Integrative Medicine in Nephrology and Andrology

​​​​​​The Editorial Office is pleased to answer any questions you may have about preparing your manuscript in accordance with our guidelines. 

Email: [email protected]

AIMS AND SCOPE 

Integrative Medicine in Nephrology and Andrology (IMNA) aims to promote both basic research and clinical practice in kidney, urological and male reproductive diseases. The Journal welcomes submissions on integrated Traditional and Western Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Herb Medicine, Ethnographic Medicine, and Modern Medicine in the fields of kidney disease, urologic disease, and male reproductive disease. Multiple article types are welcome, including Original Article, Meta Analysis, Review Article, Case Report, Perspective, Letter to the Editor, Editorial, and News and Comments. In addition, IMNA will launch Special Issues in rapid response to the newest scientific and clinical developments.

ONLINE SUBMISSION ​

First-time Users

Registration is free but mandatory. Please click the Register button at https://www.editorialmanager.com/imna/default2.aspx. Upon successful registration, you will be sent an email providing your username and password. Save this information for future reference. 

Note: If you have received an email from us with an assigned username and password, or if you are a repeat user, do not register again. Once you have an assigned username and password, you do not have to re-register. 

Authors

Please click the Login button from the menu at the top of the page and login to the system as an author. Submit your manuscript according to the author instructions. You will be able to track the process of your manuscript through the system.

JOURNAL POLICIES 

Duplicate Publication 
Manuscripts are reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted only to the IMNA and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The Editorial team may subject any manuscript submitted for consideration of publication in the IMNA to plagiarism-detection software.

This does not preclude consideration of a manuscript that has been rejected by another journal or a complete report that follows publication of preliminary findings elsewhere, usually in the form of an abstract. Copies of any possibly duplicate published material should be submitted with the manuscript under consideration, with a statement in the cover letter as to why the manuscript currently being submitted is not a duplicate publication.

Disclosure of Conflicts 
Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. 

All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of interest” and “Financial support and sponsorship". 

For example: “Conflicts of interest: A has received honoraria from Company Z. B is currently receiving a grant (#12345) from Organization Y, and is on the speaker's bureau for Organization X - the CME organizers for Company A. For the remaining authors none were declared.”

“Financial support and sponsorship": list all the grant supports/funders for the study.

A financial disclosure section is part of the submission process and must be completed by each author at first revision. This information is for review by the Editors but will be published if relevant to the content of the accepted manuscript. 

The primary purpose of the disclosure section is to determine whether authors have received any commercial financial support that could create a conflict of interest. In addition to monetary interests, a potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that a relationship (such as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties) affects his or her scientific judgment. Please review ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at the foll​owing link: 

http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest.

Studies in Humans and Animals

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

Ethics

When reporting studies on human subjects, author should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of regional/national/institutional or independent ethics committee or review board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants’ names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Evidence for approval by a local ethics committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible, and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively. The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the “Methods” section.

We reserve the right to decline publication of a paper even after it has been accepted if it becomes apparent that there are serious problems with the scientific content or violations of our publishing policies.

Protection of Patients’ Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives written informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients’ names from figures unless they have obtained written informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines: (1) Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to have the patient consent form before the publication related to patient privacy and have the form properly archived by the author. (2) If the publication includes some facial images that make the patients identifiable, a statement about the patient’s consent needs to be present in the manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

IMNA requires authors to include in any articles that report results derived from research data to include a Data availability statement. The provision of a Data availability statement will be verified as a condition of publication. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study. Where research data are not publicly available, this must be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for accessing the data. Data availability statements must take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple types of research data):

• The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
• The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. 

• The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. 
• All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].
• The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].

Authors will be given the option to upload their data to the Lippincott data repository (https://lww.figshare.com/) at submission.

AUTHORSHIP

IMNA expects that each person listed as an author has participated sufficiently in the intellectual content, the analysis of data, and/or the writing of the manuscript to take public responsibility for it. Each author must have reviewed the manuscript, believes it represents valid work, and approves it for submission. 

Moreover, should the Editorial team request the data upon which the manuscript is based, the authors shall provide the data. Each author’s specific contributions to the work should be indicated; this information will be published as a footnote to the paper. For example, the areas of participation might include:

An author may list more than one contribution, and more than one author may have contributed to the same aspect of the work. Any change in authorship/contributions after submission must be approved in writing by all authors and submitted to the Editorial Office for final consideration.​

Plagiarism

As defined by the World Association of Medical Editors (http://www.wame.org/resources/publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals), plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism is to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format (print or electronic). 

