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Submission guidelines

Contents

Instructions for Authors

Manuscript submission via Editorial Manager

Authors should submit their manuscripts to the Journal of Anesthesia online. Please log in directly at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/joan/ and upload your manuscript following the instructions provided. Please use the Help option to see the most recently updated system requirements.

Author accounts

Authors entering the journal’s Editorial Manager site can either create a new account or use an existing one. If you have an existing account, use it for all your submissions; you can track their status on the same page.

If you have forgotten your username and password, please click the link “Send Username/Password” and enter your e-mail address. You will then receive an automatic e-mail with your username and password.

Getting started

Once you have logged into your account, Editorial Manager will lead you through the submission process in an orderly, step-by-step manner. If you cannot finish your submission in one session, you can save a draft and resume the process later at the same point for that manuscript.

While submitting your electronic manuscript, you will be required to enter data about it in the system. This includes the full title, author names and affiliations, and so forth, as listed below under Preparation of Manuscript. Support for special characters is available. At any point during this process, you can click on the Help button for answers to frequently asked questions.

Uploading files

  • Manuscript text: The manuscript text should be uploaded as a Microsoft Word document.

  • Figures: Common graphic files such as GIF, JPEG, EPS, and TIFF are supported. Please submit figures in an electronic format according to Artwork Guidelines provided toward the end of this document. Figures should be submitted within the body of the text. Only if the file size of the manuscript causes problems in uploading it, the large figures should be submitted separately from the text.

  • Tables: Use the table functions of your word-processing program, not spreadsheets, to make tables.

After the parts of the article have been uploaded in this manner, the system will convert the files to PDF format. You can view the result of the conversion with Adobe Acrobat Reader. You will also be notified by e-mail that your submission is successful.

At any point during this process, you can click on the Help button for answers to frequently asked questions.

If the total size of the files exceeds the maximum file volume(20 MB) for online submission, please reduce the resolution of large files for your initial submission. In this case, you may be requested to provide figures of sufficient quality for printing later if your manuscript is accepted for publication.

Keeping track

After submission, you may return periodically and monitor the progress of your submission throughout the review process.

Submission categories

  • Original articles present results of clinical and laboratory studies that are original, important, and relevant to anesthesiology.

  • Review articles may cover all areas of clinical, investigational, or basic science.

  • Special articles describe literature, education, societies, and other topics of interest related to history or current trends in anesthesiology.

  • Clinical reports are brief descriptions of clinical research or are case reports.

  • Short communications are brief descriptions of the results of laboratory research, or are reports on new research equipment or techniques. No more than two figures or tables may be included in Short Communications.

  • Letters to the editor are brief letters addressed to the Editor. Begin the article with “To the Editor:” Keywords should be limited to 70 letters including spaces and middle dots. One table or figure will be allowed, but more than one table or figure will be published as Electric Supplementary Material.

    The absolute maximum is 1200 words, which must include the space for any table, figure, and references (this is approximately two sides of printed matter in the Journal). One table or figure is equivalent to approximately 400 words.

  • Book and multimedia reviews report current literature in

    anesthesiology.

  • Editorials are solicited by the editors. There is no limit to the numbers of figures and tables.

Manuscripts should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (URM) Submitted to Biomedical Journals” at: http://www.icmje.org/

Japanese authors should use spelling conforming to Japan Medical Terminology compiled by the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences (JAMS) Committee on Medical Terminology.

Prerequisites for publication

A Certification Form, included in each issue and which also may be downloaded from the online submission website at: http//www.springer.com/journal/00540/

must be signed by all authors of the submitted article and be received by the Editorial Office prior to the start of the manuscript review process. As a scanned file (PDF, TIFF, or JPEG), the signed Certification Form should be uploaded via Editorial Manager at the time of online Submission.

Certification Form (Download pdf, 68 kB)

Editorial policies

Originality: All manuscripts and materials are received with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere in whole or in any significant part. With the exception of a scientific abstract, no substantial part of an article may have been published elsewhere.

