The Science Journal of the American Association for Respiratory Care

Preparing the Manuscript


For guidance on preparing a scientific manuscript, the Journal recommends 2 manuals: 

Top | Back

Cover Letter

For all articles, please include a cover letter to the Editor in Chief explaining your reasons for submitting the paper. This letter should include any noteworthy information of which you would like the Editor to be aware.

You can submit a cover letter in one of 3 ways:

Top | Back

Required Sections of Manuscript

Title Page. Title page should include the following:

Full title
Full first and last name (including middle initials), highest academic or professional degrees (but not including honorific designations other than FAARC), email address, and institutional affiliation for all authors
The name and location of the institution at which the study was performed
Disclosure of all authors’ pertinent relationships to any organization with a direct financial interest in the subject of the manuscript. All sources of financial support must also be disclosed. For each author, if no financial or other potential conflict of interest exists, a statement to this effect should be included.

Abstract. For Original Research articles, the abstract should have the following sections: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Abstracts for Special Articles, Review Articles, Case Reports, and Conference Proceedings should be in the form of a narrative paragraph. Please limit the abstract to less than 300 words (150 words for Case Reports). The abstract must not contain any facts or conclusions that do not also appear in the body text.

Please include the abstract in the manuscript file that you upload into Manuscript Central; you will also be asked to paste the abstract into the abstract window during the submission process.

Key Words. Include with the abstract a list of 6 to 10 key words or phrases that best reflect the content of your manuscript. Key words can be selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) used by MEDLINE.

[Note: You will also be asked to provide 3 categories in RESPIRATORY CARE Manuscript Central. These are more general terms that are used in the selection of reviewers and do not have to match the terms used in your manuscript.]

Text. Double-space the text and number the pages. Center and bold the 1st level headings; flush-left and bold any 2nd level headings. Indent and bold any 3rd level headings.

References. References must be listed and numbered in the sequence in which each referenced document is first cited in the text, tables, and figures. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the citations. Please do not use software such as EndNote or Reference Manager in your word processing files.

The following examples show RESPIRATORY CARE’s style for references.

Manuscript accepted but not yet published:
Hess DR. New therapies for asthma. Respir Care (year, in press).

One copy of manuscripts cited as “in press” should be uploaded onto Manuscript Central as supplementary material.

Article in a journal carrying pagination throughout the volume; for citations with multiple authors, list 6 authors, and then “et al”:
Rau JL, Coppolo DP, Nagel MW, Avvakoumova VI, Doyle CC, Wiersema KJ, et al. The importance of nonelectrostatic materials in holding chambers for delivery of hydrofluoroalkane albuterol. Respir Care 2006;51(5):503–510.

Article in a publication that numbers each issue beginning with Page 1:
Chatburn R. Benchmarking for success: the AARC benchmarking project: part 1: overview. AARC Times 2006;30(6):26–28.

Corporate author journal article:
Perez-Padilla R, Vazquez-Garcia JC, Marquez MN, Jardim JR, Pertuze J, Lisboa C, et al; the Latin American COPD Prevalence Study (PLATINO) Team. The long-term stability of portable spirometers used in a multinational study of the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Respir Care 2006;51(10):1167–1171.

Article in journal supplement (journals differ in numbering and identifying supplements. Supply information sufficient to allow retrieval):
Salim A, Martin M. High-frequency percussive ventilation. Crit Care Med 2005;33(3 Suppl):S241–S245.

Abstract in journal (citing abstracts is discouraged, but permissible; those more than 3 years old should not be cited):
Graham BL, Nuccio PF, Jackson MR. Quality improvement in post-tracheotomy patient care leads to increased decannulations (abstract). Respir Care 2006;51(11):1331.

Editorial in a journal:
Gallegos LC, Shigeoka JW. Novel oxygen-concentrator-based equipment: take a test drive first! (editorial) Respir Care 2006;51(1):25–28.

Editorial with no author given:
Institute of Medicine urges reform of FDA (editorial). Lancet 2006;368(9543):1211.

Letter in journal:
Silvestri L, Petros AJ, Viviani M, Rommes JH, van Saene HK. Selective decontamination of the digestive tract and ventilator-associated pneumonia, part 1 (letter). Respir Care 2006;51(1):67–69; author reply 70–72.

Book (specific pages should be cited whenever reference is made to specific statements or other content):
Dudek RW. High-yield lung. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; 2006:119–120.

Corporate author book:
Institute of Medicine. Preventing medication errors: quality chasm series. Washington DC: National Academies Press; 2007.

Chapter in book with editor(s):
Groman J, Cutting GR. Cystic fibrosis. In: Silverman EK, Shapiro,SD, Lomas DA, Weiss ST, editors. Respiratory genetics. London UK: Hodder Arnold; 2006:297–313.

Internet Material (citation of Internet material should be listed in the references, not in the manuscript text, and used only when a printed citation is not available):
American Lung Association. EPA’s new standards fail to protect the health of the public. Statement from John L Kirkwood, President and CEO, American Lung Association, September 21, 2006. http://www.lungusa.org/. Accessed October 14, 2006

For detailed instructions for citing all types of material found on the Internet, including homepages, Internet journals and books, databases, electronic mail, see the National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation.

Unpublished Work:
If research has not yet been accepted for publication, it should not be cited in the reference list but may be cited in full parenthetically within the text as a personal communication, Example: “Recently, Jones et al found this treatment effective in 45 of 83 patients (Jones HI, personal communication, 2006).” You must obtain written permission from the author to cite his or her unpublished data. Reference to your own unpublished data that has not been accepted for publication should not be included in the reference list but must be mentioned as follows: “Recently we found that this type of aerosol is no more effective than placebo (unpublished data).”

Top | Back

Optional Sections of Manuscript

Figures

Original Figures. Use only illustrations that clarify and augment the text. All the figures must be called-out in the text. Number figures consecutively as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

Submit digital (“soft”) figures in production-ready format (in the proper file format and in the necessary resolution), preferably at the submission stage, but definitely on submission of the revised manuscript.

Figures must be uploaded to Manuscript Central as separate files and NOT embedded in the manuscript file. Each figure should be prepared as a separate digital file. Figures with multiple parts should be submitted as a single file. See “Tips for Uploading Files and Images on Manuscript Central” in the “Get Help Now” function in Manuscript Central.

Acceptable file formats are TIF and EPS. (JPG files will upload into the system, but are not acceptable for production.) PPT files will not upload into the system and must be converted to TIF files. It is advisable to convert Excel (XLS) charts and graphs into a TIF image before you upload. Please do not submit compressed (zipped) files to Manuscript Central. They will not properly convert.

Acceptable resolutions are:

Radiographs should show only the areas of interest, clearly show the point being made, contain no patient identifiers, and should all be sized the same.

A signed letter of consent must accompany any photograph of an identifiable person.

Identify stains and magnifications for all photomicrographs.

Arrows, numbers, or letters to identify parts of the figure must be explained in the figure legend.

Borrowed Figures. To include previously published figures, you must obtain permission from the original copyright holder. Figures must be of professional quality and a copy of the article from which the figure came should be available. Scan borrowed figures at 1200 dpi and saved them in TIF format.

Figure Legends. Every figure must have a legend (a title and/or description explaining every component of the figure). The legend should be self-sufficient and allow the reader to understand the figure without reference to the text.

The legend should be in the text file, at the very end of the file, after the references. Do not include the legend as part of the figure file. When you upload the figures into Manuscript Central, you will be asked also to fill in (copy/paste) the figure legends into the program to enhance the reviewers’ examination of your paper.

Tables. Tables must be uploaded to Manuscript Central as separate files and not embedded in the manuscript file. Submit a separate file for each table. Tables should be created and inserted into a Word document using the “Insert Table” function in your word processing software. (To be sure that your table captions will be included in the PDF view of Manuscript Central, add your captions to the actual Word document. The converter will not add a caption to a Word file, but only to TIF, EPS, and JPG files.)

A table should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate information in the text. Tables should be numbered and cited consecutively in the text. All abbreviations and symbols should be explained in notes at the bottom of the table. For footnotes use the following symbols, superscripted, in the table body, in the following order: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††.

With “±” values, indicate whether the value is a standard deviation or standard error of the mean. Note: It is rarely correct to report standard error values when describing a study’s findings. Consult a statistician if this is in doubt.

Acknowledgements. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, you must obtain written permission from all individuals before they are named in the Acknowledgments section; inclusion of names can be taken as signifying the individuals’ approval of the paper’s contents. You must notify the editorial office that you have obtained such permission.

Permissions. To include borrowed (previously published) figures and tables, the author must obtain written permission from the original copyright holder. The author must also provide reference citation so that appropriate credit can be acknowledged in accordance with copyright law.

Fax permissions granted to 206-223-0563, or email them via PDF. Copies of all applicable permissions must be on file at RESPIRATORY CARE before a manuscript goes to press.

Copyright is most often held by the journal or book in which the figure or table originally appeared and applies to the creativity, style, and format in which the facts/data are presented to the reader; the facts themselves are not copyright-protectable. Therefore, permission is required to reproduce a table or figure directly, or with minor adaptations, from a journal or book, but permission is not required if data are extracted and presented in a new format. In that case, cite the source of the data as in the following example: “Adapted from Reference 23.”

A sample permission request form is available. Permission may involve a fee payable to the original publisher. (A few publishers also require the borrower to obtain permission from the original author.) Payment of any fees required for borrowed material included in unsolicited manuscripts is the responsibility of the author. Authors of invited articles should contact the editorial office with respect to borrowing material from other sources.

Equations. Create equations as normal text. Do not use Microsoft Word’s equation creation function or other mathematics software.

Statistics. For manuscripts that report complex statistics, the Editor recommends statistical consultation (or at least expertise); a biostatistician will most likely review such manuscripts during the peer review process.

In the Methods section:

In the Results section:

Report actual p values rather than thresholds: not just whether the p value was above or below the significant-difference threshold. Example: write “p = 0.18”, not “p > 0.05” or “p = NS”.

Units of Measurement. Always report the units of measurement according to current scientific usage. Standard units of measurement and scientific terms can be abbreviated without explanation (eg, L/min, mm Hg, pH, O2). Use the units and conversion factors.

Abbreviations and Symbols. Use sparingly; refer to the standard abbreviations and symbols. Do not invent new abbreviations for terms that have long had standard abbreviations. Use an abbreviation only if the term occurs 4 or more times in the manuscript. Abbreviate the term parenthetically at first mention in the text; thereafter use only the abbreviation. Example: arterial blood gas (ABG).

Pulmonary terms and symbols. Refer to a report of the ACCP-STS Joint Committee on Pulmonary Nomenclature (originally published in Chest 1975;67[5]:583–93).

Drugs and Commercial Products. Precisely identify all drugs and chemicals, doses, and methods of administration.

Use generic names instead of trade (proprietary) names for both drugs and equipment.

At first mention, trade names may be given parenthetically after generic names, including the name and location (city, state, country) of the manufacturer.

For equipment, provide model numbers (if available) and the manufacturer’s suggested price if the study has cost implications. Example: “Pleural pressure was measured using 2 balloon-tipped catheter systems connected to 2 differential pressure transducers (143PC03D; Micro Switch, Honeywell, Freeport, IL)

You are here: RCJournal.com » Guidelines for Authors » Preparing the Manuscript