Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute

The aim of the journal is to publish original research articles, review articles, case reports, short communications and letters to the editor in the fields of veterinary medicine and animal husbandry, preclinical sciences, clinical sciences, zootechny, animal nutrition and food hygiene and technology sciences.

Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute (MAKU J. Health Sci. Inst.) is an international blind peer-reviewed open access journal, published three annually (April, August and December). The publication language of the journal is English and Turkish. According to ethical policy of our journal, plagiarism is not be accepted. All manuscripts received are checking by plagiarism checker software (iThenticate and Turnitin programme).

I- Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute General Information

Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Intitute (MAKU J. Health Sci. Inst.) is the publication of Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Health Sciences Institute. It is published three times annualy. The journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in which basic and clinical scientific articles in the field of medical sciences (veterinary, medicine, dentistry, nursing and sports sciences) are published. The language of the journal is English. Papers submitted to the journal should not have been previously published, accepted for publication or be in the process of evaluation for publication in any other journal. This rule does not apply to articles presented as bulletins in scientific meetings and whose summaries are published. In such cases, however, the name, date and place of the meeting in which the paper was presented should be notified. The format of the article should be in accordance with the rules of “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication (http:/www.icmje.org/)”.

On receipt of the paper by the Editorial Board, the paper is evaluated for compliance with the format rules and the authors are informed about the result in four weeks. In the event that the paper is not found to comply with the general publication principles of the journal from the standpoint of either technical characteristics or general scope, the paper is rejected. Alternatively, the author(s) may be asked to re-submit the paper in accordance with the writing requirements. Papers resubmitted are passed through a similar technical examination and, if found to comply with the rules, are passed on for peer review. The paper is sent, without the title, to two reviewers selected by the board, who then assess the paper for scientific content and format compliance. When necessary the Editorial Advisory Board can send the paper to third reviewers. The selection of reviewers is ultimately at the discretion of the editor, associate Editors and/or the editorial board. The appropriate reviewers can be selected from journal’s international database of reviewers listing or, if needed; independent reviewers can be determined from inland or abroad. Thereafter the Editorial Advisory Board carries out the final editing, taking the reports of the reviewers into consideration, and, when necessary, communicating with the author(s).

The Editor gives the final decision about the acceptance of the manuscript. The Editorial Board is authorized to publish the paper, return it for correction, or reject it. The assessment process involves research articles, case reports and original articles submitted to the journal. Other types of articles are evaluated directly by the Board. Papers submitted to the journal will not be returned whether they are published or not. The Editor and the Editorial Board have the right to reject, to require additional revision or to revise the format of manuscripts which do not follow the rules. The authors should inform the editorial board if they decide to withdraw the manuscript. The editor may consult editorial executive board about a manuscript if (s) he deems necessary. All the authors should submit a collectively signed statement that there is no conflict of interest regarding scientific contribution or responsibility. The association, establishment, and medication-material supply firms which have given financial, even partial, or material support to the research should be mentioned in a footnote. No fee or compensation will be paid for articles published in the journal.

The Editorial Board assumes that the author(s) are obliged not to submit the paper to another journal before completion of the assessment process. In the “method” section of articles concerned with experimental research on humans or animals, a sentence showing that the informed consent of patients and volunteers has been obtained following a detailed explanation of the interventions carried out on them. In such studies, authors should clearly state the compliance with internationally accepted guidelines (1975 Helsinki declaration revised in 2002 http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm, Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals”-www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) issued by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health and published in the Official Journal dated 29 January 1993 number 21480 “Regulations Concerning Drug Research”, and other more recently published rules laid out in governing statutes. They should forward a copy of the Ethic Committee Approval received from the relevant institution. Standard abbreviations used in the text are written in full when first mentioned. In the use of drugs, the generic names should be written in their Turkish pronunciation spelling form. Measurement units are given according to the metric system; e.g. written as “mg”, no punctuation is used, in the case of extensions (,,) is used as a separator. Laboratory measurements are reported in International System Units (US; Systeme Internationale; SI).  

Scientific responsibility
All scientific responsibility of the articles belongs to the authors. The authors of the submitted article must have a specific contribution to the work. Authors' name ordering should be a joint decision. Corresponding author is considered to accept the author sorting by filling in "Author Responsibility and Publication Transfer Form" on behalf of all authors. All of the authors should be listed under the title of article.

Publication Fees

Publication in this journal is totally FREE. There are no publication charges, no submission charges, no article processing charges and no surcharges based on the length of an article, figures or supplementary data. Editorial items (Editorials, Corrections, Additions, Retractions, Letters, Comments, etc.) are published free of charge.

Ethical responsibility
The authors are responsible for their compliance with the ethical rules. In experimental studies on animals, it should be noted that the study protocol has been approved by the animal experiment ethics committee at the institution where the study was conducted. Authors should submit the ethics committee's approval with the article. If there are previously published text, tables, pictures, etc. in the article, the authors have to get written permission from the copyright holder and the authors should specify and indicate the used material in the manuscript. In the course of the manuscript evaluation, the authors may be requested to submit the research data and / or the ethics committee approval document if deemed necessary.

Plagiarism policy

Manuscripts submitted to Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute is evaluated in terms of plagiarism. Every submitted article is checked for plagiarism through iThenticate and Turnitin software. When Smilarity Index of the article is above %20, it is sent back to the corresponding author to revise it. If plagiarism is proved after publication of the article, that article will be immediately removed from the website and the concerned authors will be considered ineligible for publication of their articles in Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute.

II- Types and Characteristics of Papers to be Submitted to the Journal

a) Research Articles: These articles are prepared in full accordance with the writing style definitions given below, in which previously unpublished original research data are evaluated. The main text section of the research articles should include (Title, Introduction Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion) sections and (excluding title page, bibliography, tables/figures/pictures) should not exceed 20 pages. If some parts of the research data given in these articles have previously been discussed in another paper, this must be notified without fail when sending the paper and, in addition, reference should be made to the relevant paper within the bibliography.

b) Review Articles: Review Articles should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest. They may be submitted or invited. Invited reviews will normally be solicited by the Review's Editor, but suggestions for appropriate review topics may be sent to editor.

c) Case Reports: These are articles which present and discuss the characteristics of one or more cases which have special features and scientific importance from the clinical evaluation, observation or other standpoint. Case presentations include the title page, summary, main text (includes introduction, case and discussion), bibliography, table/figure/picture sections; subtitles in the main text are organised according to the text content. Abstracts of the case presentations should have 150 words. The main text (excluding title page, bibliography, table/figure/picture) should not exceed 10 pages.

d) Brief Reports: These are articles in which original ideas dealing with important theoretical or practical problems related to a specific subject are presented and discussed. Original articles include a title page, summary, main text, bibliography, table/figure/picture sections; subtitles in the main text are organised according to the text content. The main text of original articles (excluding title page, bibliography, table/figure/picture) should not exceed 10 pages. 

e) Special Sections:

1. Letters to the Editor: These articles include evaluation and criticisms of articles published in the journal. These are published together with the responses of the author(s) of the paper concerned where possible. Letters to the Editor may not exceed 5 pages.

2. Meeting news/notes: These articles introduce scientific meetings held or to be held on subjects within the scope of the journal. The paper may not exceed 1 page.

3. Journal news: These articles introduce scientific journals being published within the scope of the journal. The paper may not exceed 1 page.

4. Introduction of websites: These articles introduce websites relevant to the scope of the journal. These articles may not exceed 1 page.

5. Book/Thesis Section: These articles introduce books/theses published on subjects related to the scope of the journal and may not exceed 3 pages.

Papers to be submitted to the journal include the sections of title page, abstract, main text, references and tables/figures/pictures. Articles submitted for publication in the journal should follow the following formal principles: The text should be prepared in Microsoft Word program in Times New Roman font style with a font size of 12 font, black and 1.5 line. All side of the paper, page margins should be as 2.5 cm. Line numbers should be added to the beginning of the page.

Anatomical terms should be used as written in Latin. Running title (not exceed 40 characters) of the manuscript should add to title page. The name of the clinic, department / science, institute and institution should be stated.

a) Title Page: should contain the category, the title (only first letter capital), the names of the authors (only the first letters capital), the institution (s) where they work (indicated with numbered footnotes), corresponding author (address, phone, fax numbers and e-mail address). Corresponding author is indicated by an asterisk (*). If the article was previously presented at a scientific meeting, the name, date and place of the meeting must be stated.

b) Main Text: The main text of the paper is organised under the subtitles of Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion.

