Requerimientos uniformes para manuscritos biomédicos
Parte II
III.G. Electronic Publishing
Most biomedical journals are now published in electronic as well as print versions, and some are published in electronic form only. Electronic publishing (which includes the Internet) is publishing. In the interests of clarity and consistency, the medical and health information published on the Internet should follow the recommendations in this document whenever possible. The nature of electronic publication requires some special considerations, both within and beyond this document. At a minimum, websites should indicate the following: names, appropriate credentials, affiliations, and relevant conflicts of interest of editors, authors, and contributors; documentation and attribution of references and sources for all content; information about copyright; disclosure of site ownership; and disclosure of sponsorship, advertising, and commercial funding. Linking from one health or medical Internet site to another may be perceived as an implicit recommendation of the quality of the second site. Journals thus should exercise caution in linking to other sites; when users are linking to another site, it may be helpful to provide an explicit message to that they are leaving the journal’s site. If links to other sites are posted as a result of financial considerations, such should be clearly indicated. All dates of content posting and updating should be indicated. In electronic layout as in print, advertising and promotional messages should not be juxtaposed with editorial content, and commercial content should be clearly identifiable as such.
• Electronic publication is an area that is in flux. Editors should develop, make available to authors, and implement policies on issues unique to electronic publishing.
These issues include archiving, error correction, version control, and choice of the electronic or print version of the journal as the journal of record, publication of ancillary material, and electronic publication.
In no instance should a journal remove an article from its website or archive. If an article needs to be corrected or retracted, the explanation must be labeled appropriately and communicated as soon as possible on a citable page in a subsequent issue of the journal. Preservation of electronic articles in a permanent archive is essential for the historical record. Access to the archive should be immediate and it should be controlled by a third party, such as a library, instead of a publisher. Deposition in multiple archives is encouraged.
III.H. Advertising
Most medical journals carry advertising, which generates income for their publishers, but advertising must not be allowed to influence editorial decisions. Journals should have formal, explicit, written policies for advertising in both print and electronic versions; website advertising policy should parallel policy for the print version as much as possible. Editors must have full and final authority for approving advertisements and enforcing advertising policy.
Where independent bodies for reviewing advertising exist editors should make use of their judgments. Readers should be able to distinguish readily between advertising and editorial material. The juxtaposition of editorial and advertising material on the same products or subjects should be avoided. Interleafing advertising pages within articles discourages readers by interrupting the flow of editorial content, and should be discouraged. Advertising should not be sold on the condition that it will appear in the same issue as a particular article. Journals should not be dominated by advertising, but editors should be careful about publishing advertisements from only one or two advertisers, as readers may perceive that these advertisers have influenced the editor. Journals should not carry advertisements for products that have proved to be seriously harmful to health—for example, tobacco. Editors should ensure that existing regulatory or industry standards for advertisements specific to their country are enforced, or develop their own standards. The interests of organizations or agencies should not control classified and other non-display advertising, except where required by law. Finally, editors should consider all criticisms of advertisements for publication.
III. I. Medical Journals and the General Media
The public’s interest in news of medical research has led the popular media to compete vigorously to get information about research as soon as possible. Researchers and institutions sometimes encourage the reporting of research in the non-medical media before full publication in a scientific journal by holding a press conference or giving interviews.
The public is entitled to important medical information without unreasonable delay, and editors have a responsibility to play their part in this process. Biomedical journals are published primarily for their readers, but the general public has a legitimate interest in their content; an appropriate balance should therefore guide journals’ interaction with the media between these complementary interests. Doctors in practice need to have reports available in full detail before they can advise their patients about the reports’ conclusions. Moreover, media reports of scientific research before the work has been peer reviewed and fully published may lead to the dissemination of inaccurate or premature conclusions. An embargo system has been established in some countries to prevent publication of stories in the general media before the original paper on which they are based appears in the journal. The embargo creates a “level playing field,” which most reporters appreciate since it minimizes the pressure on them to publish stories which they have not had time to prepare carefully. Consistency in the timing of public release of biomedical information is also important in minimizing economic chaos, since some articles contain information that has great potential to influence financial markets. On the other hand, the embargo system has been challenged as being self-serving of journals’ interests, and impeding the rapid dissemination of scientific information.
Editors may find the following recommendations useful as they seek to establish policies on these issues.
. • Editors can foster the orderly transmission of medical information from researchers, through peer-reviewed journals, to the public. This can be accomplished by an agreement with authors that they will not publicize their work while their manuscript is under consideration or awaiting publication and an agreement with the media that they will not release stories before publication in the journal, in return for which the journal will cooperate with them in preparing accurate stories.
. • Editors need to keep in mind that an embargo system works on the honor system; no formal enforcement or policing mechanism exists. The decision of any significant number of media outlets, or of biomedical journals, not to respect the embargo system would therefore lead to its rapid dissolution.
. • Very little medical research has such clear and urgently important clinical implications for the public’s health that the news must be released before full publication in a journal. In such exceptional circumstances, however, appropriate authorities responsible for public health should make the decision and should be responsible for the advance dissemination of information to physicians and the media.
If the author and the appropriate authorities wish to have a manuscript considered by a particular journal, the editor should be consulted before any public release. If editors accept the need for immediate release, they should waive their policies limiting prepublication publicity.
• Policies designed to limit prepublication publicity should not apply to accounts in the media of presentations at scientific meetings or to the abstracts from these meetings (see Redundant Publication). Researchers who present their work at a scientific meeting should feel free to discuss their presentations with reporters, but they should be discouraged from offering more detail about their study than was presented in their talk.
• When an article is soon to be published, editors should help the media prepare accurate reports by providing news releases, answering questions, supplying advance copies of the journal, or referring reporters to the appropriate experts. Most responsible reporters find this assistance should be contingent on the media’s cooperation in timing their release of stories to coincide with the publication of the article.
• Editors, authors, and the media should apply the above stated principles to material released early in electronic versions of journals.
III.J. Obligation to Register Clinical Trials
The ICMJE believes that it is important to foster a comprehensive, publicly available database of clinical trials. The ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or concurrent comparison or control groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Medical interventions include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, process-of-care changes, and the like.
The ICMJE member journals will require, as a condition of consideration for publication in their journals, registration in a public trials registry. The details of this policy are contained in a series of editorials (see editorials). and under Frequently Asked Questions at www.icmje.org The ICMJE encourages editors of other biomedical journals to adopt similar policy.
The ICMJE does not advocate one particular registry, but its member journals will require authors to register their trial in a registry that meets several criteria. The registry must be accessible to the public at no charge. It must be open to all prospective registrants and managed by a not-for-profit organization. There must be a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data, and the registry should be electronically searchable. An acceptable registry must include at minimum the data elements in the following table. Trial registration with missing fields or fields that contain uninformative terminology is inadequate.
The ICMJE recommends that journals publish the trial registration number at the end of the Abstract. The ICMJE also recommends that, whenever a registration number is available, authors list the registration number the first time they use a trial acronym to refer to either the trial they are reporting or to other trials that they mention in the manuscript.
Minimal Registration Data Set*
Item Comment
1. 1. Unique trial The unique trial number will be established be the primary
2. 5. Primary sponsor The main entity responsible for performing the research.
3. 6. Secondary The secondary entities, if any, responsible for performing sponsor(s) the research.
4. 7. Responsible Public contact person for the trial, for patients interested in contact person participating.
5. 8. Research Person to contact for scientific inquiries about the trial. contact person 6. 9. Title of the study Brief title chosen by the research group (can be omitted if
|
number |
registering entity (the registry). |
|
2. Trial registration |
The date of registration will be established by the primary |
|
date |
registering entity. |
|
3. |
Secondary IDs |
May be assigned by sponsors or other interested parties |
|
|
(there may be none). |
|
4. |
Funding |
Name of the organization(s) that provided funding for the |
|
source(s) |
study. |
|
the researchers wish). |
|
10. Official scientific |
This title must include the name of the intervention, the |
|
title of the study |
condition being studied, and the outcome (e.g., The International Study of Digoxin and Death from Congestive Heart Failure). |
|
11. Research ethics review |
Has the study at the time of registration received appropriate ethics committee approval (yes/no)? (It is assumed that all registered trials will be approved by an ethics board before commencing.) |
|
12. Condition |
The medical condition being studied (e.g., asthma, myocardial infarction, depression). |
|
13. Intervention(s) |
A description of the study and comparison/control intervention(s) (For a drug or other product registered for public sale anywhere in the world, this is the generic name; for an unregistered drug the generic name or company serial number is acceptable). The duration of the intervention(s) must be specified. |
|
14. Key inclusion and exclusion criteria |
Key patient characteristics that determine eligibility for participation in the study. |
|
15. Study type |
Database should provide drop-down lists for selection. This would include choices for randomized vs. non-randomized, |
|
type of masking (e.g., double-blind, single-blind), type of controls (e.g., placebo, active), and group assignment, (e.g., parallel, crossover, factorial). |
|
16. Anticipated trial start date |
Estimated enrollment date of the first participant. |
|
17. Target sample |
The total number of subjects the investigators plan to enroll |
size before closing the trial to new participants.
1. 18. Recruitment Is this information available (yes/no) (If yes, link to status information).
2. 19. Primary outcome The primary outcome that the study was designed to evaluate Description should include the time at which the outcome is measured (e.g., blood pressure at 12 months)
3. 20. Key secondary The secondary outcomes specified in the protocol.
outcomes Description should include time of measurement (e.g., creatinine clearance at 6 months).
*The data fields were specified at a meeting convened by the WHO in April 2005; the explanatory comments are largely from the ICMJE.
IV. Manuscript Preparation and Submission
IV.A. Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Biomedical Journal
Editors and reviewers spend many hours reading manuscripts, and therefore appreciate receiving with manuscripts that are easy to read and edit. Much of the information in journals’ instructions to authors is designed to accomplish that goal in ways that meet each journal’s particular editorial needs. The guidance that follows provides a general background and rationale for preparing manuscripts for any journal.
IV.A.1.a. General Principles
The text of observational and experimental articles is usually (but not necessarily) divided into sections with the headings Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. This so-called “IMRAD” structure is not simply an arbitrary publication format, but rather a direct reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Long articles may need subheadings within some sections (especially the Results and Discussion sections) to clarify their content. Other types of articles, such as case reports, reviews, and editorials, are likely to need other formats.
Publication in electronic formats has created opportunities for adding details or whole sections in the electronic version only, layering information, cross-linking or extracting portions of articles, and the like. Authors need to work closely with editors in developing or using such new publication formats and should submit material for potential supplementary electronic formats for peer review.
Double spacing of all portions of the manuscript— including the title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, individual tables, and legends—and generous margins make it possible for editors and reviewers to edit the text line by line, and add comments and queries, directly on the paper copy. If manuscripts are submitted electronically, the files should be double spaced, because the manuscript may need to be printed out for reviewing and editing. During the editorial process reviewers and editors frequently need to refer to specific portions of the manuscript, which is difficult unless the pages are numbered. Authors should therefore number all of the pages of the manuscript consecutively, beginning with the title page.
IV.A.1.b. Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs
Research reports frequently omit important information. The general requirements listed in the next section relate to reporting essential elements for all study designs.
Authors are encouraged in addition to consult reporting guidelines relevant to their specific research design. For reports of randomized controlled trials authors should refer to the CONSORT statement. This guideline provides a set of recommendations comprising a list of items to report and a patient flow diagram. Reporting guidelines have also been developed for a number of other study designs that some journals may ask authors to follow (see Table: Reporting Guidelines). Authors should consult the information for authors of the journal they have chosen.
Reporting Guidelines
|
Initiative |
Type of study |
Source |
|
CONSORT |
randomized controlled trials |
http://www.consort-statement.org |
|
STARD |
studies of diagnostic accuracy |
http://www.stard-statement.org |
|
QUOROM |
systematic reviews and meta-analyses |
http://www.consort-statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf |
|
STROBE |
observational studies in epidemiology |
http://www.strobe-statement.org |
|
MOOSE |
meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology |
http://www.consort-statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf |
IV.A.2. Title Page
The title page should carry the following information:
1. The title of the article. Concise titles are easier to read than long, convoluted ones. Titles that are too short may, however, lack important information, such as study design (which is particularly important in identifying randomized controlled trials). Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.
2. 2. Authors’ names and institutional affiliations. Some journals publish each author’s highest academic degree(s), while others do not.
