Submitting an Article Online

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Author Guidelines

Submissions should be made electronically through this website. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the editors via the online journal management system.

Article types

Authors should specify to which of the following headings their manuscript is intended: Article from BSR Annual Symposium, Thesis summary, Original article, Guest editorial, Review article, Case report, Images in Clinical Radiology, Technical Note, Pictorial Review, Continuing Education article, Book Review, Opinion article or Letter to the Editor. Authors should consider the following remarks and submit their manuscripts accordingly. All articles must contain substantive and specific scientific material. 

Unless otherwise stated, the word count excludes references and figure captions.

• Article from JBSR Annual Symposium The JBSR welcomes publications from the distinguished speakers of the JBSR annual symposium. These articles can be submitted as review of the literature, continuing medical education article, pictorial review or short abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words).
• Thesis summary. Meant only for BSR members who received BSR funding for their PhD defense! Thesis summaries should be submitted to the JBSR as Review of the literature, Continuing medical education article or a Pictorial review. The cover page of the submission should mention “ thesis summary”, the title of the thesis and the institution where it was defended. In addition to the article submission, a summary with a short presentation of the professional achievements, thesis main teaching points and a photograph of the author should be submitted as well. Please send these additional files to katrin.lorent@uzleuven.be.
• Original articles are articles dealing with one specific area of Radiology or allied science related through the personal experience of the author. Articles of this type should be no longer than 5,000 words (including abstract, main text and references). They should be submitted with a structured abstract of less than 250 words (Objectives, Materials and methods, Results, Conclusion). The main body of the manuscript should not exceed 3,000 words and be structured with the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. Less than 5 tables and 6 figures (with subfigures), and 40 references are allowed.  
• Guest editorial specific guest editorials are invited papers written by selected distinguished specialists. They should summarize in concise the state-of-the-art in one specific field of radiology or related sciences in no more than 2,000 words (8 typewritten pages). The number of references is limited to 15. Two or less Tables and illustrations, drawing and graphs can be used as needed upon the author's preference. No abstract is required.
• Review article Review articles are special articles of no more than 5,000 words (including references and figure legends) reporting the experience of the author considered in the general perspective of the literature over the topic. Up to 5 tables and 10 figures (with subfigures) are allowed. The abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words) should summarize the rationale and the learning points of the review. The main body of the manuscript should include the following paragraphs: Introduction (stating the aim of the article and providing any background information useful to understand why the topic is relevant, and describing the subtopics covered by the study), and a conclusion (summarizing the main teaching points of the review). Subtopics paragraphs are inserted at the author’s discretion. The number of references should not exceed 100.
• Case reports are short descriptions of a particular case providing a message directly linked to an individual patient investigated. They should be submitted with a maximum number of three authors and the first author must be a resident or medical student (proof, in the form of a letter by the head of the department, must be added as supplementary file on submission). In addition, Case Reports and Images in Clinical Radiology must be submitted with a single sentence summarizing the main teaching point of the submission, just after the title.
  Since January 1^st 2016, the priority assigned to Case reports has considerably reduced. Therefore, most will not be considered for publication by the JBSR editors. To access the external peer reviewing process, Case reports should provide: strong rationale, learning perspective, stress educational points based on several radiological presentations of the same disease, or new insights through a comprehensive review of the literature. The main body of the article (less than 1,000 words) should be structured as follows: Introduction, Case report, Discussion and Conclusion. References should be present, though limited in number (less than 20). Tables are usually omitted (except for example when a review of the literature has been carried out). The abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words) should summarize the rationale and the learning points of the Case.
• Images in Clinical Radiology are short (max 500 words excluding references) case reports designed to illustrate with max. 3 figures (including subfigures) a specific entity (ie: typical radiological findings for a rare disease or rare findings in a common disease). The report consists of a synthetic description of the clinical and radiological features as well as the final diagnosis and a short comment, supported by one major reference. ICR articles must have a strong educational value, describing rare or useful imaging semiology rather than diseases. As for the Case reports, they should be submitted with a maximum number of three authors and the first author must be a resident or medical student (proof, in the form of a letter by the head of the department, must be added as supplementary file on submission). No abstract is required. Unlike with other article types, the figures (with labels) should be embedded in the textfile without their captions. In addition, Case Reports and Images in Clinical Radiology must be submitted with a single sentence summarizing the main teaching point of the submission, just after the title.
• Technical notes are short descriptions of a specific technique, procedure or equipment of interest to radiologists. Technical notes may originate from radiologists having experience of the item presented or from commercial vendors. The manuscript length should be max 500 words (excluding references and abstract), and the manuscript may be accompanied by maximum 1 figure. The abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words) should summarize the novelties introduced by the technique. Up to 20 references are allowed.
• Pictorial essays are articles presenting information through illustrations and legends. The number of authors should be less than three. The presentation remarks stated in the paragraph dealing with case reports apply to pictorial essays, except for the number of cases. References are limited to 20, and tables are usually omitted. Up to 15 figures (with subfigures) can be submitted. The abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words) should summarize the rationale and the learning points of the Pictorial essay. The maximum word count is 1000 (excluding abstract, references and figure legends).
• Continuing medical education articles are designed in accordance with the general guidelines for articles published in the JBSR, in particular they are provided with an unstructured abstract (< 100 words). Papers addressing the continuing education may have only additionally to their contents an introduction (stating the aim of the article and providing any background information useful to understand why the topic is relevant, and describing the subtopics covered by the study), the subtopics description and references. Up to 4 tables and 5 figures (with subfigures) should be relevant and improving the readability. The abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words) should summarize the rationale and the learning points of the Continuing medical education article. The number of references should not exceed 60.
• Book reviews should be max. 500 words, mention full references of the book, including number of pages, of illustrations (when available), and price. The author should specify to whom the book is intended and give a personal appreciation. They will be published with the initial letters of the signature.
• Opinion articles are special articles dealing with controversial topics of specific concern to radiologists. They follow the specific guidelines for review articles.
• Letters to the Editor and their replies present objective and useful criticism over an article published in the current issue of the JBSR. They will be published with the name and address of the author. References are necessary, 1 table and 1 figure may be are accepted. The number of authors should be less than 3, and acknowledgements are not allowed. 

