Manuscript Preparation

Scope and manuscript types

Veterinary World currently accepts:

Original Research Articles
Review Articles
Systematic Reviews

Authors should ensure that the manuscript is within the veterinary, animal-health, livestock-production, One Health, veterinary public-health, animal nutrition, infectious-disease, or related scientific scope of the journal. There is currently no stated page limit for manuscripts.

General manuscript preparation

Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word (Font: Calibri 11pt) and written in clear, professional English. Line numbers should be added throughout the manuscript. The journal specifically advises authors to consult the latest published articles for the format and presentation of individual sections.

Use consistent scientific terminology, SI units, internationally accepted nomenclature, and standard abbreviations. An abbreviation should generally be introduced by writing the term in full at first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Scientific names of microorganisms and zoological names should be italicized. Virus nomenclature should follow ICTV recommendations, and bacterial nomenclature should follow internationally accepted taxonomic standards.

The manuscript should be carefully checked for language, grammar, scientific clarity, numerical consistency, references, tables, figures, and statistical reporting before submission.

Double-blind peer review and author information

Veterinary World follows a double-blind peer-review process. Therefore, the manuscript submitted for review should not contain information that identifies the authors where the journal's anonymized submission workflow requires it.

Author information should nevertheless be entered completely and accurately in the online submission system. Authors should ensure that:

Author names and sequence are final.
Affiliations are complete.
The corresponding author and valid email address are clearly identified.
All authors satisfy recognized authorship criteria.
All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Veterinary World follows ICMJE authorship principles. Individuals who contributed only funding, routine data collection, proofreading, administrative assistance, or similar non-authorship activities should normally be acknowledged rather than listed as authors. The journal does not permit additions, deletions, or changes in author sequence after provisional acceptance.

Title

The title should be:

Clear and scientifically informative.
Concise but sufficiently descriptive.
Specific to the principal study population, intervention/exposure, outcome, or study design where appropriate.
Free from unnecessary abbreviations.
Written in sentence case.

Avoid overly broad claims such as “first ever,” “novel,” or “breakthrough” unless they are demonstrably supported.

Abstract

Original Research Articles should use a structured abstract with the following headings:

Background and Aim

Briefly describe the scientific background, unresolved problem or knowledge gap, and the specific objective of the study.

Materials and Methods

Summarize the study design, animals/samples, study location or population when relevant, principal procedures, major measurements, and statistical analysis.

Results

Present the most important numerical findings. Include relevant effect estimates, proportions, means, confidence intervals, or p-values where they materially support the principal findings.

Conclusion

State the major conclusion supported by the results and its practical or scientific relevance. Do not introduce new results or unsupported recommendations.

The abstract should stand independently and should avoid citations. All abbreviations used in the abstract should be defined independently of the main manuscript.

Keywords

Use 8 keywords normally.

The authors may use carefully selected, search-friendly keywords covering:

Main disease/condition or biological phenomenon.
Species.
Major method or intervention.
Main outcome.
Geographic location when scientifically relevant.

Avoid simply repeating the entire title. Keywords should preferably be arranged alphabetically.

Introduction

The Introduction should establish:

Current scientific knowledge.
Importance of the research problem.
Relevant recent evidence.
Specific unresolved research gap.
Rationale for the present investigation.
Clearly stated study aim or hypothesis.

Recent references should be emphasized. The journal specifically requests recent literature in the Introduction.

A strong Veterinary World Introduction should normally progress from the broad scientific problem to the specific knowledge gap, followed by a distinct final paragraph stating the study aim.

Avoid providing detailed methods, results, or excessive textbook background in this section.

Materials and Methods

The Materials and Methods section must provide sufficient information for readers to understand and, where appropriate, reproduce the work. The exact subheadings should be adapted to the study design.

For original animal-based research, a practical Veterinary World structure is:

Ethical approval

State:

Name of the institutional animal/human ethics committee.
Approval number.
Approval date where available.
Relevant national or institutional standards.
Measures used to protect animal welfare.

All studies involving animal or human subjects should include a clear ethics statement where applicable. Veterinary World also requires research involving live animals to comply with appropriate animal-welfare standards and states that in vivo studies should follow ARRIVE guidance.

For retrospective or record-based studies for which formal approval was not required, authors should state the applicable institutional determination or waiver rather than inventing an ethics approval number.

Study period and location

Clearly state:

Month/year or dates during which the study was conducted.
Geographic location.
Institution, farm, laboratory, clinic, slaughterhouse, wildlife area, or other study setting.
Relevant climatic or environmental details only when scientifically relevant.

