BJA Education

Introduction

Publishing in BJA Education

For a PDF version of the full instructions to authors for BJA Education please download this here.

The Editors of BJA Education are consultants who are active clinically across all areas of Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine. There is broad representation from across the specialty and members of the Editorial Board are drawn from across the UK and internationally. The location and areas of expertise of Editors are published in BJA Education and can also be found at this link.

Although the vast majority of articles are commissioned directly by members of the Editorial Board, occasionally the Editors will be able to consider unsolicited proposals.

If you have an idea for an article, please fill in the pro forma here and email it to the Editorial Office at [email protected] for consideration by the Editorial Board or to discuss your proposal with an Editor with the relevant expertise if required.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• Articles that are already written in full and then emailed unsolicited to the Editors are never accepted.
• Before sending a proposal, proposing authors should search the BJA Education and CEACCP archives to ensure that the topic has not already been covered recently.
• Proposing authors should ensure that their proposal is within their area of recognised clinical and or scientific expertise. Senior authors should have an established national or international track record in the area.
• Completion of the pro forma does not guarantee that the Editors will accept your proposal for commissioning. The Editorial Board/Editorial Office will contact you directly if they wish to progress your proposal.
• Suitability of your proposal for publication will be assessed using the following criteria:
  • Whether the proposed topic is suitable for publication in the journal.
  • Whether the proposed topic has already been covered or is due to be covered in other BJA Education articles
  • Whether the Editorial Board feels that the proposing authors have the right seniority and expertise to write on the topic; Editors will expect to commission articles to experts in the relevant field
• All submitted articles undergo external peer review by independent experts in the field as part of the decision-making process.

Editorial Office

BJA Education has administrative support provided by Event Management Direct, Sheffield. The administrator contacts are Paula James and Leanne Webb and they can be reached at [email protected]. Correspondence regarding the content of your article should be with the Editor who originally commissioned your article.

ScholarOne

BJA Education uses ScholarOne (previously known as Manuscript Central) for the commissioning and tracking of articles. Once you have provisionally agreed with an Editor to write an article, you will be officially invited to write and submit the article via ScholarOne and an account will be created for you, which you can edit. We will agree a timeframe for you to produce the article; this is normally 3 months from the commissioning date. The system will generate automatic email reminders for authors. Email reminders will be sent at 2 months and 1 month from the agreed date. A reminder will also be sent when an article is due. Authors will have access to their own Author centre on ScholarOne, where they can view the articles that they have been invited to write and complete the submission. Articles submitted outside of ScholarOne will not be accepted.

Please note that all manuscripts submitted to BJA Education are checked using antiplagiarism software for the unauthorised reproduction or use of material from others without adequate permission or acknowledgement. Articles where plagiarism is a potential problem will not be published.

CPD Matrix

Each BJA Education article is currently mapped to the Royal College of Anaesthetists CPD matrix, which is available in the online submission form. For each article you need to identify the matrix box to which it maps.

There may be more than one, either within a level or across multiple levels.

The code for each matrix cell is made up of a 1, 2 or 3 for the level, a letter to identify the column and a 2 digit number to represent the cell in that column.

Hence 1A01 represents Level 1, scientific principles, and the first row (physiology and biochemistry) or put another way the top left hand cell of the Level 1 matrix sheet.

Before You Begin

Ethics in Publishing

Please see our information pages on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication.

Human and Animal Rights

If any work mentioned in your article involved the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans; Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Any work mentioned in your article involving animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should have been carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and the authors of that work should have indicated clearly in the manuscript that such guidelines were followed.

Authorship

The criteria for authorship in BJA Education follow the recommendations of the ICMJE, namely that authorship is based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors' biographies

As part of your submission via ScholarOne you will be asked to provide a short biography for all the authors of the article. This should include name, qualifications and institution(s) and highlighting professional expertise relevant to the article and subject, including publications and positions of responsibility. For trainee authors shorter biographies are usual but should at least contain, name, qualifications and affiliations. Please note that these are used as the basis for the abbreviated, edited biographies published with each article. The maximum character limit for authors' biographies is 850 characters including spaces.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Editor in Chief. To request such a change, the Editor in Chief must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, 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. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor in Chief consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor in Chief considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Language (usage and editing services)

Please write your text in good English (the house style of BJA and BJA Education is UK English). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's WebShop.

