Last update: February 1st, 2022
Dear Author,
In order to prevent waste of effort and time, and to evaluate the manuscript drafts you send to the MKU Medical Journal, you must use the MKU Medical Journal templates, which you can download to your computer using the links on the journal homepage, and which contain explanations for the spelling rules in the comments section.
Thank you for your interest in submitting your manuscript to Medical Journal of Mustafa Kemal University for editing and publication consideration. In order to facilitate preparation and submission of your manuscript, we have prepared this guideline explaining basic points that should be taken into account when preparing the paper.
The Journal is official publication of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Faculty of Medicine. It is an open access scientific journal, being published three times a year and peer-reviewed. The Journal aims to publish original contributions based on clinical or experimental studies in all areas of medicine. The official languages of the journal are Turkish and English.
Subject areas include, but are not restricted to the following fields: first aid and emergency medicine, family medicine, public health and preventive medicine, internal diseases, general surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, ear, nose and throat diseases, eye diseases, orthopedics and traumatology, radiology and radiodiagnostics, anesthesia and intensive care medicine, adolescent diseases, childhood diseases, multisystem diseases, physical medicine and rehabilitation, forensic medicine and forensic sciences, mental health and diseases, cardiovascular system diseases, nervous system diseases, neurosurgery, respiratory system diseases, infectious diseases, occupational diseases, nuclear medicine, oncological diseases, sports medicine, genetic diseases, medical pathology, medical education, history of medicine and ethics.
The journal covers all relevant branches in basic sciences besides the surgical and non-surgical specialties of the topics mentioned above.
Audience
Academicians, specialist physicians and research assistants in surgical and non-surgical medical disciplines; general practitioners; academicians, specialists and research assistants in basic medical sciences; dentists and nurses.
Manuscript Preparation
All manuscripts which will be published in the journal must be in accordance with research and publication ethics. All authors should have contributed to the article directly either academically or scientifically. Presentations at congresses or in symposia are accepted only if they were not published in whole in congress or symposium booklets and should be mentioned as a footnote.
Manuscripts are received with the explicit understanding that they have not been published in whole or in part elsewhere, that they are not under simultaneous consideration by any other publication. Direct quotations, tables, or illustrations that have appeared in copyrighted material must be accompanied by written permission for their use from the copyright owner and authors. All articles are subject to review by the editors and referees.
Process of Peer Review
The journal utilizes a standard online site (http://dergipark.gov.tr/mkutfd), supported by Tubitak Ulakbim, for the process of both manuscript submission and manuscript peer review. Upon receiving a manuscript submitted for consideration of publication to the journal, the journal manager and editorial staff review the submission to assure all required components as outlined in this Guide for Authors are included. The manuscript is then assigned to one of the co-editors (either the editor in chief or an associate editor) who directs and oversees the peer-review process. The co-editor then reviews the submission for relevance, content and quality. Those submissions deemed appropriate for consideration of publication are then assigned to at least two peer reviewers. In order for a manuscript to be considered for publication, it must be original and significant, providing a contribution to research and importance to field. In general, there should be no flaws in the specific procedures used in performance of the study, or in the logic used for the interpretation of the data. It is important that the results of the study support its conclusions, and that there are no errors in reference to prior work (or no exclusions of pertinent references). Where appropriate, confirmation of regulatory review (such as institutional review board approval) must be present. The validity of the statistics used (often including a justification of a sample size) to analyze data is necessary, and the data presented in the figures and tables should be reflective of the results presented and adequate to justify the study conclusions. In general, the manuscript length and quality of the writing are important to ensure its quality.
When the editor has a full complement of reviews completed, the editor reviews the comments and recommendations, and a decision regarding the suitability for publication of the manuscript is made. Acceptance is based on significance, and originality of the material submitted. If the article is accepted for publication, it may be subject to editorial revisions to aid clarity and understanding without changing the data presented.
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
General Principles
The text of articles reporting original research should be divided into Introduction, Methods, Results [Findings], and Discussion sections. This so-called "IMRAD" structure is not an arbitrary publication format but a reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Articles often need subheadings within these sections to further organize their content. Other types of articles, such as meta-analyses, may require different formats, while case reports, narrative reviews, and editorials may have less structured or unstructured formats.
