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Author Guidelines
Zagazig University Medical Journal
Information for Authors
Contents:
- I. General Information
- II. Types of Articles
- III. Organization of Papers/Manuscripts
- IV. Duality of Interest
- V. Supplements
- VI. Manuscript Review
- VII. Reprints/Offprints
- VIII. Permissions
- IX. Checklist
I. General Information:
- Zagazig University Medical Journal (ZUMJ) is the official journal of the faculty of medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt. Authors from other universities and scientific institutions inside and outside Egypt are also welcome. ZUMJ is a peer-reviewed journal publishes articles relating to both the clinical and basic medical science.
- We will not consider any manuscript previously published nor under review by another publication. Once accepted for review, the manuscript must not be submitted elsewhere. Unethical publishing, such as plagiarism, undisclosed conflicts of interest, inappropriate authorship, and duplicate publication are forbidden.
- Authors must disclose any financial relationship(s) at submission, and the authors must update any disclosures prior to publication. The authors must also state any Information that could be perceived as potential conflict(s) of interest that includes, but is not limited to, grants or funding, employment, affiliations, royalties, patents, honoraria, consultancies, inventions, stock options/ownership, or expert testimony.
- Manuscripts must be written in English.
- Publication fees are periodically reviewed and can be informed to authors by direct communication. Additional fees for colored pictures and extra pages are also applicable.
- A word count must be provided both for Abstracts (a maximum of 300 words) and the main text (exclusive of references, tables and figure legends).
- A title page, including the manuscript title and all authors’ full names, academic degrees, institutional affiliations, and locations. Designate one author as the corresponding author. If a paper was presented at a meeting, provide society name, city, state, country, and exact date the meeting was held.
II. Types of Articles:
The journal editorial board is considering for publication the following:
- Original Reports of clinical and experimental work on all aspects of medical research and related subjects provided they have scientific merit and represent an important advance in knowledge.
- Review articles by invitation from the editor-in-chief
- Case reports provided they have evident scientific value with well evidenced documents
- Short communication: A maximum of 1500 words in the main text (i.e. excluding abstract, references and legends) plus up to ten references and normally no more than two illustrations (tables or figures or one of each).
- Meta-analysis: A maximum of 4000 words in the main text (i.e. excluding abstract, references and legends) with unlimited references.
- How I Do It: submissions papers should offer a novel, substantive approach to an existing clinical practice. How I Do It manuscripts should have clear practical value.
- Letters to the editor: A maximum of 1000 words, plus 8 references and normally no more than one table or one figure. Letters will be considered for publication in the correspondence section and are the forum for either: (1) Correspondence – comments with critical assessment of papers recently published in ZUMJ which, at the Editor-in-Chief’s discretion, will be sent to the authors of the original paper for comment and both letter and reply published together; or (2) Research Letters – observations providing concise and important new information.
III. Manuscript preparation:
The manuscript submitted to ZUMJ should be word-processed, typed on two columns, double-spaced on one side of a good quality A4 paper. With the same rules, abstracts are typed on one column followed by key words. Pages should have a margin of 2.5 cm.
The submitted manuscript should include:
- Title Page
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Tables
- Figures
- Legends for Figures
A) Title page
This page should state: (1) title of paper (including animal species if appropriate); (2) authors’ names (initials and surname only – no qualifications); (3) institution(s) of origin; (4) corresponding author plus his/her address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address.
Conflict of Interest: Any financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) the authors' actions.
Financial Disclosures: Any specific financial interests, relationship and affiliations relevant to the subject of the manuscript. These can include employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, etc.
B) Abstract
The Abstract should be no more than 300 words. Abstracts are to be structured into four paragraphs as follows: (1) Aims/hypothesis; (2) Methods; (3) Results; (4) Conclusions/interpretation. The Abstract should not contain unexplained abbreviations.
Keywords: Up to five keywords should be provided at the end of the Abstract.
Abbreviations: Except for standard abbreviation, please define abbreviations used throughout the manuscript, in alphabetical order, after the keywords. Please use other abbreviations only when necessary and define them in a separate list given after the keywords. Abbreviations should not normally appear in the title or Abstract.
C) Introduction
The Introduction should contain a clear statement of the aim and novelty of the study. It should include neither results nor conclusions.
D) Methods
Sufficient information should be given to permit repetition of the experimental work.
Informed consent and ethics committee/IRB approval: A paper describing experimental work in humans must (1) indicate that informed consent has been obtained from patients where appropriate, (2) include a statement that the responsible ethics committee (institutional review board, Zagazig faculty of medicine) has given approval. Do not use patients’ names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material.
Experimental animals: Age, sex, source and, where appropriate, the genetic background of the animals used should be given. Reports of animal experiments must state that the principles of laboratory animal care were followed. The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The authors will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.
Equipment: Manufacturer, city, state and country must be given.
Chemical substances: must be properly identified. Except for standard laboratory chemicals, the source of supply must be given. Drugs must be identified by the generic or official name wherever possible. Proprietary names should be avoided.
Genes: Italic characters should be used for gene symbols including genotypes, alleles etc.
