The Journal will consider the following types of submissions:
Research Submissions
Research submissions should present the results of an original research study. These submissions should describe how the research project was conducted and provide a thorough analysis of the results of the project. Systematic reviews may be submitted as research submissions.
- Submissions that have been previously peer-reviewed by another organization within the past 12 months are acceptable for submission and consideration.
Clinical Studies
A clinical study presents the methodology and results of a study that was performed within a clinical setting. These studies include both clinical trials and retrospective analyses of a body of existing cases. In all cases, clinical studies should include a description of the patient group that was involved, along with a thorough explanation of the methodology used in the study and the results that were obtained.
- Submissions that have been previously peer-reviewed by another organization within the past 12 months are acceptable for submission and consideration.
Formatting
Submissions should include the following information:
-PDF of Previous Peer-Reviewed Submission or Presentation (i.e., Poster)
- Title
- Authors and Affiliations
- Author Email Addresses
- Corresponding Author Email Address
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Material and Methods
- Results and Discussion
- Conclusions
- References
- Conflict of Interest
- Funding Statement
- References
- Figures and Tables
- Supplementary Materials
Abstract
The manuscript should contain an abstract. The abstract should be self-contained, citation-free, and should not exceed 300 words.
Introduction
This section should be succinct, with no subheadings.
Materials and Methods
The methods section should provide enough detail for others to be able to replicate the study. If you have more than one method, use subsections with relevant headings, e.g. different models, in vitro and in vivo studies, statistics, materials and reagents, etc.
Results and Discussion
This section may be divided into subsections or may be combined.
Conclusions
This should clearly explain the main conclusions of the article, highlighting its importance and relevance.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors must declare all relevant interests that could be perceived as conflicting. Authors should explain why each interest may represent a conflict. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state this. Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests.
Funding Statement
Authors must state how the research and submission was funded, by naming financially supporting body(s) (written out in full).
If the research did not receive specific funding, but was performed as part of the employment of the authors, please name this employer.
References
Authors may submit their references in any style and are responsible for ensuring that the information in each reference is complete and accurate. All references should be numbered consecutively in the order of their first citation. Citations of references in the text should be identified using numbers in square brackets e.g., “as discussed by Smith [9]”; “as discussed elsewhere [9, 10]”. All references should be cited within the text and uncited references will be removed.
Date Formatting
Date of Submission will be Noted on the Accepted and Posted Poster Submission
Preparation of Figures
Upon submission, authors should include all figures and tables in a PDF file. Figures and tables should not be submitted in separate files. Authors should cite source of any submitted Figure or Table if not originally developed as part of the submission by the submitting authors. Each figure should be supplied in a separate electronic file. All figures should be cited in the submission in a consecutive order. Figures should be supplied in either vector art formats (Illustrator, EPS, WMF, FreeHand, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or bitmap formats (Photoshop, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, etc.). Bitmap images should be of 300 dpi resolution at least unless the resolution is intentionally set to a lower level for scientific reasons. If a bitmap image has labels, the image and labels should be embedded in separate layers.
Supplementary Materials
Supplementary materials are the additional parts to a submission, such as audio files or video clips that might be of interest to readers. Authors can submit one file of supplementary material along with their submission.
A section titled “Supplementary Material” should be included before the references list with a concise description for each supplementary material file. Supplementary materials are not modified by our production team. Authors are responsible for providing the final supplementary materials files that will be published along with the article.
Proofs
Corrected proofs must be returned to the publisher within two to three days of receipt. The publisher will do everything possible to ensure prompt publication.
Copyright and Permissions
Authors retain the copyright of their submissions, and all Open Access submissions are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
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. The submitting author is responsible for securing any permissions needed for the reuse of copyrighted materials included in the manuscript.
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.
Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest (COIs, also known as ‘competing interests’) occur when issues outside research could be reasonably perceived to affect the neutrality or objectivity of the work or its assessment. For more information, see our publication ethics policy. Authors must declare all potential interests – whether or not they actually had an influence – in a ‘Conflicts of Interest’ section, which should explain why the interest may be a conflict. If there are none, the authors should state “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.” Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the editor and reviewers and included in the final posting.
Authors must declare current or recent funding and other payments, goods or services that might influence the work. All funding, whether a conflict or not, must be declared in the “Funding Statement”. The involvement of anyone other than the authors who 1) has an interest in the outcome of the work; 2) is affiliated to an organization with such an interest; or 3) was employed or paid by a funder, in the commissioning, conception, planning, design, conduct, or analysis of the work, the preparation or editing of the submission, or the decision to publish must be declared.
You may be asked to make certain changes to your submission as a result of your declaration. These requests are not an accusation of impropriety. The Editor or reviewer is helping you to protect your work against potential criticisms.
If you are in any doubt about declaring a potential conflict, remember that if it is revealed later – especially after publication – it could cause more problems than simply declaring it at the time of submission. Undeclared conflicts of interest could lead to a correction notice or, in the most serious cases, a retraction.
Appeals
Authors may appeal if they feel that the decision to reject was based on: i) a major misunderstanding over a technical aspect of the submission, or ii) a failure understand the scientific advance shown by the submission. Appeals requesting a second opinion without sufficient justification will not be considered. To lodge an appeal, please contact the Journal by email, quoting your submission title and author. Appeals will only be considered from the original submitting author.