Abstract and Keywords: This is written in two languages, Turkish and English, and also includes the title of the paper. The abstract is consists of 200 words. The abstract should bring out the main points of the manuscript and should include the following information: objective, the animals or sample population involved, design, the materials and methods used, the main results, a brief conclusion and clinical relevance, where applicable. They should be comprehensible to readers before they have read the paper, and abbreviations and reference citations should be avoided. At the end of the abstract, at least 3, at most 5 keywords in both languages are included.

In the introduction, following a brief statement of basic information and justifications which constitute the basis of the paper, the objective is clearly given in the last paragraph. If necessary, the “method” section may be organised according to sub-titles such as research/patient/ test group, instruments, application and statistical analysis. This section should be written with clarity so that a person not involved in the study may easily understand. Results summarize the findings of the study and, when necessary, basic findings are supported with tables and figures. In the discussion section, the findings of the study are discussed in the light of relevant national and international studies; this section includes discussion of original findings, not a general review. 

c) Acknowledgements: When considered necessary, author(s) may add brief acknowledgements in a few sentences to those whose contributions to the paper are not at author level but deserve to be mentioned. Here, the contributions of those acknowledged (e.g. financial or equipment aid, technical support etc) are clearly stated (e.g. “scientific counseling”, “editing of the draft”, “data collection”, “participation in clinical research” etc). 

d) Bibliographic References:

All citations in the text should refer to: the year of publication of the reference should be indicated in parentheses after the surname of the author or authors. 

Examples: Bell (2005), Nielsen and Engberg (2006), Doyle et al. (2007) were indicated that......

The name of the author and the year of publication should be stated in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Examples:   ...were detected as 23% of the samples (Bell, 2005); ....were detected as 23% of the samples (Nielsen and Engberg, 2006); ...were detected as 23% of the samples (Doyle et al., 2007).

In case of  more than one reference, references should be arranged chronologically.

Examples:  ....were reported that... (Bell, 2005; Nielsen and Engberg, 2006; Doyle et al., 2007).

More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples: (Bell, 2005a; Bell, 2005b; Bell, 2005c …)

The authors can use below formatted style link in mendeley:
http://csl.mendeley.com/styles/529990351/sagbilensderg

i) Examples of journal articles:

Cohen, N.D., Vontur, C.A., Rakestraw, P.C., 2000. Risk factors for enterolithiasis among horses in Texas. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 216, 1787-1794.

Rajmohan, S., Dodd, C.E., Waites, W.M., 2002. Enzymes from isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens involved in food spoilage. Journal of Applied Microbiology 93, 205-213.
Ono, K., Yamamoto, K., 1999. Contamination of meat with Campylobacter jejuni in Saitama, Japan. International Journal of Food Microbiology 47, 211-219.

For articles that are accepted for publication and have a DOI number but not yet published; DOI number must be specified at the end of the article.

McGregor, B.A., Butler, K.L., 2014. The value of visual fleece assessment in addition to objective measurements in identifying Angora goats of greater clean mohair production. Small Ruminant Research, in press (DOI: 10.1016/j.smallrumres.2014.04.001).

ii) Books:

Combs, G.F., 1992. The Vitamins: Fundamental Aspects in Nutrition and Health. Academic Press, San Diego.

Concannon, P.W., 1986. Physiology and Endocrinology of Cannine Pregnancy. In: Marrow, D.A. (Ed.), Current Therapy in Theriogenology. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Company, pp. 491-497.

Perkins J.B., Pero, J., 2002. Vitamin biosynthesis. In: Sonenshein, A., Hoch, J., Losick, R. (Eds.), Bacillus subtilis and Its Closest Relatives: from Genes to Cells. ASM Press, Washington D.C., pp. 271-286.