Electronic formats have created opportunities for adding details or sections, layering information, cross-linking, or extracting portions of articles in electronic versions. Supplementary electronic-only material should be submitted and sent for peer review simultaneously with the primary manuscript.
Sections
Abstract
Original research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses require structured abstracts. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study's purpose, basic procedures (selection of study participants, settings, measurements, analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical and clinical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations, note important limitations, and not overinterpret findings. Please, do not cite figures, tables or references in the abstract.
Because abstracts are the only substantive portion of the article indexed in many electronic databases, and the only portion many readers read, authors need to ensure that they accurately reflect the content of the article. All the articles submitted to the journal require to include abstracts in Turkish and English. Abstracts of original articles should not exceed 250 words.
Keywords
Three to six words or determinative groups of words should be written below the abstract. Abbreviations should not be used as keywords. Keywords in English should be chosen from MESH (Medical Subject Headings http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh) index and Turkish keywords should be chosen from Turkish Scientific Terms (http://www.tubaterim.gov.tr) index. Abbreviations cannot be used as keywords, but instead they should be written explicitly. Letters that do not exist in Latin alphabet (e.g. alpha, beta, delta etc.) should be used with their pronunciation.
Examples; carbon monoxide, firearms, sexual abuse, oral mucosa
Introduction
Provide a context or background for the study (that is, the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objective of, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation. Cite only directly pertinent references, and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.
Methods
The guiding principle of the Methods section should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. The Methods section should aim to be sufficiently detailed such that others with access to the data would be able to reproduce the results.
The authors should clearly describe the selection of observational or experimental participants (healthy individuals or patients, including controls), autopsied persons, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population.
In general, the section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was being written; all information obtained during the study belongs in the Results [Findings] section. If an organization was paid or otherwise contracted to help conduct the research (examples include data collection and management), then this should be detailed in the methods.
The Methods section should include a statement indicating that the research was approved or exempted from the need for review by the responsible review committee (institutional or national). If no formal ethics committee is available, a statement indicating that the research was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki should be included.
Identifying information, including names, initials, or autopsy numbers of the patients/deceased should not be exposed in written descriptions or photographs in no ways. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential.
Informed consent should be obtained in human studies and it should be stated in the manuscript.
When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.
The authors should describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to judge its appropriateness for the study and to verify the reported results. They should define statistical terms, abbreviations, symbols and should specify the statistical software package(s) and versions used.
Results [Findings]
You should present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Please, do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. Provide data on all primary and secondary outcomes identified in the Methods Section. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in an appendix where they will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text, or they can be published solely in the electronic version of the journal.
You should give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical significance attached to them, if any. You should restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess supporting data. Please, use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as "random" (which implies a randomizing device), "normal," "significant," "correlations," and "sample." Separate reporting of data by demographic variables, such as age and sex, facilitate pooling of data for subgroups across studies and should be routine, unless there are compelling reasons not to stratify reporting, which should be explained.
Discussion
It is useful to begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings and explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings. Emphasize the new and important aspects of your study and put your findings in the context of the totality of the relevant evidence. State the limitations of your study and explore the implications of your findings for future research and for clinical practice or policy. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the Results [Findings] section.
Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. In particular, distinguish between clinical and statistical significance, and avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless the manuscript includes the appropriate economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority or alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted but label them clearly.
In-text Citations and References
Authors should provide direct references to original research sources whenever possible. References should not be used by authors, editors, or peer reviewers to promote self-interests. Although references to review articles can be an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature, review articles do not always reflect original work accurately. On the other hand, extensive lists of references to original work on a topic can use excessive space. Fewer references to key original papers often serve as well as more exhaustive lists, particularly since references can now be added to the electronic version of published papers, and since electronic literature searching allows readers to retrieve published literature efficiently.
Do not use conference abstracts as references: they can be cited in the text, in parentheses, but not as page footnotes. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as "in press". Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source.
Laws (e.g., penal code), statutes and regulations are not scientific writings. In addition to being published on the official gazette, since it is published on various internet sites, a reference number should not be given to laws, statutes and regulations. If it is to be cited within the text, the law could be cited by specifying the number of the law, the date and number of publications in the official gazette (e.g., A Review of Article 5 of the Turkish Criminal Penal Code No. 5237). They should not be numbered within the text, or in the reference list.
