General Information
Academic impartiality and scientific quality are important criteria in the evaluation of articles submitted for publication. Therefore, the recommendations of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and the International Standards for Editors and Authors of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) should be taken into account in scientific articles submitted to the Sakarya Medical Journal.

The journal publishes four issues a year in March, June, September, and December. The language of publication is English. All transactions and applications regarding the journal can be made at http://dergipark.org.tr/smj. Studies published in previous issues can be accessed from this address.

Article writing templates:

Click here for an article template featuring two or more authors.

The "Title Page" must be completely filled out and uploaded to the system.

Click for sample reference illustrations.

Information for Authors:

• Articles submitted to our journal must be submitted via a DergiPark user account.
• Articles must not exceed 30 pages and 10,000 words, including all tables, figures, references (bibliography), and appendices.
• Articles must be prepared on A4 paper using the Cambria font in MS Word.
• The text must be written in 11-point font, with 6-point paragraphs and 1.15 line spacing.
• Main headings must be capitalized and in 11-point bold.
• Subheadings must be in 11-point bold.
• Abstracts must be a maximum of 250 words and include the article's purpose, scope, methodology, and brief results. Research articles must include a structured summary.
• At least three English keywords should be included below the abstract.
• Articles should use the Vancouver citation style.

License to Publish and Author Declarations Form must be attached. 

General Rules and Formal Features

• Submitted manuscripts should not have been published anywhere else or accepted for publication anywhere else.
• The editors or reviewers can make any necessary corrections regarding spelling rules and provide feedback to the author.
• Submitted manuscripts cannot be altered except for corrections, which are returned for corrections by reviewers and editors.
• Submitted articles that do not meet the writing rules cannot be published.
• Submission and publication of articles in the journal are free of charge.
• The authors are solely responsible for the content of their publications.
• Articles should be written in Microsoft Word with the Cambria font and 11-point font.

Section headings: Only the first letter of each word in the first heading should be capitalized. The first heading should be left-aligned and written in bold.

• Only the first letter of the first word in the second heading should be capitalized. All other words should be written in lowercase. The second heading should be left-aligned and written in bold.
• Only the first letter of the first word in the third heading should be capitalized. All other words should be written in lowercase. The third heading should be left-aligned and written in bold.
• Numbers between "1-9" should be written in writing, while those 10 and above should be written in Arabic. Separate decimal numbers with dots.
• The manuscript must include all of the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and References.
• Abbreviations should not be used in the title or abstract. Abbreviations in the text should be written clearly the first time they are used in the manuscript, and the abbreviated form should be given in parentheses right next to it.

Articles should be edited and prepared in accordance with the Sakarya Medical Journal template file and the journal template. Please click to access the draft. 

NOTE: If any editor sends an article to the Sakarya Medical Journal, the editor's access to the editorial panel is prevented. The editor follows all processes as a writer. After the process is completed, the editorial authority is given to him again.

Title Page
The authors' information should be presented on the title page. This page should include the article's title, the author's full name, affiliations, addresses, and contact information (email, telephone, fax). The title page should include a footnote if the submitted article is presented at the congress or symposium.

Abstract
The article's abstract should be written in English and limited to 250 words. This section should not contain abbreviations or references. Abstracts of research articles should contain sections describing the article's objective, methods, results, and conclusions. Review articles and case reports should be arranged to reflect the article's general content. Commas (,) should be used to separate keywords. Keywords should comply with "Index Medicus: Medical Subject Heading (MeSH)" standards.

Main Text
Research articles in the main text section should consist of "Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and Recommendations, References" sections, with bolding and capitalizing of the first letter of each heading. 
The main text sections in review articles; consist of subject-related topics and references. Each heading should be written in bold (Bold). An article review should cover current literature in health-related fields. Authors who have published on that topic are preferred.
Main text section in case reports; should consist of "Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, References" headings. Titles (Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, References) should be written in capital letters, and bold characters, and subtitles should be written with only the first letter capitalized, bold, and left justified.

Code of Ethics
The Declaration of Helsinki must be followed in all research involving humans. Research must be conducted in accordance with ethical principles as indicated in the material and methods section of the article. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that the research complies with the ethical rules.

Figures, Pictures, Tables, and Graphics
All should be given in the main text, and each picture, table, and graphic should be numbered and referenced at the end of the sentence related to the places in the text.
To achieve clear printing, figures, images/photographs should be uploaded as separate .jpg or .gif files (approximately 500x400 pixels, 8 cm wide, scanned at 300 resolution).

