JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGIC
HEALTH RESEARCH
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Scope of the Journal
The JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGIC HEALTH RESEARCH is published electronically 3 times a year by the Experimental, Biotechnological, Clinical and Strategic Health Research Association and accepts English or Turkish-language manuscripts in all fields of medicine(Experimental, Biotechnological, Clinical and Strategic Health Research) and other related health sciences. Contribution is open to researchers of all nationalities. The following types of papers are welcome: original articles (for the presentation of clinical and laboratory studies), case reports, review articles, and letters to the editor.
Submission Procedures
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the internet to the JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGIC HEALTH RESEARCH through the online system for ULAKBIM dergipark https://dergipark.org.tr/bshr You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files.
There are no page charges.
Papers are accepted for publication on the understanding that they have not been published and are not going to be considered for publication elsewhere. Authors should certify that neither the manuscript nor its main contents have already been published or submitted for publication in another journal. The copyright release form, which can be found at https://dergipark.org.tr/bshr after you started submission, and it must be signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors and must accompany all papers submitted. Please see the form for additional copyright details. After a manuscript has been submitted, it is not possible for authors to be added or removed or for the order of authors to be changed. If authors do so, their submission will be cancelled. The peer review process is double-blind, i.e. both authors and referees are kept anonymous. Manuscripts may be rejected without peer review by the editor-in-chief if they do not comply with the instructions to authors or if they are beyond the scope of the journal. Any manuscript that does not conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, as reported at http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf, will also be rejected. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, i.e. after referee-recommended revisions are complete, the author will not be permitted to make changes that constitute departures from the manuscript that was accepted by the editor. Before publication, the galley proofs are always sent to the authors for corrections. Mistakes or omissions that occur due to some negligence on our part during final printing will be rectified in an errata section in a later issue. This does not include those errors left uncorrected by the author in the galley proof.
The use of someone else’s ideas or words in their original form or slightly changed without a proper citation is considered plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Even if a citation is given, if quotation marks are not placed around words taken directly from another author’s work, the author is still guilty of plagiarism. Reuse of the author’s own previously published words, with or without a citation, is regarded as self-plagiarism. All manuscripts received are submitted to iThenticate®, a plagiarism checking system, which compares the content of the manuscript with a vast database of web pages and academic publications. Manuscripts judged to be plagiarised or self-plagiarised, based on the iThenticate® report or Turnitin for theses, will not be considered for publication. It is suggested for you to determine the ratio in the iThenticate® report of your manuscript before you submit it. Editorial board decided that this ratio should be less than 30, and if not, then the manuscripts are not accepted and sent back to author(s).
All experimental or clinical researches done in humans or animals should follow the ethical rules. The ethical approval form must be sent and the number of approval must be given in the manuscript. The ethical problems belong only to the author(s).
All copyright of the published papers belong to Experimental, Biotechnological, Clinical and Strategic Health Research Association.
The copyright fee is not paid to all authors.
In manuscripts based on scanning of archieve records, a consent form is needed that shows the permission for retrospective work and signed by Head of the Department, hospital manager or clinic manager.
Preparation of Manuscript Style and format:
Manuscripts should be submitted to https://dergipark.org.tr/bshr as Microsoft word file in Times New Roman font. All manuscripts including references should be typed in 12 font size,one and a half (1.5) line space and justified. Upon submission, the copyright release form should be filled and downloaded. The manuscript submissions without a copyright release form will not be evaluated.
Each page of main text of the manuscript should be numbered on the right hand side. Manuscripts should be written in Turkish or English. Contributors who are not native English speakers are strongly advised to ensure that a colleague fluent in the English language or a professional language editor has reviewed their manuscript. Repetitive use of long sentences and passive voice should be avoided. It is strongly recommended that the text be run through computer spelling and grammar programs.