To minimize citation errors, references can be verified using either an electronic bibliographic source, such as PubMed, or print copies from original sources. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Roman numerals should be avoided. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3 … 9, 0) in parentheses. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used for MEDLINE (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).
If you refer to a work more than once, use the first number also for the second and following references. References to more than one source in the same phrase may be entered like this: (2-4), i.e., references 2 through 4 in the reference list, and (2-4, 8), i.e. the references 2 through 4, plus reference no 8 in the list of references.
Sample for in-text citation:
In a clinical research in healthy individuals, Ellis (25) has studied the sciatic nerve excursion using ultrasound technique.
Wright and Ellis (10) has investigated the excursion of nerves around the elbow joint.
In another and similar cadaveric study by Wright et al (13), the radial nerve median excursion values were 4.1, 8.8, and 0.2, 0.1 mm with motions of shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers respectively.
Suicide is a major public health problem and globally the second leading cause of death among young adults (1). Studies focusing on how mental health risk factors impact on youth suicidal behaviors suggest that psychopathological symptoms are associated with suicidal behavior (3,4). Adverse effects of H2S on human health vary from local irritation to immediate death depending on the form, concentration, duration and route of exposure (9, 13-15).
Reference Style
The Vancouver system, also known as Vancouver reference style or the author–number system, is a citation style that uses numbers within the text that refer to numbered entries in the reference list. Vancouver style is used by MEDLINE and PubMed. The names "Vancouver system" or "Vancouver style" have existed since 1978. The latest version of the latter is Citing Medicine, per the References > Style and Format section of the ICMJE Recommendations. In 1978, a committee of editors from various medical journals, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), met in Vancouver, BC, Canada to agree to a unified set of requirements for the articles of such journals. This meeting led to the establishment of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URMs). Part of the URMs is the reference style, for which the ICMJE selected the long-established author–number principle.
Since the early to mid-2000s, the United States National Library of Medicine (which runs MEDLINE and PubMed) has hosted the ICMJE's "Sample References" pages. Around 2007, the NLM created Citing Medicine, its style guide for citation style, as a new home for the style's details. The ICMJE Recommendations now point to Citing Medicine as the home for the formatting details of Vancouver style.
Medical Journal of Mustafa Kemal University, since the first day of its publication uses the PubMed/NLM reference style. Thus, references should follow the standards summarized in the NLM's International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Samples of Formatted References for Authors of Journal Articles web page and detailed in the NLM's Citing Medicine, 2nd edition.
According to the Vancouver rules, you can only refer to the literature you have read yourself. If you find anything interesting in a text where it is referred to another text, you must read and refer to the original.
Reference List
The reference list should be ordered numerically in the order in which the references appear in the text.
The journal's name may be abbreviated, according to the abbreviation rules for journal titles. Records retrieved from a search for the full journal title in the National Library of Medicine's search page include the abbreviated title.
Authors' names should be given as surname followed by initials. There should be a space between surname and initials. A maximum of two initials are allowed for each author, they should be entered without spaces or punctuation. Different authors should be separated by a space and a comma. A period (.) should follow the last author's name. If six or more authors, list the first six authors followed by et al.
Only the first word of a title, proper nouns, proper adjectives, acronyms, and initialisms should be capitalized.
The most reliable method for calculating the impact factor of our journal and number of citations of articles published in our journal or calculating the number of times your own article is cited in a healthy way, is to add DOIs to the references section. In order to give the DOIs to the articles published in Medical Journal of Mustafa Kemal University, the CrossRef membership application has been completed and all the research articles, case reports, and reviews are being assigned DOIs. For this reason, DOIs need to be added to the References section if available for those references. We hope that the article tools will be helpful in referencing articles published in our journal.
We place great importance to the addition of DOIs to the references.
Sample for Journal Article without DOI:
Dokgöz H, Kar H, Bilgin NG, Toros F. Forensic Approach to Teenage Mothers Concept: 3 Case Reports. Turkiye Klinikleri J Foren Med 2008;5(2):80-4
Kaufman DM, Mann KV, Miujtjens AM, Van der Vleuten CP. A comparison of standard setting procedures for an OSCE in undergraduate medical education. Academic Medicine 2000;75:267–71.
