Current Medical Imaging Reviews

ISSN: 1573-4056 - Volume 5, 4 Issues, 2009

Instructions for Authors

Online Manuscript Submission: Manuscripts must only be submitted online to the Bentham Science Editorial Office. You may submit your full manuscript either by e-mail at cmir@benthamscience.org (file size restricted) or by online submission.

Short review manuscripts may be submitted as an e-mail attachment (maximum file size 512 KB) to the editorial office at cmir@benthamscience.org

For online submission, the manuscripts should be submitted via our online manuscript submission service available at www.bentham-mps.org or by FTP submission at www.bentham-ftp.org Please provide your complete manuscript in the form of a single zipped folder containing soft copies of all the material (main text in MS word format, figures / illustrations, scanned photographs, tables, chemical structures drawn in ChemDraw) as separate files, while a PDF version of the entire manuscript must also be included with all the figures / illustrations / tables / chemical structures etc. embedded in the text exactly in the manner as they should appear online.

Authors are required to proofread the PDF version of their manuscript before submission. The Publishers will not be responsible for any error occurring in the manuscript in this regard.

Manuscript Length: There is no limit on the number of pages that may be submitted, however, page lengths can vary for mini-reviews of up to 12 journal pages and for longer reviews up to 30 journal pages.

Manuscript Organization: The manuscript should be divided as: Title page, abstract and the main text. The text may be subdivided further according to the areas to be discussed. The Acknowledgements (if any) and Reference sections must then follow.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Please acknowledge anyone (individual/company/institution) who has contributed to the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content. Please list the source(s) of funding for the study, for each author, and for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements section.

Title Page: The first page should contain the title, the author's full names, institutional affiliations and location, with an asterisk in front of the name of the principal author. The corresponding author should be designated and their full address, business telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address must be stated to receive correspondence and galley proofs.

Abstract: The abstract should not exceed 200 words and should condense the essential features of the review article.

Key Words: Authors must supply up to six key words along with their manuscript.

Text: The main text should begin on a separate page and it may be subdivided into separate sections. The reference numbers should be given in square brackets in the text. Acknowledgements should be kept to a minimum.

Tables:
* Data Tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word table format.
* Each table should include a title / caption being explanatory in itself with respect to the details discussed in the table. Detailed legends may then follow.
* Table number in bold font i.e. Table 1, should follow a title. The title should be in small case with the first letter in caps. A full stop should be placed at the end of the title.
* Tables should be embedded in the text exactly according to their appropriate placement in the submitted manuscript.
* Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct by ensuring that the borders of each cell are displayed as black lines.
* Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals sequentially in order of their citation in the body of the text.
* If a reference is cited in both the table and text, please insert a lettered footnote in the table to refer to the numbered reference in the text.
* Tabular data provided as additional files can be submitted as an Excel spreadsheet.

Figures / Illustrations:

All authors must strictly follow the guidelines below for preparing illustrations for publication in Current Medical Imaging Reviews. If the figures are found to be sub-standard, then the manuscripts will be rejected/ and the authors offered the option of figure improvement professionally by Bentham Publishing Services. The costs for such improvement will be charged to the authors.

Editorial Requirements:

The quality of the illustrations printed in the journal largely depends on the quality of the figures/illustration provided by the author. The acceptance of a manuscript for publication is subject to the figures being up to the highest standards in terms of clarity and resolution. In case the figures supplied are not up to the standards required, then the manuscripts will be rejected, and the authors given the option to either return the manuscripts within one week with appropriate drawings/figures or they may opt to have these professionally prepared through the paid professional service available from Bentham Publishing Services.

* Submit the original artwork for publication.
* Illustrations should be provided as separate files, as well as embedded in the text file.
* Figures should be referred to as “Fig. (1)”, “Fig. (2)” etc. in the text with figure numbers in bold within round bracket.
* Revised manuscripts should contain a complete set of artwork and photographs.

Technical Details:

Scaling/Resolution:
Illustrations as well as the text in the figures should be designed in resolution high enough to maintain the legibility even on being viewed at a width of 600 pixels, since this is the default size for an illustration on the Web.

Text within figures should use either Arial or Helvetica font, 10pt (maximum) font size, although Courier may also be used if a monospaced font is required. Select a font point compatible to the size of the graphics.

Whenever possible, submit graphics that do not have to be reduced to fit the standard figure size. Avoid textures and shadings giving a three-dimensional effect to the illustration. Line drawings should have clear and sharp lines and should be of uniform density. Moreover, lines should be continuous without any breaks. Do not use lines thinner than 1 point.

Color Figures / Illustrations:

• The cost for the first published page of color figures is USD 850; the second additional page will be USD 621; and each subsequent page, USD 420.
• Color figures should be supplied in CMYK not RGB colors.
• Required resolution for online submission is 300 dpi. In case of hardcopy submission, please use the maximum resolution available. In case the figure(s) are of an inferior quality they will need to be improved either by the author or by the publisher on a charged basis.

Formats:

For illustrations, the following file formats are acceptable:

• Illustrator
• EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
• PDF (also especially suitable for diagrams)
• PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
• Microsoft Word (version 5 and above; figures must be a single page)
• PowerPoint (figures must be a single page)
• TIFF
• JPEG (conversion should be done using the original file)
• BMP
• CDX (ChemDraw)
• TGF (ISISDraw)

Bentham Science Publishers does not process figures submitted in GIF format.

If the large size of TIFF or EPS figures acts as an obstacle to online submission, authors may find that conversion to JPEG format before submission results in significantly reduced file size and upload time, while retaining acceptable quality. JPEG is a 'lossy' format, however. In order to maintain acceptable image quality, it is recommended that JPEG files are saved at High or Maximum quality.

Files should not be compressed with tools such as Zipit or Stuffit prior to submission as these tools will in any case produce negligible file-size savings for JPEGs and TIFFs, which are already compressed.

Please do not:
1. Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
2. Supply files that are optimized for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
3. Supply files that are too low in resolution;
4. Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Image Conversion Tools:

There are many software packages, many of them freeware or shareware, capable of converting to and from different graphics formats, including PNG.

Good general tools for image conversion include GraphicConverter on the Macintosh, PaintShop Pro, for Windows, and ImageMagick, which is available on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX platforms.

Note that bitmap images (e.g. screenshots) should not be converted to EPS, since this will result in a much larger file size than the equivalent JPEG, TIFF, PNG or BMP, with no increase in quality. EPS should only be used for images produced by vector-drawing applications such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. Most vector-drawing applications can be saved in, or exported as, EPS format. In case the images have been originally prepared in an Office application, such as Word or PowerPoint, then the original Office files should be directly uploaded to the site, instead of being converted to JPEG or another format that may be of low quality.

Photographs: Submit high-contrast images that are of single- or double-column width so that they will not have to be reduced when appearing online. Negatives are not acceptable.

Chemical Structures: Chemical structures must be drawn according to the guidelines below.

Structures should be drawn using a suitable drawing program e.g. ChemDraw and provided as separate file.
Numbers in bold should identify all chemical structure. If a name is also used to describe the compound, the associated number if required, should be in bold and parenthesis, e.g. “compound (1)”.

Structure Drawing Preferences:
[As according to the ACS style sheet]

Drawing Settings:
Chain angle       120°
Bond spacing    18% of width
Fixed length       14.4 pt (0.500cm, 0.2in)
Bold width          2.0 pt (0.071cm, 0.0278in)
Line width           0.6 pt (0.021cm, 0.0084in)
Margin width       1.6 pt (0.096cm)
Harsh spacing    2.5 pt (0.088cm, 0.0347in)

Text settings:

Font                    Times New Roman
Size                    8pt

Under the Preference Choose:

Units                    points
Tolerances          3 pixels

Under Page Setup Use:

Paper                  US letter
Scale                  100%

References: References should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and listed in the same numerical order in the reference section.

All references must be complete and accurate. Online citations should include the date of access. Journal titles should conform to the present Index Medicus abbreviations. It is necessary to list all authors if the total number of authors is 6 or less and for more than 6 authors use 3 authors and then et al. References should be listed in the following Vancouver style:

Typical Paper Reference:
Boehm M, Nabel EG. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2-a new cardiac regulator. N Engl J Med 2002; 347: 1795-7.

SoRelle R. Long reach of the N-terminal of B-type natriuretic peptide. Circulation 2002; 106: 9059-63.

Typical Chapter Reference:
Stevenson WG, Friedman PL. In: Hennekens CH Ed, Clinical trials in cardiovascular disease. Philadelphia, WB Saunders Co. 1999; 217-30.

Abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications (which can only be included if prior permission has been obtained) should not be given in the reference section but they may be mentioned in the text and details provided as footnotes.

SUPPORTIVE/SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: We do encourage to append supportive material, for example a PowerPoint file containing a talk about the study, a PowerPoint file containing additional screenshots, a Word, RTF, or PDF document showing the original instrument(s) used, a video, or the original data (SAS/SPSS files, Excel files, Access Db files etc.) provided it is inevitable or endorsed by the journal's Editor.

Published/reproduced material should not be included unless you have obtained written permission from the copyright holder, which must be forwarded to the Editorial Office in case of acceptance of your article for publication.

Supportive/Supplementary material intended for publication must be numbered and referred to in the manuscript but should not be a part of the submitted paper. In-text citations as well as a section with the heading "Supportive/Supplementary Material" before the "References" section should be provided. Here, list all Supportive/Supplementary Material and include a brief caption line for each file describing its contents.

Any additional files will be linked into the final published article in the form supplied by the author, but will not be displayed within the paper. They will be made available in exactly the same form as originally provided only on our Web site. Please also make sure that each additional file is a single table, figure or movie (please do not upload linked worksheets or PDF files larger than one sheet). Supportive/ Supplementary material must be provided in a single zipped file not larger than 4 MB.

Authors must clearly indicate if these files are not for publication but meant for the reviewers'/editors' perusal only.

Conflict of Interest: Financial contributions to the work being reported should be clearly acknowledged, as should any potential conflict of interest.

Reviewing and Promptness of Online Publication: All manuscripts submitted for online publication will be immediately subjected to peer-review, usually in consultation with members of the Editorial Advisory Board. All peer-review will be done via the Internet to facilitate rapid review of submitted manuscripts. Authors are encouraged, however, to suggest names of possible referees along with their full names, postal and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers. Every effort will be made to assess manuscripts quickly and the decision conveyed to the authors normally within two weeks of receipt of the paper.

Page Charges: No page charges will be levied to the authors.

Language Editing: Manuscripts submitted containing many English typographical errors will not be published. Authors from non-English language countries are advised to use the services of our professional language editing department prior to submitting their manuscript to the Journal. Please contact Bentham Publishing Services www.benthampublishingservices.com for a language editing quote at e-mail: info@benthampublishingservices.com stating the total number of words of the article to be edited.

Proofs: Authors are sent page proofs. To avoid delays in online publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned within 48 hours. Authors will be charged for excessive changes made at the page proof stage.

Reprints: Each first-named (corresponding) author will receive electronically a certain number of free reprints. Reprints may be ordered from the Publisher prior to publication of the article. First named authors may also order a personal print and online subscription of the journal at 50% off the normal subscription rate by contacting the subscription department at e-mail: subscriptions@bentham.org

Bentham Open Access: Accepted articles can be published online for free open access for all to view. Open access publishing provides the maximum dissemination of the article to the largest audience. Authors must pay for this service. All corresponding authors will be asked to indicate whether or not they wish to pay to have their paper made freely available on publication. If authors do not select the Open Access option, then their article will be published with standard subscription-based access at no charge.

Bentham Science offers authors the choice of open access publication of their articles at a fee of USD 2,800 per published article which allows indefinite free-to-view online publication with Bentham Science.

Alternatively, authors may choose to publish their article with Bentham Science at a reduced fee for a limited open access period. Bentham Science is the first and only publisher to offer authors the choice at a reduced open access fee to have their article published for a limited open access period. For open access publication for a period of either twelve months or two months (limited open access option) the per article fee is USD 1,400 or USD 700, respectively.

For more information please contact us at e-mail: openaccess@bentham.org

Copyright: It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting the article for publication the authors agree that the publishers have the legal right to take appropriate action against the authors, if plagiarism is discovered. By submitting a manuscript the authors agree that the copyright of their article is transferred to the publishers if and when the article is accepted for online publication.