Guide for Authors

  • Guide for Authors
    Section 1: Requirement for Manuscript
    1.General Requirement: Manuscripts should be scientific and practical with clear argumentation, reliable reference, accurate data, concise wording and clear structure. Statistics should be used when necessary. Generally, original research articles shall not exceed 5,000 Chinese characters. Perspective, expert forum, review, workshop and research report shall not exceed 4,000 Chinese characters, and case report should not exceed 3,000 Chinese characters.
    2.Title: Title should be concise (within 20 Chinese characters) and clear, well reflecting the content of the article. There should be an English translation of the title.
    3.Authors: The authors’ names shall be arranged beneath the title. The order shall be determined before submission and shall not be changed thereafter. The institute (specifying department) and post code of authors should be stated beneath the authors. The number of authors should not be over six. For the English version, there should be the authors’ names (Full name in Pinyin), institutes, cities and post codes. Surnames should be capitalized for every letter and for given names only the first letter capitalized. Authors from the same institute should be marked with the same Arabic number at the top-right corner. The same number should also be marked before the authors’ institute. The email address of the corresponding author should be included in the footer. The corresponding author’s information such as name, sex, age, position, title and degree should also be provided along with the manuscript submission.
    4.Abstract. All academic articles (original research article, review, case report) should include Chinese and English abstract. The abstract shall consist of four parts titled as: Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion. ① Objective: briefly introduce the objective, cause, scope and significance of the study. ② Methods: specify the basic design, material, method, data processing and statistics of the study. ③ Results:list the main output of the data, state new findings and its values and limitations. The wording should be concrete and accurate. Confidence interval and P Value should be given. ④Conclusion: Briefly explain the conclusion obtained from the argumentation, the theoretical value or application value and whether they can be recommended or popularized. The Chinese abstract shall be about 300~500 characters and the English abstract shall be strictly corresponding to the Chinese abstract in content. 
    5.Key Words: Original research papers should have 3~5 key words both in Chinese and English. Please try to use the words listed in the latest MEDLINE medical thesaurus (MeSH) edited by the National Library of Medicine (USA). The key word in the first place must be a subject word from Mesh. If there is no suitable word in the latest version of MeSH, the author could (1) select several directly related subject words; (2) use the subject word of the direct higher level in the tree-diagram; (3) If necessary, conventional words can be used and placed at the end. Acronyms should be restored to full spelling according to MeSH. The English key words should have the same meaning as the Chinese ones.
    6.Terminology: Medical terms shall be selected from Medical Terms published by Science Press and reviewed by the National Scientific and Technical Terms Review and Approval Committee. For technical terms that have not yet passed the approval, authors could take reference to the latest version of MeSH, the Annotation Sequence of Medical Subject Words and the Subject Words List of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For terms without commonly-used translation, the original words shall be included in bracket when they appear for the first time in the manuscript. The names of Chinese and Western medicines shall be subject to the latest version of the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China and the General Names of Chinese Medicines (both issued by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Committee). If it is necessary to use a trade name, its general name shall be stated first. For terms that have not been approved, authors can take reference to English-Chinese Medical Terms published by the People’s Medical Publishing House.
    7.Figure and Table: Each figure or table shall be numbered successively according to the order of appearing, and shall be preceded by a title. Explanations and unusual abbreviations used in figures and tables shall be noted at the bottom. The table should be with three-line style (three horizontal lines such as the top line, the front line and the bottom line). The decimal place shall generally be set according to one third of deviation and the decimal place for the same index should be consistent. High resolution and contrast are required for photograph, and symbols (including arrows) can be marked within. If a human image is included, the authors shall obtain written consent of the person or make the photo pixelated properly. There should be scale marks in pictures of human specimen. The staining method and magnification times should be specified for pathological photos. If the tables or figures are quoted from another article, the source should be stated clearly. The manuscript must contain high-quality curve chart (it is recommended to draw pictures by the software of Origin and then copy them into the manuscript). Original photos shall be provided.