Sample for Journal Article with DOI:
Koçak U, Alpaslan AH, Yağan M, Özer E. Suicide by Homemade Hydrogen Sulfide in Turkey a Case Report. Bull Leg Med. 2016;21(3):189-192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17986/blm.2016323754
Article not in English
Kar H, Dokgöz H, Gamsız Bilgin N, Albayrak B, Kaya Tİ. Lazer Epilasyona Bağlı Cilt Lezyonlarının Malpraktis Açısından Değerlendirilmesi. Bull Leg Med. 2016;21(3):153-158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17986/blm.2016323748
Books and Other Monographs
Personal author(s)
Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.
Author(s) and editor(s)
Breedlove GK, Schorfheide AM. Adolescent pregnancy. 2nd ed. Wieczorek RR, editor. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Education Services; 2001.
Chapter in a book
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113
Emmerson BT. Gout and renal disease. In: Massry SG, Glassock RJ (Editors). Textbook of Nephrology 1. Baskı, Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins; 1989. p. 756–760.
Conference proceedings
Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.
Article published on the Internet ahead of the print version:
Yu WM, Hawley TS, Hawley RG, Qu CK. Immortalization of yolk sac-derived precursor cells. Blood. 2002 Nov 15;100(10):3828-31. Epub 2002 Jul 5.
Part of a homepage/Web site [Edited 28 Dec 2016]
American Medical Association [Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2016 [cited 2016 Dec 27]. Office of International Medicine; [about 2 screens]. Available from: https://www.ama-assn.org/about/office-international-medicine
Thesis
Skrtic L. Hydrogen sulfide, oil and gas, and people's health [Master's of Science Thesis]. Berkeley, CA: University of California; 2006.
Weisbaum LD. Human sexuality of children and adolescents: a comprehensive training guide for social work professionals [master's thesis]. Long Beach (CA): California State University; 2005. 200 p.
For the reference types not listed here, please visit Samples of Formatted References for Authors of Journal Articles available at Medline Web site (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Tables
Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text.
It would be appropriate to place the tables at the end of the main text. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a title for each. Titles in tables should be short but self-explanatory, containing information that allows readers to understand the table's content without having to go back to the text. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. Give each column a short or an abbreviated heading. In the tables, case counts (n) and percentages (%) should be specified in separate columns, not in the same cell.
Authors should place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes and use symbols to explain information if needed. Symbols may be as alphabet letters or such symbols as *, p t> T §). Please, identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.
Illustrations (Figures)
The lexical meaning of figure constitutes a number symbol (numeral, digit), a written or printed character, a diagram or pictorial illustration of textual matter, arithmetical calculation or digits representing an amount when plural. While definition of picture includes a design or representation made by various means (as painting, drawing, or photography), illustration means a picture or diagram that helps make something clear or attractive. Although these terms bear distinctive meanings, they are too often used interchangeably. Thus, we meant them in the same way without distinction.
Digital images
The 300 DPI Story
In the ancient times when digital cameras have not been invented, the photos taken by analogue cameras were used to be printed on photo papers. In order to transfer these photos to the digital environment, they had to be scanned by optical devices called scanners. On the same dates, desktop publishing and printing technology was far beyond the digital photography, and many years had passed since the invention of laser printing technology. Here, several technical terms should be explained to make the concept clearer. DPI is used to describe the resolution number of dots per inch in a digital print and the printing resolution of a hard copy print dot gain, which is the increase in the size of the halftone dots during printing. A dot matrix printer, for example, applies ink via tiny rods striking an ink ribbon, and has a relatively low resolution, typically in the range of 60 to 90 DPI (420 to 280 µm). An inkjet printer sprays ink through tiny nozzles and is typically capable of 300–720 DPI. A laser printer applies toner through a controlled electrostatic charge and may be in the range of 600 to 2,400 DPI. Along with the cheaper memory chips, 1200 dpi printers have been widely available in the consumer market since 2008. Monitors do not have dots but do have pixels. The closely related concept for monitors and images is pixels per inch or PPI. Old CRT type video displays were almost universally rated in dot pitch, which refers to the spacing between the sub-pixel red, green and blue dots which made up the pixels themselves. The DP measurement of a printer often needs to be considerably higher than the pixels per inch (PPI) measurement of a video display in order to produce similar-quality output. This dithered printing process could require a region of four to six dots (measured across each side) in order to faithfully reproduce the color in a single pixel. An image that is 100 pixels wide may need to be 400 to 600 dots in width in the printed output; if a 100×100-pixel image is to be printed in a one-inch square; the printer must be capable of 400 to 600 dots per inch to reproduce the image. The dpi of early model laser printers was 300 to 360, thus scanning images at 300 DPI was a common practice at that time.
