Topics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Online Submission and Review System
Instructions for Authors (this page)
Copyright Transfer (PDF)
Reprint Ordering
Permissions Requests
Reprints

About the Journal

Topics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (TMRI) publishes international, peer-reviewed open access articles on clinical and experimental investigations, editorials, case reports and review articles in Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Primarily research-oriented, the journal also includes up-to-the-minute coverage of technical advances in this evolving field as well as practical, hands-on guidance from leading experts.

Open Access

Topics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging® is a "gold" open access journal, providing immediate and unrestricted access to all articles on the publisher's website. ‘Gold’ open access for individual articles is funded by authors (or their author's institution or funders) who pay an open access processing fee (APC). The APCs for Topics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging® are $1,300 USD for Tier 1 manuscripts (original research, reviews, and case reports) and $1,000 USD for Tier 2 manuscripts (editorials, letters to the editor). By agreeing during the submission process, you confirm your understanding of this policy and accept responsibility for the payment of the article processing charge (APC). Payment is required upon acceptance of your manuscript for publication.

The article processing charge (APC) is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by the author, funding agency or institution. Payment must be processed for the article to be published open access.

Authors retain their copyright for articles; however, authors grant Wolters Kluwer an exclusive license to publish the article and the article is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons user license. (https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-journals/lippincott-open-access/faq) Open access articles are freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication under the terms of the Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial No Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) license. This license does not permit reuse for any commercial purposes nor does it cover the reuse or modification of individual elements of the work (such as figures, tables, etc.) in the creation of derivative works without specific permission.

PUBLISHING GUIDELINES

Originality

The Editors require that each manuscript is an original contribution and that it has not been, and will not be, submitted elsewhere while it is under consideration for publication in TMRI. Editors may subject any manuscript submitted for consideration of publication in TMRI to plagiarism-detection software.

Preprints

A preprint is an early version of a manuscript that is made available to the public before peer-review by depositing it in one of several internationally recognized preprint servers. A preprint is not considered prior publication of the manuscript.

If you have used a preprint server for your paper, you must disclose that in the cover letter of the submission and include it in a section labeled "Publication History".  For example:

"Publication history: This manuscript was previously published in bioRxiv: doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/307788125."

Also, if your manuscript is accepted for publication in Topics in MRI, it is your responsibility to update the preprint with the DOI and a link to the final published version of the manuscript.

Authorship

All authors/coauthors must have an appropriate degree and institutional affiliation to have contributed to the manuscript. Adding coauthors in the revision stage of the peer review process will only be allowed in special instances approved specifically by the editor-in-chief, and adding authors after acceptance is not allowed. The author order cannot be changed after manuscript acceptance. Adding coauthors after manuscript acceptance is similarly not allowed. Each person listed as an author is expected to have participated in the study to a significant extent.

Single first authorship is considered to be the standard of reference, and the vast majority of accepted papers fall into this category. Co-first authorship is permitted (2 first authors only), with a statement of justification required from the authors and approval by the editor-in-chief. There can only be one corresponding author, and there can be only one senior author.

Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; 4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet all four conditions.

Although the editors and reviewers make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the authors, not with the Journal, its editors, or the publisher.

Patient anonymity and informed consent:

It is the author's responsibility to ensure that a patient's anonymity be carefully protected and to verify that any clinical and experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent and following all the guidelines for clinical and experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated. For case reports, patient consent should be obtained for publication of the case details. Authors should mask patients' eyes and remove patients' names from figures unless they obtain written consent from the patients and submit written consent with the manuscript.

Journal Ethics

TRMI expects the highest ethical standards from their authors, reviewers and editors when conducting research, submitting papers and throughout the peer-review process.

The Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) helps guide authors, editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics. This link is provided to help authors submit papers that include the elements critical to a particular type of work and that make a sound evaluation of the work possible.

All articles dealing with original human or animal data must include a statement on ethics approval at the beginning of the Methods section. This paragraph must contain the following information: the name and address of the ethics committee responsible; the protocol number that was attributed by this ethics committee.

In addition and as stated above, for studies conducted on human participants you must state clearly that you obtained written informed consent from the study participants; please also look at the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki. If ethics clearance was not necessary, or if there was any deviation from these standard ethical requests, please state why it was not required. Please note that the editors may ask you to provide evidence of ethical approval. If you have approval from a National Drug Agency (or similar) please state this and provide details, this can be particularly useful when discussing the use of unlicensed drugs.

Peer review policy

Peer review is an essential part of TMRI's decision process.  All original material presented in TMRI undergoes rigorous multi-factorial double-blinded peer-review by carefully selecting dedicated and knowledgeable individuals who are experts in their field.

