Manuscript preparation
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General Information
Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology reviews developments in rheumatology and keeps practicing physicians up to date with recent research and opinion. By synthesizing the wealth of information available and providing it in an accessible format, the time needed to stay informed decreases-a benefit to both physician and patient. Content is generally invited, but proposals for articles can be suggested through the journal's online submission system http://mts-ncpr.nature.com
This document is intended to give you detailed information on how to format your manuscript and associated files before you submit them for consideration. Please read Publishing and editorial policies for general information, and Information about online submission for information on the technical aspects of submitting your article online.
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Preparation of manuscripts for submission
Length
Each article type has its own word limit, which is included in the letter of invitation to write; please ensure manuscripts are within the length stipulated. Articles submitted with word counts exceeding the limit will either be returned for reduction by the author or will be reduced in length by the journal staff.
Article elements
Each article consists of various elements that contribute to the reader's impression of your work. These elements vary in some cases between article types, so please make sure you follow the guidelines below for the type of article you have agreed to submit. Examples of these elements are the one-sentence Practice point, the Review criteria, Keywords, Glossary items and display items.
Article types
Reviews
Reviews are timely, authoritative overviews of key developments. They are generally 2,500-3,000 words in length with 50-60 references, plus tables and figures. As well as general reviews, there are six specific other types of review:
- Therapy Insights discuss comorbidities that may have an impact on treatment of patients by physicians within rheumatology. They might, therefore, be written by specialists outside rheumatology. An author of a Therapy Insight should review how pre-existing or arising medical conditions in the other field could influence treatment decisions and patient management within rheumatology.
- Drug Insights focus on a class of drugs, for example nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Individual drugs within this class may be mentioned specifically, but only in the context of a balanced article; they are not advertisements in a different form. Drug Insights might discuss, for example, any of the following features: strengths and weaknesses of the class; the mechanism(s) of action; inhibitors, agonists or antagonists; new uses and indications for well-established drugs; or emerging drug therapies.
- Technology Insights focus on advances in treatment and diagnostic technologies and equipment, such as imaging techniques and technology-assisted surgery.
- Surgery Insights focus on particular surgical procedures or techniques and discuss the advantages and limitations of different approaches. They may also discuss potential modifications to techniques and how they might improve perioperative and postoperative outcomes, for example their effects on complication rates.
- Mechanisms of Disease give insights into the science behind particular diseases or conditions; these could include, but are not limited to, genetic aspects, signaling pathways or other biological mechanisms.
- Primers provide simple explanations of topics essential to the understanding of clinical research. Jargon-free and aimed at non-trialists, these educational articles cover subjects such as statistical methods and good clinical practice.
All Reviews must contain the following elements:
- Title
- Summary (200 words maximum)
- Keywords (up to 5) in alphabetical order
- Review criteria detailing what searches were done to find material for review
- Introduction
- Section headings
- Conclusions
- Acknowledgments
- Competing interests
- References
- Glossary terms
- Full correspondence details for corresponding author
- Brief biographical information for each author (maximum 300 characters in total for the information to be included in the printed article)
- Contribution made by each author to the finished article, if more than one author listed
- Review criteria detailing what searches were done to find material for review
Reviews may also contain supplementary information that is available online only. Any supplementary files will be made available as a PDF of the original file supplied by the author
Reviews can be good sources for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit. If authors would like CME questions to be based on their article, please contact journal staff for further information.
Viewpoints
Viewpoints are opinion articles written by one author which provide the opportunity to discuss topical subjects and contribute to current debate. They are 1,000 words in length plus a maximum of 10 references. Viewpoints cannot contain figures and/or tables in print; if essential, figures and/or tables can be included as supplementary online information. Any supplementary files will be made available as a PDF of the original file supplied by the author.
All Viewpoints must contain the following elements:
- Title
- Competing interests
- References (10 maximum)
- Full correspondence details for the author
- Brief biographical information for the author (maximum 300 characters in total for the information to be included in the printed article)
Practice Points
Each Practice Point article consists of a structured synopsis based on an influential research paper, accompanied by a brief commentary. All Practice Point synopses are written by journal staff; commentaries are written by invited authors. Commentary authors should put the original article in context and expand on how the findings are relevant to clinical practice. Authors are asked to provide a salient one-sentence Practice Point of how the findings should affect practice. Commentaries are 500 words in length plus a maximum of 5 references. They cannot contain figures and/or tables in print; if essential, figures and/or tables can be included as supplementary online information. Any supplementary files will be made available as a PDF of the original file supplied by the author.
All Practice Point commentaries must contain the following elements:
- A salient one-sentence Practice Point of how the findings should affect practice
- Competing interests
- References (5 maximum)
- Glossary terms
- Full correspondence details for the author
- Brief biographical information for the author (maximum 300 characters in total for the information to be included in the printed article)
Case Studies
Case studies, rather than being merely anecdotal, should include the etiology, diagnosis and management of a case. Ideally, case studies should help established physicians as well as trainees to improve patient care. They should include information on the background of the case, how the initial diagnosis was reached, discussion of the differential diagnosis, and pointers on treatment and management. A structured summary containing these main points should be provided. Case studies are approximately 1,500 words in length, plus figures and tables and a maximum of 15 references.
All Case Studies must contain the following elements:
- Title
- Structured summary (250 words maximum) with headings: Background, Investigations, Diagnosis, Management
- Keywords (up to 5) in alphabetical order
- Case description
- Section headings in the Case discussion (for example, Diagnosis, Treatment and management)
- Conclusions
- Acknowledgments
- Competing interests
- References (15 maximum)
- Glossary terms
- Full correspondence details for corresponding author
- Brief biographical information for each author (maximum 300 characters in total for the information to be included in the printed article)
- Contribution statement for each author to the finished article, if more than one author
The case description should include the events leading to presentation and descriptions of relevant medical and physical examinations and results (when not within normal limits).
The discussion of the diagnosis should include the reasoning behind the decisions made on which diagnostic investigations and assessments to undertake, descriptions of procedures undertaken and their outcome, and the reasoning that led to the diagnosis itself
The article should also describe the treatment and management of the patient, with final outcome if possible.
Case Studies can be good sources for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit. If authors would like CME questions to be based on their article, please contact journal staff for further information.
Article Responses
Article Responses, if published at all, are published online only and are associated with an article.
Book Reviews
Book Reviews will be published intermittently and in online format only.
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information is published online only, as a PDF of the original file(s) sent by the author(s). It will generally consist of display items such as figures, tables and videos. Article types that do not contain display items in printed format may publish them as supplementary information. Supplementary Information is always associated with an article.
Typography and house style
- Ensure double spacing with a wide margin
- Pages should be numbered
- International generic drug names should be used whenever possible. If proprietary names are used, they should be marked correctly with ® or TM and the generic name and manufacturer must also be provided
- US English spelling should be used
- For references, please avoid using endnotes or footnotes (see below for a style guide)
- Human gene names should be upper case and italic (please follow HUGO gene nomenclature for human genes at http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/); protein names should be in plain type
- Commas should be used to separate thousands (i.e. 1,000 and 10,000)
- Abbreviations should be used sparingly, but should be defined in full the first time for any that are used
- Use of color should be avoided in graphs and histograms; if you must use shading, start at 20% and increase it a further 20% each time a new shade is required, to a maximum of 100% black; alternatively consider using stippling or cross-hatching
- Figures divided into parts should be labeled in a sans serif font such as Helvetica Neue with an upper case, bold A, B, C, etc, in the top left hand corner of each panel. In graphs, axis labels, keys etc should be in "Sentence case" with no period (full stop) {see figure section below}
- Spaces should be inserted between numbers and units. SI units should be used in all instances; in some instances, non-SI units common to a medical field might also be cited
- Special characters may be used but should be embedded in the document to enable conversion to PDF format. If you are unable to produce special characters in this way, please write the name of the character out in full (e.g. alpha)
References
These must not be included as endnotes or footnotes. The following reference styles should be used:
Article in journal
1 Wollenhaupt J and Zeidler H (1998) Undifferentiated arthritis and reactive arthritis. Curr Opin Rheumatol 10: 306—313
2 van Jaarsveld CH et al. (2000) Aggressive treatment in early rheumatoid arthritis: a randomised controlled trial. Ann Rheum Dis 59: 468—477
Article in journal supplement
3 Breedveld FC (1998) New insights in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol 53 (Suppl): S3—S7
NB Some supplements have supplement numbers or other identifiers, whereas others do not. If the supplement has an identifier, show it as (Suppl 2), for example.
Article in conference proceedings
4 Jones X: Zeolites and synthetic mechanisms. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 1996 June 27—30; Baltimore. 16—27 {Ed. Smith Y} Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann
Whole issue of a journal
5 Lipsky P and Maini R (Eds; 1998) This issue didn't exist.In Arthritis Res 0: 1—72
Whole conference proceedings
6 Smith Y (Ed.; 1996) Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 1996 June 27—30; Baltimore. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann
Book
7 Hughes GRV (1984) Connective Tissue Diseases. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific
8 Hunder GG (Ed.; 1999) Atlas of Rheumatology. Philadelphia: Current Medicine Inc
9 Crystal RG et al. (1997) The Lung: Scientific Foundations, edn 2 (2 vols). New York: Raven
Book chapter
10 Ginsburg WW and O'Duffy JD (1997) Multicentre reticulohistocytosis. In Textbook of Rheumatology, 203—213 (Eds Kelly WN et al.) Philadelphia: WB Saunders
Link
11 The Arthritis Research Institute [http://www.preventarthritis.org/]
Electronic-only references
12 Winser H (online 30 June 04) Title of article [http://www.nature.com/andfulldetails] (accessed 5 August 04)
The accessed date should be the date the author last visited the website to check the page was still available.
