Veterinary Clinical Pathology

An International Journal of Laboratory Medicine

The official journal of the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology and the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology

Edited by:
Karen M. Young

Print ISSN: 0275-6382
Online ISSN: 1939-165X
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 39 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 55/134 Veterinary Sciences
Impact Factor: 0.917

TopAuthor Guidelines

Veterinary Clinical Pathology (VCP)

An International Journal of Laboratory Medicine

The official journal of the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology and the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology

Edited by:

Karen M. Young
Editor-in-Chief
University of Wisconsin
youngk@vetmed.wisc.edu

Patricia M. McManus
Associate Editor
IDEXX Reference Laboratories
patrica-mcmanus@idexx.com

Ann Casper
Editorial Assistant
amcasper@gmail.com

Print ISSN: 0275-6382

Online ISSN: 1939-165X

Frequency: Quarterly

Current Volume: 39/2010

ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 55/134 (Veterinary Sciences)

Impact Factor: 0.917

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

Veterinary Clinical Pathology now uses Manuscript Central for the online submission of manuscripts. Please go to the journal's website at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vcp and click on 'new user' to set up an account. Once logged in, follow instructions for submitting your manuscript, figure files, and cover letter. Using your user ID and password, you may enter the Author Center at any time to follow the review process.

Scope and Mission of the Journal

Veterinary Clinical Pathology is the leading international journal in veterinary and comparative laboratory medicine. The mission of VCP is to provide a forum to communicate and discuss new developments that advance laboratory diagnosis in domestic and laboratory animals and in avian, wildlife, and special species through publication of authoritative reviews; experimental and clinical research; special reports on clinical laboratory practice, policy, and education; novel case reports; and editorials and letters.

VCP welcomes the submission of original manuscripts involving acid-base and electrolytes; biomarkers of disease; blood-banking and transfusion medicine; clinical chemistry; coagulation, platelets, and hemostasis; cytopathology, including effusions and body fluids; experimental and pathophysiologic studies that emphasize clinical pathology; genetic blood and biochemical disorders; hematopathology, including blood cells, hemoparasites, iron metabolism, bone marrow, and hematopoietic neoplasia; hormonal analysis and endocrine disease; infectious diseases of blood and bone marrow; inflammation and inflammatory mediators; instrumentation and diagnostics, including point-of-care testing, assay validation, method comparison, and molecular diagnostics; lipids and lipoproteins; quality assurance and laboratory statistics; telepathology and digital imaging; and toxicologic clinical pathology.

Author Agreements

Manuscripts will be considered with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in abstract form) and are not concurrently under review by any other publication. Authorship implies substantial contribution and approval of the manuscript by each author. At the time of acceptance of a manuscript or letter, all authors will be required to sign a written transfer of copyright to the ASVCP. Requests to copy, reprint, or use portions of published material (including information in figures and tables) should be addressed to Wiley-Blackwell at Journalsrights@wiley.com. Authors are expected to acknowledge all sources of funding or support and to disclose any financial interest with companies that manufacture products that are the subject of their research or with companies that manufacture competing products. Veterinary Clinical Pathology reserves the right to reject manuscripts if it appears that experimental animals have been subjected to unacceptable stress or pain, or if the use of experimental animals does not appear to be justified by the significance of the knowledge gained. Investigations involving research animals must be done in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or equivalent guidelines.

Manuscript Review, Editing, and Publication

At least 2-3 anonymous peer reviewers and a Section Editor will evaluate each manuscript. Authors are asked to respond to reviewer suggestions within 60 days. Revised manuscripts may be re-reviewed. Upon acceptance, manuscripts will undergo editorial review, and authors may be asked to respond to additional editorial and reviewer comments. Copyediting will be done according to Veterinary Clinical Pathology style. Proofs will be sent to the author for final approval. Articles will be published online early in EarlyView, prior to print publication.

Article Categories

Articles are welcome in the following categories:

· Original Articles - Peer-reviewed, prospective or retrospective research investigations that include a structured Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

· Brief Communications - Peer-reviewed research investigations or technical reports that include a structured Abstract, have few or no separate sections, and do not exceed 5 double-spaced pages, excluding title page, abstract, tables, illustrations, and references.

· Case Reports - Peer-reviewed reports describing a novel case (or set of cases) with detailed documentation and diagnostic investigation. Should include an unstructured Abstract, Case Presentation, and Discussion.

· What Is Your Diagnosis? - Peer-reviewed brief reports without abstracts that focus on a 'diagnostic challenge' followed by the solution. The first page includes 1-2 'unknown' image(s) or data and a Case Presentation (maximum 200 words). The following page (maximum 400 words) contains the Interpretation, Additional Results, and Discussion, with up to 2 additional images (or supplemental online images) and 5 references. Accepted articles will be edited as needed to fit the 2-page format. For online submission purposes, a 2-3 sentence summary should be entered in the required abstract field on Manuscript Central.

· Editorials, Reviews, and Book Reviews are generally invited, but unsolicited manuscripts in these categories are also welcome.

· Letters to the Editor are welcome, particularly those in response to published articles. Letters may include references and a figure or table. Veterinary Clinical Pathology reserves the right not to publish letters containing defamatory, libelous, or malicious statements.

