AUTHOR GUIDELINES AND PUBLICATION PRINCIPLES

Farabi Medical Journal (Farabi Med J) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal primarily publishing original clinical and experimental research articles in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and health sciences. Review articles are considered only upon invitation by the Editor or Editorial Board. Unsolicited review articles, case reports, editorials, and similar manuscript types are not accepted.

Publication Model and Language

Farabi Medical Journal adopts a Continuous Publication model. Accepted articles are published online immediately after completion of the editorial process.

The journal accepts manuscripts only in English. 

All submitted manuscripts are evaluated for grammar, spelling, and language quality throughout the editorial process. Authors are therefore strongly encouraged to have their manuscripts reviewed by a language expert prior to submission.

The journal follows the recommendations and principles established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in its writing, editorial, and publication processes.

All submissions are first evaluated by the Editorial Office for language quality, technical compliance, and adherence to the journal’s guidelines. Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal’s requirements may be rejected with justification or returned to the corresponding author for technical correction before peer review.

Manuscripts that pass the technical review are evaluated scientifically by at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the relevant field, in accordance with the double-blind peer-review principle. The number of reviewers may be increased when deemed necessary. The final decision for all submissions rests with the Editor.

1. Article Types

Farabi Medical Journal primarily accepts the following manuscript type:

• Original Research Article

In addition:

• Review Articles are accepted by invitation only.

The journal does not accept unsolicited review articles, case reports, editorials, or similar manuscript types unless otherwise determined by the Editorial Board.

2. Submission Documents

The following documents must be uploaded separately during submission:

I. Cover Letter and Title Page

The Title Page must include full author information and ORCID iDs.

II. Main Text File

The full manuscript must be uploaded in Microsoft Word format and must be anonymous, with no author names, affiliations, or other identifying information included in the main text.

III. Copyright Transfer and Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form

The scientific and legal responsibility of published articles belongs to the author(s). The author(s) agree to transfer publication rights regarding the manuscript to Farabi Medical Journal. The Copyright Transfer and Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form must be signed by all authors and uploaded to the system.

IV. Article Similarity Report

In accordance with publication ethics principles, all submitted manuscripts are subject to similarity screening. For this purpose, a similarity report obtained through intihal.net is requested. When the full-text file is uploaded during the third step of submission, the manuscript is directed to the intihal.net system. Since report preparation may take time, the author(s) are informed by e-mail when the process is completed. After review of the similarity report, the submission process may be completed or, if necessary, repeated from the relevant stage. If multiple files are uploaded and multiple reports are generated, all reports are forwarded to the Editor. The Editor may also use other screening tools, such as iThenticate or Turnitin, when deemed necessary.

If figures, tables, graphs, photographs, or other visual materials reproduced from previously published work are included in the manuscript, the author(s) are responsible for obtaining written permission from the copyright holder in accordance with national and international copyright and publication ethics rules. Alternatively, such materials should be recreated by the author(s) or cited without direct reproduction.

V. Author Information

The complete information of all authors, including ORCID iDs, must be entered into the submission system. Submissions with missing documents and/or incomplete author information may be excluded from evaluation.

3. Ethics Committee Approval

For all studies requiring ethics committee approval, such approval is mandatory.

The name of the ethics committee, approval date, and approval number must be stated clearly in the Manuscript, Title Page and Cover Letter .

For studies involving human participants, authors must state that the study was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments, as well as the relevant regulations of the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health.

For studies involving animals, authors must state that the study was conducted in accordance with the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines and all applicable institutional, national, and international regulations governing the ethical use of animals in research.

When written informed consent is required, this must be clearly stated in the manuscript.

4. Peer Review Process

Manuscripts submitted through the journal’s online system are first reviewed by the Editorial Board in terms of scientific quality, ethical compliance, and adherence to the journal’s writing guidelines.

The initial editorial evaluation is generally completed within approximately two (2) weeks.

Manuscripts considered suitable for further evaluation are then sent to at least two expert reviewers in the relevant field. The peer-review process is expected to be completed within a maximum of one and a half (1.5) months.

If revision is requested, the revised manuscript must be submitted through the journal system within one (1) month.

Accepted manuscripts are published according to the date of acceptance. 

5. Article Template and General Formatting Requirements

All manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the journal’s article template and submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format.