Published summary or abstract
13 Zvaifler NJ et al. (1999) Mesenchymal cells, stromal derived factor-1 and rheumatoid arthritis [summary] or [abstract]. Arthritis Rheum 42: s250
N.B. If there is an abstract number, add it within the square brackets preceded by a # (e.g. as [abstract #1234])
Monograph or book in a series
14 Hunninghake GW and Gadek JE (1995) The alveolar macrophage. In Cultured Human Cells and Tissues, 54—56 (Ed. Harris TJR) New York: Academic. [Stoner G (Series Editor): Methods and Perspectives in Cell Biology, vol 1.]
Articles in press
Accepted articles should be cited in the reference list but without year or volume information.
15 Kharatinov SA and Barnes PJ: Clinical aspects of inhaled nitric oxide. Eur Respir J, in press
Software
16 Microsoft ® Word 2002 (Microsoft Corporation 2002)
NB If the program is not commercially available, cite in the text as Program Name (A Programmer, Institute of Programs, 2004).
Patents
17 Winser H (2004) Title of patent. US patent 0,000,000
The order of references within the reference list should follow their citation in the text. Text citations of reference numbers should appear to the right of any punctuation marks.
Tables
Tables should include information that cannot easily be described in text, or when comparisons need to be made that would be helped by display format. Tables should be no larger than one printed page (maximum 180 mm [width] by 230 mm [depth]) and the text should be legible.
Each table should be presented on a separate page at the end of the file containing the body of the text. Symbols and abbreviations should be defined immediately below the table in footnotes, followed by essential descriptive material.
Figure legends
All symbols and abbreviations used in the figure must be defined except common abbreviations or those that have been defined in the text.
Figure style
Figures should be kept simple for clarity, avoiding excessive detail. Multipart figures should be sized so that all parts can be reduced by the same amount for reproduction on the page, which is 180 mm (width) by 230 mm (depth) - the maximum area for page content.
Lettering in figures should be in a sans-serif typeface, preferably Helvetica Neue, lower case, with the first letter capitalized and no period (full stop). As a guide, we recommend that type is no smaller than 7 point, and lines between 0.5 and 1 point.
Separate panels in multipart figures should be labeled with bold, upright, upper-case A, B, C....
Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature in some instances, non-SI units common to a medical field might also be cited. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000). Unusual units or abbreviations are defined in the legend. Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined in the legend rather than on the bar itself.
Layering type directly over shaded or textured areas and using reversed type (white lettering on a colored background) should be avoided where possible.
Where possible, text (including keys to symbols) should be provided in the legend rather than on the figure itself.
In grayscale figures, shades of gray should be visually distinct (each different by 20%).
Supplementary information
Additional information relevant to the article but not essential for understanding it, or information that cannot be printed (such as video files), can be published online. Please note that supplementary information is peer-reviewed but will not be edited, nor will its appearance be improved in any way. Please submit supplementary information files as you would like them to be seen by the readers; following the guidelines in this document for file preparation should help to ensure clarity.
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Preparation of figures for submission
Image types
Images fall into two basic categories: photographic or scanned images, and graphs and schematic diagrams. Rasterized formats are best for photographs, scans, and composite figures containing photographic or scanned images with minimal or relatively simple labeling, whereas line or vector formats are best for graphs and schematic diagrams, and for composite figures containing a mixture of photographs or scans and detailed text or line artwork. The best format for any particular figure therefore depends partly on what kind of images it contains.
Electronic image formats
A wide variety of software is available to generate and manipulate images, and a huge range of graphics file formats. For print production, however, the range of usable formats is limited, and there are particular technical issues that need to be considered when preparing artwork for print.
Rasterized (or bitmapped) formats such as TIFF are composed of an array of dots (pixels). The quality is determined by the resolution, usually measured in dots per inch (dpi; also referred to as 'pixels per inch'). For adequate reproduction in the printed journal, we need a minimum of 300 dpi at the size the image is to appear on the page. We prefer 400 dpi if the figure contains text and 600 dpi if it contains small text (7 point) or other fine detail. Size and resolution are linked so that, for example, enlarging an image to twice its original size will halve the resolution. If the resolution is too low, individual pixels become visible to the eye, the edges of lines begin to appear 'stepped' and the image may look blurred or pixelated.
