Author Guidelines

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Types of Papers Accepted:

The main part of each issue will be devoted to original research papers which should present new results of interest to a broad spectrum of readers. The Journal will also consider review articles, short communications, case reports and letters to the Editor, which are suitable for recording the results of complete small investigations or giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus.

Structure of articles: Depending on the type of articles, the submitted manuscripts should be divided into the following sections:

1. Review Articles: Review articles should be arranged as follows: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Primary and secondary topic headings (as many as required), Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and Legends. Authors of review articles should be expert and have contributions in the field of the addressed subject. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses on clinical trials and observational studies should be prepared based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology (MOOSE), respectively.


2. Original Articles: Original articles should be arranged as follows: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Declarations, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and Legends. The length of these articles should not exceed 4500 words.


3. Short Papers and Short Communications: Short Papers should be arranged as follows: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (combined), Declarations, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends. The body of the manuscript should not exceed 2500 words, and no heading or subheading should be used. Tables and/or figures should be limited to 2 ones and references to 15 in maximum.


4. Case Reports: Case reports should be arranged as follows: Title page, Introduction, The case, Discussion, Declarations, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and Legends. The length of such articles should not exceed 2000 words.


5. Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor should be arranged as follows: Title page, Letter, Declarations, Acknowledgements, and References. The length should not exceed 700 words.

Submission process:

Manuscripts are acceptable via the journal`s website journals.sbmu.ac.ir/nbm by clicking "online submission" and registering to the website .The manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere and signed by the author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Title page and manuscript text file should be separately submitted online via the online submission system.

Page charges: This journal is a free open access journal and there are no charges for publication.

Cover letter

Upload a cover letter as a separate file in the online system. The length limit is 1 page.

The cover letter should include the following information:

• Specify the type of article (for example, research article, systematic review, meta-analysis, clinical trial)


• Summarize the study’s contribution to the scientific literature


• The manuscript is original work of authors.


• The manuscript has not been and will not be published elsewhere or submitted elsewhere for publication.

Preparation of Manuscripts:

All manuscripts should be typewritten in English with double spacing throughout (including figure legends and references) and with 2.5 cm (1 in.) margins in Microsoft Word document file format. The main manuscript should carry

• Title page


• Abstract and Keywords


• Main text


• Acknowledgements (if any)


• Declaration of interest


• References


• Tables and figure legends

Title Page:

Title page should include:

1. Title of the article (should be as short as possible, containing adequate information regarding the contents, without any abbreviation)


2. Full first names and surnames of authors


3. Affiliation(s)/Address (es) should be followed by the name, the full postal address, the e-mail address and the fax/telephone numbers of the corresponding author


4. Running title (not in excess of 50 characters)

Note: Phone number of corresponding author is necessary

Abstract:

The Abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. The Abstract should be 150 (Short papers and Short communications) to 250 words (Research and Review articles) in length. Case reports and Letters to the editor do not require abstracts. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited. For indexing, three to five key words should be typed at the end of the abstract for each manuscript. These words should be identical to the medical subject headings (MeSH) that appear in the Index Medicus of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). Avoid using abbreviations and symbols in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelled out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used. Authors should use the solidus presentation (mg/ml). Standard abbreviations (such as ATP and DNA) need not be defined.

The abstract must include the following separate sections:

• Background: the context and purpose of the study


• Methods: how the study was performed and statistical tests used


• Results: the main findings


• Conclusions: brief summary and potential implications


• Keywords: Three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.

Manuscript text file should be arranged as follows:

• Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of scientific disciplines.


• Materials and methods should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.


• Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors' experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section.


• Discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.


• Conclusions should state clearly the main conclusions and provide an explanation of the importance and relevance of the study reported.


• Declarations

List of abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should be provided.

Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgement section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and the departmental head when providing only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged by citing the grant number.

Conflict of Interest

Authors are expected to disclose any commercial associations or sources of support that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All funding sources supporting the work must be declared in appendix section at the end of manuscript. Whole affiliations with or financial involvement in any organization on entity with a direct financial interest in the subject matters or materials of the research discussed (examples: employment, consultancies, stock ownership or other equity interest, patent-licensing arrangements) should be cited as conflict of interest at the end of manuscript text file.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:

• include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)


• include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate

Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval.

If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, this section is not applicable to your submission. Please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Competing interests

All financial and non-financial competing interests must be declared in this section.

Funding

All sources of funding for the research reported should be declared. The role of the funding body in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript should be declared.

Authors' contributions

The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.

• References:

References should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in superscript as they appear in the text (eg. ²). A number must be used if the authors are named in the sentence/text. Bibliographies cited in tables and figures should be numbered according to the site where the corresponding table or figure is first referenced. When multiple references are cited at a given place in the text, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers that are inclusive. Use commas (without spaces) to separate non-inclusive numbers in a multiple citation eg. 2,3,4,5,7,10 is abbreviated to (2-5,7,10). Do not use a hyphen if there are no numbers cited between the numbers used (eg. 1-2). Periodicals should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus (Vancouver Style). Include the name of all authors, if there are six or less authors. Print names of the first six authors followed by "et al." when there are more than six authors. References to books should include Author(s), Title, Edition, Place of publication, Publisher and Year of publication. Chapters in a book should appear as Author(s), Title of chapter, Editor(s), Name of the book, Place of publication, Publisher, Year of publication and Pages. References to electronic journals should include Author(s), Title of article, Abbreviated title of electronic journal, [serial online], Publication year, month(s), [cited year month (abbreviated) day], Volume number, Issue number, Page numbers or number of screens, available from, URL address underlined:

Articles in journals

Goudarzi H, Douraghi M, Ghalavand Z, Goudarzi M. Assessment of antibiotic resistance pattern in Acinetobacter baumannii carrying bla oxA type genes isolated from hospitalized patients. Novel Biomed 2013;1(2):54-61.

Articles in journals with more than six authors

Tabibi A, Kashi AH, Mirjalili SAM, Mahmoudnejad N, Kashani P, Salavatipour B, et al. The possibility of access to the kidneys from posterior axillary line in supine position for percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Novel Biomed 2013;1(2):43-47.

Article In press

Goudarzi M, Sabzehali F, Tayebi Z, Azad M, Boromani SH, Hashemi A, Seyedjavadi SS. Prevalence of blaCTX-M Gene in Multi-Resistant Escherichia coli Isolated from Urinary Tract Infections, Tehran, Iran. Novel Biomed 2014. [In press].

Article In other language

Goodarzi M, Goudarzi H, Albouyeh M, Azimi Rad M, Zali M, Aslan MM. Molecular typing of Clostridium difficile isolated from hospitalized patients by PCR ribotyping. Pejouhesh. 2012; 36 (2) :68-75. [Persian].

Book, Chapter and Monograph on the Internet

Lodish H, Baltimore D, Berk A, Zipursky SL, Matsudaira P, Darnell J. Molecular cell biology. 3rd ed. New York: Scientific American; 1995.

Porter RJ, Meldrum BS. Antiepileptic drugs. In: Katzung BG, (Editor). Basic and clinical pharmacology. 6th ed. Norwalk (CN): Appleton and Lange; 1995. p. 361-80.

Lundstedt S (2003). Analysis of PAHs and their transformation products in contaminated soil and remedial processes. University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Available from: www.google.com. Accessed Aug 8, 2010.

Inclusive page numbers should be given for all references. Articles in press might appear in the reference list; however unpublished material and personal communications should not be cited in the reference list, though they could be mentioned in parenthesis in the text.

• Tables

Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals and appear be typed on separate sheets of the manuscript file and have a title. They should be self-explanatory, clearly designed, and not duplicating the text.

• Figure legends

Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint before pasting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

Responsibility and ethical requirements:

Based on the ICJME recommendations "all those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. All authors of a manuscript must have agreed to its submission and are responsible for its content (initial submission and any subsequent versions), including appropriate citations and acknowledgments, and must also have agreed that the corresponding author has the authority to act on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining such agreements and for informing the coauthors of the manuscript’s status throughout the submission, review, and publication processes. Submitting a paper before all coauthors have read and approved it is considered an ethical violation, as is failure to credit someone who qualifies as a coauthor. In the event that an author is added or removed from the list of authors, written acceptance, signed by author(s), must be submitted to the editorial office. All sources of financial support of the project should be acknowledged. Authors cannot withdraw their articles within the review process or after submission, or they must pay the penalty defined by the publisher. Corresponding author is the main owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).

All submitted manuscripts will firstly be assessed from the editorial points of view and after they meet the basic editorial requirements, will be subjected to strict peer-review process by at least two international reviewers and one in-office reviewer that are expert in the area of the particular paper. After peer-review process, corresponding author will be informed of the referees’ remarks. Reviewers are being selected by Editor in Chief. The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revision or rejection. All accepted manuscripts will undergo a process of English editing by copy Editor. Associate Editors or Editor in Chief have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed. If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted. All accepted manuscripts will undergo a process of English editing by copy Editor. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.

If the study involves human beings, the author(s) must include a statement that the study was approved by the local ethical committee and that written informed consent was obtained from the study participants. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the declaration of Helsinki should be followed. Also, the maintenance and care of experimental animals complies with National Institutes of Health guidelines for the human use of laboratory animals, should be declared in text. All relevant permissions to cite the unpublished observations of others must be obtained by the manuscript author(s). The names and initials of these persons must be cited in the text, and permission from the original author(s) obtained. Also, permission must be obtained to reproduce or adapt any figures or tables that have been published previously. The Emergency conforms to the international regulations against scientific misconduct including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and etc. Any cases of suspected misconduct will be assessed during the peer-review and publication process based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Plagiarism

Misappropriating another person’s intellectual property constitutes plagiarism. This includes copying sentences or paragraphs verbatim (or almost verbatim) from someone else’s work, even if the original work is cited in the references. The NIH ORI publication “Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: a Guide to Ethical Writing” can help authors identify questionable writing practices. Plagiarism is not limited to the text; it can involve any part of the manuscript, including figures and tables, in which material is copied from another publication without permission and attribution. An author may not reuse his or her own previously published work without attribution; this is considered self-plagiarism.