Authors who have any question concerning what may constitute prior publication should submit the title page and abstract of previously published material with articles intended for publication in the Journal of Anesthesia.

Authorship: Manuscripts and all other materials are received with the understanding that each author listed has participated in the conception, design, execution, and/or analysis of data (as applicable), as well as in the writing of the manuscript.

The signatory to the Certification Form, namely the corresponding author, attests to the accuracy and validity of the contents of the manuscript and is listed as author or otherwise acknowledged for his or her contribution. Manuscripts and all other materials are received with the understanding that all authors listed have reviewed the submitted paper and have approved its submission for publication.

No editing by the author(s) is permitted once the manuscript is received at the Editorial Office.

Peer review process: Submitted manuscripts are reviewed with regard to their validity, originality, and significance. All manuscripts are initially assessed by the editors, and if they are judged suitable candidates for publishing, they are then reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers. In principle, the author will be advised within 8 weeks of the acceptance, rejection, or required revision of the manuscript. The journal use a single-anonymized peer review process; that is, author identities are known to peer reviewers, but peer reviewers identities are not revealed to the authors.

The choice of the editors and reviewers will consider, wherever possible, avoiding present or past collaborators, or scholars working in the same institutions; this may not be possible in case of specific developing fields, and in case of authors with wide international collaborations.

Papers from the editors or from the associate editors, regarding his-her specific fields of action, will be directly managed by the editor in chief, choosing reviewers and editors according to the previously mentioned policy. One of the section editors will manage the papers of which the editor-in-chief is an author, including editorials and commentaries.

Please find more detailed information on peer review policy in Springer journals at Peer Review Policy, Process and Guidance.

All revisions will require a final editorial review, and resubmission does not guarantee acceptance of the revision.

After submission, authors can return periodically to the journal’s Editorial Manager site and monitor the progress of their submission throughout the review process.

Ethical concerns

Patient identification: Patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, admission dates, and any other data that might identify patients are to be avoided in all materials. In addition, a patient must not be recognizable in any photograph or family tree, unless written permission of the subject or, in the case of minors, of parents is provided and included with the submission.

Human studies: Investigations on humans must be conducted in accordance with the current Declaration of Helsinki. No manuscript describing investigations carried out in humans will be accepted for publication unless the text states that the study (either prospective, retrospective, or a report of case series) was approved by research ethics committees of all the involved institutions, and that written informed consent (unless the ethics committees granted a waiver of it) was obtained from all subjects or, in the case of minors, from parents.

The Declaration of Helsinki issued in 2008 states that every clinical trial must be registered in a publicly accessible database before recruitment of the first subject.

The Journal of Anesthesia has decided that, as of April 1, 2013, it is mandatory for the authors to indicate a registration site and a registration number in the Methods section of all prospective clinical studies that started after April 1, 2009, in any part of the world.

For clinical studies carried out in Japan, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare states in the Ethical Guidelines for Clinical Research that clinical trials started after April 1, 2009, in Japan must be registered in one of the following databases (called Japan Primary Registries Network: JPRN), before recruitment of the first subject: (1) UMIN Clinical Trial Registry, (2) Clinical Trials Information (JapicCTI), or (3) Clinical Trial Registry.

Appropriate institutional review board (IRB) review and approval should accompany all studies involving human participants or research material derived from human participants. This information should be clearly stated in the Method section of the manuscript including the date of the IRB approval and duration of the trial/study. If the study was exempted from IRB approval, that information should be indicated in the Method section.

Animal studies: No manuscript describing investigations carried out in animals will be accepted for publication unless the text clearly states that the study was approved by animal research ethics committees. Although it is recognized that animal research ethical guidelines can vary between countries, the Journal of Anesthesia uses guidelines for proper conduct of animal experiments issued by both the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and also by the Science Council of Japan, and reserves the right to reject manuscripts according to our standards, even if the study has been approved by a local ethics committee.

For both human and animal studies, the authors must submit a copy of an approval document from the ethics committee and of written informed consent, when the editorial office or a reviewer requires.

Conflict-of-interest policy

The all authors must indicate all sources of funding supporting the submitted work. This requirement includes any corporate or institutional funding sources.

Sources of funding and any other explanatory information regarding conflict of interest (COI) for the article should be disclosed when submitting the manuscript via Editorial Manager. Only in exceptional cases does the journal consider COI in the peer-review process.

In a manuscript submitted to the journal, all disclosures should be inserted by the corresponding author in the “Conflict of Interest Statement” before the reference list, as shown in the following example:

Conflict of Interest Statement

A (author name) serves as a consultant to Z (entity name); B’s spouse is chairman of Y; C received a research grant from X; D received lecture fees from V; E holds a patent on U; F has been reimbursed by T for attending several conferences; G received honoraria for writing promotional material for S; H has no conflict of interest.

COI Form (Download doc, 60 kB)

Manuscript format

All manuscripts must be written in English. Manuscripts should be written in American English, not in British English.

The abstract, the manuscript text, references, tables, and figure legends must be typed with wide margins in A4-size or U.S. letter-size format. Incomplete or improperly prepared manuscripts will be returned to authors without review.

Each of the following sections must begin on a new page: title page, abstract, manuscript text, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. Pages must be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page, in the upper right-hand corner of each page.

Standard abbreviations should be used. Abbreviations must be defined in the abstract, at first mention in the manuscript text, and on first occurrence in tables and figure legends. The use of abbreviations in titles and headings should be avoided.

Authors whose native language is not English are required to seek the assistance of language services or of a colleague who is a native English speaker and is familiar with the field of work before the submission.

Editing services for non-English speakers

The following organizations provide language services to non-native speakers of English. Please note that Journal of Anesthesia does not endorse, nor does it have any direct involvement with, any of the services listed; this information is provided solely for the convenience of authors for Journal of Anesthesia.

  • Medical English Service: http://www.med-english.com/ (Japanese Website only)

  • Diacritech Language Editing Services: http://www.languageedit.com/ (English Website only)

  • Write Science Right: http://www.writescienceright.com/ (English and Japanese Website)

  • Genedits: http://www.genedits.com/ (English Website only)

  • International Science Editing: http://www.internationalscienceediting.com/ (English and Japanese Website)

  • Edanz editing global: http://edanzediting.com/ (English and Japanese Website)

Maximum length:

  • Original articles 4,000 words

  • Review articles 5,000 words

  • Special articles 2,000 words

  • Clinical reports 1,500 words

  • Short communications 1,500 words

  • Letter to the editor 1,200 words

  • Book and multimedia reviews 750 words

  • Editorials 1,500 words

Title page (page 1): All submissions must include a title page. The title page should contain a brief and specific title and the full names and academic affiliations of all authors. The corresponding author should be specified, with full mailing address and an e-mail address. The title page should include 3–5 key words, and the word count (letter count for Letter to the Editor) of the manuscript, the number of tables, and the number of figures should be indicated.

Abstract: For Original articles, a structured abstract with the headings Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion should be provided. The abstract should consist of no more than 250 words and should include only the most essential data, along with the statistical significance, if available. New and important aspects of the study should be emphasized.

For Review articles, Special articles, Clinical reports, and Short communications, a nonstructured abstract consisting of one complete paragraph in no more than 200 words is required. Letters to the editor, Book and multimedia reviews and Editorials do not require an abstract.

Manuscript text: The manuscript text of Original articles should be divided into the following sections. (Short communications should not include subdivisions such as Methods, Results, etc.)

  • Introduction: The introduction should provide a concise account of the background and purpose of the study, containing only the most pertinent references, not an extensive literature review.

