Manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://www.ees.elsevier.com/trstmh/

Address for Correspondence:
Managing Editor
Transactions Editorial Office
Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Northumberland House
303-306 High Holborn
London WC1V 7JZ
UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7405 2628
Fax: +44 (0)20 7242 4487
e-mail: journals@rstmh.org

Article types

The Transactions publishes:
Original Articles - 3500 words, abstract 200 words, 30 references;
Short Communications - 800 words, 1 table or figure, abstract 100 words, 5 references;
Commentaries- 1000 words, abstract 100 words, 10 references;
Reviews - 3500 words, abstract 200 words, 30-40 references;
Mini-reviews - 800 words, abstract 100 words, 5 references;
Correspondence - 500 words, 3 references
General

Authors are advised to consult the Submission checklist (below)to guide their writing and submission.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its submission and potential publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Authors are advised to consult Appendix 1 (Special Subject Repositories) if their funding agency has a public access policy.

Authors are required to consult Appendix 2 (Proofs) to ensure that they understand their role in the processing of their manuscript after acceptance.

The detailed requirements for Manuscripts are set out in sections 1-5 below.

Submission checklist

It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's editor for review.

Ensure that the following items are present:

• One author designated as corresponding author
• e-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
• One or more contributors designated as guarantors of the paper

Statements on the following are included:

• Authors' disclaimers (if required)
• Authors' contributions
• Acknowledgements (if required)
• Funding
• Competing interests
• Ethical approval

All necessary files have been uploaded in the following order:

• Manuscript file (containing title page, summary, keywords, the main text of the manuscript, references, tables and figure legends
• Figure file(s)
• Cover letter
• Authors' agreements

Article written in good English
References are in the correct format for this journal
All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
Colour figures are clearly marked as being intended for colour reproduction or to be reproduced in black-and-white

For further information please contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com

Editorial process

On receipt in the Editorial Office your manuscript will be subject to detailed scrutiny with respect to both format and content. The Editors will assign the article to subject experts for peer review. The purpose of this review is to guide the editors in their decisions. If it is considered appropriate the comments will be made available to the authors and will guide in any revision.

Should authors be requested by the Editor to revise the text, the revised version should be submitted within the proscribed period. After this period, the article will be regarded as a new submission.

1. Article content

Original Articles and Short Communications
These provide accounts of original investigations in all aspects of tropical medicine and international health including:
• Chemotherapy and chemoprophylaxis
• Clinical tropical medicine
• Epidemiology
• Infectious diseases
• Immunology and vaccines
• Laboratory studies
• Microbiology and virology
• Noncommunicable and chronic disease
• Parasitology and entomology
• Public health and social medicine
• Qualitative and quantitative studies
Animal studies and in vitro studies will be considered only in so far as the results are directly relevant to human health.

Short Communications
These are similar to original articles but do not include sufficient new information to warrant a full-length article. The Results and Discussion sections can be combined if appropriate.

Commentaries
These set in context and illustrate the significance of articles published in the Transactions or other journals and are usually written as a result of a specific invitation. The Editor may invite Commentaries on other topics that highlight developments in tropical medicine and international health.

Reviews
These give an authoritative account of an aspect of tropical medicine and international health. The intention is that these reviews will provide the readers with an insight into topics of current interest and to widen the scope of the journal to bring to the attention of readers emerging diseases and other developing aspects of International Health. Reviews do not recapitulate material found in postgraduate textbooks.

Mini-reviews
These do not reiterate accepted ideas and information but rather challenge the reader with new thoughts that will stimulate debate; lead to the emergence of new ideas and approaches that may change policy in international health and tropical medicine The purpose of a mini-review may be: -
• To highlight and set in context a recent discovery
• To critically appraise and cast in a new light established information and ideas
• To illustrate how information and ideas established in one place or at one time can be relevant in a new context
• To suggest ways in which insights from other disciplines may be of value in the understanding of international health and tropical medicine
• To show how established policy in international health and tropical medicine may have unintended consequences.

Correspondence
The Transactions accepts correspondence from readers related to published papers and from Society Fellows on other matters of current concern. Authors will be asked to respond to comments on their papers and letters will be published together.