IMNA is a member of CrossCheck by CrossRef and iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. iThenticate checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting http://www.ithenticate.com. 

All allegations of plagiarism are investigated in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines detailed at https://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/plagiarism%20A.pdf. When plagiarism is detected at any time before or after publication, the journal editorial office will take appropriate action as directed by the standards set forth by COPE. If plagiarism is found, the author, the author's institution and funding agencies, and the original publication will be notified. A statement noting the plagiarism, providing a reference to the plagiarized material, and linking to the original paper may follow. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted. For additional information, please visit http://www.publicationethics.org.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE 

Appropriate use of the English language is a requirement for publication in the IMNA. Authors having difficulty in writing in English who submit manuscripts to international journals often receive negative comments from referees or editors about the English-language usage in their manuscripts, and these challenges can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors consider using Wolters Kluwer Author Services**. 

Wolters Kluwer Author Services

Wolters Kluwer, in partnership with Editage, offers a unique range of editorial services to help you prepare a submission-ready manuscript: 

• Premium Editing: Intensive language and structural editing of academic papers to increase chances of journal acceptance.
  
• Advanced Editing: A complete language, grammar, and terminology check to give you a publication-ready manuscript.
• Translation with Editing: Write your paper in your native language and Wolters Kluwer Author Services will translate it into English, as well as edit it to ensure that it meets international publication standards.
• Plagiarism Check: Helps ensure that your manuscript contains no instances of unintentional plagiarism.
• Artwork Preparation: Save precious time and effort by ensuring that your artwork is viewed favorably by the journal without you having to incur the additional cost of purchasing special graphics software.

For more information regarding Wolters Kluwer Author Services, please visit http://wkauthorservices.editage.com. 

**Note that the use of such a service is at the author’s own expense and risk, and does not guarantee that the article will be accepted. 

PEER REVIEW

IMNA operates a double-blind external peer review process. IMNA invites worldwide experts in the relevant field to make a double-blind peer review of manuscripts submitted by authors. Review comments are fully considered to ensure the academic value of the journal. The primary task of reviewers is to evaluate the validity of the approach, the significance and originality of the finding, its interest and timeliness to the scientific community, and the clarity of the writing. A qualified peer reviewer should send his/her feedback (even decline to review due to some reasons) as per the time frame of the journal. All peer reviewers must maintain a strict and perpetual confidentiality for the content of all manuscripts under their review and for any related correspondences with BPG and/or the journal editorial team. Reviewers must not share any part of the manuscript with a third party or discuss its content with the authors of the manuscript or any other person. Reviewers must not plagiarize or cite any of the contents of a manuscript before the manuscript has been formally published. Reviewers will decline participation in the peer review process for any manuscript if a conflict of interest exists, including interests related to the manuscript’s authors, personal interests, or academic or economic interests. If a conflict of interest becomes apparent during the peer review process, the reviewer must inform the Editorial Office immediately. The following reasons are adequate, alone or in combination, for rejection of a manuscript for publication: (1) The scientific content does not correspond to the journal’s aims and scope; (2) The research is not reasonably designed and the data are inadequate to support proper explanations or conclusions; (3) Related work has been previously published and only a few new points have been added; (4) The article contains accumulated information that has been previously published, with only few technical improvements; (5) The article is expected to attract only a very small portion of the journal’s readership audience; (6) The article has been rejected previously and resubmitted without adding any new valuable content.

Manuscripts received from Editorial Board Members will be screened by the Editor-in-Chief and sent to external peer reviewers. The Editorial Board Members, who submit manuscripts to the journal as authors or co-authors, will be excluded from publication decisions. 

Manuscripts received from Editor-in-Chief will be handled by the other co-Editor-in-Chief or one of the Associate Editor of the journal and will be sent to external peer reviewers. The contributing Editor-in-Chief will be excluded from decision-making of his/her manuscript.

Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or whoever relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to the journal’s standard procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.

Appeal 
The authors have the right to appeal if they have a genuine cause to believe that the editorial board has wrongly rejected the paper. If the authors wish to appeal against the editorial decision, they should email the editorial office (email: [email protected]) explaining in detail the reason for the appeal. The appeals will be acknowledged by the editorial office and will be investigated in an unbiased manner. The processing of appeals will be done within 6–8 weeks. While under appeal, the said manuscript should not be submitted to other journals. The final decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Second appeals are not considered.

