Instructions for Authors

JOURNAL ISSN (ONLINE VERSION): 2476-0994

Our Journal makes a plagiarism checker by a certificate program.

International Journal of Medical Device and Adjuvant Treatments publishes Editorials, Reviews, Original articles/Research articles, Brief communication, Short reports, Case reports, and Scientific Correspondence on several aspects related to the development and use of medical devices, dietary supplements and/or other therapies considered as adjuvants of the traditional medical approach.

Several topics will be considered: basic research, prevention, public health, pharmacology and pharmacogenomics aspects, treatments, innovative aspects regarding diagnosis, pathology, preclinical and clinical-experimental studies.

International Journal of Medical Device and Adjuvant Treatments is particularly interested in therapies and diagnostics, including all aspects of translation medicine from bench to bedside: identification of novel therapeutic targets, epidemiology, clinical trials, drug safety, and meta-analyses. International Journal of Medical Device and Adjuvant Treatments does not accept for the publication “data not shown” or “unpublished data”.

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

This journal does not charge APCs or submission charges.

Original Articles

Format guide:
• Word limit: 3500 words (excluding the abstract and references).
• Key words (5-8 key words)
• References: 50
• Abstract: 300 words or less (Background, Patients and Methods or Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusions).
• Tables/Figures: Do not repeat the data extensively in tables or figures.

Brief Communication

Format guide:
• Word limit: 1700 words (excluding the abstract and references).
• References: 10-20.
• Abstract: Up to 75 words, unstructured
• Tables/Figures: 1 table and 2 figure.

Review Articles

Reviews should include systematic revision of the literature concerning the treated topics and preferably meta-analyses, original illustration and tables.

Format guide:
• Word limit: 4000 words (excluding the abstract and references).
• Key points should be reported on the title page in 50-words or less.
• References: unlimited.
• Abstract: Up to 200 words, unstructured.
• Tables/Figures: as necessary

Editorials

Editorials are related to articles published in IJMDAT and are usually invited.

Format guide:
• Word limit: 1400 words.
• Tables/Figures: A maximum of 1 figure or table.
• References: 15 or less.

Letter to Editor

Letters are restricted to the discussion of papers already published in IJMDAT.

Format guide:

• Word limit: 300 words.
  • Tables/Figures: A maximum of 1 figure or table.
  • References: about 10

Short Reports and Case Reports

They will be considered for publication only if of particular interest.

Format guide:

• Word limit: 1100
• Abstract must not exceed 200 words.

Manuscript Submission

Authors should submit manuscripts, including supporting documents and figures to International Journal of Medical Device and Adjuvant Treatments. Please read and apply the loading instructions given at this site, noting that all information entered during the submission process related to the manuscript should also be included, and be identical to the final submitted version of the manuscript. Please see full details under “Presentation of Manuscripts”. Papers must be submitted exclusively to the Journal, and are accepted on the understanding that they have not been, and will not be, published elsewhere. The correspondence for each article must be followed only by the corresponding author. The submission process requires a full declaration of personal interests of all Authors, and funding interests; these details should also be included in the text of the manuscript (see below).

Please note that the journal employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to the journal, you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published work.

Supporting Documents

Upon submission all manuscripts should include the following documents:

Cover Letter

The cover letter must include contact information [e-mail, addresses, telephone and fax numbers] for all authors. A corresponding and an alternate author who can be contacted if the corresponding author is unavailable must be selected.

The letter should state that all authors have contributed, read and approved the manuscript, and also that the manuscript has not been previously published nor is not being considered for publication elsewhere. The names and contact information of 3 potential unbiased reviewers must be submitted. The names of individuals whom they do not want to review their manuscript can be remarked.

Authorship

Authors must fulfill the following criteria:

• He/she must have made a substantial contribution to research design, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data;
• He/she must have drafted the paper or revised it critically;
• He/she must have given approval of the submitted and final versions

Copyright Transfer Agreement: IJMDAT Authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (click to download PDF) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the CTA is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. After submission, Authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various media/circumstances. To assist Authors, an appropriate CTA form will be supplied by the editorial office. The original completed Copyright Transfer Agreement must be signed by the corresponding Author and sent by e-mail to IJMDAT. The Editors retain the usual right to modify the style and length of a contribution (major changes being agreed with the corresponding Author) and to decide the time of publication.

Permissions

To reproduce any third party material, such as figures or tables, authors must request, obtain and show permission from the copyright holder.

A statement indicating that permission has been obtained must be included in the relevant legend/footnote.

PRESENTATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

General Information:

The manuscript should be typed with a wide margin. Authors should retain one copy of all material, as the Editors cannot accept responsibility for loss of, or damage to, a manuscript.

The text should start with a structured Abstract, not exceeding 300 words, organized into sections using all of the following headings INTRODUCTION or BACKGROUND or OBJECTIVE, PATIENTS AND METHODS or MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS.

Pages should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals, including tables, figure legends (with magnifications if needed), acknowledgments, and declaration of interests.

Abbreviations should be defined at the first use and should be kept to a minimum.

