Instructions for Authors

The Ochsner Journal welcomes submissions of original research, literature reviews and commentaries, quality improvement studies, articles about innovative programs, case reports, editorials, and letters to the editor in accordance with the submission requirements.

All article submissions are peer reviewed by at least two referees who are blinded to the authors' names and institutions. Acceptance of a manuscript is determined by peer review score, compliance with author instructions, quality, usefulness, relevance, importance to physicians, and perceived interest to Ochsner Journal readers. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on publication.

All accepted manuscripts are subject to editorial revision. Ochsner Journal staff adhere to the Committee on Publication Ethics Responsible Research Publication: International Standards for Editors. 

GENERAL INFORMATION

Authorship Requirements

Authors are fully responsible for all statements and for the veracity of their work. The Ochsner Journal follows the authorship guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: each named author must meet all of the following criteria:

  1. substantial contributions to conception and design of the work; or the acquisition of data, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

A list of the specific contributions of each author is required in the cover letter.

Acknowledgements

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of people who might be acknowledged include medical illustrators, editors, administrative support staff, and colleagues who provided general (review, editing) or technical support.

Plagiarism

We use plagiarism detection software to check all submissions, including tables and figures, to ensure that none of the material has been previously published. Submissions that are overly duplicative of previously published work will be rejected. Submissions with minor duplication will be returned to the authors for revision prior to peer review.

Abbreviations

Do not use abbreviations other than those that are common and mainstream (MRI, CT, ECG, BMI). Abbreviations make reading and understanding a paper difficult, particularly for readers who are not experts in the field. If you use abbreviations in tables or figures to save space, spell out all abbreviations in a note under the table. If you use abbreviations in the text, spell each out abbreviation at its first mention with the abbreviation in parentheses, and then only use the abbreviation in subsequent text.

Research Ethics and Patient Consent

For all research articles, authors must state in the Methods section if the study was approved by the institutional review board/ethics board and provide details about how participants gave informed consent.

The Ochsner Journal complies with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors requirement that clinical trials be registered in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL and the registration number of the trial must be provided.

To ensure that patient privacy is respected and maintained according to HIPAA requirements, the Ochsner Journal requires a signed patient consent form for all case reports and case series, regardless of whether the patient is pictured or how completely the information is de-identified. Cases will not be considered for publication without the full knowledge and consent of the patient, or in the case of minors, the patient’s parent or guardian.

Copyright Transfer and Financial Disclosure

A copyright transfer agreement and financial disclosure form signed by all authors must be uploaded to the ScholarOne Manuscripts portal at the same time as your manuscript submission. You may use more than one signature page. Manuscripts will not be sent for peer review until this form—with physical signatures from all authors—is submitted. Machine signatures will not be accepted. Failure to submit an appropriately completed copyright transfer agreement will delay manuscript processing and may result in immediate rejection.

Copyright Permission for Republication (if applicable)

If you use a figure or table that has been previously published, you must acknowledge the original source and obtain written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. The written permission must be uploaded with your manuscript submission. Obtaining such permission is the author’s responsibility.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

Cover Letter: A cover letter is a required document. Prepare a cover letter that lists the specific contributions of each author to the study.

  • If any portion of the work has been presented at a meeting or published elsewhere, provide details of the presentation/publication in the cover letter.
  • If the manuscript has been commissioned for a theme issue of the Ochsner Journal, mention the commission in the cover letter.

Title: The title should clearly indicate the focus of your paper and be easy to read.

Title Page: Because reviewers are blinded to the authors' names and institutions, a separate title page is a required document. The following information is required on the title page. Submissions that do not include all these components will be returned to the authors:

  • Title of the manuscript.
  • Running title (less than 10 words).
  • FULL NAME (no abbreviations for first names) of each author, his/her highest academic degree(s), and his/her departmental and institutional affiliation(s).
  • Name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address of the corresponding author.
    • Important Note: The corresponding author must be a staff physician or permanent senior staff member. Residents, fellows, and medical students cannot be identified as the corresponding author on papers submitted to the Journal.
  • 3 to 6 medical subject heading (MeSH) keywords for indexing purposes. Access the MeSH database here. 
  • Identification of ANY financial or proprietary interest related to the submitted manuscript, no matter how small. If none, include the following disclaimer: The authors have no financial or proprietary interest in the subject matter of this article.
  • A tweet about your article that we can use to promote it on social media. Try to make it fun and interesting while staying within the limit of 280 characters. If you have a twitter account, include your twitter ID (handle) in your tweet.

Structured Abstract: The Ochsner Journal requires a structured abstract for ALL article types except letters and editorials.

  • Abstracts are limited to 250 words.
  • Abstracts for original research articles and reviews/commentaries must include the following sections: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion.
  • Abstracts for case reports must include the following sections: Background, Case Report, Conclusion.

Manuscript Type: Depending on the type of paper you’re submitting, structure your paper according to the appropriate industry-standard reporting guidelines.

  • Systematic Review/MetaanalysIs: Use the PRISMA checklist. 
    • To ensure that your review will be of use to the research community, register it at the PROSPERO website. 
  • Observational Study (cohort, case control, cross-sectional): Use one of the STROBE checklists. 

