INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Ahi Evran Medical Journal (Ahi Evran Med J) is published in English by Ahi Evran University Medical Faculty which processing through double-blind peer review. The journal covers clinical and experimental research articles on subjects from all medical areas, review articles, case reports, letters to the editor, manuscripts on historical evolution of diseases and medicine and content on ethical problems. Articles are accepted only by online submission. The basic features supposed to be in an article during assessment processes for the acceptance to journal are the contribution to the scientific literature and the originality.

The authors are responsible for the scientific and ethical liability of the manuscripts and the copyright of the manuscripts belongs to the Ahi Evran Medical Journal. Authors are responsible for the contents of the manuscript and the references. The data, opinions and statements of published articles are authors’ responsibility, and the Editors, Editorial Board, Publisher and Ahi Evran Medical Faculty deny any responsibility on these subjects.

All manuscripts must be accompanied by the Copyright Transfer Form. This form must be signed by all authors in the order of their names on the title page. By signing the form, authors declare that the manuscript and the data in it have not been submitted elsewhere or previously published and approve scientific contributions and responsibilities of all authors.

Screening for Plagiarism

All submitted manuscripts to the Ahi Evran Medical Journal are tested for plagiarism using the ‘iThenticate’ software (similarity ratio ≤%20). 

Any text, image or reference used in the article is the responsibility of the author(s). It is author’s responsibility to get copyright permissions of figures, tables and other images used in their manuscript. The author(s) will be responsible for any claim that the journal may occur as a result of these mentioned issues.

If any financial or material support was received for the study, it must be declared by authors including the type of relationship (consultant, other agreements). If there is no relationship with the commercial product, drug, pharmaceutical company, etc. it must be stated in the cover letter.  

Suggested guidelines for our journal

To find the right guideline for your research, please complete the questionnaire by Equator Network here.

Evaluation process 

After the articles are sent, they are first evaluated by the editors. A double-blind peer-reviewed evaluation is carried out in the Ahi Evran Medical Journal. During the whole process, the identities of both the reviewers and the authors are hidden from each other. To facilitate this, authors should ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not reveal their identity. Afterwards, minimum two reviewers are appointed to evaluate the article. Reviewers are selected from among experts who have publications in the same medical field. Reviewer form are requested to be filled (Review form). The articles can also be checked by the statistics editor if needed. All articles are also reviewed in terms of English and article writing rules. Editors first evaluate whether the articles are written according to the journal's article writing rules before the reviewer’s evaluation process. Articles not written in accordance with these rules will not be evaluated. Reviewers are given 20 days for evaluation, and if any corrections are requested, the authors have 30 days to make the necessary corrections. The editor-in-chief, associate editors, biostatisticians and English language editor can make minor corrections that do not change the original meaning of the accepted article.

Ahi Evran Medical journal  does not guarantee manuscript acceptance or very short peer review times.

All manuscripts are underwent an initial process by the Editors after the submission. Then, two reviewers are assigned for manuscript evaluation. Reviewers are selected among specialists who also have publications in literature in the same medical field. Articles might be checked by the statistical editor in addition if needed. All manuscripts are also inspected for English grammatical and manuscript preparation rules.

Manuscripts should be written in “MS Word” program in the “Times New Roman 12 Points”, double-spaced. Page format should be A4 size; with spaces of “2.5 cm” on the right, the left, the top and the bottom

Ethical Issues

All clinical studies should be conducted acording to the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm). In these studies, it should be declared that the research project was approved by an ethics committee (date and number of ethics committee) in the “Tools and Methods” section. In “Case Reports” and manuscripts any documents including patient identification should not be used. An “informed consent” must be taken from the patients whose information will be used and this must be stated in the “Materials and Methods” section. In animal experiments, the study must be in accordance with ethic regulations “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” (www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and authors must state in the “Materials and Methods” section of the text that the research project has been approved by an Ethics Committee with date and number of report. For experimental and clinical studies with drugs, suitability for Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health’s regulations and approval from an ethical board must be included in the text. The author is responsible for compliance with ethical rules. 

The author must upload a copy of the document showing the Ethics Committee Decision to the system.

The format of manuscripts should be appropriate to the guidelines stated in ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).

Cover page

This page should include the title of the manuscript, short title, name(s) of the authors and author’s information. This page must be uploaded as a seperate file. The following information should be given in the given order:

•    •  Article Title (in Turkish and English, without any abbreviations and explanatory)

•      Short title of the article

•      Full names and institutions of all authors

•      ORCID numbers of all authors

•      Corresponding author's name, address, e-mail address, telephone and fax number

•      The place and date of the scientific meeting, if any, at which the study was presented.

•      Indication of any financial support received for the study.

Manuscript Types

1.Original Articles

Clinical research consists of clinical observation, new techniques or laboratories studies. Original articles should include title, abstract, key words related to the article, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, study limitations, conclusion, references, tables/figures/images and acknowledgement sections. Title, abstract and key words should be written in both Turkish and English. The number of references should be at most 35.

Abstract: A summary should be written in both Turkish and English and is limited to 250-word count. References should not be cited in the abstract. Use of abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible. For original articles, the structured abstract should include the following titles:

• Purpose: The aim of the study should be clearly stated.purpose: The aim of the study should be clearly stated.
• Materials and Methods: The study should be described; it should also be indicated whether the study is randomized or not, whether it is retrospective or prospective, and the statistical methods used should be stated.
• Results: The detailed results of the study should be given and the statistical significance level should be indicated.
• Conclusion: Short summary  of the study, the significance of the results should be included.
• Keywords:  Minimum 3, but no more than 5 key must be added after the abstract. The title of the article and the keywords should not be the same. Key words in English should be consistent with “Medical Subject Headings (MESH)” (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). Turkish key words should be direct translations of the terms in MESH and choosen from Turkey Science Terms (http://www.bilimterimleri.com).

Original articles should have the following sections:

• Introduction: Should explain the topic briefly and the objective of the study should be indicated, supported by the literature.

• Materials and Methods: The study plan should be clearly described, including whether the study is randomized or not, whether it is retrospective or prospective, the number of trials, the characteristics, and the statistical methods used.

• Results: The results of the study should be stated, with tables/figures; the results should be presented with  statistical analysis methods.

• Discussion: The study results should be discussed and they should be compared with the literature. The conclusion of the study should be stated.

• Conflict of Interests: Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could have direct or potential influence or impart bias on the work. If no conflict exists, the authors should state: “The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.”

• Acknowledgements: Any technical or financial support or editorial contributions (statistical analysis, English/Turkish evaluation) towards the study should be included.

• References:  See General Guidelines for details about the usage and formatting required for references.

2.Case Reports

Case reports should present cases which are rarely seen, hard to diagnose and treat, and making contribution to current medical knowledge. The first page should include the title in Turkish and English, a summary not exceeding 150 words, and key words. The main text should consist of introduction, case report, discussion and references. The entire text should not exceed 3 pages (A4, formatted as specified above).

3.Review Articles

Review articles can be about any aspect of clinical or laboratory medicine. Most review articles are prepared upon the invitation by editors but other review submissions are also welcome. Authors of the review papers should have many published articles with regard to the review topic. Articles or a description of the relevant topic should be indicated on the Title Page or in the Note to the Editor. The number of references should be at most 50.

Reviews articles studies topics in-depth objectively considering literature. The first section should include the title in Turkish and English, a summary and keywords. All sources of references should be included. The entire text should not exceed 15 pages (A4, formatted as mentioned before).

4.Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor should be short articles related to current advances in medicine and their scientific and social relations, or may ask questions or make contributions about a previous article that has been published in the Journal. Letters do not have a title or an abstract; they should not exceed 1,000 words and can have up to 10 references.

Statistics 

Statistical Analyses that were used in the study should be specified as Statistical Analysis sub-section under the Material and Methods section.

- Package programs and programming languages that were used in the study should be cited and their versions should be specified.

- Instead of p>0.05 or p<0.05 notations, report the exact p values such as p=0.002 or p=0.695 as the group comparison result.

