Instructions for Authors

We encourage to submit the Original articles defined as reports of previously unpublished results from scientific experiments or observations conducted by the authors in order to confirm or refute a clearly identified hypothesis.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT

Guidelines for preparation are consistent with: Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (N Eng J Med, 1997; 336: 309-15).

Manuscripts should meet the general requirements.

Text should be one and half spaced, in times New Roman, 12-point typeface. Margins: 2.5 cm (1 inch) at top, bottom, right, and left.

The manuscript should include:

Title page should carry:

  • the article title (is the most important summary of a scientific article, should also include information on the scope of investigation);
  • full names (first name, middle-name initials), and last names of all authors with the contributions of the author and each co-author considering the following categories: A – Study Design; B – Data Collection; C – Statistical Analysis; D – Manuscript Preparation; E – Funds Collection. No names of co-authors will be published unless their contributions are indicated.
  • authors’ affiliations; if authors belong to several different institutions, superscript digits should be used to relate the authors? names to respective institutions.
  • information on financial support;
  • full address, phone number, e-mail of the corresponding author should be given.

Abstract page should carry:

  • Structured abstract (up to 150 words), consisting of the following sections: Background and Study Aim, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions.
    • Background and Study Aim – should describe clearly the rationale for the study being done and the previous work relevant to the study. It should end with a statement of the specific question or hypothesis being addressed.
    • Material and Methods – mention the techniques used without going into extensive methodological detail, and outline the most important results. Include sample sizes for key experiments as appropriate.
    • Results – List basic results without any introduction. Only essential statistical significances should be added in brackets. Draw no conclusions.
    • Conclusions – Provide the key-findings as clearly as possible. You may also include a brief, more general interpretation of the results and / or specific recommendations for future research.
  • 5 to 10 key words (not from title), referring to the Medical Subject Headings (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/).
  • Glossary (up to 40 words), referring both to key words and specialized terms, presenting the meaning, definitions or explanations of the words, phrases etc.
  • Tutorial Video ? file(s) or link(s) to movie(s), not exceeding 4 min., that provides instruction related to subject-matter presented in manuscript;

Body text (Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Highlights, Acknowledgements, Glossary and References);

Introduction should contain the hypothesis and specific aim of the study or (in case of a review) purpose of the article. Authors should briefly introduce the problem, particularly emphasizing the level of knowledge about the problem at the beginning of the investigation.

Material and methods should describe clearly the selection of observational or experimental subjects including controls, such as age, gender, inclusion and exclusion criteria, (the circumstances for rejection from the study should be clearly defined), randomization and masking (blinding) method. Use of subheadings is advised.

The protocol of data acquisition, procedures, investigated parameters, methods of measurements and apparatus should be described in sufficient detail to allow other scientists to reproduce the results. Name and references to the established methods should be given. References and brief description should be provided for methods that have been published but are not well known, whereas new or substantially modified methods should be described in detail. The reasons for using them should be provided along with the evaluation of their limitations. Names of chemicals and devices used should be followed by the information on the manufacturer (name, city, and country) set in parentheses. Please provide generic name, dose and route of administration.

The statistical methods should be described in detail to enable verification of the reported results. List the tests used. Relate each test to a particular data analysis. This should be repeated in the Results section. Statistical significances should be shown along with the data in the text, as well as in tables and figures. Provide exact p-values, with three decimal places.

Provide information on patients informed consent. Studies on patients and volunteers require informed consent documented in the text of the manuscript. Where there is any unavoidable risk of breach of privacy – e.g. in a clinical photograph or in case details – the patient’s written consent to publication must be obtained and copied to the journal. Information on approval of a Local Ethical Committee should also be provided.

In reports on the experiments on human subjects, it should be indicated whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) or with the 2008 revision of the Helsinki Declaration.

Results should concisely and reasonably summarize the findings. Restrict tables and figures to the number needed to explain the argument of the paper and assess its support. Do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Give numbers of observation and report exclusions or losses to observation such as dropouts from a study. Report complications. The results should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables and illustrations related to the statements in the text by means of reference remarks. Do not repeat in the text all the data from the tables or graphs. Emphasize only important observations.

Discussion should include interpretation of study findings, and results considered in the context of results in other studies reported in the literature. Do not repeat in detail data or other material from the Background or the Results section. Include in the Discussion the implications of the findings and their limitations, including implications for future research. The discussion should confront the results of other investigations especially those quoted in the text.