In printing, DPI (dots per inch) refers to the output resolution of a printer or imagesetter, and PPI (pixels per inch) refers to the input resolution of a photograph or image. DPI refers to the physical dot density of an image when it is reproduced as a real physical entity, for example printed onto paper. A digitally stored image has no inherent physical dimensions, measured in inches or centimeters. Some digital file formats record a DPI value, or more commonly a PPI (pixels per inch) value, which is to be used when printing the image. This number lets the printer or software know the intended size of the image, or in the case of scanned images, the size of the original scanned object. For example, a bitmap image may measure 1,000 × 1,000 pixels, a resolution of 1 megapixel. If it is labeled as 250 PPI, that is an instruction to the printer to print it at a size of 4 × 4 inches. Changing the PPI to 100 in an image editing program would tell the printer to print it at a size of 10×10 inches. However, changing the PPI value would not change the size of the image in pixels which would still be 1,000 × 1,000. An image may also be resampled to change the number of pixels and therefore the size or resolution of the image, but this is quite different from simply setting a new PPI for the file.
Therefore, an image that is 2048 pixels in width and 1536 pixels in height has a total of 2048×1536 = 3,145,728 pixels or 3.1 megapixels. One could refer to it as 2048 by 1536 or a 3.1-megapixel image. Or, you can think of it as a very low-quality image (72 ppi) if printed at about 28.5 inches wide, or a very good quality (300 ppi) image if printed at about 7 inches wide.
Since the 1980s, the Microsoft Windows operating system has set the default display "DPI" to 96 PPI, while Apple/Macintosh computers have used a default of 72 PPI. The choice of 72 PPI by Macintosh for their displays arose from the convenient fact that the official 72 points per inch mirrored the 72 pixels per inch that appeared on their display screens. (Points are a physical unit of measure in typography, dating from the days of printing presses, where 1 point by the modern definition is 1/72 of the international inch (25.4 mm), which therefore makes 1 point approximately 0.0139 in or 352.8 µm). Thus, the 72 pixels per inch seen on the display had exactly the same physical dimensions as the 72 points per inch later seen on a printout, with 1 pt in printed text equal to 1 px on the display screen. As it is, the Macintosh 128K featured a screen measuring 512 pixels in width by 342 pixels in height, and this corresponded to the width of standard office paper (512 px ÷ 72 px/in ≈ 7.1 in, with a 0.7 in margin down each side when assuming 8.5 in × 11 in North American paper size (in Europe, it's 21 cm x 30 cm - called "A4")).
In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner, is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Although the history of digital cameras dates back to the 1970s, they have become widely used in the 2000s. While the resolution of the first digital camera invented by Kodak was as low as 100 by 100 pixels (0.01 megapixels), the first commercially available digital camera, Fujix DS-1P had a resolution of 0.4 megapixels. On the other hand, modern scanners are considered the successors of early telephotography and fax input devices. The pantelegraph was an early form of facsimile machine transmitting over normal telegraph lines developed by Giovanni Caselli, used commercially in the 1860s, that was the first such device to enter practical service. The history of the first image scanner developed for use with a computer goes back to 1957. Color scanners typically read RGB (red-green-blue color) data from the array. This data is then processed with some proprietary algorithm to correct for different exposure conditions and sent to the computer via the device's input/output interface. Color depth varies depending on the scanning array characteristics but is usually at least 24 bits. High quality models have 36-48 bits of color depth. Another qualifying parameter for a scanner is its optical resolution, measured in pixels per inch (ppi), sometimes more accurately referred to as samples per inch (spi).
Images in web pages, video, and slide shows can be as low as 72 PPI for a static image or 150 PPI if we are going to focus in on the image. For printing, the DPI needs to be larger, with images scanned in at least 300 DPI. The DPI standard for and images to be printed within journals and books is 300 DPI and for museum exhibits, it's 600 DPI.
The most important factors determining image quality of digital images can be considered as pixel dimensions and color depth. Increasing the dpi value of an image by resampling in Photo Editors (e.g., Adobe Photoshop) has no improving effect on its quality, but it lets us to determine target printing size.
