SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
FOR AUTHORS
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION AND PREPARATION
REPORTING GUIDELINES
European Radiology strongly encourages authors to follow reporting guidelines, most commonly STARD, STROBE or PRISMA when preparing their study. These guidelines can be accessed via the Equator Network website:
STARD – Reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies
STROBE – Reporting of observational studies
PRISMA – Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
TITLE PAGE DOCUMENT
A concise and informative title, the name(s) of the author(s), the affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s), the e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author.
Please do not include a ‘Running Title’ or Funding information (which should be included in the Disclosure paragraph/Acknowledgements).
AUTHORSHIP
Please note that neither the team of authors (additions or deletions), nor their order of appearance can be changed after submission.
Further, the order in which the author names appear in the title page is binding for publication. The manuscript can only be submitted by one of the authors and not by other staff members or assistants; all authors must be listed in the title page as well as in the respective fields in the submission system.
Joint first or last authorship by no more than two authors is possible for papers published in European Radiology. When submitting your manuscript, please mention the equal contributions in the title page of your paper.
MAIN TEXT DOCUMENT CONTAINING THE FOLLOWING
Abstract:
The abstract should be structured into Objectives – Methods – Results – Conclusions and consist of no more than 250 words (the headings are included in the word count). Please note that reviews, special reports, technical developments and editorials are excluded from this rule.
Keywords:
In order to aid online searching, three to five keywords should be listed from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database of the National Library of Medicine. To find suitable terms we recommend to use MeSH on Demand.
Key points:
All submissions require 1 to 3 key points (without word limit) that highlight the main message(s) of the article. They should be aimed at a general audience. Ideally they should reproduce the keywords (derived from MeSH, see above) and there is no problem about repeating phrases used in the abstract.
For example, in a recent paper on the clinical impact of HRCT in patients with respiratory disease, the key points were:
High Resolution Computed Tomography helps clinicians to assess patients with lung disease
Prospective two-centre study showed that HRCT provides greater diagnostic confidence
Treatment can be given with greater confidence
Management of patients becomes more appropriate
Company names:
The policy of European Radiology does not allow company names to be published in titles, abstracts, keywords and key points. However, company names can be written in full in the main text. No geographical information (city, country) should be provided, but only the product and company name. Please check carefully to make sure the company name is correct and up-to-date.
Abbreviations and acronyms:
Non-commonly used abbreviations and acronyms should be listed and defined after the key points. These should be used consistently where sensible and necessary, and should be defined at first mention in the abstract. Radiation and laboratory measurements should be given using the International System of Units (SI). Commonly used abbreviations (see the list here) do not have to be defined at first use in the abstract.
Introduction:
The introduction should state the purpose of the investigation and give a short review of the pertinent literature.
Materials and methods:
This section should be given in sufficient detail to permit repetition of the experimental work.
Results:
The results section should describe the outcome of the study. Data should be presented as concisely as possible, if appropriate in the form of tables or figures, although very large tables should be avoided.
Discussion:
The discussion should be an interpretation of the results and their significance with reference to work by other authors. The first paragraph should summarize and interpret the results in a simple manner. The second paragraph is a comparison with the literature, background and any useful comment. The third paragraph is dedicated to biases and limitations. The fourth paragraph is a short and straightforward conclusion.
Acknowledgements:
These should be as brief as possible. Any grant that requires acknowledgement should be mentioned. The names of funding organisations should be written in full – see also for details on the Disclosure paragraph. In particular, authors must acknowledge those companies who have supported the department(s) where the work was carried out or may have sponsored the study in any way.
Reference list:
The list of references should only include published works that are cited in the text and that have been published. Personal communications and manuscripts that have not been accepted at the point of submission [and have no Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number] can be mentioned within the text in brackets (e.g. “Radiography of the hand” by Brown N, Smith A et al, submitted in August 2009, European Radiology”).
The authors should make efforts to cite papers that are really providing the referred information, and not articles that report opinions of other researchers.
References should be listed in the order that they appear in the text. For further information on reference style see References section below.
