Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports

1. Open access
2. Article Processing Charge (APC)
3. Article types
4. Editorial Policies
   4.1 Peer review policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgments
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   4.7 Reporting Guidelines
   4.8 Data
5. Publishing Policies
   5.1 Publication Ethics
   5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   5.3 Open Access and author archiving
   5.4 Permissions
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Word processing formats
   6.2 How to help readers find your article
   6.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.4 Tables
   6.5 Abbreviations, symbols, and drug and other product names
   6.6 Measurements
   6.4 Supplementary material
   6.5 Journal layout
   6.6 Reference style
   6.7 English language editing services
   6.8 Disclaimer
7. Submitting your manuscript
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 SAGE Production
   8.2 Open Access publication
9. Further Information

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jfms-or to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned for correction.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of JFMS Open Reports will be permitted to progress to review.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that:

• You are submitting your original work
• You have the rights in the work
• You are submitting the work for first publication in the journal
• The work is not being considered for publication elsewhere
• The work has not already been published elsewhere, and

You have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright materials included in the work and not owned by you.

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
 

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1. Open Access

JFMS Open Reports is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of Article Processing Charges, which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at SAGE please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

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2. Article Processing Charge (APC)

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time Article Processing Charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.

The full APC is $640 USD/£425 GBP (+ VAT where applicable*).

ISFM and AAFP members are entitled to a discounted APC of $180 USD/£120 GBP (+ VAT where applicable*).

ISFM and AAFP affiliated groups and bodies are entitled to a discounted APC of $345 USD/£230 (+ VAT where applicable*).
*If the paying party is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, Value Added Tax (VAT) must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to be exempt from paying this tax, except for UK institutions.

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3. Article types

JFMS Open Reports considers manuscripts submitted in the following formats.

Short Communications
Short Communications (ie, short research papers) must provide novel information relevant to veterinary practitioners and/or clinical researchers. Short Communications will generally comprise reports/studies on well-recognised diseases, documenting valuable national or regional data on disease prevalence or other relevant regional findings. They should generally not exceed 1,500–2,000 words and should include a self-contained Abstract (up to 250 words, structured with subheadings as detailed in Preparing your manuscript, followed by Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References.  

Case Reports
Case Reports must be original and include genuinely novel information that would be of value to practitioners and/or clinical researchers. They should generally not exceed 1,500–2,000 words and should include a self-contained Abstract (up to 250 words, structured with subheadings as detailed in Preparing your manuscript), followed by Introduction (optional), Case description, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References.  Case Reports may either be submitted in a traditional format, or in a ‘What is your diagnosis?’ format (see below).

What is Your Diagnosis?
These manuscripts should generally not exceed 1,500 words and should also contain a short abstract of up to 150 words outlining the presentation of the case, but not the diagnosis. The manuscript should contain the following subheadings, where relevant, or others as directed by the content:

1. Case presentation (including relevant laboratory and diagnostic imaging data);
2. Clinical questions;
3. Further investigations/diagnosis;
4. Case management and outcome;
5. Conclusion/key relevant points.

Case Series
Case Series must be original and include genuinely novel information that would be of value to practitioners and/or clinical researchers. They should generally not exceed 1,500–2,000 words and should include a self-contained Abstract (up to 250 words, structured with subheadings as detailed in Preparing your manuscript), followed by Introduction (optional), Case series description, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References.  Note that large prospective/retrospective case series fall within the scope of the sister journal, JFMS.

Letter to the Editor
Letters commenting on articles recently published in JFMS Open Reports will be considered for publication in the journal. Letters should not exceed 1,000 words (including references and one table or figure). The Editors may send the letter to the authors of the original paper for comment so that both letter and reply may be published together.

Manuscripts should be clearly labelled ‘Short Communication’, ‘Case Report’, ‘What is your diagnosis’, ‘Case Series’ or ‘Letter to the Editor’.

Table 1. Overview of the requirements for manuscript submission to JFMS Open Reports

*Excludes abstract, references, tables and legends
**For the reference style please see 6.6
***Includes references, tables and legends
 

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

JFMS Open Reports operates a single-blind peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. The reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 6 weeks of submission.
As part of the submission process you will have the option of providing the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:

• The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
• The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
• Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.
 

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4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include only those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the work-up of the case(s) and/or concept and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data, and
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content, and
3. Approved the version to be published.

Authors should meet all the above conditions. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Contributors not meeting all these requirements should be included in acknowledgements rather than as an author.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
 

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4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help (see also final paragraph in section 4.2).

4.3.1 Writing Assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance (eg, from a specialist communications company) do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgments section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any Acknowledgments should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Conflict of interest statement
 

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4.4 Funding

JFMS Open Reports requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgments page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: ‘The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.’

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4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of JFMS Open Reports to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Conflicting of interest’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any Acknowledgments and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.’

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.
 

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4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Circumstances relating to animal experimentation must meet the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals as issued by the Council for the International Organizations of Medical Sciences. They are obtainable from: Executive Secretary C.I.O.M.S., c/o WHO, Via Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, or at the following URL: http://www.cioms.ch/publications/guidelines/1985_texts_of_guidelines.htm

The Editors reserve the right to reject papers on ethical grounds when, in their opinion, the severity of experimental procedures is not justified by the scientific value or originality of the information being sought by the author(s). The Editors would not normally support publication of any experiments resulting in euthanasia.

