Sleep Fragment Submission Guidelines

Purpose

Sleep Fragments is a monthly peer-reviewed feature sponsored by the Sleep & Respiratory Neurobiology Assembly. Each fragment is in a question/answer format and is designed to test members' expertise in sleep medicine and polysomnography. The fragment is centered around a sleep tracing or image that may represent physiologic events, abnormal events, artifacts, diagnostic images, physical exam findings and sleep disorders. Fragments will come from both the adult and pediatric populations and are not limited to pulmonary sleep-related cases. 

Who can submit?

While Sleep Fragments are often solicited, we welcome anyone that would like to submit a fragment for consideration for publication. Trainees with a faculty sponsor or any physician, clinician, or researcher with an interest in sleep related disorders is welcome to submit.

If you have a sleep tracing, sleep log, hypnogram, or image  that you would like to contribute, please contact Susheel Patil, MD, PhD at spatil@jhmi.edu or Malcolm Kohler, PhD at malcolm.k@bluewin.ch.  Consultation in advance with the editors is recommended.

What Type of Topics?

Any number of topics will be entertained for publication. We would like to publish fragments that pertain to the full breadth of sleep disorders – both pulmonary and non-pulmonary. We are interested in fragments that may show a sleep tracing artifact, normal physiologic events, or abnormal physiologic events. Also of interest would be images of sleep logs, hypnograms, CPAP adherence reports, imaging studies (e.g. CT, MRI, PET, radiographs), pulmonary function tests, etc.

 It is best to review what has already been published on the website (http://www.thoracic.org/sections/education/sleep-fragments/index.html) to avoid duplication.

General Guidelines

We wish to maintain a high standard for writing quality and educational value.  Submission of a fragment whether solicited or unsolicited does not guarantee publication of a fragment. Please compose your Sleep Fragment presentation with the same care as if you were submitting a manuscript to the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.  All fragments undergo a peer-review process with experts in the subject matter with revisions as necessary to ensure writing quality and the accuracy of the information presented.  A final editorial decision regarding publication is made after the peer-review process. On the recommendation of the reviewer, the SRN Assembly Website Editors may reject the submission from publication or may delay its publication until it meets the standards.
Some other general guidelines include the following:

1. Sleep Fragments should be concise. Verbose reports containing excessive redundancy and repetition are less likely to be accepted.
2. Generic names of drugs should be used instead of trade names.
3. Units of measurement should conform to current scientific usage and can be abbreviated when they follow a number (e.g., cm, nm, mL, L, g, mg, nmol) but not otherwise. Unusual units should be defined.
4. The use of abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided.  If an abbreviation is used, the term should always be first written in full with the abbreviation in parentheses immediately after it. Do not invent new abbreviations where pre-existing ones exist. If you use an abbreviation, make it a sensible one, such as three capital letters without periods.
5. The terms “man” and “woman” should be used instead of “male” or “female.”
6. Refrain from using “Mr. or Mrs. X” or the patient’s initials to describe the patient.  Instead, use the format “A 51 year old man/woman presented with…”

Instructions

Sleep Fragments should be prepared and sent as two file formats. Text for the question(s) and answer(s) should be sent in Microsoft Word format. Images should be sent as a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation.

The following sections are required:

1. Title: Title of the case presentation.  Try to include a unique name that, when searched for through search engines, will be easily recognizable. In addition the title should avoid giving the answer to the case.
2. Name: First name, middle initial, and last name of each author.
3. Institution: Name of department(s) and institution(s) to which the authors belong below each name.
4. Question: This section can be presented in one of several formats: a) A question that refers the reader to the image – no more than 3 questions may be presented and must have a unifying theme, b) a brief introduction, followed by the question(s), or c) a case presentation with salient features and necessary laboratory data, radiographic data, and pathologic specimens. The length of this section should not exceed 250 words.  
5. Image: A sleep tracing or image that may represent normal physiologic events, abnormal events, artifacts, diagnostic images, physical exam findings and sleep disorders should be presented in a companion Powerpoint file.
6. Answer(s): A brief summary answer, no more than 3 lines (50 words). The presented images should be reproduced (in the same Powerpoint file as the original figure) with appropriate markings (e.g. with arrows) to highlight the correct answer.
7. Discussion: A brief discussion with explanation and rational for the answers should be presented.  The total word length for the answer explanations should be no more than 500 words. 
8. References: References should be provided in support of the discussion. No more than 5 references should be presented at the end of the case and should be cited in the Discussion in order of citation.  References should comply with ATS journal style, and journal names abbreviated according to Index Medicus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi).  Please see below for more details regarding the reference section.

