Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi

The Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is a double-blind peer review, independent and objective, unbiased, open access, triannual (January, May and September) online scientific publication of Institute of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University. The journal seeks articles related to the multidiciplinary health sciences and medicine. The language of journal is English and Turkish. DOI ID (DOI prefix: 10.30934/kusbed.[Manuscript ID]) numbers are given to all manuscripts. Total of three issues published in a year form a volume of the journal.

The Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is an open access, multidisciplinary scientific journal having a double-blind, peer-reviewed policy. 

The journal is publishing experimental and prospective/retrospective clinical studies, original research, invited reviews, case report and letters to the editor prepared in accordance with the ethical rules.

Manuscripts have been sent to the KOU Sag Bil Derg should not been published previously, and/or not submitted and/or being considered for publication elsewhere. The name, place and the date of the meeting should be written as footnote if manuscripts were presented in any scientific meeting.

The full text files (PDF) of all published articles can be accessed free of charge from http://dergipark.org.tr/kusbed. KOU Sag Bil Derg has adopted to provide open-access journal policy defined by Budapest Open Access Initiative with the publication.

A-General Information

    A-1 About Journal

        A-1.1 Manuscript Submission

    1. Before you make your submission, you should ensure that yo have all of the related information (e.g., Name-surname, full address, affiliation) and the ORCID numbers of the authors. Unless you have this information, your submission process will not proceed.

    2. The language of publication of the journal is English only.

    3. Manuscripts that are based solely on retrospective surveys or screening data may not be prioritized for publication unless     they provide substantial analytical depth or novel insights.

    4. Your manuscript mainly should include three .doc/.docx documents;
        a. Cover Letter
        b. Title page
            i. In the title page, you should mention the names, affiliations and contact information of the authors. The main text             should not involve the author names.
        c. Main text.
    5. Open the webpage http://dergipark.org.tr/kusbed in your internet browser.
    6. After you sign in DergiPark, click on “Submit a manuscript”
    7. Please download copyright form and after you have filled in, upload it by clicking on “file” button. Click “Save & next”.
    8. Fill in the asked information (e.g., type of document, topic, language, keywords, abstract) on the web page.
    9. Provide information about the authors (e.g., name, affiliation, country, ORCID number)
    10. If there are more than one author, click on “Add author” button and provide related information.
    11. Please list all of your references as AMA (American Medical Association) style in the space provided leaving a line blank     between each reference.
    12. By clicking on “File”, upload your manuscript. Name the file as “Full Text” by checking the “I want to enter the file title     textually” below.
    13. Click on “Add new file” to upload your title page document. Name the file as “Title Page” by checking the “I want to enter     the file title textually” below than click on “Save”.
    14. On the page, you may prefer to write DOI numbers of your references. If you do not, please click on “Save” to proceed.
    15. If you want, you can add your note for the editor on the opened preview page.
    16. Please check your submission preview page. You can make corrections by clicking on “Go on editing”.
    17. If the information displayed in the preview is accurate and complete, please click on “Submit”. After this stage, you cannot     make any corrections (Send your change requests to the journal secretary).
    18. For more information, please visit B section.

        A-1.2 Publishing Policy
Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is an Open Access journal. Everybody can reach the content of the journal via internet without any payment. When you make manuscript submissions and give the right for publishing to KOU Sag Bil Derg, your articles will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. By this way, the other researchers will reach, modify and publish your content by making attribution to the original material. User, reader and author(s) must distribute the article under the same license as the original. Please follow the link to get more knowledge about CCL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

        A-1.3 Scope of the Journal

Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is published electronically three times a year (quarterly; January, May, September) by the Institute of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University and accepts only English language manuscripts in all fields of medicine and 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, invited review articles, and letters to the editor.
Description
As an international, multi-disciplinary, peer-refereed journal, Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University provides a platform for the publication of the most advanced scientific research in the areas of basic and clinical medical sciences, dentistry, nursery and midwifery, clinical psychology & psychiatry, physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