Reporting sex and gender

Reporting guidance
For articles involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, authors should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their descriptions of research findings according to best practices within a field. Authors should address sex and/or gender dimensions in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to the research's generalisability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender were applied to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of the research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth ("sex assigned at birth"), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn child. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms "sex" and "gender" can be ambiguous - thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Informed consent and patient details

Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in an Elsevier publication. Written consents must be retained by the author but copies should not be provided to the journal. Only if specifically requested by the journal in exceptional circumstances (for example if a legal issue arises) the author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained. For more information, please review the Elsevier Policy on the Use of Images or Personal Information of Patients or other Individuals. Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Peer review

BJA Education operates an expert blinded peer review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. A recommendation is made by the handling editor to the Editor in Chief, who is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor in Chief's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review.

Submission

Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (e.g. Word) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor in Chief's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

Submit your article

Please submit your article via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjaed

Preparation

This section can be downloaded separately here.

Before writing your manuscript it is essential that you read the BJA Education Style Guide to Contributors here.

Manuscript Format

The manuscript should be double-spaced, font size 12, paginated with wide margins and include the following sections:

• Title page
• Key points
• Learning objectives
• Clinical scenario (if appropriate)
• Text of manuscript with references
• Legends to Tables and Figures
• Tables
• Figures
• Multiple choice questions and answers with explanations

The title page, key points, learning objectives, manuscript text with references and Figure/Table legends should be within the same file. However please start the manuscript text, references and legends on a new page within the same file.

Please send the following sections as separate files choosing the appropriate file type from ScholarOne at submission stage:

• Tables (including legends)
• Figures
• Multiple choice questions and Multiple choice question answers and explanation

The preferred format for naming of manuscript files is:
Summary title - 1-2 words lead author's name - file type.
After initial submission your manuscript will be allocated a BJAEd reference number and this should be added at the beginning of all files after first submission.

Example naming of initial submission:
Trop diseases part 2 Howell main text
Pyloric stenosis Craig Table_1
Rectus sheath catheters Jones Video_2

Examples for revisions:
BJAED-2017-028.R1 Trop diseases part 2 Howell main text
BJAED-2017-053.R2 Pyloric stenosis Craig Table_1
BJAED-2017-040 Rectus sheath catheters Jones Video_2.

Title page

This should include:

• Title of the article. This should be concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae.
• Full name and title, qualifications, position and institution (name, city and country only) of each author. 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 carried out the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address.
• Email address of the corresponding author, usually the senior author, who will handle correspondence and queries at all stages of refereeing, publication and after publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• Keywords - please use MeSH keywords, a maximum of 3 per article. You will find the list of MeSH keywords in the online submission portal.

Key points

The article will be published with 5 key points on the first page.
Please supply these on a new page. Each point should be concise e.g.

Preoxygenate the lungs of all patients before rapid sequence induction

Succinylcholine is contraindicated in malignant hyperpyrexia

Gabapentin may be an effective treatment for neuropathic pain

The key points should be no more than 100 words in total, with a maximum character count of 450 including spaces.

Learning objectives

All articles must be accompanied by 3-4 brief learning objectives ('By reading this article you should be able to....'). These should not be identical to the Key Points, and the learning points must relate to information contained in the article. The learning objectives should be no more than 70 words in total, with a maximum character count of 350 including spaces.

Information and advice on writing learning objectives is available here.

The following examples are from articles on tropical medicine and anaesthesia, and on FAST scanning in trauma patients.

By reading this article, you should be able to:

• Describe the common tropical diseases in patients presenting for anaesthesia.
• Explain that tropical illness may be both a cause for surgery and complicate incidental surgery.
• Distinguish tropical conditions before surgery, and ensure appropriate management in consultation with a specialist in infectious diseases.

By reading this article, you should be able to:

• Discuss the feasibility, utility and limitations of the extended focused assessment of sonography in trauma (eFAST) in clinical decision-making.
• Illustrate the principles underlying the physics of ultrasound and the acquisition of the required sonographic views.
• Specify the role of eFAST in special circumstances.

Text of manuscript

Article should be 4000 words not including references (but see tables and figures below) and submitted in Microsoft Word, not PDF. MCQs should not be included in the word count.

Please use no more than 3 ranks of headings and label them A, B or C in the manuscript.

Remember to retain your own copy in case of loss and in order to check proofs.