3. 3. The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.
4. 4. Disclaimers, if any.
5. 5. Corresponding authors. The name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript (the “corresponding author;” this author may or may not be the “guarantor” for the integrity of the study as a whole, if someone is identified in that role. The corresponding author should indicate clearly whether his or her e-mail address is to be published.
6. 6. The name and address of the author to whom requests for reprints should be addressed or a statement that reprints will not be available from the authors.
7. 7. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these.
8. 8. A running head. Some journals request a short running head or foot line, usually of no more than 40 characters (count letters and spaces) at the foot of the title page. Running heads are published in most journals, but are also sometimes used within the editorial office for filing and locating manuscripts.
9. 9. Word counts. A word count for the text only (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, figure legends, and references) allows editors and reviewers to assess whether the information contained in the paper warrants the amount of space devoted to it, and whether the submitted manuscript fits within the journal’s word limits. A separate word count for the Abstract is also useful for the same reason.
10. 10. The number of figures and tables. It is difficult for editorial staff and reviewers to tell if the figures and tables that should have accompanied a manuscript were actually included unless the numbers of figures and tables that belong to the manuscript are noted on the title page.
IV.A.3. Conflict of Interest Notification Page
To prevent the information on potential conflict of interest for authors from being overlooked or misplaced, it is necessary for that information to be part of the manuscript. It should therefore also be included on a separate page or pages immediately following the title page. However, individual journals may differ in where they ask authors to provide this information and some journals do not send information on conflicts of interest to reviewers. (See Section II.D. Conflicts of Interest)
IV.A.4. Abstract and Key Words
An abstract (requirements for length and structured format vary by journal) should follow the title page. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study’s purposes, basic procedures (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals, observational and analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Because abstracts are the only substantive portion of the article indexed in many electronic databases, and the only portion many readers read, authors need to be careful that abstracts reflect the content of the article accurately. Unfortunately, many abstracts disagree with the text of the article (6). The format required for structured abstracts differs from journal to journal, and some journals use more than one structure; authors should make it a point prepare their abstracts in the format specified by the journal they have chosen. Some journals request that, following the abstract, authors provide, and identify as such, 3 to 10 key words or short phrases that capture the main topics of the article. These will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article and may be published with the abstract. Terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be used; if suitable MeSH terms are not yet available for recently introduced terms, present terms may be used.
IV.A.5. Introduction
Provide a context or background for the study (i.e., the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objective of, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation; the research objective is often more sharply focused when stated as a question. Both the main and secondary objectives should be made clear, and any pre-specified subgroup analyses should be described. Give only strictly pertinent references and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.
IV.A.6. Methods
The Methods section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was written; all information obtained during the conduct of the study belongs in the Results section.
IV.A.6.a. Selection and Description of Participants
Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age and sex to the object of research is not always clear, authors should explain their use when they are included in a study report; for example, authors should explain why only subjects of certain ages were included or why women were excluded. The guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. When authors use variables such as race or ethnicity, they should define how they measured the variables and justify their relevance.
IV.A.6.b. Technical information
Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give 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. Authors submitting review manuscripts should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.
IV.A.6.c. Statistics
Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P values, which fails to convey important information about effect size. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated). Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used.
IV.A.7. Results
Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Extra or supplementary materials and technical detail can be placed in an appendix where it will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text; alternatively, it can be published only in the electronic version of the journal. When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as “random” (which implies a randomizing device), “normal,” “significant,” “correlations,” and “sample.” Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.
IV.A.8. Discussion
Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. For experimental studies it is useful to begin the discussion by summarizing briefly the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of the findings for future research and for clinical practice. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. In particular, authors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes the appropriate economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such.
IV.A.9. References
IV.A.9.a. General Considerations Related to References
Although references to review articles can be an efficient way of guiding readers to a body of literature, review articles do not always reflect original work accurately. Readers should therefore be provided with direct references to original research sources whenever possible. On the other hand, extensive lists of references to original work on a topic can use excessive space on the printed page. Small numbers of references to key original papers will often serve as well as more exhaustive lists, particularly since references can now be added to the electronic version of published papers, and since electronic literature searching allows readers to retrieve published literature efficiently.
Avoid using abstracts as references. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming”; authors should obtain written permission to cite such papers as well as verification that they have been accepted for publication. 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. For scientific articles, authors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication. Some journals check the accuracy of all reference citations, but not all journals do so, and citation errors sometimes appear in the published version of articles. To minimize such errors, authors should therefore verify references against the original documents. Authors are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction. For articles published in journals indexed in MEDLINE, the ICMJE considers PubMed (http://www.pubmed.gov) the authoritative source for information about retractions. Authors can identify retracted articles in MEDLINE by using the following search term, where pt in square brackets stands for publication type: Retracted publication [pt] in PubMed.
IV.A.9.b. Reference Style and Format
The Uniform Requirements style is based largely on an ANSI standard style adapted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for its databases. Authors should consult National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine/ for information on NLM’s recommended citation formats for a variety of reference types.
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 in Index Medicus. Consult the list of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE, published annually as a separate publication by the National Library of Medicine. The list can also be obtained through the Library's web site. Journals vary on whether they ask authors to cite electronic references within parentheses in the text or in numbered references following the text. Authors should consult with the journal that they plan to submit their work to.
IV.A.10. Tables
Tables capture information concisely, and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text. Type or print each table with double spacing on a separate sheet of paper. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Authors should place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations. For footnotes use the following symbols, in sequence:
*,†,‡,§,||,¶,**,††,‡‡
Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully. Additional tables containing backup data too extensive to publish in print may be appropriate for publication in the electronic version of the journal, deposited with an archival service, or made available to readers directly by the authors. In that event an appropriate statement will be added to the text. Submit such tables for consideration with the paper so that they will be available to the peer reviewers.
IV.A.11. Illustrations (Figures)
Figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed, or submitted as photographic quality digital prints. In addition to requiring a version of the figures suitable for printing, some journals now ask authors for electronic files of figures in a format (e.g., JPEG or GIF) that will produce high quality images in the web version of the journal; authors should review the images of such files on a computer screen before submitting them, to be sure they meet their own quality standard.
For x-ray films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send sharp, glossy, black-and-white or color photographic prints, usually 127 x 173 mm (5 x 7 inches). Although some journals redraw figures, many do not. Letters, numbers, and symbols on Figures should therefore be clear and even throughout, and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends, however, not on the illustrations themselves.
Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.
If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph (see Section III.D.4.a). Whenever possible permission for publication should be obtained. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.
For illustrations in color, ascertain whether the journal requires color negatives, positive transparencies, or color prints. Accompanying drawings marked to indicate the region to be reproduced might be useful to the editor. Some journals publish illustrations in color only if the author pays for the extra cost. Authors should consult the journal about requirements for figures submitted in electronic formats.
IV.A.12. Legends for Illustrations (Figures)
Type or print out legends for illustrations using double spacing, starting 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. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
IV.A.13. 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, unless other units are specifically required by the journal. Journals vary in the units they use for reporting hematological, clinical chemistry, and other measurements. Authors must consult the information for authors for the particular journal and should report laboratory information in both the local and International System of Units (SI). Editors may request that the authors before publication add alternative or non-SI units, since SI units are not universally used. Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units, but the alternative should be provided in parentheses where appropriate.
IV.A.14. Abbreviations and Symbols
Use only standard abbreviations; the use of non-standard abbreviations can be extremely confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
IV.B Sending the Manuscript to the Journal
An increasing number of journals now accept electronic submission of manuscripts, whether on disk, as attachments to electronic mail, or by downloading directly onto the journal website. Electronic submission saves time as well as postage costs, and allows the manuscript to be handled in electronic form throughout the editorial process (for example, when it is sent out for review). When submitting a manuscript electronically, authors should consult with the instructions for authors of the journal they have chosen for their manuscript. If a paper version of the manuscript is submitted, send the required number of copies of the manuscript and figures; they are all needed for peer review and editing, and editorial office staff cannot be expected to make the required copies.
Manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter, which should include the following information.
. • A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically, and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.
. • A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors’ form
. • A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work, if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and
. • The name, address, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.
The letter should give any additional information that may be helpful to the editor, such as the type or format of article in the particular journal that the manuscript represents. If the manuscript has been submitted previously to another journal, it is helpful to include the previous editor’s and reviewers’ comments with the submitted manuscript, along with the authors’ responses to those comments. Editors encourage authors to submit these previous communications and doing so may expedite the review process.
Many journals now provide a pre-submission checklist that assures that all the components of the submission have been included. Some journals now also require that authors complete checklists for reports of certain study types (e.g., the CONSORT checklist for reports of randomized controlled trials). Authors should look to see if the journal uses such checklists, and send them with the manuscript if they are requested.
Copies of any permission to reproduce published material, to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people, or to name people for their contributions must accompany the manuscript.
V. References
A. References Cited in this Document
1. 1. Davidoff F for the CSE Task Force on Authorship. . Who's the Author? Problems with Biomedical Authorship, and Some Possible Solutions. Science Editor. 2000 Jul-Aug;23 (4):111-9.
2. 2. Yank V, Rennie D. Disclosure of researcher contributions: a study of original research articles in The Lancet. Ann Intern Med. 1999 Apr 20;130(8):661-70.
3. 3. Flanagin A, Fontanarosa PB, DeAngelis CD. Authorship for research groups. JAMA. 2002;288:3166-8.
4. 4. F Godlee, T Jefferson. Peer Review in Health Sciences. London: BMJ Books, 1999.
5. 5. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA. 2000 Dec 20;284(23):3043-5.
6. 6. Pitkin RM, Branagan MA, Burmeister LF. Accuracy of data in abstracts of published research articles. JAMA. 1999 Mar 24-31;281(12):1110-1.
B. Other Sources of Information Related to Biomedical Journals
World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) www.WAME.org
Council of Science Editors (CSE) www.councilscienceeditors.org
European Association of Science Editors (EASE) www.ease.org.uk
Cochrane Collaboration www.cochrane.org
The Mulford Library, Medical College of Ohio www.mco.edu/lib/instr/libinsta.html
Committee on Publication Ethics http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/
VI. About The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) is a group of general medical journal editors whose participants meet annually and fund their work on the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts. The ICMJE invites comments on this document and suggestions for agenda items.
VII. Authors of The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
The ICMJE participating journals and organizations and their representatives who approved the revised Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts in July 2005 include Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Croatian Medical Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, The Dutch Medical Journal (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde), New England Journal of Medicine, New Zealand Medical Journal, The Lancet, The Medical Journal of Australia, Tidsskrift for Den Norske Laegeforening, Journal of the Danish Medical Association (Ugeskrift for Laeger), and the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
VIII. Use, Distribution, and Translation of the Uniform Requirements
Users may print, copy, and distribute this document without charge for not-for-profit, educational purpose. The ICMJE does not stock paper copies (reprints) of this document.
The ICMJE policy is for interested organizations to link to the official English language document at www .ICMJE.org. The ICMJE does not endorse posting of the document on web sites other than www.ICMJE.org.
The ICMJE welcomes organizations to reprint or translate this document into languages other than English for non-profit purposes. However, the ICMJE does not have the resources to translate, to back translate, or to approve reprinted or translated versions of the document. Thus, any translations should prominently include the following statement: "This is a (reprint /(insert language name) language translation) of the ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. ( insert name of organization) prepared this translation with support from ( insert name of funding source, if any). The ICMJE has neither endorsed nor approved the contents of this reprint/ translation. The ICMJE periodically updates the Uniform Requirements, so this reprint/translation prepared on ( insert date) may not accurately represent the current official version at www.ICMJE.org. The official version of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals is located at www.ICMJE.org.”
We do not require individuals or organizations that reprint or translate the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals to obtain formal, written permission from the ICMJE. However, the ICMJE requests that such individuals or organizations provide the ICMJE secretariat with the citation for that reprint or translation so that the ICMJE can keep a record of such versions of the document.
IX. Inquiries
Before sending an inquiry, please consult Frequently Asked Questions at www.icmje.org. Inquiries about the Uniform Requirements should be sent to Christine Laine, MD, MPH at the ICMJE Secretariat office, American College of Physicians, 190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572, USA. fax 215-351-2644; e-mail claine@acponline.org. Please do not direct inquiries about individual journal styles or policies to the ICMJE secretariat office. |
