Aims and scope

Annals of Medicine is a general medical journal that aims to bridge the gap between molecular medicine and clinical practice, and to keep the readers abreast of recent developments across the major medical specialties.

Two regular series are published to serve this cause: “Trends in Clinical Practice” and “Trends in Molecular Medicine” that both report on clinically relevant achievements of basic science. In addition, compact Review and Mini Review Articles are published regularly. Special Sections provide the latest knowledge on current themes, and Supplements are often based on an international symposium.

Annals of Medicine also publishes high-quality Original Articles that are of interest to a general medical audience, especially those that have emphasis on pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of disease.

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online on http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sann.

Both original and invited articles are evaluated by expert reviewers assigned by the Editors. Papers are accepted on condition that they are solely contributed to Annals of Medicine. All contributions should conform to the recommendations made in the Declaration of Helsinki and its amendments by the World Medical Association. Annals of Medicine follows the guidelines for writing papers presented by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org, updated November 2003).

Language

English or American spelling is accepted if used consistently throughout the manuscript. Authors who do not use English as a first language should enlist the help of a colleague or translator who is proficient in medical English before submitting the manuscript for consideration. The quality of the language is the author's responsibility. All manuscripts will undergo editorial copy-editing before printing, but language editing can only be undertaken to a limited extent at that point.

Preparing the Article

A free-access sample article to use as a reference is available at http://www.informaworld.com/annmed.

Length

Review Articles should be not more than 20 pages, Mini Reviews 10-15 and Original Articles not more than 8 typewritten pages, including references. Remember that manuscripts are usually too long, not too short. The entire manuscript should be typed double-spaced.

Title page

The first page should constitute: 1) the complete title, 2) the first name, middle initial and last name of each author, 3) the name and address of the institute where the work was performed, 4) a short running title, 5) the address for correspondence, and the fax number and e-mail address of the corresponding author. The titles should be short, clear, specific and suitable for indexing.

Abstract, Key Words and Key Messages

On the second page, an Abstract not exceeding 200 words needs to be provided. In the last sentence of the Abstract, a clear-cut conclusion should be presented. Footnotes and references are not acceptable in the Abstract. The Abstract of Original Articles must be structured as follows: Background, Aim(s), Methods, Results, Conclusions.

Three to ten Key Words placed in alphabetical order and according to the Medical Subject Headings list of Index Medicus should follow the Abstract.

The authors are requested to list 1-3 Key Messages, each forming a complete sentence. Key Messages and Abbreviations should be listed on a separate page after the Abstract.

Text

Original Articles should be set out with the following subtitles: Introduction, Materials (or Patients) and Methods, Results, Discussion, References. The Materials (or Patients) and Methods should present a study protocol. In experimental studies of human subjects a statement should be included which indicates that the informed consent of the subjects and acceptance of the study protocol by a local ethics committee has been obtained. The results should be quantified and presented with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (e.g. confidence intervals). The mean and standard deviation (SD) should be given at a minimum; a sole reliance on the use of P values is not acceptable. The statistical method(s) and/or package used should also be stated. The Results should be presented in a logical sequence, and the Discussion should commence with a presentation of the major findings of the study and conclude with the implications and/or applications of the findings. Review Articles are structured more freely, yet the above instructions on statistics should be applied, when relevant.

Abbreviations and units

A phrase is spelt out when used for the first time followed by an appropriate abbreviation in parentheses. Abbreviations must be spelt out in figure legends and footnotes of tables. If the article contains many non-standard abbreviations, a separate list with explanations must be provided. A list of standard abbreviations is given at our website. All values should be expressed in SI units.

