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Scope and Mission of the Journal

Veterinary Clinical Pathology is published quarterly by the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) and is the official journal of the ASVCP and the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ESVCP). The journal's mission is to provide an international forum for communication and discussion of scientific investigations and new developments that advance the art and science of laboratory medicine in animals. Veterinary Clinical Pathology welcomes original experimental research and clinical contributions involving domestic, laboratory, avian, and wildlife species in the areas of hematology, hemostasis, immunopathology, clinical chemistry, cytopathology, surgical pathology, toxicology, endocrinology, laboratory and analytical techniques, instrumentation, quality assurance, and clinical pathology education.

Author Agreements

Manuscripts will be considered with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in abstract form) and are not currently under review by any other publication. Authorship implies substantial contribution and approval of the manuscript by each author. Authors are expected to acknowledge all sources of funding and support in their manuscript and will be required to sign a statement disclosing any financial interest with companies that manufacture products that are the subject of their research or with companies that manufacture competing products. At the time of acceptance of a manuscript or letter, all authors will be required to sign a written transfer of copyright to the ASVCP. Veterinary Clinical Pathology reserves the right to reject manuscripts if it appears that experimental animals have been subjected to unacceptable stress or pain, or if the use of experimental animals does not appear to be justified by the significance of the knowledge gained. Investigations involving research animals must be done in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, or equivalent guidelines.

Manuscript Review

Manuscripts are evaluated by at least 2 anonymous peer reviewers and a Section Editor. When reviewers disagree on the merits of a manuscript, a third referee may be asked to review the paper. Authors are asked to respond to reviewer suggestions within 60 days. Revised manuscripts may be re-reviewed. All accepted manuscripts will undergo scientific editing and copyediting according to Veterinary Clinical Pathology style. Proofs will be sent to the author for final approval.

Article Categories

Articles are welcome in the following categories:

• Original Research Articles—Peer-reviewed, prospective or retrospective research investigations that include a structured abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion.
• Brief Communications—Peer-reviewed preliminary research investigations or technical reports that include a structured abstract, have few or no separate sections, and do not exceed 5 double-spaced pages, excluding title page, abstract, tables, illustrations, and references.
• Case Reports—Peer-reviewed clinical reports describing a novel case or unique observation that include an abstract and have few or no separate sections.
• What Is Your Diagnosis?—Peer-reviewed case reports in which "unknown" photomicrographs or laboratory data are provided in a case presentation, followed on subsequent pages by the interpretation, additional test results, and focused discussion. An abstract is included at the end of the article. The case presentation should not exceed 2 double-spaced pages.
• Review Articles, Editorials, and Book Reviews—Although generally invited, unsolicited manuscripts in these categories are also welcome.
• Letters to the Editor—Letters are welcome, particularly those in response to published articles. Letters may include references, and a figure or table. Veterinary Clinical Pathology reserves the right not to publish letters containing defamatory, libelous, or malicious statements.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be written in English using American spelling. Authors for whom English is a second language are encouraged to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission, to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/english_language.asp. All services must be arranged and paid for by the author; use of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout, including the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. Pages and line numbers should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title page and continuing through the end of the text. Authors should refer to a recent issue of the journal for general style and format. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. All nonstandard abbreviations should be defined the first time they are used in the text. The following standard abbreviations may be used (except in titles) without first being spelled out: ANOVA, ATP, CBC, DNA, EDTA, ELISA, HCT, IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE, MCV, MCH, MCHC, NADH, NADPH, PCR, PCV, RBC, RNA, SD, SEM, WBC, H&E.