During the review process, one of TMRI's Section Editors are assigned the manuscript and takes responsibility for the review process. Section Editors are asked to seek review from at least 2 external reviewers on any given manuscript. 

Reviewers will be asked to respond to the following questions before submitting a review:

Conflicts of interest

 Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading “Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:”. For example:

Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: A has received honoraria from Company Z. B is currently receiving a grant (#12345) from Organization Y, and is on the speaker’s bureau for Organization X – the CME organizers for Company A. For the remaining authors none were declared.

Color figures
If authors have color images, the figures will run in color online-only, at no additional charge.

Manuscript Submission

The Journal uses a hassle-free, format-free approach for initial submissions. Tables, figures, and supplementary material can all be included in a single submission file, with images embedded into the text. There are no restrictions on file types.

The editorial office will not send any manuscripts back for changes unless the manuscript file is unblinded or there is content missing, such as a table or figure. If your article is selected for revision, the editors will ask that the Journal formatting requirements be followed for all subsequent versions.

Online manuscript submission: All manuscripts must be submitted on-line at www.editorialmanager.com/tmri. You will see step-by-step instructions when you are submitting your manuscript. You will need to submit the following documents as separate files for Revised Submission. 

  1. Cover Letter: This document includes a Statement of Authorship, Notifications of Conflicts of Interest and Ethical Adherence. This must be in Word Doc format.

  2. Separate Title Page: This document should include the title, authors’ names and affiliation, the address for the corresponding author, and any acknowledgments and/or disclosures.  This must be in Word Doc format.

  3. Manuscript: This document should include the title, abstract, key words, manuscript body, tables, and figures legends. Please ensure the body of the manuscript is double-spaced with continuous line numbering. This must be in Word Doc format.

    Because of the double-blind process, please avoid using institutional names in any part of the manuscript itself (e.g. intro, methods, results, discussion). Similarly, avoid using lines like, "In our previous work," since this will effectively identify the author in the reference list.

  4. Figures and Tables: Figures must be submitted as separate, individual TIFF, EPS, or MS Office (DOC, PPT, XLS) files. High resolution PDF files are also acceptable. If you have multiple figures, you have the option to upload a zip file. You will see instructions for uploading a zip file on the web page that you see when you are uploading your files. Please note that tables should be submitted in separate, individual Word Doc files.

  5. Permissions: Permissions are the author’s responsibility to acquire for reused or adapted tables, figures, and Supplementary Digital Content from other sources Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to use direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyrighted form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source. Any permissions fees that might be required by the copyright owner are the responsibility of the authors requesting use of the borrowed material, not the responsibility of Wolters Kluwer. For permission and/or rights to use content for which the copyright holder is Wolters Kluwer, please go to the journal's website and after clicking on the relevant article, click on the "Request Permissions" link under the "Article Tools" box that appears on the right side of the page. Alternatively, send an email to [email protected]. For more information, please consult https://shop.lww.com/permissions/index.htm

First-time Editorial Manager Users Please click the Register button from the menu and enter the requested information. On successful registration, you will be sent an e-mail indicating your username and password. Print a copy of this information for future reference. Note: If you have received an e-mail from us with an assigned user ID and password, or if you are a repeat user, do not register again. Just log in. Once you have an assigned ID and password, you do not have to reregister, even if your status changes (that is, author, reviewer, or editor). Authors: Please click the log-in button from the menu at the top of the page and log into the system as an Author. Submit your manuscript according to the author instructions. You will be able to track the progress of your manuscript through the system. If you experience any problems, please contact the Managing Editor at the Editorial Office at [email protected]

Details on preparing your manuscript for submission are provided below in the Preparation of Manuscript section.

Preparation of Manuscript
Manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review.

Original Articles and Review Articles

Style

Pattern manuscript style after the American Medical Association Manual of Style (9th edition). Stedman's Medical Dictionary (27th edition) and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition) should be used as standard references. Refer to drugs and therapeutic agents by their accepted generic or chemical names, and do not abbreviate them. The name should not be abbreviated. Use code numbers only when a generic name is not yet available. In that case, supply the chemical name and a figure giving the chemical structure of the drug is required. Copyright or trade names of drugs should be capitalized and placed in parentheses after the name of the drug. Names and locations (city and state in USA; city and country outside USA) of manufacturers of drugs, supplies, or equipment cited in a manuscript are required to comply with trademark law and should be provided in parentheses. Units of measure should be expressed in the metric system, and temperatures should be expressed in degrees Celsius. Conventional units should be written as SI units as appropriate.

