Submitted manuscripts should be arranged according to the rules stated in "Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals" Ann Intern Med 1997; 126: 36-47, or JAMA 1997; 277: 927-34. The full document is available at
http://www.icmje.org.
Submission of a manuscript implies that the material has not been previously published, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that all authors approve of the material submitted for publication.
Conflict of interest and funding
Authors are responsible for recognising and disclosing financial and other conflicts of interest that might bias their work. They should acknowledge in the manuscript all financial support for the work and other financial or personal connections to the work.
Statistic validity
If statistical data are provided the authors are requested to submit an official statement issued by a certified statistician (with a proper affiliation) regarding the validity of methods used. Statistical methods should be clearly identified and described in sufficient details for knowledgeable reader to reproduce the analysis if he or she had access to the raw data.
Ethics and consent
When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. Papers including animal experiments or clinical trials must be accompanied by an approval by the local ethics committee. Please give date of issue and registration number.
Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees, unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.
Online Submission
HPB Manuscript Central, the web-based manuscript submission and handling system is now available at:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hpb.
Please submit all manuscripts online via the HPB Manuscript Central site. Here new users should first create an account to obtain the user ID and password. Once you are logged in, you can submit manuscripts via your "Author center". Your submission will be acknowledged by an e-mail which includes the Manuscript ID number for your paper. Remember to refer to this number in the subject line of any correspondence with the Editorial Office. You can view the status of your manuscript via your author center.
Manuscript Layout
Please use these simple guidelines when preparing your manuscript:
- 1. Please be consistent. The same elements should be keyed in exactly the same way throughout the manuscript
- 2. Do not break words at the end of lines. Use a hyphen only to hyphenate compound words.
- 3. Enter only one space after the full-stop at the end of a sentence.
- 4. When emphasizing words please use the italic feature of your word processor software.
- 5. Do not justify your text; use a ragged right-hand margin.
- 6. Use a double hyphen (--) to indicate a dash in text.
- 7. Do not use the lowercase l for 1 (one) or the uppercase O for 0 (zero).
- 8. The space bar should only be used as a word separator. Use TAB when identifying paragraphs or separating columns in tables.
Layout
Manuscripts should be written in English (consistently English or American style) and typed on one side of the paper only with double spacing throughout the article (at least 1 cm between the lines) and margins of at least 4 cm on the left side and at the top. Please use Times New Roman 12 point.
Title page
The title page should carry the title of the article, first name, middle initial, and last name of each author with institutional affiliation, name, postal address and email address of author responsible for correspondence, and a short running title.
Abstract
Abstract not exceeding 300 words should be entered in the abstract text box or alternatively presented on a separate sheet within the manuscript text file. Abstracts should be arranged according to the same headings that are used in the text; Material and Methods, Results and Discussion.
Text
The text should, as a rule, be divided into the sections Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Abbreviations, which are not generally accepted, should be spelled out when first used in text. Uncommon abbreviations and clinical jargon should be avoided. Footnotes are not accepted. The International System of Units (SI) should be used.
References
The Vancouver system must be applied. Number the references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in the text by Arabic numerals (in square brackets). Papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as (in press). References to papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should be cited in the text as 'unpublished observation(s)' or 'personal communication'.
For abbreviations of journal titles; please consult the List of Journals Indexed for Medline, accessible at www.nlm.nih.gov.
References include name(s) of author(s) followed by initial(s), full title of the article, name of the journal, year of publication, volume number and number of first and last page. References to books should indicate author(s), title of chapter, book title, name of editor(s), place, publisher, year of publication, and number of first and last page.
Tables
Type each table double-spaced on a separate sheet. Do not submit tables as photographs. Supply a brief title for each table. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in notes under the table, not in the heading.
Illustrations
Submit illustrations separately in TIFF or EPS format, and provided with an image resolution of at least 300 DPI (line figures preferably higher). Figure number should be indicated in the file name. Figure legends should be provided at the last page of the main text. Letters and numerals should be large enough to allow reduction of illustrations to one-column width (8 cm). The expense for colour photos (USD 750/page) must be borne by the author(s).
Page Proofs
Page proofs will be e- mailed to the author together with a reprint order form. To avoid delay in publication, authors must return proofs within the time indicated.