Iran J Vet Surg, Print ISSN: 2008-3033, Online ISSN: 2676-6299

 Manuscript submission

Manuscripts should be submitted only through the electronic website. Authors who submit manuscripts to the journal should carefully read these Instructions when preparing their manuscripts because compliance with these instructions will help reduce delays in manuscript processing. A manuscript is received with the understanding that it and all revisions have been approved by all authors and that neither the manuscript nor any of its parts have been published, except as an abstract less than 250 words long, or is under concurrent consideration by any other publication. The corresponding author must provide a signed statement to this effect in a cover letter. A manuscript containing information published in any compiled printed (e.g., journals, symposia, proceedings, newsletters, books) or electronic (e.g., Web sites, CD-ROMs, DVDs) format will be rejected on the grounds of prior publication. Publication of abstracts less than 250 words long does not constitute prior publication; however, the publication of longer abstracts may. At the time of manuscript submission, the corresponding author must include copies of any abstracts of the manuscript that have been published or submitted for publication or that are expected to be submitted for publication. Requests to copy, reprint, or use portions of published material should be addressed to the editor-in-chief. 

The journal editorial office keeps the right of rejecting manuscripts that are not prepared as per the journal style. 

The corresponding author is also responsible for submitting required supplementary materials, including a completed copyright transfer agreement signed by all authors (which will be sent to the corresponding author upon acceptance of the manuscript for publication); a cover letter containing a statement on prior publication, concurrent submission, authorship, and funding signed by the corresponding author; copies of any references listed as "in-press"; a copy of any abstracts containing information from the manuscript that has been published or submitted for publication; and a copy of the signed permission from the copyright holder if the manuscript contains any tables or illustrations that have been published previously. This supplementary material must be submitted electronically. All authors will be required to sign a written statement transferring copyright to the IVSA which will be sent to the corresponding author upon acceptance of the manuscript. The Journal shall own the work, including 1) copyright, 2) the right to grant permission to republish the article in whole or in part, with or without fee, 3) the right to produce preprints or reprints and translate into languages other than English for sale or free distribution, and 4) the right to republish the work in a collection of articles in any other mechanical or electronic format.

Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery is an Open Access journal. The articles of this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the aforementioned conditions.

 

Authorship

Author names should be written in full form (e.g. Reza Ahmadi-Moghaddam). Only the First Letter of each name is in Capital form.

The journal follows the recommendations for authorship of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2017, http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).

Individuals should be listed as authors only if they 1) made a substantial contribution to the conception and design of the study, the acquisition of the data used in the study, or the analysis and interpretation of that data; 2) were involved in drafting or revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; and 3) will have an opportunity to approve subsequent revisions of the manuscript, including the version to be published. All three conditions must be met. Each individual listed as an author must have participated sufficiently to take public responsibility for the work. Acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of the research team does not, alone, justify authorship.

For multi-institutional studies, the individual who headed the study should be listed as an author, along with individuals who provided assistance with pathologic studies (e.g., review of gross and histologic specimens) and statistical analyses and any other individuals who had a substantial impact on the study design or made a unique contribution to the study. Individuals who submitted case material should be listed as authors only if they contributed at least 10% of the cases included in the study; otherwise, they should be listed in the acknowledgments. Any change in the author list or its order is not allowed after submitting it.

 

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments can be used to identify important specific contributions from individuals who do not qualify for authorship. In particular, individuals who have contributed intellectually to the study or report but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their function or contribution described. In general, this includes individuals who provided technical assistance (eg, individuals who performed special tests or research) and individuals who provided assistance with statistical analyses. Acknowledgments should not include individuals whose only contribution to the study or report involved the routine performance of their normal job duties and who did not offer any unusual intellectual contribution or technical expertise. The acknowledgments should not be used simply as a method of expressing gratitude to individuals who had a minor role in the study. Acknowledgments of nonspecific groups (e.g., the intensive care unit technicians) and unidentifiable groups (e.g., the anonymous contributors) are not allowed. Individuals named in the acknowledgments must have given their permission to the authors to be listed, because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

 

Funding

Authors are expected to acknowledge all sources of funding or financial support and to disclose to the editor any financial interests (including ownership, employment, consultancy arrangements, and service as an officer or board member) they have with companies that manufacture products that are the subject of their research or with companies that manufacture competing products.