2. Presentation of manuscript

2.1. General

Documents should be prepared in Microsoft (MS) Word. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of Word. Files should not be saved as 'read-only'.

Manuscripts must be written in good English. Italics should not be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se. A single 12-point font should be used for the whole of the manuscript, preferably Arial. The text should be in single-column format and the pages should be numbered consecutively. Double spacing should be used throughout including the references, tables and legends to figures. Punctuation should be consistent and only a single space should be inserted between words and after punctuation. Each new paragraph should be clearly indicated (use two hard returns at the end of each paragraph). The whole text, including headings and references, should be aligned left. Formatting should be kept to an absolute minimum as most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article, in particular, do not use the Word options to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts, etc. where appropriate. Do not embed 'graphically designed' equations or tables.

Authors in Japan kindly note that, upon request, Elsevier Japan will provide authors with a list of people who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact our Tokyo office: Elsevier K.K., 4F Higashi-Azabu, 1-Chome Bldg, 1-9-15 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0044, Japan, tel.: (+81) (3) 5561 5037; fax: (+81) (3) 5561 5047, e-mail: jp.info@elsevier.com

2.2. Title page (should include the following in the order given)

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

Author names and affiliations. The forename(s) or initial(s) and surname(s) should be included for all authors. The authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) should be listed below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name.

Corresponding author. The post-publication corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk after the author's name and before 'Corresponding author' in the footnote. In the footnote, include the full postal address if it is different from that in the affiliation or the author has more than one affiliation, telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) and e-mail address.

Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

2.3. Summary

A concise and factual summary is required (maximum length 200 words). Summaries for short communications, mini-reviews and leading articles are limited to 100 words. Do not use subheadings. The summary should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. A summary is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.

No references should be included in the summary.

Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the summary.

Keywords
Immediately after the summary, provide six keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. Authors are recommended to use keywords from the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject List, wherever possible. The suitability of keywords can be checked on the NLM MeSH Browser at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/

Choosing keywords in this manner may help increase citation of your paper by making it more readily searchable.

2.4. Arrangement of the article

When appropriate divide your article into clearly defined sections. Mini-reviews and letters are not subdivided. Each subsection should be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line in bold type. Subsections should be used as much as possible when cross-referencing text: refer to the subsection by heading as opposed to simply 'the text'. The subdivisions set out below relate to original articles, the subdivision of reviews is dictated by the subject matter and will be suggested by the author.

Introduction. State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Experimental/Materials and methods. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Theory and/or calculation. A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Results. The results should be precisely presented once in the text, tables or figures without discussion of their significance. When results are presented in tables or figures the text should comment only on the important points. Tables and figures with legends should be able to stand alone.

Discussion. This should explore the significance of the results, not repeat them. The limitations of the study should be highlighted in a separate section.

The main conclusions of the study should be presented in a short concluding paragraph at the end of the Discussion section.

Declarations. Statements on the authors' disclaimers, authors' contributions, acknowledgements, funding, competing interests and ethical approval must be placed after the Discussion section (see paragraphs below for more detail).

If you have no declaration to make for funding, competing interests and ethical approval please insert the following statements:

Funding: None.
Competing interests: None declared.
Ethical approval: Not required.

Please note the statement that ethical approval is not required, should not reflect the authors' opinion but indicate that advice has been properly sought and that the approval has been deemed unnecessary.

2.5. References

Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors. The journal uses the Vancouver system for listing and citing references. Thus references are numbered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, and online-only files and listed numerically in the reference list at the end of the manuscript.

Citations in the text. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Submitted papers, papers in preparation, unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'Forthcoming' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Text. Indicate the references by superscript numbers in the text. The numbers should be placed after any punctuation marks and must not be in brackets or parentheses. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

List. Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text. References should be included in the list once-if they are referred to more than once in the manuscript the number they are given at first mention should be used for all further citations.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000:- 163:-51-9.

Please note the shortened form of the last page number e.g. 51-9.
If there are six or fewer authors give all six in the format: surname [space] initials comma. For references with seven or more authors give the first three followed by et al.
Reference to a Forthcoming article (has been formally accepted)
Olusanya BO, Wirz SL, Luxon LM. Community-based infant hearing screening for early detection of permanent hearing loss in Lagos, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study. Bull World Health Organ Forthcoming 2008.
Reference to a book:
Strunk W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan; 1979.

Reference to a section in an edited book:
Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ. Introduction to the electronic age. New York: E-Publishing Inc; 1999, 281-304.

Riffenburgh RH. Statistics in medicine. 2nd ed. Amsterdam (Netherlands): Elsevier Academic Press; 2006. Chapter 24, Regression and correlation methods; 447-86.
Reference to a conference paper:
Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002. Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 3-5 April 2002; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002; 182-91. Documents:
WHO. Control of the leishmaniases. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2000. Technical Report Series No. 793.
WHO. Health is a precious asset. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2000. WHO/RSD/00.1.
Dissertation:
Brown AB. Molecular vaccines against HIV [PhD thesis]. London: University of London; 2003. References to websites:
Cancer-Pain.org. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; ©2000-01 [updated 16 May 2009]. http://www.cancer-pain.org/[accessed 19 July 2009].
Online references
WHO. Primary ear and hearing care training resource. Advanced Level. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2006. www.who.int/pbd/deafness/activities/hearing_care/advanced.pdf [accessed 2 June 2008].
2.6. Tables

Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Tables must be prepared using a spreadsheet or the tables function of Microsoft Word, i.e. they must be cell based [tabs and hard returns must not be used to separate columns and rows].
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Each table must have a self-explanatory title and abbreviations must be defined. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with lowercase superscript letters. Avoid vertical and horizontal rules apart from the horizontal rules above and below the table, and one below the column headings extending over the full width of the table. Do not use shading in tables.

2.7. Text boxes

Text boxes should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Text boxes should only contain text or formulae, not images or graphs and they should include text that is not suitable for inclusion in tables. Text boxes can be a useful way of presenting different types of text information such as formulae, questionnaires or even groups of related quotes (in qualitative studies). Each text box must have a self-explanatory title and abbreviations must be defined. Text boxes should be put together either as just a set of text with a title heading or text within a box, with the title above the box. These should be located after the tables at the end of the manuscript.

2.8. Figure legends

Number figures consecutively in the order in which they are referred to in the text. Subdivided figures should be marked A, B, C, etc. and referred to in the text as 1A, 1B, 1C, etc. Each figure must have a brief self-explanatory legend which should comprise a brief title and a description of the figure. Keep text in the figures themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used. Figure legends should be listed at the end of the manuscript file, not attached to the figure(s) and should be limited to a maximum of 200 words.

2.9. Figures

Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.

General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering, symbols and sizing in your original artwork
• Arial font should be used in figures
• Where possible figures should be designed to fit a single column (80 mm width) with the degree of reduction to be determined by the Publisher
• The axes of graphs must be clearly labelled and should be carefully chosen so as to occupy the space available to the best advantage
• Line drawings should be as simple as possible: do not use over complicated figure styles, e.g. three-dimensional graphs (when there are only two data sets), fine lines, backgrounds behind graphs, gradations of stippling and unusual symbols.
• The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible or unclear after reduction
• Number the figures according to their sequence in the text
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files
• Provide all figures as separate files
• Provide titles and legends to figures separately
• If supplying graphs please ensure all the axes are properly labelled with a description of the data set and a unit, if relevant. Also please avoid shading the background as this makes it more difficult to read the graph on the printed page.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on the Elsevier website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions

You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here. Please note the different resolutions for the different file formats. Files should be saved at those resolutions at a publishable size; if they are saved smaller than a publishable size they might not be of sufficient resolution for publication.

Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):

• EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'
• TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi
• TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi
• TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required
• DOC, DOCX, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply 'as is'

Do not: • Embed graphics in your document
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low
• Supply files that are too low in resolution
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content

Colour illustrations
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g. ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.

Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please also submit usable black and white illustrations corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

3.Specific journal style

Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence in both the summary and the main text. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.
Mathematical formulae. Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line, e.g. Xp/Ym.
Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.
Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separate from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).
Nomenclature and units. Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUB: Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/bibliog/white.html for further information.
Organisms should be referred to by their scientific names according to the Linnaean binomial system.
Italics must be used for generic and specific names and for genes.
Generic names should be given in full and in italics when first used and subsequently abbreviated to a single letter in italics followed by a full stop and a space, e.g. Plasmodium vivax and P. vivax. The full generic name should always be used at the beginning of a sentence or in a heading or subheading. Use one letter for genus abbreviation except when a two letter abbreviation is needed to avoid confusion, e.g. when Aedes and Anopheles, are mentioned in same paper. However, when several unusual genera are being discussed with only a few references to each spread throughout the manuscript it is better to use the whole generic name.
Numbers one to nine are written out in words unless they are measurements, e.g. 5 mg. Numbers (and units if appropriate) are spelled out if they begin a sentence, e.g. Five microlitres. Large numbers should be set without commas, i.e. 10 000 not 10,000. Decimal points must be indicated by a full point on the line (not commas). Decimal fractions should always be preceded by a zero, e.g. 0.05.
When reporting percentages in the text both the numerator and denominator should be included. Numbers in text and tables should always be given if the percentage is shown.
When the sample size is greater than 100 percentages should be reported to one decimal place. When the sample size is 100 or less, percentages should be reported in whole numbers.
Statistical methods should be fully referenced and details of any statistical software packages used should be given, e.g. Epi Info 3.5.3 (CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA). Exact values of p should be given to three decimal places, but p<0.001 should be used instead of smaller values.
Drug names. Generic names of drugs should be used. The proprietary name may be used together with the generic name where it is first mentioned in the text and details of the manufacturer should be given (name, city, state, country).
DNA sequences and GenBank Accession numbers. Gene accession numbers refer to genes or DNA sequences about which further information can be found in the databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine. Authors wishing to enable other scientists to use the accession numbers cited in their papers via links to these sources, should type this information in the manner set out below.
For each and every accession number cited in an article, authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised. (See Example below). This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognize the relevant texts as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBank's sequences.
Example: '(GenBank accession nos. AI631510 , AI631511 , AI632198 and BF223228), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117)'.
Authors are encouraged to check accession numbers very carefully. An error in a letter or number can result in a dead link. In the final version of the printed article, the accession number text will not appear bold or underlined. In the final version of the electronic copy, the accession number text will be linked to the appropriate source in the NCBI databases enabling readers to go directly to that source from the article.
Preparation of supplementary data. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect at http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data are provided in our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit http://www.elsevier.com/authors


4. Online submission to the journal

These instructions apply to all articles submitted to the journal. Variations applicable to some types of article are noted in the appropriate sections.

Authors should upload their article via the journal's homepage ( http://ees.elsevier.com/trstmh/), where you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. Once the uploading is done, the system generates an electronic (PDF) version of the article which is used for the reviewing process. Authors, Reviewers and Editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary.

The above represents a very brief outline of online submission. It can be advantageous to print this 'Guide for Authors' section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.

Please submit, with the manuscript, the names and e-mail addresses of one or more potential referees. You may also mention persons who you would prefer not to review your paper.

5. Formal requirements

These matters relate to the integrity of the publication process. You need to be aware of these matters.

5.1. Authorship

For articles published in this journal, a person listed as an author must have made a substantial contribution to all the following:
• the conception and design of the study, or the analysis and interpretation of data
• drafting the article or revising it critically for intellectual content
• giving final approval of the version to be published

ALL these conditions must be met.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

Designation as an author infers a responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of all the data published. One or more of the authors should be listed as guarantors of the paper. The guarantor accepts full responsibility for the conduct of the study, had access to the data and controlled the decision to publish. Normally the corresponding author will be a guarantor but this must be explicitly stated.

When a large, multi-centre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above.

It is the duty of the corresponding author/guarantor to ensure that each author has signed a declaration concerning his or her individual contribution. Any consequences that result from failure to do so will be the sole responsibility of the author/guarantor who is advised to keep copies of these declarations on file in case of dispute.

The following format is suggested "I declare that in this article entitled {title of article} I participated in {here list contributions made to the study} and that I have seen and approved the final version. I have the following competing interests {here list competing interests}." You will be required to send us signed copies of these statements. These signatures need not be dated and the documents must be submitted via the online submission system.

