Author Guidelines for Publication in the 23rd ICRAV Proceedings

General

  • Contributions must be in English.
  • Manuscripts must be based upon material presented at the conference.
  • Submitted manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by reviewers invited and appointed by the Organising Committee (OC) and Proceedings Editorial Committee (PEC) of the 23rd ICRAV.
  • Acceptance of the manuscript will depend on scientific content, quality of material and adherence to the instructions.  The OC and PEC of the 23rd ICRAV has the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.
  • It is in the author's interest to ensure accurate and consistent presentation to avoid delays in publication.

Manuscript Style

Format and language

  • Use a standard font of the 12-point type: Times New Roman is preferred.
  • Manuscript should be submitted in Microsoft Word format.
  • Manuscript should be prepared in English; using UK spelling.  For proofreading, the Oxford English Dictionary or the Dorland's Medical Dictionary is recommended.

Manuscript length

  • Manuscript length refers to the final production length, including all texts, figures, tables and references.
  • The submitted paper should be less than 4000 words (using the word count tool in Microsoft Word) with a maximum combination of 10 figures and/or tables. 
  • If a submission exceeds the length guidelines, it will be returned to the author to be shortened or modified.
  • The PEC normally requires condensation of longer papers but may consider accepting the submission if a convincing justification for the extra length is made by the author in a cover letter in advance.

Others

  • Pages: All pages should be numbered [bottom of page, middle]
  • Paragraphs: No inset is required. Single-column format; left aligned.
  • Abbreviations: Define abbreviations the first time they are used, in brackets, after the full word, e.g. Mass Spectrometry (MS). The authors should ensure consistent use of abbreviations throughout the article.
  • Units: SI units are preferred.
  • Measurements: A space is required between figure and unit symbol, e.g. 98.58 %; 100 µL; 250 µg; 2 M; pH 6.8; 1.0 mL. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000).
  • Use of dot points: Dot points are preferred rather than letters/numbers. If the introductory sentence is complete, each dot point should be capitalised. For example:
    The causes of ill-health are as follows.
    • Not enough exercise.
    • Cigarette smoking.
    • Eating too much.

    If not, they start in lower case. For example:
    The causes of ill-health are:
    • not enough exercise,
    • cigarette smoking, and
    • eating too much.

Manuscript Text Components

Title Page

  • The title page should include the title of the article and authorship.
  • Provide the author's full names, affiliation(s) and the complete mailing address of the authors.
  • Do not use initial for the first name.  (Examples: Albert Smith instead of A. Smith; Catherine D. Jones instead of C. D. Jones; Tai-Man Chen instead of T.-M. Chen)
  • For multiple authors, use a comma between full names; with an ampersand [&] prior to the last name of multiple authors.
  • Indicate all affiliations with a superscript numerals immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address if the authors are from multiple affiliations.
  • Indicate the corresponding author(s) by an asterisk and provide the corresponding e-mail address(es).
  • Underline the presenter’s name and provide the corresponding e-mail address.

Sections

  • The manuscript should be composed of the following sections, with the section titles in bold and capitalised:
    • ABSTRACT
    • 1. INTRODUCTION
    • 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
    • 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
    • 4. CONCLUSION
    • 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    • 6. CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATION
    • 7. REFERENCES
    • FIGURE(S) LEGEND
    • TABLE(S) AND TABLE(S) LEGEND
  • No appendices or supplementary information is allowed.

Subdivisions – Section Subtitles

  • Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections.
  • Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract, legends and tables are not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing. 
  • Any subsection may be given a brief heading (Sentence Case; bold; italicised; left aligned). 
    Example: 2.1.1 Sample preparation and analysis

Tables

  • Please submit tables as editable text and not as image.
  • Tables should be embedded in the manuscript on separate page(s) after the main text body.
  • Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text as Table 1, Table 2 etc.
  • If the table is created in Excel, the file should be submitted separately as attachments. The authors should ensure that the titles are printed on every page of any Excel worksheets.
  • Please avoid shading the table cells as the proceedings will be printed in monochrome.

Figures

  • Figures should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and are referred to in the manuscript as Figure 1, Figure 2 etc.
  • Articles in the proceedings will be printed in monochrome, Colour figures will NOT be accepted.
  • All figures must be provided in separate files, to be sent to the Production Editor as individual files in .jpeg or .tiff format, in high resolution (preferably of 300 dpi), and not exceeding 10 MB each.
  • Each figure file must be saved as "author’s name-Figure 1", "author's name-Figure 2", etc. If authors are submitting more than one manuscript, differentiable file name should be used (such as using the presentation session number, e.g. AS1-1).
  • Lettering in figures [labeling of axes, etc.] should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalised [Sentence case] and no full stop. The lettering must be of a reasonable size that would still be clearly legible upon reduction and consistent within each figure and set of figures.
  • Scale bars or magnification factors should be used.
  • Layering words directly over shaded/textured areas and using reversed type [white lettering on a coloured background] should be avoided.
  • Where possible, text should be provided in the legend rather than on the figure itself, while a key for the symbols should be included in the artwork.
  • Chemical structures should be prepared in ChemDraw with the following settings:
    Drawing settings
    (a) chain angle:120°
    (b) bond spacing:18% of length
    (c) fixed length:17 pt
    (d) bond width:2 pt
    (e) line width:0.75 pt
    (f) margin width:2 pt
    (g) hash spacing:2.6 pt
    (h) Bold width:2.6 pt
     
