Imaging Decisions MRI

Edited by:
M. Oudkerk

Print ISSN: 1433-3317
Online ISSN: 1617-0830
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 14 / 2010

TopAuthor Guidelines

1. General

1.1 Aims and Scope

Imaging Decisions is an international peer reviewed journal devoted to the publication of clinical research, educational and review articles, and other publications related to the optimisation of imaging strategies in the diagnosis, follow up and treatment of diseases with the use of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography, conventional X-rays, and nuclear medicine.

The types of papers published include those covering the implementation of strategies based on the development and implementation of medical image datasets in its broadest sense.

Imaging Decisions is a quarterly journal and is published primarily for radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and other clinicians working in radiology and nuclear medicine-related fields, but also addresses the clinician referring to medical imaging facilities.

1.2 Fields of Interest

Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Ultrasonography, X-ray-imaging, Contrast Media, Nuclear Medicine, Multi Modality Imaging/ Image Fusion.

1.3 Research

Investigations on human subjects must conform to accepted ethical standards. Consent must be obtained from each patient after full explanation of the purpose, nature and risks of all procedures used; the fact that such consent has been given should be recorded in the paper. In addition, 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 World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki as revised by the 29th World Medical Assembly in Tokyo in 1975 (WHO Chronicle 1976; 30: 360-2).

2. Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts for publication should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief:

Prof. Dr. Matthijs Oudkerk
State University and Academic Hospital of Groningen
PO Box 30.001
9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands
email: m.oudkerk@rad.umcg.nl

Please submit your manuscript on disk, zip, CD-ROM with three hardcopies and retain a copy for yourself. Please complete and include the Exclusive Licence Form available for printing out at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com//pdf/MRI_ELF.pdf.

The data carriers (disk, CD) must be PC/Windows-compatible and may not contain any files other than those for the current manuscript. Please include a list of the files, noting the file name, the computer program and its version number. Please do not import the figures into the text file. The text should be prepared using standard software (Microsoft Word, Word Perfect) or saved in RTF format (not write-protected). Do not use automated or manual hyphenation. Please do not include footnotes and disable all links to automated reference managing programs.

Electronic submission. Authors may submit papers via e-mail, as a Word document or RTF file along with electronic files of the figures. The figures must be high-resolution scans (TIF or EPS files). Please give the number of how many files are attached in your cover email. When preparing your text file, please use only standard fonts such as Times, Times New Roman or Arial for text (12 point, double spacing), and Symbol font for Greek letters, to avoid inadvertent character substitutions. In particular, please do not use Japanese or other Asian fonts.

For further information please consult http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

3. Preparation of Manuscripts

3.1 Style

Manuscripts must be written in English; spelling should conform to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English Usage. Style should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, as presented in JAMA 1997; 277: 927-34. Authors not writing in their first language are asked to have manuscripts checked for grammar and syntax before submission. Manuscripts should be written so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. Manuscripts which do not conform to these requirements may be returned to the author prior to review for correction.

Contributions may take the form of Review Articles, Original Articles and Educational Articles. Letters to the Editor are welcome and should be given a short and pertinent title. Surname(s) and initials of the author(s) should be given at the end of the letter.

3.2 Requirements for Manuscripts

Content

Where contrast media were used in the studies, please mention the concentrations. In studies where products from other companies than Schering were used, please mention alternative Schering products. In review articles, only generic names are preferred in the text. Product names may be mentioned in footnotes.

Format

The entire manuscript, including references, should be typed double-spaced on one side only of the paper, with margins of at least 30 mm. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner. The manuscript comprises a printout of the text and a list of all figures and tables with their captions and titles on a separate sheet of paper. We ask that you convey the essential information within the first 60 characters of the captions to accommodate the online edition. Each figure, table, and bibliographic entry must have a reference in the text. For all figures please include reproducible artwork (marked with the author's name, short title, and figure number).
The manuscript should be presented in the following order:

Title page. This should contain the title of the contribution, and the name(s) and address(es) of the author(s). The full postal address, telephone and facsimile numbers (and email address if available) of the author who will receive correspondence and check the proofs should be included. The main title should, where possible, contain the major key words used in the body of the manuscript. A short running title (less than 40 characters, including spaces) should also be provided. Immediately after the title page there should be one page containing the manuscript title only.

Summary. All manuscripts must include a brief but informative Summary intelligible without reference to the main text. It should not exceed 200 words and should describe the scope of the work, basic procedures, the main findings and the principal conclusions of the investigation. New and important information should be emphasized.

Key words. Key words (3-10) should be provided below the Summary to assist with indexing of the article. For reference use the medical subject headings from Index Medicus.

Text body. No limit is set to length, but authors should keep in mind that brevity mostly improves readability. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and must be explained before first use in the text.

Acknowledgements. Financial and technical assistance may be acknowledged here. Anonymous reviewers should not be acknowledged. It is the authors' responsibility to obtain written permission to quote material that has appeared in another publication.

References. In the text, references should be made by consecutive superscript Arabic numerals. Provide a list of references, double spaced, after the text, in the order in which they appear in the text. List all authors for each reference, unless there are seven or more, when only the first three authors followed by et al. should be used.

Examples of correct reference format:

Standard journal articles
1. Lam AH, Tang S. Sonographic findings in bladder haematoma. Australas Radiol. 1994; 38: 48-50.

Books and other monographs
2. Wegener OH. Whole Body Computed Tomography, 2nd edn. Blackwell Science, Boston, 1992.

Chapter in a book
3. Fish PJ. Doppler imaging. In: Barnett E, Morley P (eds) Clinical Diagnostic Ultrasound. Blackwell Science, Oxford, 1985; 239-49.

Titles of journals should be abbreviated using Index Medicus, which is available in most libraries as a guide.

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


Tables

Tables must be typed on separate sheets. They should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals with a descriptive title above the table. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses. Statistical measures such as s.d. or s.e.m. should be identified in headings. Use *, †, ‡, § (not numbers) for footnotes and keep footnotes to a minimum. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. The approximate position of tables should be indicated in the margin of the manuscript. Tables should be created using the table function.

Figures

Only scientifically necessary illustrations should be included. All illustrations (including photographs) are classified as figures and should be numbered consecutively. Please note that figures will generally be reduced to fit within the column-width or the print area. This means that numbering and lettering must still be readable when reduced (e.g. maps) and that the scale might not correspond with the original (microscopic pictures), thereby invalidating references to scale in the text. If a figure is to be cropped, please mark the lines on a photocopy or tracing paper. Printouts should be made with a laser printer at the highest resolution (³ 600 dpi). Colour graphics should be created using the CMYK colour palette (print colours), not RGB (monitor colours). There is a charge for alterations to figures when carried out by the publisher.

Each figure should be labelled on the back indicating its number, name of author(s), title of paper and orientation of the figure. Please do not place the name of the author(s) or the name of the hospital on the back of the figures.

Line drawings and graphs should be professionally drawn and lettered, using black ink on white paper. Allowance should be made for lines and text becoming smaller and thinner on reduction. Graphs with an x and y axis should not be enclosed in frames; only 2-dimensional representations. Do not forget the labels and units. Captions for the figures should give a precise description of the content and should not be repeated within the figure.
These figures should be supplied as bromides or laser printed on smooth, clean, white paper.

Photographs should be provided as sharp, glossy, black and white prints mounted on stiff white paper and covered with a protective sheet. Individual photographs forming a composite figure should be of equal contrast to facilitate printing, and should be accurately squared and mounted with edges touching. Persons should be retouched to make the subject unidentifiable or be accompanied by written permission from the subject to publish the photograph. Any names should be removed.

Reproductions of radiographs should render dense structures as white on black background. Computed tomography and ultrasound prints should be displayed in conventional orientation and, if necessary, labelled to make the orientation clear. Ultrasound prints should be submitted as white on black. All illustrations should be trimmed so that only relevant material appears.

All hardcopies of the photographs should be of equal photographic quality. When colour figures are preferred, submit original colour transparencies as well as three sets of colour prints.

Figure legends. Legends should be self-explanatory and typed on a separate sheet. The legend should incorporate definitions of any symbols used. The approximate positions of figures should be indicated in the margin of the manuscript.

Electronic Artwork

Vector graphics (e.g. line artwork) should be saved in Encapsulated Postscript Format (EPS), and bitmap files (e.g. photographs) in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). PowerPoint and Word graphics are unsuitable for reproduction. Please do not use any pixel-oriented programmes. Scanned figures (only in TIFF format) should have a resolution of 300 dpi (halftone) or 600 to 1200 dpi (line drawings) in relation to the reproduction size. Colour graphics should be created using the CMYK colour palette (print colours), not RGB (monitor colours). If artwork is to be scanned, line drawings should only be contour drawings without halftones (shades of grey). Please do not use patterns; rough hatching is possible.

Please read also Electronic Artwork guidelines for full details: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

4. Copyright Assignment

Authors are no longer required to assign copyright in their paper. Instead authors are required to assign the exclusive licence to publish their paper to Blackwell Publishing and Imaging Decisions. Assignment of the exclusive licence is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless licence has been assigned. (Papers subject to government or Crown copyright are exempt from this requirement). Please download the Exclusive Licence Form here.

5. Proof Correction and Offprints

The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to a web site. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following web site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Hard copy proofs will be posted if no e-mail address is available. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately.

The corresponding author will receive three copies of the issue in which the article has been published.

6. Author Material Archives Policy

Please note that unless specifically requested, Blackwell Publishing will dispose of all hardcopy or electronic material submitted two months after publication. If you require the return of any material submitted, please inform the editorial office or production editor as soon as possible if you have not yet done so.

Checklist of requirements Electronic files of text and figures via e-mail or 3.5' disk or CD with manuscript as *.DOC or *.RTF file High-resolution figures as printouts or *.TIF or *.EPS First page with institution, title, authors, corresponding address with phone, fax and e-mail, e-mail address of an additional author Double-space all parts of the manuscript Send a brief Abstract of 200 words Give SI units for radiation measurements and laboratory values Include Exclusive Licence Form

Last update: July 2005