The Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR) publishes high-quality, in-depth material on diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine, interventional radiology, and radiation oncology consistent with ACR membership interests in clinical practice, practice management, health services and policy, and education and training. JACR does not publish basic, translational, or clinical research as this material is well served by numerous other imaging journals.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright holder, the American College of Radiology (ACR).

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright to the ACR. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming acceptance of the manuscript, and a form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.

If excerpts or images from other copyright works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the articles. Copies of letters granting such permission must be submitted with the manuscript.

Authors normally must submit their manuscripts via the Internet at www.jacr.org. In the event that authors do not have access to the Internet, hard copies and disks of manuscripts may be submitted to: JACR, Ms. Betsy Colgan, Managing Editor, American College of Radiology, 1891 Preston White Dr, Reston VA 20191. Tel: 703-715-4381; e-mail: jacr@acr.org.

Potential authors are encouraged to discuss their ideas for articles with the Editor-in Chief, Dr. Bruce Hillman, or the Associate Editors, as listed on the JACR masthead:

All articles and book reviews: Bruce Hillman, MD: e-mail: bjh8a@virginia.edu; tel: 434-982-0211
Education: Martha B. Mainiero, MD; e-mail: mmainiero@lifespan.org; tel: (401) 444-5184
Health Services Research and Policy: Ruth C. Carlos, MD, MS; e-mail: rcarlos@umich.edu; tel: (734) 936-8872
Radiation Oncology: Peter A. S. Johnstone, MD; e-mail: peter@radonc.emory.edu; tel: (404) 778-5525
Clinical Practice: Richard Duszak Jr, MD; e-mail: rduszak@yahoo.com; tel: (610) 988-8236
Practice Management: Michael N. Brant-Zawadzki, MD; e-mail: mbrant@hoaghospital.org; tel: (949) 764-5942
Physics: Mahadevappa Mahesh, MS, PhD; e-mail: mmahesh@jhmi.edu; tel: (410) 955-5115
International: Birgit Ertl-Wagner, MD: e-mail: B.Ertl-Wagner@t-online.de

Manuscript Preparation JACR uses as a guide the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" ( http://www.icmje.org/index.html ), as well as the American Medical Association Manual of Style.

Original Articles

All manuscripts submitted to JACR are peer reviewed by one or more reviewers selected by the Editor-in-Chief from a list of reviewers generated by the editorial office. Two general types of original articles may be submitted - Review Articles and Research Articles (see below) either of which may be either solicited by an associate editor or editorial board member or proffered to the editorial office by the author.

Review articles
Expected length: approximately 12 to 20 double-spaced manuscript pages (12-point typeface). These should be written in essay style, broken up at the natural points of transition by subheads. Authors should take a critical approach to their sources of information rather than simply relate what their sources say. Some opinion is allowed as long as it clearly is identified as opinion. There should be one or more summary paragraphs with "take home" messages for the reader (ideally itemized or bulleted). Review articles require a free-form abstract of up to 250 words; a sentence either from the article or written in addition that summarizes the article; three to five key words for indexing purposes; and references to support contentions appearing in the text.

Research articles
Expected length will vary according to the subject and complexity of the research. The format and style will be similar to that found in conventional research journals (introduction, methods, results, conclusions); however, the material should be representative of the subject areas of the journal and should be judged of interest to a broad fraction of the ACR membership. Some of this material will be the result of survey research while other submissions will reflect research performed to assess education and training, management, or health care practices. JACR is interested in research into health outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Research articles require an abstract of up to 250 words in four sections: Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions; a sentence either from the article or written in addition that summarizes the article; three to five key words for indexing purposes; and references to support contentions appearing in the text.

Columns
The Editor-in-Chief will solicit columns to be written on a regular basis on specific subjects. Columns should be submitted as 3 to 6 double-spaced manuscript pages (12-point type). Columns should be written in essay style and may or may not have subheads to break up the article, depending on the subject and length of the material. References are encouraged when appropriate but not required. There will be no abstract or summary statement. The Editor-in-Chief will work with columnists to ensure that published articles are of the highest quality.

Op-Ed Pieces and Letters to the Editor
JACR encourages the commentary of members and others who wish to submit material commenting on either previously published articles or aspects of radiology or health that are part of the journal's purview. Generally, these will be shorter writings, approximately 2 to 6 double-spaced manuscript pages (12-point type). The Editor-in-Chief encourages the authors to adopt a civil, interesting style, but will not attempt to alter the content of the submission.

Book Reviews
Books that qualify for consideration of review need not be "radiology books" but should address issues of interest or concern to radiologists in the following nonclinical areas: health policy; medical-legal issues; ethics; the culture and organization of medicine; business or practice management; education and training; health care financing; the regulation or legislation of health care; technology; or other related areas. The content of the review is flexible, depending on the content and style of the book. At the minimum it should include: a brief description of the subject matter; aspects that make the book unique or important; commentary on the readability and/or style; specifics of what was good or bad about the book; conclusion on whether the book achieved its goals; a recommendation on whether readers should purchase and/or read the book. The Journal will reimburse reviewers for the purchase of books reviewed in JACR. Contact Ms. Betsy Colgan, Managing Editor.

Manuscript Assembly
Manuscripts must be submitted in Word format. Manuscripts should be formatted for 8.5" x 11" (215 x 280 mm) pages with margins of at least 1" (25 mm) on all four sides, double-spaced throughout. The manuscript should be organized in the following sequence: cover letter; title page, with names of all authors and their institutional affiliations and mailing address, e-mail address, telephone, and fax number of the corresponding author; abstract with key words, one-sentence summary for table of contents, and short running head (no more than 40 characters); text; references; figure legends; and tables. Manuscripts not submitted online require a title page as well.

Authorship credit should be based only on significant contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article or revising it critically, and final approval of the version to be published. The sequence of the author byline should be agreed upon by all the coauthors. Any changes in authorship following submission of a manuscript must be explained in a letter to the Editor-in-Chief that is signed by all coauthors to indicate their consent to the change. This includes the deletion and addition of authors as well as any change in the order of authors.

Abbreviations and Symbols
Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Units of measurement should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI).

References
Every reference cited in the text should be listed in the reference list and vice versa. Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in text. Abbreviations for periodicals cited in the references should follow the style of Index Medicus and can also be accessed at http://www.nlm.nih.gov . The references must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents. References are to follow the Vancouver style; listed below are the correct formats for a [1] journal article; [2] book; and [3] chapter in an edited book. For journal articles list up to six authors. If there are more than six authors, list the first three followed by et al. The following are three examples:

[1] Hibbard CT, Campbell S, Sabbagha RE, et al. Demonstration of tissue interfaces within the body by ultrasonic echo sounding. Br J Radiol 1961;34:539-49.
[2] Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
[3] Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.

Tables
Each table should be double spaced and supplied on a separate page. Tables should be numbered consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text. Each table must have a title, and table columns must have a short or abbreviated heading. Explanatory matter should be placed in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table. For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡.
Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Do not use internal horizontal and vertical rules. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If data are used from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully. Tables must be submitted as part of the text file and not as illustrations.

Figure legends
A caption must be supplied for each illustration including drawings and graphs. All captions must be listed on one or more pages at the end of the document. The caption must describe all labels (symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters) placed on the illustration.

Figures
Figures may be provided in electronic or nonelectronic form. Number illustrations consecutively in the order in which they are referred to in the text. They should accompany the manuscript but should not be included within the text.
Nonelectronic figures may be provided as high-quality black and white (halftone) or four-color photographs printed on glossy paper, or high-quality graphs generated by laser printer suitable for reproduction (which may include reduction) without retouching. Clearly mark all illustrations on the back with the figure number, first author's name, and orientation if ambiguous.
Photocopies are not suitable for reproduction. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations; black, white and widely crosshatched bars are preferable. Nonelectronic figures should be mailed to Ms. Betsy Colgan, Managing Editor, 1891 Preston White Dr., Reston, VA 20191.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions . All illustrations should be provided as separate files and as hardcopy printouts on separate sheets. (Always supply high-quality printouts of your artwork in case conversion of the electronic artwork is problematic.) Uniform lettering, sizing, type of software used, and logical naming for the artwork files is strongly encouraged when submitting electronically. Line graphs and bar charts should be sent in bitmap TIFF files with a minimum resolution of 1200 dps or as EPS files with a preferred line width of 1 pt (minimum line width of 0.5 pt). Bitmap images should be sent as TIFF files and not placed within EPS files. Pictures, photographs, and micrographs should be sent as grayscale TIFF files with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi without lettering and 500 dpi with lettering.

Color illustrations
Submit color illustrations as original photographs, high-quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides. Electronic color artwork should be sent as CMYK-encoded TIFF images (RGB-encoded color images will be difficult to match for color in print). Polaroid color prints are not suitable. If you submit usable color figures with your article, the figures will appear in color on the web regardless of whether these figures are reproduced in color in the print version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.

Proofs
Page proofs in PDF format will be sent by email to the corresponding author to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscripts will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.



Updated April 2011