Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jfms to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

1. Article types
2. Editorial Policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgments
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   2.7 Reporting Guidelines
   2.8 Data
3. Publishing Policies
   3.1 Publication Ethics
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open Access and author archiving
   3.4 Permissions
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Word processing formats
   4.2 How to help readers find your article
   4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.4 Tables
   4.5 Abbreviations, symbols, and drug and other product names
   4.6 Measurements
   4.7 Supplementary material
   4.8 Journal layout
   4.9 Reference style
   4.10 English language editing services
   4.11 Disclaimer
5. Submitting your manuscript
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 SAGE Production
   6.2 Access to your published article
   6.3 Online First publication
7. Further Information

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journalsformulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

Back to top

1. Article types

Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery (JFMS) considers manuscripts submitted in the following formats.

Original Articles 
Papers should be as concise as possible, and generally not exceed 3,000 words (excluding references). Each paper should have a self-contained Abstract (up to 300 words, structured with subheadings as detailed in Preparing your manuscript), followed by Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References. Note that Original Articles on well-recognised diseases that report valuable national or regional data on disease prevalence, or other relevant data, should be submitted to the sister journal, the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports (jfmsopenreports.com) as a Short Communication. The manuscript submission guidelines for JFMS Open Reports can be found here.

Review Articles
Offers of reviews and topics for consideration should be directed to the Editors, via the editorial office (jfms@icatcare.org), for initial editorial approval. Reviews should provide an update on recent advances in a particular field and the length should not generally exceed 4,000 words. They should include an abstract (up to 300 words), followed by subheadings directed by the content, as well as Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References.

Short Communications
Short communications reporting relevant research or sufficiently substantial pilot studies are considered for JFMS. They should generally not exceed 1,500 words. They should include a self-contained Abstract (up to 300 words, structured with subheadings as detailed in Preparing your manuscript), followed by Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References.

Short Communications on well-recognised diseases that report valuable national or regional data on disease prevalence, or other relevant data, should be submitted to the sister journal, the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports (jfmsopenreports.com) – the manuscript submission guidelines for which can be found here.

Case Series
Large prospective and retrospective case series are considered for JFMS. Depending on the information contained, a Case Series may be up to 2,500 words in length. It should include a brief Abstract (up to 300 words structured with subheadings detailed in Preparing your manuscript) followed by Introduction (optional), Case series description, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Funding and Conflict of interest statements, and References. Small case series and individual case reports that provide novel information should be submitted to the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Open Reports – the manuscript submission guidelines for which can be found here.

Letters to the Editor
Letters commenting on papers recently published in JFMS will be considered for publication in the journal. Letters should not exceed 1,000 words (including references and one table or figure). The Editors may send the letter to the authors of the original paper for comment so that both letter and reply may be published together.

Manuscripts should be clearly labelled ‘Original Article’, ‘Review Article’, ‘Short Communication’, ‘Case Series’ or ‘Letter to the Editor’.

Table 1. Overview of the requirements for manuscript submission to JFMS

*Excludes abstract, references, tables and legends
**Includes references, tables and legends

Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Resident Best Paper Award

The award recognises quality and excellence for early career authors who publish in JFMS. Authors who are in a recognised veterinary residency programme (eg, ABVS, EBVS and ANZCVS residency) at the time of submission of their paper will automatically be eligible for consideration for the award, subject to its acceptance for publication. Accepted papers will be considered for the award in the year in which they are published. Details about this award for interested residents and resident supervisors can be found by clicking here.
 

Back to top

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

JFMS operates a single-blinded peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy is for the reviewer’s identity to remain concealed. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 6–8 weeks of submission.

As part of the submission process you will have the option of providing the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

• The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
• The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
• Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data,
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Approved the version to be published.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help (see also final paragraph in section 2.2).

2.3.1 Writing Assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance (eg, from a specialist communications company) do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

It is not necessary to disclose the use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Conflict of interest statement.

2.4 Funding

JFMS requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate ‘Funding’ heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: ‘The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.’ 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of JFMS to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Conflict of interest’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Circumstances relating to animal experimentation must meet the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals as issued by the Council for the International Organizations of Medical Sciences. They are obtainable from: Executive Secretary C.I.O.M.S., c/o WHO, Via Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, or at the following URL: http://www.cioms.ch/publications/guidelines/1985_texts_of_guidelines.htm 

The Editors reserve the right to reject papers on ethical grounds when, in their opinion, the severity of experimental procedures is not justified by the scientific value or originality of the information being sought by the author(s). The Editors would not normally support publication of any experiments resulting in euthanasia.