For vector images, there is no equivalent of resampling an image when it is resized, and there is no PPI in the file because it is resolution independent (prints equally well at all sizes). However, there is still a target printing size. Some image formats, such as Photoshop format, can contain both bitmap and vector data in the same file. Adjusting the PPI in a Photoshop file will change the intended printing size of the bitmap portion of the data and also change the intended printing size of the vector data to match. This way the vector and bitmap data maintain a consistent size relationship when the target printing size is changed. Text stored as outline fonts in bitmap image formats is handled in the same way. Other formats, such as PDF, are primarily vector formats which can contain images, potentially at a mixture of resolutions. In these formats the target PPI of the bitmaps is adjusted to match when the target print size of the file is changed. This is the converse of how it works in a primarily bitmap format like Photoshop but has exactly the same result of maintaining the relationship between the vector and bitmap portions of the data.
Long story short, it is not technically possible to talk about DPI value for images that were taken by digital cameras or any type of digital images that were transferred to the computer's storage media. The DPI value stored within exif information of images is just a virtual value just to guide the photo editing software and the graphic artist to determine the target printing size of that image.
Requirements for Digital Media
Figures and Figure Legends
Dear author, since the Journal has decision of publishing online, there is no need to upload the photos, pictures, drawings or shapes in the article as a separate file. However, to avoid blurring of images in the pdf of the article, you should add the photos or other images (X-ray, BT, MR etc.) in your Microsoft Word program as follows.
Insert menu - Pictures - Related image file in your computer
You must add the related image file on your computer and add the picture width to 16 cm. Since the need to upload each image (photo, X-ray, BT, MR or other images) is eliminated, please do not upload it to the system during submission. Place only at the end of full text and blind text.
Due to the reasons explained above, images should be taken by a digital camera of 5 megapixels or more in JPEG, RAW, or TIFF format, and should be inserted in their original form as JPEG or TIFF files.
Paper-printed images or documents should be scanned at 300 DPI resolution and should be inserted as TIFF or JPEG files.
Each vector graphic software has its own built-in settings and may have been preset at 72 dpi. So, the document should be created enough big to obtain the image in the desired dimensions. The vector graphics should be exported to a rasterized image format and inserted such as JPEG or TIFF files.
For X-ray films, CT scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, you should insert high-resolution photographic image files. Since blots are used as primary evidence in many scientific articles, we may require deposition of the original photographs of blots on the journal website.
Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should therefore be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough to remain legible when the figure is reduced for publication.
Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends— not on the illustrations themselves.
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text.
In the manuscript, legends for illustrations should be in Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. Roman numerals should be avoided. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, you should identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.
Units of Measurement
Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.
Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, unless other units are specifically required by the journal.
Authors must consult the International System of Units (SI).
Authors should add alternative or non-SI units, when SI units are not available for that particular measurement. Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units, but the alternative should be provided in parentheses where appropriate.
Abbreviations and Symbols
Use only standard abbreviations; use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement.
Types of paper
Medical Journal of Mustafa Kemal University publishes the following types of articles.
1. Original Articles: Original prospective or retrospective studies of basic or clinical researches in areas relevant to medicine.
The manuscript should contain both Turkish and English abstracts, each a maximum of 250 words, and the structured abstract should contain the following sections: objective, methods, results [findings], and conclusion. Editorial office will write Turkish abstract for non-native Turkish speakers. Three to six words or determinative groups of words should be written as keywords below the abstract.
The text of articles reporting original research might contain up to 5000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) and should be divided into Introduction, Methods, Results [Findings], and Discussion sections. References should also be included so that their number does not exceed 50. This so-called "IMRAD" structure is not an arbitrary publication format but a reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Articles need subheadings within these sections to further organize their content.
2. Review Articles: The authors may be invited to write or should be expert in that subject of review article.
The manuscript should contain both Turkish and English abstracts, a maximum of 250 words, but a structured abstract is not required. The main text should include titles or related topics to further organize the content. The text of review articles might contain up to 5000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables). Number of references should not exceed 90.
3. Case Reports: Brief descriptions of a previously undocumented disease process, a unique unreported manifestation or treatment of a known disease process, or unique unreported complications of treatment regimens.
The manuscript should contain both Turkish and English abstracts, a maximum of 150 words, but a structured abstract is not required. The main text should include titles or related topics to further organize the content. The manuscript could be of up to 2000 words (excluding references and abstract) and could be supported with up to 25 references.
