Instructions to Authors

Editorial Policy and Submission Requirements

The Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery will not accept manuscripts that have been previously published in a refereed journal or conference proceedings. The research reported in a manuscript must be testable and repeatable by other scientists who are knowledgeable in the field. Additionally, there must be due reference to previous work upon which the research depends.

Review Process

The suitability of each manuscript for publication is decided by the scientific editor and a panel of 2 or more reviewers selected by the scientific editor on the basis of their demonstrated expertise within a given field. Manuscripts receiving a favorable review are returned to the author for incorporation of revisions suggested by the reviewers. The scientific editor has the authority to reject a manuscript if revisions deemed important by the reviewers are not made.

The revised manuscript will be copy edited to ensure that grammar, usage, and spelling are correct and that all matters of style (eg, terminology, abbreviations, dosages) are consistent and conform with the established style of the Journal.

Publishing Schedule

Every effort will be made to publish manuscript s promptly. Authors will receive galley proofs in PDF format shortly before publication. Authors are expected to check proofs word for word and number for number against the final version of the manuscript. Only errors should be changed; further editing is not acceptable except to incorporate recently updated data.

Copyright

Authors will be requested to sign a release of copyright to the Association of Avian Veterinarians. The Association of Avian Veterinarians will own rights to the entire contents of manuscripts, including photographs.

Reprints

Authors will receive a reprint order form with the galley proofs. All requests for reprints should be made at that time. Authors or their institutions are required to bear the cost of reprints, but no page charges will be levied for publication in the Journal.

Guidelines for Authors
Submission of Manuscripts

Submit all manuscripts online via: http://jams.allentrack.net (please note that "www" is not used in this address). This website provides directions for author registration and easy on-line submission of manuscripts.

Authors should use the journal website instructions to submit complete copy of a manuscript, including tables and figures. Do not send original artwork or printed forms.  Tables should be placed together at the end of the manuscript.  Do not use any automated word-processing features, such as footnotes or citation links. The following formats are accepted text: Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, Rich Text Fromat (RTF), and Text. Figures should be submitted as separate files. The following formats are accepted for figures: TIFF, EPS, PDF, JPEG, Microsoft Word, and Postscript.

Receipt of manuscripts will be acknowledged promptly by e-mail.  If you do not receive acknowledgment of receipt after completing submission, contact the journal office by e-mail: jams@allentrack.net.

Companion papers or papers in a series (part 1, part 2, etc) should be submitted together. Papers with continued chapters or parts will not be accepted until all parts have been submitted. Use 12-point type for all text (including tables). All sections of the manuscript must be double spaced, including references. Each section should start on a new page in the following order: title page, body, references, footnotes, figure legends, and tables. All pages should be numbered, starting with the title page. The author will be notified through e-mail if the manuscript is accepted.

Organization

The Association of Avian Veterinarians recognizes the standard organization of scientific studies used by most scholarly journals as recommended by the American National Standards Institute and, and require this for all manuscripts (except in the case of review papers). This organization is as follows: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion, each of which is described in these guidelines.

Cover letter: Include a cover letter with your manuscript that includes the type and title of the manuscript being submitted for publication in the Journal, and the complete address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author who will receive the galley proofs. Please save the cover letter in a file separate from the text.

Title page: The title page of the manuscript should include the title, the full names of all authors with their degrees, the names and addresses of authors’ institutions, including street address, city, state, ZIP or postal code, country, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Authors’ institutions and addresses are given as footnotes to their names at the bottom of the title page.

Abstract:  An abstract summarizes the main points of the paper, and can be compiled by condensing important statements from the Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Please see current issues of the Journal for examples and order of key words.

Introduction: The Introduction identifies the subject and purpose of a study and orients the reader:

·        Define and describe the issue in veterinary medicine that was addressed in the study

·        Give a concise review of the literature

·        State the purpose, usually in 1 or 2 sentences such as “The purpose of the study was to....”

Please see current issues of the Journal for examples of content and style.