The Editors require that authors adequately discuss the use of analgesia where appropriate for the welfare of the cats involved in the study.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

2.7 Reporting guidelines

Authors and researchers are encouraged to consult the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines for different studies, including, for example, the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) for randomized controlled trials. Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives

2.8 Data

JFMS requests that any primary data used by authors in their research article is published as Supplementary material, or that detailed information is provided in the article on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The Editors may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The Editors can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact Jennie Atkinson (Jennie.atkinson@sagepub.co.uk), Publishing Editor at SAGE Publications.

Back to top

3. Publishing policies

3.1 Publication ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.  

3.1.1 Plagiarism

JFMS and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement, which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the societies. For more information please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

3.3 Open Access and author archiving

JFMS offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

3.4 Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

Back to top

4. Preparing your manuscript

4.1 Word processing formats

Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and LaTex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3 cm for left and right hand margins and 5 cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. All lines should be numbered on manuscripts using continuous line numbering. Figures, tables and Supplementary material should all be cited in the text in numerical order.

Title page
The title should be concise with no abbreviations. Please provide the surname, initials, department, institution, city and country of each author, and the name, academic qualifications, email address, full mailing address and telephone number of the corresponding author to whom proofs should be sent. Please note the email address and full mailing address of the corresponding author will be listed on the first page of an accepted article. List six to eight keywords (chosen from Index Medicus, Medical Subject Headings if possible).

Abstract
The second page of the manuscript must contain only the abstract, which should be of no more than 300 words and must be clearly written and comprehensive to readers before they come to read the paper.

For Original Articles and Short Communications, the Abstract should be structured with the following four subheadings: ‘Objectives’, ‘Methods’, ‘Results’, and ‘Conclusions and relevance’. For Case Series, the abstract should be structured with the following two subheadings: ‘Case series summary’, and ‘Relevance and novel information’.

Abbreviations should be avoided and reference citations are not permitted.

Any manuscripts submitted without a structured abstract will be returned to the author prior to peer review, thus delaying the evaluation process of the manuscript. 

4.2 How to help readers find your article

The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the SAGE Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online and will be reproduced in colour in the printed version.

Images
The minimum quality required is 300dpi. When submitting your images for review, please resize them to a maximum of 2000 x 2000 pixels (the minimum size required is 1000 x 1000 pixels). Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in your manuscript being returned to you to amend, thus delaying the evaluation process of the manuscript.

4.4 Tables 
These should contain only essential data. If tables contain laboratory data, wherever possible, both SI and US (American) units should be quoted and reference intervals should be provided.

4.5 Abbreviations, symbols and drug names
Each scientific abbreviation must be explained at its first occurrence in the paper; for example:
• complement fixation test (CFT). 

Do not use propriety symbols (eg, ® or ™) or ltd, etc, in medications or company names.

Medications should be referred to by their recommended International Nonproprietary Name (rINN). A list of these generic names is coordinated by the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/medicines/services/inn. Where appropriate, the proprietary name and the manufacturer should be given in parentheses when first mentioned; for example:
• carprofen (Rimadyl; Pfizer).

4.6 Measurements
Units of measurement may be expressed in either SI or US (American) units. However, reference intervals should always be included for laboratory data and, wherever possible, laboratory data should be quoted in both SI and US (American) units for ease of understanding by the international community.

4.7 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (eg, datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.

4.8 Journal layout

JFMS conforms its own style.JFMS Style Guide 2017

4.9 Reference style

JFMS adheres to the SAGE Vancouver reference style. Click here to review the guidelines on SAGE Vancouver to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Vancouver output file here.

Note: In general only primary sources of information should be cited – citing reviews or book chapters where primary sources are referred to is generally not acceptable. Where relevant, authors should make note of [Abstract] and [Letter] in their references.

4.10 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on SAGE Journal Author Gateway for further information.

4.11 Disclaimer

The following disclaimer appears in print and online here.
Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery is an international journal and authors may discuss products and formulations that are not available or licensed in the individual reader’s own country.

Furthermore, drugs may be mentioned that are licensed for human use, and not for veterinary use. Readers need to bear this in mind and be aware of the prescribing laws pertaining to their own country. Likewise, in relations to advertising material, it is the responsibility of the reader to check that the product is authorised for use in their own country. No endorsement is implied in the advertisements included in JFMS. The authors, editors, owners and publishers do not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage arising from actions or decisions based on information contained in this publication; ultimate responsibility for the treatment of animals and interpretation of published materials likes with the veterinary practitioner. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and the inclusion in this publication of material relating to a particular product, method or technique does not amount to an endorsement of its value or quality, or the claims made by its manufacturer.

Back to top

5. Submitting your manuscript

JFMS is hosted on SAGE track, a web-based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jfms to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal since 2011 it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Back to top

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 SAGE Production

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.

6.2 Access to your published article

SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.3 Online First publication

Online First allows final revision articles (completed articles in queue for assignment to an upcoming issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a final journal issue which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. For more information please visit our Online First Fact Sheet

Back to top

7. Further Information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the JFMS editorial office: jfms@icatcare.org

Back to top