Author Guidelines
Scope and Aims
Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound is a bimonthly, international, peer-reviewed, research journal devoted to the fields of veterinary diagnostic imaging and radiation oncology. Established in 1958, it is the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology, Australasian Association of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging, Brazilian Veterinary Radiology Association, European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging, European Association of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging, and International Veterinary Radiology Association. Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound is also represented on the Committee on Publication Ethics.
The mission of Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound is to serve as a leading resource for high quality articles that advance scientific knowledge and standards of clinical practice in the areas of veterinary diagnostic radiology, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasonography, nuclear imaging, radiation oncology, and interventional radiology. Manuscript types include original investigations, imaging diagnosis reports, review articles, editorials and letters to the Editor. Acceptance criteria include originality, significance, scientific quality, reader interest, composition and adherence to author guidelines.
The time from submission to first decision averages less than 35 days. Currently papers are published online with a DOI and Pubmed ID on Wiley’s “EarlyView” within 60 working days from the date of final edit.
Editorial Policy
In general, Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound follows the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org). Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound also adheres to the WAME Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in scholarly publishing (http://wame.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing). Authors are strongly encouraged to transparently disclose whether or not they followed CONSORT, STROBE, STROBE-VET, REFLECT, ARRIVE, PRISMA, STARD, or CLAIM reporting guidelines (http://www.equator-network.org)(https://strobevet-statement.org/ ) (https://pubs.rsna.org/page/ai/claim) While VRU does not require manuscripts to satisfy all aspects of the applicable reporting guidelines, adherence to these guidelines may be used as a criterion for determining suitability of manuscripts for publication in the Journal.
Manuscripts of original research are accepted with the understanding that they are contributed solely to this journal. Text, figures and tables must not be under consideration by another publication. We reserve the right to reject any material submitted for publication, including advertisements. The Editor and Associate Editors accept no responsibility for opinions expressed by contributors. Editors reserve the right to introduce changes to make manuscripts conform to the editorial standards of Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound. This journal employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting a manuscript to this journal the authors accept that it will be screened for plagiarism against published works. Authors must state any direct or indirect financial interest they may have in the subject matter of a submitted manuscript. Written permission from the publisher (and the author when applicable) is required to reproduce any previously published figures and tables. Any such material must be clearly noted and its source given in the manuscript.
Because originality is a criterion for acceptance in Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound, authors are advised that online publication of preprints using non-commercial servers could cause their paper to be rejected due to excessive duplication of paper content with online content. Therefore, we recommend that authors postpone online posting of submitted versions of their papers until after their papers are accepted. We also encourage authors to update any pre-publication versions of their papers with a link to the final published article.
When feasible, Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in their paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper. When citing or making claims based on data in a public repository, authors must refer to the data at the relevant place in the manuscript text and in addition provide a formal citation in the reference list. We recommend the format proposed by the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles: Authors; Year; Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version (if any); Persistent identifier (e.g. DOI)
Animal ethics-based criteria for manuscript rejection
Manuscripts will be considered for publication only if the work detailed therein:
Follows international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for humane animal treatment and complies with relevant legislation;
Has been approved by the ethics review committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted where such a committee exists;
For studies using client-owned animals, demonstrates a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care and involves informed client consent;
Prior to acceptance of a manuscript, to verify compliance with the above policies, the authors must sign a form certifying that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regards to the humane treatment of animals described in the study; and specify in Materials and Methods the animal use guidelines that were followed.
The Editor retains the right to reject manuscripts on the basis of ethical or welfare concerns. These concerns may apply to manuscripts and authors that fail to meet the aforementioned requirements, and/or studies that involve unnecessary pain, distress, and suffering, or cause lasting harm to animals.
