Instruction page for authors

Policy

The On-line Archives of Rheumatology publishes original papers dealing with clinical manifestations, laboratory investigations and the treatment of rheumatic diseases. It is a refereed publication with the aim of providing high quality educational material.
The papers may be published as clinical observations, case reports, photo-essays (which should include one or more images), reviews (with the unique feature of being periodically updated by the Authors) or simply as rheumatologic images .
Letters to the Editor are welcome in the form of comments on previous papers (to which the letter will be directly linked in the index-page).
The On-line Archives of Rheumatology is not a periodical journal: the submitted papers will be included in the index-pages as soon as they are approved for publication.

Submission of manuscripts

Text and images may be submitted as an attachment to an E-mail to the following address:

archrheumatol@libero.it

The E-mail should report the authors' name, address, fax, phone and E-mail address.

Alternatively the papers may be submitted by mail (1 original and 3 photocopies) to the following address:

On-line Archives of Rheumatology
Division of Rheumatology
University of PADOVA
Via Giustiniani 2
35128 - PADOVA
ITALY

Papers will be acknowledged on receipt.

Papers

We suggest the following standard title page for all the papers:

• Title
• Author's name
• Institutional affiliation and location
• First author's complete mailing address (including fax and telephone numbers, and E-mail address)
• Keywords

plus the following structure according to the type of publication:

Clinical Observation: i.e. description of original research about etiopathology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment of the rheumatic disease.
This should include:

• Introduction
• Clinical observation
• Comments
• References

Case Report: i.e. report of a single case with peculiar or unusual clinical features which should expand the reader's clinical experience about rheumatic diseases.
This should include:

• Introduction
• Case Report
• Comments
• References

Photoessay: i.e. a new form of scientific communication with a structure that resembles a lecture, in which images and text flow in a logical progression (A.Huntley, M.D.; Dermatology Online Journal, Vol.1, Num.2).
This should include:

• Introduction (optional)
• Photoessay
• Comments (optional)
• References

Rheumatologic Image: i.e. a single photographic detail (clinical, pathologic or imaging) of interesting rheumatologic phenomena accompanied by a brief comment.

All papers should be clear, concise, without the use of jargon or unusual abbreviations, written in correct English, and submitted - if possible - in HTML format (or alternatively in MS-WORD 6.0 for Windows).

Pictures

Images may be submitted as 16.7 million colours, .BMP or .TIF files or in any other convenient non-compressed format and should not exceed the size of 500 x 300 pixels.
Alternatively they may be submitted as slides, which will not be returned.
Prints on paper or any other substrate will not be accepted.
Images must be clear, sharp-focused, detailed: blurred, incorrectly exposed pictures will not be considered for publication.

Graphics

Graphics should be presented as .GIF files and should not exceed the size of 50 Kbytes.

References

References should be compiled numerically according to their order of citation in the text.
List only the first author followed by "et.al".
Example:
1) A.A.Raymond et.al.
Brain calcification in patients with cerebral lupus
Lupus 1996; 5: 123-128

Revision & Modifications

All papers and images are examined by the editors and at least two members of the editorial board or outside consultants which may eventually ask for a revision or suggest adequate modifications.

Legal aspects

• The copyright of the original papers and images belongs to the authors and not to the On-line Archives of Rheumatology (click for informations about Copyright in Italy).
• A formal written declaration signed by the senior or corresponding author should be mailed in original form and contain the following statements:
  "I hereby certify that the article is original, is not under consideration by another journal and has not been published previously.
  I autorize full licence to the On-line Archives of Rheumatology of electronic archiving and free distribution of the paper on the World Wide Web for the purpose of medical education, and such licence may not be revoked.
  I certify that all authors listed have seen this paper (and any subsequent revision) and have approved the final version.
  I sign for and accept all responsibility for releasing this material on behalf of any and all coauthors."
  Therefore, the On-line Archives of Rheumatology will not be held responsible for any paper or any essential part of it previously published elsewhere and therefore subject to copyright by other journals or publications.
• If any clinical image portrays details that might permit the identification of the patient, a written consensus form should be signed by the patient and sent in original form.