 

Humane animal care and use

All research studies involving animals must have been performed with great respect for animal welfare. Any unnecessary manipulation or stress should be strictly avoided. A manuscript containing information that suggests that animals were subjected to adverse, stressful, or harsh conditions or treatments will not be considered for publication unless the authors demonstrate convincingly that the knowledge gained was of sufficient value to justify these conditions or treatments. If animals were euthanized, the method of euthanasia must be indicated. The authors are encouraged to mention the Ethics Code indicating ethical approval of the study by the institute of the author. The manuscripts that are suspected of animal abuse or those carried out on animals that may cause them suffering will be immediately rejected.

 

Style

For questions of style, refer to the latest edition of the Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery. For anatomic terms, use anglicized versions of official terms listed in the Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria. Refer to the latest editions of the American Drug Index and USP Dictionary of USAN and International Drug Names for the proper spelling of chemical and drug names and to the latest edition of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary for proper spelling and use of medical terms. Refer to Bergey's Manual of Determinative Microbiology for spelling and correct taxonomic classifications of microorganisms.

The use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Except for standard abbreviations and units of measure, abbreviations must be expanded at first mention in the main text, with the abbreviation given in parentheses after the first mention of the expanded term. These abbreviations should then be used without expansion. Abbreviations that appear only in the figures or tables should be defined in the table or figure legend. Abbreviations should not be used to begin a sentence. Except for the abbreviations ELISA, ACTH, EDTA, DNA, and RNA, abbreviations should not be used in titles. In addition, abbreviations in the abstract must be expanded at first mention, too. Products, equipment, and drugs should be identified by chemical or generic names or descriptions. A trade name may be included within parenthesis if that specific product, equipment, or drug was essential for the outcome. Body weights and temperatures must be reported in metric units. Dosages must be given in mg/kg of body weight basis. All dosages must include the route of administration and interval (e.g., 10 mg/kg, IV, q 12 h).

 

Categories of manuscripts

Authors may submit manuscripts for publication in the Original Article (including original, retrospective, or descriptive studies), Review Article, Short Communication, and Clinical Report sections of the journal.

A manuscript based on original research in which animals had a naturally developing or experimentally induced disease or condition will be considered for publication as an original study. A manuscript based on the evaluation of case records accumulated during a specific period will be considered a retrospective study. A manuscript in which a new technique, treatment, or diagnostic method is described will be considered a descriptive study. A manuscript dealing with any number of clinical cases will be considered a clinical report. A review article is usually written by scholars and experts in the field who have published at least five research papers on the subject in native and/or international journals. In review articles, the results of published research are closely evaluated, the strong and weak points are stated, and suggestions for further improvement may be made. Short communication is a short, peer-reviewed article focusing on a high-quality, hypothesis-driven, self-contained piece of original research and/or the proposal of a new theory or concept based on existing research.

 

Manuscript preparation

Manuscripts must be in English and Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). The manuscript (including references, figure legends, and tables) must be double-spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font, 3.5 cm margins, and left justification. Each line and page of the manuscript must be numbered, beginning from the title page.

Manuscripts should be arranged as follows: 1) Title page, 2) manuscript main file, 3) figures, and 4) tables. Each of these must be uploaded as separate files.

The title page must include the title and the first name, middle initial, and last name of each author, along with their professional affiliations at the time of the study. If an author's affiliation has changed since the study was performed, the author's new affiliation should be identified. Acknowledgments, sources of funding, and the name, address, and email of the corresponding author should also be included on the title page. 

