Author Guidelines
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JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY
J Hellenic Vet Med Soc
GUIDES FOR AUTHORS
- GENERAL INFORMATION
The Journal of the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society (J Hellenic Vet Med Soc) is a quarterly peer reviewed journal, publishing original papers and reviews related to Companion and Farm Animal Clinical Sciences, Laboratory Animal Medicine, Welfare, Proper Care, Use and Management as well as to Food Hygiene and Safety Sciences. The journal is published in Thessaloniki, Greece and is indexed in Web of Science and in Scopus.
Articles of purely regional and local significance and studies of non-domestic species are considered only if they are clearly of broader scientific significance. Manuscripts that report novel studies with substantial importance to the profession are preferred, including analytical studies that are relevant to practicing veterinarians.
There are no publishing fees. Manuscripts submitted for review must be written in English. Prior to submission the manuscript has to be edited a professional English editor and accompanied by a certification of the professional proofreading. The authors are requested to read carefully and fully comply with the following instructions. Non-complying manuscripts will not be given further consideration until properly formatted by the authors.
- TYPE AND STRUCTURE OF MANUSCRIPTS
The following manuscript formats will be accepted for review: review article, original article, retrospective case series or case report, short communication, special article and book review. Manuscripts on particular research fields such as anatomy, physiology and/or presenting diseases limited to remote geographical areas or uncommon animal species will be reviewed initially by the journal EB who will finally decide whether they are suitable for review.
The Editor will accept original manuscripts for review with the understanding that the same material or a substantial part thereof is not being considered for publication and has not been published elsewhere by another publisher. The corresponding author should secure the approval of all authors and the institution(s) where the work was carried out. A statement to the Editor confirming that such approval has been received should be included in the submission cover letter. Additionally, in the cover letter a statement for the type of the submitting manuscript should also be included, as well as any existing conflict of interest. All manuscripts will be reviewed by referees assigned by the editorial board of the journal.
2.1. Review article
Review articles cover subjects which are within the scope of the journal, and are preferably submitted by authors with previous documented scientific activity in the specific research field. Moreover, an author (specialist) may be invited by the Editorial Board (EB) of the journal to cover a specific subject of current or broad interest to veterinarians. A review article should not exceed 5.500 words, excluding references. A summary of 400 to 500 words, should also accompany all review articles.
2.2. Original article
It presents the results of original studies and experiments, does not exceed 4.000 words, excluding references and should be accompanied by a summary of 300 to 400 words.
2.3. Retrospective case series or case report
It presents the results of the retrospective study of a single (case report) or multiple (case series), respectively. It should not exceed 3.000 or 4.000 words, respectively, excluding references. A summary of 300 to 400 words should also be submitted.
2.4. Short communication
It presents the results of small scale research, preliminary announcements, as well as the results of the development of new diagnostic methods, all related to the scope of the journal. It should not exceed 2.500 words, excluding references and be accompanied by a summary of 300 to 400 words.
2.5. Special article
It refers to special issues of Veterinary Medicine (e.g. dealing with current issues in Veterinary Science), expresses opinions on national or international veterinary legislation, or presents aspects of the history of Veterinary Medicine. Its length should not exceed 2.000 words with a summary of 300 to 400 words. Special articles will be evaluated by the EB of the J Hellenic Vet Med Soc.
2.6. Book review
It criticizes new textbooks, books and other publications related to Veterinary Medicine. It should always be signed and should not exceed 500 words.
- FORMAT OF MANUSCRIPTS
3.1 Style
Manuscripts should be written in English and be clear and concise. A person fluent in English language should be consulted to review the manuscript prior to submission. It is pointed out that this is a responsibility of the corresponding author. Manuscripts that fail to meet these requirements will not be sent for review and the authors will be asked to resubmit in an appropriate format. The J Hellenic Vet Med Soc reserves the right to judicially return any manuscript. Where abbreviations used, the word or phrase must be given in full on the first occasion. The microorganisms must be written in italics and their names should be consistent with the current internationally acceptable classification.
Each manuscript should be submitted in a .docx and a .pdfx format too with 1.5 line interval and with continuous line numbering on the left margin. Times New Roman of size 12 should be used for the text and of size 14 for the title of the manuscript. All pages should be numbered on the right lower margin of each page.
3.2. Structure of the manuscript
Each manuscript should comprise the sections below with the title of the manuscript, the author’s name and affiliation written on the same page:
3.2.1.The title. It should be written in small size 14 bold letters, in bold and not exceeding 15 words. A short running title of not more than 30 letters should be provided.
3.2.2. Authors & affiliations. The authors' surnames and initials (e.g. Papadopoulos G.A.), should be written in small size 12 bold letters. The names of affiliated establishments should be written in small italics size 10 letters. Finally, authors are requested to submit their ORCID iD.
