| Information for contributors |
|
| |
|
 |
The Journal of Korean Medical Science(JKMS) is an
international, peer-reviewed open access journal of medicine
published monthly in English. The Journal’s publisher is the
Korean Academy of Medical Sciences (KAMS). JKMS aims
to publish evidence-based, scientific research articles from
various disciplines of the medical sciences. The Journal welcomes
articles of general interest to medical researchers especially
when they contain original information. Articles on the
clinical evaluation of drugs and other therapies, epidemiologic
studies of the general population, studies on pathogenic
organisms and toxic materials, and the toxicities and adverse
effects of therapeutics are welcome. When an article is written
in a language other than English and has not been propagated
in any international information services (abstract
journals), secondary publication of the article is negotiable.
|
|
|
|
 |
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION |
|
Authors should submit manuscripts via the electronic
manuscript management system for JKMS, http://esubmit.jkms.org. Please log in first as a member of the system and
follow the directions. Manuscripts should be submitted by
the corresponding author, who should indicate the address
and phone number for correspondence in the title page of
the manuscript. If available, a fax number and e-mail address
would be helpful. The revised manuscript should be submitted
through the same web system under the same identification
numbers.
Queries concerning manuscript submission should be directed to:
Editor-in-Chief, Professor Sung-Tae Hong through
Tel: 82-2-740-8373
Fax: 82-2-765-6142
E-Mail: jkms@kams.or.kr
Mail address: Department of Parasitology and Tropical
Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine,
#103 Daehangno, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-799, Korea
|
|
CATEGORIES OF PUBLICATIONS |
|
JKMS publishes editorials, invited review articles, special
articles, original articles, case reports, brief communications,
and correspondences.
Editorials are invited perspectives on an area of medical science,
dealing with very active fields of research, current medical
interests, fresh insights and debates.
Invited review articles provide a concise review of a subject
of importance to medical researchers written by an invited
expert in medical science.
Special articles are invited with an intention of special
introduction of medical information.
Original articles are papers reporting the results of basic and
clinical investigations that are sufficiently well documented
to be acceptable to critical readers.
Case reports deal with clinical cases of medical interest or
innovation.
Brief communications are short original research articles on
issues important to medical researchers.
Correspondence includes a reader’s comment on an article
published in JKMS and a reply from the authors.
|
|
EDITORIAL AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS |
|
JKMS reviews all manuscripts received. A manuscript is
first reviewed for its format and then sent to the 3 most relevant
investigators available for review of the contents. The
editor selects peer referees by recommendation of the Editorial
Board members or from the Board’s specialist database.
In addition, if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be
requested. Authors’ names and affiliations are removed during
peer review.
Acceptance of the manuscript is decided based
on the critiques and recommended decision of the referees. A
referee may recommend ‘‘acceptance without revision,’’ ‘‘acceptance
after minor revisions,’’ ‘‘review again after revisions,’’ or
‘‘rejection.’’ If there is a marked discrepancy in the decisions
between two referees or between the opinions of the author
and referee(s), the Editor may send the manuscript to another
referee for additional comments and a recommended decision.
Three repeated decisions of ‘‘review again after revision’’ are
regarded as a ‘‘rejection.’’ The reviewed manuscripts are returned
back to the corresponding author with comments and
recommended revisions. Names and decisions of the referees
are masked. A final decision on acceptance for publication or
rejection for publication is forwarded to the corresponding
author from the Editorial Office.
The usual reasons for rejection
are topics that are too specific and target an audience
that is too limited, insufficient originality, serious scientific
flaws, poor quality of illustrations, or absence of a message
that might be important to readers. Rarity of a disease condition
is itself not an acceptable justification for a case report.
The peer review process takes usually four to eight weeks
after the manuscript submission.
Revisions are usually requested to take account of criticisms
and comments made by referees. The revised manuscript should
be resubmitted via the web system. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 2 months without any notice from
the corresponding author is regarded as a withdrawal. The
corresponding author must indicate clearly what alterations
have been made in response to the referee’s comments point
by point. Acceptable reasons should be given for noncompliance
with any recommendation of the referees.
|
|
EDITORIAL POLICY |
|
The Editor assumes that all authors listed in a manuscript
have agreed with the following policy of JKMS on submission
of manuscripts. Except for the negotiated secondary publication,
manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be previously
unpublished and not be under consideration for publication
elsewhere. Under any circumstances, the identities
of the referees will not be revealed.
If a new author should be
added or an author should be deleted after the submission,
it is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure
that the authors concerned are aware of and agree to the change
in authorship. JKMS has no responsibility for such changes.