· Laboratory Medicine: Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow is a standing feature that highlights notes of historical interest, current trends, progress on the horizon, or images worthy of note. Contributions to this feature are welcome and will be published at the discretion of the editors. Submissions should be sent to youngk@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu.

Manuscripts should be written in American English and double-spaced throughout, including the abstract, references, tables and figures legends. Pages and line numbers should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title page and continuing through the end of the text. Numbers should use decimals instead of commas. Authors should refer to a recent issue of the journal for general style and format.

Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. All nonstandard abbreviations should be defined the first time they are used in the text. The following standard abbreviations may be used (except in titles) without first being spelled out: ANOVA, ATP, CBC, DNA, EDTA, ELISA, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, PCV, RBC, RNA, SD, WBC, and H&E.

· Title Page - The first page of the manuscript should include the full title of the article and a short title of less than 50 characters to be used as a running header. Include the authors' first and last names and the name and location of the institution(s) of the authors at the time the work was done. Indicate the corresponding author's e-mail address. Up to 6 alphabetized Key Words should be included for indexing the article.

· Abstract - The abstract (250-word limit) should be structured using the following headings: Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Case Reports do not require a structured abstract, but should include an abstract that summarizes the case. What Is Your Diagnosis? articles no longer include abstracts.

· Introduction - The Introduction should provide sufficient background information to justify the rationale for the study and why it is important, should state the hypothesis or research question, and state the objective(s) or specific aims of the study.

· Materials and Methods - Methods should include, as appropriate, a description of study design, experimental animals, analytical methods, and statistical analysis. Products (eg, instruments, reagents, stains, drugs) should be referred to by their generic or chemical names, followed by the model or trade name, and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses. Use of metric or SI units is strongly encouraged.

· Results - Tables and figures should be referred to in parentheses at the end of a sentence referring to the results. Data in tables and figures should not be duplicated in the text. Results should not repeat the rationale for the methods used.

· Discussion - The Discussion should succinctly summarize the most important findings as related to the study objectives and discuss the results in the context of other studies. Only discussion relevant to the results should be included. Repetition of results should be avoided.

· Acknowledgments - Funding, grant support, or provision of supplies used in the study and individuals providing other forms of assistance (eg, statistical review, manuscript preparation, technical assistance) may be acknowledged.

· References - References should be limited to pertinent literature and formatted according to American Medical Association guidelines, as shown in the examples below. Non-peer-reviewed references (eg, book chapters, proceedings) should be kept to a minimum. References should be listed and numbered in the order in which they first appear in the text, and should be identified in the text by superscript Arabic numbers. Journal abbreviations should be those used in Index Medicus. References with more than 6 authors should list the first 3 authors followed by et al. Examples of reference format are as follows

· Journals:

Solberg HE, Lahti A. Detection of outliers in reference distributions: performance of Horn's algorithm. Clin Chem. 2005;51:2326-2332.

· Books:

Stockham SL, Scott MA. Fundamentals of Veterinary Clinical Pathology. 2nd ed. Ames, IA: Blackwell Publishing; 2008:3-51.

Young DS, Bermes EW. Specimen collection and processing: sources of biological variation. In: Burtis CA, Ashwood ER, eds. Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders; 1999:184-190.

· Abstracts:

Gelain ME, Rossi G, Paltrinieri S. Use of Sysmex XT-2000iV hematology analyzer to identify hematopoietic neoplasms in dogs [abstract]. Vet Clin Pathol. 2007;36:385-386.

· Product Information:

Diagnostic Products Corporation. Immulite® ACTH Technical Bulletin 29. Los Angeles, CA: Diagnostic Products Corporation; April 1996.

· URLs:

Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer. Available at: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/faq.html. Accessed December 29, 2008.

· Reference to unpublished work:

Authors citing papers in press, personal communications, or other unpublished work must submit a copy of the unpublished manuscript or a letter from the individuals concerned, confirming the work and giving permission for the citation.

· Figure Legends - A list of figure legends should follow the references in the main document. Figure legends should be double-spaced, numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers, and include a brief description of the image, graph, or diagram. The stain should be indicated when appropriate, and decimal points in figures should be indicated by a period (.) and not a comma. For magnification, internal scale bars are strongly preferred; otherwise, indicate the objective lens used (eg, X10 objective). Legends for unknown images in What Is Your Diagnosis? reports should include only the source of the image, stain, and magnification, without a description.

· Tables - Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers and have a brief descriptive title. Tables should be double-spaced and contain no vertical lines. Decimal points should be indicated by a period (.) and not a comma.

· Images - Black and white graphs and line drawings should be scanned at 1200 ppi and uploaded as TIFF files. Color and gray-scale photographs and photomicrographs should be acquired or scanned at a minimum of 300 ppi, saved as TIFF files, and uploaded. Color images should be saved in CMYK mode. There is no charge for color figures. Excel and PowerPoint files may also be acceptable in some cases. At the time of publication, figures may be cropped. The size of most figures will be 1-column width.

OFFPRINTS: Free access to the final PDF offprint or your article will be available via Wiley-Blackwell's Author Services. Please register to access your article PDF offprint and enjoy the many other benefits the service offers. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ to register.