6. Formatting Guidelines

All submissions must comply with the formatting requirements below.

6.1. Title Page

The Title Page must be prepared in Microsoft Word format in accordance with the sample Title Page Template.

The Title Page must include the following:

• Title
• Full name(s) of the author(s), in publication order
• Institutional affiliation(s) of all authors (Department/Division, Faculty, Institution/University, City, Country)
• Name, institutional address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author
• ORCID iDs of all authors, in publication order
• Acknowledgements (if applicable)
• Authorship contribution statement
• Declaration of competing interest
• Ethical approval statement (if applicable)
• Availability of data and materials statement
• Funding statement
• Artificial Intelligence Use Statement

Additional requirements:

• Title must be written in bold, centered, and in title case (capitalize the first letter of each major word, except short prepositions, articles, and coordinating conjunctions, unless they are the first or last word).
• If the manuscript has previously been presented at a scientific meeting, the name, location, and date of the meeting must be stated.
• All authors must provide their institutional e-mail address and telephone number.
• Any funding source(s) and grant/project number(s), where applicable, must be disclosed.
• A declaration regarding conflicts of interest is mandatory for all submissions.

6.2. Main Text

The main text must be prepared in Microsoft Word format according to the journal’s Blind Manuscript Template and uploaded anonymously.

The following rules apply to the main text:

1. The manuscript must not contain any information identifying the author(s) or their institution(s).
2. All headings in the manuscript must be written in bold.
3. Main section headings must be written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
4. First-level subsection headings must be written with Each Main Word Capitalized.
5. Second-level subsection headings must be written with only the first word capitalized.
6. Paragraphs must not be indented.
7. No space should be left between a heading and the following text; however, one blank line should be left between the preceding paragraph and the next heading.
8. Original research articles must include structured Abstract sections.
9. Abstracts must include the following components: Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
10. The abstract must not exceed 250 words.
11. The abstract must not contain references, tables, figures, citations, or undefined abbreviations.
12. 3 to 6 keywords must be provided below the abstract.
13. Statistical values, mathematical symbols, and numerical expressions must be reported in accordance with the APA (American Psychological Association) Style. Decimal numbers must use a period (.) as the decimal separator (e.g., 0.05, 3.14). Statistical symbols (e.g., p, n, t, F, χ², r, R², β, OR, HR, CI, SD, SE) should be formatted according to APA Style. Statistical significance should be reported as exact p values whenever possible (e.g., p = .032); for very small values, report p < .001 rather than p = .000.
14. The percentage sign (%) should follow the number in English.

INTRODUCTION

The Introduction should clearly define the research problem, rationale, and objective, supported by relevant literature.

METHODS

The Methods section should provide sufficient detail to allow replication. Statistical methods must be clearly described. For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the committee name, approval number, and approval date must be stated in the manuscript.

RESULTS

Results should be presented clearly and, where appropriate, supported by tables, figures, or graphs.

DISCUSSION

The Discussion should interpret the findings in the context of the current literature, emphasizing similarities and differences. Repetition of Results should be avoided.

CONCLUSION

The Conclusion should summarize the implications of the findings, their contribution to the field, and any relevant recommendations.

7. Original Research Article

Original Research Articles must not exceed 5,000 words, excluding abstracts and references.

They must contain the following sections, in order:

• Title 
• Abstract 
• Keywords 
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments / Financial Support (if any)
• References (maximum 50)
• Tables and Figures (maximum 8)

8. Tables

All tables must be cited in the main text in numerical order and indicated in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence.

Each table must be presented on a separate page after the References section, without vertical lines, and accompanied by a self-explanatory title. Tables must not be embedded within the main text.

The text in the first column must be presented in bold and aligned to the left. The text in the first row must also be presented in bold and aligned to the center.

All abbreviations, symbols, and other explanatory information used in tables must be defined in footnotes below the table.

9. Figures

All figures must be cited in the main text in numerical order and indicated in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence.

Figures must be of high quality and suitable for publication. Each figure must be accompanied by a self-explanatory figure legend, and all abbreviations and symbols used in the figures must be clearly explained in the corresponding legend.

Figures must not be embedded within the main text. All figures must be placed on separate pages after the tables and must also be submitted as separate figure files in .jpeg, .tiff, or .png format.