4. Editorial: Special articles are written by editor or editorial board members. An abstract is not usually included in editorials.
5. Letter to the Editor: These are letters which include different views, experiments and questions of the readers about the manuscript and should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. These should be short and decisive observations. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The letter could have up to 1000 words and a maximum of 15 references.
Please contact the Editor at tip.dergi@mku.edu.tr for sending this type of papers.
Manuscript Files
This journal follows a double-blind reviewing procedure. Authors are therefore requested to submit; a blinded manuscript, and a separate full manuscript file.
You may download full manuscript and blinded manuscript templates by following the links on Journal's homepage.
a) Copyright and Ethical Declaration Form:
b) Full Manuscript File: All parts of the manuscript should be included in this file. General information about the article and each of its authors is presented on the full manuscript file and it should include the article title, author information, email address of each author, ORCID iDs, any disclaimers, sources of support, conflict of interest declaration, contact information of the corresponding author, Turkish and English titles, Turkish and English abstracts, body of the manuscript such as introduction, method, findings, results and discussion and references. This file will not be shared with reviewers.
Article title. The title provides a distilled description of the complete article and should include information that, along with the Abstract, will make electronic retrieval of the article sensitive and specific. Information about the study design could be a part of the title (particularly important for randomized trials and systematic reviews and meta-analyses). Please avoid capitalizing all letters of the title, and capitalize each word except conjunctions (e.g., and, but, both, or, either, neither, nor, besides, however, nevertheless, otherwise, so, therefore, still, yet, though etc.). No abbreviations should be used within the titles.
Author information. Each author's highest academic degrees should be listed. The name of the department(s) and institution) or organizations where the work and email addresses should be attributed should be specified.
ORCID iD information of all authors is required by the TR Index.
Corresponding Author. One author should be designated as the corresponding author, and his or her email address should be included on the full manuscript file. This information will be published with the article if accepted. ICMJE encourages the listing of authors' Open Researcher and Contributor Identification (ORCID).
Disclaimers. An example of a disclaimer is an author's statement that the views expressed in the submitted article are his or her own and not an official position of the institution or funder.
Source(s) of support. These include grants, equipment, drugs, and/or other support that facilitated conduct of the work described in the article or the writing of the article itself.
Conflict of Interest declaration. A conflict of interest can occur when you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them, that could influence your research.
Some authors claim, the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medical research has been a major cause for concern. In contrast to this viewpoint, some authors emphasize the importance of pharmaceutical industry-physician interactions for the development of novel treatments and argued that moral outrage over industry malfeasance had unjustifiably led many to overemphasize the problems created by financial conflicts of interest.
Thus, full disclosure is required when you submit your paper to the Journal. The journal editor will use this information to inform his or her editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures to assist readers in evaluating the article. The editor may decide not to publish your article based on any declared conflict. The conflict of interest should be declared on your full manuscript file or on the manuscript submission form in the journal's online peer-review system.
Sample personal statement for no conflict of interest:
On behalf of all authors, I, as the corresponding author, accept and declare that; we have NO affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
Sample personal statement for potential conflict of interest:
On behalf of all authors, I, as the corresponding author, accept and declare that; the authors whose names are listed immediately below report the following details of affiliation or involvement in an organization or entity with a financial or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
[Please specify name of the author(s) and nature of the conflict]
Acknowledgement
The Acknowledgements section immediately precedes the Reference list. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an 'Acknowledgements' section. Additionally, if the article has been submitted on behalf of a consortium, all author names and affiliations should be listed at the end of the article in the Acknowledgements section. Authors should also disclose whether they had any writing assistance.
c) Main Text File: This is the blinded manuscript file that will be presented to the reviewers. The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables, figures or diagrams) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Manuscripts not in compliance with the Journal's blinding policy might be returned to the corresponding author. Please, use only Microsoft Word Document files. Do not zip the files. The name of the institution or hospital which will reveal the place where the study was conducted should be blinded as "… University" or "… Hospital".
d) Cover Letter and Reviewer Suggestion
Article Format
The submitted file must be in Microsoft Word Document format.
The page size must be 210 mm × 297 mm (A4 size). All margins must be set to 2.5 cm. If you are using Microsoft Word 2007 or later, you can easily set the margin by choosing "Normal" setting from Margins menu within Layout tab. The text layout should consist of single column.
