Australian Veterinary Journal

The Journal of the Australian Veterinary Association Ltd

Edited by:
Anne Jackson

Print ISSN: 0005-0423
Online ISSN: 1751-0813
Frequency: Monthly
Current Volume: 88 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 63/134 Veterinary Sciences
Impact Factor: 0.801

TopAuthor Guidelines

Instructions for authors

Aims and scope
The Australian Veterinary Journal (AVJ) is the official journal of the Australian Veterinary Association. The AVJ aims to advance veterinary science by publishing and promoting high quality refereed scientific and clinical articles.

The AVJ publishes original articles, case reports, short contributions, clinical updates, diagnostic challenges, reviews and veterinary history articles. All articles are peer reviewed.1

The AVJ Peer review process operates under the guidelines of the World Association of Medical Editors (http://www.WAME.org).

Editorial review and acceptance
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to the readership.

Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style, so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of content, the Editors reserve the right to modify manuscripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition, to improve communication between author and reader, and for length. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

The AVJ reserves the right to reject any manuscript. After review, recommendations on outcome are made by the Editorial Committee and the Associate Editors. Final decisions are made by the Editor in Chief, Dr Anne Jackson, MA, VetMB, PhD, MRCVS, CMAVA.

Submission of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/avj. Authors must supply an email address as all correspondence will be by email.
All articles submitted to the AVJ must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in the return of the manuscript and delay in processing, review and publication. The most likely reasons for papers to be unsubmitted before review are the quality of the image files, images embedded in a Word file, and the formatting of the manuscript and the references (see details below).
Submit your manuscript as a word processor file, with separate files for each figure and table. The online system cannot accept Microsoft Word 2007 documents (.docx) at this time. Files created in Word 2007 should be saved as .doc files.
Articles that are being submitted to fulfill requirements for fellowship qualifications must not be submitted for review at the last minute. At least 6 months should be allowed for review of articles submitted, and their purpose should be stated in the covering letter.

Requirements for submission
In order to submit, authors must do the following by ticking the boxes on the Details and Comments page of the submission:
• confirm that the manuscript has been submitted solely to the AVJ and is not published, in press or submitted elsewhere
• declare that all the research meets the ethical guidelines of the study country
• declare any real or potential conflict of interest, including the source of any financial grants or other funding
• confirm that all author contributions are stated and all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.
Please submit a covering letter when prompted by the submission system. The covering letter should contain:
• information on prior or duplicate publication or submission elsewhere of any part of the paper
• a statement confirming that any handling and/or use of animals in experiments conforms to the Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes2
• if the research was not conducted in Australia, please include a statement confirming that the research adhered to the ethical requirements of the study country
• if tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder, stating authorisation to reproduce the material, must be attached
• any additional information that may be helpful to the Editors.

Authorship
Eligibility for authorship should be based only on substantial contributions to (a) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; and (b) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content. Conditions (a) and (b) must both be met. For example, for a pathologist to be included as author of an article, he or she should have contributed to conception and/or interpretation of pathological data, drafted relevant sections of the article and engaged in critical review and revision of the whole article.
Each author must have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for their contribution. General supervision of the research group, or participation in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data, do not in themselves justify authorship.

Author material archive policy
Authors who require the return of any submitted material should inform the Editorial Office. If no indication is given that author material should be returned, all hardcopy and electronic material submitted by authors will be disposed of six months after a final decision on publication is made.

Ethical considerations
Submission to the AVJ confirms that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a properly constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that, if applicable, it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000). The AVJ retains the right to reject any manuscript on the basis of unethical conduct of either human or animal studies.
The handling and use of animals in experiments must conform to the Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes.2 In cases likely to raise controversy, an appropriate reference in the article to approval by an animal experimentation ethics committee is recommended.

Copyright
Authors publishing in the AVJ will be asked to sign an Exclusive Licence Form. In signing the form, authors are confirming that they have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the form, and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed form has been received.

Manuscript style
The AVJ uses the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers,4 Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers5 and recommends Strunk's classic book,6 for clarity of expression.

Do not use Enter at the end of lines within a paragraph. Do not underline anything.

Use concise English without jargon or colloquialisms. Avoid long sentences. Reading the text aloud helps with punctuation and finding the right syntax. Please use computer spelling and grammar checking programs. It is recommended that the manuscript is critically read by a colleague experienced in scientific authorship, but who is not directly involved in the study, before submitting it to the AVJ.

The responsibility for making sure that manuscripts are submitted in the correct format and with a suitable standard of English rests with the authors. Papers will be returned without review if the English is not of a sufficient standard. Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission or during the review process. Further details can be found at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/english_language.asp.

Spelling
The AVJ uses Australian spelling and authors should follow the latest edition of The Australian Oxford Dictionary7 or The Macquarie Dictionary.8

Units
Use SI basic or derived units or declared units of the Australian metric system (e.g. ha, min, °C) where applicable. Write dates in the form 10 April 2002 and currency in the form A$33. Spell out single digit numbers that express a quantity (three sheep, five paddocks) but not if used with an SI or similar unit or its symbol (5 mL, 9 m, 7 weeks, 6°C) or as an identifier (group 4, farms 7 and 9). If you start a sentence with a number, spell it out. Type a space between a number and its unit symbol, except for °C and %. Use a comma as a thousands marker in numbers of more than four digits (e.g. 21,000).

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used only where they ease the reader's task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Use abbreviations only if the term is used three or more times. All abbreviations are to be listed in the abbreviations list and written out in full the first time they appear in the text, followed by the abbreviation in brackets. Exceptions are SI units and commonly used terms that can be understood from the context, for example:
IV, SC, IM, DNA, RNA, EDTA, IgA, IgG
These need not be written out in full or included in the abbreviations list.

Trade names
Mention the manufacturer and the essential information on drugs, reagents and equipment in parentheses within the text. Details on commonly used and well-known materials may not be necessary unless likely to influence the results.

Article format
Please refer to the specific instructions below for each type of article.

Title
The title should be concise, specific and informative, but should not make an assertive claim about the conclusions of the study. Avoid including geographical locations unless they are of epidemiological significance. Title should have only the initial letter capitalised.

Authors' names and addresses
Give initials and surnames in capitals without stops, following the convention of first name, then family name. Separate the authors' names with a comma, except the names of the last two authors, which are separated with 'and' in lower case letters.
Include the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out. The submitting author will be the author for all correspondence. Include the submitting author's email address. The present address of the submitting author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied.

Headings
Do not indent headings or end headings with stops. Only the first letter is capitalised. Major headings are typed in bold on a separate line. First-order subheadings are typed on a separate line and italicised. Second-order subheadings are italicised and followed by a tab to separate them from the text, which follows on the same line. Do not number subheadings, paragraphs or itemised lists in the text.

Key words
Key words are used by indexes and electronic search engines, and should appear after the abstract. Use the heading 'Key words:' and then the key words separated by commas. Include up to six key words. Also enter the key words where prompted during the submission process. Keywords are required for all papers.

Abbreviations list
Compose the list in alphabetical order by abbreviation. Use the heading 'Abbreviations:' and then the list of abbreviations followed by their definitions, separated by semi-colons.

Acknowledgments
Sources of funding and donations should be acknowledged.
Authors should acknowledge only significant intellectual and technical contributions, and permission from those listed should be obtained before publication.

References
Use references judiciously. Cite only those publications that are essential for the understanding of the study.

Number text references consecutively with superscript Arabic numerals that follow any punctuation marks, with no space in between. Construct the reference list in the same numerical sequence of the references in the text. References cited only in tables or in figure legends are numbered according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text. References to journals, books, conference proceedings, organisational papers, anonymous editorials, foreign language articles and internet websites, respectively, are written as follows:
1. Gibson KT, Hodge H, Whittem T. Inflammatory mediators in equine synovial fluid. Aust Vet J 1996;73:148-151.
2. Peterson ME, Randolph JF, Mooney CT. Endocrine diseases. In: Sherding RG, editor. The Cat: Diseases and Management. 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, New York, 1994:1403-1506.
3. Rhodes AP. Infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis vaccination. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Seminar, Sheep and Beef Cattle Society, New Zealand Veterinary Association, June 1993.
4. Australian Veterinary Association. Tethering of sows and sow stalls. In: Greenwood PE, editor. Members' Directory and Policy Compendium. 1997:B5
5. Where do we stand on manpower? [editorial] Vet Rec 1995;137:1
6. Homberger FR. Mäusehepatitis-Virus. Schweiz Arch Tierheilkd 1996;138:183-188.
7. Council of Docked Breeds. The case for docking. http://www.cdb.org. 1992. Accessed 15 October 2001.
List all authors if there are five or fewer. When there are more than five authors, list only the first three and add 'et al'. Write titles of books, journals and other publications in italics. Do not underline or use bold letters.
The abbreviation of journals follows that of Serial sources for the BIOSIS previews database. A list of journal abbreviations can be found at http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/all_journals.htm. Journal abbreviations do not contain stops. Cite references to unpublished work only in the text, with a notation of (personal communication) or (unpublished). Please send a copy of any cited work that is included in the reference list as 'in press'. It is the authors' responsibility to check the accuracy of reference citations.