Methods: Describe clearly the study subjects (birds), including criteria for selection. Include control birds, if any. Describe methodology, including all materials, substances, apparatuses, methods, and techniques used in sufficient detail to allow other investigators to reproduce the study. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (results of statistical analysis should justify the interpretations and conclusions). Provide references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published but are not well known. Describe new or substantially modified methods and give reasons for using them.

Results: The Results should be a concise account of important findings, presented in a logical sequence. Use tables and figures when appropriate. Tabular data should be explained, highlighted, or elaborated in the text, but not repeated.

Discussion: The Discussion should interpret the results in the context of other published research. It should also discuss the significance or implications of the findings and their limitations, including implications for future research. Conclusions can be given, but avoid unqualified statements not supported by your data.

References: Literature citations in the text and tables are identified by superscript numbers and given in order of citation (not alphabetical order).

Reference examples:

Journal article

1. Schmidt RE. Common gross lesions in nonpsittacine birds .  J Assoc Avian Vet. 1992;6:223-226.

Book

2. Orosz SE, Ensley PK, Haynes CJ. Avian Surgical Anatomy—Thoracic and Pelvic Limbs. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders; 1992.

Chapter in a book

3. Cooper JE. Infectious and parasitic diseases of raptors. In: Fowler ME, ed. Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine and Current Therapy. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders; 1993:221-229.

Proceedings

4. Fedde MR. Structure and function of the avian respiratory system. Proc Annu Conf Assoc Avian Vet. 1993;1-26.

Websites (URLs)

5. Health Care Financing Administration. 1998 statistics at a glance. Available at: http://www.hcfa.gov/stats/stathili.htm. Accessed December 2, 1996.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledgments should be limited to financial support, to people who have made a substantial contribution to the study, or persons responsible for preparation of the manuscript.

Tables: Please refer to a recent issue of the Journal for style.

·        Each table should be typed on a separate page inserted in the manuscript after the references or figure captions.

·        Tables are numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers and referred to in the text as Table 1, Table 2, etc (usually in parentheses)

·        Organize tables to fit across 1 or 2 columns such that the page will not have to be turned to the side to be read; do not use vertical ruled lines

·        Titles should be descriptive enough to stand alone

·        Separate columns horizontally only. Columns of numbers including decimals and factors should be aligned first by + and then by decimal; each column should have a heading; vertical headings are not acceptable; only the first word of each column heading is capitalized

·        Data in figures and tables should be summarized in text, not repeated

·        References to footnotes are by letters and are independent for each table

·        Standard errors of means or standard deviations (of observations) may be attached to the means by + signs, although a separate column or row may be used. If mean separation procedures are used, place small-cap letters on the line after the numerical value, and use one space between them

·        Use this format to call out a footenote “Means in the same column with different letters are significantly different (P < .01).”

Figures: In general, most figures (particularly histopathologic and electron microscopic photographs) should be labeled with letters or arrows denoting salient features.

Figures legends should be inserted in the manuscript after the references and before tables. Figure legends should stand alone: identify the bird (and disease or condition if applicable) followed by a description of the salient features illustrated by the photograph. Legends for photomicrographs should contain the amount of magnification and identify the stain.

Headings: Three classes of headings are used within the text of a manuscript.

·        Major headings: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, and References are centered, uppercase and lowercase, bold, major words capitalized.

·        First subheading: flush left, bold, first word only capitalized.

·        Second subheading: paragraph start, italics, followed by colon. First word only capitalized.

General and technical style

Units of measurement: Use only the metric system, although °F may be placed in parentheses after °C. Use ml (not cc), dl (not 100 ml), and µg (not mcg).