Minimum page charges and additional fees for reprints will
be due for every manuscript. Costs for printing color illustrations
are charged to the authors. All published manuscripts
become the permanent property of the KAMS and may not
be published elsewhere without written permission.
|
|
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS |
|
Research Ethics
All of the manuscripts should be prepared in strict observation
of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended
by the Council of Science Editors, International Committee
of Medical Journal Editors, World Association of Medical
Editors, and the Korean Association of Medical Journal
Editors. Any study including human subjects or human data
must be reviewed and approved by a responsible institutional
review board (IRB). Please refer to the principles embodied
in the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm) for all investigations involving human materials.
Animal experiments also should be reviewed by an appropriate
committee (IACUC) for the care and use of animals.
Also studies with pathogens requiring a high degree of biosafety
should pass review of a relevant committee (IBC). The
editor of JKMS may request submission of copies of informed
consents from human subjects in clinical studies or IRB approval
documents.
Conflict of Interest
The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the Editor of the authors’ potential conflicts of interest possibly
influencing their interpretation of data. A potential conflict
of interest should be disclosed in the cover letter even
when the authors are confident that their judgments have
not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. Such conflicts
may be financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical
companies, political pressure from interest groups,
or academic problems. Disclosure form shall be same with
ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of
Interest (http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf). The Editor
will decide whether the information on the conflict should
be included in the published paper. Before publishing such
information, the Editor will consult with the corresponding
author. In particular, all sources of funding for a study should
be explicitly stated. The JKMS asks referees to let its Editor
know of any conflict of interest before reviewing a particular
manuscript.
Authorship
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions
to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis
and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising
it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final
approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet
conditions 1, 2, and 3.
When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work,
the group should identify the individuals who accept direct
responsibility for the manuscript. When submitting a manuscript
authored by a group, the corresponding author should
clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual
authors as well as the group name. Journals generally list
other members of the group in the Acknowledgments. Acquisition
of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of
the research group alone does not constitute authorship.
Redundant Publication and Plagiarism
Redundant publication is defined as ‘‘reporting (publishing
or attempting to publish) substantially the same work more
than once, without attribution of the original source(s)’’. Characteristics
of reports that are substantially similar include the
following: (a) ‘‘at least one of the authors must be common
to all reports (if there are no common authors, it is more likely
plagiarism than redundant publication),’’ (b) ‘‘the subject
or study populations are often the same or similar,’’ (c) ‘‘the
methodology is typically identical or nearly so,’’ and (d) ‘‘the
results and their interpretation generally vary little, if at all.’’
When submitting a manuscript, authors should include a
letter informing the editor of any potential overlap with other
already published material or material being evaluated for
publication and should also state how the manuscript submitted
to JKMS differs substantially from this other material.
EDITORIAL POLICY
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
If all or part of your patient population was previously reported,
this should be mentioned in the Materials and Methods,
with citation of the appropriate reference(s).
Obligation to register clinical trial
Clinical trial defined as ‘‘any research project that prospectively
assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison
groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between
a medical intervention and a health outcome’’ should be registered
to the primary registry to be prior publication. JKMS
accepts the registration in any of the primary registries that
participate in the WHO International Clinical Trials Portal (see http://www.who.int/ictrp/about/details/en/index.html) as well as www.actr.org.au, www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.ISRCTN.org, www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm and www.trialregister.nl. The clinical trial registration number shall be
published at the end of the abstract.
|
|
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMAT |
|
1. Original Articles
The manuscript should be prepared according to ‘‘Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals’’
(2008) (http://www.icmje.org).
In addition to the Uniform Requirements, a number of reporting guidelines have been developed by groups of experts to facilitate reporting of research studies or clinical trials (http://www.equator-network.org/resource-centre/library-of-health-research-reporting/library/). The JKMS requires compliance with some or all of the following reporting guidelines:
CONSORT Statement (reporting of randomized controlled trials)
STARD (reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies)
STROBE (reporting of observational studies in epidemiology)
QUOROM, recently renamed PRISMA (reporting of systematic reviews)
MOOSE (reporting of meta-analyses of observational studies)
All materials must be written in proper and clear English.
The manuscript including tables and their footnotes, and figure
legends, must be typed in one double space. Materials
should be prepared with a standard 12-point font. The manuscript
should be in the following sequence: title page, abstract
and key words, introduction, materials and methods, results,
discussion, acknowledgments, references, tables, and figure
legends. All pages should be numbered consecutively starting
from the title page. All numbers should be written in
Arabic numerals throughout the manuscripts except for the
first word of a sentence.