• Title Page—The first page of the manuscript should include the full title of the article and a short title of less than 50 characters to be used as a running header. What Is Your Diagnosis? articles should have titles beginning with “What is your diagnosis?”. Include the authors' first and last names, and the name and location of the institution(s) with which the authors were affiliated at the time the work was done. Provide the corresponding author's complete mailing address and e-mail address.
• Abstract—The abstract should be structured using the following headings: Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Abstracts should be limited to approximately 250 words. Case Reports, What Is Your Diagnosis?, and Review Articles should contain an unstructured abstract.
• Key Words—Up to 6 key words should be provided, in alphabetical order, for indexing the article.
• Introduction—The introduction should provide the objective of the study and state the hypothesis or research question. Sufficient background information should be provided to justify the rationale for the study and why it is important.
• Materials and Methods—Methods should include, as appropriate, a description of study design, experimental animals, analytical methods, and statistical analysis. Products (eg, instruments, reagents, stains, drugs) should be referred to by their generic or chemical names, followed by the model or trade name, and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses. Use of metric or SI units is strongly encouraged.
• Results—Tables and figures should be referred to in parentheses at the end of a sentence referring to the results. Data in tables and figures should not be duplicated in the text. Results should not repeat the rationale for the methods used.
• Discussion—The Discussion should succinctly summarize the most important findings as related to the study objectives and discuss the results in the context of other studies. Only discussion relevant to the results should be included. Repetition of results should be avoided.
• Acknowledgments—Funding, grant support, or provision of supplies used in the study and individuals providing other forms of assistance (eg, statistical review, manuscript preparation, technical assistance) may be acknowledged.
• References—References should be limited to pertinent literature and formatted according to American Medical Association guidelines, as shown in the examples below. Non-peer-reviewed references (eg, abstracts, proceedings, book chapters) are discouraged and the decision to include them must be adequately justified by the authors. References should be listed and numbered in the order in which they first appear in the text, and should be identified in the text by superscript Arabic numbers. References within tables should be numbered at the point in the text where the table is first cited. Journal abbreviations should be those used in MEDLINE (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/citmatch_help.html#JournalLists). References with more than 6 authors should list the first 3 authors followed by et al. Examples of reference format are as follows:
  • Journal Article:
    Reagan WS, VanderLind B, Shearer A, Botts S. Influence of urine pH on accurate urinary protein determination in Sprague-Dawley rats. Vet Clin Pathol. 2007;36:73–78
  • Book:
    Dabbs, D. Diagnostic Immunohistochemistry. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, USA: Churchill Livingston, Elsevier; 2006:132–149.
  • Chapter in a Multi-Author Book:
    Young DS, Bermes EW, Haverstick DM. Specimen collection and processing. In: Burtis CA, Ashwood ER, Bruns DE eds. Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics. 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders; 2006:41–58.
  • Product Information:
    ADVIA 120 Computerized User Manual. Tarrytown, NY: Bayer Corporation; 2004.
  • URL:
    Glanzmann Thrombasthenia Database, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Medicine. Available at: http://sinaicentral.mssm.edu/intranet/research/glanzmann. Accessed May 1, 2006.
  • Reference to unpublished work:
    Authors citing papers in press or personal communications must submit a copy of the unpublished manuscript or a letter from the individual concerned, confirming the work and giving permission for the citation. Papers in press may be listed in the bibliography, but unpublished results and personal communications should be referred to in parentheses within the text.
• Figure Legends—A list of figure legends should follow the references. Figure legends should be double-spaced, numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers, and include a brief description of the image, graph, or diagram. The stain should be indicated when appropriate. For magnification, internal scale bars are strongly preferred; otherwise, indicate the objective lens used (eg, X10 objective).
• Preparing Tables—Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers and have a brief descriptive title. Tables should be double-spaced and contain no vertical lines. References within tables should be numbered sequentially from the point in the text where the table is first cited.
• Preparing Images—All images and figures should be saved in electronic format (see below). When preparing your images, keep in mind that the print publication will be in CMYK mode, which may alter color slightly, and images may be cropped or reduced in size to single column width.

Manuscript Submission

Online manuscript submission through Manuscript Central is pending; please refer to these instructions periodically to check availability.

All manuscripts and images should be submitted electronically as e-mail attachments to asvcp@vetclinpathjournal.org. Alternatively, images may be uploaded to an ftp site; please contact Dr. Karen Young (youngk@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu) for instructions. The e-mail accompanying the submission should include the title of the paper, a statement that all authors have approved of the manuscript, a statement that the work is not being considered for publication elsewhere, a list of prior presentations or abstracts of this work, and the name, mailing address, telephone, fax, and e-mail of the corresponding author. Questions regarding manuscript submission or guidelines should be directed to Dr. Mary Christopher, mmchristopher@ucdavis.edu or Dr. Karen Young, youngk@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu.

Submitting Text and Tables—A single Microscoft Word document should be submitted that includes the title page, manuscript text, references, figure legends, and tables.

Submitting Images—Please submit artwork in digital format. Save graphs and line drawings as Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files and halftones or photographic images as Tagged Image Format (TIFF) files with a resolution of at least 300 ppi at final size. Do not send native file formats. Images embedded in Word are not acceptable for final image publication. More detailed information on the submission of electronic artwork can be found at www.blackwellpublishing.com/authors/digill.asp. Questions about images and file formats also may be directed to Dr. Karen Young (youngk@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu).

Manuscript Tracking and Publication

Author Services Online—Production tracking will soon be available for your article through Blackwell’s Author Services. This service enables authors to track their article once it has been accepted, through the production process to online publication and print. Please refer to these instructions periodically to check availability.

Proofs will be sent via e-mail as a link to an Acrobat PDF file. Instructions will be sent with the proof. There is a 48-hour deadline for returning proof corrections. Please arrange for a coauthor or colleague to return your corrected proofs if you will not be available.

Copyright—Publication in the journal is subject to the condition that the article (as a whole or in part) has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. In submitting the manuscript to the publisher, the author certifies that neither the author’s contribution nor any text or figures procured and included by the author infringes upon the rights of a third party, and that the author alone is authorized to dispose of the existing right of utilization with regard to copyright. For the duration of the lawful copyright, the author grants the publisher, regardless of location, the exclusive right of duplication and dissemination (right of publication) without restriction as to the amount of number of downloads and for all print and electronic editions in tangible or intangible form as well as the issuance of licenses to third parties nationally and abroad for the exercise of the ancillary rights granted. The publisher is authorized to make use of the utilization rights to which he is entitled; howeer, he is not obligated to do so. Correspondence to the journal is accepted on the understanding that the contributing author licenses the publisher to publish the letter as part of the journal or separately from it, in the exercise of any subsidiary rights relating to the journal and its contents. Receipt of a signed Copyright Assignment Form is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless this has been received by the Editor.

Author Materials Archive Policy—Unless specifically requested, Blackwell Publishing will dispose of all hardcopy and electronic material submitted, 2 issues after publication. If you require the return of any material submitted, please inform the editorial office (asvcp@vetclinpathjournal.org) as soon as possible.

Reprints and Permissions—Requests to copy, reprint, or use portions of published material (including information in figures and tables) should be addressed to Blackwell.

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