Illustrations

Should be numbered and quoted consecutively in the text. Please capitalize only the first letter of a label, not every word, and define scale bars in figure legends, not on figures. Legends should be intelligible without reference to the text. For illustrations in colour in the hard copy of the journal, the authors are required to pay the full cost, USD 750 per page. However, colour illustrations printed in black and white in the hard copy will be published in colour free of charge in the online version of the journal. Format: EPS or TIFF preferred. Resolution: 1200 dpi bitmap mode for black and white images such as graphs and log scales, 600 dpi greyscale mode for images such as gels or blots, and 300 dpi CMYK mode for colour images. A figure should be no larger than 160mm in width and 200mm in height at the appropriate resolution. Figures with resolution lower than specified will not reproduce correctly and could delay publication. Please keep figures as separate files.

Tables should be intelligible without reference to the text and should supplement, not duplicate it. Each table should be typed double-spaced including all headings on a separate page. If a table has to be continued, a second page should be used and all column headings repeated. All tables should be numbered (Roman) and each must have a caption. Footnotes are indicated by using lower case alphabets as superscripts (e.g., Table Ia). P values are given as numbers (not as *, **, ***).

References

The number of references should not exceed 100. Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in the text, tables and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses. References cited in tables and legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration. See example below. The titles of the journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/libprog.html). The reference style is Vancouver.

The use of abstracts in the list of references should be avoided. Manuscripts accepted but not yet published are designated ‘in press'. Unpublished observations as well as manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted should be cited in the text only as ‘unpublished observations' with the authors' initials, surname and institution as well as the year when the observation was made. List all authors when 6 or fewer; when 7 or more, list the first six and add ‘et al'. If a journal carries continuous pagination throughout a volume the month and issue number are omitted in the reference list. The references must be verified by the authors against the original documents.

Examples of reference style (see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html, updated July 2003):

1. Janatuinen T, Friberg J, Viljanen MK, Raitakari OT, Nuutila P, Vainionpaa R, et al. Early impairment of coronary flow reserve is not associated with Chlamydia pneumoniae antibodies. Ann Med. 2002;34:284-90.
2. The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Clinical exercise stress testing. Safety and performance guidelines. Med J Aust. 1996;164:282-4.
3. Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers; 1996.
4. Thapar A, McGuffin P. Quantitative genetics. In: Gelder MG, López-Ibor JJ Jr, Andreasen NC, editors. New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000. p. 242-55.
5. Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent Advances in Clinical Neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier; 1996.

Example of reference style in a figure legend

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the respiratory chain. From reference (42) with permission.

Author proofs – final approval

Authors will be notified via e-mail when a manuscript is ready for final approval before publication. This e-mail provides instructions on how to log on to the online author service, where the final version of the manuscript can be downloaded as a printer ready PDF file.

To avoid delays of publication, proofs should be checked immediately and returned electronically through the online service, following the instructions given. Corrections submitted via the telephone are not accepted. Authors are advised that they are responsible for proof-reading of the text, references, tables and figures for absolute accuracy.

Additional material or major corrections cannot be accepted at this stage, nor is substantial rewriting of paragraphs permitted. Such extensive changes may result in a delay or withdrawal of the article from publication. Any costs arising from major additional changes may also be charged to the authors.

Copyright

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights of the contents of their articles, including abstracts, to Informa Healthcare. This enables full copyright protection and dissemination of the article and the Journal, to the widest possible readership in electronic and print formats. A document to verify this will be sent upon acceptance for publication. This document should be signed by the corresponding author and returned to the publisher for archiving. To read more about Informa Healthcare's policy and guidelines regarding copyright, consult the online author service pages: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/authors_journals_copyright

Permissions

AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
bp base pair
°C degrees Celcius
kDa kilodalton
DNA deoxyribonucleic acid (also cDNA, etc.)
g gram(s)
h hour(s)
IU international unit(s)
kb kilobase
kcal kilocalories(s)
L litre(s)
µL microlitre(s)
mL millilitre(s)
m metre(s)
µm micrometre(s) (micron[s]; 10^-6 meters)
min minute(s)
mmHg millimetres of mercury
mol mole(s)
n number in study, group
pH hydrogen ion concentration
P = P value (probability);
RNA ribonucleic acid (also mRNA, etc)
s second(s)
SD standard deviation
SE standard error
SEM standard error of the mean