Instructions to authors

Instructions to authors (PDF)

Biochemia Medica is the journal of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemists, dedicated to the members of the Society as well as to all other professionals from various fields of biomedicine that share the same interests, i.e. medicine biochemistry and laboratory diagnostics.
The Journal is bilingual, with papers both in Croatian and English. All submitted manuscripts are given equal consideration regardless to what country they originate as long as the main criteria are met:

• Manuscript is written and prepared adhering to the Biochemia Medica Instructions to authors.
• The article fits into the scope of the Journal, meaning it addresses general clinical chemistry, hematology and hemostasis, molecular diagnostics, immunology, analytical toxicology, neurobiochemistry, endocrinology, analytical techniques, laboratory organization, bioinformatics, automatization, quality control and evidence based laboratory medicine.

Upon receipt Manuscripts are evaluated by Editor-in-Chief. Those manuscripts that do not meet the main criteria stated in the Instructions to authors shall be returned to authors. Contributions which qualify for further processing are sent to anonymous peer reviewers. Every paper is reviewed by at least two reviewers of which at least one is international. Besides, every manuscript is subject to the additional editorial revision of the methodological quality, statistical analysis and data presentation. Once reviewed, manuscript accompanied with reviewers’ remarks is sent back to the author.

Instructions to authors of Biochemia Medica fully adhere to the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication" (www.ICMJE.org, updated in November 2003).
Contributions are grouped in the following Journal categories:

• Editorial note
• Editorial
• Lessons in biostatistics
• Review
• Original (scientific and professional) article
• Short communication
• Case report
• Letter to the Editor
• Guidelines
• Book review
• Meetings info
• Croatian authors in international publications

Reviews and Lessons in biostatistics are mainly invited, even though unsolicited contributions are also welcome.

Original (scientific and professional) article is defined as a written report by a group of authors on a conducted study, obtained results and conclusions.

Short communication is a category that intends to present findings by one or more authors that may be of interest to a limited audience, or are concerned with some marginal professional or scientific fields. It should be not longer than 1500 words. Either one image, table or graph may be included.

Journal also has a Case report category, exclusively dedicated to some extremely interesting observations on certain rare phenomena.

Category Letter to the Editor contains short comments not longer that 750 words.

In the category Book Review information on some new book issues relevant to their professional and scientific interest are published.

At the end of every Journal issue you can find categories that are edited and published by the Editorial: Guidelines (Croatian translation of relevant laboratory and diagnostic guidelines), Meetings information and Croatian authors in international publications.

Editorial holds rights to all necessary changes to language and style of the original manuscript needed to adhere to uniform standards of the Journal.

Authors should sign Authorship statement form, by which they guarantee contribution of all authors listed. Editorial office shall send the Authorship statement form to the first author once manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Authors are responsible for scientific integrity as well as the professional, scientific and financial independency of the conducted research. Thereafter, all authors have to sign the Conflict of interest statement form and return it to the Editorial office.

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and if necessary enclose the Ethical Committee approval.

Biochemia Medica shall give equal consideration for publication to any carefully done study of an important question, relevant to their readers, whether the results are negative or positive.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Manuscript should be written in English and sent as an attachment by e-mail (am.simundic@gmail.com).

Every manuscript should be accompanied with the cover letter, stating following:

• short description of conducted research (2-3 sentences) and any other information on the manuscript that Editorial may find useful;
• total number of figures, tables and graphs in the manuscript;
• author’s suggestion on the category of manuscript (original article, short communication etc...);
• reasons why authors presume their work may be of interest to the readers of the Journal (what is new in their work?);

Manuscript should be prepared adhering to the following instructions:

• document should be saved in MSWord program (*.doc format);
• double-spaced throughout the whole manuscript ;
• page format A4;
• font Arial, 12 pt;
• all margins 2.5 cm;
• do not use any styles and formatting (no numbering for titles, no bold fonts);
• do not use Headers or Footers;
• include page numbering throughout the whole manuscript;
• place graphs and tables after References. Type each table and its brief caption on its own page;
• each image or picture should be enclosed as an extra file. Acceptable image file formats for print publication are: *.jpg, *.bmp or *.tiff.

All the pages of the manuscript (except for the cover letter, which is attached separately) should be within one document, with following page order:

• title page
• abstract and key words
• manuscript
• acknowledgement
• references
• tables and figures

TITLE PAGE

Prepare the title page on a separate page. Title page should include:

• the title of the manuscript (short and clear);
• an abbreviated title of no more than 50 characters to be used as a running title;
• authors names (full name and last name);
• affiliation (exact names of Departments, Divisions, or Centers for every author);
• corresponding author's address (postal and e-mail), including phone numbers.