Our preferred file type for new manuscript submissions is
Adobe Acrobat portable document format (.PDF) with all
figures inserted in the same document. We will also accept
Microsoft Office Word (DOC), WordPerfect (.WPD), and
text (.TXT) documents or (.RTF) file format. Acceptable formats
for pictures, photos, and figures are PDF, DOC, PPT,
JPG, GIF, TIF, and BMP.
You may either insert figures in the text file or upload your
figures separately. It is permissible to send low-resolution
images for peer review, although we may ask for high-resolution
files later.
Title Page:
The title page should contain the title of an article, full
names of authors, and institutional affiliation(s). If several
authors and institutions are listed, it should be clearly indicated
with which department and institution each author is
affiliated by using superscript numbers in sequence. In a separate
paragraph, an address for correspondence, including the
name of corresponding author, academic degree, address (institutional
affiliation, city, zip code and country), telephone and
fax numbers, and email address (if present), should be given.
Information concerning sources of financial support should
be placed as a footnote. The running title of less than 10 words
should not be a declarative or interrogative sentence. One
original article should not exceed these maximums: word
count from introduction to conclusion, 5,500 words; number
of references, 30; number of figure parts, 10; number of
tables, 5. Any article longer than these limits should be discussed
with the editor.
Abstract and Key Words:
The abstract should be concise, less than 200 words, and
describe concisely, in a paragraph the purpose, methods, important
results, and derived conclusions of the study in an
unstructured format. Abbreviations, if needed, should be kept
to an absolute minimum with proper identifications. Up to
10 key words should be listed at the end of the abstract to
be used as index terms. For the selection of key words, refer
to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Index Medicus, or
at the internet site, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.
Introduction:
A brief background, references to the most pertinent papers
general enough to inform readers, and the relevant findings
of others should be included. The specific question that
the authors’ particular investigation studied should also be
stated.
Materials and Methods:
The explanation of the experimental methods should be concise
and sufficient for repetition by other qualified investiga-
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMAT
tors. Procedures that have been published previously should
not be described in detail. However, new or significant modifications
of previously published procedures need full descriptions.
Clinical studies or experiments using laboratory animals
or pathogens should mention approval of the studies by
relevant committees in this section. The sources of special
chemicals or preparations should be given along with their
location (name of company, city and state, and country). Method
of statistical analyses and the criteria for determining
significance levels should be described.
Results:
This section should be presented logically using text, tables
and illustrations. Excessive repetition of table or figure contents
should be avoided.
Discussion:
The data should be interpreted concisely without repeating
materials already presented in the results section. Speculation
is permitted, but it must be directly supported by the presented
data of the authors and be well founded.
Acknowledgments:
All persons who have made substantial contribution, but
who are not eligible as authors should be named in the acknowledgments.
References:
Citation of references in the text should be made by giving
consecutive numbers in parenthesis (Vancouver style). They
should be listed in the order of citation in the text with consecutive
numbers in this separate section. The style for citing
papers in periodicals is: name and initials of all authors,
full title of article, journal name abbreviated in accordance
with Index Medicus, year, volume, and first and last page
numbers. The style for a chapter of a book is: author and title
of the chapter, editor of the book, title of the book, edition,
volume, place, publisher, year, and first and last page numbers.
All other references should be listed as shown in the
‘‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical
Journals’’ (2008). Authors are responsible for the accuracy
and completeness of their references and correct text citations.
Papers in press may be listed among the references with
the journal name and tentative year of publication. Unpublished
data or personal communications can be listed only
with the author’s written permission. The maximum number
of cited references should be 30.
Examples of Reference Style:
1. Park MS, Chung SY, Chang Y, Kim K. Physical activity
and physical fitness as predictors of all-cause mortality in
Korean men. J Korean Med Sci 2009; 24: 13-9.
2. Floch MH. Probiotics, probiotics and dietary fiber. In: Buchman
A, editor, Clinical nutrition: a guide for gastroenterologists.
Thorofare, NJ: Slack Incorporated, 2005, p18-
24.
3. WHO. WHO statistical information system. Available at http://www.who.int/whosis/en/menu.cfm [accessed on 1 April 2009].
Tables and Figures:
Tables and figures should be submitted separately from the
text, and figure legends should be typed on separate sheets.
Tables should be simple and should not duplicate information
in figures. Title all tables and number them with Arabic
numerals in the order of their citation. Type each table
on a separate sheet. Explain all abbreviations. Each column
should have an appropriate heading, and if numerical measurements
are given, the unit should be added to column
headings. The significance of results should be indicated by
appropriate statistical analysis. Table footnotes should be indicated
with superscript symbols in sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡. All
units of measurements and concentrations should be designated.
Exponential terminology is discouraged. Flow diagram
and complex biochemical structures should be prepared professionally.
Graphics should be used only when a relevant point
needs illustration. X-ray films or Polaroid photographs are
not acceptable. Except for especially complicated drawings,
which show a large amount of data, all figures are published
in one-page or one column width. When the figures are reduced
to the size of a single-column or of a single-page width,
the smallest parts of the figure must be legible.
Points of observation should be noted with different symbols
rather than with different types of lines and their significance
can be directly shown in the body of the figure or in
the legend. If a figure contains a left- or right-hand ordinate,
explanation of the left ordinate should read in the upward
direction and that of the latter should read downward.
All photographs should be of the highest quality. The preferred
size of photograph is 8×8 cm, but one-page width
(16.5 cm in width ×8 cm in length) is also acceptable. The
entire expense of reproducing color photographs will be charged
to the author. The author is responsible for submitting
figure files that are of sufficient quality to permit accurate
reproduction, and for approving the final color galley proof.
All photographs should be correctly exposed, sharply focused,
and prepared in files of 500 dpi or more. The JKMS assumes
no responsibility for the quality of the photographs as they
appear in the Journal. Current estimates for color reproduction
can be obtained from the Editorial Office. The figure
numbers, in Arabic numerals, should appear in figure legends.
Multiple figures under one figure number should be
marked on the photographs using capital alphabet letters,
at the lower right corner. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in
photographs should contrast well with background. The legend
for each light microscopic photographs should include
names of stain and magnification. Electron microscopic photographs
should have an internal scale marker. All kinds of
figures may be reduced, enlarged or trimmed for publication
by the Editor.
All the legends for figures should be typewritten in double
space. Do not use separate sheets for each legend. Figure
legends should describe briefly the data shown, explain any
abbreviations or reference points in the photographs, and identify
all units, mathematical expressions, abscissas, ordinates,
and symbols. Maximum length, 40 words.
Abbreviations. Except for units of measurement, abbreviations
are strongly discouraged. Do not use abbreviations in
the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Expand all
abbreviations at first mention in the text.
Units of Measurement. Laboratory values are expressed
using conventional units of measure, with relevant Syste$me
International (SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in
parentheses) only at first mention. Figures and tables should
use conventional units, with conversion factors given in legends
or footnotes. The metric system is preferred for the expression
of length, area, mass, and volume.
Names of Drugs, Devices, and Other Products. Generic
names should be used. When proprietary brands are used
in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer
in parentheses after the first mention of the generic
name in the Methods section.
Gene Names, Symbols, and Accession Numbers. Authors
describing genes or related structures in a manuscript
should include the names and official symbols provided by
the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee.
2. Invited Review Articles and Special Articles
Review or special articles are generally prepared in the same
format as original articles, but the details of manuscript format
may be flexible according to the contents. The articles
should not exceed the following maximums: one paragraph
abstract, 200 words; word count from introduction to conclusion,
6,500 words; number of references, 100; number of figure
parts, 24; number of tables, 4. Review articles are accepted
after editorial evaluation.
3. Case Reports
The manuscript should be in the following sequence: title
page, abstract and key words, introduction, case report, discussion,
acknowledgments, references, figures and figure legends.
Maximums: one-paragraph unstructured abstract, 150
words; word count from Introduction through Discussion,
1,500 words; number of references, 20; number of figure parts,
6; no tables.
4. Brief Communications
A brief communication manuscript should be prepared in
the following sequence: title page, abstract and key words,
text without section titles, acknowledgments, references,
and figures or tables. Maximums: one-paragraph unstructured
abstract, 150 words; word counts of the text, 1,500
words; number of references, 20; number of figure parts, 2;
table, 1.
5. Editorials and Correspondences
An abstract is not required, and a brief text should be prepared
with references. Maximum word count of the text is
1,000.
|
|
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPTS |
|
When you prepare a revised version of your manuscript, you
should carefully follow the instructions given in the editor’s
letter. Please submit an annotated copy describing the changes
you have made. Failure to do so will cause a delay in the review
of your revision. If references, tables, or figures are moved,
added, or deleted during the revision process, renumber them
to reflect such changes so that all tables, references and figures
are cited in numeric order.
