Journals

Cover Letter

In the cover letter, authors should provide a brief statement about the main findings in the manuscript as well as why it is important that it be published. In addition, authors must explicitly assert that the submitted manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere nor has been previously published in whole or in part.

The cover letter must also list any equity interests or intellectual property rights that are directly related or relevant to the manuscript, as further described in the Acknowledgments section.

English Standard

Only manuscripts written clearly in English will be considered for review. Authors who are non-native English speakers should have their manuscripts checked and edited by a qualified native English speaker and submit a certification of English editing with their manuscript.

Style and Format

All manuscripts must be written in British or American English (but not a mixture of the two). Manuscripts should be prepared using Microsoft Word. Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times New Roman) for text. A manuscript file should include page numbers and continuous line numbers from the title page.

For Original articles, Case Reports, Reviews and Special Articles, the manuscript should be constructed in the following order:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Main text
• Acknowledgments
• Conflict of Interest
• References
• Tables
• Figures
• CONSORT checklist*
• PRISMA checklist**

*Manuscripts reporting the results of Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 randomized controlled trials must submit a CONSORT checklist and flow diagram after the Figures.
**Manuscripts reporting the results of systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines and must submit a PRISMA checklist.

Scientific terms should be consistent with Index Medicus and the following conventions used:

• All numbers should be expressed as Arabic numerals.
• All measurements should be expressed in System International (SI) units, such as mm, cm, m, mL, L, g, kg, cm2, s, etc.

Names of specific equipment or drugs should be presented as follows:
Equipment:
Generic name (manufacturer name; product name)
e.g., MRI (Siemens Co., Ltd.; Magnetom)
Drugs:
Generic name (product name®)
e.g., eperisone hydrochloride (Myonal®).

Title Page

The title page should include:

• The manuscript type (Original Article, Case Report, Review, Invited Review, Special Article, Editorial)
• A concise and informative article title (150 characters maximum, including spaces)
• The names, affiliations, academic degrees and/or certifications (e.g., MD, PhD, RPT, RN) of all authors
• The email address, postal address, and telephone number(s) of the corresponding author
• A running title (60 characters maximum, including spaces)
• Keywords (3–5 alphabetically keywords). Suggested keywords should not repeat words in the manuscript title.
• If available, the 16-digit ORCID iDs of each authors.

Abstract

The second page should contain an Abstract of no more than 250 words, which should be structured and should not contain abbreviations that are not commonly known in the field.

For Original Articles, the structure should be defined by the headings Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. For Case Reports, use the headings Background, Case, and Discussion.

Main Text

The main text should be less than 4,500 words without the Abstract and the References. Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Reviews and Special Articles should not exceed 6,000 words without the references.

Editorials should not exceed 1,000 words without the references.

For Original Articles, use the headings Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. For Case Reports, Introduction, Case, and Discussion.

In relevant manuscripts, statements on Human/Animal Experimentation, Informed Consent, and/or Clinical Trial Registration must be provided in the Materials and Methods section.

Acknowledgments

Funding sources and corporate or institutional associations must be acknowledged at the end of the main text before the reference list. Please include any relevant grant numbers.

In the cover letter accompanying the manuscript, provide the names of associations, consultancies, individual philanthropists, stock ownership, or other equity interest (e.g., patent or licensing arrangements). If the manuscript is accepted for publication, disclosure of this information will be discussed with the authors.

Conflict of Interest Statement

A COI disclosure statement in the style, substance, and format described in the Conflict of Interest section must be included at the end of the main text before the reference list.

References

The journal uses a modified Vancouver style. References should be numbered consecutively in the citation order in the text and indicated by a superscript Arabic numeral.

Abbreviations of the titles of medical periodicals should conform to those in the latest edition of Index Medicus. Please list the names of all authors in the References list.

When a book is referenced, the names of the editors and the chapter authors should also be provided in addition to the title of the book.

For non-English articles, the relevant information (e.g., journal name, article title, author names) should be translated into English. The original language should be mentioned in brackets after the title of the article.

Reference style examples:

Journal article
(1) Gorter JW, Rosenbaum PL, Hanna SE, Palisano RJ, Bartlett DJ, Russell DJ, Walter SD, Raina P, Galuppi BE, Wood E: Limb distribution, motor impairment, and functional classification of cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol 2004;46:461–467.

Online-only journal article
(2) Mitchell AJ, Vaze A, Rao S. Clinical diagnosis of depression in primary care: a meta- analysis. Lancet. 2009. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60879-5.

Book
(3) Liu M, Ishigami S: Toward future research. In Functional Evaluation of Stroke Patients (eds. Chino N, Melvin JL). Springer Verlag, Tokyo, 1996;125–142.

Book chapter
(4) Lefor AT, Flowers JL, Bailey RW. Laparoscopy in gastrointestinal malignancies. In: Wanebo HJ, editor. Surgery for gastrointestinal cancer: a multidisciplinary approach. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven Publisher; 1997. pp. 145–159.

Non-English article
(5) Aoki M, Sasaki R, Moriizumi S, Toki M, Murakami T, Ishiai S: Rehabilitation of auditory agnosia for bilateral thalamic hemorrhage: a case report [in Japanese]. Jpn J Rehabil Med 2011;48:666–670.

Online document
(6) Doe J. Title of subordinate document. In: The dictionary of substances and their effects. Royal Society of Chemistry. 1999. http://www.rsc.org/dose/title of subordinate document. Accessed 15 Jan 1999.

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Tables and Figures

Table and Figure legends should be placed separately and consecutively after the References section. The total number of figures and tables should not exceed ten.

The Tables and then Figures themselves should then follow, and be consecutively numbered using Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…). For initial submission, Tables and Figures can be included in the same file as the main text or be submitted separately and must be of sufficient clarity and resolution for peer review to be undertaken. If files are submitted separately, the submission system will automatically prepare a single PDF for review purposes, which can be verified during the submission process.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, separate files for figures will need to be supplied. For the production process, figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi for color and 600 dpi for monochrome.