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Guide to contributors

Papers

Papers submitted to the Acta Anaesthesiologica Belgica are subject to peer review and after acceptance to further editorial revision. It is a condition of acceptance for publication that copyright becomes vested in the journal and permission to republish must be obtained from the publishers.

Papers based on a clinical investigation should conform to ethical standards as set out in the Declaration of Helsinki. In the case of animal studies it is the responsibility of the author to satisfy the Board that no unnecessary suffering has been inflicted.

Legal considerations

Authors should avoid the use of names, initials and hospital numbers which might lead to recognition of a patient. A patient must not be recognizable in photographs unless written consent of the subject has been obtained. A table or illustration that has been published elsewhere should be accompanied by a statement that permission for reproduction has been obtained from the author and publishers.

Preparation of manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted by e-mail in English and should indicate the title of the paper, the name(s), qualifications and full address(es) of the author(s), and be in double-spaced typing on one side only of the paper, with a wide margin. Contributors should retain a copy in order to check proofs and in case of loss.

Papers are most often subdivided into :

Title page
Summary
Keywords
Introduction (not headed)
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
List of references
Tables
Illustrations
Title page

There should be a separate title page, including the name(s), degrees and address(es) of author(s). It should be made clear which address relates to which author. Authors' current addresses differing from those at which the work was carried out, or special instructions concerning the address for correspondence, should be given as a footnote on the title page and referenced at the appropriate place in the author list by superscript symbols.

If the address to which proofs should be sent is not that of the first-mentioned author, clear instructions should be given in a covering note and not on the title page. The title page should be paginated as page 1 of the paper.

A short running title containing not more than 50 characters and spaces should also be suggested.

Summary

The summary will be printed at the beginning of the paper. It should be on a separate sheet, in the form of a single paragraph which gives a succinct account of the problem, the methods, results and conclusions, and normally should be 50-150 words. It may be used as it stands by abstracting journals.

Keywords

Keywords will be used according to : "Keywords in Anesthesiology", 3rd edition, 1988, N. M. Greene, Elsevier, New york, Amsterdam, London.

Introduction

The introduction should give a concise account of the background of the problem and the object of the investigation. Previous work should be quoted only if it has a direct bearing on the present problem.

Methods

Methods must be described in sufficient detail to allow the experiments to be interpreted and repeated by the reader. Any modification of previously published methods should be described and the reference given. If the methods are commonly used, only a reference to the original source is required.

Drugs

When a drug is first mentioned it should be given the generic or official name followed in parentheses by the chemical formula only if the structure is not well known, and by the capitalized proprietary name.

Results

Description of experimental results, while concise, should permit repetition of the experiments by others. Data should not be repeated unnecessarily in text, tables and figures, and unwarranted numbers of digits should be avoided. Significance should be given as values of probability. The desired positions of tables and figures may be indicated by written instructions enclosed within lines and brackets, for example :

(TABLE III near here )

Discussion

The discussion should not merely recapitulate the experimental results, but should present their interpretation against the background of existing knowledge. It should include a statement of any assumptions on which conclusions are based.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements will be printed in small type. They should be brief, and should include reference to sources of support and sources of drugs not freely available commercially.

References

There should be a table of references at the conclusion of the paper. In the references, the order should be : author's name, followed by initials; title of the paper to which reference is made; title of publication underlined with a single line (to indicate italics) and abbreviated in accordance with the Cumulative Index Medicus; volume number in arabic numerals, underlined with a wavy line (to indicate bold face); the number of the first and last pages in arabic numbers; year of publication; thus : Mundeleer P., Pulmonary compliance display. Acta Anaesth. Belg., 28, 171-181, 1978 .

In the case of books , the reference should be as follows : name of author and initials; title of book, underlined number of edition; page number; town of origin, publisher, year of publication; for example : Hill D. W., Physics applied to anaesthesia, 2nd edn., p. 212. London, Butterworths, 1971.

In the text, reference is made to the publications by the numbers used in the references.

Text references to "unpublished observations" should not be included in the final list of references. Authors are responsible for verifying that the wording of references to unpublished work is approved by the persons concerned. Papers which have been submitted and accepted for publication should be included in the list, the phrase "(in press)" replacing volume and page number.

It is essential that authors verify the content and details of references which they list as this responsibility cannot be accepted by either Editors or Publishers.

Tables

All tables should be on separate sheets and be capable , with their captions, of interpretation without reference to the text. They should be numberd consecutively with roman numerals. Units in which results are expressed should be given in brackets at the top of each column, and not repeated on each line of the table. Ditto signs are not used.

Illustrations

Pictures should sent in a high quality format.

General information

The submitted text has to be presented by the author in correct scientific English. The Acta can propose revision of the text by a competent person, but this will be charged to the author.

Proofs

These should be corrected and returned to the editor within 5 days of receipt.