Authorship Policy

All authors listed on a submission must have given prior approval to have their name attributed to the file(s) that are being submitted and agree to the publication. The corresponding author has responsibility to ensure that all authors qualify for, and have agreed to, authorship of the submission. They are also responsible for informing all co-authors of relevant editorial information during the review process.

This journal follows the ICMJE recommendations for authorship, based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Structure

Title page
To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript file.

The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional) and the corresponding author details must be completed online as part of the submission process. All authors must fit within the journal's definition of an author, available here.

Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.

• J. Bloggs is not preferred. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required (this will enhance the 'findability' of your publication).

The affiliation should ideally include ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’. However only the Institution and Country are mandatory.

Author information (optional)
If you wish to provide a short biographical statement regarding the author(s), please provide this as a separate file to assist blind review. If your paper is accepted, you will need to add this back into the manuscript during the proofing process.

Abstract
The text of the article should be prefaced by an indented abstract summarizing the main arguments and conclusions of the article. Please refer to each article type for the word count and abstract structure.

Please include a list of 5-6 key words after the abstract.

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission. 

Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. Please refer to each article type for the article structure. In all cases, a clear introduction section should be given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. Conclusive paragraph should be provided as well, for take-home message.

Supplementary Files (optional)
Any supplementary/additional files that should link to the main publication must be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.

e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.

Note: additional files will not be typeset so they must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.

Reproducibility (if applicable)
If data, structured methods or code used in the research project have been made openly available, a statement should be added to inform the reader how/where to access these files. This should include the repository location and the DOI linking to it. Read our reproducibility guide for more information on best practice and maximising the impact of your open data.

If data used in the research project has not been made available, a statement confirming this should be added, along with reasoning why.