Photographs and scanned images must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, minimum dimensions of 1280 × 960 pixels, and must be saved in .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .tiff format.

For any patient photograph or other identifiable image, written informed consent must be obtained from the patient and/or their legal representative. Patient anonymity must be strictly preserved.

1O. Citations and References

Farabi Medical Journal uses APA Style (7.5th edition) for both in-text citations and the reference list.

10.1. In-Text Citations

In-text citations must follow the author–date system.

Examples:

• One author: (Acar, 2021)
• Two authors: (Acar and Balcı, 2021)
• Three or more authors: (Acar et al., 2021)
• Narrative citation: Acar et al. (2021) reported that...
• Multiple sources: (Acar et al., 2021; Balcı and Demir, 2020)
• Direct quotation: (Acar, 2021, p. 15)

If the same author has more than one publication in the same year, these should be cited as 2021a, 2021b, etc.

10.2. Reference List

References must be listed at the end of the manuscript under the heading REFERENCES and arranged in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author.

The following APA principles apply:

• References must be listed alphabetically, not in order of citation.
• Journal titles must be written in full, not abbreviated.
• Article and chapter titles must be written in sentence case.
• Book and journal titles must be written in italics where appropriate.
• If available, DOIs should be provided in URL format.
• References should be presented in the original language of the source.

In APA 7th edition:

• If a work has up to 20 authors, all authors should be listed.
• If a work has 21 or more authors, list the first 19 authors, followed by an ellipsis (...), and then the final author.

10.3. Reference Examples

Journal Article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), page range. DOI

Example:
Bozkuş, T. N., Değer, O., & Yaşar, A. (2021). Chemical characterization of water and ethanolic extracts of Turkish propolis by HPLC-DAD and GC-MS. Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies, 44(1–2), 77–86.

Website

Author/Organization. (Year, Month Day). Title of the webpage/document. Website Name. URL

Example:
World Health Organization. (2004, March). Equitable access to essential medicines: A framework for collective action. World Health Organization. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2004/WHO_EDM_2004.4.pdf

Book

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book (Edition if applicable). Publisher.

Example:
Harmening, D. (2012). Modern blood banking & transfusion practices (6th ed.). F.A. Davis Company.

Book Chapter

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the chapter. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (Edition, pp. xx–xx). Publisher.

Example:
Meltzer, H., & Lowy, M. (Year). Neuroendocrine function in psychiatric disorders. In P. Berger & H. Brodie (Eds.), American handbook of psychiatry (2nd ed., pp. xx–xx). Basic Books.

Conference Presentation

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the presentation [Conference presentation]. Name of Conference, City, Country.

Example:
Diamond, M. (2005, September 26). Lymphatic system [Conference presentation]. University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.

Thesis / Dissertation

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis [Master’s thesis or Doctoral dissertation, Institution Name].

Example:
Fenster, S. D. (2000). Cloning and characterization of Piccolo, a novel component of the presynaptic cytoskeletal matrix [Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama].

11. Final Notes

Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal’s formatting, ethical, technical, and reference style requirements may be returned to the authors for correction or rejected before peer review.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript is prepared in accordance with these guidelines before submission.

PUBLICATION POLICY

Farabi Medical Journal (Farabi Med J) is the official journal of the Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine. It is a non-profit, open-access scientific journal. No fees are charged for manuscript submission, evaluation, or publication, and no royalties are paid to authors for published articles.

The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics in its editorial and publication processes. All submitted manuscripts first undergo a preliminary evaluation to determine whether they comply with the journal’s writing and submission requirements, scientific quality standards, and ethical policies.  The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the journal’s policies, lack sufficient scientific merit, or to return them to the authors for technical correction before peer review.

Farabi Medical Journal primarily publishes original clinical and experimental research articles. Review articles are considered only upon invitation by the Editor or Editorial Board. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original, must not have been published previously, and must not be under consideration by another journal at the time of submission. Authors are responsible for ensuring compliance with ethical standards, including approval by relevant ethics committees and, where applicable, informed consent. This updated Aim and Scope is effective for all manuscripts submitted to Farabi Medical Journal on or after 6 April 2026. Submissions prior to this date will be evaluated according to the journal’s previous scope and editorial policies.