- Specify the statistical test names that were used for testing the assumptions (e.g. Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for testing the normality assumption, Levene test for testing the variance homogeneity assumption)

- Specify the names of statistical tests under the table as footnote if different tests were utilized for group comparisons (e.g. *: Student’s t test, **: Mann-Whitney U Testi)

References  

AMA (American Medical Association) Reference Citation Format should be used for references. EndNote style link: https://researchsoftware.com/downloads/ahi-evran-medical-journal-en  

References should be listed numerically by order of citation in the text, not alphabetically. All references must be cited in the text or tables as superscript numbers ( for example: Diabetic retinopathy is one of the cause of blindless.1,3-6   Kılıç et al12 reported...)The accuracy of references are author’s responsibility.  References should be arranged according to following formats:

e.g. 

Alay İ, Dagdeviren H, Kanawati A, Eren E, Kaya C, Cengiz H. Complementary and alternative medicine practices in patients who admitted to gynecology outpatient clinic. Ahi Evran Med J. 2018;2(3):53-57.

Kurt F, Arıkan H, Karadoğan S, et al. Pathogenesis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Ahi Evran Med J. 2017;1(1):1-7.

Books:

1.      An entire book: Authors' surnames and initials. Book Title. Edition number (if it is the second edition or above). State (or Country) of publisher: Publisher's name; copyright year.

e.g. Naumann GOH, Holbach L, Kruse FE. Applied Pathology for Ophthalmic Microsurgeons. Germany:Springer; 2008.

2.       Chapter in a book: Authors' surnames and initials. Chapter Title. Surname and initials of book authors or editors (or translator, if any). Book Title. Edition number (if it is the second edition or above).  Country of publisher: Publisher's name; copyright year. Page number.

e.g. Guyton JL, Crockarell JR. Fractures of acetabulum and pelvis. In: Canale ST, ed.Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Mosby, Inc; 2003:2939-2984.

Internet document:

Figures

Figures should be positioned in the main text where the figures are convenient and also should be uploaded as separate files to the online submission system. Figures should be numbered as 1, 2, 3 and so on, and mentioned clearly in the text. The type of specimen, original magnification or a scale bar, and staining method should be included for photomicrographs. For gross pathology specimens label rulers with unit of measure should be included. Digitally enhanced images (CT/MRI, blots, photographs, photomicrographs, ultrasound images, x-ray films, etc.) must be clearly in digital images. Multiple sections of figures are combined in a single figure file and should be uploaded as a single figure file, i.e. there is only one Figure 1 file, not Figure 1A file, Figure 1B file etc. Individual figure files - must be TIFF (.tif), or JPG (.jpg) files. Figure legends should be placed in the last page of the manuscript seperately including the figure numbers.

The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process, all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions: 100x100 mm).

Tables

Tables must be cited in the main text in numerical order. Tables in Word/table format should be put on separate pages after references in the text. Tables should be self-explanatory. Each table should have a clear title and all abbreviations within the table should be included in a footnote below the table. Each piece of data needs to be contained in its own cell and the boxhead should not be empty.

Supplementary material

Additional materials, such as applications, images, and sound clips, can be included alongside your article to enrich its content. These supplementary items are presented in the same format as they are submitted, meaning that Excel or PowerPoint files will be displayed online as they are. It is important to submit your supplementary material along with the article and include a brief and informative caption for each supplementary file. If you need to make revisions to any supplementary material at any point in the publication process, please ensure that you provide an updated file instead of annotating corrections on a previous version. 

Author Checklist

• Covering Letter
• Category of the manuscripr
• The manuscript is not submitted elsewhere
• The authors’ financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned
• Statistical methods check
•  English language check
• Title page
• The title of the manuscript (Turkish and English)
• Authors and institutions
• Abstracts (maximum 250 words-Turkish and English)
• Key words: 3-5 words (Turkish and English)
• References
• Tables and figures
• Copyright Transfer Form
• Ethics Committee Approval Certificate
• Author Contribution Form

 Please mail to editor.aemj@ahievran.edu.tr to contact Technical Editor for complaints.

Feedbacks: The complaints about the journal are sent to the principal contact of the journal via e-mail. All complaints are examined carefully by journal management and complaints are answered within reasonable amount of time.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES