, and a complete list of the files provided should be given.
• Captions to illustrations should be provided separately in the manuscript.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Authors are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats
Regardless of the application used, when electronic artwork is finalised, please use one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations):

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

TIFF/JPEG: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.

TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.

TIFF: Combinations 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 document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like 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.

Non-electronic illustrations
If electronic submission is not possible, or if hard copies are required, these can be submitted as original photographs (supplied on glossy paper), high-quality computer prints or transparencies suitable for reproduction without retouching. Illustrations should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are referred to in the text. They should accompany the manuscript, but not be included within the text. Clearly mark all illustrations on the back with the figure number, the Author's name and, in cases of ambiguity, the correct orientation. Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions on a separate sheet in the manuscript (not attached to the figure).

Line drawings
Supply high-quality printouts on white paper produced with black ink. The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible or unclear after possible reduction. Photocopies are not suitable for reproduction. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish 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).

Preparation of supplementary data
Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material (e-components) to support and enhance your scientific data. 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 in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

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 at: http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

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

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see: http://www.elsevier.com/authors. 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.

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 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 elsevier.com)
• 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 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

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.

Offprints
1. The corresponding author will, at no cost, 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.
2. Additional paper offprints can be ordered on an offprint order form, which is included with the proofs.
3. UNESCO coupons are acceptable in payment of extra paper offprints.