    A-2 About Manuscript

        A-2.1 Manuscript Evaluation Process
Double-Blinded Peer-Reviewed Method
Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University (KOU Sag Bil Derg) is double-blinded peer-reviewed system international journal.
Editorial and publication processes of the KOU Sag Bil 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 Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University. Authors are not charged a fee at any point during the publication process. For the evaluation of papers, at least three 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 section editor.
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.
Instancy
A referee invited to the journal for the evaluation of a manuscript should inform the editor about the acceptance in five 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 three days.
Confidentiality (Privacy Statement)
Personal information such as names and electronic mail addresses, is 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.
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.
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.
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.
Prevention of Plagiarism
Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University reports the similarity rates of the articles through the iThenticate and Turnitin programs and shows the care and sensitivity required to prevent plagiarism.

        A-2.2 Submission Procedures
Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, available at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/1601/submission/start. You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal will first go through a technical evaluation process where the editorial office staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the submitting author with technical correction requests.
Authors are required to submit the following during the initial submission:
    • Cover Letter
    • Title Page
    • Copyright Transfer Form
    • Author Contributions Form
    • ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (should be completed by all contributing authors)
After submission, the "Copyright and Publication Policy Acceptance Form" and the "ICJME Conflict of Interest Form" must be signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all other authors, and all authors must approve the submitted manuscript (please see the Copyright and Publication Policy Acceptance Form).
All authors must also sign the "Author Contribution Form" or indicate their approval of its current form.
Changing the order of authors, removing authors, or changing authors after a manuscript has been submitted is prohibited.
The peer-review process is double-blind, meaning neither authors nor reviewers can see each other's names. If the author fails to comply with the instructions or if the manuscript is outside the scope of the journal, the editor has the authority to reject the manuscript without peer review. Manuscripts that do not conform to the format for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) will be rejected. Once an article has been accepted for publication, i.e., after the peer-review process has been completed, authors will not be allowed to leave the manuscript.
There are no page charges.
The copyright fee is not paid to all authors.

        A-2.3 Writing Format

Manuscripts should be submitted to http://dergipark.gov.tr/kusbed 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 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.

        A-2.4 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.). If symbols such as p, ×, µ, η, or ν are used, they should be added using the “Symbols” menu. Degree symbols (°) must be used from the “Symbol” menu, not superscripted letter “o” or number “0”. Multiplication symbols must be used (×), not the letter “X”. 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.

        A-2.5 Ethical Rules
Clinical research protocols must be approved by ethics committees. For all studies conducted on humans, the "Methods" section must include a statement stating that the study was approved by the relevant committee or that the study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of Principles (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/). It must be stated in the text that all individuals included in the study signed the informed consent form. Kocaeli University Journal of Health Sciences assumes that manuscripts submitted to the Declaration of Helsinki have been conducted in accordance with the institutional ethical and legal permissions, and assumes no responsibility in this regard. If the "Animal" element is used in the study, authors must state in the "Methods" section that they have protected animal rights in their studies in accordance with the principles of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and have received approval from their institutional ethics committees.
In manuscripts based on scanning of archive 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. Prospective clinical studies must receive Ethics Committee approval in accordance with the regulations published in the Official Gazette dated January 29, 1993, issue number 21480.
All responsibilities related to articles published in the Kocaeli University Journal of Health Sciences belong to the authors.

            A-2.5.1 Journal Plagiarism Policy (Plagiarism Policy)

Plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, presenting them as new and original rather than acknowledging their origin from an existing source. Self-plagiarism refers to the use of portions of an author's previous writings on the same topic elsewhere in their publications without specifically acknowledging them as a citation (https://wame.org/recommendations-on-publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals). Since 2018, Kocaeli University Journal of Health Sciences has not considered publications identified as plagiarism and/or self-plagiarism during editorial review. During the file upload process, authors must submit a similarity report obtained using a suitable plagiarism detection program (iThenticate, Turnitin). All universities in Türkiye subscribe to a plagiarism detection program; please contact your university library for assistance. For international and external applications, please email us for information. Articles with a similarity rate greater than 30% are considered plagiarism.
Starting with the January 2019 issue, one of the following three decisions is made about the article based on the results of the similarity report:
    • It is sent to a referee for evaluation.
    • It is returned to the author with a request for correction.
    • It is rejected without being considered for evaluation (Articles with a similarity rate greater than 30% are considered     plagiarism and rejected).