Symbols, Units, And Abbreviations:
In general, the journal follows the conventions of Scientific Style and Format, The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, Council of Science Editors, Reston, VA, USA (7th ed.). Spaces must be inserted between numbers and units (e.g., 3 kg), but not between numbers and mathematical symbols (+, –, ±, ×, =, <, >) and between numbers and percent symbols (e.g., 45%). Please use International System (SI) units. All abbreviations and acronyms should be defined at first mention. Thereafter, generic names should be abbreviated as appropriate without altering the species name.
Typs of Manuscripts Original Article
It should consists of “Introduction”, “Methods”, “Results” and “Discussion”. Conclusion may be written as a last paragraph of discussion, there is no need to add a separate section for conclusion. The whole length of text should be maximum 5 000 words (except abstract, acknowledgements and references). The numbers of references should be maximum 50. Also, scientific names should be spelled italics throughout the text.
Review
It should be maximum 6 000 words (except abstract and references). The author(s) should have at least one published paper in a journal indexed in SCI/SCI-expanded related to the topics of the review. The abstract should be as one paragraph and should be written without a section. The numbers of references should be maximum 100.
Case Report
It should be maximum 1 500 words (except abstract, acknowledgement and references). Case reports should consist of abstract, keywords, introduction, case report and discussion sections. The numbers of references should be maximum 10. Figures or Tables should follow the main text in a separate pages.
Letter to Editor
It should be maximum 1 000 words (except abstract and references). No Tables or Figures are included. If it was written refering to another article, the number and the date should also be added. The name, affiliation(s) and address of author(s) should be written at the end of the text. The numbers of references should be maximum 5.
Manuscript Arrangement
Manuscripts should be arranged as follows: “Title page”, “Abstract”, “Keywords”, “Main text”, “Acknowledgements”, “References”, “Tables”,and “Figures”.
Title page
All submissions must include a title page, which is to be uploaded as a separate document. The title page should contain the full title in sentence case (e.g., Urothelial cancers: clinical and imaging evaluation). The title should be limited to 25 words or less and should not containabbreviations.The title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper.Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. It should be written in capital letters both in Turkish and in English. Title in English should be written using italic letters for Turkish manuscripts and vice versa. The first and the family names of the authors should be written in small letters as the first letter being the capital.
The full names and affiliations of all authors should be given clearly and briefly with theirinstitutions, address with zip code and name of country, and the contact details of corresponding author (E-mail address and telephone). In addition, ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) numbers of all authors should be included into the title page.
Abstract
The abstract should be brief, indicating the purpose/significance of the research, methodology, major findings and the most significant conclusion (s). The abstract shouldnot contain literature citations that refer to the main list of reference attached to the complete article. The abstract should be written as a single paragraph and should be in reported speech format (past tense); complete sentences, active verbs and the third person should be used.
The abstract should be structured to include the study’s “Objective”, “Methods”, “Results”, and “Conclusion” under 4 separate headings. Abstracts of review articles should be a brief overview of the main points from the review. In reviews and case reports, abstract should be written without any sections. The abstract (English and Turkish) should not be more than 300 words.
Keywords
The authors must provide 3-6 keywords for indexing purposes and to facilitate the retrieval of articles by search engines. Keywords should be different from the words that make up the title of the article. Keywords should be written below the abstracts both inTurkish andEnglish. Acronyms should be avoided. For English keywords, always try to use terms from the Medical Subjects Headings list from Index Medicus (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). For Turkish keywords, terms from Turkish Scientific Terms (www.bilimterimleri.com) should be used.
Main text
Introduction
The introduction should be clear and concise, with relevant references on the study subject and the proposed approach or solution. There should be no subheadings. Excessive citation of literature should be avoided. Only necessary and the latest citations of literature that are required to indicate the reason forthe research undertaken and the essential background should be given.
Methods
Explain clearly but concisely your clinical, technical, or experimental procedures. A precise description of the selection of your observational or experimental subjects (for example patients or laboratory animals including controls) must be presented. Experimental research involving human or animals should be approved by ethical committiee.All chemicals and drugs used must be identified correctly, including the generic names, the name of the manufacturer, city and country in parenthesis. The techniques or methodology adopted should be supported with standard references. Briefly describe methods that have been published but are not well known as well as new or substantially modified methods. Description of established procedures are unnecessary. Apparatus should be described only is it is non-standard; commercially available apparatus used should be stated (including manufacturers’ name, address in parenthesis). Only SI units should be used for each measurements.