Study design

Identify the design clearly, for example:

Randomized controlled experiment.
Cross-sectional study.
Prospective cohort.
Retrospective cohort.
Case-control study.
Field trial.
Laboratory experiment.
Molecular epidemiological study.

Animals, samples, or study population

Provide:

Species/breed.
Age and sex where relevant.
Number of animals or samples.
Inclusion/exclusion criteria.
Sampling strategy.
Group allocation.
Sample-size determination when applicable.

Experimental procedures

Describe the intervention, treatment, feeding regimen, diagnostic procedures, molecular methods, clinical procedures, sample preparation, or laboratory methodology in sufficient detail.

Commercial products, equipment, kits, or proprietary materials should be identified with appropriate manufacturer/location information where relevant.

Outcome measurements

Define all primary and secondary outcomes clearly.

Statistical analysis

Specify:

Statistical software and version.
Statistical tests/models.
Distributional assumptions where relevant.
Random/fixed effects for mixed models.
Multiple-comparison procedures.
Effect measures.
Confidence intervals.
Significance threshold.

Use lowercase plain roman p, for example, p < 0.05.

Results

The Results section should objectively report the study findings without unnecessary interpretation.

Present:

Study/sample flow where relevant.
Descriptive findings.
Primary outcome results.
Secondary findings.
Statistical comparisons.
Effect estimates and 95% confidence intervals where appropriate.
Exact p-values whenever practical.

Tables and figures should complement rather than duplicate the text.

Numerical results in the text must agree exactly with tables, figures, abstract, and supplementary data.

Subheadings are recommended when they improve readability, particularly for large datasets or manuscripts containing several analyses.

Avoid causal language in observational studies. Prefer “was associated with” rather than “caused,” “resulted in,” or “protected against” unless the design supports causal inference.

Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the findings rather than repeat the Results.

A strong structure is:

Principal findings

Briefly summarize the most important result and its novelty or contribution.

Interpretation of major findings

Discuss the principal findings against existing literature.

Comparison with previous studies

Explain agreements and discrepancies with published research, considering differences in:

Population.
Species/breed.
Geographic setting.
Methods.
Definitions.
Exposure or intervention.
Outcome thresholds.

Biological or clinical interpretation

Provide scientifically plausible explanations supported by references. Clearly distinguish established evidence from hypotheses or possible mechanisms.

Practical implications

Discuss implications for veterinary practice, animal production, disease control, public health, or future research only to the extent supported by the data.

Strengths and limitations

State material limitations transparently, including potential:

Selection bias.
Measurement error.
Missing data.
Confounding.
Sample-size constraints.
Single-center/herd limitations.
Generalizability limitations.

The journal specifically expects the Discussion to be supported by recent references.

Conclusion

The Conclusion should be concise and directly supported by the findings.

For more substantial original research articles, a clear final structure may use:

Main findings

State the principal results without repeating detailed statistics.

Practical implications

Explain what the findings mean for veterinary science, animal production, clinical practice, or disease management.

Future research

Identify the principal unresolved questions emerging from the study.

Concluding remarks

Provide a final integrated statement describing the overall contribution of the work.

Do not introduce new data, unsupported mechanisms, or recommendations that were not developed in the Results and Discussion.

Authors’ contributions

Authors’ Contributions section should be added during manuscript revision rather than initial submission.

At the revision stage, list author initials followed by specific contributions, for example:

ABC and DEF: Conceptualization and study design. ABC: Data collection. DEF and GHI: Data analysis and interpretation. ABC and DEF: Drafting of the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the manuscript and read and approved the final version.

The contribution statement must accurately reflect actual contributions and satisfy authorship criteria.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments should not be included in the initial Word manuscript because of double-blind review. Relevant acknowledgment and funding information should instead be provided in the Author Declaration Certificate and added to the manuscript during revision when requested.

Acknowledgments may include:

Technical assistance.
Institutional assistance.
Farm/clinic support.
Non-author contributors.
Material suppliers.
Funding information where appropriate.

Funding

Funding sources should be stated accurately, including:

Funding organization.
Grant name.
Grant number.

The current Author Declaration Certificate requires funding information for research articles.

If the study received no external funding, state this clearly when requested by the journal.

Competing interests

A Competing Interests statement is required. Authors should disclose all relevant financial and non-financial competing interests.

Where none exist, use a clear statement such as:

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Veterinary World requires competing-interest disclosure as part of its manuscript and publication-ethics requirements.

Data availability

The authors should transparently state how supporting data can be accessed when appropriate and consistent with ethical, legal, commercial, or privacy restrictions.

