Papers must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis) and are not currently under consideration by another journal or any other publisher. The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that the article's publication has been approved by all the other coauthors. It is also the authors' responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular institution are submitted with the approval of the necessary institution. Only an acknowledgment from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the author(s) before publication unless otherwise indicated. All manuscripts must be written in clear and correct English. Corrections of spelling, grammar and typing are the responsibility of the author.
All enquiries concerning the publication of accepted papers should be addressed to [email protected]
Electronic submission:
Manuscripts may be submitted by e-mail to: [email protected]. E-mail submission should come as files attached to the e-mail, in a format that can be read by MS word 98. Figures or illustrations should be sent in a high resolution format.
Peer Review:
All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic excellence. Submissions will be considered by the Chief Editor and an associate editor and—if not rejected right away—by peer-reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors. All submissions are checked by plagiarism detecting software.
Preparation of manuscript:
Title: This should be concise expressing the article’s major contents.
Author’s names: These should be written in the form of first name, middle initial(s) and surname. Institutions of the authors should be included. The authors are numbered sequentially according to institutions using upper case Arabic numerical.
Corresponding author should be stated with full address, telephone/fax numbers and e-mail address.
Running Title: A running title of maximum 50 characters.
Abstract: A maximum of 300 words drawn from the study briefly describing the aim, included subjects, methods used, the results obtained and the principal conclusions.
Keywords: A list of 3-10 keywords in English for indexing purposes.
Body of the manuscript:
Introduction: to acquaint the reader with the area under investigation. It should cite related important and recent work by others.
Subjects and Methods: These should be sufficiently described. References for applied methods should be cited.
Results: Should be briefly presented in text, tables and figures.
Discussion: The discussion should focus on the interpretation and significance of the findings and their relation to other work in the field. Conclusions should focus on final outcomes and future applications.
Acknowledgements: Should be addressed to those who contributed to the work as well as grant sponsor(s) who supported the research.
References: References follow the Harvard system. In the text give the author’s last name only followed by the year separated by comma. If more than one reference discussed the same subject put them all in parenthesis separated by semicolons. When there are 2 authors to the same article write them both, when there are 3 or more use the last name of the first author plus et al. followed by the year.
All work cited in the text should be listed in the list of references in alphabetical order starting by the last name of the fist author. The surnames of all authors followed by initials should be given. No punctuation other than a comma to separate the authors. Journal names should be abbreviated as in the Index Medicus (ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals.
Personal communications and unpublished data should not feature in the reference listbut should appear in parenthesis in the text. Unpublished work accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list with the words (In Press) in parenthesis with the name of the journal concerned.
References must be checked individually and verified by the author against original documents.
Tables: Each table should be typed on separate sheet and should be easy to read. It should be assigned as Arabic numerical. A table should have a brief title and referred to in the text. If a table is quoted, reference(s) should follow the title. All abbreviations that are used in the table should be explained in a footnote below the table.
Figures or illustrations: Figures should be clear, only good drawings and photos will be accepted. Each figure requires a legend. Legends of figures should be written in consecutive order at the end of the manuscript. Hard copies should have on the back of each illustration: its number, author’s name and an arrow stating its top using a soft pencil. For photomicrographs internal scales and staining methods should be stated. If a figure is quoted, reference(s) should follow the legend.
It is the author’s responsibility to provide written consent from the patients or guardians for any figures, to be published. Photos should mask the identity of the patient.
It is also the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce illustrations, tables, etc. from other publications.
Units of measurements: Measurements of length, height, weight and volume should be reported in metric units (meters, kilograms or liters) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressure should be given in millimeters mercury. All hematological and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of International system of units.
Copyright
All rights of reproduction are reserved in respect of all papers, articles, illustrations etc. published in this journal in all countries of the world. All material published in this journal is protected by copyright, which covers exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the material. No material published in this journal may be reproduced or stored on microfilm or in electronic, optical or magnetic form without the written authorization of the publisher.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.
While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
Permissions to reproduce previously published material
Authors should include with their submission copies of written permission to reproduce material published elsewhere (such as illustrations) from the copyright holder. Authors are responsible for paying any fees to reproduce material.
Patient consent forms
Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying details (written or photographic) should be omitted if they are not essential, but patient data should never be altered or falsified in an attempt to attain anonymity. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, and a consent form should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the published article.
Conflicts of interest
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 Source of Funding:”. For example:
Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: 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.
Ethical Guidelines
New methods and ethically relevant aspects must be described in detail, bearing in mind the following:
- Human Experiments
All work must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). Papers describing experimental work on human subjects who carry a risk of harm must include:
- A statement that the experiment was conducted with the understanding and the consent of the human subject.
- A statement that the responsible Ethical Committee has approved the experiments.
- Animal Experiments
Papers describing experiments on living animals should provide:
- A full description of any anesthetic and surgical procedure used.
- Evidence that all possible steps were taken to avoid animal suffering at each stage of the experiment. Papers describing experiments on isolated tissues must indicate precisely how the donor tissues were obtained.
- Experiments on isolated tissues
You must indicate precisely how you obtain the donor tissue
Authorship
All authors must sign the letter accompanying their submission to confirm that they have read and approved the paper, that they have met the criteria for authorship as established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, that they believe that the paper represents honest work, and that they are able to verify the validity of the results reported In addition to those from the ICJME the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals, ISMPP (www.ismpp.org ) have produced some useful guidelines on authorship of studies sponsored by companies: Good Publication Practice (GPP3) (www.ismpp.org/initiatives/gpp3.html).
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, LWW will identify to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and will transmit the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or other funding agencies to PubMed Central.
Copyright assignment
Papers are accepted for publication on the understanding that exclusive copyright in the paper is assigned to the Publisher. Authors are asked to submit a signed copyright assignment form with their submission. They may use material from their paper in other works published by them after seeking formal permission.