Units of measurement: Units should conform to the SI convention, except for blood pressure (which should be expressed in mmHg) and haemoglobin (g/l). Gas or pressure values should be given as mmHg with kPa in parentheses or vice versa. Where molecular weight is known, the amount of a substance should be expressed in mol or appropriate subunit (mmol etc.). Energy should be expressed in kJ. Statistical analyses: Describe statistical methods in sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. Computer software packages that are used for anything other than widely known standard statistical procedures should be identified by name or acronym and by author or organization of origin. When variability is expressed in terms of the SEM or SD, the number of observations (n) must also be given. Both the sample size and statistical significance with p values should be predefined.
E) Results
The Results should be stated concisely without discussion and should not normally contain any references. The same data should not be presented in figures and tables. Do not repeat all the data that are set out in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only important observations.
F) Discussion
The Discussion should deal with the interpretation of the results and not recapitulate them. We encourage authors to write their Discussion in a structured way, as follows:
- Statement of principal findings
- Strengths and weaknesses of the study
- Strengths and weaknesses in relation to other studies
- Discussion of important differences in results; meaning of the study
- Unanswered questions and future research.
G) Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements should be as brief as possible. Any grant support should be mentioned. Any editorial assistance should be acknowledged. Please insert a paragraph in the Acknowledgements listing each author's contribution. Please ensure that this is discussed with your co-authors and agreement is reached prior to manuscript submission. Post-acceptance changes to the author list will not be permitted. The authorship credit should be based only on substantial contribution to:
- Conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data
- Drafting the article or revising it critically for intellectual content
- Final approval of the version to be published.
- All these conditions must be met. Only acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship.
H) References
The authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references. References should be formatted according to American Medical Association Manual of Style (10th ed.) Each reference should be identified in the text in numerical order and should be identified by superscript Arabic numerals. Please begin the reference list on a separate page after the acknowledgments. Do not use “Endnotes” or similar programs for entering references.
When formatting references, provide all authors’ names when fewer than seven; when seven or more, list the first six and add et al. Any articles that are not in English must be translated. See Cumulative Index Medicus for abbreviating journal titles.
Examples of correct forms of references are:
Journal Article
Talaat M, Abdel-Shakour K, Hamed A, El-Anwar MW, El-Kashishy K, Radwan H. Fine needle aspiration cytology versus frozen section biobsy in manangement of throid nodules. Medical Journal of Zagazig University 2011; 17(14): 5-10.
Online Journals
Friedman SA. Preeclampsia: a review of the role of prostaglandins. Obstet Gynecol [serial online]. January 1988;71:22–37. Available from: BRS Information Technologies, McLean, VA. Accessed December 15, 1990.
Book Chapter
Todd VR. Visual information analysis: frame of reference for visual perception. In: Kramer P, Hinojosa J, eds. Frames of Reference for Pediatric Occupational Therapy. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1999:205–256.
Entire Book
Webster NR, Galley HF. Anaesthesia Science. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.; 2006.
Web Sites
Gostin LO. Drug use and HIV/AIDS [JAMA HIV/AIDS Web site]. June 1, 1996. Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/ethics. Accessed June 26, 2012.
J) Tables
Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals. Tables must be submitted in Excel or Word table format and not as images. Each table should have a short informative heading which is self-explanatory without reference to the text. Footnotes should be kept to a minimum. The units in which the results are expressed should be given in parentheses at the head of each column and not repeated on each line of the table. Number tables in order of their mention in the text.
K) Figures
Graphs and diagrams: Line drawings and graphs should be of professional standard. Freehand or typewritten lettering and numbering are unacceptable. Ruled lines, curves and symbols must be sufficiently bold to withstand reduction. Curves should not be drawn beyond the experimental points, nor should experimental points extend beyond the scales of the axes. For scatter diagrams, solid symbols are preferred.
Images: Figures can be submitted as EPS, JPEG, and TIFF file types. Numbers, letters and symbols must be large enough to be read easily after reduction. If photographs of patients are used, either the subject should not be identifiable, or the picture must be accompanied by written permission to use the figure.
L) Legends for figures
Legends should be short, self-explanatory and contain enough information to identify the figures and enable them to stand as a separate entity from the text.
IV. Duality of interest
Authors are responsible for recognizing and disclosing conflicts of interest that might bias their work. A disclosure form for potential conflict of interest is available free of charge. It should be filled and submitted with the manuscript.
V. Supplements
:
Specific supplements for conferences held by faculty of medicine and other scientific societies can be considered for publication by ZUMJ.
VI. Manuscript Revision:
If you are asked to revise your manuscript you will be expected to provide a covering letter that responds in detail to each point raised by reviewers or editors, and to highlight new material in the text using a different color. If a manuscript returned to the authors for revision is not returned to the Editorial Office within the stipulated time-period (usually 4 weeks), it may be treated as a new manuscript.
Author Corrections on Proofs:
The corresponding author will be provided page proofs and asked to check for errors and editorial queries. Although the correction of editorial and typographical errors will be made without charge, the cost of excessive additional alterations may be charged to the author. Proofs must be checked carefully and corrections returned within 24 to 48 hours of receipt, if no response after 48 hours, it is considered acceptance to the proof.
VII. Permissions:
Verbatim material or illustrations taken from other published sources must be accompanied by a written statement from the author, giving permission to ZUMJ for reproduction.
VIII IX. Pre-submission checklist:
When submitting the manuscript for review, the author must ensure the following:
1- A cover letter which should include:
- Request for publication in the journal
- A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, and that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met.
- The name, address, e-mail and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval.
2- Completed disclosure form for potential conflict of interest
"To download these instructions on a PDF file please click HERE"
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
- Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
- The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
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