Conclusions should be linked with the goals of the study. State new hypotheses when warranted. Include recommendations when appropriate. Unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the obtained data should be avoided.

Highlights present particularly important information the authors would like to point out.

Acknowledgements. List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as technical assistants, writing assistants or head of department who provided only general support. Describe their role. Financial and other material support should be disclosed and acknowledged.

References must be numbered consecutively as they are cited. References selected for publication should be chosen for their importance, accessibility, and for the further reading opportunities they provide. References first cited in tables, figure legends or multimedia files must be numbered so that they will be in sequence with references cited in the text. References cited in Glossary must be numbered starting from the last citation number in the text. Do not put DOI in references. List all authors when there are three or fewer; when there are four or more, list the first three, then et al. An Archives of Budo follows the format of the US National Library of medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/). The following is a sample reference:

Standard journal article

Lahita R, Kluger J, Drayer DE et al. Antibodies to nuclear antigens in patients treated with procainamide or acetylprocainamide. N Engl J Med 1979;301:1382-5

Article with published erratum

Koffler D, Reidenberg MM. Antibodies to nuclear antigens in patients treated with procainamide or acetylprocainamide [published erratum appears in N Engl J Med 1979;302:322-5]. N Engl J Med 1979; 301: 1382-5

Article in electronic form

Drayer DE, Koffler D. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [accessed 1996 Jun 5];1(1):[24 screens]. Available from: URL:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Electronic resource

http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm (accessed 2011 Sep 19)

Article, no author given

Cancer in South Africa [editorial]. S Afr Med J 1994;84:15

Book, personal author(s)

Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996

Book, editor(s) as author

Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996

Book, Organization as author and publisher:

Institute of Medicine (US). Looking at the future of the Medicaid program. Washington: The Institute; 1992

Chapter in a book

Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995: 465-78

Conference proceedings

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996

Conference paper

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland

Avoid using abstracts or review papers as references. Unpublished observations and personal communications can not be used as references. If essential, such material may be incorporated in the appropriate place in the text.

Tables. Type or print out each table on a separate sheet of paper. Do not submit tables as photographs. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text, and supply a brief title for each. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. The title should not repeat the information given in the headings. Use tables in order to present the exact values of the data that cannot be summarized in a few sentences in the text. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table. For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *,?,?,§,II,ś,**,??,??,?

Never present the same data in more than one way: present them in a table OR a figure. Data should be organized so that related elements read downward, not across. The data arranged in columns should correspond to the time sequence of their collection when read from left to right. Each column heading for numerical data should include the unit of measurement applied to all the data under the heading. Choose suitable SI units, so that the values given in the table should fall within the range of 0-999. Large numbers can be expressed in smaller units with appropriate column headings.

Identify statistical measures of variations such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Do not use internal horizontal and vertical rules. Be sure that each table is cited in the text.

If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully.

Figures should be drawn professionally. Photographs must be sharp and delivered in high-quality electronic format. The resolution of color images should also be at least 300 dpi. All color art should be in RGB format. Please submit files in TIFF, JPG or EPS. Only Times, Helvetica, Arial, or Symbol fonts should be used. Using other fonts may result in lost or improperly converted characters. Figures should be numbered (with Arabic numerals) consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Figures should contain the following information: (a) figure title; (b) all the necessary explanations of symbols and findings, written continuously; (c) statistics. Do not put the title of the figure on the figure! Several figures related to the same patient, i.e. exercise/task shown in steps, should be labeled Figure 1 A, B, C, etc. rather than Figures 1, 2, 3. Symbols should be consistent throughout a series of figures. Use simple symbols, like closed and open circles, triangles and squares. Different types of connecting lines can be used. The meanings of symbols and lines should be defined in the legend. The axes should be equal in length so as to make the diagrams square. Each axis should be labeled with a description of the variable it represents. Only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized. The labeling should be parallel with the respective axis. Axes should not extend beyond the last numeral, and should never be terminated by arrows. Choose units so that the values expressed may fall within the range between 0 and 999.

Graphs or charts must be provided as complete Excel files. Do not draw three-dimensional graphs if not absolutely necessary. Do not shade the background. Do not use grids.

Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.

If a figure, graph, chart, photomicrographs, diagram etc. has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher, except for documents in the public domain.

Units of Measurement. Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be given in millimeters of mercury.

Abbreviations and Symbols. Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term which an abbreviation stands for should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.