At the end of each paper the contributions of each author to the study and its publication must be included. We encourage intending authors to discuss this amongst themselves and agree the precise nature of each person's contribution. Authors must ensure that all authors listed meet the above criteria for authorship and that there is no one else who fulfils the criteria but has not been included as an author.

Please use the following format (use initials to refer to each author): CJ and HGM conceived the study; BJA and CJ designed the study protocol; BJA and HGM carried out the clinical assessment; CJ and FT carried out the immunoassays and cytokine determination, and analysis and interpretation of these data. BJA and CJ drafted the manuscript. BJA HGM and FT critically revised the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. BJA and CJ are guarantors of the paper.

Acknowledgements. You should acknowledge here anyone who has contributed towards the study by providing study materials or helped in data acquisition or analysis, or helped care for patients, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Persons providing purely technical help or writing assistance should be listed in this section.

Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those named in the Acknowledgements and forward details of this permission to the editorial office at the time of submission

Alterations to authorship or acknowledged contributors. All authors must approve any change in authors and acknowledged contributors after initial submission. This applies to additions, deletions, change in order of authors, or contributions being attributed differently. The editor may contact any of the authors or contributors to ascertain whether they have agreed to any alteration.

5.2. Funding

Please list the source(s) of funding for the study and for each author, and for the manuscript preparation. If the funding body contributed in any way to study design, or the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or the writing of the manuscript, and/or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication, this should be explicitly stated. Full details of the funding bodies must be given, i.e. name, city, state, country and any grant/reference numbers or other identifiers included.

5.3. Competing interests

A competing interest arises when a professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as the conduct of a trial, a patient's welfare or the validity and interpretation of the research) tends to be unduly influenced by financial gain or other self-interested motive which may be at odds with professional obligations. Authors should disclose at the time of submission information on financial competing interests that may influence the manuscript and summarise these interests under the competing interests' declaration in the final manuscript. Authors must declare other interests that could influence the results of the study or the conclusions of the manuscript (e.g. employment, academic links, family relationships, political or social interest group membership, deep personal conviction, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding). For further information, see the web site of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors at http://www.icmje.org/sponsor.htm.

5.4. Ethical approval

Work on human beings that is submitted to Transactions should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in your paper. Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

5.5. Clinical trials registration

All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in Transactions should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. Transactions has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the summary and in the Materials and Methods section of the text. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt. Further information can be found at http://www.icmje.org.

Which trial registries are acceptable to the Transactions?
Acceptable registries must:
• be accessible to the public at no charge
• open to all prospective registrants, i.e. investigators are able to register without restriction by geographic location, academic affiliation, patient demographics, or clinical condition
• managed by a not-for-profit organization
• have a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data
• be electronically searchable
• include the required data elements

The following registries have been reviewed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and met their criteria as of January 2006. These are currently the registries which are acceptable to the Editor of the Transactions.


1. http://www.actr.org.au

2. http://www.clinicaltrials.gov

3. http://www.ISRCTN.org

4. http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm

5. http://www.trialregister.nl


The World Health Organization is also working towards the implementation of an international trials registration process. Its statement (of May 2006) can be accessed at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr25/en/index.html

Registration of clinical trials
Publication of the results of trials beginning on or after 1 July 2005 will only be considered if registration occurred before the first patient was enrolled.
What do we do about trials that began before 1 July 2005?

Investigators wishing to publish their work in the Transactions should register trials that began enrolling patients before 1 July 2005 as soon as possible. We will accept retrospective registration of trials that began before 1 July 2005, i.e. registration occurred after patient enrolment began.

A trial will be considered as ongoing if investigators were still collecting, cleaning or analysing data as of 1 July 2005. All ongoing trials require registration before being submitted to the Transactions.

5.6. Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a Journal Publishing Agreement (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases : contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238 7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Appendix 1

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies


Sponsored Articles:

The Transactions offers authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access to their articles on Elsevier's electronic publishing platforms. For more information please view our Sponsored Articles information page Appendix 2

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. A form with queries from the copyeditor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required. Return corrections within 2 days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this. The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. When the edited manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are returned to Elsevier in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.