Practical Neurology - Style guide

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

Practical Neurology	style guide	article types	test yourself
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> Overview
> Deadlines
> The manuscript
> Figures and tables
> Background illustrations
> Using the web
> References
> Journal guidelines
Overview Your task is to help neurologists in their everyday clinical practice. Write simply and clearly, tell the truth. Don't over-reference. Be guided by the evidence when there is any rather than just by theory, although clinical common sense and a feel for your experience is essential. This journal is not written by theoreticians, we are called PRACTICAL Neurology! When there is no formal evidence on which to base practice (which is so often the case), one still has to practice, and this is where clinical common sense and experience should be brought out to guide the reader. We don't like the word "considered" - we are looking for a pragmatic statement of what you actually do. For example, be specific about what dose of any drug should be, and given for how long, any interactions and adverse effects. The idea is that the reader understands every word on every page of every issue - so do not obscure the message in an overblown literary style and definitely do not delight in being too clever! We are now able to pay authors Ł10 per published page for each article
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Deadlines We plan the contents of each issue many months in advance to ensure a good balance of topics and authors. Please do your best to stick to the agreed deadlines; if there are any problems let the editorial office know as soon as possible.
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The manuscript Please prepare your manuscript in the same format as Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry regarding text and table layout, figure formats and reference style (see JNNP manuscript preparation). Write in plain English - active not passive voice, short rather than long words where the meaning is the same, short sentences, minimum abbreviations and acronyms, internal consistency etc. Avoid pompous "town hall" English at all costs (the so called municipal gothic style!). If you have a junior co-author please be particularly attentive to their style - they may have more time than you but they are less experienced, which will show. Ideally we would like you to write the article yourself. Please pick out a few key and helpful quotes from your manuscript that we mayuse to draw in the reader (rather like newspapers do); for example, "The pain of cluster headache builds up very rapidly to such an excruciating intensity that most oral agents are too slowly absorbed to relieve the pain in a reasonable period of time." And almost always we have a bullet point list of 5-10 conclusions at the end of each paper.
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Figures and tables As a guide we suggest that about one-third of each page is taken up by figures, illustrations and tables. Flow diagrams and decision trees are also often helpful. A good clear figure is likely to be downloaded and used for teaching. Avoid abbreviations on figures and in legends. Be generous in the use of arrows to point readers at what you want them to see. All black and white images should be saved and supplied as TIFF, GIF, or high quality JPEG files to a minimum of 300 dpi. Colour images should be saved and supplied as TIFF, GIF, or high quality JPEG files to a minimum of 600 dpi. Colour images should not exceed 2MB at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. If you choose a higher resolution your image dimension should be reduced accordingly to keep the file under 2MB
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Background illustrations Although Practical Neurology is very serious in its intent to educate neurologists, it does have a magazine style, which we hope will make it more attractive to pick up, read, and learn from. We need illustrative photographs or pictures for each article, often incorporating them in the first double page spread: for example, a weight lifter toiling away to illustrate McArdle's disease; a patient talking with a doctor to illustrate telling bad news; a rabid dog to illustrate rabies. If you can provide photographs yourself that would be tremendously helpful - something striking or imaginative or preferably both. This is your chance to express any artistic talent alongside your scientific expertise.
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Using the web Additional material can be posted on the Practical Neurology website, which is part of the BMJ's Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry website; for example, video clips, audio material, extra references and tables, guidelines etc.
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References The maximum number of references for each type of article is indicated in the 'Article types' document, or in the email from the Editor. Please, please use the correct format and do not use footnotes or automatic referencing systems such as endnote. Some articles have no references at all, and the most is 40 for the main review articles. Some references to points in the text can be replaced with a list of "further reading"'. If you can find them, please reference systematic reviews rather than traditional narrative reviews, and only key sources of primary data (one reference to a good Cochrane review which references and combines the results of 10 clinical trials is far better than separate references to the 10 clinical trials). To establish a feeling of consistency and familiarity, if there is something useful to be cited from an earlier issue of Practical Neurology, please cite that, all other things being equal. Finally a good general rule is never to site a reference unless you have read it - in the original Serbo-Croat if necessary! Details on reference formats
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Journal guidelines Practical Neurology adheres to the same guidelines as all BMJ Journals and you should refer to the following JNNP instructions for further advice: Authorship Patient consent Competing interests Studies involving human subjects (ethics) Publication misconduct Authors rights and permissions (copyright)
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