Results
The result section should provide complete details of the experiment that are required to support the conclusion of the study. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in authors experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Speculation and the detailed interpretation of the data should not be included in the results but should be put into the discussion section.
Discussion
Statements from the “Introduction” and “Results” sections should not be repeated here. The final paragraph shouldhighlight the main conclusions of the study.
Tables and Figures
The visual presentations like photographs, graphics, picturesetc. must be labelled “Figures”. Whereas, the “Tables” shows the classifieddata.Tables should be added after the “References” section. Figure legends should be placed into the end of the main text. Figures should be uploaded as a separate file following the Dergipark System.
All tables and figures must have a caption and/or legend and be numbered (e.g., Table 1., Figure 2.), unless there is only one table or figure, in which case it should be labelled “Table” or “Figure” with no numbering. Captions mustbe written in sentence case (e.g., Figure 1. Macroscopic appearance of the samples.). The font used in the figures should beTimes New Roman. If symbols such as ×, μ, η, or ν are used, they should be added using the Symbols menu of Word.
All tables and figures must be numbered consecutively as they are referred in the text. Please refer to tablesand figures with capitalisation and unabbreviated (e.g., “As shown in Figure 2. …”, and not “Fig. 2” or “figure 2”).
The resolution of images should not be less than 118 pixels/cm when width is set to 16 cm. Images must bescanned at 300 dpi resolution and submitted in .jpeg, .png or .tif format.
Graphics and diagrams must be drawn with a line weight between 0.5 and 1 point. Scanned or photocopied graphs anddiagrams are not accepted.
Charts must be prepared in 2 dimensions unless required by the data used. Charts unnecessarily prepared in3
dimensions are not accepted.
Figures that are charts, diagrams, or drawings must be submitted in a modifiable format, i.e. our graphicspersonnel should be able to modify them. Therefore, if the program with which the figure is drawn has a “Save as”option, it must be saved as .pdf. If the “Save as” option does not include .pdf extension, the figure must becopied and pasted into a blank Microsoft Word document as an editable object. It must not be pasted as an imagefile (.tiff or.jpeg) unless it is a photograph.
Tables and figures, including caption, title, column heads, and footnotes, must not exceed 16 × 20 cm andshould be no smaller than 8 cm in width. For all tables, please use Word’s “Create Table” feature, with no tabbedtext or tables created with spaces and drawn lines. Please do not duplicate information that is already presented inthe figures.
Tables must be clearly typed, each on a separate sheet, and single-spaced. Tables may be continued on anothersheet if necessary, but the dimensions stated above still apply.
Tables should be arranged as a horizontal borderline as well as below the last line. Moreover, there sould be vertical line on the right of first column on the left hand site. Abbreviations used in the tables such as (*) should be explained below the table in 10 font size.
In Tables written in Turkish, decimal numbers should be written with comma, however in English text, decimal numbers should be written with dots. Percentages (%) should be placed in front of the numbers without space and behind the numbers in Turkish and English text, respectively.
Example for a Table:
Table1. The reasons of not applying to general practioner for the first application.
The reasons |
n* % |
Only Psychiatrist can do it No information about general practioner Parents decision Not preferred |
47 53.4 17 19.3 12 13.6 12 13.6 |
*Total number of patients.
Acknowledgement
All acknowledgements, poster/oral presentations, financial supports, grants, technical supports and the conflict of interest should be mentioned at the end of the text.
Funding
The type of Project or the financial support such as scientific projects of University, TUBITAK projects etc. should be added at the end of the text including the numbers and the year of the projects.
References
While talking about the source in the text, the first author's surname ın Er and his firends' study12”…… or ın Er et al.12. Both authors should be given the surnames of both authors (similar results were found in the study conducted by Öncü and Ilke13).
Citations in the text should be identified by numbers assuperscript, for example, “The results were as follows: 4
If there are more than one references, separate the numbers with comma, for example, “Several interventions have been successful at increasing compliance.11,14”
In following journals, first and the last numbers should be seperated by “-“ , for example: Diabetes mellitus is associated with a high risk of foot ulcers1-3 or “As reported previously,1,3-6”
Do not include personal communications, unpublished data, or other unpublished materials as references, although such material may be inserted (in parentheses) in the text. In the case of publications in languages other than English, the published English title should be provided if one exists, with an annotation such as “(article inTurkish with an abstract in English)”. If the publication was not published with an English title, provide the original title only; do not provide a self-translation. A short title for use as a running head (not to exceed 30 characters in length, including spaces between words) is needed. References should be formatted as follows (please note the punctuationand capitalisation):
The list of references at the end of the paper should be given in order of their first appearance in the text. All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are more than 6, in which case only the first 3 should be given, followed by “et al.” in English and “ve ark.” in Turkish references.
The number of references should not be more than 60 in original articles, not more than 100 in review articles, not more than 20 in case reports and not more than 5 in letter to editor. The journal requires DOI numbers, when available, to be included in all references. Personal experiences and researches without a DOI number should not be used.
In order to arrange the reference list easly, our journal suggest the use of reference arrangement programmes such as EndNote or Mendeley etc.).
For a reference in the reference list, the surname of author, the first letter of author’s name, the title of the reference, the name of the journal, the year of the journal, the numbers of its volume, issue and pages should be written. The name of the journal should be abbreviated as in AMA (American Medical Association) ((http://library.nymc.edu/informatics/amastyle.cfm). If the abbreviation is not avalible, whole name of the journal should be written.
Published papers
Yoldas O, Bulut A, Altindis M. Current Approach to Hepatitis A Infections. Viral Hepatit J 2012; 18: 81-86..
Debes-Marun CS, Dewald GW, Bryant S, et al. Chromosome abnormalities clustering and its implications for pathogenesis and prognosis in myeloma. Leukemia. 2003;17:427–436.
Ozcelik F, Oztosun M, Gülsün M, ve ark. Pseudothrombocytopenia due to EDTA in a case with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Turk J Biochem. 2012;37(3):336–339.
Gage BF, Fihn SD, White RH. Management and dosing of warfarin therapy. Am J Med. 2000;109(6):481- 488. doi:10.1016/S0002-9343(00)00545-3.
If a supplement of a journal is referred, (suppl.) in English and (ES) in Turkish manuscripts should be used.
Electronic journal articles
If a journal from a website is used, the date of publishing is used. Usually, there is no numbers of volume, issue or pages. The web adress and date of download should be given.
Example:
Acetaminophen poisoning. In: DynaMed [database online]. EBSCO Information Services. http://0-
search.ebscohost.com.topcat.switchinc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&site=DynaMed&id=113862. Updated
March 09, 2010. Accessed March 23, 2010.
Book
Harmening D. Modern Blood Banking & Transfusion Practices. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company; 2012.
Strunk W Jr., White EB. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York, NY: Longman; 2000.
Chapter in a book
Solensky R. Drug allergy: desensitization and treatment of reactions to antibiotics and aspirin. In: Lockey P, ed. Allergens and Allergen Immunotherapy. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2004:585-606.
McCall RE, Tankersley CM. Phlebotomy and specimen considerations. In: Bishop ML, Fody EP, Schoeff LE, editors. Clinical Chemistry: Techniques, Principles, Correlations. Philadelphia, PA, USA: Lippincott Williams & Williams; 2010:33-73.
Conference proceedings
Weber KJ, Lee J, Decresce R, Subjasis M, Prinz R. Intraoperative PTH monitoring in parathyroid hyperplasia requires stricter criteria for success. Paper presented at: 25th Annual American Association of Endocrine Surgeons Meeting; April 6, 2004; Charlottesville, VA.