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS PUBLISHED

Original Article: It is full-length reports of completed basic, translational, or clinical research. Articles should report important, novel and fully completed studies with strong conclusions. There is also no clear limit on the length of the submitted paper, but authors are encouraged to be concise, preferably within 2500-6000 words. Articles have a structured abstract of maximum 400 words, including Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The number of references is not limited.

Meta Analysis: The structure is similar to that of an original article, and there is a suggested word count of 2500-6000 words. Meta Analysis has a structured abstract of maximum 400 words, including Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The number of references is not limited.

Review Article: IMNA welcome rigorous, balanced reviews on topics of interest to the field. If you have a concern about whether your topic fits within the scope of the journal, please contact the journal’s editor. All review articles undergo the same peer-review and editorial process as original research reports.

Case Report: New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications could be of up to 2000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Key-words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order.

Perspective: Articles that advance a particular viewpoint will be considered Perspectives, but they must acknowledge alternate views. Perspectives should be written within the context of an informed consideration of the state of the art of the topic. Views should be defended with published literature to the extent possible.

Letter to the Editor: Information of a high interest to the community and information on other pertinent subjects should be submitted as a Letter to the Editor.Letters are expected to provide substantive comments on papers published in the journal within the previous 6 months. Letters may be sent for peer review. A second type of Letter includes comments on articles already published in Integrative Medicine in Nephrology and Andrology. The authors of the original publication will be contacted for a response, which if accepted, will publish in the same issue as the Letter to the Editor.

Editorial: It is invited articles to explain the importance of specific articles or to provide opinions on general concepts in practice, research, or policy. 

News and Comment: The latest general interest letters and commentaries submitted to the journal. The main text should not exceed 300 words.

Reporting of Randomized Clinical Trials 

Registration of Clinical Trials is an essential requirement for publication of clinical trials in IMNA. On the title page of your manuscript, provide the name of the trial registry and the registration number/identifier of the trial. 

Acceptable web-based clinical trial registries include the following: 

• EudraCT at https://eudract.ema.europa.eu for EU trials 
• ClinicalTrials.gov at www.clinicaltrials.gov for US trials
  
• Current Controlled Trials found at https://www.isrctn.com/​
  
• WHO International Trial Registry Network found at http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/index.html
• Australian & New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, found at http://www.anzctr.org.au/
• Chinese Clinical Trail Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn)
• And any publicly available primary registry of clinical trials 

Reports of randomized clinical trials should follow the recommendations given in the Consolidated Standards of Reported Trials (CONSORT) statement http://www.consort-statement.org. In brief, this statement comprises a checklist and flow diagram to help improve the quality of reports of randomized controlled trials and offers a standard way for researchers to report trials. 

Optional Reporting Guidelines

The following resources may be helpful to authors:

• PRISMA –Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses http://www.prisma-statement.org
• STROBE - Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology http://www.strobe-statement.org
• STEGA - Strengthening the Reporting of Genetic Associations http://www.med.uottawa.ca/public-health-genomics/web/eng/strega.html

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research provides in-depth insights about people’s values, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. Qualitative methodology informs approaches to data collection and analysis, and includes grounded theory, ethnography, and phenomenology. Open-ended interviews and focus groups are commonly used to collect data. Authors are advised to follow the COREQ guidelines for reporting primary qualitative research. Please visit: http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/6/349.full.pdf

Systematic review and/or synthesis of primary qualitative studies can provide a broader understanding of people’s perspectives. Methodologies for synthesis of qualitative research include thematic synthesis, meta-ethnography, and critical interpretive synthesis. Authors can refer to the ENTREQ statement at  
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2288-12-181.pdf

Financial Support and Competing Interests

A financial disclosure section is part of the submission process and must be completed by each author at first revision. This information is for review by the Editors but will be published if relevant to the content of the accepted manuscript. The primary purpose of the disclosure section is to determine whether authors have received any commercial financial support that could create a conflict of interest. In addition to monetary interests, a potential for conflict of interest can exist whether or not an individual believes that a relationship (such as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties) affects his or her scientific judgment. Please review ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at the following link: http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS 

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (December 2021). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of IMNA are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Manuscripts not conforming to Journal format will be returned to authors for modification.

IMNA accepts manuscripts written in English.