The Editors require that authors adequately discuss the use of analgesia where appropriate for the welfare of the cats involved in the study.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

 

4.7 Reporting guidelines

Researchers reporting the results of research studies are encouraged to consult the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines for different studies including, for example, the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) for randomised controlled trials. Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

4.8 Data

When research data is published in JFMS Open Reports we request that any primary data used by authors in their research article is published as Supplementary material, or that detailed information is provided in the article on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The Editors may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The Editors can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact Jennie Atkinson (Jennie.atkinson@sagepub.co.uk), Publishing Editor at SAGE Publications.

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

JFMS Open Reports and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

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5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. JFMS Open Reports publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard JFMS Open Reports license is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit SAGE's OA licenses page.

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

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5.3 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information, including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Word processing formats

Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and LaTex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3 cm for left and right hand margins and 5 cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. All lines should be numbered on manuscripts using continuous line numbering. Figures, tables and Supplementary material should all be cited in the text in numerical order.

Title page
The title should be concise with no abbreviations. Please provide the surname, initials, department, institution, city and country of each author, and the name, academic qualifications, email address, full mailing address and telephone number of the corresponding author to whom proofs should be sent. Please note the email address and full mailing address of the corresponding author will be listed on the first page of an accepted article. List six to eight keywords (chosen from Index Medicus, Medical Subject Headings if possible).

Abstract
The second page of the manuscript must contain only the abstract, which should accurately and concisely reflect the content of the article. The abstract should be of no more than 250 words (150 for ‘What is your diagnosis?’) and must be clearly written and comprehensive to readers before they come to read the paper.

For Case Reports, the Abstract should be structured with the following two subheadings: ‘Case summary’ and ‘Relevance and novel information’. For Case Series, the abstract should be structured with the following two subheadings: ‘Case series summary’, and ‘Relevance and novel information.’ For Short Communications, the Abstract should be structured with the following four subheadings: ‘Objectives’, ‘Methods’, ‘Results’, and ‘Conclusions and relevance’.

Abbreviations should be avoided and reference citations are not permitted.
Any manuscripts submitted without a structured abstract will be returned to the author prior to peer review, thus delaying the evaluation process of the manuscript.

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6.2 How to help readers find your article

The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the SAGE Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

6.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines  

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online.

Images
The minimum quality required is 300dpi. When submitting your images for review, please resize them to a maximum of 2000 X 2000 pixels (the minimum size required is 1000 X 1000 pixels). Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in your manuscript being returned to you to amend, thus delaying the evaluation process of the manuscript.

6.4 Tables
These should contain only essential data. If tables contain laboratory data, wherever possible, both SI and US (American) units should be quoted and reference intervals should be provided.

6.5 Abbreviations, symbols and drug names
Each scientific abbreviation must be explained at its first occurrence in the paper; for example, ‘complement fixation test (CFT).

Medications should be referred to by their recommended International Nonproprietary Name (rINN). Where approporiate, the proprietary name and the manufacturer should be given in parentheses when first mentioned; for example, ‘carprofen (Rimadyl; Pfizer)’.

Do not use propriety symbols (eg, ® or ™) or ltd, etc, in medications or company names.

 

6.6 Mesaurements
Units of measurement may be expressed in either SI or US (American) units. However, reference intervals should always be included for laboratory data and, wherever possible, laboratory data should be quoted in both SI and US (American) units for ease of understanding by the international readership.

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6.7 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (eg, datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer review alongside the article.  For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.

 

6.8 Journal layout

JFMS Open Reports conforms to its own style; review the style guide..

 

6.9 Reference style

JFMS Open Reports adheres to the SAGE Vancouver reference style with some formatting variations.Review the guidelines on JFMS Open Reports references to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Vancouver output file here.

Note: In general only primary sources of information should be cited – citing reviews or book chapters where primary sources are referred to is generally not acceptable. Where relevant, authors should make note of [Abstract] and [Letter] in their references.

 

6.10 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

 

6.11 Disclaimer

The following disclaimer appears online here.

The Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports (JFMS Open Reports) is an international journal and authors may discuss products and formulations that are not available or licensed in the individual reader’s own country. Furthermore, drugs may be mentioned that are licensed for human use, and not for veterinary use. Readers need to bear this in mind and be aware of the prescribing laws pertaining to their own country. No endorsement is implied in the advertisements included in JFMS Open Reports. The authors, editors, owners and publishers do not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage arising from actions or decisions based on the information contained in this publication; ultimate responsibility for the treatment of animals and interpretation of published materials lies with the veterinary practitioner. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and the inclusion in this publication of material relating to a particular product, method or technique does not amount to an endorsement of its value or quality, or the claims made by its manufacturer.

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7. Submitting your manuscript

JFMS Open Reports is hosted on SAGE Track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jfms-or to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for either JFMS Open Reports or its sister title JFMS since 2011, it is likely that you will have had an account created – the same log in details can be used for both journal submission sites.  For assistance with this aspect please email the editorial office at jfms-or@icatcare.org. For further general guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been checked for SAGE Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) via a payment link or a direct invoice if the corresponding author is within the European Union. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and will appear online within an average of 20 working days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.

8.1 SAGE Production

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.

8.2 Online access publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no issues to fill and no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download. Check the ‘Latest Articles’ tab on the journal website for the latest published content. Articles are batched every quarter, and are then available in the Archive.

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7. Further Information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Editorial Office: jfms-or@icatcare.org    

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