The journal's data policy is available on the Editorial Policies page.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements should not be included on submission, to assist blind review. If your paper is accepted, you can add acknowledgements during the proofing process - place these in a separate paragraph, after the main text but before the reference list/bibliography. 

Funding Information (if applicable)
Should the research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed. If this contains any information that could identify the author, please provide this as a separate document on submission, and insert back into the main file during the proofing process.

Competing interests
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. Guidelines for competing interests can be found here. If this contains any information that could identify the author, please provide this as a separate document on submission, and insert back into the main file during the proofing process.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. The identity of the research subject should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardians).

Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, click here.

Manuscript revision 
Manuscripts will be submitted to a review Committee whose decision is final. Authors are usually notified within 21 days as to the acceptability of their paper. In case revisions are requested, we ask that the re-submission is provided in 2 formats: a clean version, and a version showing alterations that have been made to the text to respond to the reviewers’ and editors’ comments (track changes). In addition, a letter with point-by-point responses to the comments should be submitted as well. Please upload the clean version as the main manuscript resubmission, and the altered version and letter as supplementary files.

In-text References
All references cited within the submission should be listed at the end of the article. References should be numbered consecutively, between brackets, in the order in which they appear in the text. Full formatting details are given below. Please refer to each article type for the maximum number of references.

Permissions

The author is responsible for obtaining all permissions required prior to submission of the manuscript. Permission and owner details should be mentioned for all third-party content included in the submission or used in the research.

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, including software, questionnaires, and scales, the license this is available under and any requirement for permission for use should be stated. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, it is the author's responsibility to check the license and obtain the necessary permissions. Statements confirming that permission was granted should be included in the Materials and Methods section.

Formatting

Use a classic character 12 font size, double-spaced text throughout your manuscript. Please ensure that your work is formatted to the journal style prior to publication. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts conform to the journal style. Failure to apply this formatting may result in delayed publication and additional rounds of revision.

Capitalisation of titles

• Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although).
• Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.

Examples:

• Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan
• Globalisation with a Twist:  Stability, Volatility and Fragility All in One

NOTE: Tier 1 subheads should follow the same rule as the titles. For lower-level subheads, only capitalise first letter (plus proper nouns).

Language
Articles must be submitted in English. Please make sure your manuscript is edited before submission by a native English speaker or an editing service, in order to avoid spelling, syntax and grammatical errors that may delay de the review process and lead to rejection regardless of the article content.  Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings and grammar as long as they are used consistently. Some of the key differences between English and American English include the following:

• Palaeo (UK) vs. Paleo (US)
• Archaeology (UK) vs. Archeology (US)
• Centre (UK) vs. Center (US)
• 13 January 2011 (UK) vs. January 13, 2011 (US)

Please note that when referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, you should always use the official, original spelling. For instance, it is World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation.

Grammar
As with language, American or English spelling and grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently. For instance, you may use a serial comma (red, white, and blue) or not (red, white and blue).

Numbers
We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent within an article. For numbers between zero and twelve we would recommend using words rather than figures, except for when it is a part of a dataset or presented in a table. Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets. For example, percentages (%) and per mil (‰) are allowed. 

Currencies

• Use £ for British Pound Sterling, € for Euro, e.g. £50, €100.
• Use US$, C$, NZ$, A$ to distinguish between the different dollar currencies.

Quotation marks
Please use single quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case double quotation marks are used.

Acronyms & Abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references. You do not need to spell out abbreviations for US, UK, EU, UN and DC, as in Washington, DC.

Images & Figures
Images/figures are welcome as long as they provide key information related to your submission. Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, you will be asked to re-render or omit it. Please ensure that all figures are cited within the text, in consecutive order (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). They should provide short and clear captions pointing to findings. Acronyms within the figure captions should be defined.

NOTE: First supply all figures separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. Then, in order to facilitate the review process, the figures should be embedded at the end of the text document along with their captions. Except in the case of ICR, where the captions should be left out.

Tables

The same principles which apply to figures apply to tables. They should be necessary and should not repeat significant pieces of information already included in the text. Tables should have a title and an appropriate legend. Abbreviations should be defined in the table legend.

