ISSN 1665-2681
printed version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

GENERAL INFORMATION

ANNALS OF HEPATOLOGY publishes original research on the biology and diseases of the liver in both humans and experimental models. Contributions may be submitted as regular articles. The journal also publishes concise reviews of both basic and clinical topics. Authors interested in contributing reviews are requested to first contact the Editor or one of the Associate Editors with an outline of the proposed article.

Clinical case reports are considered if they provide significant new information on a specific disease. Letters to the Editor may be subjected to peer review and undergo editing for clarity and brevity.

The journal publishes only in English. Authors lacking facility with English syntax should seek the appropriate editorial assistance prior to submitting their manuscript. Material requiring major editorial work will be returned without review.

Authors must submit a complete electronic copy of the manuscript, tables, figures, author and copyright agreement using the online submission system that can be accessed from our web page: www.annalsofhepatology.com. Exceptionally, manuscripts can be send to the e-mail address below. All manuscripts should be prepared as specified further down.

Prof. Nahum Mendez-Sanchez, MD, MSc, PhD,
FACG, AGAF.
Editor-in-Chief
Annals of Hepatology
Liver Research Unit,
Medica Sur Clinic & Foundation
Puente de Piedra 150, Col. Toriello Guerra,
Tlalpan 14050, Mexico City,Mexico.
Phone: (+52) 55424-7200. Ext. 4215;
Fax: (+52)55 666-4031

The journal uses anonymous peer review in evaluating manuscripts for publication. Manuscripts the Editors think are incomplete or unlikely to be accepted will be returned to the authors as an Early Reject without a full peer review. The Editors allow a single resubmission only after the initial disposition, which should be received within 4 months from the time of receipt of the initial disposition letter. A manuscript requiring more than a single revision or returned beyond 4 months will be considered a new submission. All submitted materials remain in the Editorial Office.

Copyright of all material published in ANNALS OF HEPATOLOGY is vested in Fundación Clínica Médica Sur. Copyright Assignment form (which follows these guidelines) signed by all authors must accompany all manuscripts. Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications in ANNALS OF HEPATOLOGY are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Editor(s) or publisher, and the Editor(s) and publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material. Neither the Editor(s) nor the publisher guarantees, warrants, or endorses any product or service advertised in the journal, nor do they guarantee any claim made by the manufacturer of such product or service.

COVER LETTER

Any material that could constitute prior or concurrent publication of similar data by any one of the authors should be submitted with the manuscript. Such material includes symposium proceedings, book chapters, invited papers, and the like.

Authors may suggest the names of reviewers whose expertise qualifies them to review the work. Any reviewers the authors wish to exclude may be listed along with the reason for exclusion. While all suggestions will be considered, the final choice of reviewers rests with the Editor or responsible Associate Editor.

It is assumed that the corresponding author speaks for his or her coauthors and certifies that all listed authors participated meaning-fully in the study and that they have seen and approved the final manuscript. The letter should describe any commercial affiliation or consultancy of an author that could be construed as a conflict of interest with respect to the submitted data. If the Editor finds that such activities raise the appearance of a conflict, he may recommend disclosure in a footnote. Otherwise, the information will remain confidential.

ORGANIZATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Manuscripts describing original research should contain (in this order) a title page, a footnote page, an abstract, an introductory statement (without heading), a description of experimental procedures or methods, the results, a discussion and, on separate pages, a list of references, figure legends, and tables. Authors have the option of combining the results and discussion and are encouraged to do so for short manuscripts.

All manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout, including the footnote page, list of references, figure legends, and tables. All pages must be numbered in the upper righthand corner, starting with the title page.

Original manuscripts must be no longer than 4,000 words (excluding references) and include no more than 50 references. Manuscripts that are redundant or contain extraneous material will be returned for shortening, even if otherwise acceptable. Concise Reviews should be no longer than 3,500 words and the reference list need not be exhaustive.