Chu H, Rosenthal M. Search engines for the World Wide Web: a comparative study and evaluation methodology. Paper presented at: American Society for Information Science Annual Conference; October 19-24, 1996; Baltimore, MD. http://www.asis.org/annual-96/electronicproceedings/chu.html. Accessed February 26, 2004.
Theses
Fenster SD. Cloning and Characterization of Piccolo, a Novel Component of the Presynaptic Cytoskeletal Matrix [master’s thesis]. Birmingham: University of Alabama; 2000.
Publication Policy and Manuscript Evaluation Process
A. Double-blinded peer-reviewed method
Biotechnology and Strategic Health Research (J BSHRS) is published 3 times a year (April, August, December) and it is double-blinded peer-reviewed system national journal.
Editorial and publication processes of the BSHRS Derg. are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the international organizations such as the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE). The journal is in conformity with Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice). Processing and publication is free of charge with the Biyoteknolojik ve Stratejik Sağlık Araştırmaları Dergisi. Authors are not charged a fee at any point during the publication process. All manuscripts should be submitted through the journal’s web page at https://dergipark.org.tr/bshr.
For the evaluation of papers, at least two referees are determined considering the content of the manuscript or the professional scientific area of the referees. In this step, referee assessment form is sent via internet without names. The personal data of the referee is not shown since the double-blind peer-reviewed method is used. Upon request, a written document given to referee as the referee for that contribute to the journal. The authors cannot directly contact with the referees. The referee’s evaluation report is sent by the journal management system. The evaluation forms and the referees’ reports are sent to the corresponding author(s) by the editor.
B. Decision process
After the referees’ evaluation process, the editor decides whether the manuscript will be accepted or not considering the accuracy and the importance of the work, referee’s reports, copyright infringement and ethical problems such as plagiarism.
As the editor decides about the manuscript, he or she may require the suggestions of the other member of editorial board or referees.
C. Instancy
A referee invited to the journal for the evaluation of a manuscript should inform the editor about the acceptance in 7 days. The referee should complete the evaluation in 15 days and the corresponding author(s) should download the revised manuscript in 15 days. The requested reading time for the last version of the manuscript by the corresponding author is only 3 days.
D. Confidentiality (Privacy Statement)
Personal information such as names and electronic mail addresses are only used for the scientific purposes of the journal. Other than these purposes this information will not be used and will not be shared with the third parties.
The manuscripts sent to referees for assessment are kept as confidential documents. The manuscripts are not shown to other people and the contents of them should not be discussed. If it is necessary, reviewers may need suggestions from their colleagues after editorial permission. The editor may give that permission only in the presence of exceptional condition. The confidentiality rules are also valid for the referees not accepting the assessment of the manuscript.
E. Objectivity principles
In the evaluation process, no personal criticism of the authors should be done. The evaluations should contribute to the development of works and be objective.
F. Citation to reference
The referees should inform the authors if there are any citations that are not referred in the manuscript. The referees should pay particular attention to the citations that do not refer to the subject or to the citations that coincide with similar works. The referees should inform the editors if any publications that have similarity to any previously published work or information are recognized.
G. Information and Conflict of Interest
The referees should not agree to make any evaluation if they have any relation with any author, company or institution in which they are tasked to evaluate their work and inform the editor. The referees may not use the unpublished works or sections of the works submitted for evaluation in their own work without the written consent of the author(s). The information and ideas obtained during the assessment should be kept secret by the referees and should not be used for their own interests. These rules include those who refuse the manuscript assessment.
H. Prevention of Plagiarism
J of Biotechnology and Strategic Health Research(J of BSHR) reports the similarity rates of the articles through the iThenticate and Turnitin programs and shows the care and sensitivity required to prevent plagiarism.
THE WITHDRAW OF THE ARTICLE MUST BE WITH THE APPROVAL OF ALL AUTHORS.
Journal of Biotechnology and Strategic Health Research