Instructions for Critical Care authors

Web reports

What is a web report?

Web reports are short articles (up to 400 words) that provide a brief summary of the strengths and weaknesses of an online resource. This can either be an online tool directly intended for intensivists, or any other online resource that could be helpful to ICU practitioners. The aim of a web report is to inform the intensivist community about the resource's existence and to evaluate its usefulness.

In your introduction, you might wish to consider the following questions:

• Who is the online resource intended for and does it meet the intended users' needs?
• In which situations could it prove useful and why?
• Is there unlimited access to it or do users have to register/subscribe?
• Is any particular browser or any special software/plug-in required?
• How long does it take to download?
• Does each page have its own URL allowing it to be bookmarked?
• Is it easy to navigate?
• How does it look?
• How often is it updated?
• Is the source/owner clearly referenced? Is it reputable?

Please also answer the following questions specifically, each with no more than 25 words:

They are:

• Best and worst feature: which specific feature of the online resource did you like most and which least?
• Wish list: which other features would have been useful if included?
• Other links: are there any other online resources you would like to mention in this context? Please list their names and URLs and give the price for an individual subscription.

Each report should have a brief, descriptive individual title. The name and URL of the online resource, as well as its owner and the price for an individual subscription should appear on the title page (if it is free, please say so). You may also (but you do not need to) include references to books or studies.

Sentences should be short and active to ensure readability. You will need to explain terminology and acronyms the first time they are used. This applies to computer and Internet related terms but also to specialist medical terminology for, although your readers will be intensivists, they may not be experts in your field.

Manuscript organization

Manuscripts for web reports submitted to Critical Care should be divided into the following sections:

• Title page
• Main text
• Subtitles
• List of abbreviations used (if any)
• Competing interests
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Figure legends (if any) - see Figure legends section in main document
• Tables and captions (if any) - see Tables section in main document
• Description of additional data files (if any) - see Additional files section in main document

The Accession Numbers of any nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences or atomic coordinates cited in the manuscript should be provided, in square brackets and include the corresponding database name; for example, [EMBL:AB026295, EMBL:AC137000, DDBJ:AE000812, GenBank:U49845, PDB:1BFM, Swiss-Prot:Q96KQ7, PIR:S66116].

The databases for which we can provide direct links are: EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database (EMBL), DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ ), GenBank at the NCBI (GenBank), Protein Data Bank (PDB), Protein Information Resource (PIR) and the Swiss-Prot Protein Database (Swiss-Prot).

Title page

This should give the title of your report, list your full address (including your title/position, institution, telephone, fax and email) and give the name, URL, and owner of the reviewed online resource.

Main text

See 'What is a web report?' for further guidance.

Subtitles

We encourage the use of subtitles in your text.

List of abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text, they should be defined in the text where first used and a list of abbreviations should be provided.

Competing interests

A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Authors are required to complete a declaration of competing interests. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests'.

When completing your declaration, please consider the following questions:

Financial competing interests

• In the past five years have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future? Is such an organization financing this manuscript (including the article-processing charge)? If so, please specify.
• Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future? If so, please specify.
• Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of the manuscript? Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript? If so, please specify.
• Do you have any other financial competing interests? If so, please specify.

Non-financial competing interests

Are there any non-financial competing interests (political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) to declare in relation to this manuscript? If so, please specify.

If you are unsure as to whether you or one of your co-authors has a competing interest, please discuss it with the editorial office.

Authors' information

You may choose to use this section to include any relevant information about the author(s) that may aid the reader’s interpretation of the article, and understand the standpoint of the author(s). This may include details about the authors' qualifications, current positions they hold at institutions or societies, or any other relevant background information. Please refer to authors using their initials. Note this section should not be used to describe any competing interests.

Acknowledgements

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include their source(s) of funding. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study.

The role of a medical writer must be included in the acknowledgements section, including their source(s) of funding.

Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

Please list the source(s) of funding for the study, for each author, and for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements section. Authors must describe the role of the funding body, if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

References

All references must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Reference citations should not appear in titles or headings. Each reference must have an individual reference number. Please avoid excessive referencing. If automatic numbering systems are used, the reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission.

Only articles and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text. Notes/footnotes are not allowed. Obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited author(s) is the responsibility of the author. Journal abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. For each reference, name all authors unless there are more than 30 in which case name the first 30 followed by et al.

Examples of the Critical Care reference style are shown below. Please take care to follow the reference style precisely; references not in the correct style may be retyped, necessitating tedious proofreading.

Links

Web links and URLs should be included in the reference list. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, in the following format: The Mouse Tumor Biology Database [http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/mtbwi/index.do]

Critical Care reference style

Article within a journal

1. Koonin EV, Altschul SF, Bork P: BRCA1 protein products: functional motifs. Nat Genet 1996, 13:266-267.

Article within a journal supplement

2. Orengo CA, Bray JE, Hubbard T, LoConte L, Sillitoe I: Analysis and assessment of ab initio three-dimensional prediction, secondary structure, and contacts prediction. Proteins 1999, 43(Suppl 3):149-170.

In press article

3. Kharitonov SA, Barnes PJ: Clinical aspects of exhaled nitric oxide. Eur Respir J, in press.

Published abstract

4. Zvaifler NJ, Burger JA, Marinova-Mutafchieva L, Taylor P, Maini RN: Mesenchymal cells, stromal derived factor-1 and rheumatoid arthritis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheum 1999, 42:s250.

Article within conference proceedings

5. Jones X: Zeolites and synthetic mechanisms. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore. Edited by Smith Y. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1996:16-27.

Book chapter, or article within a book

6. Schnepf E: From prey via endosymbiont to plastids: comparative studies in dinoflagellates. In Origins of Plastids. Volume 2. 2nd edition. Edited by Lewin RA. New York: Chapman and Hall; 1993:53-76.

Whole issue of journal

7. Ponder B, Johnston S, Chodosh L (Eds): Innovative oncology. In Breast Cancer Res 1998, 10:1-72.

Whole conference proceedings

8. Smith Y (Ed): Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1996.

Complete book

9. Margulis L: Origin of Eukaryotic Cells. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1970.

Monograph or book in a series

10. Hunninghake GW, Gadek JE: The alveolar macrophage. In Cultured Human Cells and Tissues. Edited by Harris TJR. New York: Academic Press; 1995:54-56. [Stoner G (Series Editor): Methods and Perspectives in Cell Biology, vol 1.]

Book with institutional author

11. Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification: Annual Report. London; 1999.

PhD thesis

12. Kohavi R: Wrappers for performance enhancement and oblivious decision graphs. PhD thesis. Stanford University, Computer Science Department; 1995.

Link / URL

13. The Mouse Tumor Biology Database [http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/mtbwi/index.do]