    8.Unit of Measurement: The unit of measurement should comply with the provisions of the Legal Unit of Measurement of the People's Republic of China promulgated by the State Council in 1984 and shall be implemented and expressed in unit symbols. Please refer to the third edition of the Application of Legal Units of Measurement in Medicine issued by the Chinese Medical Association Journal Office (published in 2001). The name and the symbol of measurement cannot be mixed. The value of the standard unit should be placed first with the value of the old unit written in parentheses. However, if the same unit occurs repeatedly, the conversion factor between the standard unit and the old unit can be indicated at its first appearance. For the rest of the manuscript, only the value of the standard unit needs to be shown. The symbol of quantity should be in italics. For example, the symbol of absorbance (formerly known as optical density) is “A”. Either in paragraphs or in figures and tables, symbols following a number such as d / h / min / s shall be used instead of day, hour, minute or second. According to the Supplementary Notice on the Provisions of the Use of Blood Pressure Measurement Units (1998 No. 126) jointly issued by the State Administration of Quality and Technical Supervision and the Ministry of Health, the measurement unit for blood pressure of human and animals can be either mmHg or cmH2O.
    9.Numeral Symbol: Arabic number should be used wherever appropriate. In the following circumstances, Arabic number must be used: ① the number in century, decade, year, month, day and time; ② numbers and figures with statistical significance; ③ Ordinal numbers. When there are more than 3 digits before or after the decimal point, an interval of half bit shall be inserted between every three digits. For example, "1329.4765" shall be written as "1 329.476 5". However, numbers in year, page, military code, model or standard should not be divided. In the following circumstances, numbers should be written in Chinese characters. For example: numbers in Chinese calendar, bound morpheme in Chinese word, nonfinite numbers for estimation, meta-reference numbers for digit counting etc. If there is a range of percentage, the percentage symbol of the first number cannot be omitted, such as 6% ~ 89% cannot be written as 6 ~ 89%. When there is a percentage deviation with a center value, it shall be written as (27 ± 2) % instead of 27 ± 2%. The values multiplied with dimension units shall be written as follows: 4 cm × 3 cm × 5 cm or(4×3×5)cm3 instead of 4 × 3 × 5 cm3.
    10.Statistical Symbols: The use of statistical symbols should comply with the Provisions of Statistical Vocabulary and Symbols (GB 3358.1-2009). Remarks: ① arithmetic mean is in English lowercase  (median is still M); ② standard deviation is in English lowercase s; ③ standard error is in English lowercase s; ④ t-test is in English lowercase t; ⑤ F-test is in English capital letter F; ⑥ Chi. square test is in Greek lower case χ2; ⑦ correlation coefficient is in English lowercase r ; ⑧ degree of freedom is in Greek small γ; ⑨ probability is in English capital letter P (specific test value shall be given before P value, such as t value, χ2 value, q value, etc.). All symbols mentioned above should be in italics.
    11.Abbreviation: When abbreviation has to be used, the full name shall be stated in the first time. The Chinese abbreviation or the English full name and abbreviations shall be marked in parentheses, and the latter two shall be separated by a comma (if the abbreviation is well-known, the full name can be omitted). Abbreviation shall not be split into different lines.
    12.Discussion: In the part of discussion, authors should focus on their own new findings, conclusions and perspectives or explain the limitations of the test. Do not make literature review, and do not repeat the contents described in the results. The discussion should relate to the purpose of experiment and research result, and other reported results. Proposals and suggestions can be reasonably made when the proof is adequate. The number of words for discussion should not be more than 1000.
    13.References: References shall be in accordance with Rules for Post-Text Reference Format (GB / T 7714-2005). The cited literatures should be marked with Arabic numerals according to the order in which it appears in the text and be arranged accordingly at the end of the manuscript. Reference of abstract should be avoided. For author name in roman letters, the surname should be placed in front and for the given name only the initial letter should be put at the back. The journal name in roman letters shall be abbreviated in the standard format of Index Medicus. Full names are always used for Chinese journals. Each reference should indicate its start and end page. References should be carefully checked by the author against the original text. There should be at least 20 cited literatures, which well reflect the development of the discipline for recent years. Reference formats are as followed.
    [Journal]:
    Authors(only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al.").article title[J].Journal,year,Volume(issue):range of page.e.g.
    [1] 王义龙,李畅,高洁,等. 左心室电极位置对心脏再同步化治疗的临床疗效影响[J]. 内科理论与实践,2016,11(1): 20-23.
    [2] AABOE M, MARCUSSEN N, JENSEN K M, et al. Gene expression profiling of noninvasive primary urothelial tumours using microarrays [J]. Br J Cancer, 2005, 93(10): 1182-1190.

    [Book]
    Authors.Article title[M] // authors.book title.edition(no need for the first edition).place:publisher,year:range of page.e.g.
    [1] 童步高,陈灏珠. 人工心脏起搏和心脏电复律[M]//陈灏珠. 实用内科学.11版.北京:人民卫生出版社,2001:1319-1335.
    [2] DELELLIS R A, LLOYD R V, HEITZ P U, et al. Tumours of endocrine organs [M] // WHO. Pathology & Genetics. Lyon: IARC Press, 2004: 57-66.
    14.Funding Information: If the paper or the study has obtained national, ministerial or provincial funds or is part of a key research project, it shall be footnoted at the bottom-left of the title page. A copy of the fund certificate should be submitted. The title and number of the funding project shall be provided in the official form prescribed by relevant state departments. different fund projects shall be separate by ";". The funded paper with great innovative significance may be given priority for publication.
    Section 2: Publishing Ethics
    1.Plagiarism: This journal only accepts original articles that have not been submitted to other journals nor have been published, and the manuscripts submitted shall not contain any plagiarized content. All manuscripts would be tested by the Academic Misconduct Literature Check (AMLC) system. Should any plagiarism be verified, the editorial office will immediately reject the manuscript all submission from all signed authors ever since. Any content overlapping with existing published works must have all necessary permissions and must be marked clearly in the manuscript.
    2.Multiple Submission: Multiple submission or redundant publishing is strictly prohibited (including submission of the same content in different languages). Should multiple submission be verified, the editorial office will immediately reject the manuscript and all submission from corresponding authors ever since. Moreover, we will send a notice to other relevant journals in this field and to the author’s institutes, in case of which further penalty may be incurred.  
    3.Authorship: Those who are named as authors should directly participate in the research work, writing the manuscript or has an important guiding role (such as a graduate tutor). Other contributors of the paper (e.g., laboratory assistant) may be listed in acknowledgement. “Gift author” is strictly prohibited. If there is any non-Chinese citizen among authors, a letter of consent for publishing should be obtained. At least one author should be responsible for each main conclusion in the article. For a collective piece of work, there should be a person responsible for the whole paper. The authors should specify their contribution in the Authors Contribution Form and submit it along with the manuscript.
    4.Medical Ethics: The ethical issue and informed consent of the study must comply with common principles of medical ethics. When research participants are humans, the author should explain whether its procedure comply with the ethical standards formulated by relevant committee (institutional, regional or national) responsible for human trials. The approval document of the committee should be submitted (the approval number should be included in the article). Consent letter from research participants or their relatives must be obtained, but not submitted to the editorial office. When reporting animal experiments, the study should comply with guidelines published by relevant committee on animal rights, and the approval document should be submitted. The authors should also fill and sign the Statement of Medical Ethics and submit it along with the manuscript.
    5.Trial Registration: Clinical trials must include the Universal Trial Number (UTN) obtained from one of the Primary Registries in the WHO Registry Network. If applicable, the authors should specify the registering institution and the UTN within the article. The articles reporting randomized controlled trials shall comply with the standard of the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/home).

    6.Conflict of Interest: All authors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest, i.e., when the financing/personal status/affiliation of the authors (or the authors' organization/employer) may affect the authors' decision, work or manuscript. When a product is mentioned, the author should also disclose whether there is a conflict of interest against competitive products. The authors should also fill and sign the Conflict of Interest Statement and submit it along with the manuscript.
    Section 3: Peer Review and Editorial Policy
    1.Review Policy: The journal follows a double-blind review process. After submission, the editorial office will firstly conduct a preliminary review of the manuscript. The editorial office will reject the manuscripts which are insufficient in originality, having serious scientific or technical mistakes, lacking valuable information, or not in the scope of the journal. The manuscripts which have passed the preliminary review will be sent to two or more reviewers. A reviewer's comment and decision (accept / reject / modify) will be passed onto the corresponding author. The authors must respond to the reviewer's every comment and submit the revised version in time. This process would be repeated until the reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
    2.Self-responsibility: All authors shall be responsible for their own writing. In accordance with relevant provisions of the Copyright Law, the journal can make textual amendments and deletions to the manuscript. However, if the amendment involves a change of meaning, the editorial office will contact the authors for confirmation.
    3.Time Limit: The editorial office will notify the authors whether the manuscript is accepted or not. If the review result has not been received more than 3 months after submission, the authors can re-submit the manuscript to other journals after confirming with the editorial office. Multiple-submission is prohibited. For the manuscript that needs to be revised and supplemented, the revised version should be sent back to the editorial office no later than 4 months. In case of difficulties, it is necessary to explain the situation to the editorial office in time. If the revised manuscript is not received in half a year, it would be regarded as a withdrawal.
    4.Submission by Editors: The editorial staff / editors / editorial board members should not be involved in publishing decisions on papers which they have written themselves or have been written by their family members or colleagues. Any such submission should be strictly subject to the journal’s usual editorial process. Peer review should be handled independently from the relevant author/editor and their research groups.
    Section 4: Correction and Retraction.
    1.General Situation: Articles published online or in print are considered the final and complete version. In principle, the journal does not make corrections or retractions on published articles. However, in case of the situation described below, corrections or retractions may be carried out if truly necessary.
    2.Correction: If there appears to be an unintended scientific mistake in the article which would not lead to significant impacts on the results and conclusions, the editorial office will publish corrections in the journal as soon as possible, detailing the changes made to the original article and indicating the source of the article. The journal will release the corrected new version of the article, and specify the changes to the original article and the date of update. In addition, the superseded version will also be archived. Readers can obtain it directly, but only the latest version of the article should be used for citation.
    3.Retraction: In the following cases, the editorial office would retract published articles and issue retraction statements:
    1) If an article is found to have severe scientific errors making the results and conclusions of the article unreliable;
    2) For article suspected of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and data falsification, the editorial office will initiate an investigation and issue a statement to inform readers of the risks associated with the article. Once the investigation is completed, the result will be made public. If the academic misconduct is confirmed, the article will be immediately retracted and a retraction statement will be issued by the editorial office.
    Section 5: Copyright and Archive
    1.OA Policy: Journal of Internal Medicine Concepts & Practice is an open access journal. Once published, all articles will be immediately and permanently available for readers to read and download free of charge. For more information, please refer to the Open Access Policy page on this website.
    2.Copyright: The Journal has the copyright of its published articles. All authors must sign the "Copyright License Agreement". The journal has the right to publish the papers in various ways such as electronic edition and CD-ROM editions. No part of the manuscript can be published elsewhere without consent of the journal.
    3.Archive: Since 2017, all journal articles have been digitally archived and can be searched and downloaded from the journal website. In order to ensure data security, all information has also been backed up in the editorial office. Before 2017, the hard and soft copy of each issue of the journal had been kept in the editorial office for archiving. In addition, other relevant materials are also kept by the editorial office, such as supplementary information and forms provided by the authors.
    Section 6: Fees
    Once the manuscript publishing is confirmed, an APC shall be payable, which will be specified in publishing notice (RMB 500 per 1500 characters). After publishing, two free copies of the current issue shall be posted to the author. 
    Section 7: Method of Submission
    The journal allows two ways of submission. 
    1) E-mail: send your manuscript in form of word document to the e-mail address: physirj@163.com
    2) Online: submit your manuscript in form of WORD (*.doc) or LaTeX (*.tex) through “Author - Online Submission” on the journal's official website: http://www.qk.sjtu.edu.cn/Journalx_jdcp/authorLogOn.action
    Please use double spacing for typesetting. After submission, a serial number and a receipt will be sent to the author. An instruction will also be sent to the authors for requesting a letter of recommendation from their institute to certify that the manuscript has no multiple submission, no confidentiality and no dispute of authorship. The date when the editorial office receives all the materials shall be the “Received Date” of the article. When submitting a manuscript, the following information should be provided both in Chinese and English: authors' names (Chinese character/pinyin), institute, postal code, the contact information of corresponding author including mailing address, telephone and e-mail.
    The following documents need to be provided alongside the manuscript:
    1)Recommendation Letter
    2)Copyright License Agreement 
    3)Authors Contribution Form
    4)Conflict of Interest Statement
    5)Statement of Medical Ethics 
    6)Photocopy of approval document of medical ethics or animal rights (if applicable)
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