1. Title Page
2.  Abstract
   
3.  Introduction 
4.  Methods 
5.  Results 
6.  Discussion (with a labeled Conclusion) 
   
7. References
   

1. Title Page

The title page must include:

1. Title of the article. Titles should clearly and concisely describe the contents of the paper and include the animals, participants, or cells studied. 
2. The names of all authors (first name, middle initial, last name)
3. Author Affiliations (departmental and institutional) at the time the research was done.
4. Disclaimers, if any.
5. Sources of support for the work; include sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; any restrictions regarding the submission of the report for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement or restrictions regarding publication.
6. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure – List any existing financial arrangements between an author and a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or between the author and any company or organization sponsoring the research reported in the submitted manuscript. If an author has no conflicts of interest, list the author’s name, followed by “no conflicts of interest.” Additional guidance is provided under Journal Policies, Conflicts of Interest.
   
7. Acknowledgments – ​In this section you can acknowledge any support given which is not covered by the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).
   
8. ​​Authors contribution – ​All author names and only the authors who contributed to the article should be mentioned. A full multi-author example is: Author contributions: Author 1 name: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software. Author 2 name: Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation. Author 3 name: Visualization, Investigation. Author 4 name: Supervision. Author 5 name: Software, Validation. Author 6 name: Writing- Reviewing and Editing. All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
9. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Any research article describing a study involving humans or animals should contain this statement. Please add “The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of NAME OF INSTITUTE (protocol code XXX and date of approval).” OR “Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to REASON (please provide a detailed justification).  Please add “Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.” OR “Patient consent was waived due to REASON (please provide a detailed justification). OR “Not applicable” for studies not involving humans. You might also choose to exclude this statement if the study did not involve humans.
   
10. Corresponding Author’s name, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address
    

2. ​Abstract

A properly constructed and informative abstract is helpful for the initial editorial review of the submitted manuscript. Original research articles must include a structured abstract that contains no more than 400 words, is written in complete sentences, and includes the following headings:

Background: Provide 1 or 2 sentences that explain the context of the study.

Methods: Describe the study design, including the use of cells, animal models, or human subjects. Identify the control group. Identify specific methods, procedures, and if appropriate, statistical analysis used. Describe interventions, if used.

Results: Report the most important findings, including results of statistical analyses.

Conclusions: Summarize in 1 or 2 sentences the primary outcomes of the study, including their potential clinical importance, if relevant (avoid generalizations). Include the participants, animals, or cells studied.

(If applicable) Clinical Trial Registry number and website where it was obtained (please provide a direct link to the trial page, preferably the English-language version).

(If applicable) Registry and registry number for systematic reviews or meta analyses. An appropriate registry for systematic reviews and meta ​analyses is PROSPERO. Please note that PROSPERO does not allow for post-completion registration of studies.

(Advances only) add a 1-2 sentence Statement of Significance indicating explicitly what is truly new in the present work compared to work already published in the field

Review articles, special articles, and reports should include an unstructured abstract (no more than 400 words) that states the purpose of the article and emphasizes the major concepts and conclusions. 

Any abbreviations used in the abstract should be defined in the abstract at first mention.

Below the abstract, provide 3–8 keywords or short phrases, including the subject group, that will help to increase the discoverability of your manuscipt; do not use adjectives. Terms that are fundamental to your manuscript but are not included in your manuscript title or abstract are especially important to include to increase discoverability by indexing services such as PubMed.

Please note that during manuscript submission, you will be asked to supply keywords to assist the editors in identifying suitable reviewers for your manuscript. Keywords for reviewer searches should include the terms most fundamental to your manuscript and may differ from your list of keywords for publication.

3. Introduction

Describe clearly the background to the research conducted and the specific objectives. This should not be a comprehensive review of the literature, however. State the specific objective or hypothesis of the study. Do not include methods, data, results, or conclusions from the work being reported.

4. Methods

Documentation of methods and materials used should be sufficient to permit replication of the research. Describe clearly the experimental design including the control and experimental groups and provide eligibility and exclusion criteria and details of randomization. Define all group designations parenthetically at first mention [for example, “control (CON) and high-fat (HF) groups”] and include definitions for these abbreviations in the abbreviation footnote on the title page. Describe the methods for, and success of, any masking (blinding) of observations. Report any complications of experimental treatments. 

State the product name and manufacturer of specialized materials, diets, chemicals, and instruments and other equipment, where appropriate. Specify kits, analyzers, and commercial laboratories used. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic names, dosages, and routes of administration. If trade names for drugs and chemicals are included, give the manufacturer’s name and location. Do not use trademark names, such as Teflon, as generic terms. Give references for established methods, including statistical methods; provide references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published but are not well known; and describe new or substantially modified methods, giving reasons for using them and evaluating their limitations. 