Title Page

Include in the separate title page file: (a) complete manuscript title; (b) authors' full names, highest academic degrees, professional titles, affiliations, and locations of affiliations; (c) name and address for correspondence, including fax number, telephone number, and e-mail address; (d) address for reprints if different from that of corresponding author; and (e) sources of support that require acknowledgment., and a short title of no more than 50 characters (including spaces) for use as a running head.

The title page must also include disclosure of funding received for this work from any of the following organizations: National Institutes of Health (NIH); Wellcome Trust; Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI); and other(s).

Structured abstract and key words

No limit on words for the abstract. Do not cite references in the abstract. Limit the use of abbreviations and acronyms. Use the following subheads: Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusions. List up to ten key words. 

Original Research Article

Organize the manuscript into five main headings: Abstract. Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Define abbreviations at first mention in text and in each table and figure. If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country). Acknowledge all forms of support, including pharmaceutical and industry support, in an Acknowledgments paragraph.

Review Articles

A review article surveys and summarizes previously published studies. Review articles should be no more than 5,000 words in length. If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country). Acknowledge all forms of support, including pharmaceutical and industry support, in an Acknowledgments paragraph.

Case Reports

A case report describes a case which presents a diagnostic, ethical or management challenge, or that highlight aspects of a disease / diagnosis and are deemed of particular educational value. There is no official word count for case reports; however, we recommend a maximum of 2000 words and an organization into following main headings: Abstract, Case, Discussion and Conclusion. Consent for disclosing case information should be present and the phrase “Patient consent was obtained for publication of the case details” should be added to the manuscript.

Editorials and Letter to the Editor:

Editorials are invited articles to explain the importance of specific articles or to provide opinions on general concepts in practice, research or policy. Letters to the editor are letters sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Both article types should be submitted double-spaced, These article types have no abstract and are typically maximal 1000 to 1500 words long. Editorials that discuss a recently published article should cite that article as the first reference.

Abbreviations

For a list of standard abbreviations, consult the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 9th edition (available from the American Medical Association, 515 N. State Street, Chicago, IL, 60610) or other standard sources. Write out the full term for each abbreviation at its first use unless it is a standard unit of measure.

Supplemental Digital Content (SDC) 

Authors may submit Supplemental Digital Content to supplement the information provided in the manuscript. SDC may include the following types of content: text, tables, figures, references peripheral to information provided as SDC, audio, and video. SDC should be consecutively cited in the Main Body text of the submitted manuscript. SDC files will be available via URL(s) placed at the citation points within the article and are not copyedited by the publisher. They will be presented digitally as submitted. Note that Journal policies for manuscript submission relating to peer review, patient anonymity, ethics, financial disclosure, copyright, and permissions also apply to SDC. Authors should mask patients' eyes and remove patients' names from supplemental digital content unless they obtain written consent from the patients and submit them as supplemental files at the time of the manuscript submission.

Format, File Type and Size Requirements

SDC may be presented in any format (PDF is preferred) and should indicate the article title and first author for clarity. Supplemental content should include a sequential number if submitting more than one (1, 2, 3, etc.). Each SDC in the file should have a visual header in the following name format (e.g., "SDC, Figure 1"; "SDC, Materials and Methods") and a corresponding citation must appear consecutively in the Main Body text. Note that SDC is numbered separately from non-SDC material. If providing SDC figure(s), a figure legend should be included on the figure itself. When uploading SDC select "Supplemental Digital Content" as the file designation. For audio and video files, also include the author name, videographer, participants, length (minutes), and size (MB). Video files should be formatted with a 320x240 pixel minimum screen size. Supplemental videos should be submitted using .wmv, .mov, .flv, .qt, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4 formats only. Videos should not exceed 10 minutes of runtime. Videos must include embedded audio narration in English. For each submission, the SDC file cannot exceed a total size of 10 MB.

For more information, please review Wolters Kluwer's requirements for submitting Supplemental Digital Content: https://sites.google.com/site/lwwsdcauthorchecklist/

References

The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Key the references (double-spaced) at the end of the manuscript. Cite the references in text in the order of appearance. Cite unpublished data--such as papers submitted but not yet accepted for publication and personal communications, including e-mail communications--in parentheses in the text. If there are more than three authors, name only the first three authors and then use et al. Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list at Sample references are given below:

Journal article [follow AMA style, but use et al. after the first 3 authors]

  1. Rand NS, Dawson JM, Juliao SF, et al. In vivo macrophage recruitment by murine intervertebral disc cells. J Spinal Disord. 2001;14:339-342.

Book chapter

  1. Todd VR. Visual information analysis: frame of reference for visual perception. In: Kramer P, Hinojosa J, eds. Frames of Reference for Pediatric Occupational Therapy. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1999:205-256.

Entire book

  1. Kellman RM, Marentette LJ. Atlas of Craniomaxillofacial Fixation. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1999.

Software

  1. Epi Info [computer program]. Version 6. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 1994.

Online journals

  1. Friedman SA. Preeclampsia: a review of the role of prostaglandins. Obstet Gynecol [serial online]. January 1988;71:22-37. Available from: BRS Information Technologies, McLean, VA. Accessed December 15, 1990.

Database

  1. CANCERNET-PDQ [database online]. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; 1996. Updated March 29, 1996.

World Wide Web

  1. Gostin LO. Drug use and HIV/AIDS [JAMA HIV/AIDS Web site]. June 1, 1996. Available at: . http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/ethics Accessed June 26, 1997.

Figures

Creating Digital Artwork

  1. Learn about the publication requirements for Digital Artwork https://cdn-links.lww.com/permalink/es/a/es_2016_03_28_digitalartwork_2_sdc2.pdf
  2. Create, Scan and Save your artwork and compare your final figure to the Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist (below).
  3. Upload each figure to Editorial Manager in conjunction with your manuscript text and tables.

Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist
Here are the basics to have in place before submitting your digital artwork:

Remember

Figure legends

Legends must be submitted for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and they should appear on a separate manuscript page after the references. Use scale markers in the image for electron micrographs and indicate the type of stain used.

Tables

Create tables using the table creating and editing feature of your word processing software (eg, Word, WordPerfect). Do not use Excel or comparable spreadsheet programs. Group all tables at the end of the manuscript; or supply them together in a separate file. Cite tables consecutively in the text, and number them in that order. Key each on a separate sheet, and include the table title, appropriate column heads, and explanatory legends (including definitions of any abbreviations used). Do not embed tables within the body of the manuscript. They should be self-explanatory and should supplement, rather than duplicate, the material in the text.

Online Manuscript Submission, Forms and Licenses

After Acceptance

Mandatory License to Publish Forms

Upon first revision, authors will be required to complete a License to Publish (LTP) form. Authors can also provide these at the original submission stage. LTP forms may be signed by the Corresponding Author on behalf of all authors. Authors retain copyright for all articles. Authors grant the journal a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Manuscripts will not pass to production without completed forms. LTP forms are available from the submission site homepage www.editorialmanager.com/tmri.

Creative Commons licenses

Open access articles will be freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication. TMRI provides authors the choice of applying any of the Creative Commons 4.0 licenses defined below, to be determined after acceptance.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND. Creative Commons describes this license as follows:  “This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to   download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.”

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA. Creative Commons describes this license as follows: “This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.”

Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC. Creative Commons describes this license as follows: “This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.”

Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA. Creative Commons describes this license as follows: “This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to ‘copyleft’ free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.”

Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND. Creative Commons describes this license as follows: “This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.”

Attribution CC BY. Creative Commons describes this license as follows: “This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended  for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.”

Compliance with NIH and other research funding agency accessibility requirements

A number of research funding agencies now require or request authors to submit the post-print (the article after peer review and acceptance but not the final published article) to a repository that is accessible online by all without charge. As a service to our authors, Wolters Kluwer identifies to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and transmits the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or other funding agencies to PubMed Central. The License to Publish provides the mechanism. Wolters Kluwer ensures that authors can fully comply with the public access requirements of major funding bodies worldwide.

Electronic page proofs and corrections

Corresponding authors will receive electronic page proofs to check the copyedited and typeset article before publication. Portable document format (PDF) files of the typeset pages and support documents (e.g., reprint order form) will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail. Complete instructions will be provided with the e-mail for downloading and marking the electronic page proofs. Corresponding author must provide an email address. The proof/correction process is done electronically.

It is the author's responsibility to ensure that there are no errors in the proofs. Authors who are not native English speakers are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript carefully edited by a native English-speaking colleague. Changes that have been made to conform to journal style will stand if they do not alter the authors' meaning. Only the most critical changes to the accuracy of the content will be made. Changes that are stylistic or are a reworking of previously accepted material will be disallowed. The publisher reserves the right to deny any changes that do not affect the accuracy of the content. Authors may be charged for alterations to the proofs beyond those required to correct errors or to answer queries. Electronic proofs must be checked carefully and corrections returned within 24 to 48 hours of receipt, as requested in the cover letter accompanying the page proofs.