The journal operates under a double-blind peer-review system and adheres to international standards of publication ethics. All responsibility for the scientific content of published articles lies with the authors.

All manuscripts deemed suitable after preliminary evaluation are assessed through a double-blind peer-review process by at least two independent reviewers. The journal may involve statistical and language editors where necessary. The final decision regarding publication rests with the Editorial Board.

Submission by Editors and Editorial Board Members

To ensure impartiality, transparency, and editorial independence, Farabi Medical Journal applies the following principles in cases where members of the editorial team submit manuscripts to the journal:

• A maximum of one article per calendar year authored or co-authored by an Editor, Section Editor, or Editorial Board Member may be published in the journal, and such articles must not exceed 5% of total publications per year.
• Editorial Board members who are authors of a submitted manuscript are strictly excluded from all stages of reviewer selection, evaluation, and editorial decision-making for that manuscript and cannot access the peer-review process.
• All such manuscripts are handled by another editor with no conflict of interest or, where necessary, by an independent Guest Editor. Fast-track or accelerated review processes are not permitted for these submissions.
• All evaluations are conducted under a double-blind peer-review process, and such manuscripts are subject to the same scientific and methodological evaluation standards as all other submissions. The journal reserves the right to reject these manuscripts at any stage, including editorial pre-evaluation (desk rejection).
• If accepted, the article will include a statement indicating that the editorial evaluation process was conducted independently of the author’s editorial role, ensuring full transparency.

Institutional Diversity and Publication Quota

Farabi Medical Journal aims to maintain institutional diversity in its published content in line with good editorial practice and indexing expectations.

To prevent excessive concentration of publications from the publisher institution, articles including at least one author affiliated with Karadeniz Technical University or Trabzon University must not exceed 15% of total publications per calendar year.

The journal monitors repeated authorship from the same institution, and excessive representation of the same authors within a given year may be subject to editorial limitation or delayed publication, particularly when not justified by multicenter or collaborative studies.

This ratio is continuously monitored during the publication process. Manuscripts exceeding this quota may be delayed to a subsequent issue or calendar year, even if they have successfully completed peer review.

Submissions from the publisher institution may be assigned lower editorial priority when the institutional quota threshold is approached.

The journal prioritizes submissions from diverse institutions and international contributors in order to promote scientific diversity and prevent institutional inbreeding.

AI USE POLICY

Farabi Medical Journal recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) tools may provide supportive assistance during different stages of scholarly work. The journal supports the responsible, transparent, and limited use of such tools, provided that their use does not compromise scientific integrity, confidentiality, originality, or human accountability. 

AI tools may assist with limited tasks such as language improvement or technical editing, but they may not replace the intellectual, scientific, ethical, or editorial responsibilities of authors, reviewers, or editors. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, validity, and integrity of all submitted and published content.

The following principles apply:

For Authors

• AI tools may be used for language editing or limited writing assistance, provided that such use is clearly disclosed in the manuscript or submission process where required.
• Authors must not use AI tools to generate scientific findings, fabricate data, create misleading interpretations, or produce substantial manuscript content presented as original scholarly authorship.
• Uploading confidential manuscript content to public AI platforms is not recommended because of privacy and data security concerns.
• The use of AI for figure, image, or data manipulation in a misleading or scientifically inappropriate manner is prohibited.
• Authors must declare any AI tools used during manuscript preparation. The ultimate responsibility for the manuscript always remains with the authors.

For Reviewers

• Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, in whole or in part, to public AI platforms or third-party systems that may compromise confidentiality.
• Reviewers must not use AI tools to generate or write peer-review reports on their behalf.
• If a reviewer uses any permitted local or secure tool for limited language support, this must not compromise the confidentiality or independence of the review process.

For Editors

• Editors must not use AI tools as a substitute for editorial judgment or publication decision-making.
• Editors may use internal or secure systems for technical checks, such as similarity screening, provided that these tools are used under human oversight.
• Editors are responsible for ensuring that any use of AI within editorial workflows remains transparent, proportionate, and consistent with publication ethics.