It is expected that submitted Case Reports will include a detailed analysis of the case and a review of the available literature. Only those case reports which are truly original and are likely to significantly influence medical practice are likely to be considered for publication.

Others may be considered for publication in an abbreviated form as a letter to the editor.

Letters to the editor which comment on articles recently published in THE ANNALS OF HEPATOLOGY are invited. Brief case reports or new findings may also be submitted and include a single supporting illustration. Letters should be double-spaced and no longer than 500 words (including references) and include no more than 10 references and one figure.

TITLE PAGE

Provide a concise title of not more than 100 characters, not including spaces between words. In the case of work with experimental animals, indicate the species used. List the full names of the author(s). Indicate the institutional affiliation. In a multi-authored work involving more than a single institution, indicate individual affiliation by means of a superscript Arabic number. Any change in authorship after submission must be approved in writing by all authors. Indicate a change of address similarly. Provide a list of up to 5 key words that do not appear in the title itself.

FOOTNOTE PAGE

List footnotes to the title page. Provide the contact information for the author to whom proofs should be sent (name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address). List abbreviations used with the expansions in the order of their mention in the paper. Finally, list grants and other financial support on this page.

ABSTRACT

Abstracts should be continuous text organized as background and rationale for the study, main results, and conclusions. The total length should not exceed 250 words. The last section of the abstract should start with "In conclusion."

INTRODUCTION

Provide the minimum background information that will orient the general reader. Do not engage in a literature review.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES

Provide a level of detail such that another investigator could repeat the work; for methods that are used without significant modification, citation of the original work will suffice.

• Human subjects. For reports of research using human subjects, provide assurance that (a) informed consent in writing was obtained from each patient and (b) the study protocol conformed to the ethical guide lines of the 1975. Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the appropriate institutional review committee. Refer to individual patients by number, not by initials.

• Animal experimentation. In studies involving animal experimentation, provide assurance that all animals received humane care according to the criteria outlined in the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" prepared by the National Academy of Sciences and published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH publication 86-23 revised 1985).

Genetic sequence data. In papers reporting a novel DNA or amino acid sequence, verify that the data have been or will be submitted either to GenBank or EMBL, and provide the accession number. This information need not accompany the initially submitted manuscript but must be available for inclusion in the final publication. Accession numbers appear as footnotes to the text or in the relevant figure legend. It is understood that authors publishing in ANNALS OF HEPATOLOGY will make cloned DNA, hybridomas, mutant animals, and other resources available to qualified investigators.

Include the names and locations (city and state or country) of manufacturers when mentioning proprietary drugs, tools, instruments, software, etc.

• Statistics. Identify and provide references for the statistical methods used. The legends of figures and tables should specify the number of observations and whether estimates of variance are SD or SE.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Present the major findings of the study in graphic form if practicable. Do not illustrate minor details if their message is conveyed adequately by simple descriptive text. Mention all tables and figures. In the discussion, concisely present the implications of the new findings for the field as a whole, minimizing reiteration of the results, avoiding repetition of material in the introduction, and keeping a close focus on the specific topic of the paper.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Acknowledge personal assistance and providers of special reagents. Note that grant and other financial support is listed on the footnote page, not here.

REFERENCES

Number references in the order cited as Arabic numerals in parentheses on the line. Only literature that is published or in press (with the name of the publication known) may be numbered and listed; abstracts and letters to the editor may be cited, but they must be less than 3 years old and identified as such. Refer to only in the text, in parentheses, other material (manuscript submitted, unpublished data, personal communication, and the like) as in the following example: (Chercheur X, unpublished data). If the owner of the unpublished data or personal communication is not an author of the manuscript under review, a signed statement is required verifying the accuracy of the attributed information and agreement to its publication. Do not use Endnote or other word processing tools that may embed references in code. Type reference numbers in parentheses within the text and type out the reference list as normal text at the end of the manuscript.

Use Index Medicus as the style guide for references and other journal abbreviations. List all authors up to seven, using seven and "et al." when the number is greater than seven.

