Submissions

Author Guidelines

Annals of Biomedical and Clinical Research is an international peer reviewed journal, open to all scientists dealing with all aspects of biomedical and clinical research. The journal publishes original research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, professional papers, clinical trials, preliminary communications, conference papers, case reports, brief reports, news and book reviews, letters to the editor, provided they have not been published elsewhere.

All manuscripts should be written in English. Instructions for preparation of manuscripts submitted to Annals of Biomedical and Clinical Research follows Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).

 Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to Annals of Biomedical and Clinical Research

 General Principles

The text of articles reporting original research should be divided into Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, Tables and Figures, and References sections. Other types of articles, such as meta-analyses, may require different formats, while case reports, narrative reviews, and editorials may have less structured or unstructured formats.

Manuscript should be written in English using MS Word on A4 page format with all margins of 25 mm. The fond should be used is Times New Roman, 12 pt, text should be double spaced from title page trough abstract, body text, references, acknowledgments, individual tables, and legends. All pages, beginning from Title page, should be numbered, page numbers should be in the low right corner.

Cover letter and title page, should be attached separately, and all other pages of the manuscript should be within a single document.

 Manuscript Sections

Title Page

Title page should include the article title, author information, any disclaimers, sources of support, word count, and the number of tables and figures.

Article title should provide a distilled description of the complete article. It is recommended that information about the study design be a part of the title (particularly important for randomized trials and systematic reviews and meta-analyses).

Author information should provide full first and second names of all author(s); (Each author’s highest academic degrees should be listed); the name of the department(s) and institution(s) or organizations where they work should be specified; e-mail addresses of all corresponding authors should be listed.

Disclaimers. An example of a disclaimer is an author’s statement that the views expressed in the submitted article are his or her own and not an official position of the institution or funder.

Source(s) of support. These include grants, equipment, drugs, and/or other support that facilitated conduct of the work described in the article or the writing of the article itself.

Word count. A word count should be listed for the paper’s text, excluding its abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, and references. A separate word count for the abstract should be provided.

Conflict of interest declaration. All authors should report any potential conflicts of interest (research funding, grants, sponsorship, competing interests etc.). According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): "Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author's institution) has financial (employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria and paid expert testimony) or personal relationship, academic competition or intellectual passion that inappropriately influences his actions." (available at: http:// www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-andresponsibilities/ author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html).

 Abstract

Abstract should accurately reflect the content of the article. Abstract not exceeding 250 words, should be provided on a separate sheet of paper. Original research, systematic reviews, and meta analyses require structured abstracts. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study’s purpose, methods (selection of study participants, settings, measurements, analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical and clinical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions.

Clinical trial abstracts should include items that the CONSORT group has identified as essential (http://www.consort-statement.org/resources/downloads/extensions/consort-extension-for-abstracts-2008pdf/).

The abstract should be followed by 3-10 key words for the rapid identification classification of the paper contents. In selecting the key words, the authors should strictly refer to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of the Index Medicus.

 Introduction

Provide a context or background for the study (that is, the nature of the problem and its significance). Cite only directly pertinent references, and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

At the end of the introduction, the aim and the purpose of the study should be briefly described.

Materials and methods

This section should be structured as follows:

• Subjects (if research includes human subjects) or Materials (otherwise)
• Methods
• Statistical analysis

Methods

The guiding principle of the Methods section should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. The Methods section should aim to be sufficiently detailed such that others with access to the data would be able to reproduce the results. Methods section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was being written; all information obtained during the study belongs in the Results section. If an organization was paid or otherwise contracted to help conduct the research (examples include data collection and management), then this should be detailed in the methods. The Methods section should include a statement indicating that the research was approved by an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board). If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the local, regional or national review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

 Selection and Description of Participants

Clearly describe the selection of observational or experimental participants (healthy individuals or patients, including controls), including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age, sex, or ethnicity is not always known at the time of study design, researchers should aim for inclusion of representative populations into all study types and at a minimum provide descriptive data for these and other relevant demographic variables. Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance. Authors should use neutral, precise, and respectful language to describe study participants and avoid the use of terminology that might stigmatize participants.

Technical Information

Specify the study’s main and secondary objectives— usually identified as primary and secondary outcomes. Identify methods, equipment (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods; provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well-known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give the reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Identify appropriate scientific names and gene names.

 Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to judge its appropriateness for the study and to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Continuously distributed variables should be analysed as continuous variables, artificial categorization is not recommended. Whenever possible, artificial dichotomies or categorizations should be avoided. A possible exception is if there are some difficulties to operationalize a construct as a unitary, continuous variable such as hypertension, even in this case measuring of continuous scores of systolic and diastolic blood pressure is preferable. The availability of widely used clinical cut points for a scale or measure is not an acceptable rationale for creating artificial categories in primary analysis. One-tailed hypothesis tests is not acceptable if there is a two-tailed alternative. Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as p values, which fail to convey important information about effect size and precision of estimates. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated). In the data presenting do not use pie charts. Also do not use three dimensional chart unless you don’t have more than two variables. Statistical significance should be symbolized with small letter p. Significance values should be written with an absolute number such as p=0.003 instead of p<0.05. Significance values should be rounded to three decimals, and if the p values cannot be presented with three decimals than they should be written as p<0.001. Also if significance values are 0 or 1 they should be presented as p>0 or p<1.  The rules for including or excluding variables from multivariable models should be specified by the investigators. Reasons and procedures for including or excluding covariates in multivariable models should be well justified and clearly explained. The use of automated stepwise variable selection procedures is discouraged unless the results are properly cross-validated. Automated stepwise techniques often produce wildly unreliable results. Sole reliance on p values for variable selection is not acceptable because that the practice of pre-screening covariates by choosing ones with significant univariate p values is well known to bias the results of multiple regression models. The choice of covariates should be based as much as possible on external information such as previous research and clinical knowledge. When confronted with too many predictors for the data at hand, it is recommended to eliminate redundant predictors or combine ones that are highly correlated. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the statistical software package(s) and versions used.