Timeline

1. The ATS Website is updated on the first of each month, so the publication date of solicited Sleep Fragments, as well as unsolicited Sleep Fragments, will coincide with each website update.
2. Authors who have been invited to submit a Sleep Fragment should send their fragment to Drs. Susheel Patil (spatil@jhmi.edu) and Malcolm Kohler (malcolm.k@bluewin.ch) no later than the 1st of the month to ensure time for peer review and revisions prior to the intended publication date of the 1st of the coming month. 
3. The Sleep Fragment will be reviewed by the SRN Assembly Website Editors and 1-2 additional reviewers with appropriate expertise. Once reviews have been returned, a decision regarding acceptance with or without major revisions will be made. Comments will be shared with the authors who are responsible for revisions. If a Fragment is not deemed acceptable for publication, authors will be informed and provided with comments by reviewers.
4. Once a Sleep Fragment is accepted for publication after necessary revisions, the SRN Website Editors will provide the finalized Sleep Fragment to the IT Web Department (dmoy@thoracic.org).

Forms

The necessary forms are the Website Assignment of Copyright, Financial Disclosure, License Agreement, and Submission forms.  These forms can be found on the ATS Website Instructions for Contributors.

Figures

Image quality is exceedingly important, particularly for viewing on the Internet.  Final images and charts should be saved as TIFF image with at least 300 dpi to preserve a high quality presentation.

References

1. Please ensure that your references include the most current articles and information. All authors' names (do not use "et al."), complete article titles, and inclusive page numbers should be cited.
2. Spell out the names of journals that are not listed.
3. Unpublished observations and personal communications should be referred to as such in the text and not be referred to in the reference list.
4. Submit written permission when citing a personal communication. Manuscripts "submitted for publication" are considered unpublished work and should not be included in the reference list. They should be cited in parentheses in the text as "unpublished data" or "unpublished observations."

Examples of references are listed below:

Journal Articles
Gandevia SC, Gorman RB, McKenzie DK, DeTroyer A. Effects of increased ventilatory drive on motor unit firing rates in human inspiratory muscles. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1999;160:1598-1603.

In Press
Lakatos E, DeMets DL, Kannel, WB, Sorlie P, MacNamara P. Influence of cigarette smoking on lung function and COPD incidence. Chronic Dis. (In press)

Abstracts
Carr MJ, Undem BJ. Trypsin-induced, neurokinin-mediated contraction of guinea pig isolated bronchus [abstract]. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2000;161:A466.

Books
Lang TA, Secic M. How to report statistics in medicine. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians; 1997.

Articles in Books
Voyce SJ, Urbach D, Rippe JM. Pulmonary artery catheters. In: Rippe JM, Irwin RS, Alpert JS, Fink MP, editors. Intensive care medicine, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Little Brown; 1991. p. 48-72.

Government or Association Report
U.S. Public Health Service. Smoking and Health. A Report on the Surgeon General. Washington, DC.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1979. DHEW Publication No. (PHS)79-50066.

Journal Article in Electronic Format
Manoloff ES, Francioli P, Taffé P, van Melle G, Bille J, Hauser PM. Risk for Pneumocystis carinii transmission among patients with pneumonia: a molecular epidemiology study. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 2003 Jan [cited 2004 Jul 14]; vol. 8. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no1/02-0141.htm