Numerals:  Use numerals preceding abbreviated units of measurement (eg, 4%, 2 g, 6 cm). Use numerals for everything countable: 4 animals, 2 times, 3 ml, 14 birds, 72 hours (but on the one hand; an example or two). Never begin a sentence with a numeral. Supply another word or spell out the number. Units of measurement following spelled-out numbers must also be spelled out. Write 1000, not 1,000, and 10 000, not 10,000. Ranges are expressed with a dash (eg, 2–3 mm or 20%–30%). Ordinal numbers up to ninth should be spelled out in the text; they may be abbreviated in tables to save space. Abbreviate ordinal numbers 10^th and above. When data are expressed in inconveniently large or small numbers, headings in the appropriate columns of tables or footnotes in figures should indicate that values contain a common factor (eg, 10⁵ ; 10^-8). Dates are written using the format March 7, 1999. Months should be abbreviated in tables (except title) with 3-letter abbreviations (eg, Feb, Mar).

Abbreviations: The editors of the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery, following the practice of many highly regarded editors of human and veterinary publications, strongly discourage the use of abbreviations and acronyms with the exception of internationally approved and accepted units of measure and some well-recognized clinical and technical terms and symbols (CBC, RBC, WBC, PCV). The following are some general guidelines: the first time an abbreviation is used, spell out the word and put the abbreviation in parentheses. Avoid using abbreviations in the title, abstract, text headings, figure legends, and tables. Do not abbreviate a word that is only used once or twice. Abbreviate units of measurement when preceded by numerals. Units of measure are not abbreviated when they follow spelled-out numbers at the beginning of a sentence or when they are not preceded by numbers. Units of time are not abbreviated in running text. Use abbreviations for units of time in table heads and in the flush left column. Also use abbreviations in virgule (slash) or like constructions. Abbreviations are written in the singular, even though they may be plural. Avoid abbreviating disease names. The following is a partial list of acceptable abbreviations. Abbreviations generally follow those given in the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 9^th ed (Williams & Wilkins, 1998):

alanine aminotransferase (ALT)

analysis of variance (ANOVA)

aspartate aminotransferase-AST

by mouth (per os) (PO)

by mouth; per os PO

calorie; large kilogram calorie (kcal)

Centigrade (C)

complete blood count (CBC)

counts per minute (cpm)

crossed with, multiplied by (×)

cubic centimeter(s) (cm³⁾

deci- (10^-1)

degree(s) Centigrade (°C)

degree(s) Fahrenheit (°F)

degrees of freedom (df)

et alia (et al)

et cetera (etc)

for example (eg)

electrocardiogram; electrocardiograph (ECG)

electroencephalogram; electroencephalograph (EEG)

enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Fahrenheit (F)

gram (g)

hectare; (ha)

hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)

hour (h) [in tables only]

inside diameter (ID)

international units (IU)

intramuscular (IM)

intraperitoneal (IP)

intravenous (IV)

kilo- (k or × 10³)

kilohertz (kHz)

lethal dose 50% (LD₅₀₎

liter (L)

mean (x)

mega- (M or × 10⁶⁾

megacalorie (Mcal)

megahertz (MHz)

meter (m)

micro- (µ or × 10^-6)

microliter (µl)

micrometer (µm)

milligram (mg)

milliliter (ml)

millimeter(mm)

millimolar; concentration (mM)

Millimole; mass (mmol)

minute (min)

molar; concentration (M)

month (mo)

nano- (n or × 10^-9)

normal; concentration (N)

once a day (q24h)

packed cell volume (PCV

parts per million (ppm)

per ( / )

periodic acid—Schiff (PAS)

probability (P)

red blood cell (RBC)

revolutions per minute (rpm)

sample size (n)

seconds (s) [ in tables only]

square centimeter (cm²)

standard deviation (SD)

standard error (SE)

standard error of the mean (SEM)

subcutaneous (SC)

that is (ie)

three times a day (q8h)

twice a day (q12h)

versus (vs)

white blood cell (WBC)

week (wk)

year (y)

Please note: for dosages, use q24h for once a day, q12h for twice a day, q8h for 3 times a

day, etc, instead of sid, bid, and tid.

 Abbreviations of commonly cited periodicals: One-word journal titles are not abbreviated. Do not
use periods between abbreviated words. Use Index Medicus abbreviations and italicize the journal name.

