Guidelines for Authors

SCOPE 

The Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery (JHMS) is designed to be a source of information for veterinarians and others involved in the health of reptiles and amphibians. JHMS is interested in all aspects of care for these species, including natural history and maintenance in captivity as well as particular medical and surgical problems.

All authors are welcome to submit manuscripts for consideration. Student authors (including undergraduate, veterinary, graduate, residents, interns, etc.) enrolled in a full-time education program will be granted a complimentary 1-year online student membership to the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians once they have completed the submission process. Please contact ARAV at info@arav.org for further information.

ETHICS

Authors and editors are expected to follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf. 

Previous publication and authorship: Manuscripts are expected to be original works that have not been previously published. Publication as an abstract of 300 words or less or as an academic thesis are not considered previous publication. Use of the work of others or direct quotes must be cited appropriately. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism as determined by an electronic plagiarism check and confirmed by either the Associate Editors or the Editor-in-Chief will be returned to the author for corrections. After those corrections are complete, any further concerns of plagiarism will result in the rejection of the manuscript. All manuscripts are submitted with the understanding that all authors have seen and approved the article as submitted. All authors must have contributed meaningfully to the work including the writing of the manuscript and all those who have contributed substantially to the work should be included as authors. Acknowledgments should be limited to persons who have contributed materially to the content. Sources of funding or support must be acknowledged. Any potential conflict of interest or financial disclosures should also be included.

Animal care and use: The ARAV supports the humane care and treatment of all animals. Any manuscript involving animal research must comply with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles. The manuscript text must include a statement regarding animal use approval from appropriate entities including approving body (e.g., an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)) and protocol numbers. If a protocol number is not available, an explanation should be forwarded with the manuscript. Guidelines for animal use in research include the National Institute of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/research-vertebrate-animals). In addition, researchers should adhere to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). JHMS reserves the right to decline manuscripts for any animal safety and welfare concerns.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI use is permitted in JHMS manuscripts in the following ways: to improve readability, writing style and grammar in the text, to enhance literature review, and to assist authors in data analysis and presentation. Authors are responsible for all content and any use of AI should be carefully overseen, reviewed, and edited by the authors. JHMS will not accept any images generated by AI for publication (illustrations on photographs, figures, or data presentations are permitted, as detailed above). The use of AI should be attributed in a statement at the end of the manuscript when utilized. Manuscript content must be original, generated, and written by the authors. AI cannot be used to create a manuscript. Full manuscripts, including data, tables, and figures, cannot be uploaded to AI platforms like ChatGPT as that constitutes previous publication. The authors are responsible for the contents of the manuscript they submit regardless of how the contents are generated.

PEER REVIEW

Submitted manuscripts are subject to initial evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief. All manuscripts considered appropriate in content and style are assigned to an Associate Editor and subject to peer review by at least two qualified reviewers. Peer reviewers are generally anonymous (single-blind peer-review). In the case that there are conflicting reviews of the manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief may seek another review, consult with the scientific editor, or may reject or accept the manuscript as they feel is best in keeping with this ethics statement, best scientific principles, or in the best interest of JHMS. Authors are expected to respond to reviewers’ comments and make revisions within 30 days. Revised manuscripts may be sent out for review again. Once the author has addressed all questions and concerns raised by reviewers and editorial staff, the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision regarding publication in JHMS. Accepted manuscripts are posted online on the JHMS website (www.jherpmedsurg.com) shortly after acceptance and printed in the next available issue. The JHMS Editor-in-Chief has the right to reject any manuscript.

SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT, MISTAKES, CORRECTIONS, AND RETRACTIONS

Discovery of scientific misconduct such as data falsification or plagiarism prior to publication of a manuscript will lead to rejection of that manuscript. JHMS reserves the right to publish corrections or retract any manuscript anytime after publication if errors, omissions, corrections, or ethics concerns arise that are substantiated by the editorial staff of JHMS or the Board of Directors of the ARAV.

Any expressions of concern, corrections, or necessary retractions regarding manuscripts printed in the JHMS should be submitted through the submission portal (PeerTrack, https://www.editorialmanager.com/jhms/default.aspx?dlv-emuid=c8b2c9d8-1345-47a0-b41b-88c30169ad1a&dlv-mlid=1775275) for consideration, and if deemed appropriate will be published in the journal and linked to the original article. The JHMS follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) regarding plagiarism, retractions, corrections, and publishing malpractices. 

MANUSCRIPT PREPATION

Article Types: Authors may submit manuscripts for publication in the following sections:

  1. In My Experience: Brief clinical experiences regarding adverse or unusual drug reactions, empirical drug dosages, therapeutic modalities, diagnostic aids, disease trends, species idiosyncrasies, and herpetological medicine, care, and husbandry in general. Generally, these articles do not have separate introductions and may or may not have a separate discussion section. The body of the text is typically 1500-2000 words (excluding abstract and literature cited).
  2. Brief Communication: Brief Communications provide substantive information on research observations or clinical cases (case reports). Reports of single cases should include novel information or insights, for example, a description of a novel diagnostic or therapeutic approach, a disease process not previously described in a given species, a previously undescribed etiology, or a disease not well described in the literature. Brief Communications are generally less than 3000 words (excluding abstract and literature cited).
  3. Case Series: Reports of clinical cases with a detailed introduction, signalment, history, captive care, laboratory and pathology data, diagnosis, therapy, and results. Cases should be unusual or novel; however, they do not have to have a successful outcome. They should be informative to veterinary practitioners. The discussion should emphasize the important clinical, pathologic, and therapeutic features, as well as identify what is new and not previously appreciated. A complete and up-to-date review of literature should be included.
  4. Original Research: These papers can present clinical data and research concerning specific diseases or species including prospective or retrospective hypothesis-based research projects. Articles in this category may also include e.g., establishment of reference intervals, guidelines, image analysis, and other topics of interest to the JHMS readership. 
  5. Review/Roundtable Articles: In-depth articles focusing on a specific disease or topic, review of literature relating to a specific topic, and expert opinions and discussions on specific topics.

Manuscript Formatting: Manuscript files should be submitted in Microsoft Word format with page numbers and line numbers included. English language editing is available through Charlesworth Author Services at a discounted price for JHMS authors through cwauthors.com/BioOne.

  1. One author must be designated as a corresponding author and an email contact will be included in the final published manuscript. 
  2. An abstract is required for all manuscripts. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words and summarize your key points.
  3. A list of four to six key words should follow the abstract for all article types. Individual key words can consist of more than one word and should include genus and species. Key words can include words in the title.
  4. Species mentioned should be listed by common name and then italicized taxonomic name when first mentioned in the text, e.g., inland bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps). Thereafter, the common name of the species should be used. Where applicable, sex, age, whether wild-caught or captive-born, and length of time in which its history can be documented should be included.
  5. All measurements should be given in the metric system. Biochemical values should be listed in International System (SI) units with conventional units in parentheses, or on the next line (if in a table). Temperatures should be in Celsius, with Fahrenheit in parentheses.
  6. Abbreviations may be used in the text if the full meaning was previously stated but should not be used to begin a sentence. Standard pharmaceutical abbreviations need not be explained. Numbers less than 10 should be spelled out. 
  7. Drugs and all other products should be listed by generic or chemical name followed by, in parentheses, trade name, concentration, manufacturer, city, state two-letter abbreviation, and country. Dosages of all drugs should be given in mg/kg or ml/kg (if mg unit is inappropriate), not how many milligrams or milliliters were given to an individual animal. Route of administration (abbreviated), frequency of dosage, and duration of treatment should be indicated. For example, 2.5 mg/kg amikacin (Amiglyde V, 250 mg/ml, Fort Dodge Laboratories, Fort Dodge, IA, USA) SC every 72 h for six treatments.
  8. When preparing the manuscript and literature cited, peer-reviewed journal papers or published book chapters are considered most reliable, whereas non-peer-reviewed, unpublished, or poorly available proceedings papers are considered less valuable and should be avoided.
  9. Literature should be cited by author and year, in parentheses, and then listed in alphabetical order at the end of the text. For references with three or more authors, citations in the text should include only the first author followed by et al. Literature cited in the text should be listed in chronological order. In the Literature Cited, for papers with more than 10 authors, the first nine authors should be listed, followed by et al. Journal titles should be abbreviated as in the National Library for Medicine, which can be found at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/. Use the following style: (Schumacher et al., 1994; Wellehan, 2019; Boykin and Mitchell, 2021). See citation styles used for Literature Cited at the bottom of the page.
  10. Figures and Tables: Each figure should be submitted as a separate file with a corresponding file name. Tables should be included at the end of the manuscript in the Microsoft Word file. Line art should be 1,200 dpi or 50 pixels/mm; grayscale, color illustrations, or photographs at 300 dpi or 12 pixels/mm; combination art (illustrations or photographs with text) should be 600 dpi or 25 pixels/mm. All images should be cropped as close as possible to the image border (1 or 2 points).
  11. Short figure legends should be provided for each figure that includes the species (common and scientific name), stain, and original magnification or bar scale. Figure legends should be included at the end of the manuscript. Figure legends should be able to stand alone without the need to reference content within the manuscript text. In addition to figure legends, please also include alternative text (alt text) for each image to help make manuscript content accessible to all. This should be a short description that does not repeat surrounding text. Best practices and examples for alt text can be found here, for example: https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/describe-content-images.
  12. Supplemental material may be submitted. These should be listed in a separate section of the manuscript text (before acknowledgements and literature cited). Alt text should also be provided for supplemental images.