Ethical Considerations
As part of Wiley’s commitment to providing guidance and support to journal Editors in handling actual or suspected infringements of publication ethics, Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE was founded 10 years ago by a group of medical journal editors concerned about publication misconduct, e.g. plagiarism, attempted or actual redundant publication, attempts to pass off fraudulent data, unethical research, breaches of confidentiality, and so on. The journal’s membership on COPE sends a signal to authors and reviewers that we uphold the highest ethical standards, and that journal misconduct, although highly uncommon, will not be tolerated. Benefits of membership include the ability to bring cases to the quarterly COPE Forum for advice and to also obtain confidential advice on sensitive ethical issues from COPE’s chairman or officers.
The following are considered to be unethical publishing practices:
Guest/honarary authorship: inclusion of someone who did not contribute, in order to capitalize on their name recognition or out of a sense of obligation
Ghost authorship: omission of a rightful author from the final list
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound requires that all authors include a conflict of interest statement in their manuscript (in a Conflict of Interest or Acknowledgements section). Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or indirectly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker’s fees from a company. If authors are unsure whether a past or present affiliation or relationship should be disclosed in the manuscript, they can query the editorial office at vetradus@staff.acvr.org. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication in this journal. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this in the manuscript and at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to list on the cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief, in the manuscript, and in the online submission system ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.
The above policies are in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals produced by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/).
Peer Review
Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound adheres to guidelines described in the ICMJE document “Responsibilities in the Submission and Peer-Review Process”.
"The actual value of peer review is widely debated, but the process facilitates a fair hearing for a manuscript among members of the scientific community. More practically, it helps editors decide which manuscripts are suitable for their journals. Peer review often helps authors and editors improve the quality of reporting”
"A peer-reviewed journal is under no obligation to send submitted manuscripts for review, and under no obligation to follow reviewer recommendations, favorable or negative. The editor of a journal is ultimately responsible for the selection of all its content, and editorial decisions may be informed by issues unrelated to the quality of a manuscript, such as suitability for the journal. An editor can reject any article at any time before publication, including after acceptance."
Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound uses a double-blind peer review process. Authors are required to submit both blinded and unblinded versions of their main document. Papers are evaluated at least 2 reviewers who are either Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound Editorial Board members, veterinary specialists, or other scientists with disciplinary expertise. The reviewer comments are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, who makes the final decision. The editors reserve the right to seek additional consultation on appropriateness of study design and methods used for statistical analysis.
Reviewers are charged with maintaining confidentiality and disclosing conflicts of interest. Authors may designate preferred or non-preferred reviewers during the manuscript submission process. The Editor will take author preferences into consideration when choosing reviewers but will not be required to adhere to them. Bases for reviewer evaluations and Editor acceptance decisions include the following criteria:
Originality, novelty
Significance, importance
Scientific quality, hypothesis, experimental design
Interest for VRU readers
Composition, clarity, and organization
Adherence to VRU author guidelines
Manuscript Types
Manuscript subject matter should address important problems in the fields of veterinary radiology or radiation oncology and manuscript phrasing should be understandable for a broad international readership. Authors are encouraged to consult the Editor-in-Chief before submission if they have any questions. Authors will be asked to select one of the following manuscript types during the upload process
Original investigation: Advances knowledge through investigation of new (prospective) or archived (retrospective) material. The abstract should not exceed 250 words and the total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 6000 words (including all components, i.e. tables, figure legends, references etc.).
Invited Commentary: a position paper that addresses a controversial and/or timely topic in the fields of veterinary radiology or radiation oncology. Proposals must be submitted to the Editor and approved prior to submission. Authors should be experts in the subject matter. The paper should contain a review of selected published literature, the authors’ personal experiences, and authors’ recommendations based on this information. Publication fees are waived for accepted papers in this category. The total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 10,000 words (including all components).
Invited Review: a systematic (meta-analysis) review paper on an important topic in the fields of veterinary radiology or radiation oncology. Proposals must be submitted to the Editor and approved prior to submission. The paper should be formatted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines (http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/). Publication fees are waived for accepted papers in this category. The total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 10,000 words (including all components).
