Submission Guidelines

Submissions to Journal of Research in Clinical Medicine (JRCM) are accepted through our online submission system. To streamline the process, the online submission system is designed to perform a series of automatic controls, promptly informing the user of any technical insufficiencies, and directing to the relevant instructions.

To start submission, please create an account and log in. The submitting author will take responsibility on behalf of all co-authors as the corresponding author of the submission and is required to enter full details including a working e-mail address, phone number and address, in their online profile. All correspondence, including, but not limited to, the results of initial evaluation, editor’s decision, and request for revisions or proofreading will be sent to the e-mail address of the corresponding author, which is going to be published with the article.

The submission or any subsequent revision is evaluated at the editorial office, and if corrections are necessary, it may be temporarily unsubmitted and returned to the authors, who are responsible for formatting their submission and providing the required information. Please see our editorial workflow for more information. For further help regarding submission, you may contact the editorial office.

iThenticate software is used in the processing of submissions.

Our 5-step submission process

1. Submission Conditions

Open access license, copyright, and charges

Journal of Research in Clinical Medicine (JRCM) is an Open Access journal. There are no submission fees or article processing charges for authors submitting their paper to the Journal of Research in Clinical Medicine. The open access publication is subsidized by Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Department of Vice Chancellor for Research & Technology. Please see our publishers' open access and copyright policy for more information.

Upon submission, the authors are required to sign the license form for open access publication of their work in the journal, granting the right to TUOMS Publishing Group to identify itself as the original publisher of the article. The authors agree to the publication of their article under the Creative Common license 4.0 (CC-BY) while retaining the copyright to their work. Please see our open access and copyright policy and license agreement for more information.

Cover letter

A cover letter is required for every submission. It must be uploaded in a separate file. The authors will need to confirm the following conditions in submitting cover letter:

• That the submission is original, submitted solely to this journal, and not currently under consideration for publication or already published elsewhere, unless explained in the submission cover letter. See our editorial policies on duplicate publication.
• That no sentence is copied from other sources. See our editorial policies on plagiarism and text recycling.
• That the submitting author takes responsibility for the submission on behalf of all authors as the corresponding author.

• That all authors have reviewed, approved, and consented to the submission, and they are accountable for all aspects of its accuracy and integrity in accordance with ICMJE criteria.

The submission cover letter should also include the following information, as well as any additional information requested in the instructions for the specific article type that the authors are submitting:

• The reasons of submitting the manuscript in the journal (the novelty of the work)
• The explanation of any issues relating to journal policies
• A declaration of any potential competing interests
• The name of special issue that the submission should be published in

The authors may also suggest potential peer reviewers for their submission by providing name, institutional email addresses, and an ORCID or Scopus ID. Please see our editorial policies for more information on suggesting peer reviewers and also visit our editorial policies regarding the use of unique identifiers.

The authors may also provide the details of anyone who they would prefer not to review their work.
Intentionally providing falsifying information, such as false names or email addresses, will result in rejection of the submission and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.

2. Preparing the Manuscript

JRCM publishes the following article types:

Research article: Original work resulting from research, constituting complete studies that contain all relevant information. Prepare the manuscript as: Title, Structured Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Figures and Legends, List of additional files. It must be up to 3500 words with 30 references.

Short communication: Original work, but less substantial than the regular research article, presenting preliminary results, or results of immediate relevance. It must be up to 2000 words, including tables, figures, and references. Prepare the manuscript as: Title, Structured Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Figures and Legends, List of additional files. .

Review:  Narrative reviews on clinically relevant topics. A full-length Review must be up to 8000 words, including tables, figures, and references. Prepare the manuscript as: Title, Unstructured Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Subheadings in the manuscript as necessary, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Figures and Legends, List of additional files. 

Case report: Systematic reports of interesting or rare cases of importance for the practice of professionals. Prepare the manuscript as: Title, Unstructured Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Figures and Legends, List of additional files.  

Letter: Comments or concerns on specific subjects; overall or pertaining to items published in the journal. Also, new or additional findings of original nature. Prepare the letter as: A Title, Text, References.

Editorial: The Journal’s editors write the editorial.

Survey papers: Extensive reviews of established or emerging research topics or application areas (up to 2000 words).

Title

A concise descriptive title should be chosen for the submission. Do not capitalize all words; only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalized. Include the type of the study (meta-analysis, systematic review, cohort, case report, etc.) in the title with a colon (:). The title should be exactly the same in submission system and all of the uploaded files. 

Structured Abstract

(In Research article, Short communication and Systematic review)

The structured abstract (maximum 250 words) contains the following major subheadings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The Background subheading reflects the background as well as the purpose of the study, that is, the hypothesis being tested. The Methods should include the setting for the study, the subjects (number and type), the treatment or intervention, and the type of statistical analysis. The Results include the outcome of the study and statistical significance if appropriate. The Conclusion states the significance of the results. Clinical trials should include the trial registration number on the last line of the abstract.

Unstructured Abstract

(In Narrative review and Case report)

The unstructured abstract (maximum 150 words) does not contain subheadings.

Note: Letters and editorials do not need abstract.

Keywords

3 to 10 keywords for each submission should be selected from the list of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). List keywords in alphabetic order, all lower case, except where necessary.

Introduction

The introduction contains a concise review of the subject area and the rationale for the study. More detailed comparisons to previous work and conclusions of the study appear in the Discussion section.

Methods

The methods section should describe in adequate detail the experimental subjects, their important characteristics, and the methods, apparatus, and procedures used, so that other researchers can reproduce the experiment.

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, as revised in 2008. If there is no certainty whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments are animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals is followed. The methods section must indicate that the protocol was reviewed by the appropriate institutional review body and that each subject in the project signed a detailed informed consent form.For more information, please refer to Editorial Policy.

Results

Results should be presented in a logical sequence with reference to tables, figures, and illustrations as appropriate.

Discussion

New and possible findings of the study should be emphasized, as well as any conclusions that can be drawn. The discussion should compare the present data to previous findings. Limitations of the experimental methods should be indicated, as should implications for future research. New hypotheses and clinical recommendations are appropriate and should be clearly identified. Recommendations, particularly clinical ones, may be included when appropriate.

Highlights and graphical abstract 

For original articles, Highlights is mandatory  for this journal as they increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study. Graphical abstracts are optional but highly encouraged for this journal. 

Preparing references, equations, tables, figures, and additional files

To correctly prepare the references, equations, tables, figures, or additional files for a submission, please follow the guidelines.

3. Providing the Required Information

The authors should make ready the following required information upon submission and also in "title page" file. The manuscript should not include this information to ensure a double blind peer-review. Please see our editorial policies for more information regarding peer review policy. The supporting information will be reviewed by the editor.

Author Information

Full names and email addresses of all authors, as well as their affiliations are requested during submission. Providing the unique identifier (ORCiD) of each co-authors is highly recommended, but it is mandatory for the first and corresponding author . Please see our editorial policies on authorship and unique identifiers for more information. If a collaboration group should be listed as an author, please list the group name as an author.

Authors’ Contribution

Authors should provide the information related to the Authors' Contribution section (CRediT) when submitting the article. If the Authors’ Contribution section is not sent at the time of submitting the article, it must be submitted when sending the corrections requested by the reviewers. The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy and validity of the information. The Authors' Contribution section will be included in the published article.
14 CRediT groups are as follows:
Note: Each of the articles must complete the groups related to CRediT based on the type of article and research.
Conceptualization
Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims
Methodology
Development or design of methodology; creation of models
Software
Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components
Validation
Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/ reproducibility of
results/experiments and other research outputs
Formal analysis
Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data
Investigation
Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection
Resources
Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools
Data Curation
Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse.
Project administration
Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution
Funding acquisition
Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication
Visualization
Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/ data presentation
Supervision
Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team
Writing - Original Draft
Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation)
Writing - Review & Editing
Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre-or post publication stages.

* Please note that based on ICMJE recommendations, all of the authors should contribute in Writing - Review & Editing. 

Acknowledgments

In an “Acknowledgments” section, the authors are required to acknowledge anyone who contributed to the submitted work that does not meet the criteria for authorship. It is obligatory to state any support with translating or editing by third parties such as professional commercial writing/editing services. The authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgments section.

Please see our editorial policies for further explanation of authorship criteria and acknowledgments.

Funding

The authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research reported. 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.

Competing Interest

The authors are required to declare all financial and non-financial competing interests with regards to the publication of their work during submission. Please see our editorial policies for more information on competing interests. If any of the authors are unsure whether they have a competing interest, they should contact the editorial office.

Ethics approval and Consent to Participate

Authors of submissions reporting studies involving human participants, data, or tissues are required to provide the following information:

• A statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
• The name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate

Submissions reporting studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval.
Please see our editorial policies for more information.
If the submission does not report on or involve the use of any animals or human data or tissues, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

** Please note that an ethical approval code is mandatory for case reports.

Consent to Publish

If the submission contains any individual person’s data in any form, consent to publish must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent to publish. The authors may use their institutional consent form. The form is not to be sent on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication). Please see our editorial policies for more information.

If the submission does not contain any individual person’s data, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

4. Finalizing Submission

Before completing the process, the submitting author is required to review the submission proof (PDF) which will be automatically generated. The submission proof may be shared with co-authors for a final check and approval. The submitting author may go back and correct any parts as necessary, review the submission proof again, and then submit the work using the “Submit” button.

Since all papers will undergo a double-blind peer review process, authors are required to upload the file related to such information as ‘Title of the Article’, ‘Author(s)' Name(s)’, ‘Organizational Affiliation’, ‘ORCID ID’, ‘Conflict of Interest’, ‘Authors' Contributions’, and ‘Acknowledgement’ in a separate file titled ‘Title Page’ in the Submission system. Furthermore, authors are required to upload the full text of the article as another file titled ‘Main Document without Title Page’.

 5. Revising the Submission

Any subsequent revisions to the submission upon request from the editor will have to follow the same guidelines presented here.

Upon submitting a revised submission, the authors will be guided to provide a re-submission letter, attaching the revision details, based on the comments provided by the editor. The attached revision details should not include author information to ensure blind peer review.