INTRODUCTION
Annals of Emergency Medicine , the leading international, peer-reviewed journal for the specialty of emergency medicine, is dedicated to its mission to improve the quality of care by serving as an excellent educational and communication vehicle for emergency medicine and related medical specialties.
Annals uses Editorial Manager™ (http://AnnEmergMed.editorialmanager.com), an online submission and review system, that allows authors to submit manuscripts via the Web, allows reviewers to view and/or download manuscripts and submit their opinions to the editor, and allows the editorial office to oversee the entire process from submission to decision. This Web-based system is designed to reduce the time to decision for submitted manuscripts. Annals no longer accepts submissions by mail.
The Web-based system uses Adobe Acrobat to convert uploaded files to Acrobat PDF files for authors, reviewers, and editors to view online. PDF files allow the user to view manuscripts in a format that closely resembles the original. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader loaded onto your computer, go to www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html and download the free software (Acrobat Reader 5.0).
Help in Editorial Manager™
At the top of the Editorial Manager™ opening Web page, you will find a menu of options that will help as you use Annals' Web-based peer review system. These help functions also appear at the top of each page with frequently asked questions (FAQs) provided. For technical support on uploading items for submission, authors may send an e-mail query to authorsupport@elsevier.com . For all other queries, authors may send e-mail queries to the Annals' office at AnnEmergMed@acep.org .
REGISTERING WITH THE SYSTEM
If you are not a registered user with the Annals' Editorial Manager™ system, you must register first before submitting manuscripts to the journal.
1.Click
Register from the menu at the top of the Editorial Manager™ main page (http://AnnEmergMed.editorialmanager.com). This will take you to the
Registration Page . To register, you must fill in all areas that have a red asterisk (*).
2.Once you have filled in all of the required information, choose a username.
3.Write down your username and keep it in a safe place for future use. After selecting a username, click
Continue at the bottom the screen. The system generates a password for you, and an e-mail message is sent to you. You may change this password at any time (see Changing Your Password).
4.The next page asks you to review your personal information. If any information you entered is incorrect, click the
Previous Page link, so that you can revise your user information. If all the information is correct, click
Continue at the bottom of the screen.
5.At this point, your registration is complete.
Repeat users should select the “Login” button from the menu on the main page and proceed as appropriate.
CHANGING YOUR PASSWORD
To change your password, type in your username and the password provided by Annals' Editorial Manager™ system (see step 3 of Registering With the System). Then, click
Update My Information on the menu at the top of the screen. You will be brought to your information screen. You must then click on
Change Password . Enter your old password (for verification) and your new password twice. Once you change your password, click
Done at the bottom of the page. Please be sure to write down your new password and keep it in a safe place.
SUBMITTING A MANUSCRIPT
After you have carefully reviewed Annals' Instructions for Authors, you are ready to submit a manuscript to the journal. To submit a manuscript, you must first log into Annals' Editorial Manager™ by clicking
Login on the menu at the top of the Web page.
1.Enter your username and password; then click the
Author Login button.
2.You are now at the
Author's Main Menu page.
3.Click on the
Submit New Manuscript button, which is the last option on the page.
4.From the
Submit New Manuscript page:
•Enter Article Title. Type in your manuscript title. Manuscripts cannot be submitted without a document title. If you need to put in any special character(s), click on the
Insert Special Character link. (Note: When inserting a special character, only press one time on the character you want. Do not double click on a character unless you want to insert the same character twice.) Once you finish entering your document title, click the
Next button.
•Select Article Type. Choose the kind of file you are submitting (Original Research, Brief Research Reports, Laboratory Investigations, Concepts, Reviews, Evidence-Based Emergency Medicine, Case Conferences, Case Reports, Editorials, Brief Commentaries, Change of Shift, or Correspondence) . After you choose your article type, click the
Next button.
•Add/Edit/Remove Authors. Enter the names of all of the authors who have contributed to the manuscript. Check your manuscript to be sure author contributions are defined in your manuscript (see Author Contributions in Manuscript Submission section of the Instructions for Authors).
•Click
Add/Edit/Remove Authors and a new window will open in which you can enter author names and affiliations. (Note: You will automatically be designated as the corresponding author. If someone else should be listed as the corresponding author, you may change that here. Please be aware that all correspondence sent from the editorial office regarding this submission will be sent to the corresponding author only. Also be advised that author information cannot be changed after a manuscript is submitted without contacting the editorial office. Anyone listed as corresponding author must be registered with Annals' Editorial Manager™ system.)
•Under
Affiliation , enter each contributing author's institution.
•When you are finished with one author and want to add another, click the
Add Author button. The name of the author you just added appears toward the bottom of the screen, along with an
Edit button by each author's information if you need to change any information you entered previously.
•Once you have entered all the contributing authors, click the
Done button at the bottom of the screen. (If you do not see the
Done button, try enlarging the window.) The window will close and you will be taken back to the previous page. Click the
Next button.
•Select Classifications. Please select document classifications for this submission among the categories shown. To do this, click the
Select Document Classifications button. Select those classifications that most closely match your manuscript. If you select a subclassification, you must also select the main classification, which appears in all capital letters. When you are finished, click the
Submit button at the bottom of the screen. You will then be taken back to the previous page. Keep in mind that Annals' editors will make the final decision with respect to proper classification for Annals' editing processes. Click the
Next button to proceed.