Short Communication: Preliminary research report describing a proof-of-concept or small-scale study. The manuscript components should be the same as those described for an Original Investigation manuscript. The abstract should not exceed 150 words, the combined number of figures/tables should not exceed 3, and the total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 2500 words (including all components, i.e. title, author details, abstract, tables, figure legends, acknowledgments, references etc.). A maximum of 3 papers in this category will be published per issue.
Imaging diagnosis: Short report describing a single case for which novel diagnostic imaging findings had an important impact on case management and were confirmed pathologically. The abstract should not exceed 100 words and the total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 2500 words (including all components, i.e. title, author details, abstract, body, figure legends, acknowledgments, references etc.). Reports should have very high-quality images, with no more than four figures. Reports should clearly communicate evidence that imaging findings have not been previously reported, were confirmed by pathology or surgery, and had an important impact on case management. Will be published as an electronic-only publication. Maximum of three published per issue.
Radiation therapy communication: Short report describing a single case for which a novel radiation therapy plan had an important impact on clinical outcome. The abstract should not exceed 100 words, should contain 4 or fewer figures and the total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 2500 words (including all components, i.e. title, author details, abstract, body, figure legends, acknowledgments, references etc.). Will be published as an electronic-only publication. Maximum of three published per issue.
Editorial: Commentary by member of the editorial board.
Letter to the Editor: Letters from readers commenting on any aspect of journal material or policy.
ACVR Consensus Statement: Position paper on a timely topic in the fields of veterinary radiology or veterinary radiation oncology, that was developed and written by the ACVR Consensus Statement Committee. The paper should include a brief description of the mission of the ACVR Consensus Statement Committee, criteria for selection of Committee members, and procedures that were used for developing the consensus recommendations. The Committee’s consensus recommendations for the selected topic should be organized under relevant subheadings and figures/tables provided to help illustrate concepts. A blinded version of the main document will not be required. Submissions will be reviewed by at least one member of the VRU Editorial Board using a single-blinded process (i.e. the reviewer will be provided the unblinded version of the manuscript). The total word count for the unblinded version of the main document should not exceed 10,000 words (including all components). Publication fees will be waived for accepted papers in this category and papers will be prioritized for assignment to an issue
Other: Papers that do not fit into the above categories. Prior approval by the Editor required.
Preferred Manuscript Characteristics:
Compares affected and control populations
Compares imaging characteristics with an appropriate “gold” or reference standard
Answers a specific question or introduces a new discovery
Provides important mechanistic insights, illuminates a novel principle or challenges a conventional dogma
Tests hypotheses using large numbers of cases and robust statistical power, ex. multi-institutional study
Validates new technological advancements or clinical applications
Compares accuracy, repeatability, reliability and/or diagnostic sensitivity of two or more imaging or interventional methods
Tests effects of technical parameters or training on observer performance
Tests effects of pedagogy techniques on veterinary radiology or radiation oncology student performance
Tests efficacy of interventional radiology or radiation oncology treatments
Manuscript Preparation
Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound uses a double-blind peer review process. Authors will need to upload 2 different versions of the main document of their manuscript in Microsoft Word format: 1 complete version and 1 redacted version. To help us maintain double-blinding of our peer review process, please redact all of the author identifiers in the blinded version of the main document using “XXX”. Examples include author names, author affiliations, institution names, author initials, etc. within the manuscript, tables, or illustrations.
English language:
Manuscripts must be written in standard scientific English language. Wiley offers an English Language Editing Service for authors who would like assistance with this. Visit our site to learn about the options. Please note that using the Wiley English Language Editing Service does not guarantee that your paper will be accepted by this journal.Manuscripts should be checked for spelling and grammar errors prior to submission. Papers with multiple spelling and grammar errors may be returned for correction before peer review.
Anatomic terminology should conform to the most recent version of Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria.