Only admitted measurement standards should be used. 

In-text citations
Authors are strongly encouraged to use parenthetical numbered citations. In case of multiple references, separate the numbers using commas. Use a dash to indicate all references in between two references numbers are cited. 

References
References cited within a submission must be listed at the end of the article, in order of apparition in the text. All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – works which have not been cited within the main text of the article, but which the author wishes to share with the reader, must be cited as additional information in endnotes explaining the relevance of the work. This will ensure that all works within the reference list are correctly cited within the text.

NOTE: Please include DOIs for reference entries, where possible.

This journal uses the Vancouver system – see below for examples of how to format:

Journal article – in print – one author
Spencer J. Physician, heal thyself – but not on your own please. Med Educ. 2005; 89: 548-549.

Journal article – in print – 2-6 authors
Salwachter AR, Freischlag JA, Sawyer RG, Sanfey HA. The training needs and priorities of male and female surgeons and their trainees. J Am Coll Surg. 2005; 201: 199-205.

Journal article – in print – more than 6 authors
Fukushima H, Cureoglu S, Schachern P, et al. Cochlear changes in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2005; 133: 100-6.

Journal article – online (if there is no DOI, provide the URL for the specific article)
Coppinger T, Jeanes YM, Hardwick J, Reeves S. Body mass, frequency of eating and breakfast consumption in 9-13-year-olds. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2012; 25(1): 43-49. doi:10.1111/j.1365-277X.2011.01184.x

Websites
Outbreak notice: Cholera in Haiti. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/outbreak-notice/haiti-cholera.htm Published October 22, 2010. Updated January 9, 2012. Accessed February 1, 2012.

Entire book – in print
Modlin J, Jenkins P. Decision Analysis in Planning for a Polio Outbreak in the United States. San Francisco, CA: Pediatric Academic Societies; 2004.

Book chapter – in print
Solensky R. Drug allergy: desensitization and treatment of reactions to antibiotics and aspirin. In: Lockey P, ed. Allergens and Allergen Immunotherapy. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2004:585-606.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. Any third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal.
3. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
4. All DOIs for the references have been provided, when available.
5. Tables and figures are all cited in the text. Tables and figures (with captions, unless an ICR article) are embedded at the end of the text document, whilst figure files are uploaded as supplementary files.
6. Figures/images have a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file is no more than 20MB per file. The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
7. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal. Please check that you have followed the instructions for the correct article type.
8. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the submitted files have been blinded. The instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed. Every effort has been made to ensure that author names are removed from the manuscript.
9. The manuscript has been structured according to the author guidelines. Namely: title, abstract, key words, introduction, material/methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgements, references, tables, figure(s) with figure caption(s), additional files.
10. All authors qualify as authors, as defined in the authorship guidelines, and have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper.

Copyright Notice

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. For more information, see the full Privacy Policy here.

Publication Fees

If you are not a member of the Belgian Society of Radiology and your article is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay an Article Publication Charge (APC) of £220 to cover publications costs. This can normally be sourced from your funder or institution. This fee covers all publication costs (editorial processes; web hosting; indexing; marketing; archiving; DOI registration etc) and ensures that all of the content is fully open access. This approach maximises the potential readership of publications and allows the journal to be run in a sustainable way. For a breakdown of costs, please click here.

The journal does not charge submission fees.

Many institutions have funds available to support open access publications by their staff, therefore we ask that you contact the relevant body to cover the APC.

If you do not know about your institution’s policy on open access funding, please contact your departmental/faculty administrators and institution library, as funds may be available to you.

Waiver Information

If you do not have funds available to pay the APC (e.g., because your institution/funder will not cover the fee) then we may be able to offer a discount or full waiver. Should you need to discuss waiver options or the APC in general, please ensure that you contact the editor as early as possible. Editorial decisions are made independently from the ability to pay the APC. Waiver requests must be received either before a submission or as part of the submission information (e.g. in the cover letter).