The manuscript main file must be contained only the abstract, manuscript main text, references, and figure’s legend without the authors' name and affiliation, acknowledgments, and source of funding.

All manuscripts must include an abstract maximum of 300 words. For original articles and short communications, the abstract must be included objectives, animals (or sample population), procedures, results, and conclusions. For clinical reports, the abstract must be included with the case description and clinical findings, treatment and outcome, and clinical relevance. Note that the abstract should be written in one paragraph only, without subdividing it into the aforementioned parts. Review articles may have abstracts with a different structure based on their topics.

The text for an original study is organized under the following headings: introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion. The introduction should supply sufficient pertinent background information to allow readers to understand and interpret the results. It must include the rationale for the study, the investigators' hypothesis, and a clear statement of the purpose of the study. The materials and methods section should describe the experimental design in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the study. For products and equipment, provide complete information in the parenthesis, including the manufacturer's name and location (ie, company, city, and country). A subsection detailing statistical methods used to summarize data and test hypotheses and the level of significance used for hypothesis testing should be provided. Software products should be cited appropriately (eg, PROC GLM, SAS Institute, Cary, NC, US). The results section should provide data that are clearly and simply stated without discussion or conclusions. Tables and figures should be cited parenthetically. Authors of manuscripts reporting gene sequences should submit those sequences to an appropriate data bank. The discussion section should focus on findings in the manuscript and should be brief, containing the only necessary discussion for the interpretation of findings. The discussion should concentrate on what is known in animals, not what is known in humans.

A retrospective study is organized in a manner similar to that of an original study with the exception that the materials and methods section is replaced with criteria for selection of cases and procedures sections. A retrospective study must include a meaningful statement of purpose, clinically relevant data, and clinically useful conclusions or interpretations derived directly from the evaluation of the cases described. Except for rare conditions, retrospective studies should contain information on at least 10 animals and include appropriate statistical analyses.

A descriptive study is organized in a manner similar to that of an original study. The introduction section is limited to 1 or 2 short paragraphs. The material and methods section is replaced with a procedures or techniques section, in which a description of the procedure or technique is provided. The results section contains the number and description of the animals, outcome, and complications and is followed by the discussion section. A descriptive report does not typically contain statistical analyses.

Short communication is organized similarly to that of an original study. The total length of the article (excluding the title page, abstract, references, and figure legends) should not exceed 2500 words, with a 150-word abstract and a maximum of two figures/tables and 10 references.

A clinical report includes case description, treatment and outcome, and clinical relevance sections. It begins with the signalment of the animal or animals, followed by a chronologic description of pertinent aspects of the diagnostic examination, treatment, and outcome, and ends with a brief discussion. When more than one animal is involved, a representative of the group should be described in detail; important differences among animals can be addressed separately. For reports in which there are 3 or fewer animals, summarize pertinent abnormal findings in the text. For 4 or more animals, one table that provides a summary of pertinent abnormal findings may be accommodated, provided that such findings are not repeated in the text.

 

References 

Authors bear primary responsibility for the accuracy of all references. The references MUST be prepared according to this instruction, otherwise, the manuscript will not be published. If the page designer or editor found out that the references are not based on the style depicted here, the manuscript will be rejected in any status, even after primary acceptance. 

  • References must be limited to those that are necessary and must be cited in the text by superscript numbers in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text starting from 1 (not in alphabetic order). 
  • Superscript numbers for references should be positioned after the punctuation ("." or "," or ";") in the text. 
  • Journal titles in the References section should be written in full form and must be Italic (e.g. "Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery" not: "Iran J Vet Surg").
  • Do not use et al. in the references list, instead, include all of the authors' names.
  • Also, write full page numbers of the references (e.g., 120-124, not 120-4).
  • Software programs that automatically create endnotes, footnotes, and references should not be used. 

The following is the style used for common types of references:

Journal articles

1. Shabrandi A, Azizi S, Hobbenaghi R, Ownagh A, Keshipour S. The healing effect of chitosan supported nano-CeO2 on experimental excisional wound infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in rat. Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery. 2017; 12(2): 9-20.

Book chapters

2. Muir P, Johnson KA, Manley PA. Fractures of the pelvis. In: Birchard SJ, Sherding RG, eds. Saunders manual of small animal practice. 2nd edn. WB Saunders, Philadelphia, US, 2000; 1126-1132.

Proceedings

3. Moore MP, Bagley RS, Harrington ML, Gavin PR. Intracranial tumors, in Proceedings. 14th Annual Meeting of Veterinary Medicine Forum. 1996; 331-334. Electronic material.

Websites

4. Animal and plant health inspection service website. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Available at: www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html. Accessed Feb 18, 2003.

 

Figures

Limit figures to those that reduce or clarify the text. Text and symbols should be large enough that they will still be legible when the figure is reduced to one column width during publication. To ensure high-quality reproduction, symbols used in graphs should be limited to open and closed circles, triangles, and squares; axes should be labeled in Helvetica or Arial font. Keys to symbols may be placed in a small box inserted into the unused portion of graphs. Photomicrographs and electron micrographs must have an internal scale bar. For figures that consist of multiple parts, individual parts of the figure should be identified by capital letters embedded in the figure, rather than by describing the location of the part in the legend (e.g., top right). 

All figures should be saved as separate electronic files, and should not be embedded in the manuscript. Figure legends must be given at the end of the manuscript. Sufficient information should be included to allow the figure to be understood without reference to the text. When applicable, stains used for histologic sections should be indicated in the legend. Authors wishing to use any previously published figures must submit written permission from the copyright holder.

Simple figures such as line drawings, bar graphs, and line graphs prepared in Excel should be saved as Excel files (.xls). Line drawings and graphs that were not prepared in Excel should be scanned on a flatbed scanner. Files should be saved as JPG files. Figures created with software programs that use proprietary graphics formats (e.g., SigmaPlot, Statistix) cannot be used; most such software programs have the capability to save figures in JPG format. The minimum resolution for line drawings and charts is 1,000 dots per inch. Figures that consist of images (e.g., photographs, photomicrographs, and radiographs) should be scanned on a flatbed scanner at a resolution of at least 300 dots per inch. Files should be saved as JPG. If images were obtained with a digital camera, please submit the electronic file, rather than printing out the image and scanning it.

 

Tables

Submission of excessive tabular data is discouraged, and tables should be limited to those containing data important to understanding and interpreting the results of the study. The authors will be asked to delete tables containing data that could be given more succinctly in the text. Do not use tables that focus on findings in individual animals. Authors wishing to use any previously published tables must submit written permission from the copyright holder.

 

Peer review process

The journal reserves the right to reject any manuscript. All the manuscripts submitted to the journal are subject to review. Manuscripts are reviewed initially by a scientific editor. Those with insufficient priority for publication are rejected promptly. Manuscripts considered for publication are sent to a minimum of 2 experts for external review. The identity of reviewers and authors is kept confidential.

The authors are expected to respond to reviewer comments and make appropriate revisions within 14 days. Revised manuscripts may be re-reviewed. Manuscripts that pass review are accepted for publication provided that authors respond meaningfully to questions and concerns raised by a scientific editor.

 

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide the research data supporting their paper for editorial review and/or to comply with the open data requirements of the journal.  Authors should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable number of years after publication. 

 

Sequence of publication

The Iranian Journal of Veterinary Surgery publishes two issues a year. Manuscripts are processed for publication in the order that they pass review. Adherence to these instructions and expedient revision and the return of manuscripts will minimize the time from submission to publication.

 

Archiving
The journal archives its contents in the "National Library and Archives of Iran" for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content in the event a journal is no longer published.