Table and Figure legends:
Each Table and Figure must have a legend. These should be listed together after the reference section in the main text file as well as being included in the metadata of the graphic files. For further information, see Illustrations and tables section below.
Page numbers:
Please make sure to number the pages in your main document to facilitate the review process. Line numbers for each page will be created automatically in the PDF of your manuscript.
ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL (ESM)
ESM for an article will be made accessible via SpringerLink. ESM may consist of information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings, and/or information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, additional tables and illustrations, appendices. The material must be included with the original submission and is subject to peer review. After acceptance, ESM will be published as received from the author.
ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES
Figure and table legends should be listed together after the reference section in the main text file.
Figures and tables should be provided as separate files, not embedded in the main text file.
Recommended file formats for figures: EPS, JPG, TIFF
Figure captions must be brief and provide clear explanations of the illustrations. The file name of each image should include the figure number (e.g. figure_2a.tif) and figure numbers and captions should be included only in the text and not embedded in the figure file.
Tables must be numbered in Arabic numbers and should include a title. All abbreviations in the table must be explained and footnotes in tables are denoted by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data).
Mathematical equations should be inserted using the Word equation tool, or formulae can be embedded in the text as image files. It is not possible to upload LaTeX source files or PDFs.
REFERENCES
The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the authors.
Citations in the text should be in Arabic numerals typed in square brackets, e.g. [2, 5, 12]. References must be listed in the order in which they appear in the text.
Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus. Only if the complete citation is not available (journal, issue and page range), should the DOI be given. Authors should follow the examples shown below.
If there are 6 authors or less, the names of all authors should be provided (i.e. ‘et al’ should not be used). If there are 7 authors or more, only the names of the first 3 authors in the list should be given followed by ‘et al’
JOURNAL ARTICLES
1. Ward J, Robinson PJ (2002) How to detect hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis. Eur Radiol 12:2258-2272
2. Ward J, Robinson PJ (2002) How to detect hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis. Eur Radiol. DOI:10.1007/s00330-002-1450-y
BOOKS
3. Larcher W (1995) Physiological plant ecology, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
MULTI-AUTHOR BOOK
5. World Health Organization (2000) Title of subordinate document. World Health Organization, Geneva. Available via http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html. Accessed 26 Oct 2008
ONLINE DOCUMENT
5. World Health Organization (2000) Title of subordinate document. World Health Organization, Geneva. Available via http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html. Accessed 26 Oct 2008
ARTICLE TYPES
Article type
Words* Figures
Tables
Suppl. material (online only)
Original article ≤3000 ≤6 ≤5 (+)
Review article ≤3000 ≤6 ≤4 (+)
Special report ≤3000 ≤6 ≤4 (+)
Technical development ≤2000 ≤4 ≤4 (+)
Editorial ≤1000 ≤4 ≤2 –
*Including introduction, material and methods, results, discussion
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Original articles should present results from clinical studies, which are of general interest or of great importance to the development of one of the radiological subspecialties. “Original articles” may also present new or modified methods for radiological examination or intervention with the main focus being on the technical aspects of the described method. The abstract of an “Original article” is required to be structured into “Objectives”, “Methods”, “Results” and “Conclusion”.
REVIEWS
Reviews should cover topics of current interest. European Radiology seeks short, critical review articles, which address unsolved problems with a strong reflection of the recent relevant key articles and important references. The abstract of a “Review” is not required to be structured, however, it should summarize the key issues of the article.
SPECIAL REPORTS
Special Reports alert the radiological community about important new developments in regulation/policy and professional issues as well as guidelines and recommendations. The abstract of a “Report” is not required to be structured, however, it should summarize the key issues of the article.
TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS
A Technical Developments article is a short manuscript describing a new or modified method for radiological examination or intervention. Its main focus should be on the technical aspects of the method. The abstract of a “Technical Developments” article is not required to be structured into Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusion. However, it should summarize the key issues of the article.