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Format tables with the table function in a word processor, such as MS Word, on a separate page with the legend typed above. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes to the table. Use superscript lower case letters to mark footnotes and superscript capital letters to mark statistical significance.
Number tables consecutively in the order they occur in the text, with Arabic numerals.

Figures
Include figures only if they are informative and necessary for the understanding of the text. Figures must be uploaded as separate files and not be embedded in the main text file. Each figure must be uploaded separately from other figures.
Line figures and graphs should be supplied in their original format, preferably as .xls or .eps files.
Photographs should be in sharp focus and cropped appropriately. They should be of sufficient clarity to enable identification of relevant features. Submit photographs as .tif or .jpg files with a resolution of at least 300 dpi, and at least 8.6 cm in image width at that resolution. It is not possible to print images that are of insufficient resolution. Scale bars must be included on micrographs. See http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/illustration.asp for more details.
Any lettering should be sans-serif, and must be large enough to allow for a reduction in size. Use a consistent style of layout, lettering, symbols and thickness of lines.
Digital manipulation of an image is acceptable only if it is done to enhance photographic density or to eliminate artefacts. Any digital manipulation must be mentioned in the figure legend. The author(s) must also state in the covering letter that the scientific content of the image has not been altered. The Editor may need to examine the original image.
Number figures consecutively in the order they occur in the text, with Arabic numerals.

Figure and table legends
Legends should be concise, but comprehensive. The figure or table and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Article types
Please look at a recent issue of the AVJ to see the elements of each article type. The Editors may change the categories of submitted articles at their discretion.

Original article
Maximum 6500 words including up to 40 references. Include a structured abstract of up to 250 words. The abstract's subdivision is up to the author, but should encompass the objective, design, procedure, results and conclusion. Type abstract subheadings in bold with only the first letter capitalised, separated by a tab from the text on the same line.
The main headings, following an untitled introduction, are Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments and References. The introduction should state the purpose of the study. The content of Materials and methods should enable others to reproduce the work. Present the findings in Results concisely and logically. Evaluate and interpret the findings in the Discussion, but do not present new data. If possible, write the main conclusions at the end of the Discussion. Headings may vary from standard if the variation makes the article more informative.

Review
Maximum 6500 words including references. Include a structured abstract of up to 250 words.
Reviews should provide a critical assessment of published works that have contributed to the development or understanding of the chosen topic, and not just a summary of published papers. The soundness of experimental evidence and the validity of conclusions and recommendations in cited articles should be assessed. Conflicting observations and interpretations should be examined and evaluated. A review might bring together disparate strands of knowledge into a unified concept, offer new interpretations of existing data or be the basis of a new hypothesis. A state-of-the-art review may have a more limited aim of educating readers about new methods and materials in rapidly developing new fields, but should also give an unbiased evaluation of their place in future practice.
There may be a place for review authors to introduce a limited amount of their own unpublished results. This, as with all of the authors' input, must be subjected to the same rigorous scrutiny applied in assessing all other cited works.
Reviews that critically evaluate the effect of specified treatments or interventions on defined conditions form a valuable part of evidence-based medicine. Such reviews in the human medical field can be accessed through the Cochrane Collaboration (http://www.cochrane.org). For guidance on their preparation, an extensive handbook is available online at (http://www.cochrane.dk/cochrane/handbook/hbook.htm). We encourage the publication of such reviews in veterinary medicine and interested reviewers are invited to contact the Editors.

Short contribution
Maximum 1500 words and 15 references. Novel observations and interpretations that have not arisen within rigorous experimental constraints and may not therefore warrant a full article, or observations that are of wide interest, but of a minor nature, may be suited to this format.
Short contributions have a 100-word, unstructured abstract, up to five key words and no subheadings, except References.