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

1. Miquel JF, Covarrubias C, Villaroel L, Mingrone G, Greco AV, Puglielli L, Carvallo P, et al . Genetic epidemiology of cholesterol cholelithiasis among Chilean Hispanics, Amerindians, and Maoris. Gastroenterology 1998; 115: 937-46.

BOOKS

2. Watson JD. The Double Helix. New York: Atheneum; 1968, p. 1-6.

Book chapters

3. Hofmann AF. The enterohepatic circulation of bile acids in health and disease. In: Sleisinger MH, Fordtran JS (eds.). Gastrointestinal Disease. Volume 1. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1993, p. 127-50.

PERMISSIONS

Direct quotations, tables, or illustrations taken from copyrighted material must be accompanied by written permission for their use from the publisher and the original author. A standard permission request form is included in this section. The permission is presented as a footnote or addition to the legend and must provide complete information as to source. Photographs of identifiable persons must be accompanied by a signed release that indicates informed consent.

ABBREVIATIONS

Standard abbreviations not requiring definition can be found in the American Medical Association Manual of Style. Do not abbreviate otherwise unless a term is used more than five times in the manuscript. In this case, the abbreviation should be spelled out, in parentheses, in its first use in the text and also listed on the footnote page (see previous page). Abbreviations used in figures or tables should be defined in the legend. Express temperatures as degrees Celsius and other measurements in SI units.

DRUG NAMES

Use generic names. The proprietary name may be mentioned in parentheses with the name and location (city and state or country) of the manufacturer. TABLES Prepare tables on individual pages, double spaced and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order of their appearance in the text. Do not duplicate material presented in a figure.

FIGURE LEGENDS

Number figures with Arabic numerals in the order mentioned in the text. Provide a title (this should not appear on the figure itself) and sufficient explanation to render the figure intelligible without reference to the text. Explain all abbreviations and symbols. For any copyrighted material, indicate that permission has been obtained (see Permissions, above).

FIGURES

Images, graphics, tables, etc. should be provided, ideally, as files from the program in which they were made, indicating which program it was. Otherwise send them as separate jpg or tiff files in high resolution.

Cover photograph. Authors with accepted manuscripts (or accepted pending minor revision) may submit artwork for consideration for the cover. The material may be different from the figures used in the article but should represent its content. Single slides or color photographs are preferred, and multiple examples may be submitted. Individual photographs should be accompanied by a four- to five word caption and a two-sentence legend. Authors are not charged for a cover photograph.

FILE ORGANIZATION AND FORMATTING

Most word-processing formats are acceptable (Microsoft Word, Word Perfect); Microsoft Word is preferred. If the program used is non-standard, the material should be provide also in text format on a separate disk, marked as "a text file".

Typographical formatting (column widths, type style, etc.) will be handled by the publisher. Do not use this type of formatting. Editorial formatting (use of italics, superscripts, Greek letter, etc.) may be included in the disk file. The coding scheme for such elements must be consistent throughout the file.

• Text Style. Type text flush left (do not indent paragraphs). Use two carriage returns at the end of a paragraph to separate it from the one that follows. Enter only one space between words and after sentences. Use 1 carriage return ("hard return") only after a heading and use 2 carriage returns at the end of a paragraph. Allow line breaks within a paragraph to be determined automatically by the word-processing program. If it is necessary to force the end of a line within a paragraph, use the program's "soft return" feature. Do not use the program's indenting or margin-setting features (These will be added during typesetting).

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION REQUEST FORM

From: Date:

Dear Permission Editor/Author:

I am preparing for publication an article entitled:
to be published in.
I hereby request your permission for the nonexclusive right
to reprint the following material:

Author/Editor:
Title of article or book:
Year of publication:
Journal, volume, and issue (if applicable):
Material to be reproduced:
Page number(s) it appeared on:

Permission is sought to reprint the above material in all forms and media now and hereafter known, in all languages, throughout the world and to license such rights to others.

