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The Veterinary Record Instructions for Authors

Contributions in the form of original research papers, review articles, clinical case histories, short communications and letters on all aspects of veterinary medicine and surgery are invited. All except letters are refereed. Submissions are accepted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and that they are subject to editorial revision. All material published is the copyright of The British Veterinary Association.

Papers
Papers should include a title of not more than 15 words, the names, qualifications and addresses of each author, and a summary of not more than 200 words. They should be set out in the following sections: summary, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements and references. Clinical papers or case reports should follow a similar overall arrangement, modified appropriately. The text should be as concise as possible; the whole length should not exceed 4000 words (that is, about four to five pages of The Veterinary Record).

Short communications
Preliminary accounts of work and short clinical reports for publication as short communications should follow a similar format to papers but should exclude a summary and separate subheadings. The title should be no more than 10 words in length, the text should not exceed 750 words and only one or two figures and/or tables should be included.

Format
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via The Veterinary Record submission and tracking system. Most common wordprocessing formats are accepted for text and tables, although the system prefers Word and PDF. Images should be submitted as GIF, TIFF, EPS or JPEG files (more information is available via the link above) and should not be embedded within the Word file. This system does not accept Excel files.

Tables and illustrations
Tables should be kept to a minimum and should be created in Word. The legend should clearly explain what data the table is presenting without the need to refer back to the text. Tables should not duplicate information presented in figures.

Line figures and photographs will normally be reproduced at column width (76 mm). Histograms should be presented in a simple, two-dimensional format, with no background grid; tones should be avoided.

Digital images should be sent as GIF, TIFF, EPS or JPEG files, in CMYK format, at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at an image size of 8.5 cm across. Please label them to correspond with the list of numbered figure captions; for example 'Figure 3.jpg' or 'Figure 7B.jpg', etc

Style
Measurements should be expressed in the metric system or in SI units. Temperatures should be given in ºC. Centrifugation speeds should be given in g.

All abbreviations should be spelt out in full the first time they are used in the text.

Medicines should be referred to by the generic name (Recommended International Non-Proprietary Name), as used in the sixth edition of The Veterinary Formulary (London, Pharmaceutical Press 2005) and listed on the website of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, followed by the proprietary name and manufacturer in brackets when first mentioned; eg, fenbendazole (Panacur; Intervet).

Parasitic infections should be referred to according to the Standardised Nomenclature of Parasitic Diseases (SNOPAD) guidelines, which are summarised by the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology.

Spelling should be in British English.

Manuscripts should be written in the third person.

References
In the text, references should be cited as follows: Smith (1995) described.../...recorded earlier (Brown and Jones 1994, Smith and others 1997). Lists of references should be given in date order in the text, but alphabetically in the reference list.

In the reference list, all authors’ names and initials should be given followed by the date, title of the paper, full title of the journal, volume number and full page range, eg: SMITH, A. B., JONES, C. D. & BROWN, E. F. (1995) How to list your references. Veterinary Record xxx, 71-76

Book references should include the chapter title if appropriate, the full title of the book, the edition, the editors, the town of publication, publisher and page numbers of material referred to, eg: SMITH, A. B., JONES, C. D. & BROWN, E. F. (1993) How to list your references. In Getting It Right. 3rd edn. Eds S. Adams, J. Alexander. London, Society of Reference Publishers. pp 23-37

Proceedings should include the title of the paper given at the meeting, proceedings title, the editors (if applicable), town, country, month date a to b, year, and page numbers (if applicable), eg: MILLER, W. (1976) A state-transition model of epidemic foot-and-mouth disease. Proceedings of an International Symposium: New Techniques in Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics. Reading, UK, July 12 to 15, 1976. p 56

Websites should include the title of the page, website address and date accessed, eg: DEFRA (2001) Explanation of Foot and Mouth Restrictions. www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/disease/restrictions/explanation.asp. Accessed August 24, 2001

Personal communications should be cited within the text and follow the form ‘A. B. Smith, personal communication’.

Ethics
Papers may be rejected on ethical grounds if the severity of the experimental procedure does not appear to be justified by the value of the work presented.

To submit a paper or short communication, click here

Letters
Letters on all topics related to the science, practice and politics of veterinary medicine and surgery will be considered for publication. They should be typed in double-line spacing on one side of the paper only. The length should not exceed 400 words and the editor reserves the right to shorten letters for publication. References should be quoted only when absolutely necessary. Illustrations and tables suitable for reproduction will occasionally be allowed. Letters can be submitted by post, fax or email and must give full address details of all authors as well as a contact telephone number. To submit a letter to the editor letters{at}bva-edit.co.uk.

For general editorial inquiries regarding The Veterinary Record, or if you are having problems submitting manuscripts electronically, email editorial{at}bva-edit.co.uk.