  • Methods: This section should describe clearly the selection criteria for subjects of observations or experiments. The methods and apparatus used must be described in sufficient detail to allow the investigation to be interpreted and repeated. All technical apparatus, including computer software, must be identified in parentheses with brand name, manufacturer’s name, and city and country of manufacture (if U.S.A., both city and state). Complete references must be provided for all established scientific methods and medical procedures, and any lesser-known methods should be described briefly. All drugs and chemicals used must be identified, specifying dosage and routes of administration. Generic names for drugs are preferable; if a brand name is used, it should be inserted in parentheses after the generic name. The standard units for length, mass, and volume are meter, kilogram, and liter, respectively. Concentrations must be expressed in molar or equivalent units (e.g., moles per liter). The standard units for reporting pressure are either mmHg or cmH2O. Virgules should be used in expressions such as “ml/kg/min”; the format “ml•kg-1•min-1” should not be used.

    All statistical methods used must be identified and, if applicable, referenced.

    Authors have final responsibility for confirming that all symbols and expressions containing superscripts or subscripts, e.g., “PaO2”, have been correctly typeset as intended.

  • Results: Results should appear in logical sequence in the manuscript text, tables, and figures. Data should not be repeated unnecessarily. Emphasis should be placed only on important observations. Statistical significance should be given as values of probability.

  • Discussion: New and important aspects of the study should be emphasized, with no repetition of detailed data given in the Results section. The discussion should elaborate upon the implications of the findings and their limitations and should compare these implications and limitations with those reported in other studies. All conclusions should be justifiable by the results of the study.

  • Acknowledgments: Acknowledgment of individuals who assisted in the study or with manuscript preparation, including statistical review, should appear between the text and the references.

References: Reference citations in the manuscript text must be enclosed in brackets, e.g., [1–7], [8], [2, 5–9], and must be numbered consecutively in the order cited. Accuracy of reference data is the authors’ responsibility. References should be restricted to those that have direct bearing on the work described.

Articles published without peer review, including material appearing in programs of meetings or in organizational publications, should not be included in the references.

Any references to published abstracts must be less than five years old. All abstracts included in the references must be written in English. Abstracts in Japanese and other non-English languages cannot be listed as references. Manuscripts submitted for publication are not acceptable as references, but manuscripts accepted for publication may be included in the reference list and should be marked “in press.” Personal communications and unpublished data should be cited in parentheses in the manuscript text. If a citation of this kind is from someone other than the authors, a letter must be submitted in which the direct quotation is given with the author’s signature. Sites on the World Wide Web (URLs) may not be used as references.

The journal uses the Vancouver style for references. Each journal reference should consist of the names of all authors (do not use “et al.” ), title of article, journal name abbreviated according to Index Medicus, year of publication, volume number, and inclusive page numbers. For references published in Japanese with an English abstract, follow example 2 below.

For references published in Japanese, see example 3. For references published online, see example 4. Book references must include the name and location of the publisher (see example 5).

1. Keenan RL, Shapiro JH, Kane FR, Simpson PM. Bradycardia during anesthesia in infants. An epidemiological study. Anesthesiology. 1994;80:976–82.

2. Kanemaru T, Ogawa S, Kato J, Saeki S. Suppressive effect of sevoflurane on somatosympathetic reflexes in cats (in Japanese with English abstract). Masui (Jpn J Anesthesiol). 1992;41:1371–84.

3. Tsuneto S, Hayashi A, Yamamoto K, Kashiwagi T. Survival time from the onset of cancer pain (in Japanese). Pein Kurinikku (Pain Clinic). 1992;13:509–11.

4. Mitchell AJ, Vaze A, Rao S. Clinical diagnosis of depression in primary care: a meta-analysis. Lancet. 2009. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60879-5.

5. Feldman S. Neuromuscular blocking drugs. In: Churchill-Davidson HC, editor. A practice of anesthesia. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 1979. p.898–9.

Figure legends: Figure legends must be numbered consecutively and must define all abbreviations and symbols appearing on the figures described. Figure parts should be identified by lowercase roman letters (a, b, etc.). If illustrations are supplied with uppercase labeling, lowercase letters will still be used in the figure legends and citations. Figure titles should not be included in photographs.