OPINIONS (PREVIOUS: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)
As a general rule, Opinions will be published on our website (https://www.european-radiology.org/opinions/) where we offer a suitable forum for the discussion of articles. Oponions published solely on the website are not assigned a DOI number. If there is a point of fact which requires clarification or correction, we are very grateful when such errors are pointed out to us.
In cases of exceptional interest or importance to the community, the Editor-in-Chief may decide to publish an Opinion article in European Radiology.
Submissions of “Opinions” should be sent to office@european-radiology.org and must include a title, author(s) and affiliation(s), as well as references, including for the published article they are based on, if applicable.
EDITORIALS
Editorials should highlight and explain a topic, ideally of current interest or focus in its respective field. As a subject matter expert, the author needs to emphasize why radiologists should familiarize themselves with this issue. Where applicable, authors should refer to topical articles, which have recently been published in European Radiology.
EDITORIAL COMMENT (INVITED ONLY)
Editorial Comments are envisioned to be short and accompany articles to draw the reader’s attention to a specific debate that might be interesting for clinical practice.
They can also be employed to explain in “simple” language an advanced topic we deem important to understand, even if preliminary or difficult to grasp.
Editorial comments are linked to their original article on the Springer website as well as on PubMed.
CASE REPORTS
Case reports are not published in European Radiology, and should be sent to EURORAD, which welcomes the submission of interesting and educational case reports, and makes them accessible for the readers as blinded teaching cases. All articles undergo peer review to maintain the highest possible scientific quality and are fully citable through an individual DOI (digital object identifier) number (www.doi.org).
COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL STANDARDS
Each submission to European Radiology must include a detailed statement on compliance with ethical standards.
Authors should download the template, fill in the appropriate responses and delete what is not applicable for your manuscript. The completed form should be uploaded together with your manuscript files. Submissions not containing this statement will not be sent to peer-review.
TEMPLATE: COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL STANDARDS (DISCLOSURE PARAGRAPH)
COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSIONS
PERMISSIONS
Material printed in European Radiology is covered by copyright, owned by the European Society of Radiology (ESR). No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the copyright owner.
Reprint permission requests must be directed by e-mail to the Editorial Office, and should include the following information:
Title, author, date, page numbers or DOI of the source article
Material to be used (images, text parts, etc.)
Title, author line (incl. complete contact information), journal / book / series name, and publisher of the article where the reprinted element will be used.
In case of commercial use, please include territory of distribution (Europe, world, etc.); circulation and/or print run; publication date of your book or article, and retail price.
If the source article is not your own work, you have to make an official request to the corresponding author of the paper and receive permission.
After review of your permission request, the Editorial Office will contact you via email regarding the further procedure.
Editorial Office contact: office@european-radiology.org
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as – tacitly or explicitly – by the responsible authorities at the institution where the work was carried out.
Transfer of copyright to ESR becomes effective if and when the article is accepted for publication. The copyright covers the exclusive right (for U.S. government employees: to the extent transferable) to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or other reproductions of similar nature.
All articles published in this journal are protected by copyright, which covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article (e.g. as offprints), as well as all translation rights. No material published in this journal may be reproduced photographically or stored on microfilm, in electronic data bases, video disks, etc., without first obtaining written permission from the publisher. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.
An author may self-archive an author-created version of his/her article on his/her own website. He/she may also deposit this version on his/her institution’s and funder’s (funder’s designated) repository at the funder’s request or as a result of a legal obligation, including his/her final version, provided it is not made publicly available until after 12 months of official publication. He/ she may not use the publisher’s PDF version which is posted on www.springerlink.com for the purpose of self-archiving or deposit.
Furthermore, the author may only post his/her version provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer’s website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: “The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”.
Please use the appropriate URL and/or DOI for the article. Articles disseminated via SpringerLink are indexed, abstracted and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia.
The author warrants that this contribution is original and that he/she has full power to make this grant. The author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material on behalf of any and all co-authors.
After submission of the agreement signed by the corresponding author (after acceptance), changes of authorship or in the order of the authors listed will not be accepted by Springer.
While the advice and information in this journal is believed to be true and accurate at the date of its publication, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
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