Criteria for manuscripts

The Editorial Board of Journal of Applied Biomedicine takes under consideration for publication original articles with the understanding that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its essential substance, tables or figures have been published previously in print form or electronically and are not under consideration by any other publication or electronic medium. Copies of any closely related manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor along with the manuscript that is to be considered by Journal of Applied Biomedicine. Each submission packet should include the statement signed by the first author that the work has not been published previously or submitted elsewhere for review.

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Title page

Please see the details below.

Cover letter

Your cover letter should 1) show the significance of your research, 2) highlight the novelty of your manuscript, 3) elucidate why your manuscript is suitable for publication in the Journal of Applied Biomedicine, 4) identify the authors - it is advisable to include the ORCID Number or Web of Science ResearcherID of the authors. Please upload the cover letter in the pdf format.
Cover letter is an important advertisement of your work and can significantly affect the outcome of the review process. Please include a brief background of your study and the research question you sought to answer, principle findings and significance to scientific community and a statement that your paper has not been previously published and is not currently under consideration by another journal and that all authors have approved of and have agreed to submit the manuscript to this journal.

Manuscript:

• In editable format (MS Office document, rtf file, ...)
• Including title, keywords, highlights
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided

Publishing Agreement

Please sign the Publishing Agreement and upload it during the submission of your manuscript (the template can be downloaded from the bottom of this page).

Further considerations

• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
• A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

Ethics in publishing

Publishing Ethics follows COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines available here: https://publicationethics.org/. The Publishing Ethics statement is divided into four parts, which are dedicated to the duties of the editor, referees, authors and publishers.

Studies in humans and animals

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

Declaration of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors must disclose any interests in two places: 1. A summary declaration of interest statement in the title page file. If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none'. This summary statement will be ultimately published if the article is accepted. 2. Detailed disclosures as part of a separate Declaration of Interest form, which forms part of the journal's official records. It is important for potential interests to be declared in both places and that the information matches.

Many medical journals follow ICMJE Recommendations. For these titles, you can download the ICMJE COI form, complete it and save it on your computer, then submit the completed form to the journal along with your manuscript.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service iThenticate.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, for instance by using 'he or she', 'his/her' instead of 'he' or 'his', and by making use of job titles that are free of stereotyping (e.g. 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman' and 'flight attendant' instead of 'stewardess').

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Corrections and retractions

Cases requiring corrections, retractions, etc. are dealt with according to the recommendations of National Library of Medicine's policy and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Copyright

Upon submission of an article, authors will be asked to complete a „Journal Publishing Agreement“. Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. Copyright on the article is retained by the author(s). The author(s) grant the publisher the right to publish the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Language (usage and editing services)

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use some English Language Editing service – for example Enago or Edanz.

Submission

Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. Editable files (e.g. Word) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

Contributors

First or corresponding author has to declare individual contributions of the co-authors to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.

Review Process

Manuscripts are evaluated on the basis that they present new insights to the investigated topic, are likely to contribute to a research progress or change in clinical practice or in thinking about a disease. It is understood that all authors listed on a manuscript have agreed to its submission. The signature of the corresponding author on the letter of submission signifies that these conditions have been fulfilled. Received manuscripts are first examined by the editors. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected promptly. Incomplete packages or manuscripts not prepared in the advised style will be sent back to authors without scientific review. The authors are notified with the reference number upon manuscript registration at the Editorial Office. The registered manuscripts are sent to independent experts for scientific evaluation. We encourage authors to suggest the names of possible reviewers, but we reserve the right of final selection. Submitted papers are accepted for publication after a positive opinion of the independent reviewers.

Peer review

This journal operates a double blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final.

Double-blind review

This journal uses double-blind review, which means the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa. To facilitate this, please include the following separately:

Title page (with author details): This should include the title, authors' names, affiliations, acknowledgements and any Declaration of Interest statement, and a complete address for the corresponding author including an e-mail address.

Blinded manuscript (no author details): The main body of the paper (including the references, figures, tables) should not include any identifying information, such as the authors' names or affiliations.

Use of word processing software

It is important to safe the file in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork.

To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

Article length and structure

Subdivision

Article length and structure Arrange manuscript as follows: (1) title page, (2) abstract, (3) text including tables and figures, (4) acknowledgments, (5) disclosures if required, and (6) references. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page as page 1 and ending with the page of figure legends. Do not use manuscript line numbers. You may further subdivide your article into clearly defined sections. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. The word limit for original research article should not exceed 6500 words including title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, disclosures, tables, figure legends, and entire reference list. Review articles should not exceed 8000 words in total. Please do not exceed a combined maximum of 10 figures and/or tables per original research article and 8 tables and/or figures in review article. Submissions, which do not follow format instructions and limits, will NOT be considered for publication. Text of the article should be structured as follows:

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. This section should not exceed 600 words.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Theory/Calculation

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis. This section may be omitted according to the methodology of presented research, if appropriate.

Results

Results should be clear and concise. Do not duplicate information written in the text and in figures and tables unless necessary for clear understanding of readers.

Discussion

Always start the discussion section with clear declaration of novelties and unique results of your research and their potential for translation to clinical practice. Discussion should further explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section may be sometimes appropriate, but generally we discourage authors from mixing them up. Please avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study have to be presented in the Conclusions section, (up to 200 words), which should always stand alone.

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Essential title page information

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
• Highlights. Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points (3 to 5) that convey the core findings of the article including the possibility of translation of the results into clinical practice. Maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point.
• Declare, if permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet).
• Role of the funding source. You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.
• Acknowledgements. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

A title page check list is available for download.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself. Abstract should not exceed 250 words in total.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points (3 to 5) that convey the core findings of the article including the possibility of translation of the results into clinical practice. Maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point.

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Artwork

Electronic artwork

General points

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text in Arabic numerals.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Size the illustrations close to the https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/author/artwork-and-media-instructions/artwork-sizing.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
• Embed the illustrations next to the relevant text in the article.
• Ensure that each illustration has a caption placed above the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used. All illustrations/figures should be placed next to the relevant text in the article.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.

You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats

If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.

Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):

EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.

TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.

Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork

Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then these figures will appear in color online (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites). The printed version is not in color.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables should be placed next to the relevant text in the article. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text; provide them with a short descriptive name placed above the table together with a table number. Place any table notes (like explanations of all abbreviations, symbols, etc.) below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules.

References

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Data references

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

References in a special issue

Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference style

Text: All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;

2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;

3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references must be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

Example: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b; Allan and Jones, 1999; Berka et al., 2000)….

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication. If there are more than seven authors of a single publication, list first six authors and conclude their list with ', et al.'.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA (2010). The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 163: 51–59. DOI: 10.1016/j.Sc.2010.00372.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number:

Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA (2018). The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon 19(2): e00205. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205.

Reference to a book:

Strunk W, White EB (2000). The Elements of Style (4th ed.). New York: Longman.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Mettam GR, Adams LB (2009). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ (Eds.). Introduction to the Electronic Age. New York: E-Publishing Inc., pp. 281–304.

Reference to a website:

Cancer Research UK (1975). Cancer statistics reports for the UK. [online] [cit. YY-MM-DD]. Available from: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/

Reference to a dataset:

[dataset] Oguro M, Imahiro S, Saito S, Nakashizuka T (2015). Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. DOI: 10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

Journal abbreviations source

Journal names should be abbreviated according to the ISO 4 standard. Alternatively, use List of Title Word Abbreviations.

Video

Journal of Applied Biomedicine accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material can support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Please note that such items are published online exactly as they are submitted; there is no typesetting involved (supplementary data supplied as an Excel file or as a PowerPoint slide will appear as such online). Please submit the material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. If you wish to make any changes to supplementary data during any stage of the process, then please make sure to provide an updated file, and do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please also make sure to switch off the 'Track Changes' option in any Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published supplementary file(s). For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation.

Data linking

If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Online proof correction

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.

If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.

We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

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