    Conflict of interest disclaimer: A Disclaimer statement listing any potential conflicts of interest should be included at the end of the manuscript, following Acknowledgments, and before Literature Cited.

    Publishing charges: There are no charges for standard publishing, including for color images. Open access publishing is available for a fee of 2,250 USD. Contact info@arav.org for further information. 

    Manuscript Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted electronically at https://www2.cloud.editorialmanager.com/jhms/default2.aspx. Before you use the JHMS submission website, you must first register on the site. There is online help to assist you or you can contact the Editor-in-Chief, Rachel E. Marschang, PD Dr. med. vet. DECZM (Herpetology), DECVM at jhms.eic@arav.org.

    Citation styles for Literature Cited:
    Chapter or Article in a Book: Sladky KK, Mans C. 2019. Analgesia. In Divers SJ, Stahl SJ (eds): Mader’s Reptile and Amphibian Medicine and Surgery. Elsevier, St. Louis, MO, USA:465– 474.
    Article in Journal: Schumacher J, Jacobson ER, Homer BL, Gaskin JM. 1994. Inclusion body disease in boid snakes. J Zoo Wildl Med, 25(4):511–524.
    Proceedings: Stöhr AC, Nevarez JG. 2019. Blood transfusions in reptiles: Why don’t we do more? Proc ExoticsCon, St. Louis, MO, USA:915.
    In Press: Meyer C, Russell L, Liu C-C, Lattin CR, Nevarez JG. 2024. Plasma and shed skin corticosterone levels in a population of Louisiana pine snakes (Pituophis ruthveni). J Herpetol Med Surg, in press.
    Thesis/Dissertation: Floyd RB. 1983. Thermal Physiology of Bufo marinus Embryos and Larvae: The Ecological Significance of Laboratory Observations. PhD Diss., School of Australian Environmental Studies, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
    URL: WOAH (World Organization for Animal Health). 2023. Infection with Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans. Aquatic Code Online Access. Available from: https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/aquatic-code-online-access/?id=169&L=1&htmfile=chapitre_batrachochytrium_salamandrivorans.htm. Accessed 2024 Jan 10.
    Personal Communications: If personal communications are referenced in a manuscript, the first initial(s), last name, highest academic degree of the source of the information, ‘‘personal communication’’, and the year in which the information was obtained should be listed in the text (D. Varble, DVM, personal communication, 2019). Personal communications should not be listed under Literature Cited.
    Please disable any reference managing programs, e.g., Endnote, when submitting your manuscript.

    Click here to download a copy of these requirements.