References

Please cite a maximum of 25 references in the text (numbered in order of citing, superscript). References should be cited using the format adopted by the British Journal of Anaesthesia and abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations.

• References should be numbered sequentially at their first citation.
• Citations should usually be placed at the end of the sentence and in superscript after the full stop. Use 'and colleagues' rather than 'et al.' in the in-text citations.
• Style: Surname, initial separated by commas. No 'and' before last authors name. The names and initials of more than six authors should be abbreviated to three authors followed by 'et al.'.
• Reference in a Journal:
  • Please give the names of all authors, but the names and initials of more than six authors and/or Editors should be abbreviated to three names followed by et al. Journal title should be in italics and abbreviated, volume number in bold, only give the change in the last page number and no full stop at the end of the reference:
  • 1. Brown AB, White SJ, Green BG. Efficacy of acupuncture in septic shock. Br J Anaesth 2000; 99: 223-7
• Chapter in a book or monograph. Italicise title:
  • 1. Anaesthetist A.N. The safe use of volatile anaesthetics in space craft. In: Blogg F, Doe J, eds. Anaesthesia in Space. London: Medical Press Ltd, 2000; 155-79
  • Stabber, AN. Regional Anaesthesia, 5th Edn. London: Medical Press Ltd, 1998
• Report:
  • Royal College of Anaesthetists and Royal College of Radiologists. Sedation and Anaesthesia in Radiology. Report of a joint working party, London, 1992
• Electronic source (web site/web page):
  • Department of Health. Monthly Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease statistics 2002/0341 2002. Available from http://www.doh.gov.uk/cjd/stats/aug02.htm (accessed 14 June 2014)
• Online journal article:
  • Lander JA, Weltman BJ, So SS. EMLA and amethocaine for reduction of children's pain associated with needle insertion. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2006; 3: CD004236

Tables, figures and illustrative clinical scenarios

Each article should include at least 2 tables or figures (or 1 of each). The average table or figure is equivalent to 250 words. Therefore, if you include 2 tables and 1 figure, the word count for the text of the article should be no greater than 3250 words (i.e. 4000- [250x3]).

We encourage the use of illustrative clinical examples as a brief description of a clinical situation to introduce and accompany a manuscript; they will appear as a text box, usually towards the start of the article. They have a maximum word limit of 200 words and 320 characters including spaces and should be titled as 'clinical scenario' within the main text of the article. This short scenario is not counted towards the final word count. Alternatively, a longer clinical scenario of up to 500 words (for example if the clinical scenario is accompanied by a detailed explanation and intended for the middle or end of an article) is acceptable but this will be considered as part of the final word or Figure count so please allow for this.

General points

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
• A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.

Tables

Each table should be submitted as a separate file and should be of simple text with no complex formatting: please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells. Please insert a title with explanatory legend at the top of the page.

Figures

Ideally, the proportions of each figure should correspond to those of an A5 sheet of paper; please submit each figure electronically to the ScholarOne system, .tiff being the preferred format but jpeg is acceptable. Figures should be of the highest resolution and at least 300dpi.

Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colours;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

We strongly discourage authors from copying and pasting images from websites, as these images are often low quality and will not have the necessary copyright permission to be reproduced.

Line drawings should be of a resolution of at least 600 dpi and half-tones at least 300 dpi.

The drawing of figures is the responsibility of the authors. Please pay close attention to the formatting of all graphs and Figures because they may be published exactly as submitted. It is therefore vital that all Figures are uploaded as being ready for print. For example radiographic images often do not project well on a screen or printed page. It is advisable to seek the advice and help of a professional medical illustrator before submitting artwork. Submission of low quality figures and other artwork will lead to delays in publication of accepted articles.

If there are any queries about the format of any figures (including photographs) please discuss this with the commissioning Editor at an early stage in the preparation of the manuscript.

Ensure that each figure or illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Please include legends to Tables and Figures on a separate page within the main document file.

Videos

Videos can now be published in the online article with a still image of the video appearing in the print version. Authors should submit videos in MP4 format. Still images to be used in the article need to be provided and should represent as best as possible the main subject of the video. Video files should be clearly named as video 1, video 2 etc., and still images should be named 'video 1 still image'. Any supplementary videos that should not be published in the article should be uploaded as supplementary data. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalise the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

All videos should have an accompanying legend and should not contain patient identifiable information, e.g. dates and locations of scans etc.

