Instructions to Authors

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING

Manuscript format must be in accordance with the http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/. Papers that do not comply with the format of the journal will be returned to the author for correction without further review. Therefore, to avoid loss of time and work, authors must carefully review the submission rules.

General Format

The manuscript should be typed in a Microsoft Word™ file, single-column format, double-spaced with 2.5 cm margins on each side, and 11-point type in Times New Roman font. 

All abbreviations in the text must be defined the first time they are used (both in the abstract and the main text), and the abbreviations should be displayed in parentheses after the definition. Abbreviations should be limited to those defined in the AMA Manual of Style, current edition. Authors should avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract and limit their use in the main text.

Article Type

Identification of article type is the first step of manuscript submission because article type dictates the guidelines that should be used (see below, Using Guidelines), including formatting and word limits of the manuscript. The main categories of article type are outlined below:

Original Article: Original contributions are manuscripts containing substantial novel research. These articles can include randomized controlled trials, observational (cohort, case-control or cross-sectional) studies, descriptive studies, diagnostic accuracy studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, nonrandomized behavioral and public health intervention trials, experimental animal trials, or any other clinical or experimental studies. Abstracts should not exceed 400 words and should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Study Design (Background, method, results, conclusion, randomized controlled trial, diagnostic accuracy study, meta-analysis and systemic review, animal experimentation, non-randomized study in behavioral sciences and public health, etc.), Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The main text should be structured with the following subheadings: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, and Figure Legends. The main text should not exceed 4000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. There should be a maximum of 35 references. All papers require ethical approval.

Brief Reports: Brief reports are short and peer-reviewed articles including small case series, negative trials, the preliminary results and others that are not to be published as a full text paper. The main text should be less than 2000 words with a maximum 20 references and have no more than 3 display items (Tables or figures). Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and should be structured with the following subheadings: Aims, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. All papers require ethical approval.

Invited Review Article: Invited review articles are comprehensive analyses of specific topics in medicine, which are written upon invitation due to extensive experience and publications of authors on the review subjects. All invited review articles will also undergo peer review prior to acceptance. Review articles must not exceed 5000 words for the main text (excluding references, tables, and figure legends) and 400 words for the abstract. A review article can be signed by no more than 5 authors and can have no more than 80 references.

Case Report: Interesting rare cases containing a substantial novel finding can be reported. Cases should be unique, representing a diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and having a learning point for the readers. Abstracts of case reports should mainly include information about the case and should be limited to a maximum of 250 words. The abstract must begin on a separate page and should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Case Report and Conclusion. The main text of case reports should be structured with the following subheadings: Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, and References. Case reports must not exceed 1200 words (excluding references, tables, and figure legends). Case reports can be signed by no more than 5 authors and can have no more than 10 references and 5 figures or tables.

Clinical Image: For educational purposes, the journal publishes original, interesting, and high-quality clinical images having a brief explanation (maximum 500 words excluding references but including figure legends) and of educational significance. The figure legend should contain no more than 100 words. It can be signed by no more than 5 authors and can have no more than 5 references and 1 figure or table. Any information that might identify the patient or hospital, including the date, should be removed from the image. An abstract is not required with this type of manuscripts. The main text of clinical images should be structured with the following subheadings: Case, and References.

Letter to the Editor: Letters in reference to a journal article must not exceed 500 words (excluding references). Letters not related to a journal article must also not exceed 500 words (excluding references). An abstract is not required with this type of manuscripts. A letter can be signed by no more than 4 authors and can have no more than 5 references and 1 figure or table. Authors might be asked for a reply to the letter. Replies must be submitted through submission system as well.

Editorial Comment: Editorial comments are a brief remark on an article published in the journal by the reviewer of the article or by a relevant authority. Most comments are invited by the Editor-in-Chief but spontaneous comments are welcome. It must not exceed 700 words (excluding references). An abstract is not required with this type of manuscripts. It can have no more than 15 references and 1 figure or table.

Other: Editorials, editorial comments, book reviews, and reports on publication and research ethics are requested by the Editorial Board.

1This should not include the abstract, references, tables or figure legends.;

2This should include the figure legends.