Kramer, J.M., Gilbert, R.J., 1989. Bacillus cereus. In: Doyle, M.P. (Ed.), Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 22-70.

iii) Thesis:

Bacınoğlu, S., 2002. Boğa spermasında farklı eritme süreleri ve eritme sonrasında oluşturulan soğuk şoklarının spermatolojik özelliklere etkisi. Doktora Tezi, İstanbul Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Enstitüsü, İstanbul.

iv) Web site or author is an institution:

FDA, 2001. Effect of the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals on pathogen load. Systematic review of the published literature. http://www.fda.gov/cvm/antimicrobial/PathRpt.pdf (Accessed: 14.12.2001)

Cleveland, C.W., Peterson, D.S., Latimer, K.S., 2005. An Overview of Canine Babesiosis. Clinical Pathology. College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia: http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/Cleveland (Accessed: 17.12.2005).

Thierry, F., 2006. Contagious equine metritis: a review. Equine Reproductive Infections: http://www.equinereproinfections.com (Accessed: 07.07.2006).

FSAI, 2008. Report of the Implementation Group on Folic Acid Food Fortification to the Department of Health and Children. Food Safety Authority of Ireland: http://www.fsai.ie/assets/0/86/204/cc3c2261-7dc8-4225-bf79-9a47fbc2287b.pdf (Accessed: 20.06.2008).

Cardinali, R., Rebollar, P.G., Mugnai, C., Dal Bosco, A., Cuadrado, M., Castellini, C., 2008. Pasture availability and genotype effects in rabbits: 2. development of gastro-intestinal tract and immune function of the vermiphorm appendix. In: Proc. 9th World Rabbit Congress, Verona, Italy, 1159-1164.

e) Tables: Each table is printed on a separate page and numbered according to the sequence of referral within the text (Table 1). Each table has a title and, when necessary, explanations are given under the table (e.g. abbreviations given in the table). Each table should be understandable without need for referral to the text. Each table should be referred to in the text..

f) Figures and Pictures: Figures should be numbered according to the order of use and should be expressed with short titles.Figures should be numbered in the text (Figure 1).  Letters, numbers and symbols within the figure should be clear and readable when downsized for printing.Each figure should be referred to in the text..

IV- Submission of Articles (Blind Peer-Review)

The article submission is only accepted online via 'http://dergipark.gov.tr/maeusabed' The Corresponding authors, all the files  can be added to the system by clicking the submit new article icon at the above address. Authors must register on Dergipark system before submitting a manuscript. After signing up, clicking Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences icons on the main page, the manuscript written according to the guide for authors is submitted in 4 steps (start, submission, reference, preview & submit). The submitted manuscript must not contain any identifying information, such as author information, institution, ethics committee or special permit address, during the preliminary evaluation phase. The manuscript that pass the preliminary evaluation (paper scientific qualification, language, conformity to Guide for author and checking plagiarism via iThenticate and Turnitin program,) are assigned to the Reviewers. The corresponding author can follow the article evaluation process from the section on the Articles in the Process. According to the blind peer-review rules, the main text, tables, graphics and pictures of the manuscript are uploaded via the system and sent to the appointed reviewers for an article evaluation request via e-mail. The reviewers accept or reject the request by clicking on the link sent via e-mail. The reviewers who accept it have to upload their decisions together with the reasons within a maximum of 1 month via the system. If the correction requested by the Reviewer is sent back to the author. If the requested corrections are not completed within 1 month, the article will be automatically canceled. After the desired corrections are made, the article is uploaded back to the system by the author. The editor makes decisions to accept or reject papers based on their opinion of the papers' publication worthiness and reviewers' comments. As stated in the privacy statement, authors' identity information and e-mail addresses will not be used for any other purpose.

Ethical responsibility
The authors are responsible for their compliance with the ethical rules. In experimental studies on animals, it should be noted that the study protocol has been approved by the animal experiment ethics committee at the institution where the study was conducted. Authors should submit the ethics committee's approval with the article. If there are previously published text, tables, pictures, etc. in the article, the authors have to get written permission from the copyright holder and the authors should specify and indicate the used material in the manuscript. In the course of the manuscript evaluation, the authors may be requested to submit the research data and / or the ethics committee approval document if deemed necessary.

Plagiarism policy
Manuscripts submitted to Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute is evaluated in terms of plagiarism. Every submitted article is checked for plagiarism through iThenticate and Turnitin software. When Smilarity Index of the article is above %20, it is sent back to the corresponding author to revise it. If plagiarism is proved after publication of the article, that article will be immediately removed from the website and the concerned authors will be considered ineligible for publication of their articles in Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Health Sciences Institute.