    Text settings
    (a) font:Arial
    (b) size:12 pt
     
    Preferences
    (a) units:points
    (b) tolerances:5 pixels

References Style

  • Numbered references will be used in the 23rd ICRAV Proceedings, given in square brackets, before full stop, e.g. [1].
  • All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and should be as complete as possible. Online citations should include date of access.
  • References should be listed in the following style:

Journal article
[1] Ho E. N. M., Wan T. S. M., Wong A. S. Y., Lam K. K. H. & Stewart B. D. (2008) Doping control analysis of insulin and its analogues in equine plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A, 1201(2), 183-190.

Proceedings
[2] Wong A. S. Y., Leung G. N. W., Ho E. N. M., Wan T. S. M., Lam K. K. H. & Stewart B. D. (2018) Improved liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of bisphosphonates in equine plasma. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference of Racing Analysts and Veterinarians, Dubai, 244-251.

Book Chapter
[3] Chrystal P. (2015) Roman Military Disasters: Dark Days and Lost Legions. Pen and Sword, UK, pp112-118.

Internet Document
[4] International Agreement of Breeding, Racing and Wagering. https://www.ifhaonline.org/resources/ifAgreement.pdf.  Accessed 1 July 2023.

Acknowledgement and Conflict of Interest Declaration

A statement of funding should be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript.

A Conflict of Interest [COI] is a situation where a person has interests, financial or otherwise, which could be perceived to affect what they’ve written. They’ve been described as situations which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.

A COI declaration provides readers with information about the interests of the authors that could influence how the research work will be read and interpret.

During the submission process, a COI declaration statement must be included in the manuscript describing all potential sources of bias, including affiliations, funding, sources and financial or management relationships, that may constitute conflicts of interests of all authors and co-authors. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information.

Examples:

If no conflict exists, please state: The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.

COIs that need to be declared include the following, although this list is not exhaustive:
The author(s) declare(s) that he/she/they:

  1. have received fees for consulting or research funding related to this information;
  2. are/have been employed by a company that could benefit from this information;
  3. hold stocks or shares in a company which could benefit from this information; and
  4. have received funds reimbursing them for attending a related symposium, or talk.

If there are other interests, which the reasonable reader might feel has affected your research, you should declare them. If there is any doubt; it is best to declare them.

Plagiarism and Creative Commons

  • The 23rd ICRAV is committed to deterring plagiarism, including self-plagiarism.
  • If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will be presented with the copyright transfer agreement to sign.
  • The quality and copyright status of the manuscripts and figures are the author’s responsibility. If your paper has been published elsewhere, under the Creative Commons/Open Access conditions banner, it may still be able to be reproduced in our Proceedings. If this is the case, please provide the following document and e-mail to chantalgg@intnet.mu & info@icrav2023.com:
    1. a pdf of the published article which must contain the above mentioned disclaimer;
    2. the link & DOI of your publication;
    3. a declaration that this article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/); and
    4. the copyright clearance for the PEC.

Data Protection

  • By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the Organising Committee of the 23rd International Conference of Racing Analysts and Veterinarians and the publisher for production and publication.
  • The publication and the publisher recognise the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed.

Management of manuscript

  • For ease of management, the OC, PEC and the proceeding editors reserve the right to make minor grammatical or other changes that do not affect the meaning of the manuscript; without referring to the author.

Submission

The deadline for submission of the manuscript is 31 January 2024.

The manuscript submitted for the 23rd ICRAV Proceedings should be sent to chantalgg@intnet.mu (Mrs Chantal Gordon Gentil, Production Editor) and info@icrav2023.com (23rd ICRAV Secretariat).

As some authors have been sending more than one abstract, on the subject line please state:
ICRAV 2023 MS – [corresponding author’s name] – presentation session as in the abstract booklet
(e.g. Subject: ICRAV 2023 MS – Emmie Ho – JS1-1)

Drug Testing and Analysis - Special Issue

The OC is pleased to announce a special issue of Drug Testing and Analysis for invited papers presented during the conference.

Drug Testing and Analysis is the leading international peer-reviewed scientific journal for racing analysts and veterinarians to present and review multidisciplinary approaches for controversial compound determination. The Guest Editor for this special issue will be the Conference Chair, Dr Emmie Ho (Head of Racing Laboratory, The Hong Kong Jockey Club).

Selected manuscripts which have submitted by 31 December 2023 to the conference proceedings may be invited to submit to the special issue of Drug Testing and Analysis for the 23rd ICRAV upon review. Details will be provided later.