3.2.3. Correspondence. The postal and electronic address of the corresponding author must be provided at the bottom of the first page.
3.2.4. Abstract. It should outline in one paragraph the objective of the study and present the important findings and main conclusions of the manuscript. The abstract should not exceed 350 words. Abstracts should be written in size 10 letters.
3.2.5. Key words. Up to 5 key-words, written in size 10 letters, reflecting the content of the paper should be written immediately below the summary separated by a (;).
3.2.6.Main text. The structure of review and special articles as well as book reviews is formed by the authors. In original papers, retrospective case series and short communications, manuscripts should comprise the following sections: «Introduction», «Materials and Methods», «Results», «Discussion» and «Conclusions». Case reports should include only two sections «Case history» and «Discussion».
All units of measurement should be given in the metric system or in SI units. Temperatures should be in °C. Doses of drugs should be given in mg/kg b.w. accompanied by the route and frequency of administration (e.g., 9 mg/kg b.w., intravenously, BID). Drugs are referred to with the name of the active ingredient first followed by the generic one and manufacturer in brackets e.g., enrofloxacine (Baytril®, Bayer).
The main text should be written in size 12 letters. Headings of the main text should be written in bold capital size 11 letters. Subheadings should be written in small bold size 11 letters (first order subheadings) and in ordinary small size 11 letters (second order subheadings).
3.2.7. Acknowledgements. The authors of original papers (studies) should mention all sponsors of the study, if any, as well as acknowledge every one having a more minor role in the study.
3.2.8.Citations and References. Only the absolutely necessary references must be used for the substantiation of the paper. When references are cited in the text, the name of the author and the year should be in brackets e.g., (Christopoulos, 1998). If the author’s name is an integral part of the sentence, the date only is placed in brackets e.g., as reported by Christopoulos (1998). In case of two authors, both names must be written, e.g. (Christopoulos and Papadopoulos, 1999; James and Smith, 1988). For more than two authors, the name of the first author is given followed by «et al.», e.g. (Papadopoulos et al., 1999). Where several references are quoted together, they should be placed in chronological order separated by commas, whereas references of the same author for the same year are distinguished by the addition of a small letter after the year (e.g. 2000a, 2000b, etc).
At the end of the paper the references should be listed in alphabetical order of the first author’s name. A paper that has been accepted for publication is referred to as “in press”. Care should be taken that all citations are appropriately listed in the references. References should be set out as follows:
- Reference to a journal’s article: Muller WH, Kirk RW, Scott DW (1989) Allergic skin diseases of dogs and cats. Small Anim Pract 14:380-385.
- When no author is named: Anonymous (1989) Early diagnosis in cattle. Vet Rec 96:24-28.
- For supplementary issues of a journal: Kirk RW (1989) Diseases of Dogs and Cats. Small Anim Pract 12 (Suppl):48-52.
- For journals where pages are numbered by issue and not by volume: Baker ET (1989) Food allergy in the cat. Feline Pract 5 (Sept):18-22.
- Chapters of books must be referred to as follows: Simeson AB (1980) Calcium phosphorus and magnesium metabolism. In: Clinical Biochemistry of Domestic Animals. 3rd ed, Academic Press, New York: pp 576-586.
- Proceedings of Congresses: Watson PJ, Williams DA (2001) Fecal alpha1-protease inhibitor in dogs with diet-responsive and other bowel disease and response to treatment. In: Proceedings of the European Society of Veterinary Internal Medicine Congress, Dublin, Ireland: pp 54-58.
- References to websites should be listed as follows: Author’s full name (or organization name), year, website address and the date on which it was accessed. For example: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (2003)
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html [accessed 24 February 2005].
3.2.9. Tables and Figures. Tables should be typed on a separate page each, with fully explanatory legends in English language and numbered with Arabic numbers based on their appearance in the text (e.g. Table 1, etc). Only the horizontal lines in tables should be obvious, whereas the vertical ones should be avoided. Figure legends are written at the bottom in English language. The minimum number of tables and figures necessary to clarify the text should be included and should contain only essential data. The photos should be submitted in digital and high resolution JPG files. Radiographs should be submitted in black and white (greyscale) images. Every explanation, contributing to the understanding of the table’s content, should be provided as a footnote, signified by the following series of symbols (*, †, ύ, §, Π, £,**, ††). Charts and graphs should be well designed on paper and submitted in good quality (HD) by e-mail. Photos should be printed on photographic paper and provided in good quality be e-mail.
Attention: After completion of the manuscript evaluation procedure, authors are requested to upload to the Journal’s Platform the Final Text version which will be used for editing. This has to be one document, meaning that main text, tables and figures should all be included in one document (not on separate pages).
