Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • Authors are encouraged to follow the ICMJE recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and
    Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf
  • The ICMJE Conflict of Interest form should be downloaded, filled-up and uploaded along with manuscript files. http://www.icmje.org/downloads/coi_disclosure.zip

Author Guidelines

General recommendations

Manuscript should be written in correct English before submission. It is highly recommended to seek a Professional copyediting to improve work presentation and to increase its chances of being considered for publication. 

Manuscript will be checked for evidence of plagiarism, and data manipulation; especially images.

Manuscript should be submitted online through our submission system. Submission by email will not be considered. 

Authors are encouraged to suggest potential reviewers (name, affiliation and emails).

Authors are encouraged to follow the ICMJE recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

The ICMJE Conflict of Interest form should be downloaded, filled-up and uploaded along with the manuscript files.

Authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria: 

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND 
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged.

If authors request removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission or publication, they should provide an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.

Reporting Guidelines:

Authors are encouraged to follow the following reporting guidelines:

For more resources of reporting guidelines, please see the EQUATOR Network (www.equator-network.org/home/) and the NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives (www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html). 

Ethical Approval and informed consent

All authors should seek approval to conduct research from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board).

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Authors should provide the journal with a written statement that attests that they have received and archived written patient consent.

Peer-review policy

All manuscripts submitted to our journal are critically assessed by external and/or in-house experts in accordance with the principles of double-blind peer review (http://www.icmje.org/#peer).

Manuscript preparation

Title page should include:

- Article title including information about the study design.

- Author information including for each author:

  • First and last name separated by comma
  • Highest academic degree
  • Name of the department and institution
  • E-mail address
  • ORCID number 
  • Corresponding authors’ telephone numbers and mail address

Main document structure differs according to article types:

Original research article (3000 words max, abstract 250 words max, 30 references max, 3-5 tables and/or figures):

It should be divided into abstract, introduction, methods, results and discussion.

Abstract should be limited to 250 words and structured into (Objectives, methods, results, and conclusion).

Keywords: 3-6 keywords derived from the Mesh network.

Introduction should provide a context for the study (nature of the problem and its significance).

Methods should clarify how and why a study being conducted in a particular way.

  • Selection and Description of Participants
  • Technical Information: describe equipment (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in enough detail to allow others to reproduce the results.
  • Statistics: Specify the statistical software package and versions used. Describe statistical methods with enough detail.

Results

Present the main or most important findings first, in logical sequence in the text, tables, or figures. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; summarize only the most important observations. Do not duplicate data in graphs and tables.

Discussion

Begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings and explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings. Emphasize the new and important aspects of your study. State the limitations of your study and explore the implications of your findings for future research and for clinical practice. Do not repeat in detail data given in other parts of the manuscript. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study.

Review article (4000 words max, abstract 250 words max, minimum 40 references, 3-5 tables and/or figures): No particular format is required; headings should be used to designate the major divisions of the paper.

Case report (2000 words max, abstract 150 words max, 10 references max, 3 tables and/or figures): It should be divided into Abstract, Introduction, Case report(s), Discussion, Conclusions and References.

References

Authors should provide direct references to original research sources whenever possible. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming”. All references should be verified using PubMed. References should be prepared strictly according to the Vancouver style; numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, and they should be identified in the text by Arabic numerals. DOIs should be provided for all references.

Tables and figures (3-5 tables and/or figures max):

Titles in tables/figures should be short but self-explanatory, containing information that allows readers to understand the table/figure content without having to go back to the text. Be sure that each table/figure is cited in the text. Authors should place explanatory matter including nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes.

Provide high resolution images in jpeg, tiff format. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it. Figures’ legends should be placed in a separate page at the end of the manuscript.

Abbreviations: all abbreviations should be defined once appeared for the first time in the abstract along with the main document.

 

Sending the Manuscript to the Journal should be through the submission system. Sending the manuscript by Email will not be considered.