The annotated copy should have changes highlighted (either
by using the Track Changes function in MS Word or by highlighting
or underlining the text) with notes in the text referring
to the editor or reviewer query.
|
|
FIGURES AND TABLES FOR ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS |
|
Graphs and illustrations: Graphs, illustrations, and drawings
rendered in professional graphics programs should be
submitted in Photoshop (.PSD), TIFF, or encapsulated Postscript
(.EPS) format at 300 dpi. Layers should be retained
(ie, do not ‘‘flatten’’ the image). If the graph or illustration
was created in MS Excel or Word, we recommend that you
submit the original file in the native format (.XLS for Excel,
.DOC for MS Word). Files created by vector programs are best
for accurately plotting and maintaining data points. Graphs,
charts, and diagrams may be imported or copy/pasted into
applications such as MS Word or PowerPoint for labeling and
formatting, but must be accompanied by vector files created
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF REVISED
MANUSCRIPTS
FIGURES AND TABLES FOR ACCEPTED
MANUSCRIPTS
by the statistical software application. Preferred file formats
(vector files): AI, EMF, EPS, PDF, WMF, XLS.
Electronic photographs-photomicrographs, electron micrographs,
Western blots, radiographic images, ECG and EEG
tracings, and so on-and scanned images must have a resolution
of at least 300 dpi. If fonts are used in the artwork, they
must be converted to paths or outlines or they must be embedded
in the files. Color images must be created/scanned and
saved and submitted as CMYK files. Send the electronic original
with appropriate labeling and arrows. The following formats
are preferred for submission of digital files of photographic
images: EPS, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop, JPEG (use only the
maximum quality compression setting).
Color is acceptable for charts and graphs. Do not use patterns
or textures; use of three-dimensional graphs is discouraged
unless all three axes are needed to depict data.
Symbols (e.g., circles, triangles, squares), letters (e.g., words,
abbreviations), and numbers should be large enough to be
legible on reduction to the journal’s column widths. All symbols
must be defined in the figure caption. If the symbols
are too complex to appear in the caption, they should appear
on the illustration itself, within the area of the graph or diagram,
not to the side.
|
|
AUTHOR'S MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST |
|
1. Double-spaced typing with 12-point font.
2. Sequence of title page, abstract and keywords, introduction,
materials and methods, results, discussion, references,
and tables and figure legends. All pages should
be numbered consecutively starting from the title page.
3. Title page with article title, authors’ full name(s) and
affiliation, address for correspondence (including telephone
and fax numbers and e-mail address), running
title (less than 10 words), and footnotes or acknowledgments,
if any.
4. Abstract in unstructured format of 200 words maximum
for original or review articles, and key words as
in MeSH.
5. On the title page, include a word count for text only,
exclusive of title, abstract, references, tables, and figure
legends.
6. All tables and figure numbers should be found in the
text.
7. References listed in a proper format. Check that all references
listed in the references section are cited in the
text and vice versa.
8. A covering letter stating the material has not been published
previously, and will not be submitted for publication
elsewhere, and stating conflicts of interest of
all listed authors, if any.
9. Include a title for each table and figure (a brief phrase
no longer than 10 to 15 words) and explanatory legend
as needed.
10. Have each author read the manuscript and agree with
this submission.
|
|
GALLEY PROOF |
|
JKMS provides the corresponding author with galley proofs
for their correction. Corresponding authors will receive electronic
page proofs to check the copyedited and typeset article
before publication. Portable document format (PDF) files of
the typeset pages and support documents (e.g., reprint order
form) will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail. Complete
instructions will be provided with the e-mail for downloading
and printing the files and for faxing the corrected
page proofs to the publisher. Those authors without an e-mail
address will receive traditional page proofs.
Corrections should be kept to minimum. The Editor retains
the prerogative to question minor stylistic alterations and
major alterations that might affect the scientific content of
the paper. Authors may be charged for alterations to the proofs
beyond those required to correct errors or to answer queries.
Any fault found after the publication is the responsibility of
the authors. We urge our contributors to proofread their accepted
manuscripts very carefully. The corresponding author
may be contacted by the Editorial Office, depending on the
nature of the correction in the proof. If the proof is not returned
or faxed to the Editorial Office within 48 hours, it may be
necessary to reschedule the paper for a subsequent issue.
|
|
REPRINTS |
|
Authors will receive a reprint order form and a price list
with the page proofs. Reprint requests should be faxed to
the publisher with the corrected proofs, if possible. Reprints
are normally delivered 4 weeks after publication of the issue
in which the item appears. Contact the publishing company,
Academya, 316 Yangjae-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul 137-130,
Korea (academya@korea.com, phone 822-576-0922, fax 822-577-8091), with any questions.
|
|
COPYRIGHT |
|
All authors must sign a copy of the Journal’s ‘‘Authorship
Responsibility and License Agreement’’ form and submit it
at the time of manuscript submission or fax a copy to 822-
765-6142. For the copyrights of the contributions published
in JKMS see Creative Commons (Attribution-Noncommercial)
at http://creativecommons.org.
|
|
|