Patient consent

For publication of material that contains detailed patient information about a living individual, signed patient consent should be obtained irrespective of whether there are any images of the patient. For more information, please review the Elsevier Policy on the Use of Images or Personal Information of Patients or other Individuals.

Clinical Images

For publication of pictures and clinical images of patients, when there is any chance the patient may be identified from the photo/image or legend, consent is also required from the patient. Please check radiographic or other images for patient identifiers. The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject papers for which the ethical aspects are, in the Board's opinion, open to doubt. Please contact the Editorial Office if you have any queries regarding consent.

Permission for use of third party material

Permission MUST be obtained for the use or adaptation of third party material in your article. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission from the holder of the copyright for that material.

We strongly advise authors against copying and pasting figures from websites, as these images will have poor resolution.

Instead we advise authors to obtain permission from publishers for the figures they wish to use or adapt, and request at the same time a high resolution copy of the image. Permission should be cleared to reproduce the material in both the print and online versions of the BJA Education journal without a time limit.

Guidance on obtaining copyright permission can be found here.

All documents granting permissions should be uploaded with the rest of the manuscript files at the submission stage as 'Permissions files'.

Podcasts

The British Journal of Anaesthesia and BJA Education now provide free interview podcasts by authors with each published issue to complement the articles. The Podcast Editor may contact you to discuss possible recording of a podcast to accompany your article. Although this is entirely voluntary, the podcasts are an important part of the journal and we would greatly appreciate it if you could spare the time to record them. If you are interested in presenting a podcast, please let the Editorial Office know at [email protected].

Social Media

BJA Education aims to promote its content via the BJA social media channels. We request that authors provide up to four tweets that can be sent out weekly in the month of publication of your article. Please submit up to four brief 140 character tweets related to your article, which we can use to promote your paper via the @BJAJournals Twitter account. For example, a 'take home message' or a question that is posed or answered by your work.

Please also submit an image for each tweet using the file type 'Twitter image' in Step 5 (File Upload). Twitter images should be submitted in landscape orientation with a 2:1 ratio width to height, i.e. 506 pixels wide x 253 pixels high.

Please note that we may edit your tweet before using it.

Multiple-choice questions

MCQs are used for self-assessment via a web-based system. A certificate and points of Continuing Professional Development are awarded to a participant provided 80% of the available marks are obtained. Before submitting your manuscript, please follow the MCQ guidance below.

Content

Please ensure that your questions test aspects of learning such as application, understanding, situational judgement and interpretation of data rather than just recall of facts. For example, a question that tests the recall of facts contained in a guideline would not be as useful as one that tests the application and understanding of a guideline in a specific situation. So, please try to avoid writing questions that test only factual recall. Note that all MCQs should be answerable by reading the article. Hence the content should related directly to information in the manuscript.

Number, location, type, layout and examples

Four MCQs should be typed on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. MCQs should be of the true-false variety. Each MCQ comprises a stem followed by five parts, in alphabetical order (a, b, c, d and e). Scenarios, figures and numerical values for interpretation may be included.

Please see examples of past MCQs here.

Answers and explanations

Please provide the answers and an explanation for each part, after the question. Explanations must be given even if the answers are very obvious. All explanations must be written in complete sentences. Please ensure that each explanation is related directly to the question.

Pitfalls in writing MCQs

The language must be simple and concise. Please pay particular attention to the following areas:

• Complex scenarios and answers. Please ensure that the content is presented in a structured fashion, without repetition.
• Descriptors such as 'always', 'never', 'may', 'only' and 'except'. Please avoid these terms as the answer is predictably false or ambiguous. Please consider indicating the probability of an occurrence by terms such as "likely" or "unlikely".
• Double negative expressions. Please avoid them as they are likely to confuse the reader.
• Statements with the words such as: 'more', 'greater' or 'less' without the comparator. If you would like to make a comparison, then please state the comparator. For example, a 5 year old boy compared with an infant.
• Imprecise use of scientific language. Please ensure that your descriptions are as correct as possible. For example, a sentence which says that the patient was intubated and ventilated is not correct. You should say that the patient's trachea was intubated and that the lungs were ventilated.
• Ambiguous reference to patients. If you are referring to groups such as children, adults and the elderly, then please specify the age range. In cases of obesity, please state the body mass index that you have in mind. In general, please provide readers with as much information as possible so that your question is not misinterpreted.
• Ambiguous therapeutic range. Statements involving effectiveness of an intervention should contain the range or limit which is most appropriate. For example, for anticoagulants, please quote the range or limit (INR of 0.9 to 2.5). For volatile anaesthetic agents, please quote the % concentration (1% to 2%) which is applicable to your question.
• Absence of units of measurement. Please ensure that you include the units of measurement. Any divisions are in superscript and need to be formatted as such. Please ensure that you include units for variables such as body mass index and haemoglobin.
• Abbreviations with prior explanation. In each question, please ensure that all abbreviations (such as BMI, INR, CT and MRI) are written out fully even if they appear in the main text or in the previous question. If in doubt, please write out all abbreviations and ensure that they integrate correctly within a sentence. Acronyms of studies must be written out in full please.
• Statements in which a proportion or percentage is quoted without reference to a variable. For example, please ensure that you state: '% body surface area'.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help (e.g., providing language help, advice, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Declaration 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 organisations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. More information.

If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest' (if there are multiple authors) or 'The author declares not conflict of interest' (if it is a single-authored paper). Simply stating 'None' or 'None declared' is not sufficient.

Declaration of Generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier's AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled `Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process'.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service Crossref Similarity Check.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material such as applications, images and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the 'Track Changes' option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.

After Acceptance

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). 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. 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.

For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete an 'Exclusive License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

The copyright of the commissioned article will be held by the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Elsevier may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. Please notify Elsevier immediately if your details change, otherwise Elsevier will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process.

Please note that the 'Crown Copyright' copyright status typically only applies to authors that are direct employees of the Government in the UK, Canada or Australia. For example, NHS employees are not usually direct Government employees. If in doubt please consult with your employer prior to submission to ascertain the correct copyright status.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing

Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established a number of agreements with funding bodies which allow authors to comply with their funder's open access policies. Some funding bodies will reimburse the author for the gold open access publication fee. Details of existing agreements are available online.
After acceptance, open access papers will be published under a noncommercial license. For authors requiring a commercial CC BY license, you can apply after your manuscript is accepted for publication.

Open access

This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research:

Subscription

• Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our universal access programs.
• No open access publication fee payable by authors.
• The Author is entitled to post the accepted manuscript in their institution's repository and make this public after an embargo period (known as green Open Access). The published journal article cannot be shared publicly, for example on ResearchGate or Academia.edu, to ensure the sustainability of peer-reviewed research in journal publications. The embargo period for this journal can be found below.

Gold open access

• Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse.
• A gold open access publication fee is payable by authors or on their behalf, e.g. by their research funder or institution.

Regardless of how you choose to publish your article, the journal will apply the same peer review criteria and acceptance standards.

For gold open access articles, permitted third party (re)use is defined by the following Creative Commons user licenses:

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

Lets others distribute and copy the article, create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), include in a collective work (such as an anthology), text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

The open access fee for this journal is $3,200, excluding taxes. Learn more about Elsevier's pricing policy.

Green open access

Authors can share their research in a variety of different ways and Elsevier has a number of green open access options available. We recommend authors see our green open access page for further information. Authors can also self-archive their manuscripts immediately and enable public access from their institution's repository after an embargo period. This is the version that has been accepted for publication and which typically includes author-incorporated changes suggested during submission, peer review and in editor-author communications. Embargo period: For subscription articles, an appropriate amount of time is needed for journals to deliver value to subscribing customers before an article becomes freely available to the public. This is the embargo period and it begins from the date the article is formally published online in its final and fully citable form. Find out more.

This journal has an embargo period of 12 months.

Online proof correction

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. 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. It is important to ensure that all 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.

If there is a problem, contact by telephone or email either the publisher (contact details will be sent with the proof), the commissioning Editor or the Editor-in-Chief (Prof J.P.Thompson, email: [email protected]).

Advance Access Publication

All articles will be published online as Advance Access as soon as they are ready for publication. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes publication. For further information about the Advance Access process, please go to the Advance Access information web page.

Preprints

Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).

Offprints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customised Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's Webshop. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

General Enquiries

Visit the Elsevier Support Center to find the answers you need. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch. You can also find out when your accepted article will be published.

Research Data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.
For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the Research Data page.

Data Statement

To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.