Case report
Case reports should concern a rare or new condition. Case reports that do not add substantially to the existing literature will not be published.
Maximum 3500 words including references. Include a concise, unstructured summary of up to 200 words and up to five key words. The main headings, following an untitled introduction, are Case report, Discussion, Acknowledgments and References. The introduction should indicate the importance of the case and why it is worth reporting. This rationale of what is interesting and relevant may contain some evidence from published articles to substantiate the claim that the case is important. A full review of the literature is not warranted.
A description of the case should include a history and description of animals, clinical features, diagnosis, interventions and procedures, and outcome.
Description should be brief and clear. The clinical features should be only those needed to convince readers that the case is what it is claimed to be and that other plausible diagnoses have been excluded. Reference range of values for any laboratory tests conducted must be included.
The case should be discussed in the light of relevant published work. The width and depth of the search of publications should be described but only findings that are relevant to the case should be discussed. If authors think a full review is necessary, then they should consider two manuscripts: a case report and a review.
Authors should:
• discuss the evidence that the case is what they believe it to be
• discuss how their observations and the results of tests support their diagnosis, treatment and recommendations
• consider and refute other plausible explanations
• explain any other contradictory observations or evidence
• discuss the implications and relevance of the case
• identify lessons learnt from the case for investigation or management of similar cases.
A submission by a student who is the sole author of a case report should be accompanied by a letter from the Head of Department or Dean, who verifies that the report has been generated by the student's endeavours. Students are advised to consult with all clinicians who have responsibility for the case during its time in the university clinic and all staff who contributed in any significant way to case management.

History
Maximum 5000 words including up to 40 references. Include a structured abstract of up to 250 words. Articles should be relevant to the history of veterinary medicine in Australia.

Clinical update
Maximum 200 words including 25 references.

Diagnostic challenge
Maximum 500 words. Photographs preferred.

Publication
Proofs
Notification of the URL from where to download a Portable Document Format (PDF) typeset page proof, associated forms and further instructions will be sent by email to the corresponding author if an article is accepted for publication. The purpose of the PDF proof is a final check of the layout, and of tables and figures. Alterations other than the essential correction of errors are unacceptable at PDF proof stage. The proof should be checked, and approval to publish the article should be emailed to the Publisher by the date indicated, otherwise publication will be delayed.
Offprints
A free PDF offprint will be supplied to the corresponding author. A minimum of 50 additional offprints will be provided upon request, at the author's expense.

Statistical Guidelines
Design
Consultation with a biometrician is recommended before the experiment, because decisions made at the design stage are critical for a successful outcome. Statistics for Veterinary and Animal Science9 is recommended as a good straight forward text book.
Experiments should be designed to test specific hypotheses. The design constitutes the best way to set up and perform the experiment in order to test the hypotheses.
The number of subjects: The experiment should be neither too small nor too large. Where feasible a pre-study power calculation should be carried out to estimate the numbers required.
Method of analysis: The method of analysis should be clearly specified. Although in most cases standard methods of analysis will be sufficient, complex analyses are readily available in computer packages. Experimenters should be satisfied that the output of a package is both appropriate and intelligible.
Randomisation: An appropriate method should be used to allocate subjects to treatments, and should be briefly mentioned in the text. If some other variable, such as body weight, is taken into account in the allocation, it should be included in the analysis as a covariate or a blocking factor.
Surveys should be designed so that the parameters to be estimated, for example, the prevalence of a particular disorder, can be estimated with appropriate precision. Possible sources of bias, as for example introduced by structuring or incomplete returning of a questionnaire, should be discussed.

Analysis
Errors in calculation: Rigorous checking should be used to avoid computational errors, including those of data entry and selection of options when using a package. Because statistics is commonsense in a mathematical form, any seeming discrepancy between P values and intuition should be viewed with suspicion.
Appropriate analysis: The analysis used should be appropriate to the design. Take account of blocking if this has been used in allocation, and of trend if an explanatory variable (e.g. dose at different levels) is included.
Appropriate test: Statistical tests used should be appropriate. Remember that there are restrictions on the use of the commoner tests - for example, the t test and analysis of variance require that the data are reasonably consistent with a normal distribution and that the variances to be pooled are compatible. If such assumptions are untenable, the variable can be transformed or non-parametric techniques can be applied. The χ2 test is not recommended if expected values are small, in which case an alternative test should be adopted.
Direction of testing and level of significance: Use two-sided testing unless a very clear case is made for one-sided. The most commonly used level of significance (α) is 0.05. This may be varied depending on the relative weights to be given to type I and type II errors, but the case should be argued by the authors, especially for α = 0.1.
Multiple testing: Tests should be made on comparisons appropriate to the aims of the experiment, not just suggested by the data. If multiple applications of significance testing are necessary, significance levels should be protected using methods such as those described by Ludbrook.10
Repeated measures: Where observations on the same subjects are repeated over time, it is important to recognise that the observations are correlated. Apply corrections, such as described by Ludbrook,11 select a single end-measure, such as the area under the individual time-response curve, or fit a function to it.12 Ensure that inclusion of 'repeated measures' in the repertoire of a computer package means more than its ability to handle the paired t test. Remember that repeated observations on the same subject should not be used in any calculation of the standard error (SE).

Presentation
Inclusion of data: Do not omit data referred to in the Methods. It is obviously impossible to include all raw data, but in general the reader should have enough information to verify the main conclusions.
Inclusion of information about testing: The reader's full understanding of the analysis depends on the precise description of the methods used. Indicate whether a t test was paired or not, and/or the type of analysis of variance used, including the number of factors involved, the interactions examined and the error terms used. If the analysis is complex it should be explained in terms that are intelligible to readers and should be referenced. If a computer statistics package is used to execute the analysis, its name, version and vendor should be given.
Standard deviation (SD) and standard error (SE): Include SD when describing observations, SE where the objective is estimation or to test a hypothesis. Always include the 'n' on which statistics are based. It is important that the SEs shown should be relevant to any comparisons tested - thus where the paired t test is used the SEs of the means are not relevant to testing the differences between them - the SEs of the mean of the differences should be quoted. Where SEs have been calculated from analysis of variance it is likely that they will be based on the same residual mean square, so that it is not necessary to show individual SEs.
P values: It is preferable to show actual P values rather than point out 'significant' or 'not significant' differences (terms that need to be defined). This is particularly important where the null hypothesis is not rejected and there is a possibility of a type II error, the failure to detect a real effect.
Confidence intervals (CI) are used to indicate the range of values within which a parameter will be found at a specified probability. In many cases presentation of a CI is more informative than the yes/no result of a test of significance or an actual P value.
Precision: Avoid the spurious suggestions of precision that are produced by including too many digits. In most cases two or three significant figures are sufficient.

Conclusions
Conclusions should be justified by the results of the analysis.
The null hypothesis (NH)
(i) Failure to reject the NH, that is, the finding that the effects tested are 'not significant', does not prove that the NH is true. Calculation of the CI for the effect may afford a basis for concluding that any effect is inconsequential.
(ii) Rejection of the NH, that is, the finding 'statistically significant', is prima facie evidence for the existence of the effect investigated, but bias as a possible reason for the difference must also be examined. The proposition that it is biologically unimportant should also be supported by argument from the CI.
Discrepancies: Internal inconsistencies, for example, in the level of the end-measure between one part of the experiment and another, should be addressed in the discussion.

References
1. Hames I. Peer Review and Manuscript Management in Scientific Journals: Guidelines for good practice. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007.
2. National Health and Medical Research Council. Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes. 7th edn. NHMRC, 2004; http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/ea16syn.htm.
3. Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000); http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm.
4. Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers. 6th edn. John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 2002.
5. Council of Science Editors, Style Manual Committee. Scientific Style and Format: the CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 7th edn. Reston (VA); The Council, 2006.
6. Strunk W, White E, Angell R. The Elements of Style. 4th edn. Allyn & Bacon,
7. Bruce Moore, editor. The Australian Oxford Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press.
8. Delbridge A, Bernard JRL, Blair D et al, editors. The Macquarie Dictionary. 4th edn. Macquarie Library.
9. Petrie A, Watson P. Statistics for Veterinary and Animal Science. 2nd edn. Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
10. Ludbrook J. On making multiple comparisons in clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 1991;18:379-392.
11. Ludbrook J. Repeated measurements and multiple comparisons in cardiovascular research. Cardiovasc Res 1994;28:303-311.
12. Rowell JG, Walters DE. Analyzing data with repeated observations on each experimental unit. J Agric Sci 1973;87:423-432.

Websites for more information
About the Australian Veterinary Association:
http://www.ava.com.au
About the AVJ:
http://www.ava.com.au/avjintro
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/avj

AVJ issues online:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117983185/home

Editorial office address
Australian Veterinary Journal
Unit 40, 6 Herbert Street
St Leonards
New South Wales 2065
Australia
Phone: +61 2 9431 5073
Fax: +61 2 9437 9068
Email: avjoffice@ava.com.au