For example:

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Do not claim public availability unless the data have actually been deposited.

Use of artificial intelligence tools

Veterinary World currently requires transparency when AI tools are used during manuscript preparation. Authors should disclose the tool, its purpose, and the extent of its contribution. AI systems cannot qualify as authors. All AI-assisted content must be critically reviewed and validated by the human authors.

Appropriate disclosed uses may include language editing, grammar improvement, summarization, or coding assistance. Authors remain fully responsible for scientific accuracy, citations, interpretation, and originality.

References

Veterinary World uses Vancouver-style numbered references.

Citations should be numbered sequentially beginning in the Introduction and presented in square brackets. The current journal page gives forms such as [1] and [1,2,3].

For editorial consistency, use:

One reference: [1]
Two consecutive references: [3, 4]
Three or more consecutive references: [6-9]
Nonconsecutive references: [3, 7, 11]
Mixed groups: [2-5, 8, 10]

When authors are named in the text:

Smith et al. [12] reported...

Reference numbers must remain in the order in which sources first appear.

Recency requirements

For research articles, at least 40% of references should be from the previous 5 years.

For review articles, approximately 40%–50% should be from the previous 5 years.

Journal references

Journal names should use standard NLM-approved abbreviations. References should be formatted consistently in Vancouver style.

Authors should verify:

Author names.
Article title.
Journal abbreviation.
Year.
Volume.
Issue where required.
Page range/article number.
DOI where included by editorial style.

Tables

Tables should:

Be numbered sequentially as Table 1, Table 2, etc.
Be cited in numerical order in the text.
Have concise, informative titles.
Be understandable independently of the main text.
Use abbreviations consistently.
Define every abbreviation used in that table in its own footnote.
Present statistical annotations clearly.
Avoid duplicating the same data in a figure.

The journal currently instructs authors to include tables and their titles/captions in the manuscript.

A recommended format is:

Table 1: Descriptive characteristics of the study population

At the bottom:

Abbreviations: CI = confidence interval; SD = standard deviation.

Scientific names should be written in full at their first occurrence within each self-contained table and may subsequently be abbreviated.

Figures and graphs

Figures should be numbered sequentially and cited in the manuscript.

Veterinary World requests figures as JPG/PNG files with Calibri font, while graphs should preferably also be supplied in an editable format such as Microsoft Excel. Figure captions should be included with the manuscript.

Each legend should be self-contained and should define:

Symbols.
Groups.
Error bars.
Statistical annotations.
Abbreviations.
Scale bars where applicable.

Avoid embedding low-resolution screenshots.

Scientific names, genes, and nomenclature

Scientific names should be italicized:

Escherichia coli

Staphylococcus aureus

After the first full mention of a particular species, the genus may be abbreviated:

E. coli

S. aureus

When a different species from the same genus is introduced for the first time, write the genus in full again.

Gene symbols should be formatted according to the accepted nomenclature for the organism concerned, including italics where required. Protein names should not automatically be italicized.

Latin expressions such as in vivo and in vitro should be italicized consistently.

Units and numerical presentation

Use SI units wherever applicable. The journal explicitly requests SI specifications.

Use consistent presentation such as:

5 mg/kg
10 mL
25°C
95% CI
p < 0.05
10–15 days
20%–30%

Use an en dash for numerical ranges.

A space should generally separate a numerical value from its unit except for conventional symbols such as % and °C according to journal production practice.

Statistical presentation

Report statistical methods sufficiently for reproducibility.

Initial submission files

The online submission page currently identifies the following principal uploads:

Main manuscript/document.
Author Declaration Certificate — compulsory.
Supplementary files where applicable.
Competing-interest documentation (Related Files) where applicable.

Because the journal operates double-blind review, authors should follow the current submission-system instructions carefully regarding where identifying information is entered and whether a separate title page is requested by the platform.

The Author Declaration Certificate must be completed and signed as required and covers originality, author responsibility, ethics, conflicts, permissions, and funding.

Pre-submission checklist

Before final submission, authors should confirm that the manuscript is within scope; the title and abstract accurately represent the study; the research gap and objective are explicit; ethics information is complete; methodology is reproducible; all numbers agree across the abstract, Results, tables, and figures; scientific names and statistical notation are correct; references are sequential and meet the recent-reference requirement; every table and figure is cited; figure files are suitable for publication; conflicts and funding are declared; author details entered in the submission system are complete; the Author Declaration Certificate is signed; and the manuscript has been checked for originality and high-quality English.