Information for Authors

The Ochsner Journal is pleased to receive manuscripts presenting applicable, scientific information relevant to practicing primary care physicians and allied health care professionals. All submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review by the Journal's editorial board and other experts. The final decision on publication is made by the editor-in-chief and/or the issue editor.

The Ochsner Journal intends to provide practical and applicable, scientific information on topics of great medical and societal relevance to practicing primary care physicians, physicians in training, and allied health care professionals and welcomes submissions in accordance with these guidelines. The Journal accepts manuscripts that adhere to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, available online at www.icmj.org. Address all correspondence to The Ochsner Journal, 1514 Jefferson Highway, New Orleans, LA 70121. The editorial offices can be reached at 504 842-6096, fax 504 842-2013, or by email at ocjournal{at}ochsner.org.

Manuscripts should be of an appropriate length to conform to our wish to feature precise, complete articles. Avoid the unnecessary use of medical jargon and abbreviations but identify all necessary abbreviations, especially laboratory and diagnostic procedures. Generic names should be used for pharmaceuticals. Hard copies of manuscripts must be double-spaced, left-justified, have margins of 1.25″, and include page number and primary author in each upper right corner. Submissions should include: one hard copy, an electronic copy on diskette or by email, camera-ready copies of all figures or electronic copies at 600 dpi, photocopies of all sources/references, photo/head shot(s) of the primary author(s) [if more than two authors, only the first author's photo is needed]. Manuscripts submitted to The Ochsner Journal are reviewed by experts in the specific field. Authors are encouraged to identify any reviewers they feel should not be used due to potential bias. All manuscripts are subject to editorial revisions as deemed necessary by the editors to conform to the Journal's style and standards. The authors clearly bear the full responsibility for all statements made and the veracity of the work reported therein.

The Title Page should carry: the title of the manuscript, the full name of each author and/or contributor listed in descending order of magnitude of contribution, including their academic degree(s) (only the names of those who have contributed materially to the preparation of the manuscript should be included), a 1- to 2-sentence biographical description of the author(s) (including specialty, practice location, academic appointments, primary hospital affiliation, or other credits), the date of original composition, 5 to 10 keywords for indexing purposes, and identification of sources of financial support including a declaration of any affiliations with any proprietary interests involved in the subject of the manuscript.

The Abstract should consist of no more than 250 words, be factual and informative rather than descriptive, intelligible on its own, contain abbreviations only when absolutely necessary, and be devoid of references. The abstract reports only what appears in the manuscript and contains a brief statement of the manuscript's purpose, the approach used, the material studied, and the results obtained.

References should be on separate pages immediately following the text and limited to a reasonable number. Please supply photocopies of all references. References will be critically examined at the time of review and photocopies of all sources are extremely important. All references must be cited in the text and should be arranged in order of citation. Personal communications and unpublished data should not be included in references, but should be incorporated in the text. The following form should be followed:

Journal References: Author(s). Title of article. Name of the journal, year of publication; volume number: inclusive page numbers.

References to Books: Author(s). Title, edition number. Place of publication: Publisher, year.

Illustrations must be submitted in photo-ready hard copies or electronic copies of at least 600dpi. All illustrations must be referred to in the body of the text. Patients in photographic material must be unrecognizable unless specific written consent is obtained. Figure number, title of manuscript, and name of principal author should be typed on a label and affixed to the back of each illustration. Legends should be on a separate page. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.

Tables should be self-explanatory and should supplement, not duplicate, the text. Supply a brief title for each. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Identify statistical measures of variations such as standard deviation and error of the mean. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table in the footnotes. The standard footnote symbols, in this sequence, are: *, †, ‡, §, ‖, ¶, **, ††…

CME Credit. Articles published in The Ochsner Journal are eligible to be offered for Category I CME credit through the Ochsner Clinic Foundation Department of Continuing Medical Educaion. Authors are encouraged to submit 5–8 questions (multiple choice, true/false) with their manuscripts. Questions will be critically examined at the time of review.

Permissions for the use of previously published material is required irrespective of authorship or publisher, and is the responsibility of the submitting author. Previously published matierals must be accompanied by acknowledgment of the original source and written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material.

Acknowledgments are the author's prerogative; however, acknowledgment of personnel for carrying out routine operations is discouraged. Written proof of knowledge and consent is required from every person acknowledged by an author, and should be supplied with an author's submission.

For more information, visit ou web site at www.ochsnerjournal.org or contact the The Ochsner Journal Editorial Office.