Limitations
The current limitations of the study should be given after the conclusion and recommendations section of the main text.

Required files to be uploaded when submitting an article:
1- WORD document of the article prepared by considering the spelling rules (There should be no information belonging to the authors. This file will be sent to the referees in accordance with the double-blind refereeing policy)
2- The title page with the information of the authors and, if any, information such as the congress, the publication produced from the thesis
3- License to Publish and Author Declarations Form 
4- It is needed to upload a plagiarism report to the system.

Non-essential files that must be uploaded when submitting an article:
1- If necessary for the study, the approved version of the Ethics Committee Permit must be uploaded to the system. In addition, this approval (name of the board, date, and number) should be stated in the method section. Ethics committee permission is requested for all kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from the participants by using surveys, interviews, focus group work, observation, experiment, and interview techniques.

Article Information Form

The article information form should be written before the References.

Author's Notes: (If you do not want to write any notes, delete this heading.)
Authors' Contributions: (Please write the authors' contributions in detail as specified in the copyright agreement)
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.
Artificial Intelligence Statement: No artificial intelligence tools were used while writing this article. (If an artificial intelligence tool was used, please write a detailed explanation.)
Plagiarism Statement: This article has been scanned by iThenticate.
Ethical Approval and Participant Consent: It is declared that during the preparation process of this study, scientific and ethical principles were followed, and all the studies benefited from are stated in the bibliography.

References

• All references cited in the text must be listed in the references section, and all references listed must be cited in the text. 
• Authors should avoid using sources they have not accessed directly. 
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Conference papers, personal experiences, and unsupported internet addresses cannot be used as references.

In-Text Citation
References should be numbered sequentially in the text and shown in square brackets. When citing multiple references, separate them with a comma [e.g., 1,2]. For more than two consecutive references, indicate the first and last reference numbers separated by a hyphen [e.g., 1-4].

Reference List
At the end of the text, references should be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text, under the heading "References."
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Conference papers, personal experiences, and unsupported internet addresses cannot be used as references.
Journal names should be abbreviated as they appear in Index Medicus; if not listed in Index Medicus, the full journal name should be written out.
References should be formatted according to the Vancouver style. The following rules should be followed when writing references.

A sample notation for the References section is given below:

Article: Authors' surnames and names initials. Article title. Journal Name year; volume(issue) numbers.
Wellard SJ, Bethune E, Heggen K. Assessment of learning in contemporary nurse education: Do we need standardized examination for nurse registration?. Nurse Educ Today. 2007;27(1):68-72.
Usta YY, Demir Y, Yönder M, Yildiz A. Nursing students' attitudes toward ageism in Turkey. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 2012;54(1):90-3.

Book: Quinn FM. The principles and practice of nurse education. 3rd ed. Nelson Thornes Company; 2000. p. 687-750.

Book Chapter: Authors' surnames and names' initials. Chapter title. Editors' names, book title, edition, city, publisher, year, and page numbers.
Melanie SM, Hickey JV. Neuroscience critical care. In: Hickey JV. editor. The clinical practice of neurological and neurosurgical nursing. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2003. p. 359-67.

Unpublished Thesis: Authors' surnames and names initials. Thesis title. Thesis type (Specialization, Doctorate, Master's), unpublished thesis, the institute where the thesis was presented, place, year, page number.
Özgül S. Maternal obesity's impact on maternal and neonatal health. Unpublished Master's Thesis, Adnan Menderes University Institute of Health Sciences, Aydın, 2016, 53.
Note: If the thesis has been published as an article, the article should be cited as the reference, not the thesis.

Electronic Journal: Moulder JE. Electromagnetic Fields and Human Health. Electromagnetic Technology (Electronic Journal) 1999;6(3):17-28. http://www.mcw.edu.gcrc/cop/cell-phone-health-FAQ/toc.html. (Access date: March 23, 2017).

Electronic Report, Document: World Health Organization. World alliance for patient safety forward program 2005. http://www.who.int/patientsafety/en/brochure_final.pdf (Access date: August 8, 2010).
Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. Performance and Quality Directive in Healthcare. http://www.kalite.saglik.gov.tr/content/files/duyurular_2011/2011/14_subat_2012/1402yonerge.pdf (Access date: May 24, 2011).