Language editing pre-submission: If English is not your first language, language editing is required before submission to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Several editing companies offer such a services.

References should be numbered in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, and should be identified in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numbers in superscript. List all the Authors. The US National Library of Medicine and used in Index Medicus applies (for more details see the section “References”). References must be verified by the Authors against the original documents.

Authors should observe the following guidelines.

1. Do not attempt to make your output approximate or match the typeset page.
2. Be consistent in style (i.e., units, abbreviations).
3. End paragraphs in a uniform manner, and in a different manner from line endings within paragraphs. A frequently used paragraph ending is simply two carriage returns.
4. Use double spacing in your document. Do not add extra line spacing (except as a normal paragraph ending indication) above or below titles, subheads, or between paragraphs.
5. Avoid using multiple spaces (horizontal) in your electronic manuscript. End sentences with only one space. Never use multiple spaces for horizontal positioning of text.
6. Tables and figure captions should be prepared in separate files. The authors have to indicate this material within the text.

Additional tables or figures and/or extra methodological detail can be included in a separate Supplementary Appendix.

Authors who want to publish in our Journal must follow the guidelines on Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE and Council of Science Editors. Moreover, for medical research involving human subjects, IJMDAT adheres to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. These guidelines aim to ensure that articles are published in a responsible and ethical manner.

Title page:

The Authors’ names, appointments and work address at the relevant time, plus the full contact details of the Corresponding Author including their current e-mail address must be reported.

A full and a short running title

Key words for indexing purposes (5-10).

Abstract:

Original article 300 words (Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions).

Brief communication 75 words, unstructured

Review 200 words, unstructured

Manuscript:

The paper should then proceed conventionally:

Introduction or Background or Objective

Materials and Methods or Patients and Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

References

All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and should be as complete as possible. In text citations should cite references in consecutive order using Arabic superscript numerals.

Complete all references as follow: list all the authors, year without month of publication, delete the number of the single issue after the volume’s number, name of the journal: write the international acronyms without any punctuation; you must put a space after semicolon and colon; moreover, initial and final pages must be entirely reported (NO 2014;2014:907-15, YES 2014; 2014: 907-915). Delete the PMID and DOI number when you have the data aforementioned.

(NO) Example 1: NAINAN OV, XIA G, VAUGHAN G, MARGOLIS HS. Diagnosis of hepatitis A virus infection: A molecular approach. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 2006:19:63-79.

(YES) Example 1: Nainan OV, Xia G, Vaughan G, Margolis HS. Diagnosis of hepatitis A virus infection: a molecular approach. Clin Microbiol Rev 2006; 19: 63-79.

(NO) Ahmad M., Esmeiran H., Alafafsheh A., Al-Ghabeesh S., Al-Hamdan Z. Beliefs and preferred communication channels toward patients with cancer in Jordan. WCRJ 2016;3(3):e753

(YES) Ahmad M, Esmeiran H, Alafafsheh A, Al-Ghabeesh S, Al-Hamdan Z. Beliefs and preferred communication channels toward patients with cancer in Jordan. WCRJ 2016; 3: e753.

See also other published articles on our website.

Illustrations and Tables 

Figure legends should be included in the main text of the manuscript and not form part of the figures. The authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible. For the accepted file format, see below:

Accepted File Formats

The figure resolution/specification for various types of original figures, at their final size, should be as follows: Line art – Minimum 600 dpi, measuring preferably 13 by 18 cm and no more than 20 by 25 cm in size. Halftone (i.e. both B/W and Colour photographs) – Minimum 300 dpi, measuring preferably 13 by 18 cm and no more than 20 by 25 cm in size. Line and tone (line art and halftone combined) – Minimum 600 dpi, measuring preferably 13 by 18 cm and no more than 20 by 25 cm in size.

For line figures, the lines should be solid, the text in a standard font and not blurred, and the overall image should be sharp and clear. Avoid using tints if possible; if they are essential to the understanding of the figure, try to make them coarse. As a guide, if the electronic files are viewed at 400% on the computer screen and they look blurred or pixelated in any way then they will NOT be of sufficient quality for printing.

Tables should be self-contained and complete; they must not duplicate the information already contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files (preferably word files), not pasted as images. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for p-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figure and table legends must be able to stand alone in the text and thus full descriptive legends for all figures and tables should be supplied.

Units and Abbreviations

All measurements should be in SI units with the exception of haemoglobin (g/dL) and blood pressure (mmHg). Original observations recorded in other units should be stated, together with the appropriate conversion factors. Standard abbreviations, without punctuation, are used. Units, Symbols and Abbreviations (1988) published by the Royal Society of Medicine, and SI: The International System of Units (1982) from HMSO both provide useful guides. Abbreviations, used sparingly, should follow the first full spelling, in parentheses. A list of abbreviations at the beginning of the article is accepted only if they are more than 8.

Genetic Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see http://varnomen.hgvs.org/, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.

Drug Names

Generic names should, in general, be used. If an Author desires, brand names may be inserted in parentheses. Drug names are spelled out according to the European Pharmacopoeia, but the American spelling should be used after the first use of a drug name.