3This should not include the references.

4Should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Study Design, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

5Should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Case Report and Conclusion.

6If a reasonable explanation exists, the Editorial Board may accept not to limit the number of authors.

Clinical Trials and Reporting Guidelines

Hamidiye Medical Journal encourages the registration of all clinical trials via ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) or one of the registries of the WHO’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP: http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/index.html). Especially the phase 3 clinical trials must be registered at or before the time of first patient enrollment. The name of the registry and the registration number together with the information of funding source should be provided at the end of the abstract.

Data Sharing

Hamidiye Medical Journal follows ICMJE recommendations. The ICMJE require authors to submit a data-sharing statement for randomized clinical trials. Authors must provide a data-sharing notification to indicate whether data will be shared. According to ICMJE “Data sharing statements must indicate the following: whether individual deidentified participant data (including data dictionaries) will be shared; what data in particular will be shared; whether additional, related documents will be available (e.g., study protocol, statistical analysis plan, etc.); when the data will become available and for how long; by what access criteria data will be shared (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism)” (for details: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html. Hamidiye Medical Journal require authors to submit a data-sharing statement and register a data-sharing plan when registering a clinical trial on or after Jan 1, 2019.

Authors should also refer to the guidelines below when preparing their manuscript:

For further information on the reporting guidelines for health research, authors are suggested to refer to the EQUATOR network website (http://www.equator-network.org/)

PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF A MANUSCRIPT

The entire submission process for a manuscript is completed online through the self-explanatory online submission system through the following website: http://jag.journalagent.com/hamidiyemedj/

Please be informed that we will ask you to suggest two potential reviewers during the manuscript submission process. The submission should be divided into SEPARATE files in the following order:

1. Cover Letter

2. Title Page 

3. Main Document (Main text, references, tables, and figure legends. Abstract of the manuscript should be submitted through the submission system)

4. Figures

5. Authorship Contributions Form

6. Copyright Agreement Form

7. The ICMJE Conflict of Interest Form

Cover Letter

The cover letter should include the article title, article type, and the full name of the corresponding author. The corresponding author should briefly summarize why his/her paper is a valuable addition to the scientific literature and specify the type of article he/she is submitting (for example, original article, case report, review article, clinical image). The cover letter should also include a statement declaring the absence or presence of a conflict of interest (please refer to the ICMJE Conflict of Interest formpage for details). Furthermore, there should be a statement that the manuscript has not already been published, accepted or under simultaneous review for publication elsewhere. Hamidiye Medical Journal does not accept multiple submission and duplicate submission even though the previous one was published in a different language. Please refer to the editorial on this subject for more details. For manuscripts that have been presented orally or as a poster, this must be stated on the title page with the date and the place of the presentation. An example of a cover letter can be found on the journal’s webpage.

Title Page

This should include: The complete manuscript title (no more than 150 characters) The running head (no more than 50 characters) Word counts for the abstract and text (the text word count does not include references, tables, and figure legends) The number of references, and the number of figures and tables All authors’ full names, affiliations and e-mail addresses (all authors should meet the ICMJE’s requirements for authorship – see details at “author contribution form” The name, address, telephone and fax numbers and email address of the corresponding author Keywords (3-6 keywords from the list provided in Index Medicus under “Medical Subject Heading (MeSH)” Information about where and when the study has previously been presented.
Acknowledgements: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship (ICMJE: authorship and contributorship) and the statement of conflict of interest and funding should be declared under this subheading. Additionally, in this section, the names of our professors who are members of the board can be mentioned with a note of gratitude.

Abstracts

Original articles, invited review articles and case reports should include an abstract. Abstracts for original articles should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. Abstracts for case reports should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Case Report, and Conclusion. Abstracts for review articles should not be structured. Clinical images, Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and Commentaries should not contain an abstract. Please find the guidelines for abstracts of specific types of manuscripts under the Main Text section below.

Main Document

The main document should include the main text, the reference list, tables, and figure legends, respectively.

Any information that may indicate an individual or institution should be excluded from the main document to ensure a blinded review process.

Please note, the abstract should be submitted through the submission system and should not be included in the main document. The formats of the abstract and the main text depend on the type of the submitted manuscript. The types of manuscripts are described in the Article Type section above.

References

Authors are encouraged to cite primary literature rather than review articles in order to give credit to those who have performed the original work. Reference listings must be in accordance with ICMJE standards and numbered consecutively at the end of the manuscript in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. While citing publications, preference should be given to the latest, most up to date publications. If an ahead of print publication is being cited the DOI number should be provided. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with the journal abbreviations in Index Medicus/ Medline/PubMed (for journal abbreviations consult the List of Journals indexed for MEDLINE, published annually by NLM). When there are 6 or less authors, all authors should be listed. If there are 7 or more authors the first 6 authors should be listed followed by “et al”. In the main text of the manuscript, references should be cited using Arabic numbers in parentheses. The reference styles for different types of publications are presented in the following examples:

Journal article: Calderaro J, Ziol M, Paradis V, Zucman-Rossi J. Molecular and histological correlations in liver cancer. J Hepatol. 2019;71:616-630.

Book: Tos M. Cartilage tympanoplasty. 1st ed. Stuttgart-New York: Georg Thieme Verlag; 2009.

Book chapter: Tos M, Stangerup SE. The relationship between secretory otitis and cholesteatoma. In: Tos M, Thomsen J, Peitersen E, editors. Cholesteatoma and mastoid surgery. Amsterdam: Kugler & Ghedini; 1989:325-30.

Abstract: Gurakar A, Elsahwi K, Akdogan M, Wright H, Nour, B, Sebastian T, et al. Asplenia and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC): A mere coincidence? Hepatology 2002;36:673a (abstract).

Article in electronic format: Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis (serial online) 1995 Jan-Mar (cited 1996 June 5): 1(1): (24 screens). Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626828/pdf/8903148.pdf.

For other reference style, please refer to “ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Sample References

Tables

Tables should be presented within the main document after the reference list. All tables should be referred to within the main text and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text. A descriptive title should be provided for all tables and the titles should be placed above the tables. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the tables (even if they are defined within the main text). Tables should be created using the “insert table” command of the word processing software and they should be arranged clearly to provide an easy reading.

Figures and Figure Legends

Figures, graphics and photographs should be submitted as separate files (in TIFF or JPEG format) through the submission system. They should not be embedded in a Word document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should not be merged to form a single image. Each subunit should be submitted separately through the submission system. Images should not be labelled (a, b, c, etc.) to indicate figure subunits. Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legends. Like the rest of the submission, the figures too should be blind. Any information within the images that may indicate an individual or institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions 100x100 mm)

Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document. When there are figure subunits, the figure legends should be structured in the following format. 

Example: Figure 1. a-c. Primary culture of choroid plexuses on day 2 after seeding of dissociated cells (×400). Nestin staining in green (a). GFAP staining in red (b). Nuclear labelling in blue and merged images (c)

Authorship Contributions Form

This is a statement of scientific contributions and responsibilities of all authors. The form is available for download at the journal’s webpage here.

The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND Final approval of the version to be published; AND Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”

A contributor should meet all four criteria to be identified as an author. If a contributor does not meet all four criteria he/she should be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript.

For more details please refer to the ICMJE’s definition of the role of authors and contributors at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT AND COPYRIGHT FORM

All contributing authors must sign the Copyright Agreement Form and submit it through the submission system during submission. Please see the Copyright Agreement Form for detailed information regarding “Acknowledgement of Authorship, Exclusive Publication Statement, Conflict of Interest Statement, and Copyright Agreement”.

In addition, the ICMJE Conflict of Interest form should be filled, saved to your computer and submitted to the Hamidiye Medical Journal together with your manuscript.
Please refer to “conflict of interest policy” for more information.

ORCID

ORCID IDs of all authors must be stated during the submission of manuscript. All IDs will be linked to the authors’ pages at https://orcid.org within PDF online and the ID of corresponding author will be added to the details. ORCID IDs will be increase transparence of journal and authors, it will also prevent the confusions caused by name similarities and affiliations. As of 2018, it is necessarily to provide ORCID IDs because of TUBİTAK›s latest announcement.

All authors can create free accounts on https://orcid.org and get the personal 16-digits number. ORCID also increases the visibility of author and their works by keeping profiles up-to-date.

CHECKLIST

To finalize submission, the corresponding author should ensure that all files mentioned below have been uploaded:

• A cover letter containing the article title and type and the full name of the corresponding author a brief statement describing the novelty and importance of the work a statement declaring the absence or presence of a conflict of interest a statement that the manuscript has not been previously published or accepted for publication and is not submitted or under simultaneous review for publication elsewhere

• A title page including Authors’ affiliations and e-mail addresses, including the name of the corresponding author A statement of the date and place of the meeting where the manuscript was presented orally or as a poster, if necessary Acknowledgements,

Structured Abstract

Structured Text

Ethical approval and/or informed consent has/have been obtained and mentioned in the text References are in the correct format and cited sequentially in the text.

All Figures have been uploaded and appear correctly The author contribution form is included Permission for reprinted figures, tables, materials or photographs has been obtained Copyright Agreement Form is included.

When submitting a revised version of a paper, the author must submit a detailed “Response to reviewers” that states point by point how each issue raised by the reviewers has been covered and where it can be found (each reviewer’s comment followed by the author’s reply and line numbers where the changes have been made) as well as an annotated copy of the main document.

Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 45 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option will be automatically cancelled by the submission system. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request this extension before the initial 45 day period is over.

CHANGE OF AUTHORSHIP AND WITHDRAWAL REQUEST

Change of Authoship

Any request to change the author list after submission, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of author names, is subject to the Editorial Board’s approval. To obtain this approval, please find and complete the change of authorship form on the journal’s website and send it to the journal’s office. This form should include the following information:

The reason for the change of authorship Signatures of all authors (including the new and/or removed author)

Please note, if you are adding or removing author/authors, a new copyright agreement form signed by all authors should also be sent to the editorial office after the Editorial Board approves the change of authorship.

Withdrawal Policy

Hamidiye Medical Journal is committed to providing high quality articles and uphold the publication ethics to advance the intellectual agenda of science. We expect our authors to comply with, best practice in publication ethics as well as in quality of their articles.

Withdrawal of a manuscript will be permitted only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons. For withdrawal of a manuscript authors need to submit an “Article withdrawal Form”, signed by all authors mentioning the reason for withdrawal to the Editorial Office. The form is available from the web page of the journal. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the editorial office.

In a case where a manuscript has taken more than six months’ time for review process, that allows the author to withdraw manuscript.

Manuscript withdrawal penalty: After receiving the Article withdrawal Form, Hamidiye Medical Journal Editorial Board will investigate the reason of withdrawal.

If the reason finds to be acceptable, the author is allowed to withdraw the manuscript without paying any withdrawal penalty. If not Hamidiye Medical Journal will not accept any manuscripts from the same author for one year.

Important notes: Manuscripts may be withdrawn at any stage of review and publication process by submitting a request to the editorial office. Manuscript withdrawal will be permitted after submission only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons.

If the author wants to withdraw a manuscript, the author needs to submit a completed “Article withdrawal Form”, signed by all authors of the manuscript stating the reasons for manuscript withdrawal. The form is available from the web page of the journal.

The manuscript will not be withdrawn from publication process until a completed, signed form is received by the editorial office. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the Hamidiye Medical Journal editorial office.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

The Hamidiye Medical Journal is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. If ethical misconduct is suspected, the Editorial Board will act in accordance with the relevant international rules of publication ethics (i.e., COPE guidelinesICMJE RecommendationsCSE White Paper on Publication EthicsWAME resourcesWMA policies and ORI).

An approval of research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements (“WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil”, “Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals, 8th edition, 2011” and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals, 2012”) is required for all research studies. If the submitted manuscript does not include ethics committee approval, it will be reviewed according to COPE’s guidelines. If the study should have ethical approval, authors will be asked to provide ethical approval in order to proceed the review process. If they cannot provide ethical approval, their manuscript will be rejected and also their institutions and when needed, the related bodies in their country will be informed that such studies must have ethics committee approval. If they provide approval, review of the manuscript will continue.