        A-2.6 Article Withdrawal and Rejection

            A-2.6.1 Article Withdrawal
Preliminary Review Stage
Articles at this stage may be withdrawn by the author(s).
Referee Review Stage
Authors who wish to withdraw their manuscript and have it published elsewhere due to reasons such as delays in the evaluation process, may withdraw their manuscript from the journal by submitting a written application and the approval of the journal's editorial board.

            A-2.6.1 Article Rejection
Manuscripts rejected for publication are returned with a justification.
A maximum of 15 days is allowed for articles requiring correction during the pre-review phase, and a maximum of 30 days are allowed for articles requiring correction after evaluation. If these timeframes are exceeded, the article is rejected.
After Article Acceptance
After acceptance, author(s)'s requests for retraction are rejected. Furthermore, authors will not be allowed to withdraw from an article after it has been accepted for publication.

        A-2.7 Article Evaluation and Acceptance Process
All articles submitted to Kocaeli University Journal of Health Sciences are processed in three stages: pre-review, scientific evaluation, and editing/typesetting. The average processing time for each article across all stages is 90 days. During the preliminary evaluation, articles submitted to the journal are evaluated by at least two expert reviewers. If changes are deemed necessary during the review process, the publication will be reviewed again after the authors have made the required changes within 15 days. Spelling and grammatical errors may be corrected by the editorial board without affecting the content of the article.
If the article is accepted, the acceptance letter will be sent to the corresponding author within two weeks. The typeset PDF file of the article, prior to the electronic publication, is always sent to the authors for proofreading, so that the author can make final checks and corrections. The journal owner and the editorial board have the authority to decide which issue of the journal the accepted article will be published in.
Inaccuracies or omissions caused by negligence on the part of the journal during the final printing process may be corrected in the errata section of a subsequent issue. This section does not include errors that were not corrected by the author during proofreading.

B- Instructions to Authors

    B-1 Types of Manuscripts

        B-1.1 Original Article

It should consist of “Abstract”, “Introduction”, “Methods”, “Results”, “Discussion”, and “References”. The 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 5000 words, 15 pages (except abstract, acknowledgements and references). The numbers of references should be maximum 50. Also, scientific names should be spelled in italics throughout the text.

            B-1.1.1 Systematic Review
Included in the research article. It is formed by scanning the studies published in the related field in a systematic and comprehensive manner, determining which studies will be included in the review within the framework of various objective acceptance and rejection criteria and synthesizing the information in the relevant subject. Authors should use standard checklists for systematic review and meta-analysis when submitting their drafts, indicating that they comply with the PRISMA (http://www.prisma-statement.org/) statement. It should be up-to-date to include the latest medical literature. It is preferable that the author has published articles on that subject. Systematic review studies should consist of "Abstract", "Keywords", "Introduction", "Method", "Results", "Discussion" and "References" sections.

            B-1.1.2 Meta-analysis
A type of statistical literature developed by combining the findings of at least two studies to show the effect of a particular situation with a single estimator. By combining the findings of multiple studies, the validity and reliability of the results will be strengthened. Meta-analysis can be conducted for both experimental and quantitative research. Meta-analysis articles consist of "Abstract," "Keywords," "Introduction," "Method," "Results," "Discussion," and "References" sections.