Figure legends should be included in the manuscript text and not in the figure file.

Tables: Tables must be cited in the manuscript text. Each table must be numbered and given a brief, informative title as well as footnotes, if necessary. If more than one page is used, column headings should be repeated on every page. The title and any footnotes should be on the same page as the table.

All abbreviations used must be defined in the footnotes.

If the table contains data from another published source, written permission from both the author and publisher must be submitted (as is required in the case of figures).

Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Figures: Figures must be cited in the manuscript text and be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals, and given titles. Please prepare figures in an electronic format according to Artwork Guidelines provided toward the end of this document. Submission of previously published figures should be avoided.

If such figures are used, they must be accompanied by an acknowledgment of the source and permission from both the author and publisher of the original. The source must also be included in the list of references. Color figures will be accepted; online publication of color illustrations is free of charge. For color in the print version, however, the author will be required to cover the cost (€950 per article). Otherwise the figures will be printed in black and white. Please note that, in such cases, it is the authors' responsibility to prepare figures to be illustrative enough to convey the necessary information even after they are converted into black and white.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Electronic supplementary material will be published in the online version only.

It may consist of

– Information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings

– Information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, etc.

– Large original data, e.g. additional tables, illustrations, etc.

Submission

– Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.

– Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

– To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.

Audio, Video, and Animations

– Always use MPEG-1 (.mpg) format.

Text and Presentations

– Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.

– A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

– Spreadsheets should be converted to PDF if no interaction with the data is intended.

– If the readers should be encouraged to make their own calculations, spreadsheets should be submitted as .xls files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

– Specialized formats such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

– It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Numbering

– If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.

– Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.

– Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

Captions

– For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

Processing of supplementary files

– Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

– The manuscript contain a descriptive caption for each supplementary material

– Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

  • The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
  • The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
  • A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
  • Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
  • Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
  • No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

  • Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
  • Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
  • Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
  • Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
  • Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

  • If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
  • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

    - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

    - an expression of concern may be placed with the article

    - or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

  • The author’s institution may be informed
  • A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

Authorship principles

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

All authors whose names appear on the submission

1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

3) approved the version to be published; and

4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

* Based on/adapted from:

ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

  • ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
  • managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
  • providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
  • making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Example: CRediT taxonomy:

• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

  • Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

Open Choice

Open Choice allows you to publish open access in more than 1850 Springer Nature journals, making your research more visible and accessible immediately on publication.

Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

Benefits:

  • Increased researcher engagement: Open Choice enables access by anyone with an internet connection, immediately on publication.
  • Higher visibility and impact: In Springer hybrid journals, OA articles are accessed 4 times more often on average, and cited 1.7 more times on average*.

  • Easy compliance with funder and institutional mandates: Many funders require open access publishing, and some take compliance into account when assessing future grant applications.

It is easy to find funding to support open access – please see our funding and support pages for more information.

*) Within the first three years of publication. Springer Nature hybrid journal OA impact analysis, 2018.

Open Choice

Funding and Support pages

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Find more about the license agreement

Artwork Guidelines

Electronic Figure Submission

– Supply all figures electronically.

– Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.

– For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.

– Use of double-byte characters should be avoided.

– Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

– Name your figure files with “Fig” and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line Art

– Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.

– Do not use faint lines and/or lettering, and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.

– All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.

– Line drawings should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.

– Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone Art

– Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading,

etc.

– If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.

– Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination Art

– Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.

– Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of

600 dpi.

Color Art

– Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per

channel).

Figure Lettering

– To add lettering, it is best to use a sans-serif font such as Helvetica or Arial.

– Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).

– Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.

– Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.

– Do not include titles or legends in your illustrations.

Figure Placement and Size

– When preparing your figures, size figures to fit within the column width.

– Figures should be 84 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher

than 234 mm.

(Revised on November 5, 2013)

Links and downloads

Open access publishing

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Journal of Anesthesia, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page.

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