- PEER REVIEW PROCESS
4.1. Submission of manuscripts
All manuscripts submitted to the journal for evaluation should first be checked to comply with the journal's instructions. They should be uploaded to the journal’s platform, along with any accompanying tables and figures for the evaluation procedure to follow. Manuscripts that fail to meet journal’s requirements will not be sent for review and the authors will be asked to resubmit them in the appropriate format. In order to submit the work, you must register and log in to the National Documentation Center platform as an author at the following link:https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/jhvms/index
4.2. Plagiarism
Plagiarism is globally recognized as a serious academic misconduct and for this reason the authors are requested to follow the rules of academic ethics during the writing and the documentation of their scientific work and to confirm their acceptance before the work submitted for evaluation. In case confirmed plagiarism is found in a manuscript the Editor will contact the responsible author to ask for an explanation. If there will be no response, then the Editor will communicate with the other authors and if their response is unsatisfactory the Editor has the right not to accept that manuscript for publication. Authors have 1 month to respond.
4.3. Cover letter
The submitted manuscript should always be accompanied by a cover letter, where it should be stated that the submitted work either has not been published (except as a summary not exceeding 400 words) or is being considered for publication in another journal and its content has been approved by all authors. The number of authors per manuscript should be 12 to the maximum and each author should be stated according to the following scheme, where applicable: conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, investigation, resources, data curation, writing-first manuscript draft, writing-review and editing, supervision.
4.4. Review process
Manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two reviewers with the appropriate specialty. The review interval may vary depending on the topic of the manuscript, the availability of suitable reviewers and it will however be as short as possible. Reviewers are obliged to finalize the manuscript evaluation within 30 days the maximum and upload to the platform the corrected manuscript using the Track Changes program together with the completed Reviewer Evaluation Form. In case of disagreement between the reviewers, a third one will be consulted. According to the reviewers’ comments and suggestions, the manuscript should be revised and resubmitted by the authors with text changes highlighted or marked by Track Changes program within 60 days. Otherwise the manuscripts will be considered as withdrawn and will be treated as new submissions. Finally, authors are obliged to upload or send to the editor the final approved manuscript free from colors, highlighting or track changes together with any figures, tables etc for processing.
Manuscripts are processed in the order they are received. However, at the EB’s discretion, manuscripts of particular merit may be “fast-tracked” for early publication.
4.5. Proofs
When the process of publication has been completed, an electronic proof will be sent to the corresponding author who has to make any final corrections. These are usually grammatical or other minor errors, whereas addition of new data, tables, figures or major changes in the text are not allowed. Corrected proofs must be returned to the Editor within two days (2) of receipt.
4.6. Animal welfare-proper care and use of laboratory animals
All material published in the J Hellenic Vet Med Soc must adhere to high ethical and animal welfare standards. Clearly-defined welfare standards must be described in all manuscripts involving living animals irrespective of the species used.
Manuscripts will be considered for publication only if the work detailed therein is reported according to,The ARRIVE Guidelines 2.0 https://arriveguidelines.org/arrive-guidelines,irrespective of the country where they were conducted.Additionally for,
GREECE or EUROPEAN UNION:
- Greece: The research project must have been approved by the Protocol Evaluation Committee and the Competent Veterinary Authority according to the National legislation (Presidential Decree 56/2013 on harmonization of the Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes) and the permit number provided. Also, must be licensed by the Research, Ethics and Conduct Committeeof the respective institutions where the research project was conducted.
- In case where pet animals are used in experimental trials researchers are obliged to submit a written consent from the owner/s.
- In cases of experimental trials using new veterinary products,approval by the veterinary sector of the National Drug Agencyor other national drug control organizations, is necessary.
- In studies concerning infectious and/or parasitic diseases, as well as zoonoses, a special authorization is required from the competent veterinary and health services, such as theGeneral Directorate of Veterinary Service of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food or other national governing bodies.
- Other European Union Countries: The research project must have been approved by relevant National Evaluation Committee according to the National legislation which conforms to the Directive 2010/63/EU, and the name of the Committee and the permit number provided.
OTHER COUNTRIES:
- Research work submitted by scientists coming from other countries out of the European Union should state the name of the relevant Competent Evaluation Committee and the permit number received.
- This information should be reported by the authors in a special section (Materials and Methods) with absolute clarity as they are a prerequisite for work acceptance.
- Additionally the permit/committee decision should be also submitted as a scanned copy.
- INFORMATION
For further information regarding the J Hellenic Vet Med Soc please contact:
HELLENIC VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY
Journal of the Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society
158, Patission Street, 102 10 Athens-GREECE
Secretary: Mrs Eleni Taktikou
Tel. +30 210 8642284, Fax. +30 210 8645744
E-mail: secretary@hvms.gr&office@hvms.gr