5. Results

Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. Do not present specifics of data more than once and do not duplicate data from tables or figures in the text. Do not present data from individual subjects except for very compelling reasons. Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). Use boldface for the first mention of each table or figure.

6. Discussion (with a labeled Conclusion)

Emphasize concisely the important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or Results. Include the implications of the findings and their limitations and relate the observations to other relevant studies. Link conclusions with the goals of the study and avoid unqualified statements and conclusions that are not completely supported by the data. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses and recommendations when warranted by the results and label them clearly as such. ​

​7. References

The journal uses American Medical Association (AMA) style. References should begin on a separate page and numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text, where they are designated by superscript numbers placed outside periods and commas, and inside colons and semicolons. Only published works and manuscripts that have been accepted for publication should be listed in the References. Manuscripts in preparation, unpublished observations, and personal communications should be referred to in parentheses in the text. Completed manuscripts submitted for publication may be cited as footnotes to the text (see above, Footnotes). If these are subsequently accepted, the author may transfer them to the reference section in galley proof.

References Format. No more than six authors should be listed. If there are seven or more, only the first three followed by ‘‘et al.’’ should be included. Titles of journal articles must be included, and abbreviation of journal names should conform to Index Medicus style.

For information on AMA style, please visit http://www.amamanualofstyle.com.

Two authors: 
Ahmed KA, Xiang J. Mechanisms of cellular communication through intercellular protein transfer. J Cell Mol Med. 2011; 15(7): 1458-73.

More than seven authors: 
Ali JM, Bolton EM, Bradley JA, et al. Allorecognition pathways in transplant rejection and tolerance. Transplantation 2013; 96(8): 681-8.

Organization as author: 
CDC. Prevention of herpes zoster: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). MMWR Recomm Rep 2008; 57(RR-5): 1-30.

Donation after Circulatory Death. British Transplant Society. Available at: 
http://www.bts.org.uk/Documents/Guidelines. Accessed August 1, 2013.

Tables: Photographs of tables are not acceptable. Type each table, double-spaced throughout (including column headings, footnotes, and data), on a separate page. Tables may be included as part of the Main Body file and placed after the References section. Number the tables in sequence in Arabic numerals and supply a concise, informative title for each one. Each column in the tables should carry a concise heading describing the data in the column. Use lowercase superscript letters to designate footnotes, and type the footnotes below the tables to which they refer. Tables are cited in the text in numerical order. Each table should be able to be understood without consulting the text. 

Like text, tables should be prepared using a standard word-processing program and may be included within the main body text document or uploaded separately. Do not upload table files more than once (that is, in the main document and in separate files). 

Acceptable document file types for tables include .DOC and .DOCX; do not submit PDF, XLS or XLSX type files.

Figures and Legends: Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution available. Legends should be supplied for all figures. They are numbered to correspond with the figures and typed double-spaced on a separate page. Figure legends for any supplemental figures being submitted are to be provided separately; see section, Supplemental Digital Content (SDC). 

Acceptable figure file formats 

• Do not embed figures into the main body file
• All final digital figures for accepted manuscripts must be submitted in EPS, TIFF, JPG. PowerPoint PPT format is permitted when the image resolution is very high.
• Each figure must be uploaded as a separate file. 
• Histology figures must be in color. 
• Monochrome images (such as line graphs) should be prepared at a resolution of 1200 DPI. 
  
• Halftones images (black/white or color) should be prepared at a resolution of 300 DPI. 
• Combination halftones (images containing both pictures and text labeling) should be prepared at 600 DPI. 
• Color images must be saved as ‘‘CMYK’’. Images saved as ‘‘RGB’’ are not acceptable for printing.
• Your manuscript may be returned to you for correction if the images are of insufficient quality.
• Artwork submitted to the Journal will be checked for quality. Authors submitting a revised paper will have the opportunity to check the quality of their images and make the necessary changes. This step is required for all revisions. 

Supplemental Digital Content (SDC): Authors may submit Supplemental Digital Content to supplement the information provided in the manuscript. It is preferable to include all significant figures and tables in the manuscript, since there is not a limit on the number of items in this online journal. Nonetheless, SDC may include the following types of content: text, tables, figures, references peripheral to information provided as SDC, audio, and video. SDC should be consecutively cited in the Main Body text of the submitted manuscript. SDC files will be available via URL(s) placed at the citation points within the article and are not copyedited by the publisher. Note that Journal policies for manuscript submission relating to peer review, patient anonymity, ethics, financial disclosure, copyright, and permissions also apply to SDC. Authors should mask patients’ eyes and remove patients’ names from supplemental digital content unless they obtain written consent from the patients and submit them as supplemental files at the time of the manuscript submission. 

