The Hong Kong Journal of Paediatrics (HKJP) is a joint quarterly publication of the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians (HKCPaed) and The Hong Kong Paediatric Society (HKPS). The HKJP publishes original research papers, review articles, case reports, editorials, commentaries, letters to the editor and conference proceedings. Topics of interest will include all subjects that relate to clinical practice and research in paediatrics and child health.

Manuscripts are accepted on the condition that they are submitted solely to the HKJP and have not been published elsewhere previously and are not under consideration by another journal. A complete report following presentation or publication of preliminary findings elsewhere can be considered.

Categories of articles include the following:

Original Articles The text should not usually exceed 5,000 words excluding references; the number of tables, figures, or both should normally be not more than six, and references not more than 50.

Review Articles Reviews are usually invited systematic critical assessments of literature.

Case Reports Length should not exceed 1,500 words; the number of tables or figures used should not be more than two, and references should not be more than 10. Limit the number of authors to 4.

Commentaries Commentary on current topics is welcome.

Length should not exceed 1,200 words; no tables or figures allowed, and references should not be more than 20.

Clinical Quiz The clinical quiz should be educational. It should i) include the description of a case in no more than 250 words and 3 clinical photos or figures, and ii) provide answers on the diagnosis, clinical features and findings, and management of the condition in no more than 1,000 words, 10 references, and 3 photos, figures or tables.

Letters to the Editor Letters discussing a recent article in the HKJP are welcome. Original letters that do not refer to an HKJP article may also be considered. Letters should not exceed 500 words and have no more than five references. Published letters may be edited.

Manuscript Preparation

1. Use Arabic numerals for numbers above nine, for designators (e.g. case 5, day 2, etc.) and for units of measure; numbers should be spelled out if below 10, at the beginning and end of sentences, and for fractions below one.

2. Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word document in British English in the following format: Typed double-spaced, page size 22 cm. x 29 cm. (8 1/2 in. x 11 in.), page margins 2.54 cm (1 in), font size 12 pt.

3. Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Standard abbreviations may be used and should be defined on first mention in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

4. SI units should be used or included in parentheses.

Ethical Consideration

For original clinical study, authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken. All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that informed consents have been obtained. Patient anonymity must be preserved. Photographs and video clippings need to be prepared to prevent human subjects being recognized unless prior written permission has been obtained. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

The manuscript should usually be arranged as follows:

Title page
This page should include the full names, and affiliations of all authors. A short title of no more than 40 characters should also be given. Up to three academic degrees for each author are allowed. If an author's affiliation has changed since the work was done, list the new affiliations as well. Limit the number of authors to 4 for case reports and clinical quiz.

Abstract and Key words
The abstract should be no more than 150 words summarising the purpose, methods, findings and conclusions. Authors should provide no more than five key words to assist with cross-indexing of the paper. Key words should be taken from Index Medicus.

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

References
Number references in the order they appear in the text. References should follow the Vancouver style and should appear in the text, tables and legends as Arabic numerals in superscript. Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with Index Medicus. List all authors and/or editors up to six; if more than six, list the first three and "et al".

Examples of References:

Articles in Journals

1. Standard journal article Greenberg DL, Root RK. Decision making by analogy. N Engl J Med 1995;332:592-6.

2. Organisation as author The Royal Marsden Hospital Bone- Marrow Transplantation Team. Failure of syngeneic bone- marrow graft without preconditioning in post-hepatitis marrow aplasia. Lancet 1977;2:742-4.

3. No author given Coffee drinking and cancer of the pancreas [editorial]. BMJ 1981;283:628.

4. Issue with supplement Gardos G, Cole JO, Haskell D, Marby D, Paine SS, Moore P. The natural history of tardive dyskinesia. J Clin Psychopharmacol 1988;8(4 Suppl):31S-37S.

5. Type of article indicated as needed [i] Fuhrman SA, Joiner KA. Binding of the third component of complement C3 by Toxoplasma gondii [abstract]. Clin Res 1987;35:475A. [ii] Feldman N. Laparoscopic nephrectomy [letter]. N Engl J Med 1991;325:1110.