Statistics

Methods should be referenced. Two-tailed significance tests should be used unless explicitly stated. Controls should be described as completely as experimental subjects. Measures of location should be accompanied by measures of variability (e.g. mean and confidence intervals) as well as conventional probability values. Clinical trial reports should include the power of the study design.

Ethics

An Ethics Committee should have approved human and animal studies but in questionable matters, the Editors reserve the right to reject papers.

All investigators should ensure that the planning conduct and reporting of human research are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. All authors should seek approval to conduct research from 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. Approval by a responsible review body does not preclude editors from forming their own judgment whether the conduct of the research was appropriate.

Animal Ethics

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Informed Consent

Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where authors wish to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in their publication. This is to comply with all applicable laws and regulations concerning the privacy and/or security of personal information, including, but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679.

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication.

The following statement should be included in each manuscript submitted to our journal:

Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Some considerations

• Images of patients or research subjects should not be used unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and explicit permission has been given as part of the consent.
• If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurances that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
• Formal consents are not required for the use of entirely anonymized images from which the individual cannot be identified – for example, x-rays, ultrasound images, laparoscopic images etc.
• If consent has not been obtained, it is generally not sufficient to anonymize a photograph simply by using eye bars or blurring the face of the individual concerned.

Clinical trials

All clinical trials submitted to International Journal of Medical Device and Adjuvant Treatments for consideration of publication must be registered.

For reporting Clinical Trials Conducted by Pharmaceutical Companies, please ensure that clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies follow the guidelines on Good Publication Practice.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) defines a clinical trial as “any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase 1 trials), are exempt.”

These guidelines aim to ensure that such trials are published in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines cover companies’ responsibility to endeavour to publish results of all studies, companies’ relations with investigators, measures to prevent redundant or premature publication, methods to improve trial identification, and the role of professional medical writers. When submitting your manuscript, please include the unique trial number and the name of the registry (e.g.,ClinicalTrials.gov or ISRCTN) at the end of the abstract and in your cover letter.

Plagiarism or other types of unethical publication practice

Authors who want to publish in our Journal must follow the guidelines on Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE and Council of Science Editors. These guidelines aim to ensure that articles are published in a responsible and ethical manner.

On a practical level, the first thing we do is conduct an early investigation using our anti‐plagiarism software. Our Journal makes a plagiarism checker by a certificate program on all the articles. Also, articles that are related to the suspected case of plagiarism or other unethical practice are checked accuracy by either the reviewer feedback and observations or the Editors own observations. Our anti‐plagiarism software, however, will not identify “salami slicing”. So it is imperative that each case is looked at individually and, therefore, we do not advocate the use of one statement of actions to penalize the offender. Each case is considered separately and, as editors, we will need to decide if it is a deliberate action on the part of the author or it is due to lack of understanding of the requirements of ethical writing. This can happen for new authors or some authors where translation to English is often difficult. An example of this is where there are no words/phrases in that language that translate into English, and a developing practice that we noted is the ‘borrowing’ of words, phrases or often sentences that are considered appropriate for what authors mean to say.

IJMDAT disapproves any kind of malpractice and unethical practice.

Financial support

All funding sources for the study should be reported in a separate section entitled “Funding”. This should appear before the “Acknowledgment” section.

Sources of financial support during the last two years must be acknowledged. Please read the following statements, adding those sections, which are relevant at the end of your submitted manuscript under a heading ‘Statement of Interests’.

1. Authors’ declaration of personal interests: (i) [Name of individual] has served as a speaker, a consultant and an advisory board member for [names of organizations], and has received research funding from [names of organization]. (ii) [Name of individual] is an employee of [name of organization]. (iii) [Name of individual] owns stocks and shares in [name of organization]. (iv) [Name of individual] owns patent [patent identification and brief description].
2. Declaration of funding interests: (i) This study was funded [in part or in full] by [insert name of funding organization], grant number [insert grant or other identification number]. (ii) The [writing or preparation] of this paper was funded in part by [insert name of funding organization]. (iii) Initial data analyses were undertaken by [name of individuals if not listed as Authors] who are employees of [name company] and received funding from [insert name of funding organization]. (iv) Writing support was provided by [insert name of individual(s)] of [name company] and funded by [insert name of funding organization].

Acknowledgments

Any assistance in preparing the manuscript should be stated. Personal acknowledgment should precede those of institutions of agencies.

 Revised Articles

Revised articles must be submitted again within 2 months, or else will be considered as rejected.

Galley Proofs

The corresponding Author will receive an e-mail with a pdf file of the galley proof. The galley proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Excessive changes (i.e. over 100 characters) made by the Author to the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately. Changes to figures and tables have an extra cost. Please check carefully the galley proof (especially for what concerns name of Authors, affiliations and corresponding Authors) as after its approval no further change will be possible.

Before the publication, International Journal of Medical Device and Adjuvant Treatments sends the final galley proof in which only missed misstatements in the previous galley proof can be corrected.

Preservation and Archiving

Our Journal is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and to ensure accessibility by upgrading digital file formats to comply with new technology standards. All our files are archived and preserved in CLOCKSS.