Instructions for authors

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General Guidelines

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the research described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities, at the institution where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

All authors must have seen and approved the manuscript and its contents, being aware of the responsibilities connected to authorship. It is Corresponding Author’s responsibility to obtain agreement from all authors supporting the submission. Every author’s contribution must be specified in the manuscript under the heading ’Author Contributions’.

Ethical issues

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) or with the Helsinki Declaration (1964, amended in 1975 and 1983) of the World Medical Association. Authors should also include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in any illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Originality and Plagiarism

The editors require that any information published in the journal represents a substantially novel contribution to the scientific record. Any manuscript submitted should not contain information that has been formally published in a peer reviewed journal or another citable form, whether in print or electronic. This includes websites, blogs and the news media. Any text, data, material, images, ideas or quotes should be attributed to the original source, even if it is by the same authors.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Conflict of Interest

Authors must indicate whether or not they have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research. This note should be added in a separate section before the reference list. If no conflict exists, authors should state: "The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest."

Online Submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing times and shortens overall publication times. Please follow the hyperlink “Submit manuscript” on the website and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

Editorial Process

All submissions are initially assessed by an Editor of the Journal. Following the initial assessment, the manuscripts are reviewed using a double blind peer review system. The decision concerning publication, revision or rejection is taken by the Editor based on the reviewers' reports and recommendations. Papers may, however, be returned to authors without review if in the judgment of the Editors, they fall out of scope of the Journal, fail to meet the criteria of wide biological significance and novelty, or if they are considered too preliminary. The editorial process will be transparent for all accepted research manuscripts.

Manuscript Types

Editorial. An editorial may be written by the editor or someone invited by the editor. It may serve other purposes, including commentaries of original articles published in the same issue of the journal, concise reviews of topics that do not warrant a full-length invited review, and other topics on very recent developments that are deemed by the editor to be important to readers of the journal and the community. The message contained in the editorial needs to be well thought out and concisely delivered. Editorials should not be longer than 4-6 double-spaced typewritten pages using font size 12.

Reviews aim to provide accessible overviews of a field or topic. They will be usually commissioned to experts in the field, but uninvited reviews are encouraged to be sent to the Editor, directly. Reviews should be no longer than 20 double-spaced, typewritten pages using font size 12.

Original research articles. We recommend that the articles should be limited to 10 –12 double-spaced typewritten pages using font size 12. We discourage the use of a large number of figures and tables. The sections should be ordered as follows: Abstract, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures.

Brief Report. Short manuscripts definitively reporting experimental results or informative clinical observations will be considered for publication in this category. The sections of a Brief Report should be ordered as follows: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, a combined Results and Discussion section, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures.

Case reports will require the description of a single/several cases with unique features, including previously unreported clinical conditions, previously unreported observation of a recognized disease, the unique use of imaging or diagnostic test to reveal a disease, previously unreported treatments in a recognized disease, or previously unreported complications of a procedure. Case reports should be short and focused, with a limited number of figures and references. The structure of a case report usually comprises a short, unstructured abstract, a brief introduction, a succinct but comprehensive report of the case, and a relevant discussion.

Young Researcher Corner. This special section is dedicated to young researchers, including medical students, residents, PhD students and Post-Doctoral Fellows, giving them the opportunity to publish their original works and also, to interact each other for future interdisciplinary collaboration. Also, this section should be dedicated for continuing medical education of young researchers by publishing brief overviews of topics of interest and/or practical approaches of the disease.

Methods in medicine will report novel, original clinical and experimental methods and protocols, designed to improve research in all medical fields.

Perspectives will provide a platform to expose hypotheses and concepts that open up new challenges in medical research and education.

Letters to the Editor give the opportunity to researchers for a critical opinion concerning an article previously published in the present journal and also, author’s reply.

Correspondence may describe primary research data and may include anything of interest to the journal’s readers, from policy debates to announcements to ‘matters arising’ from research papers.

