Clinical Chiropractic

The Journal Editor, Martin Young, welcomes contributions for publication in the journal from chiropractors and practitioners or researchers in related fields. As an international, peer-reviewed journal, Clinical Chiropractic seeks to enhance the standards and quality of the practice of chiropractic; act as a forum for discussion and debate; encourage critical appraisal; and raise the level of chiropractic education and knowledge in order to improve standards of patient care.

Articles should ordinarily be a maximum of 5000 words. The submission of case reports and case reviews is also welcome and these may be shorter in length.

Contributions should fall into one of the following categories: Best evidence topics, Book reviews, Case challenges, Case reports, Case reviews, Clinical audits, Clinical procedures, Commentaries, Conferences, Critically appraised topics, Indices, Letters, Literature reviews, Meta-analyses, Original articles, Preliminary studies, Resource documents, Special reports, Systematic Reviews, Technical reports.

Authors are asked to submit their articles electronically via http://ees.elsevier.com/clchir/. 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.

Alternatively contributions may be submitted by email. Please do NOT submit via both routes. This will cause confusion and may lead to your article being reviewed and published twice. E-mail: ClinChiro@elsevier.com

COPYRIGHT

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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Upon acceptance of an article, Authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authors. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding Author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: phone (+1) 215 239 3804, fax (+1) 215 239 3805, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

PRESENTATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Present the manuscript using double line spacing and wide (3 cm) margins. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure captions on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively.

Authors are encouraged to submit electronic artwork files with the original printed illustrations. Please refer to http://www.elsevier.com/authors for guidelines for the preparation of electronic artwork files. Photographs scanned at lower resolution may be submitted for use in the peer-review process, provided that the original photographs are mailed to the Journal Editorial Office for use in the production process.

Clinical Chiropractic uses a double-blinded peer-review process. To facilitate anonymity, the authors' names and any reference to their addresses should only appear on the title page.

Please check your typescript carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. It is not possible to change the content of accepted typescripts during production.

Title Page

The title page should contain the following information: title of paper; name(s) and address(es) of author(s) clearly indicating who is the corresponding author; you should give a maximum of four degrees/qualifications for each author and the current relevant appointment only; name, address, telephone, fax and e-mail of the corresponding author.

Keywords

Include approximately five keywords. The purpose of these is to increase the likely accessibility of your paper to potential readers searching the literature. Therefore, ensure keywords are descriptive of the study. Refer to a recognised thesaurus of keywords (e.g. MEDLINE) wherever possible.

Abstract

An abstract of your manuscript, a maximum of 400 words, summarising the content should be provided on a separate sheet following the title page. Wherever possible, authors should use a structured format summarising the objective, design, setting, subjects, methods, results and conclusions for their research.

Tables

You should present tables in your manuscript typed double spaced on separate sheets and they should contain only horizontal lines. Each table needs a short descriptive title above it, and a clear legend or key and, if necessary, suitably identified footnotes below. Take care to include all the units of measurement. Make sure that each table is cited in the text.

Illustrations/Figures

All illustrations should be provided in camera-ready form suitable for reproduction (which may include reduction) without retouching. Photographs, charts and diagrams must all to be referred to as ''Figure(s)'' and should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred. They should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text.

Line drawings. If submitted in print, good quality printouts on white paper produced in black ink are required. All lettering, graph lines and points on graphs should be sufficiently large and bold to permit reproduction when the diagram has been reduced to a size suitable for inclusion in the journal. Dye-line prints or photocopies are not suitable for reproduction. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.

Photographs. Photographs should be clear, highly contrasted, black and white glossy prints. If necessary, a scale should be marked on the photograph. Please note that photocopies of photographs are not acceptable.

Colour. Where colour figures are submitted, these will be included in colour at the Editor's discretion.

References

Responsibility for the accuracy ob bibliographic citations lies entirely with the Authors.

All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. Text: Indicate references by a superscript number in the text.

List: Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

1. Van der Geer J, Hanraads, JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000; 163:51-9.

Reference to a book:

2. Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

3. Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999, p. 281-304

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 Authors the first 6 should be listed followed by "et al."

Author Contribution Statement
All manuscripts submitted to the journal should be accompanied by an Author Contribution Statement. The purpose of the Statement is to give appropriate credit to each author for their role in the study. All persons listed as authors should have made substantive intellectual contributions to the research. To qualify for authorship each person listed should have made contributions in each of the following: 1) Contributions to conception and design; data acquisition; data analysis and interpretation. 2) Drafting of manuscript, or critical revision for important intellectual content. 3) All authors must have given approval to the final version of the manuscript submitted for consideration to publish. Acquisition of funding; provision of resources; data collection; or general supervision, alone, is not sufficient justification for authorship. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as outlined above should be listed in the Acknowledgements section. Acknowledgements may include contributions of technical assistance, proof reading and editing, or assistance with resources and funding. The statement may be published in the paper as appropriate.
Example of suggested format. Note the use of author initials.
AB conceived the idea for the study. AB and CD contributed to the design and planning of the research. All authors were involved in data collection. AB and EF analysed the data. AB and CD wrote the first draft of the manuscript. EF coordinated funding for the project. All authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest statement for authors

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, all within 3 years of beginning the work submitted. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that there are none.

Upon acceptance of an article, Authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authors). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding Author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: phone (+1) 215 239 3804, fax (+1) 215 239 3805, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Changes to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:


Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

Ethical considerations
Human subjects. Clinical Chiropractic endorses the ICMJE guidelines, the Declaration of Helsinki and all related conditions regarding the experimental use of human subjects and their informed consent will apply. Projects that should go through approval from an ethics review board/committee or IRB should clearly include this statement in the Methods section. Manuscripts that report the results of experimental investigations with human subjects must include a statement that informed consent was obtained (in writing, from the subject or legal guardian) after the procedure(s) had been fully explained. Written informed consent for publication in both paper and electronic media needs to be obtained from patients for case reports, case series, and retrospective designs.

Patient anonymity. Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in your paper. Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients, images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission

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

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:

•One Author designated as corresponding Author:
•E-mail address
•Full postal address
•Telephone and fax numbers


•All necessary files have been uploaded

•Keywords

•All Figure captions

•All tables (including title, description, foot notes)

Further considerations

•Manuscript has been "spellchecked"

•References are in the correct format for this journal

•All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa

•Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)

•Colour figures are clearly marked as being intended for colour reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced in colour on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print

•If only colour on the Web is required, black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes

For any further information please contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com

PROOFS

PDF proofs will be sent to the author (first-named author if no corresponding author is identified on multi-authored papers) via e-mail wherever possible and should be returned within 48 hours of receipt, preferably by e-mail. Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors; any other amendments made may be charged to the author. Any queries should be answered in full.

Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and as accurately as possible. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are returned to us in one all-inclusive message. Subsequent additional corrections will not be possible, so please ensure that your first communication is complete. Should you choose to mail your corrections, please return them to:

Log-in Department
Elsevier
Stover Court
Bampfylde Street
Exeter, Devon EX1 2AH, UK.

OFFPRINTS

The corresponding author, at no cost, will 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 cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author. For further information please consult http://www.elsevier.com/authors

AUTHOR ENQUIRIES

For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission), please visit www.elsevier.com/authors. There is also the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions and more at: http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html.

Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.