For other article types, refer to this library of guidelines. 

Manuscript Formatting: All manuscripts must be submitted as Microsoft Word .docx or .doc documents. Do not submit PDFs.

To ensure that the document sent to peer reviewers is easy to read, manuscripts MUST BE formatted in 12-point type and double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. Number the pages. Do not number the lines. Do not right justify anything.

Use subheadings.

  • Original research articles: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.
  • Literature reviews: Introduction and Conclusion, as well as additional subheadings that accurately depict the literature topics.
  • Case reports: Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Conclusion.

If your article reports the results of a Food and Drug Administration–regulated device or drug, you must include both the institutional review board number and the registration number from ClinicalTrials.gov in the Methods section.

Cite all figures and tables consecutively with Arabic numerals in the appropriate places in the text (Figure 1, Table 1). Cite all references with superscript numerals consecutively in the text.

References: References must be called out in the text in chronological order. If you cite references in tables, cite all the reference numbers after the table callout in the text, maintaining chronological order. Include the reference list at the end of the text. If you use reference management software, remove the field codes—in other words, unlink the reference callouts and the reference citations—prior to submission. To remove the field codes, select the entire document and then press Ctrl+Shift+F9 or Cmd+6 to unlink all fields and remove hidden links.

Check your reference list for duplications prior to submission.

Cite primary sources. If an article is discussed in a review, cite the original article, not the review discussing it.

References are critically important, so take care with reference formatting. Format references in AMA style. Basically, just follow what you see at PubMed.

  • Author names are given as lastname initial (Doe JK). Do not put a comma after the last name and do not use periods in the initials. Do not use full first names. Do not format as firstname lastname.
  • List all authors up to 6, but if more than 6, list the first 3 names followed by et al.
  • Only the first word of an article title is capitalized. Exception: Capitalize proper nouns and abbreviations.
  • Abbreviate names of journals according to PubMed.
  • Italicize the journal abbreviation and put a period at the end of it.
  • Use extended page numbers (unlike PubMed). If the page numbers are shown as 333-5 in PubMed, show the page numbers as 333-335 in your reference list.
  • Include the DOI as part of the citation if the article has a DOI.

Sample journal article reference:

Price-Haywood EG, Robinson W, Harden-Barrios J, Burton J, Burstain T. Intelligent clinical decision support to improve safe opioid management of chronic noncancer pain in primary care. Ochsner J. 2018 Spring;18(1):30-35.

Sample website reference:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tobacco Use: Smoking & Secondhand Smoke. http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/TobaccoUse/SecondhandSmoke/index.html. Published September 2010. Accessed March 29, 2016.

Sample book reference:

Church TS, Lavie CJ, Sarzynski MA, Swift DA. Exercise and lipids. In: Ballantyne CM, ed. Clinical Lipidology: A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2015:210-216.

Figures and Photographs: Upload all graphics as separate files (not embedded in the text) and in an appropriate image format, such as TIFF or JPEG format. Do not paste graphics onto a blank page in Word and upload the Word file as a graphic.

  • Provide color figures whenever possible. Figures and photographs in the Ochsner Journal are printed in black and white, but they are published in color on the web.
  • Figures must be at least 200 DPI in resolution.
  • If available, please provide original Photoshop files (PSD or TIFF) including layers.

Figure Legends: On a separate page of your manuscript following the reference list, create a figure legends page that includes a caption for each figure.

  • List figure legends in the order of their textual citation. Use Arabic numerals that correspond to the numbers of the figures.
  • If you use symbols, arrows, numbers, letters, or acronyms in a figure, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.
  • We strongly discourage the use of any previously published material. If you submit a previously published figure, you must provide written permission to republish from the copyright holder.

Tables: Include each table on its own page after the figure legends page.

  • Include a title for each table.
  • Use Word’s table function to construct table rows and columns. Do not submit tables as image files.
  • Do not use any color or shading in tables and include all borders.
  • Include explanatory material in footnotes. Use superscript lowercase letters in alphabetical order to designate footnotes.
  • If you use symbols, arrows, numbers, letters, or acronyms in a table, identify and explain each one clearly in the footnotes.
  • Include units of measure for all values.
  • We strongly discourage the use of any previously published material. If you submit a previously published table, you must provide written permission to republish from the copyright holder.

ONLINE SUBMISSION PROCESS

Submit all manuscripts, figures, tables, and accompanying documents online at the Ochsner Journal ScholarOne Manuscripts submission portal. You will be required to enter all authors' names, institutions, and email addresses. You will also be required to upload the following files: cover letter, title page, main document, and copyright transfer agreement. If you are submitting a case report, you will be required to upload a patient consent form. Optional file types are figure, image (for photos or films), table, and supplementary file.

If you do not have a ScholarOne Manuscripts account, click the Create an Account link in the navigation bar and follow the instructions.

ASSISTANCE

If you have any questions about submission requirements or encounter any difficulties with manuscript submission, contact the Ochsner Journal editorial office:

Phone: (504) 842-3761

Email: ocjournal@ochsner.org