Sincerely yours,

I/We hereby grant permission to reprint the material(s) as provided above:

Signed:

Copyright assignment, authorship responsibility, financial disclosure, and institutional review board/animal care committee approval.

Article title

• Copyright assignment. In consideration of the Fundación Clínica Médica Sur (FCMS) taking action to review and edit my submission, the undersigned authors, jointly and severally, hereby transfer, convey, and assign all right, title, and interest therein, including any and all copyrights in all forms and media now or hereafter known, to the FCMS. The authors retain the nonexclusive right to use all or part of the Article in future works of their own in a noncompeting way, provided proper copyright credit is given to the Foundation.

Should the FCMS not publish the aforesaid submission, the FCMS agrees to release its rights therein (Note: material prepared by employees of the federal government in their official duties may not be copyrightable). No guarantee is made that the Article will be published.

• Authorship responsibility. I, the undersigned author, certify that I have participated sufficiently in the intellectual content, the analysis of data, if applicable, and the writing of the Article, to take public responsibility for it.

I have reviewed the final version of the Article, believe it represents valid work, and approve it for publication. As an author of this Article, I certify that none of the material in the manuscript has been published previously, is included in another manuscript, or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. I also certify that the Article has not been accepted for publication elsewhere, nor have I assigned any right or interest in the Article to any third party.

• Financial disclosure. I, the undersigned author, certify that I have no commercial associations (e.g., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, patent-licensing arrangements) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted Article, except as disclosed on a separate attachment. All funding sources supporting the work and all institutional or corporate affiliations of mine are acknowledged in a footnote.

• Institutional Review Board/Animal Care Committee Approval. I, the undersigned author, certify that my institution has approved the protocol for any investigation involving humans or animals and that all experimentation was conducted in conformity with ethical and humane principles of research.

Each author must sign and date this statement. In the case of a work made for hire, the employer must also sign.

Employer signature (required for works made for hire):

Signature

Address manuscripts to:

Prof. Nahum Mendez-Sanchez, MD, MSc, PhD, FACG, AGAF.
Editor-in-Chief
Annals of Hepatology
Liver Research Unit,
Medica Sur Clinic & Foundation
Puente de Piedra 150, Col. Toriello Guerra,
Tlalpan 14050, Mexico City,Mexico.
Phone: (+52) 55424-7200. Ext. 4215;
Fax: (+52)55 666-4031
E-mail: nmendez@medicasur.org.mx

AUTHOR'S CHECKLIST

• A completed checklist must accompany the manuscript. Failure to comply with directions may result in delay in review of your manuscript.
• Eliminate nonstandard abbreviations in titles.
• Supply full author names.
• Indicate institutional affiliations clearly.
• Identify corresponding author and supply accurate address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address, if available.
• Include written permission for any borrowed or modified figures or tables from the author and copyright holder.
• Make sure abstract does not exceed 250 words.
• Do not cite references, tables, or figures in the abstract.
• Supply statement in the "Materials and Methods" section regarding consent of human subjects and approval by ethics commi-ttee. If animals are used in experiments, use and indicate National Institutes of Health guidelines, U.S.A.
• Make sure text is clear, easy to follow, and legible.
• Make sure English is grammatically correct and idiomatic.
• Supply full manufacturer names and addresses (city and state or country) for all brand name products used in experiments.
• Supply references in the style of the journal: authors (first seven names before the use of et al.), title, journal, year, volume, and pages.
• Punctuation should follow ANNALS OF HEPATOLOGY style.
• Check that references are accurate and cited in the text in numerical order.
• Supply tables on separate pages; they should read vertically when possible and should have headings for each column.
• Cite tables in the text in numerical order. Use arabic numerals, not roman numerals
• Do not cite materials submitted but not yet accepted for publication as references. Instead, cite in text.
• Make sure figures are of good quality.
• Cite figures in the text in numerical order.
• Include author's checklist and signed copyright assignment form with manuscript submission.