Am J Vet Res

Anat Rec

Anim Feed Sci Technol

Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol

Arch Biochem Biophys

Aust J Biol Sci

Avian Dis

Avian Pathol

Bacteriol Rev

BioScience

Br Vet J

Can J Anim Sci

Can Vet J

Compend Cont Educ Pract Vet

Cornell Vet

Infect Immun

J Am Anim Hosp Assoc

J Am Vet Med Assoc

J Anim Sci

J Assoc Avian Vet

J Avian Med Surg

J Equine Med Surg

J Exp Biol

J Food Sci

J Infect Dis

J Nutr

J Pharmacol Exp Ther

J Small Exotic Anim Med

J Toxicol Environ Health

J Vet Intern Med

J Zoo Anim Med

J Zoo Biol

J Zoo Wildl Med

Lab Anim

N Z Vet J

Poult Sci

Proc Annu Conf Assoc Avian Vet

Proc Soc Exp Biol Med

Res Anim Sci

Science

Toxicol Appl Pharmacol

Vet Pathol

Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract

Vet Rec
 

Abbreviations for words used in References:

Abstract-Abstr

Agriculture-Agric

America-Am

Annals-Ann

Annual-Annu

Association-Assoc

British-Br

Bulletin-Bull

Circular-Circ

College-Coll

Conference-Conf

Experiment-Exp

Extension-Ext

Immunology-Immunol

Institute-Inst

International-Int

Japanese-Jpn

Livestock-Livest

Medical-Med

Microbiology-Microbiol

Miscellaneous-Misc

Monograph-Monogr

National-Natl

Pathology-Pathol

Proceedings-Proc

Publication-Publ

Report-Rep

Research-Res

Station-Stn

Supplement-Suppl

Symposium-Symp

Technical-Tech

United States-US

Department of Agriculture-Dept Agric

University-Univ

Veterinary, Veterinarian(s)-Vet

Miscellaneous:

·        Leave spaces around all mathematical operation signs (eg, n = 8, a + b)

·        Use the decimal form when a fraction is given (eg, 6.2 ml, 3.2 cm); place a zero in front of the decimal point in numbers less than 1.0, except where the number could never equal zero, such as statistical probability, levels of significance, etc (P < .05, r = .89)

·        Use chemical symbols for elements if they appear more than once in the manuscript; formulas for simple compounds (eg, NaCl, HNO₃, NH₄OH) are acceptable

·        Superscript numbers should be placed outside periods but inside semicolons and colons

·        Final quotation marks should follow a period or a comma; question marks, colons, or semicolons follow quotation marks.

·        Mass number precedes chemical symbol (eg, ¹⁴C or ¹³I), unless spelled out (eg, carbon-14, iodine-131)

·        The genus and species of all nondomestic birds cited in the abstract and text should be listed after the common name at the first occurrence. Do not capitalize common names except for proper nouns (eg, Amazon parrot); use italics for genus and species; use “Ara species” instead of “genus Ara”; use “psittacine birds” instead of “psittacines”; “gallinaceous birds” instead of “galliforms,” etc

·        Common Latin words such as et al, in vitro, in vivo, in utero, ie, and eg are not italicized

·        Serial commas (before “and” “or”) should be used (eg, red, white, and blue)

·        Use “ic” wherever possible for words such as “physiologic” (not “physiological”)

·        Prefixes and suffixes are generally not hyphenated unless the combination of letters results in an incorrect word (re-cover vs recover; un-ionized vs unionized) See Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition, if in doubt

·        Use “it,” not “he” or “she,” when referring to a nonhuman subject; avoid the use of personal names when referring to animals or clients

These Instructions were produced by the Association of Avian Veterinarians with permission to reprint, in part, from the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, “Editorial Guidelines and Instructions to Authors.” These Instructions are available at no charge to prospective or current authors for the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery. These Instructions may not be reprinted without written permission of the Association of Avian Veterinarians. (aavpublications@aol.com) 

Journal Office

Patricia Hildenbrand, Managing Editor
Allen Press, Inc
810 East 10th Street
Lawrence, KS 66044, USA
T : (785) 843-1234 x 143
F : (785) 843-1244
e-mail : phildenbrand@allenpress.com