Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

Regardless of article type, a successful scientific manuscript flows logically from a broad context to your specific focus, and back out to the broader implications for the profession.

• The Introduction: Answer the "Why care?" question. Clearly define the clinical gap, the patient dilemma, or the educational need your paper addresses.
• The Core Content: Depending on your article type, this is your Methods/Results (for studies), the Patient Case/Timeline (for case reports), or your Synthesized Themes (for reviews/commentaries). Keep data objective and separate from your opinion.
• The Discussion: Answer the "So what?" question. Contextualize your findings within existing optometric literature. Honestly address limitations, and explain how this impacts patient care or future clinical training at institutions like NECO.

While scientific logic is universal, formatting is highly specific. Never write a full draft without reviewing your target journal's specific style guide. Before you write, look up:

• Word Counts and Limits: Strict limits usually apply to abstracts, text, and the number of references or figures allowed.
• Citation Style: Optometric and ophthalmological journals vary widely, commonly alternating between AMA (American Medical Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) formats.
• File Requirements: Ensure you know whether figures must be submitted as separate high-resolution files (e.g., TIFF or EPS) or embedded in the text.

Gone are the days when a vague "byline order" was enough to explain who did what. Most major biomedical publishers now use the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) standard to ensure transparency and prevent authorship disputes.

If your manuscript includes materials that you did not personally create from scratch - and most will - you must obtain formal permission before submitting.

What requires permission? Almost any figure you’ll use that you didn’t create requires permission to re-publish, including but not limited to:

• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans from textbooks
• Diagrams from other journal articles
• Validated survey instruments
• Images you’ve published in other articles or books. Yes, you read that right: the chances are very good that you are not the copyright owner of the content you’ve published. If this surprises you, then please reach out to [email protected] to discuss ways you may be able to retain copyright on your published work.

IMPORTANT

Using patient imaging for research requires following specific procedures. To learn more, open NECO’s Policies and Procedures for NECO Center for Eye Care and cut and paste the following prompt:

What is Policy 7.6?

How do I obtain permission?

We can help! Schedule a consultation with a NECO librarian to talk about your copyright needs, and we can work with you to make it happen.