Types of papers
The text should be concise and consistent with regard to spelling, abbreviations, etc.
All papers must be submitted in English.
All papers must be submitted in English.
The following types of manuscripts can be submitted:
Original Articles should include examinations or investigations that are new or original in the field of nuclear medicine or molecular imaging.
Review Articles are solicited by the Editorial Board and should give a concise review of the topic concerned. The text should describe the current knowledge in the respective field of nuclear medicine regarding the study title, for the education of the readers of Nucl Med Mol Imaging.
Editorials are solicited by the Editorial Board and should comment on papers published in Nucl Med Mol Imaging.
Case Reports should describe clinical situations involving creative uses of nuclear medicine.
Interesting Images should provide visual and narrative data about clinically interesting or informative aspects of nuclear medicine or molecular imaging. Interesting Images comprise title page, abstract, keywords, references, images, and legends for images.
Letters to the Editors are questions and comments on papers published in Nucl Med Mol Imaging within the previous year.
Editorial Procedure
Peer Review and Publication
All manuscripts are reviewed by a minimum of two referees selected by the editorial board. The review decision is delivered to the author by the editorial board.
The author should revise the manuscript reflecting the suggestions and criticisms made by the reviewers. Revised manuscripts are resubmitted accompanied by a letter from the author about the revisions within one month.
The author require the permission of the editor-in-chief to extend the revision period. Revised manuscripts are judged on the adequacy of responses and accepted for publication or rejected accordingly.
Any revision of manuscripts after acceptance requires the agreement of the editorial board.
In preparing manuscripts, authors should follow Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts
Submitted to Biomedical Journals (as cited in Ann Intern Med. 1997; 126: 36-47).
Radioisotope numbers are either placed on the left shoulder or hyphenated 125l, 99mTc or l-125, Tc-99m); usage should be consistent within a paper.
All manuscripts are reviewed by a minimum of two referees selected by the editorial board. The review decision is delivered to the author by the editorial board.
The author should revise the manuscript reflecting the suggestions and criticisms made by the reviewers. Revised manuscripts are resubmitted accompanied by a letter from the author about the revisions within one month.
The author require the permission of the editor-in-chief to extend the revision period. Revised manuscripts are judged on the adequacy of responses and accepted for publication or rejected accordingly.
Any revision of manuscripts after acceptance requires the agreement of the editorial board.
In preparing manuscripts, authors should follow Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts
Submitted to Biomedical Journals (as cited in Ann Intern Med. 1997; 126: 36-47).
Radioisotope numbers are either placed on the left shoulder or hyphenated 125l, 99mTc or l-125, Tc-99m); usage should be consistent within a paper.
Double-blind peer review
A blinded manuscript without any author names and affiliations in the text or on the title page. Self-identifying citations and references in the article text should be avoided.
A separate title page, containing title, all author names, affiliations, and the contact information of the corresponding author. Any acknowledgements, disclosures, or funding information should also be included on this page.
Manuscript submission
Manuscript Submission
Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Permissions
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
Online Submission
Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing times and shortens overall publication times. Please follow the hyperlink “Submit online” on the right and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.
Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Permissions
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
Online Submission
Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing times and shortens overall publication times. Please follow the hyperlink “Submit online” on the right and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.
Title page
Title Page
The title page should include:
The name(s) of the author(s)
A concise and informative title
The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate in the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate in the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest statement for individual authors should be provided in a separate section in the title page.
A conflict of interest statement for individual authors should be provided in a separate section in the title page.
Ethical statement
An ethical statement should be described in a separate section in the title page. The ethical statements should contain the following statements:
Manuscript contains a statement that the study was approved by an institutional review board or equivalent and has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. All subjects in the study gave written informed consent or the institutional review board waived the need to obtain informed consent.
An ethical statement should be described in a separate section in the title page. The ethical statements should contain the following statements:
Manuscript contains a statement that the study was approved by an institutional review board or equivalent and has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. All subjects in the study gave written informed consent or the institutional review board waived the need to obtain informed consent.
Abstract
For Original Articles, an abstract should contain 150 to 250 words and divided into the following four identifiable sections:
For Case Reports and Review Articles, an unstructured abstract consisting of one complete paragraph with a maximum of 200 words is required. For Interesting Images, the abstract should contain a maximum of 100 words in one complete paragraph.
Purpose (stating the main purposes and research question)
Methods
Results
Conclusions
These four sections should be preceded by headings.For Case Reports and Review Articles, an unstructured abstract consisting of one complete paragraph with a maximum of 200 words is required. For Interesting Images, the abstract should contain a maximum of 100 words in one complete paragraph.
Keywords
Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
Text
Text Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word:
For Original Articles, the manuscript should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. For case reports, the manuscript should be arranged under the following sections: Introduction, Case Report, and Discussion. Interesting images comprise title page, abstract, keywords, references, images, and legends for images. Clinical information, diagnosis and assessment, and brief discussion should be included in the legends for image.
Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text with double spacing every line including the references.
Word template (zip, 154 kB)
Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in LaTeX.
LaTeX macro package (zip, 182 kB)
For Original Articles, the manuscript should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. For case reports, the manuscript should be arranged under the following sections: Introduction, Case Report, and Discussion. Interesting images comprise title page, abstract, keywords, references, images, and legends for images. Clinical information, diagnosis and assessment, and brief discussion should be included in the legends for image.
Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text with double spacing every line including the references.
Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
Use italics for emphasis.
Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
Do not use field functions.
Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).
Word template (zip, 154 kB)
Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in LaTeX.
LaTeX macro package (zip, 182 kB)
Headings
Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Scientific style
Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units. All radiation measurements and laboratory values should be given in the International System of Units (SI).
Nomenclature: Insofar as possible, authors should use systematic names similar to those used by Chemical Abstract Service or IUPAC.
References
Citation
Reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in square brackets. Some examples:
1. Negotiation research spans many disciplines [3].
2. This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman [5].
3. This effect has been widely studied [1-3, 7].
1. Negotiation research spans many disciplines [3].
2. This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman [5].
3. This effect has been widely studied [1-3, 7].
Reference list
The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.
The entries in the list should be numbered consecutively.
Journal article
Smith JJ. The world of science. Am J Sci. 1999;36:234–5.
Smith JJ. The world of science. Am J Sci. 1999;36:234–5.
Article by DOI
Slifka MK, Whitton JL. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. 2000; doi:10.1007/s001090000086
Slifka MK, Whitton JL. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. 2000; doi:10.1007/s001090000086
Book
Blenkinsopp A, Paxton P. Symptoms in the pharmacy: a guide to the management of common illness. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science; 1998.
Blenkinsopp A, Paxton P. Symptoms in the pharmacy: a guide to the management of common illness. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science; 1998.
Book chapter
Wyllie AH, Kerr JFR, Currie AR. Cell death: the significance of apoptosis. In: Bourne GH, Danielli JF, Jeon KW, editors. International review of cytology. London: Academic; 1980. pp. 251–306.
Wyllie AH, Kerr JFR, Currie AR. Cell death: the significance of apoptosis. In: Bourne GH, Danielli JF, Jeon KW, editors. International review of cytology. London: Academic; 1980. pp. 251–306.
Online document
Doe J. Title of subordinate document. In: The dictionary of substances and their effects. Royal Society of Chemistry. 1999. http://www.rsc.org/dose/title of subordinate document. Accessed 15 Jan 1999.
Doe J. Title of subordinate document. In: The dictionary of substances and their effects. Royal Society of Chemistry. 1999. http://www.rsc.org/dose/title of subordinate document. Accessed 15 Jan 1999.
Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see
www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php
www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php
Tables
All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.
Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines
For the best quality final product, it is highly recommended that you submit all of your artwork – photographs, line drawings, etc. – in an electronic format. Your art will then be produced to the highest standards with the greatest accuracy to detail. The published work will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.
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.
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.
Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format 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.
Halftone 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 art is free of charge for online publication.
If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.
If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.
Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).
Figure Lettering
To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized 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 captions within your illustrations.
Figure Numbering
All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, "A1, A2, A3, etc." Figures in online appendices (Electronic Supplementary Material) should, however, be numbered separately.
Figure Captions
Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.
Figure Placement and Size
When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.
For books and book-sized journals, the figures should be 80 mm or 122 mm wide and not higher than 198 mm.
Permissions
If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.
Accessibility
In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that
All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
Electronic Supplementary Material
Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.
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 format 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 contains 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 can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:
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 can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:
The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
The manuscript has not been published previously (partly 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 hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).
A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).
No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions
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 are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.
Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.
Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.
Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
In addition:
Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
Requesting to add or delete authors at revision stage, proof stage, or after publication is a serious matter and may be considered when justifiably warranted. Justification for changes in authorship must be compelling and may be considered only after receipt of written approval from all authors and a convincing, detailed explanation about the role/deletion of the new/deleted author. In case of changes at revision stage, a letter must accompany the revised manuscript. In case of changes after acceptance or publication, the request and documentation must be sent via the Publisher to the Editor-in-Chief. In all cases, further documentation may be required to support your request. The decision on accepting the change rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal and may be turned down. Therefore authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author, and order of authors at submission.
Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc.
If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:
If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:
If the article 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, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note.
The author’s institution may be informed.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.
Authors should include the following statements (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” in the title page when submitting a paper:
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals
Informed consent
Please note that standards could vary slightly per journal dependent on their peer review policies (i.e. double blind peer review) as well as per journal subject discipline. Before submitting your article check the Instructions for Authors carefully.
The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.
The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.
The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.
The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could influence or bias the work. Although an author may not feel there are conflicts, disclosure of relationships and interests affords a more transparent process, leading to an accurate and objective assessment of the work. Awareness of real or perceived conflicts of interests is a perspective to which the readers are entitled and is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation for consultancy work is inappropriate. Examples of potential conflicts of interests that are directly or indirectly related to the research may include but are not limited to the following:
Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number)
Honoraria for speaking at symposia
Financial support for attending symposia
Financial support for educational programs
Employment or consultation
Support from a project sponsor
Position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships
Multiple affiliations
Financial relationships, for example equity ownership or investment interest
Intellectual property rights (e.g. patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights)
Holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work
In addition, interests that go beyond financial interests and compensation (non-financial interests) that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
The corresponding author collects the conflict of interest disclosure forms from all authors. (Please note that each author should complete a disclosure form.) Examples of forms can be found here:
See below examples of disclosures. The following statements should be included in the tile page:
Funding: This study was funded by X (grant number X).
Conflict of Interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.
If no conflict exists, the authors should state:
Conflict of Interest: Author A, Author B, and Author C declare that they have no conflict of interest.
The corresponding author collects the conflict of interest disclosure forms from all authors. (Please note that each author should complete a disclosure form.) Examples of forms can be found here:
See below examples of disclosures. The following statements should be included in the tile page:
Funding: This study was funded by X (grant number X).
Conflict of Interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.
If no conflict exists, the authors should state:
Conflict of Interest: Author A, Author B, and Author C declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals
1) Statement of human rights
When reporting studies that involve human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
The following statements should be included in the title page:
Ethical approval: “All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”
For retrospective studies, please add the following sentence:
“For this type of study formal consent is not required.”
2) Statement on the welfare of animals
The welfare of animals used for research must be respected. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed, and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists). For studies with animals, the following statement should be included in the title page:
Ethical approval: “All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.”
If applicable (where such a committee exists): “All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.”
If articles do not contain studies with human participants or animals by any of the authors, please select one of the following statements:
“This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.”
“This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.”
“This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.”
If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.
The following statements should be included in the title page:
Ethical approval: “All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”
For retrospective studies, please add the following sentence:
“For this type of study formal consent is not required.”
2) Statement on the welfare of animals
The welfare of animals used for research must be respected. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed, and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists). For studies with animals, the following statement should be included in the title page:
Ethical approval: “All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.”
If applicable (where such a committee exists): “All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.”
If articles do not contain studies with human participants or animals by any of the authors, please select one of the following statements:
“This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.”
“This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.”
“This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.”
Informed consent
All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken. Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
The following statement should be included in the title page:
Informed consent: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
If identifying information about participants is available in the article, the following statement should be included:
“Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.”
The following statement should be included in the title page:
Informed consent: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
If identifying information about participants is available in the article, the following statement should be included:
“Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.”
After acceptance
Upon acceptance of your article you will receive a link to the special Author Query Application at Springer’s web page where you can sign the Copyright Transfer Statement online and indicate whether you wish to order OpenChoice and offprints.
Once the Author Query Application has been completed, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs.
Once the Author Query Application has been completed, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs.
Open Choice
In addition to the normal publication process (whereby an article is submitted to the journal and access to that article is granted to customers who have purchased a subscription), Springer now provides an alternative publishing option: Springer Open Choice. A Springer Open Choice article receives all the benefits of a regular subscription-based article, but in addition is made available publicly through Springer’s online platform SpringerLink.
Springer Open Choice
Springer Open Choice
Copyright transfer
Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher (or grant the Publisher exclusive publication and dissemination rights). This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.
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.
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.
Offprints
Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author
Color illustrations
Publication of color illustrations is free of charge.
Proof reading
The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.
After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.
After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.
Online First
The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.