Topic	Authors	Reviewers	Editors
Language editing with AI	Permitted — disclosure required	Local tools only	Prohibited (public platforms)
Generating manuscript content with AI	Prohibited	—	—
Uploading manuscript text to AI platforms	Not recommended (privacy)	Prohibited	Prohibited
Writing peer review reports with AI	—	Prohibited	—
Editorial decision-making	—	—	Prohibited
Figure or image manipulation with AI	Prohibited	—	—
AI tool disclosure	Mandatory	Notify if applicable	Transparency report
Internal AI systems (similarity checks etc.)	—	—	Permitted — human oversight required

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS

The scientific and legal responsibility for all published articles belongs to the author(s). By submitting a manuscript to Farabi Medical Journal, authors accept that publication rights will be transferred to the journal upon acceptance. The Copyright Transfer Form and the Conflict of Interest Declaration Form must be completed, signed by all authors, and uploaded during submission. A signed hard copy may also be requested when necessary. 

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are subject to similarity screening in accordance with publication ethics. For this purpose, a report obtained through intihal.net is requested during submission. Where deemed necessary, the editors may also use other similarity-checking tools such as iThenticate or Turnitin. Manuscripts with missing documents or incomplete submission information may be excluded from evaluation.

All author information, including ORCID iDs, must be entered completely and accurately into the submission system.

For all research requiring ethics committee approval, such approval must be obtained before submission, and the relevant information must be clearly stated in the manuscript. Authors must indicate compliance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments, as well as with the applicable regulations of the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health.

For studies involving animals, authors must state that the study was conducted in accordance with the ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines and all applicable institutional, national, and international regulations governing the ethical use of animals in research.

Ethics committee approval is required for, but not limited to, the following:

• research involving human participants using qualitative or quantitative data collection methods, including questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, observation, and experimental methods;
• studies involving human or animal materials/data for scientific purposes;
• retrospective studies, where ethical approval is required under applicable regulations.

Where required, authors must clearly state that informed consent was obtained from participants.

For the use of scales, questionnaires, photographs, figures, tables, or any other copyrighted material belonging to third parties, the necessary permissions must be obtained from the copyright holder and appropriately documented. Legal, financial, and ethical responsibility in such matters belongs to the author(s).

If a manuscript is rejected, copyright remains with or is returned to the authors. If it is accepted, the publication rights are transferred to the journal.

The final responsibility for the content of published articles belongs to the authors. The editors, editorial board, and publisher do not assume responsibility for the scientific claims or interpretations presented in the articles.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS

Reviewers are expected to contribute to the scientific quality of the journal by conducting evaluations in a fair, timely, objective, and confidential manner. 

Reviewers are expected to:

• accept review assignments only in fields relevant to their expertise and only when they have no conflict of interest;
• evaluate manuscripts objectively, impartially, and solely on the basis of scientific merit;
• complete the review process within the requested time;
• provide constructive, respectful, and scholarly feedback aimed at improving manuscript quality;
• protect the confidentiality of the manuscript and all information obtained during the review process.

EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Editors are responsible for managing the journal’s editorial processes in accordance with the principles of fairness, confidentiality, scientific merit, and publication ethics.

Editors are expected to:

• provide necessary information to authors, reviewers, and readers in a timely manner;
• make publication decisions on the basis of the manuscript’s originality, scientific contribution, methodological validity, clarity of presentation, and relevance to the journal’s aims and scope;
• ensure that the double-blind peer-review process is applied properly and impartially;
• support unbiased, objective, and independent editorial evaluation at all stages;
• protect personal data and confidential information contained in submitted manuscripts;
• ensure that manuscripts involving human or animal subjects comply with ethical requirements and include the necessary approvals and permissions;
• use or request similarity/originality screening where necessary.

APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS

All appeals and complaints are handled by the Editorial Board in accordance with the principles of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).

Authors who wish to submit an appeal or complaint should contact the Editorial Board directly. When necessary, an external expert may be consulted in order to resolve matters that cannot be settled internally. The Editor-in-Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for appeals and complaints.

SIMILATIRY SCREENING POLICY

Farabi Medical Journal subjects all submitted manuscripts to plagiarism and similarity screening in accordance with publication ethics principles. A similarity report obtained through intihal.net is required during submission. Manuscripts with a similarity rate exceeding 20% are not considered for further evaluation and may be returned to the corresponding author or rejected by the Editorial Board. When necessary, additional screening may be performed using other tools such as iThenticate or Turnitin.