Do not capitalize diseases or syndromes unless they include a name or proper noun. Note that the words "syndrome" and "disease" are never capitalized; for example, Down syndrome, Hodgkin disease.
The authors should turn off automatic hyphenation. Do not use hyphens with common prefixes unless the word looks confusing when closed up or unless the prefix precedes a proper noun, some other capitalized word, or an abbreviation. Common prefixes that should be "closed up" include ante, anti, hi, co, contra, counter, de, extra, infra, inter, intra, micro, mid, neo, non, over, post, pre, pro, pseudo, re, semi, sub, super, supra, trans, tri, ultra, un, and under.
Use italics sparingly for emphasis in the text.
Spell out Greek letters or use the "Insert, Symbol" feature in Microsoft Word. Do not create your own symbols.
Do not use italics for common expressions, such asin vivo, in utero, en face, aide-mémoire, or in situ.
Use bold type sparingly in text because it competes with headings for the reader's attention.
Always use numerals for statistics, ages, and measurements (including time, for example, 3 weeks). For other uses, spell out numbers from one to nine only.
Spell out abbreviations at first mention in the manuscript, with the abbreviation following in parentheses (except for units of measure, which are always abbreviated following numerals).
Manuscripts including tables, references and figure legends, must be typewritten with a Unicode font (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial, etc.) that is available both for Windows and Mac Os operating systems. Please avoid using a mixture of fonts or non-Unicode fonts that do not support Turkish accented characters. The recommended font size is 12 points, but it may be adjusted for entries in a table. Authors should use true superscripts and subscripts and not "raised/lowered" characters. For symbols, please use the standard "Symbol" fonts on Windows or Macintosh.
Use the TAB key once for paragraph indents, not consecutive spaces. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file. The pages should include title and abstract both in Turkish and English, the main text, tables, figures or diagrams-if exists- and reference list.
The title of the article should be centered at the top of the main text page, with the abstract below, and followed by Keywords. Please avoid capitalizing all letters of the title and capitalize each word except conjunctions. The title, abstract, and keywords should be present both in Turkish and English and must be organized respectively. In order to start the Introduction section in a new page, a page break could be inserted at the end of Keywords.
While figure legends should be placed below the figures themselves, table captions should be placed above each table. Characters in figures, photographs, and tables should be uncapitalized in principal.
It would be appropriate to place the figures, tables and photographs at the end of the main text. Please, insert them at the end of main text at appropriate sizes, and order.
Figures and Figure Legends
Dear author, since the Journal has decision of publishing online, there is no need to upload the photos, pictures, drawings or shapes in the article as a separate file. However, to avoid blurring of images in the pdf of the article, you should add the photos or other images (X-ray, BT, MR etc.) in your Microsoft Word program as follows.
Insert menu - Pictures - Related image file in your computer
You must add the related image file on your computer and add the picture width to 16 cm. Since the need to upload each image (photo, X-ray, BT, MR or other images) is eliminated, please do not upload it to the system during submission. Place only at the end of full text and blind text.
The sections (i.e., Introduction, Methods, Case, Results [Findings], Discussion, and Conclusion) and their subheadings should be numbered respectively. Paragraphs might be aligned left or justified, but this situation should be consistent throughout the article. Please, use single return after each paragraph. All headings should be typed on a separate line, not run in with the text. There should be no additional spacing before or after lines. Headings and subheadings should be numbered, and their depth should not exceed three levels. The References section should not be numbered. You should not use the "Endnotes" or "Footnotes" feature for your references and remove any Word specific codes. When 'Magic Citations' inserts citations, or formats your manuscript in Microsoft Word, it uses "fields", which you can typically recognize as boxes that turn grey when the insertion point is placed inside one of them. Here is how to remove the fields in a Microsoft Word document:
1. Make a copy of the final manuscript. From the File menu in Word, select the Save As command. Give the file a new name.
2. In the new file, go to the Edit menu and choose Select All.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+F9 or Cmd+6 to unlink all fields.
Your in-text citations and bibliography will become regular text, without field codes or any hidden links. If you want to do further editing or change citations in any way, make the changes to the original file. When you are ready to submit your manuscript, make another copy of the original file to unlink field codes.
April 7, 2022
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