        B-1.2 Short Communication (Brief Report)
Short Communications are short, peer-reviewed articles focusing on a high-quality, hypothesis-driven, self-contained piece of original research and/or the proposal of a new theory or concept based on existing research (note that short communication is not original full text article). They should not be preliminary reports or contain purely incremental data and should be of significance and broad interest to the field of health sciences.
The total length of the article (including the main text and figure legends, but not the title page, abstract, materials and methods section or reference list) should not exceed 2500 words, with a 250-word abstract and a maximum of three visual items (figures/tables). Supplementary information (figures, tables, visual material) may be published online at the discretion of the editor and reviewers (a strict limit of 50 Mb of supplementary material exists per article).
Articles focusing on original research should be divided into the following sections, in this order: ‘Introduction’, ‘Methods’, ‘Results’, and ‘Discussion’ as original article designed.

        B-1.3 Invited Review
Authors of reviews must be a scientific authority for the topic of the manuscript; they must document their relevant own experience for the area by listing their own publications in the cover letter. Manuscript submissions that fail to list relevant own publications in the cover letter will be returned to authors.
The word count of the whole text must be 6000 words maximum except for abstract and references with a page number upper limit of 20. The author(s) must have at least one paper published in a journal indexed in SCI-E on the subject related to the topic of the review. The abstract should be as one paragraph and written without a section. The numbers of references should be maximum 100. Author(s) submitting a review article must also include a section describing the methods they used for the selection, acquisition, and synthesis of the data used in the article.
Review articles consist of "Abstract", "Keywords", "Introduction", "Discussion" and "Conclusion" sections.

        B-1.4 Case Report
The word count must be 1500 words maximum (except abstract, acknowledgement and references). The number of references and pages should be limited to 10.
Case reports should consist of “Abstract”, “Keywords”, “Introduction”, “Case Report” and “Discussion” sections.

        B-1.5 Letter to Editor
It should consist of 1000 words maximum (except for abstract and references). It may not include an abstract. One figure or table should be included. It should not include more than four authors. The number of references and pages should be limited to five.
If it is written referring to another article, the number and the date should also be added. The name(s), affiliation(s) and address(es) of author(s) should appear at the end of the text.

    B-2 Manuscript Arrangement
Manuscripts should be arranged as follows: “Title page”, “Abstract”, “Keywords”, “Main text”, “Acknowledgement”, “References”, and “Figures & Tables”
The journal employs a double-blind peer-review process. Therefore, no identifying information about the author(s) should be included in the main text of the article. In addition to the main text file, the Copyright Transfer Form, Author Contribution Declaration Form, and Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (ICJME) must be properly completed and uploaded to the system along with the Similarity Report.
    1. Cover Letter
    2. Title Page
    3. Main File
        a. Abstract (max. 250 words)
        b. Introduction
        c. Methods
        d. Results
        e. Discussion
            i. “Limitations” should be as subtitle.
        f. Conclusion
            i. “Acknowledgement”, “Conflict of Interest”, “Compliance of Ethical Statement” (ethical approval, patient consent, etc.),             “Financial Disclosure/Funding”, and “Author Contributions” sections should be as subtitles respectively.
        g. References
        h. Figures & Tables

        B-2.1 Cover Letter

In the article you submitted, the cover letter serves as a direct channel of communication between the author and the editor, while also providing an opportunity to summarize the key aspects of the study. Leaving a positive first impression on the editor will contribute to a more attentive and thorough evaluation of the manuscript. Therefore, the purpose of the study, its originality, and its main findings should be expressed clearly and concisely in the cover letter. Technical details should be included only to the extent that they aid in understanding the work, and excessive elaboration should be avoided. Instead of presenting numerical data and statistical analyses in detail, the general framework of the study should be summarized in a few sentences. Moreover, although KOU Sag Bil Derg implements a double-blind peer review policy, authors may recommend reviewers through the “Reviewer Suggestion List” or indicate those they consider unsuitable for the evaluation process. A well-prepared cover letter should clearly highlight the study’s contribution to the literature, its originality, and the significance of its findings. Given the high volume of submissions to the journal, careful preparation of the cover letter is of great importance for ensuring that your work receives due attention.

        B-2.2 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 capital letters (e.g., Urothelial Cancers: Clinical and Imaging Evaluation).
The title, should be limited to 25 words, running title/running head should be limited to 50 characters. The full names and affiliations of all authors should be given clearly and briefly with their institutions, 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.

        B-2.3 Manuscript (.doc/.docx file should be uploaded)
            B-2.3.1 Abstract
The abstract should not be more than 300 words; should be structured to include the study’s “Objective”, “Methods”, “Results”, and “Conclusion” under four separate headings. In reviews and case reports, abstract should be written without any sections. The abstract should be brief, indicating the purpose/significance of the research, methodology, major findings and the most significant conclusion(s). The abstract should not 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. Abbreviations should be avoided in abstracts whenever possible. When they are necessary, should be defined in parentheses after first occurrence.

            B-2.3.2 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. Acronyms should be avoided. For keywords, always try to use terms from the Medical Subjects Headings list from Index Medicus (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).
What is Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)?
A comprehensive thesaurus of medical-biological terms, continuously updated, aimed at standardizing medical-biological terminology for the classification of articles in major international indexing and database systems. It provides a source from which the keywords of English-language articles can be selected.

            B-2.3.3 Main Text

                B-2.3.3.1 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 for the research undertaken and the essential background should be given.

                B-2.3.3.2 Method
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 committee. 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 measurement.
Statistical analysis is generally required to support the results. Statistical methods should be conducted in accordance with the standards of statistical reporting in medical journals (see: Altman DG, Gore SM, Gardner MJ, Pocock SJ. Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals. Br Med J. 1983;7:1489–93). Information regarding statistical analyses should be presented under a separate subheading in the “Methods” section, and the name of the software used should be explicitly stated.
Attention should be paid to the principles and recommendations on publication ethics developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME); the guidelines of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) should also be followed. In addition, depending on the type of study, information regarding the Ethics Committee Approval (including the date and number of approval), Institutional Permission, and Informed Consent documents should be included in this section.

                B-2.3.3.3 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.

                B-2.3.3.4 Discussion
Statements from the “Introduction” and “Conclusion” sections should not be repeated here.
Limitations, as the subtitle of the discussion is the section by which the author(s) express limitations on their work.

                B-2.3.3.5 Conclusion
As the final section of the main text of the article should highlight the main conclusions of the study.

            B-2.3.4 Declarations
At the end of the article, the congress where the work was previously presented, whether there is a conflict of interest, financial support, donations or technical assistance should be stated.

                B-2.3.4.1 Acknowledgement
If an acknowledgment is to be added, it should be written before the references.

                B-2.3.4.2 Conflict of Interest Statement
Any conflicts of interest between individuals and organizations and the author(s) should be stated. If there are no conflicts of interest, the statement "The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose" should be included.

                B-2.3.4.3 Ethical Aspects of the Research

Information regarding the study's compliance with ethical standards should be included. The ethics approval number should be presented as the ethical approval statement. Furthermore, information regarding patient consent should be shared, especially in case reports.

                B-2.3.4.4 Financial Disclosure/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. If there is no funding, the statement “The authors declared that no financial support was received for this paper” should be included.

                B-2.3.4.5 Author Contributions
The author(s)'s contribution to the research should be included based on the form.

            B-2.3.5 References
The journal uses AMA (American Medical Association) style for citing sources and recommends the use of citation management programs (EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, etc.) (https://academic.oup.com/amamanualofstyle/pages/about/guide-to-citing).
Author(s) can use the AMA citing engine at the link provided: http://www.citethisforme.com/citation-generator/ama

                B-2.3.5.1 Citations in the Text
References should be numbered in the order they appear in the text, and reference numbers should be given in superscript.
For example, “…as stated.8”.
Previously used sources must be cited using the same number. If there is more than one source, they must be separated by commas, without spaces.
For example, “…as reported.8,13,18”
In consecutive references, the first and last numbers must be shown separated by a hyphen "-".
For example; “…as stated.3,13-16”,
“Diabetes mellitus is associated with a high risk of foot ulcers.1-3”,
“Several interventions have been successful at increasing compliance.11,14-16 The data of Smith et al.18 is further evidence of this effect.”,
“As reported previously,1,3-6 The results were as follows:4”.

                B-2.3.5.2 The List of References
At the end of the paper, list 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.”.
By Author Numbers
    1. Single author: Last name AA.
    2. Two authors: Last name AA, Last name BB.
    3. Six authors: Last name AA, Last name BB, Last name CC, Last name DD, Last name EE, Last name FF.
    4. More than six authors: Last name AA, Last name BB, Last name CC, et al.
The number of references should not be more than 60 in original articles, not more than 100 in review articles, not more than 10 in case reports and not more than five in letter to editor.
Personal experiences and research that has not been accepted for publication (except for those with a doi number and not yet published in the journal issue) cannot be cited as a reference.
When citing a journal supplement, it should be indicated as "Suppl." For online articles, the full publication date is used and generally does not include volume/journal numbers or page numbers. As such cases, the direct address and the date accessed should be provided.

    1. Articles Published in Printed Journals
The source citation is as follows:

Author's surname First letter of author's first name(s). Title of the article. Name of the journal in italics (abbreviation for journals included in the NLM catalog; if not, the full title should be written in italics). Year of publication; Volume number (Issue number): Page numbers.

    - Keçeli S, Dündar D, Sönmez TG. Anti-candidal activity of clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains and in vitro inhibition of     Candida biofilm formation. Mikrobiyol Bul. 2012;46(1):39-46.

    - Özpolat B, Gürpınar ÖA, Ayva EŞ, Gazyağcı S, Niyaz M. The effect of Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor and adipose tissue derived     mesenchymal stem cells on wound healing, epithelization and angiogenesis in a tracheal resection and end to end     anastomosis rat model. Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 2013;21(4):1010-1019.
    - Özçelik F, Öztosun M, Gülsün M, Arslan E, Serdar MA. İdiopatik trombositopenik purpura ön tanılı bir olguda EDTA’ya bağlı     psödotrombositopeni. Turkish J of Biochem. 2012;37(3):336-339.

The reference for the article accepted for publication but not yet published is as follows:

    - Kuenze G, Bonneau R, Leman JK, Meiler J. Integrative Protein Modeling in RosettaNMR from Sparse Paramagnetic Restraints.     Structure. In press. September 2019. doi:10.1016/j.str.2019.08.012
    - Brown JE. The relation between citations and references. J Med Style. In press.

    2. Articles in Online Journals with DOI Numbers

The source citation is as follows:

Author's surname First letter of author's first name(s). Title of the article. Name of the journal in italics (abbreviation for journals included in the NLM catalog; if not, the full title should be written in italics). Year of publication; Volume number (Issue number): Page numbers(required for citations from printed journals). doi:

    - 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. doi:10.1038/sj.leu.2402797.

    - Ozcelik F, Oztosun M, Gülsün M, et al. İdiopatik trombositopenik purpura ön tanılı bir olguda EDTA’ya bağlı     psödotrombositopeni. Turk J Biochem. 2012;37(3):336-339. doi:10.5505/tjb.2012.18209

    - Takahashi A, Sugawara C, Kudoh T, et al. Prevalence and imaging characteristics of palatine tonsilloliths detected by CT in     2,873 consecutive patients. Scientific World Journal. 2014;2014. doi: 10.1155/2014/940960

Articles not yet published citation is as follows:

    - Brown JE. The relation between citations and references. J Med Style. In press.

    3. Articles in Online Journals without DOI Numbers

For online articles, the full publication date is used. Generally, there are no volume/journal numbers or page numbers. The article's direct address and the date of last access must be provided.

    - Aggleton JP. Understanding anterograde amnesia: disconnections and hidden lesions. Q J Exp Psychol. 2008;61(10):1441-    1471. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pbh&AN=34168185&site=ehost-live. Accessed March 18, 2010.

    4. Websites

    - World Health Organization. Equitable access to essential medicines: a framework for collective action.     http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2004/WHO_EDM_2004.4.pdf. Published March 2004. Accessed December 6, 2005.
    - Moral science: protecting participants in human subjects research Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical     Issues. http://bioethics.gov/sites/default/files/Moral%20Science%20June%202012.pdf. Accessed October 9, 2013.

    5. Government or Agency Bulletins

    - Johnston LD, O'Malley PM, Bachman JG. Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Adolescent Drug Use: Overview of     Key Findings. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2003.
    - World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects.     http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm. Updated June 10, 2002. Accessed February 26, 2004.

    - World Health Organization. Standards and Operational Guidance for Ethics Review of Health-Related Research With Human     Participants. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2011.
    - WMA Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. 59th WMA General Assembly,     Seoul, Korea, October 2008. World Medical Association Web site.     http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html. Accessed December 28, 2010.

    6. Book

Entire book citation is as follows:

Author's surname First letter of author's first name(s). Title of the book in italics. If there is more than one edition, the number of edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Date of publication.

    - Strunk W Jr, White EB. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.
    - Harmening D. Modern Blood Banking & Transfusion Practices. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company; 2012.

Section of book citation is as follows:

Section’s author's surname First letter of author's first name(s). Section name. In: Editor(s). Title of the book in italics. Place of  publication: Publisher; Date of publication: Pages.

    - 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.
    - Bjork CE Jr, McLeod RD. AMA and other styles: how to format citations. In: Laurent B III, Cool JR, eds. A History of Citations and     References. Vol. 1. 5th ed. Geneva, Switzerland: Tangelo Press; 2006:3-16.

Translated books citation is as follows:

Book’s author's surname First letter of author's first name(s). Translated title in italics. Translation editor(s) name(s). Place of publication: Publisher; Date of publication.

    - Liberman RP. Yetiyitiminden İyileşmeye: Psikiyatrik İyileştirim Elkitabı. Yıldız M, Çev-ed. Ankara, Türkiye: Sosyal Psikiyatri     Derneği; 2011.

    - Plato. The Laws. Taylor EA, trans-ed. London, England: JM Dent & Sons Ltd; 1934:104- 105.

    7. Conference proceedings/Presentations
Citation is as follows:

Author's surname First letter of author's first name(s). Presentation title. At: Venue name; Date; City, Country.

    - Diamond M. Lymphatic system. Lecture presented at: University of California, Berkeley; September 26, 2005; Berkeley, CA.
    - 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.
    - Participants in the 2001 Conference on Ethical Aspects of Research in Developing Countries. Moral standards for research in     developing countries: from “reasonable availability” to “fair benefits.” Hastings Cent Rep. 2004;34(3):17-27.

    8. Theses/Dissertations

Citation is as follows:

Author's surname First letter of author's name(s). Title [PhD thesis/dissertation] in italics. City, Country: University/Institution name; Year of publication.

    - Fenster SD. Cloning and Characterization of Piccolo, a Novel Component of the Presynaptic Cytoskeletal Matrix [PhD thesis].     Birmingham: University of Alabama; 2000.

Author's surname First letter of author's name(s). Title [MSc/Master thesis] in italics. City, Country: University/Institution name; Year of publication.

    - Undeman C. Fully Automatic Segmentation of MRI Brain Images Using Probabilistic Diffusion and a Watershed Scale-Space     Approach [Master thesis]. Stockholm, Sweden: NADA, Royal Institute of Technology; 2001.

    9. The Other Sources
Audio & Visual Materials

    - Acland RD. Acland's DVD Atlas of Human Anatomy [DVD]. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2003.

Databases

    - PDQ: NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; 1996.     http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/pdq/cancerdatabase. Updated December 18, 2001. Accessed April 29, 2004.

YouTube Videos

    - University of California, Berkeley. Integrative Biology 131 - Lecture 01: Organization of the Body [Video]. YouTube.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9WtBRNydso&index=2&list=PLgHFaI-Y9V8BBTPc2bD7VgDTgRZT5nthX Published August     20, 2007. Accessed July 2, 2012.

Dictionaries

    - Stedman's medical dictionary. 28th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005: 1784.

Encyclopedias

    - Wallace RJ Jr, Griffith DE. Antimycobacterial agents. In: Kasper DL, Fauci AS, Longo DL, Braunwald E, Hauser SL, Jameson JL,     eds. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 16th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2005:946.

Access Medicine Book Chapter

    - LeBlond RF, Brown DD, DeGowin RL. Vital signs, anthropometric data, and pain. In: LeBlond RF, Brown DD, DeGowin RL. eds.     DeGowin's Diagnostic Examination, 9e. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2009.     http://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=370&Sectionid=40499497. Accessed July 31, 2014.

ClinicalKey

    - De Prisco G, Celinski S, Spack CW. Abdominal Abscesses and Gastrointestinal Fistulas. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ.     eds. Sleisenger and Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2016.     https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/book/3-s2.0-B9781455746927000284?scrollTo=%23hl0000371. Accessed July 2,     2016.

UpToDate Topic

    - Marion, DW. Diaphragmatic pacing. In: UpToDate, Post TW (Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA. (Accessed on November 25, 2013.)

            B-2.3.6 Figures and Tables
Visual presentation tools in the manuscript are classified into two categories: “Figure” (photographs, images, drawings, diagrams, charts, etc.) and “Table” (organized data sets). All figures/tables must include a caption and/or legend and be numbered (e.g., Table 1., Figure 2.). If there is only one figure or table, it should be labeled simply as “Figure” or “Table” Captions must be written in sentence case.
Figures and tables must be placed after the “References” section in the main text, each with a title (caption). They must also be uploaded separately (each figure in the relevant format, tables in a single file) through the submission system. In the manuscript, they should be cited in order of appearance using Arabic numerals and referenced in parentheses.
Figures
Figures must be professionally prepared or photographed.
Digital figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, size of at least 1280 × 960 pixels, and be saved in JPG, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF formats.
No text should appear within figures; if symbols, arrows, or letters are used, their explanations must be provided in the legend. Legend should be 9-point font size.
For microscopic images, the magnification and staining method must be specified.
Previously published figures require written permission from both the author and publisher. For identifiable individuals, written consent must also be obtained.
Scanned or photocopied images are not accepted.
Unnecessary use of 3D charts is not permitted; charts must be prepared in 2D unless required by the data.
Tables
Tables must be created using Microsoft Word software’s “Create Table” feature. Tabbed text, spaces, or drawn lines are not acceptable.
Tables must be typed single-spaced and presented on separate pages. In cases where the table length exceeds the page, it should be stated that the table continues on the next page.
The top and bottom of the header row and the bottom of the last row must be enclosed with horizontal lines; a vertical line should be placed to the right of the first column. If there are in-table subtitles, additional horizontal lines may be acceptable.
Legend should be 9-point font size. Abbreviations and symbols (*) used in the tables must be explained below the table in 8-point font size.

The Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is an open access, multidisciplinary scientific journal having a double-blind, peer-reviewed policy. The journal carries out academic publishing in the field of health sciences and medicine.

The journal aims to contribute to the literature and all disciplines in the field of health by publishing experimental and clinical studies, original research, review, case report and letter to the editor prepared in accordance with ethical rules.

The Journal Editorial Board acts in accordance with the principles and guidelines of ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). The journal conforms to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).

The journal does not charge any article fee during the submission, evaluation and publication process. There is not an open access publication fee for authors. 

Authors' credentials and e-mail addresses are in no way used for other purposes. Authors may publish their articles on their personal or corporate websites by linking them to the appropraite cite and library rules.

All responsibilities regarding the articles published in the Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University belong to the author.

Processing and publication is free of charge with the Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi. Authors are not charged a fee at any point during the publication process.

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