ABSTRACT

On a separate page, provide a structured abstract of 250 words (only abstract, without title, authors and affiliation). Editors first read the Abstract; it is the most important piece of the manuscript. For abstracts of original scientific and professional articles, include the following:

• four headings: Background, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusions;
• 3-5 key words

INTRODUCION

The Introduction should give a short and concise review of the object of the investigation. It should clearly state author's main arguments for conducting the study. Authors should also point out the major novelties of the work. As a rule, the Introduction to a paper should not require more than 3-4 key references directly connected to the work. At the end of the Introduction, authors should state their hypothesis. Introduction does not contain results and conclusions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Materials and Methods section should include only information that was available at the time the study was planed. All information obtained during the conduct of the study belongs in the Results section. This section should be structured as follows:

• Subjects (in the case of research in humans), Materials (otherwise);
• Methods
• Statistical analysis

In the Subjects/ Materials section it is recommended to state the following:

• time and location of the study (beginning and the end of the study dates);
• study design (case-control, cohort, diagnostic accuracy etc.);
• inclusion and exclusion criteria;
• relevant demographic and anamnestic details (age, gender, diagnostic criteria etc.);

In the Methods section, the guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. 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. For well established methods provide references only.

In the Statistical analysis section, authors should list all statistical methods used in the study. Furthermore, it is important to state in advance the chosen level of significance (P). Where possible, findings should be quantified and presented with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals).
For studies of diagnostic accuracy it is recommended to adhere to STARD guidelines (published in 2003), available at WEB page of the Journal in the section Forms.
At the end of that chapter authors should specify the computer software used.

RESULTS

Present your results clear and precise, 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. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Exact P values should be given for all tested differences (for example write P = 0.048 instead of P< 0.05) rounded on three decimal places.

Tables
Tables should contain mainly numeric values; authors should consider presenting textual entries as bullets in text. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. Give every column a short heading title, with detailed explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. All nonstandard abbreviations should also be explained in footnotes. Type each table and its brief caption on its own page at the end of the document.

Figures
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Please submit the separate electronic files of figures with the manuscript. Acceptable image file formats for print publication are: *.jpg, *.bmp or *.tiff at desired resolution is 300 dpi. Provide figure captions and legends at the end of the manuscript, on a separate page.
Technical editors shall redesign or recreate all graphical elements (pictures, schematic presentations etc.) of the manuscript if they do not conform to the uniform style of the Journal.

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.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, statistical analysis or a department chair that provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged (include project numbers).

REFERENCES

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text by Arabic numerals in parentheses. For example:

Prostatic carcinomas with final score < 7 were considered low-intermediate grade; and, with final score > 7 were considered high-grade (4).

The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus (complete list is available at Journal’s web page in the section Instructions to authors). Literature citation should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) available at web address www.ICMJE.org.

Examples of various reference formats are as follows:

Journals:

Name all authors of a paper unless there are more than seven, in which case list the first six plus et al.

Punglia RS, D'Amico AV, Catalona WJ, Roehl KA, Kuntz KM. Impact of age, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and cancer on prostate-specific antigen level. Cancer 2006;106:1507-13.

Chen L, Wang X, Carter SA, Shen YH, Bartsch HR, Thompson RW, et al. A single nucleotide polymorphism in the matrix metalloproteinase 9 gene (-8202A/G) is associated with thoracic aortic aneurysms and thoracic aortic dissection. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2006;131:1045-52

Book or handbook:

In English:
Burtis CA, Ashwood ER, Burns DE, eds. Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics. 4th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders, 2006.

In language other than English:
Gamulin S, Marušić M, Kovač Z. et al., eds. [Patofiziologija]. 5th ed. Zagreb: Medicinska naklada; 2002. (in Croatian)

Chapter in a book or handbook:

In English:
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, eds. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

In language other than English:
Vrkić N. [Smjernice za laboratorijsku dijagnostiku akutnog koronarnog sindroma]. In: [Dijagnostika hitnih stanja]. Topić E, ed. Zagreb: Medicinska naklada; 2006. (in Croatian)

Internet source:

Dag Stat. Mackinnon A. Available at: http://www.mhri.edu.au/biostats/DAG_Stat/. Accessed May 5th 2006.

Cahill, J., Barkham, M., Hardy, G., Rees, A., Shapiro, D.A., Stiles, W.B. & Macaskill, N. Outcomes of patients completing and not completing cognitive therapy for depression [Electronic version]. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2003:42;133-43. Accessed July 19, 2003, from http://www.bps.org.uk/publications/jCP_1.cfm

Last updated: September 6th, 2008