Format, File Type and Size Requirements: SDC must be provided in one Word or PowerPoint file. Each SDC in the file should have a visual header in the following name format (e.g., ‘‘SDC, Figure 1’’; ‘‘SDC, Materials and Methods’’) and a corresponding citation must appear in the Main Body text. Note that SDC is numbered separately from non-SDC material. If providing SDC figure(s), a figure legend should be included on the figure itself. When uploading SDC select ‘‘Supplemental Digital Content’’ as the file designation. For audio and video files, also include the author’s name, videographer, participants, length (minutes), and size (MB). Video files should be formatted with a 320x240 pixel minimum screen size. For each submission, the SDC file cannot exceed a total size of 10 MB. 

ONLINE MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION 

New Submissions

Once the manuscript has been created, visit the submission site at https://www.editorialmanager.com/imna/default2.aspxto upload the manuscript. Once the manuscript has been vetted for compliance to the Journal’s requirements, a manuscript number will be assigned to the submission. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in your manuscript being returned to you for correction. Faxed, scanned, or emailed copies of manuscripts will not be accepted.

Revised Submissions

Mandatory Author Forms: Upon first revision, authors will be required to complete a License to Publish (LTP) form. LTP forms are required of every author listed on the submission. Please ensure each author’s email address is properly listed on the footnotes page of your manuscript to avoid delays in reaching authors. Manuscripts will not pass to production without completed forms. LTP forms are available from the submission site homepage https://www.editorialmanager.com/imna/default2.aspx.

All revised submissions require a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments. Please upload this document as file type Response to Reviewers. 

Changes made in the revised manuscript should be indicated using highlighted, bold, or underlined text. Upload both a Marked and a Clean version of the revised manuscript. File types are provided for both versions.

A requirement of all revisions is the artwork quality check as described above (see Figures and Legends). 

Revised manuscripts should be submitted within the deadline specified in the decision letter. Please contact us for an extension of the due date if it is not possible to submit the revision within that period, or should you desire to withdraw the manuscript from further consideration. 

Revisions should adhere to original specifications for the submission type. Sometimes changes made in response to the decision/critiques may bring the revised manuscript out of compliance (e.g., over the word count and/or table/figure limit) with original specifications. This may be allowed by the Editor but must be noted in the point-by-point response. 

Submitting Invited Videos 

Authors may want or be invited to submit videos to the Journal’s website. The videos will serve to emphasize key aspects of the research findings reported in their soon to be published manuscript. Please visit Stand Alone Video Format Requirements https://bit.ly/VMxbrbto download full specifications and instructions for preparing these invited videos. 

POST ACCEPTANCE

Page Proofs 

The publisher’s Journal Production Editor will contact you when page proofs are ready for your review. The figures included on author’s proofs are high resolution. Please inform the Journal Production Editor immediately if you have any questions concerning the quality of the figures on the proofs. For information regarding proofs, or the status of publication of your accepted manuscript, please contact the editorial office here:[email protected].

Changes in Corresponding Author’s Contact Information 

Please give all new information, including email address, to the editorial office and to the publisher. Authors may send this information to the editorial office here:[email protected]. If the J​ournal is unsuccessful in contacting the corresponding author, the author will not receive proofs for approval, and the manuscript may not be published. 

Changes at Proofs 

It is expected that the final manuscript sent to the Editor is indeed the final version, so few changes should be required at proof stage. 

Copyright and Open Access

Authors retain their copyright for all articles. Authors grant Wolters Kluwer a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. 

Open access articles will be freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication. IMNA provides authors the choice of applying Creative Commons 4.0 international license defined below, to be determined after acceptance.

Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work noncommercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Compliance with NIH and other Research Funding Agency Accessibility Requirements

A number of research funding agencies now require or request authors to submit the post print (the article after peer review and acceptance but not the final published article) to a repository that is accessible online by all without charge.

As a service to our authors, Wolters Kluwer identifies to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and transmits the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or other funding agencies to PubMed Central. The License to Publish provides the mechanism. Wolters Kluwer ensures that authors can fully comply with the public access requirements of major funding bodies worldwide.

EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACTS

The Editorial Office is pleased to answer any questions you may have about preparing your manuscript in accordance with our guidelines. 

Email: [email protected]

Submit a manuscript: https://www.editorialmanager.com/imna/default2.aspx