The presentation of the article types must be designed in accordance with trial reporting guidelines:

Human research: Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines

Case reports: the CARE case report guidelines

Clinical trials: CONSORT

Animal studies: ARRIVE and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

If the study does not need ethics committee approval after the editorial board’s review, the authors will be asked to provide an ethics committee approval or a document given by a related independent committee that indicates the study does not need ethics committee approval according to the research integrity rules in their country. If the authors provide either an approval or a document showing that ethics approval is not needed, the review process will continue. If the authors cannot provide either documents, the manuscript will be rejected.

For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. All recognizable photographs of a patient must be accompanied by written permission from the patient for reproduction. Procedures that were performed to eliminate any pain, harm and distress in subjects/animals should clearly be stated. The authors should clearly state their compliance with internationally accepted guidelines and the guidelines issued by the relevant authority of their country. The journal requests a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority.

All authors should meet the ICMJE’s authorship criteria outlined at the “authorship contribution form” section. Hamidiye Medical Journal does not accept gift, guest, or ghost authorship, and will act according to the COPE guidelines and flowcharts when faced with cases of suspected misconduct.

Considerations in Scientific Research

Ethical violations in conducting scientific research and publishing articles are more prevalent than anticipated. Therefore, being educated in research and publication ethics has become mandatory in the scientific community. Hamidiye Medical Journal reminds authors of the most commonly encountered violations to contribute to their awareness. Authorship rights in scientific studies involve contributing to the planning, design, hypothesis formulation, method development, data collection and analysis, conducting analyses and evaluation, intellectual contribution, interpretation, and contribution during revision or writing stages. The most common forms of unfair authorship include gift or guest authorship, reciprocal authorship, and ghost authorship. Unfair authorship situations may arise from:

a) Holding a managerial position in the department where the study is conducted,

b) Contributing financially to the research,

c) Performing statistical evaluations and translation,

d) Contributing to data collection,

f) Providing assistance only during the writing stage.

Plagiarism Detection

Plagiarism is a serious problem and the most common ethical issue afflicting medical writing. The Hamidiye Medical Journal does not allow any form of plagiarism. In accordance with our journal policy, submitted manuscripts are screened with plagiarism software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text (iThenticate and others) at least two times (during the evaluation process and after acceptance).

APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS

Appeal and complaint cases are handled within the scope of COPE guidelines by the Editorial Board of the journal. Appeals should be based on the scientific content of the manuscript. The final decision on the appeal and complaint is made by Editor in Chief. An Ombudsperson or the Ethical Editor is assigned to resolve cases that cannot be resolved internally. Authors should get in contact with the Editor in Chief regarding their appeals and complaints via e-mail at [email protected].

PROOFS AND DOI NUMBER

Manuscripts accepted for publication are provided with a DOI number immediately after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, and format. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead of print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.

PRESUBMISSION INQUIRES AND RAPID EVALUATION REQUESTS

Presubmission inquires and rapid evaluation requests can be sent to the Hamidiye Medial Journal. Presubmission inquiries are usually sent by the authors to determine if a possible submission of their current work to Hamidiye Medical Journal would receive a high enough priority for publication. These inquiries are handled by the Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board, and a positive feedback from the Editor in Chief does not guarantee the publication of the work in question as all manuscripts submitted to Hamidiye Medical Journal must be peer reviewed. Presubmission inquiries should be sent to [email protected] via e-mail and should include a shorter version of the cover letter accompanied by the title and the abstract of the manuscript.

Rapid evaluation requests are usually sent by the authors to state a particular importance of their current work which requires the manuscript to be evaluated as quickly as possible. This requests are handled by the Editor in Chief of the journal should be sent to [email protected] and should include a shorter version of the cover letter explaining the importance of the manuscript accompanied by the title and the abstract of the manuscript.

Non-scientific reasons, such as academic career needs, will not be considered and may result immediate reject of a manuscript. Authors are not allowed to contact section editors for their manuscripts. This is an unacceptable behavior and may lead rejection of the manuscript and the author/s may be banned for further submissions to the journal. Any question related to the editorial process should be forwarded to the secretariat, managing editor or the editor-in-chief.