Oxford Textbook of Medicine

Oxford Textbook of Medicine

Fifth Edition

Information and instructions for authors from the editors and publisher

Please read carefully

Contents Introduction

Objective

Readership

Coverage

Substance

Style

Practical information

Keeping the text up to date

Appendix 1 Examples of correct style of References

Appendix 2 Sample letter asking permission to reproduce or adapt previously published material

Appendix 3 Form for patient consent to medical recording

Appendix 4 Checklist for manuscript delivery

Editors

Professor David A Warrell, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DU. Tel: 44 (0) 1865 221332/220968; fax: 44 (0) 1865 220984; e-mail:

Professor Timothy M Cox, University of Cambridge, School of Clinical Medicine, Department of Medicine, Box 157, Level 5, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ. Tel: 44 (0) 1223 336864; fax: 44 (0) 1223 336846; e-mail:

Dr John D Firth, Consultant Physician and Nephrologist, Box 118, Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ. Tel: 44 (0) 1223 274348; fax 44 (0) 1223 586506; e-mail:

OUP people

Helen Liepman, Senior Commissioning Editor, Science and Medical Publications, Academic Division, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: 44 (0) 1865 353415; fax 44 (0) 1865 353817; e-mail:

Helen is responsible for overseeing the project, and for the financial aspects of publication.

Oxford Textbook of Medicine

Introduction

We are grateful to you for joining us in this challenging task. These ‘instructions to authors’ are intended to help first-time authors of this Textbook and to remind previous contributors, who will be revising their chapters, about our aims and preferred style and content. We realize how easy it is to ignore such instructions or to read them only after the manuscript has been submitted! Please read these Instructions and come back to us if they seem either inappropriate or unclear.

Objective

Our aim is to produce the definitive, authoritative and comprehensive international textbook of the practice of medicine, designed for doctors working in any part of the world.

Readership

Primary: Hospital physicians, internists, general practitioners, clinicians, in all specialities

Secondary: Other health care professionals, medical scientists and researchers

Supplementary: Patients, novelists, lawyers, journalists

Coverage

It is our aim to provide an up-to-date, stimulating and reasonably comprehensive account of clinical medicine. It is most important that you keep to the number of words allocated to your section in your letter of agreement with OUP. We wish to maintain an international appeal; the book must deal with the practice of medicine in countries with and without advanced medical resources and provide a more complete view of medicine than do most American textbooks.

A strong advantage of all previous editions of the book (and something we wish to maintain) is that they gave pragmatic advice on the recommended management of diseases while at the same time providing, as far as possible, the scientific principles that underlie medical practice.

Although the essence of your approach should be clinical, do not hesitate to provide a short and relevant account of the underlying pathophysiology, cell biology, molecular biology/genetics, and other scientific aspects of the condition or pathogen you are describing. Those who read the book will expect the recommendations for management to be set out with clarity and certainty as far as possible, but you should avoid being dogmatic where there is genuine doubt and uncertainty. For each condition you describe, emphasize the importance of prevention, especially by primary care and community care.

Please provide data from contemporary clinical trials, where they provide evidence of benefit in management, for reference (see reference to the Cochrane Collaboration below).

This book is conceived principally for practising doctors who wish to read an account of a disease that is not specifically in their area of expertise. The book should provide access to the literature for most of the diseases that a given doctor is likely to encounter at home or abroad. The book will also be read by professionals in related subjects, doctors who are not active in clinical practice, journalists, members of the legal profession, and students of medicine all over the world. Therefore please be certain that the information provided in it is correct and easily verifiable.

Emergencies

Provide clear advice on how best to manage emergencies. Be confident that one of your junior colleagues confronted by a very ill patient would be able to refer to your section and quickly find the principles and details of treatment clearly set out. Consider whether the information could be included in a Table. Note: The information about emergency management of most common conditions is collated in a special section of the book; please provide appropriate material, perhaps in the form of a Table, wherever you discuss emergency management.

Substance

Does your clinical description of an illness provide a real account of the disease as it is seen by the bedside? Is it memorable? Although we do not encourage hyperbole, if the patient is likely to look as though they are about to die and be unable to do anything more than groan, then you should say so.

Would one of your non-specialist colleagues fully understand your section and find out exactly how the patient should be questioned, examined, investigated and treated?

Have you provided an up-to-date discussion of the scientific aspects? Indeed, would you be embarrassed if one of your colleagues were to carry out a search of the literature and present you with the up-to-date findings? Where possible, briefly state the evidence and reasoning behind your recommendation for treatment and management. By all means transmit the benefit of your own experience and wisdom but indicate where this is not based on firm evidence. Contributors may wish to refer to the current disk issue of the Cochrane Library (available in all good medical libraries) to find suitable reviews and a large bibliographic database.

Recommended standard format for chapters – note that all headings will not be required for all subjects

Where appropriate, please adopt the following format:

·  Chapter Heading

·  Essentials

Required for all chapters – a summary of the key points in 5-10% of the word allowance

·  Introduction

·  Historical perspective

Brief – no more than 5/% of the word allowance

·  Aetiology, genetics, pathogenesis and pathology

·  Epidemiology

·  Prevention

·  Clinical features

·  Differential diagnosis

·  Clinical investigation

·  Criteria for diagnosis

·  Treatment

·  Prognosis

·  Other issues (e.g. consider health economic aspects)

·  Areas of uncertainty or controversy

·  Likely developments over the next 5-10 years

·  References

Five per thousand words (major reviews and landmark papers only)

Style

Writing should be vivid and concise; written by someone who has first-hand experience caring for patients with the disease in question; and should offer a lucid and persuasive account of medicine and clinical science. We each write in our own way but in a multi-author textbook some stylistic uniformity is needed. To this end we offer the following guidelines:

·  avoid jargon, local or otherwise; long-windedness; repetition and tautology;

·  be direct and simple – keep sentences short;

·  use paragraphs freely. Long passages of unbroken text discourage readers. Short expositions are more likely to be remembered than long ones;

·  use sub-headings and for editing purposes, indicate the hierarchy of your headings (up to six levels of font are available);

·  use bold or italic to emphasize key words but do not overdo this. So-called bullet points (as in this list) may provide an appropriate level of emphasis;

·  start more paragraphs with a sentence setting out the topic and then marshal arguments to discuss it. Discuss outmoded material briefly and use historical references sparingly. Try to refer to one good, easily available, review;

·  avoid sentences or clauses starting as follows:

It has been reported that…

It has been suggested that…

It is possible that…

X has been shown to be…

·  never state that anything is high or low without qualification. Always give units. The SI system should be used throughout, except where common usage dictates otherwise, e.g. PaO2 would be in kPa but blood pressure in millimetres of mercury (mmHg);

·  avoid abbreviations or acronyms. Although these may be familiar to you they will alienate many readers. Spell them out unless doing so makes the text impossibly unwieldy;

·  use the Oxford English Dictionary as the source of spelling whenever possible;

·  avoid footnotes.

Drug names and dosages

Use generic or chemical, Recommended International Non-proprietary Names (rINNs) not commercial (proprietary), names for drugs. Where two names coexist (e.g. frusemide and furosemide) give the European usage first and the American usage in parentheses. Give precise instructions wherever possible, but check the dosages and the units on your typescript and proofs carefully. On the galley proofs please initial each drug dose to confirm that you have checked it. The primary responsibility for this aspect is yours.

Practical information

Submission of chapters

We will edit the text of your contribution and typeset electronically. Please submit your chapter by e-mail as a word document to the editorial coordinator stated in your letter of agreement.

Limits

Whether you are revising and/or updating a chapter or section from the third edition, or writing a new chapter or section, you must keep within the word and page limit allocated in your letter of agreement. Make allowances for Figures, Tables, and References when calculating the length of your text. Deduct at least 300 words for a small Table or Figure. Approximately 1200 words make one page of printed text. If you feel unduly restricted by the limit of words, please discuss the problem at an early stage with your editor.

Deadline

Please submit your disk and manuscript by the agreed deadline. Late submission of manuscripts delays publication of large textbooks more than any other factor. The editors and publishers, therefore, have agreed that any author whose manuscript has not been delivered by an agreed date will be asked to stand down, and contingency arrangements for the chapter will be used.

Proofs

Oxford University Press will send editors and authors electronic proofs (as pdf files) of the text and illustrations. Please print out, check carefully and return hard copy within the period stated in their covering letter. Failure to do so will result in your corrections being omitted from the final product. It is in your own interests to check the proofs exactly. Please initial each drug dose on the galley proofs of your contribution(s) to confirm that you have checked it.

Illustrations, Tables, and Algorithms; permissions

Pages without any illustration or Table look boring. Use Figures, Boxes, and Tables freely (at least one per 1000 words) to present information concisely, to summarize points, and to break up the text. They will be redrawn to ensure a uniform presentation. Please submit clear drawings for the artist to work from. This edition of the Textbook will be in full colour throughout. Please submit digital versions of all illustrations. All the illustrations, Tables, and Figures are available from the fourth edition, although we would like to include many new illustrations. Don’t forget that where a patient can be identified their permission must be obtained.

Please submit all Figures as separate items, not embedded in the text of the manuscript. Alternatively, submit graphs and charts on disks. The legend (caption) accompanying every Figure and Table should explain it without reference to the body of the text. Supply Tables and Figure legends on separate pages at the end of the manuscript.

If you include material, whether Table or Figures, from other published sources (even your own work), you must seek permission to reproduce such material from the copyright owner even if they were used in the previous edition and submit these documents with your manuscript; no chapter will be accepted without them. It is your responsibility to obtain (and pay for) these permissions. Please see Appendix 2 for a sample permissions letter. Note that it is important that the ‘electronic’ rights are obtained in every case; If not, then when your contribution is reproduced in any electronic version of the text (including on-line), there will be ‘gaps’ instead of the material for which we do not have rights.

Patient consent

If there is any chance that a patient may be identified from a case report or illustration, please obtain the written consent of the patient for its publication (see Appendix 3 for suitable form; guidelines on its use are appended to your letter of agreement from OUP). Patients are usually willing to give consent. Black bands across the eyes in illustrations are ineffective in disguising the patient, and changing details of patients (in case reports) to try to disguise them is a bad scientific practice. It is also important that ‘electronic’ rights are obtained from patients (see previous paragraph).

References

No References should be given in the text. Please supply a list of further reading at the end of your contribution including key references in the field and references to relevant trials and meta-analyses. References to primary literature that will ‘date’ should be avoided. Aim to limit the number of References given to fewer than five per 1000 words (except for controversial areas, trial results, and evidence-based sections giving therapeutic recommendations, where you may need to give more).

Each reference should, where appropriate, have a one-sentence commentary attached to it describing why you have included it, e.g. ‘Important trial showing that x is better than y’, ‘Comprehensive review of the condition’.

Use the name-and-date method of references; Appendix 1 gives examples. Please note that journal titles should be spelt out in full in the reference list.

Appendix 1: Examples of correct style of References

Note: There will be no References in the text. A Further Reading list should be given at the end of your chapter. Examples of correct forms of references are given below. Note the journal titles are given in full.

Journal

1.  Standard journal article (list all the authors when three or less; when four or more, list only the first and add et al.)

Soter NA, Wasserman SI, Austen KF (1999), Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. New England Journal of Medicine 294, 687-90.