•Enter Comments. This screen allows you to enter any comments to the editor you believe should accompany your submission. If you wish to suggest reviewers or wish any reviewers be excluded from reviewing your manuscript, please enter that information here . If you suggest potential reviewers, please include contact information and e-mail addresses for each. Bear in mind your suggestions will be taken under advisement but may not necessarily be implemented. This decision will be made at the discretion of the editor of your submission.
Once you finish adding all comments to your manuscript, you should then attach all relevant files.
ATTACHING FILES FOR SUBMISSION AND SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
On this page, you will attach all electronic files as well as note any files that you may be sending by fax and mail. Whether you are sending material electronically or faxing material (eg, the Manuscript Submission Agreement, which requires all authors' signatures, or mailing figures that you may not have in electronic format), all components of the submission must be noted and you will “attach” each component, even if you are “attaching” something offline. This alerts the editorial office to the items that will follow the electronic submission.
1.Choose Item. Select the
Items you wish to submit: the cover letter, the title page, the manuscript (ie, the abstract, the main text of the manuscript, and the references; your figures and/or tables may or may not be part of this document), the author contributions information (if applicable), the Manuscript Submission Agreement, figure or table legends, figures, and tables. These items (eg, cover letter, title page, manuscript, author contributions) should be created and saved as separate electronic files in preparation for uploading purposes. (Note: The Manuscript Submission Agreement and the Submission Checklist [print version only of the checklist] should be faxed at the same time the manuscript is submitted to the Web-based peer review system, as handwritten signatures of all authors are for processing the manuscript. We will begin the peer review process without the mailed original version of the Manuscript Submission Agreement only if we have a faxed version of that agreement clearly indicating the original is being mailed. A manuscript will be considered incomplete until the faxed Manuscript Submission Agreement is received. Moreover, we must have received the original completed Manuscript Submission Agreement by mail before rendering a decision on the manuscript.)
2.File Description. After you have picked your Item for submission, the
File Description will appear. Your file description may be more specific. For example, you may specify Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, and Table 2 in the File Description. If you are sending an item offline, please indicate your method of delivery (ie, regular mail, UPS, facsimile, etc.) in the “Description”area. For example, you will note “Manuscript Submission Agreement via fax today, original to follow immediately by mail” in the description space so that the editorial office will know how the Manuscript Submission Agreement will be sent.
3.Delivery Method. After you have selected your Item for submission, you now choose the “Online Web System” delivery method. Only the Manuscript Submission Agreement can be indicated as being submitted offline. All other items should be uploaded to Editorial Manager™. For figures (eg, radiographs) and electronic illustrations, see “Manuscript Preparation” in the Instructions for Authors.
4.File Name. To find the file you want to submit, click the
Browse button to the right of
File Name and a window will appear that shows your computer drives. Click the drive where you have saved your document. For example, if your file is in the C: drive, then you would open the C: drive, find your file and click Open.
5.Once you click
Open , the window will close and the drive and name of the file will appear in the
File Name box. For example: C:/Documentmauscript.doc. You still need to attach the file (see step 6 below).
6.Attach File. If this is the correct document, click
Attach This File . You will know that your file is attached if you see the document information appear at the bottom of your screen under
Files for This Submission . If you need to attach other documents, you may do so by repeating steps 1 through 5 above. Note: You will also need to review and approve the PDF versions of these files so that they are sent to the editorial office. The order in which the attached items appear in the list will be the order in which they appear in the PDF file that is produced. You may change the order by clicking the arrows on the left.
7.Submitting Attachment. Once you are finished attaching files and see all the files you want to submit appear under the heading
Files for This Submission , click the
Next button. You will see a summary of the items you are sending online and the number of items being delivered offline. If all the components of your submission are accounted for, click the
Send button. If there are items missing, go back to the
Attach Files page to add anything that is missing. After you click the
Send button you will see the following message: “Your submission is being processed. You will receive a confirming e-mail within the next few minutes.”
REVIEWING YOUR SUBMISSION
To review your submission, click the
Back to Main Menu link. To complete your submission, you must review and approve all files you have submitted. On the Author's main page, click on the
Submission Waiting for Author's Approval link. If the PDF has been built, you will have the option to
View Submission . View the submission to make sure all the information has transferred to a PDF file correctly. If all the information is correct, simply return to the
View Submission page and click
Approve Submission and your manuscript will be submitted to the editorial office. If you would like to make changes to any part of your submission, click
Edit Submission to return to the submission process and make changes. Note: If you click the Edit Submission button (which means you are canceling and starting over), your manuscript will not be retained in the Web-based peer review system, and you will need to enter all of the information again.
APPROVING YOUR SUBMISSION
Once you have successfully reviewed and approved your documents and clicked on the
Approve Submission button, you are finished submitting your manuscript and can log out of Annals' Editorial Manager™ system.
Note: Once you approve your document, you cannot make changes to it. You will receive a confirmation e-mail message noting your manuscript's delivery to the editorial office.
NOTE: Your submission is now being converted to a PDF, but it will not be sent to the editorial office until you review and approve the submission. See sections immediately following for instructions.
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