ARTICLE PREPARATION GUIDELINES
Authors should adhere to the following formatting guidelines:
- Text should be double spaced with a wide margin.
- All pages and lines are to be numbered.
- Colour should be distinct when being used as an identifying tool.
- Commas, not spaces should be used to separate thousands.
- Statistical methods: For normally distributed data, mean (SD) is the preferred summary statistic. Relative risks should be expressed as odds ratios with 95% confidence interval.
- Abbreviations: On first using an abbreviation place it in parentheses after the full item.
Please note that Articles must contain the following components. Please see below for further details on each component:
- Cover letter
- Title page (excluding acknowledgements)
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Materials (or Subjects) and Methods
- Results
- Discussions
- Acknowledgements
- Conflict of Interest
- References
- Figure legends
- Tables
- Figures
Cover letter
Authors should provide a cover letter that includes the affiliation and contact information for the corresponding author and other authors. Authors should briefly discuss the importance of the work and explain why it is considered appropriate for the diverse readership of the journal. The cover letter should confirm the material is original research, has not been previously published and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere while under consideration. If the manuscript has been previously considered for publication in another journal, please include the previous reviewer comments, to help expedite the decision by the Editorial team. Please also include a Conflict of Interest statement.
Title
The title page should contain:
- Title of the paper – brief, informative, of 150 characters or less and should not make a statement or conclusion.
- Running title – should convey the essential message of the paper in no more than 50 characters. Should not contain any abbreviations
- Full names of all the authors and their affiliations, as well as the e-mail address of the corresponding author.
If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the address list. - Group Authorship/Collaborations – Please note that if in the list of authors you wish to include additional authors/collaborators/ groups/consortiums that aren’t part of the core list of authors as ‘on behalf of’, ‘for the’ or ‘representing the’ you need to ensure you list the authors correctly within the paper to ensure these are deposited correctly in repositories.
Abstract
Articles must be prepared with a structured abstract designed to summarize the essential features of the paper in a logical and concise sequence under the following mandatory headings:
- Background/Objectives:
- Subjects/Methods:
- Results:
- Conclusions
Introduction
The Introduction should assume that the reader is knowledgeable in the field and should therefore be as brief as possible but can include a short historical review where desirable.
Materials/Subjects and Methods
This section should contain sufficient detail, so that all experimental procedures can be reproduced, and include references. Methods, however, that have been published in detail elsewhere should not be described in detail. Authors should provide the name of the manufacturer and their location for any specifically named medical equipment and instruments, and all drugs should be identified by their pharmaceutical names, and by their trade name if relevant.
Results
The Results section should briefly present the experimental data in text, tables or figures. Tables and figures should not be described extensively in the text, either.
Discussion
The Discussion should focus on the interpretation and the significance of the findings with concise objective comments that describe their relation to other work in the area. It should not repeat information in the results. The final paragraph should highlight the main conclusion(s), and provide some indication of the direction future research should take.
Acknowledgements
These should be brief, and should include sources of technical assistance, critical advice or other assistance, which contributed to the final manuscript.
Conflict of Interest
Authors must declare whether or not there are any conflicts of interests in relation to the work described. This information must be included at this stage and will be published as part of the paper. Conflicts of interest should be noted in the cover letter. Please see the Conflict of Interest documentation in the Editorial Policies section for detailed information.
References
Only papers directly related to the article should be cited. Exhaustive lists should be avoided. References should follow the Vancouver style or APA style of referencing. In the text they should appear as numbers starting at one and at the end of the paper they should be listed (double-spaced) in numerical order corresponding to the order of citation in the text. Where a reference is to appear next to a number in the text, for example following an equation, chemical formula or biological acronym, citations should be written as (ref. X).
All authors should be listed for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six only should be listed, followed by et al.
Vancouver style : Journal article title. Up to six authors. Journal name. year; volume: issue page numbers. DOI (If available).
APA style: Author names. Year. Journal article title. Journal name. year; volume: issue page numbers. DOI (If available).
Tables
Tables should only be used to present essential data; they should not duplicate what is written in the text. Please make sure each table is cited within the text and in the correct order, e.g. (Table 3).
Figures
Figures and images should be labelled sequentially and cited in the text. Figures should not be embedded within the text but rather uploaded as separate files. All parts of a figure should be grouped together. Where possible large figures and tables should be included as supplementary material.
Figure Legends- These should be brief, specific and appear on a separate manuscript page after the References section.
Language Editing
The Gazette of Medical Sciences is read by scientists from diverse backgrounds and many are not native English speakers. In addition, the readership of the journal is multidisciplinary; therefore authors need to ensure their findings are clearly communicated. Authors who are not native speakers of English sometimes receive negative comments from editors about the language and grammar usage in their manuscripts, which can contribute to a paper being rejected. To reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take help of our professional language editing service where editors will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review.
Please note that the use of a language editing service is at the author’s own expense and does not guarantee that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted.