Instructions for Authors

General Considerations

Research manuscripts should comprise:
1. Front matter: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords
2. Body matter: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions.
3. Back matter: Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References.
Case study and Review manuscripts
1. Front matter: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords
2. Body matter: Background, Case presentation, Discussion, Conclusions.
3. Back matter: Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References.
Abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions and used consistently thereafter.

Front Matter

These sections should appear in all manuscript types

Title: The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant. It should identify if the study reports trial data, or is a systematic review, meta-analysis or replication study. When gene or protein names are included, the abbreviated name rather than full name should be used.

Author List and Affiliations: Authors’ full first and last names must be provided. The initials of any middle names can be added. Affiliations: complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, and country. At least one author should be designated as corresponding author, and his/her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section.

Abstract: The abstract should be a total of about 200 words maximum. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts with headings: 1) Background, 2) Case presentation, and 3) Conclusion.

Keywords: Five to ten keywords need to be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline

Body Matter

Background: The background should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important. It should define the purpose of the work and its significance.

Case presentation: The case presentation should place after the introduction and before discussion, and gives relevant clinical information about one or more patients while being incidental to the rest of the paper.

Discussion: Authors should discuss the clinical information and how they can be interpreted in perspective of previous studies. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and limitations of the work highlighted.

Conclusions: This section is mandatory, when the discussion is unusually long or complex.

Back Matter

Acknowledgments: In this section you can acknowledge any support given which is not covered by the author contribution or funding. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).

Author Contributions: Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it; AND has approved the submitted version (and version substantially edited by journal staff that involves the author’s contribution to the study); AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.

Conflicts of Interest: Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

References: References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including table captions and figure legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, ReferenceManager or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references.

In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [1], [1–3] or [1,3]. For embedded citations in the text with pagination, use both parentheses and brackets to indicate the reference number and page numbers; for example [5] (p. 10). or [6] (pp. 101–105).

The reference list should include the full title, as recommended by the AMA (American Medical Association) style guide. Style files for Endnote and Zotero are available.

References should be described as follows, depending on the type of work:

Journal article with 1-6 authors	Hu P, Reuben DB. Effects of managed care on the length of time that elderly patients spend with physicians during ambulatory visits. Med Care. 2002;40(7):606-613.
Journal article with more than 6 authors	Geller AC, Venna S, Prout M, et al. Should the skin cancer examination be taught in medical school? Arch Dermatol. 2002;138(9):1201-1203
Electronic journal article	Gage BF, Fihn SD, White RH. Management and dosing of warfarin therapy. Am J Med. 2000;109(6):481-488. https://doi:10.1016/S0002-9343(00)00545-3.
Journal article published online ahead of print	Chau NG, Haddad RI. Antiangiogenic agents in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: tired of going solo [published online ahead of print September 20, 2016]. Cancer. https://doi:10.1002/cncr.30352.
Journal article with no named author or with a group name	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Licensure of a meningococcal conjugate vaccine (Menveo) and guidance for use—Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2010;59(9):273.

Instructions for Authors