Science and Society section will publish perceptions of past, present and future medical preclinical and clinical research impact on social community.

In Brief will include Book reviews and Reports on meetings.

Manuscript preparation

Manuscripts must be written in clear and concise English. Keep the document's format as simple as possible and refrain from any complex formatting. Number all manuscript pages consecutively. Do not begin sentences with abbreviations. Always spell out numbers when they stand as the first word in a sentence; abbreviations may not follow such numbers. Use standard abbreviations and units. If necessary to use, spell out all nonstandard abbreviations the first time used. Numbers indicating time, weight, and measurements are to be in Arabic numerals when followed by abbreviations (e.g., 2 mm; 1 sec; 3 ml). In general, write out the numbers one to ten in the text. All higher numbers should be given as numerals. All measurements should use the metric system. Spell out the word “Figure” in the text, except when it appears in parentheses: Figure 2, (Figs. 4-6).

Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; appendixes (as appropriate); references; table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figure caption(s) (as a list). Abstracts of up to 250 words are required for all papers submitted. Each paper should have up to eight Keywords. Section headings should be concise. Cite references, figures, and tables in numeric order.

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in the Microsoft Word format. Use a normal font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text. Use italics for emphasis. Do not use justified margins. Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages. Do not use field functions. Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar. Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables. Use the equation editor for equations. Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).

Title Page
The title page should include:

1. The complete title of the paper. Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.
2. Running title, which should not exceed 70 characters including spaces.
3. Category of article.
4. Full name of each author with Institutional affiliation, including the name of the Department.
5. Name, affiliation, full address, telephone/fax numbers, and email address for the Corresponding Author. The correspondence address will appear as an asterisked footnote.

Abstract
Please provide a structured abstract of less than 250 words, which should be divided into the following sections: Objective/Purpose, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions. It should concisely state the significant findings without reference to the rest of the paper. It should not contain author/date reference citations.

Keywords
Please provide up to eight keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Footnotes
Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

Manuscript structure

Introduction. Provide a context or background for the study. State the specific purpose or research objective of, or the hypothesis tested by the study or observation; the research objective is often more sharply focused when stated as a question.

Material and Methods. This section should include full information regarding the research methodology that was available at the time of the plan/protocol for the study.

Results. Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data included in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations.

Discussion. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them in the context of the totality of the best available evidence. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in the Introduction or the Results section. For experimental studies, it is useful to begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of your study for future research and for clinical practice.

Conclusions. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study, but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data.

Citation. Reference citations in the text should be numbered consecutively, in the order they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references by Arabic numerals in square brackets, before the punctuation signs.

Reference list. The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. The entries in the list should be numbered consecutively. Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of “et al” in long author lists will also be accepted. Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations.

Reference examples:
Journal article:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

Book Chapter:
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW (Editors). The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. p. 93-113.

Tables. All tables should be numbered consecutively, in the order of their first text citation, using Arabic numerals. For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table. Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.

Artwork and Illustrations. For the best quality final product, you should submit all of your artwork – photographs, line drawings, etc. – in electronic format. Please note that the published work will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.
For vector graphics, the preferred format is Microsoft Excel .xls or .xlsx. To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts); please keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually 8-12 pt, and avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc. Do not include titles or captions within your vector graphics.

Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.

Black and white photographs, drawings, or paintings should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Color illustrations should be submitted in the RGB format. Color art is free of charge for online publication. However, as color art will be shown as black and white in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible in black and white. If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to colors in the captions.

Figure Numbering. All figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals and cited in text in consecutive order. Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).

Figure Captions. Each figure should have a concise caption, describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file. Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the caption. Provide the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Figure Placement and Size. When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.

Permissions. If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format.

Copyright

After acceptance, the authors will complete a Copyright Transfer Form, which states that the authors transfer all copyrights iof their manuscript, in all forms and media, effective from the moment the paper is accepted for publication. In the meantime, the authors reserve all their proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.