Names of equipment, software, medications, products, etc must be followed by the name, city and state of the manufacturer in parentheses. The use of generic names is preferred to the use of brand names or trademarked
Units of measurement:Units should be listed in Systeme International (SI) units. Non-SI units may be used after the SI units but should be placed in parentheses.
Abbreviations: Use of non-standard abbreviations (i.e. abbreviations other than those commonly used for imaging modalities or measurement units) is discouraged. These non-standard abbreviated terms should be spelled out in full in the manuscript title, throughout the body of the paper, and in the titles of tables. If authors strongly believe that non-standard abbreviations are important, please provide an abbreviation list in alphabetical order on the manuscript title page. Abbreviated terms within tables or figures should be defined.
For example:
Abbreviations: CR, conserved region; CSC, cancer stem cell; EC, embryonic carcinoma; ES, embryonic stem; GCNF, germ cell nuclear factor; NR, nuclear receptor; PP, proximal promoter; RA, retinoic acid.
Imaging Techniques: Describe imaging techniques in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the results (Guidelines for reporting image acquisition technical parameters).
Document Formatting:Prepare the manuscript as a single document in the following order using a Microsoft Word compatible word processing program. The manuscript must be double-spaced using font size 12 with a 1" margin all over. Number each page, starting with the title page. Do not embed figures in the manuscript document. Include continuous text line numbering in main (blinded and unblinded) documents.
1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Text
4. List of Author Contributions
5. Acknowledgements
6. References
7. Tables
8. Figure Legends
9. Appendix
Components to be included in the Main Manuscript Document: (Ref: Equator network reporting guidelines http://www.equator-network.org/)
1. Title Page:
Title: The title should communicate the most important findings from the study (include the title in both blinded and unblinded versions).
Authors: Include the first name (no initials), middle name or initial(s) (optional), last name of all authors. Provide name and address of authors' departments and/or institutions (use superscript letters before different institutions to identify different author affiliations). Provide Corresponding Author name, address, email address.
Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound requires that all authors complete an authorship statement. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to Category 1: a) conception and design, b) analysis of data, and c) interpretation of data; and Category 2: a) drafting the article, or b) revising it critically for important intellectual content; and on Category 3) final approval of the version to be published. Categories 1, 2, and 3 must all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Any part of an article critical to its main conclusions must be the responsibility of at least one author.
Editors may ask authors to describe what each contributed; this information may be published. Increasingly, multicenter trials are attributed to a corporate author. All members of the group who are named as authors, either in the authorship position below the title or in a footnote, should fully meet the above criteria for authorship. Group members who do not meet these criteria should be listed, with their permission, in the Acknowledgments or in an appendix. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the coauthors. Because the order is assigned in different ways, its meaning cannot be inferred accurately unless it is stated by the authors. Authors may wish to explain the order of authorship in a footnote. In deciding on the order, authors should be aware that many journals limit the number of authors listed in the table of contents and that the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) lists in MEDLINE only the first 24 plus the last author when there are more than 25 authors.
The Corresponding Author will be primarily responsible for paying publication charges; ensuring that all authors disclose conflicts of interest; and addressing queries from reviewers, editors and readers. First authors who are trainees are strongly encouraged to list their mentoring author as the corresponding author for the paper.
Key Words: Please provide 3-5 key words that are not in the title or abstract and that would also help other researchers find your paper.
Conflict of interest diclosure: State whether or not any authors have a conflict of interest. See details in section above.
Previous presentation or publication disclosure: Describe any previous meeting presentations, abstracts, etc.
EQUATOR network disclosure: please indicate whether or not an EQUATOR network checklist was used (http://www.equator-network.org/). If so, specify which (example: CONSORT, STROBE, STROBE-VET, REFLECT, ARRIVE, PRISMA, STARD).
Abbreviations (optional): If non-standard abbreviations are used in the paper (i.e. abbreviations other than those commonly used for imaging modalities or measurement units), define them here.
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