Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health

Official Journal of the Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians) in association with the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand, the Paediatric Research Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons

Edited by:
David Isaacs

Print ISSN: 1034-4810
Online ISSN: 1440-1754
Frequency: 12 issues a year (2 combined)
Current Volume: 46 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 53/86 Pediatrics
Impact Factor: 1.124

TopAuthor Guidelines

Aims And Scope
The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health is the official journal of the Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians) in affiliation with the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand, the Paediatric Research Society of Australia and the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons, and publishes original research articles of scientific excellence in paediatrics and child health. Research Articles and Editorial Correspondence are published, together with invited Reviews, Annotations, Editorial Comments and manuscripts of educational interest.

Editorial Review and Acceptance
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer reviewed by two anonymous reviewers and the Editors. Editors reserve the right to refuse any material for publication and advise that authors should retain copies of submitted manuscripts and correspondence as material cannot be returned. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editors.

Manuscripts should be written 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 scientific content, the Editors or the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

Annotations
Annotations should be no more than 1500 words with a maximum of 12 references. Authors must supply a maximum of 5 key words and an unstructured abstract. Authors must supply three brief 'Key Points' summarising the main points raised in the manuscript.

Editorial Comments
Editorial Comments should be no more than 1500 words with a maximum of 12 references. Authors must supply a one-line summary of the key point raised and provide a reference to the manuscript(s) the paper comments on.

Original Articles
Original Articles should be no more than 2500 words with a structured abstract that states in 250 words or fewer the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study. Divide the abstract with the headings: Aim, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Authors must supply up to three brief points 'What is already known on this topic' and up to three brief points stating 'What this paper adds'.

Review Articles
Review Articles should be no more than 2500 words with a maximum of 50 references. Abstracts can be either structured or unstructured, at a maximum of 150 words. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references. Authors must supply three brief 'Key Points' summarising the main points raised in the manuscript. We also ask authors to provide 3 multiple choice questions (preferably 'A-type' single best of 5 alternatives) based on their Review.

Case Reports
The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health has amended its Case Report section. New Case Notes/Reports will now only be considered for publication in the Letters to the Editor section. In order to suit this format, manuscripts need to be formatted as a Letter to the Editor and be approximately 800 words in length, with no more than one figure or table, and a maximum of six references.

Clinical Trials
Clinical Trials must be registered with the appropriate governing body.

Instructive Cases
Instructive Cases involve a clinical problem or issue of interest to general paediatricians. There is an initial case report, then a brief discussion with appropriate references. The point of the discussion is to provide up-to-date information and new perspectives for readers of the Journal. No abstract or key words are required. A Summary listing learning points should be included at the end of the Instructive Case. Instructive Cases should be no more than 1200 words in length and do not require an abstract. There should be no more than a total of three figures and tables, with a maximum of eight references.

When submitting manuscripts through Manuscript Central, Instructive Cases should be submitted under the manuscript type 'Continuing Education'.

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor should be no more than 800 words in length, with no more than one figure or table, and a maximum of six references.

Heads Up
Heads Up submissions should be a summary, approximately 200 words, of a recent paper of interest. This should not be the abstract but a short digest of the results, putting them in context of what the paper adds. Please attach a file with a single graph or histogram (preferably not a table) from the paper to make the most important point visually (not essential). A photograph or illustration (subject to copyright) would also be suitable. The names of authors of Heads Up pieces will be published.

Journal Club
Journal Club articles should be no more than 2500 words. They should be based on what happens at hospital journal clubs, where doctors come with a clinical question, search for evidence, critically appraise the best evidence, apply it to their patient, and reflect how the research could have been conducted. Each article should be divided into the headings: clinical scenario; structured clinical question; search strategy; table (of relevant papers found in the search - see below); best paper (identifying the best paper to answer and critically appraising that paper using standard critical appraisal guidelines); brief discussion of how to do the research better, how to apply the information to the patient and the clinical bottom line.

Image of the Month
Please send a photograph or other image, together with a short clinical question and a brief answer. For an example, please follow these links: Question and Answer. If the photograph is identifiable, please send written permission from a parent and/or child or confirm that verbal approval has been obtained. Privacy is the responsibility of the author(s).

Submission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpch

Authors must supply an email address as all correspondence will be by email. Two files should be supplied: the covering letter and the manuscript (in Word or rich text format (.rtf)). The covering letter should be uploaded as a file not for review.

All articles submitted to the Journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication.

• Submissions should be double-spaced.
• All margins should be at least 30 mm.
• All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.
• Do not use Enter at the end of lines within a paragraph.
• Turn the hyphenation option off; include only those hyphens that are essential to the meaning.
• Specify any special characters used to represent non-keyboard characters.
• Take care not to use l (ell) for 1 (one), O (capital o) for 0 (zero) or ß (German esszett) for b (Greek beta).
• Use a tab, not spaces, to separate data points in tables. If you use a table editor function, ensure that each data point is contained within a unique cell (i.e. do not use carriage returns within cells).

Each figure should be supplied as a separate file, with the figure number incorporated in the file name. For submission, low-resolution figures saved as .jpg or .bmp files should be uploaded, for ease of transmission during the review process. Upon acceptance of the article, high-resolution figures (at least 300 d.p.i.) saved as .eps or .tif files should be uploaded. Digital images supplied only as low-resolution files cannot be used.
Further instructions are available at the submission site.

Covering Letter
Authors must provide a Cover Letter with submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts are accepted for publication in the journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the covering letter.

If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorisation to reproduce the material, must be attached to the covering letter.

The covering letter must contain an acknowledgement that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.

Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.

Author material archive policy
Authors who require the return of any submitted material that is accepted for publication should inform the Editorial Office after acceptance. If no indication is given that author material should be returned, Wiley-Blackwell will dispose of all hardcopy and electronic material 2 months after publication.

Ethical considerations
Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1995 (as revised in Tokyo 2004).

All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject(s) gave informed consent and patient anonymity should be preserved.

In general, submission of Instructive Cases and Case Notes should be accompanied by the written consent of the subject (or parent/guardian) prior to publication; this is particularly important where photographs are to be used or in cases where the unique nature of the incident reported makes it possible for the patient to be identified. While the Editors recognise that it might not always be possible or appropriate to seek such consent, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that this exception applies in their case.

Authors should declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.

Copyright
Authors publishing in the journal will be asked to sign an Exclusive Licence Form. In signing the form it is assumed that authors 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 cannon be published until a signed form has been received. Authors can download the form here.

Style of the Manuscript
Manuscripts should follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Comiittee of Medical Journal Editors' revised 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication', as presented at http://www.ICMJE.org

Spelling
The journal uses UK spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Units
All measurements must be given in SI units.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used sparingly and only where they ease the reader's task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation.

Scientific names
Upon its first use in the title, abstract and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (Genus, species and authority) in parentheses. However, for well-known species, the scientific name may be omitted from the article title. If no common name exists in English, the scientific name should be used only.

Trade names
At the first mention of a chemical substance, give the generic name only. Trade names should not used.

Drugs should be referred to by their generic names, rather than brand names.

Equations
Equations should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals; these should be ranged right in parentheses. All variables should appear in italics. Use the simplest possible form for all mathematical symbols.

Parts of the Manuscript
Manuscripts should be presented in the following order:

1. title page
   
2. abstract and keywords
   
3. text
   
4. acknowledgements
   
5. references
   
6. appendices
   
7. figure legends
   
8. tables (each table complete with title and footnotes)
   
9. figures

Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

Title page
The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) type of manuscript (e.g. Original Article, Instructive Case, Editorial Correspondence: Case Note), (iii) the full names of the authors and (iv) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out together with (v) the full postal and email address, plus facsimile and telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript, proofs and requests for offprints should be sent. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

The title should be short (less than 80 characters, including spaces), informative and contain the major key words.

Key words
Key words should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list.

Text
Authors should use subheadings to divide the sections of their manuscript: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References.

Acknowledgements
The source of financial grants and other funding should be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors' industrial links and affiliations. The contribution of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not allowed.

References
The Vancouver system of referencing should be used. In the text, references should be cited using superscript Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear. If cited only in tables or figure legends, number them according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text. In the reference list, the references should be numbered and listed in order of appearance in the text.

Cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more list the first three followed by et al.

Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in Index Medicus.

Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. A Smith, unpubl. data, 2000).

Journal article
1 Soter NA, Wasserman SI, Austen KF. Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. N. Engl. J. Med. 1976; 294: 687-90.

Online article not yet published in an issue
An online article that has not yet been published in an issue (therefore has no volume, issue or page numbers) can be cited by its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The DOI will remain valid and allow an article to be tracked even after its allocation to an issue.
Hall, A. and Jones G. V. (2008) Effect of potential atmospheric warming on temperature-based indices describing Australian winegrape growing conditions. The Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0238.2008.00035.x


Book
2 Kaufmann HE, Baron BA, McDonald MB, Waltman SR, eds. The Cornea. Churchill Livingstone, New York, 1988.

Chapter in a Book
3 McEwen WK, Goodner IK. Secretion of tears and blinking. In: Davson H, ed. The Eye, Vol. 3, 2nd edn. Academic Press, New York, 1969; 34-78.

References in Articles
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.
EndNote reference styles can be searched for here:

http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here:

http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

Appendices
These should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the writer's name should be included below the title.

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. Each table should be presented on a separate sheet of A4 paper with a comprehensive but concise legend above the table. Tables should be double-spaced and vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations should be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶ should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings. The table and its legend/footnotes should be understandable without reference to the text.

Figures
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. Figures should be sized to fit within the column (80 mm), intermediate (121 mm) or the full text width (169 mm). Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration.

Line figures should be sharp, black and white graphs or diagrams, drawn professionally or with a computer graphics package. Lettering must be included and should be sized to be no larger than the journal text.

Figure legends
Legends should be self-explanatory and typed on a separate page. The legend should incorporate definitions of any symbols used and all abbreviations and units of measurement should be explained so that the figure and its legend are understandable without reference to the text. (Provide a letter stating copyright authorisation if figures have been reproduced from another source.)

Wiley-Blackwell Author Services
Author Services enables authors to track their article, once it has been accepted, through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production so they do not need to contact the production editor to check on progress. Visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources, including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

Proofs
It is essential that corresponding authors supply an email address to which correspondence can be emailed while their article is in production.

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.

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, it may be signed off on by the Editor or held over to the next issue.

Offprints
A minimum of 50 offprints will be provided upon request, at the author's expense.

Wiley-Blackwell Journals Online
Visit the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health home page at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/jpc for more information, and Wiley-Blackwell's web pages for submission guidelines and digital graphics standards here and here.

The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health is also available online at http://www.interscience.wiley.com

Editorial Office Address
Fotini Toso, Editorial Office, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health
Wiley-Blackwell
155 Cremorne Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121
Australia
Email: fotini.toso@wiley.com; tel: +61 3 9274 3137; fax: +61 3 9274 3390