Line (or vector) formats such as Postscript, EPS and PDF preserve individual lines and text as separate, editable components. This makes them easier and quicker to reletter or edit as necessary, reducing the chance of errors, and gives sharper results in print and online. Also, because these images have no 'resolution' as such, they may be enlarged without any reduction in quality.
Preferred formats
Adobe Photoshop or TIFF format (high resolution, minimum 300 dpi) for photographic images.
Adobe Illustrator, Postscript, EPS or PDF format for figures containing line drawings and graphs, including figures combining text and line art with photographs or scans. If these formats are not possible, we can also accept the following as separate files (not embedded in your text file):
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- JPEG (high-resolution, 300 dpi)
Please do not send figures prepared in the following formats, as we cannot use them: Canvas, Freehand, CorelDraw
Notes on particular formats
In Photoshop, please send the Photoshop file (.psd) with the layers intact.
Although PowerPoint can export JPEGs, the resulting files are low resolution and not suitable for printing. The only way to obtain a high-quality graphics format from Microsoft Office applications is to generate Postscript using 'Print to file'.
JPEG is a compressed format, which achieves smaller file sizes by discarding information. As a result, saving in JPEG format may cause a noticeable reduction in quality, so we prefer Photoshop or TIFF format for rasterized images. When JPEG is the only option available, the quality should be set to the highest possible to minimize loss of information.
TIFF files are larger than JPEGs, but it is possible to reduce the file size by saving with compression (LZW compression is preferred), which does not degrade the quality of the image. Alternatively, compression software such as DropStuff or ZipIt can be used to reduce the file sizes.
Color artwork preparation
When preparing electronic figures for print, color requires particular attention as small color variations might be critical to the interpretation of the figure. Computer screens display colors using red, green and blue (RGB) pixels, whereas the color printing process uses inks in four colors - cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). Color figures should be supplied CMYK in preparation for printing. The range of colors that can be achieved in CMYK is limited, and converting from RGB to CMYK often affects the appearance of images. In particular, the conversion to CMYK might cause bright colors to appear muted, and the contrast between different colored areas may be reduced. Please note that if you have created images with layers in Photoshop, then on converting from RGB to CMYK, Photoshop will recommend 'flattening' the image (that is, combining the layers into one single image, so that individual parts can no longer be edited independently).
In order to ensure that the final image has the quality required for publication, we prefer to work with the editable layers. Please either compose the layers with images already converted to CMYK, or check that the color conversion is acceptable but supply the original RGB file with layers so that we can carry out the conversion to CMYK after editing.
At Nature Clinical Practice we prefer to work with the editable layers; therefore, either compose the layers with images already converted to CMYK or check that the color conversion is acceptable but supply the original GB file with layers so that we can carry out the conversion of CMYK after editing.
Finally, different computer screens have different settings for color, brightness and contrast, so even when images are supplied in CMYK it is important that we have a good-quality printed hard copy for reference and color matching.
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How should manuscripts be submitted?
Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology uses a fully web-based submission system (http://mts-ncpr.nature.com) for all types of article. Manuscripts should be submitted online only; please do not make a postal contribution or send email files unless requested to do so by journal staff. See Information about online submission for full details.
Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology uses a fully web-based submission system (http://mts-ncpr.nature.com) for all types of article. Manuscripts should be submitted online only; please do not make a postal contribution or send email files unless requested to do so by journal staff. See Information about online submission for full details.
The online system improves manuscript tracking and reporting functions. It also enables journal staff to reduce the amount of time each manuscript spends being processed. In order to use the system, and to ensure that finished articles are of the highest production quality, certain criteria must be met. These are outlined below.
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How should figures be submitted?
Figures should initially be submitted as JPEG/PDF files, which have a smaller file size and can pass through the reviewing system without difficulty. Each figure should be saved in a separate, clearly labeled file and submitted via our web submission system http://mts-ncpr.nature.com.
At acceptance, print/production-quality color figures might need to be resubmitted, either via the web system or on CD-ROM for PC/Mac, dependent on the file size (unfortunately, we cannot return any submitted disks). Disks should be labeled clearly with a list of the files they contain; the software used to create the images and their formats; corresponding author name; and manuscript number. When naming electronic files for either method of submission, use the figure number and a file extension (.EPS, .tif, .psd) that indicates the format which has been used as the file name (for example, NCPCM-2005-132Fig1.EPS).
See Information about online submission for full details.
Related Links:
Instructions for authors
Editorial Process
Information about online submission