Results

Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat the data presented in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. Provide data on all primary and secondary outcomes identified in the Methods section. Give numeric results not only as derivatives (e.g., percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical significance attached to them, if any. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess supporting data. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. All measurement should be listed in SI units.

 Discussion

It is useful to begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings, and explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings. Emphasize the new and important aspects of your study and put your findings in the context of the totality of the relevant evidence. State the limitations of your study, and explore the implications of your findings for future research and for clinical practice or policy. Discuss the influence or association of variables, such as sex and/or gender, on your findings, where appropriate, and the limitations of the data. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the Results section. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. In particular, distinguish between clinical and statistical significance, and avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless the manuscript includes the appropriate economic data and analyses. State new hypotheses when warranted, but label them clearly.

 References

General Considerations

Authors should provide direct references to original research sources whenever possible. References should not be used by authors, editors, or peer reviewers to promote self-interests. Do not use conference abstracts as references. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming.” Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. Authors are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction. Authors can identify retracted articles in MEDLINE by searching PubMed for “Retracted publication [pt]”, where the term “pt” in square brackets stands for publication type, or by going directly to the PubMed’s list of retracted publications (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term_retracted_publication_[pt]). References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used for MEDLINE (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).

Style and Format

ABCR applies Vancouver referencing style. References should follow the standards summarized in the NLM’s International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References (http://www.nlm.nih.gov//bsd/uniform_requirements.html) webpage and detailed in the NLM’s Citing Medicine, 2nd edition (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).

Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the references by using an electronic bibliographic source, such as PubMed, or printed original articles.

Examples of most often literature citing:

Articles in journals:

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N

Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

Name all authors unless there are more than six, in which case list the first six plus et al.

Spinhoven P, Elzinga BM, Hovens JG, Roelofs K, van Oppen P, Zitman FG, et al. Positive and negative life events and personality traits in predicting course of depression and anxiety. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2011;124:462-73.

Article published electronically ahead of print version:

Cals JW, Kotz D. Effective writing and publishing scientific papers, part X: choice of journal. J Clin Epidemiol. 2013 Oct 31 [cited 2013 Nov 7]. [Epub ahead of print].

Books:

Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4. ed. St.

Louis: Mosby; 2002.

In language other than English:

Gamulin S, Marušić M, Kovač Z. et al., eds. [Patofiziologija]. 5th ed. Zagreb: Medicinska naklada; 2002. (in Croatian)

Books (editors):

Bemmel JH van, Musen MA, ed. Handbook of medical informatics. Houten/Diegem:

Springer; 1997.

Book chapter:

Hasman A. Medical imaging. In: Bemmel JH van, Musen MA, ed. Handbook of medical

informatics.Houten/Diegem: Springer, 1997; pp. 127-46.

In language other than English:

Vrkić N. [Smjernice za laboratorijsku dijagnostiku akutnog koronarnog sindroma]. In: [Dijagnostika hitnih stanja]. Topić E, ed. Zagreb: Medicinska naklada; 2006. (in Croatian)

Organisation as an author:

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Eng J Med 1997;336:309-15.

Tables

Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a title for each. Titles in tables should be short but self-explanatory, containing information that allows readers to understand the table’s content without having to go back to the text. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. Give each column a short or an abbreviated heading. Authors should place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes, and use symbols to explain information if needed. Symbols may be alphabet letters or such symbols as *, †, ‡, §. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.

Illustrations (Figures)

Digital images of manuscript illustrations should be submitted in a suitable format for print publication. For print submissions, figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed, or submitted as photographic quality digital prints. For radiological and other clinical and diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send high-resolution photographic image files. Before-and-after images should be taken with the same intensity, direction, and color of light. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should therefore be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough to remain legible when the figure is reduced for publication. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it. In the manuscript, legends for illustrations should be on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. If, for some reason, figures cannot be inserted into the manuscript file, they can be uploaded as separate electronic files. Acceptable image file formats for print publication are: *.jpg, *.bmp or *.tiff; the desired resolution is 300 dpi.

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 in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury. Hematologic, clinical chemistry measurements should be in local or International System of Units (SI). Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units.

 Abbreviations and Symbols

Use only standard abbreviations; use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement.

Supplementary material

All files that cannot be included in the manuscript files (broad tables, XML codes etc.) but are important for accurate interpretation of the presented data, can be uploaded and published as a separate electronic file. All such material has to be mentioned and referenced in the manuscript text and supplementary material has to be clearly and unambiguously connected with the respective manuscript.