Books and Other Monographs

6. Personal author(s) Colson JH, Armour WJ. Sports injuries and their treatment. 2nd ed. London: S. Paul, 1986.

7. Editor(s), compiler as author Dausset J, Colombani J, editors. Histocompatibility testing 1972. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1973.

8. Chapter in a book Steiner RE, Bydder GM. Clinical nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. In: Dawaon AM, Compston ND, Besser GM, editors. Recent advances in medicine no. 19. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingston, 1984:39-56.

9. Conference paper Harley NH. Comparing radon daughter dosimetric and risk models. In: Gammage RB, Kaye SV, editors. Indoor air and human health. Proceedings of the Seventh Life Sciences Symposium; 1984 Oct 29-31; Knoxville(TN). Chelsea(MI): Lewis, 1985:69-78.

10. Dissertation Cairns R.B Infrared spectroscopic studies of solid oxygen [dissertation]. Berkeley, (CA): Univ. of California, 1965.

11. Scientific and technical report Akutsu T. Total heart replacement device. Bethesda (MD): National Institutes of Health, National Heart and Lung Institute; 1974 Apr Report No: NIH-NHLI-69-2185-4.

Unpublished Material

12. In press Lillywhite HD, Donald JA. Pulmonary blood flow regulation in an aquatic snake. Science. In press.

13. A reference to unpublished work which has not yet been accepted for publication should not appear in the reference list but should be cited in the text as unpublished data or personal communication.

Tables
Each table should begin on a separate page. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Vertical rules and horizontal rules should be omitted.

Illustrations (Figures)
Each illustration must be submitted as a separate figure file. The file name should be the same as the figure number. Preferred formats for digital artwork submission include Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Portable Document Format (PDF), and Tagged Image Format (TIFF). Letters, numbers and symbols should be clear and of sufficient size to retain legibility when reduced. Photographs of persons must be retouched to make the subject unidentifiable, or be accompanied by written permission from the subject to use the photograph.

Number illustrations consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Titles and detailed explanations should be confined to legends and not included in illustrations. The legends should be numbered and provided on a separate double-spaced page.

Supplementary Video Clips
Video clips can be submitted with your manuscript in MP4 file format with H.264 codec. The size of the video should not exceed 5 MB. Patient anonymity must be preserved unless prior written permission has been obtained. If accepted, the video will appear online on the Journal's website, http://www.hkjpaed.org.

Declaration of Interest
All sources of funding for research are to be explicitly stated. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence their work. It is the sole responsibility of authors to disclose any affiliation with any organisation with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript that may affect the conduct or reporting of the work submitted.

If there are no declarations, authors should explicitly state that there are none. This must be stated at the point of submission (within the manuscript, after the main text, under a subheading "Declaration of Interest"). Manuscript submission cannot be completed unless a declaration of interest statement (either stating the disclosures or reporting that there are none) is included. This will be made available to reviewers and will appear in the published article.

The intent of this policy is not to prevent authors with any particular relationship or interest from publishing their work, but rather to adopt transparency such that reviewers, editors, the publisher, and most importantly, readers can make objective judgments concerning the work product.

Correspondence
All manuscripts, correspondence and subscription should be addressed to Chief Editor, Hong Kong Journal of Paediatrics Limited, c/o Hong Kong College of Paediatricians, Room 801, HK Academy of Medicine Jockey Club Building, 99 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, e-mail:hkjpaed@paediatrician.org.hk.

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in the HKJP are those of the authors and not those of HKCPaed, HKPS or the publisher. The HKJP, HKCPaed and HKPS do not hold any legal responsibility for the opinions expressed in the articles, unless this is clearly specified. The authors should hold legal responsibility for the content and opinion expressed. Manuscripts and discs are submitted at the sender's risk and the HKJP, HKCPaed and HKPS assume no responsibility for return of material.

Offprints
Offprints can be ordered at a cost at the time of proof-reading.

Distribution
The HKJP is published quarterly and adopts an open access policy. Electronic copies of all articles are available online at http://www.hkjpaed.org. Members of HKCPaed and HKPS will receive quarterly e-mail notification of the Table of Contents in each of the Journal issues.