GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

 

Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research (JBCR) is a peer reviewed, multidisciplinary scientific journal of Medical University - Pleven, open to scientists from all fields of medicine and related areas.

JBCR publishes reviews, original articles and communications in the field of biomedical, clinical, public health and health care research, medical education, case reports, written in English. JBCR is published two times per year.

JBCR follows uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.ICMJE.org).

All human and animal studies reported should have been approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee in accordance with the ethical criteria concerning experiments involving human beings or animals.

Submission of an article implies that the work has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors, and tacitly or explicitly - by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out. Authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article.

Authors are requested to disclose any possible conflicts of interest. Affiliation of authors submitting manuscripts in their role as members of industrial or government organizations may constitute sufficient disclosure. Academic, nonprofit, consulting, advocacy, and all other authors are asked to disclose in a footnote all sources of financial and material support for the studies and manuscripts submitted.

Each manuscript must be accompanied by a submission form, sighed by each author. This should include the name and mailing address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communications with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proof.

 

1.  Submission of papers

The manuscripts, written in English should be submitted to:

Editorial Office of Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

2.  Presentation of manuscript

Manuscripts should be submitted as a text file saved in Microsoft Word 2003. The entire text should be typed, using font Times New Roman, 12 points; double spaced and wide (2.5 cm) margins on standard A4; left aligned. Please avoid full justification, i.e., do not use a constant right-hand margin). Headings should be bold; only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized, left aligned. Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Do not use bullets for subsections. They should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated (use “Enter” only at the end of paragraphs). There should be no bank lines between paragraphs. Do not use tabs or spaces to create indents. Use the Symbol font for symbols and special characters. Use decimal points, not commas (e.g. 5.06); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above). Present tables and figure captions on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. Number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals on the right side at the foot of the page.

Review articles should not exceed 25 manuscript double-spaced pages, original articles - 18 pages, case

reports - 8 pages. The upper limit of the figures for original papers is 10, and for case reports - 6.

Each manuscript should follow the following sequence: title page; summary; text (Introduction, Materials/Patients and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions); references; tables (table complete with title and footnotes on a separate page); figure legends.

Nonconforming manuscripts (e.g., improper format, excessive length) may be returned for technical revision prior to undergoing peer review.

 

Title (first) page

The title should be concise and informative.

Names of author(s). Full first name and last name, and middle-name initials of all authors. Аffiliations. State the author’s (authors’) affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript digit (number) immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. The name and institution of the first author (and other authors of the same institution) should not bear any number.

Corresponding Author. Phone, address, e-mail.

Acknowledgements. Authors should identify financial support for research, including information on grants received. Technical help, critical reviews of the manuscript and financial or other sponsorship should be acknowledged.

 

Second page

Summary. A concise and factual summary is required (not more than 200 words). The abstract should briefly state the purpose of research, principal results and major conclusions. References should therefore be avoided, but if essential, they are to be cited in full. Abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Key words. Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords, strictly referring to the Medical Subject Headings list of the Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

 

Third page

Title, names of authors and summary in Bulgarian should be given for online version of the journal.

 

Next pages

Text should carry the following obligatory sections:

Introduction.

Materials/Patients and Methods. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.

Results. Results should be described clearly and concisely. All measurements should be reported in International System of Units (SI). Statistical significances should be shown along with the data in the text, as well as in tables and figures. Provide exact p-values, with three decimal places.

Discussion. This should explore validity and significance of the results from the work, and results

considered in the context of results in other trials reported in the literature.

Conclusions.

References. JBCR follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html). References should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and listed in the same numerical order in the reference section. Do not put a period after the reference number. Separate reference number and (last) name of the first author by one space only. All references should be complete and accurate. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as “in press” implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Journal titles should conform to the present Index Medicus abbreviations (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=journals)

Examples from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Standard journal article Provide names of all authors when there are six or fewer, if more - list the first

six authors followed by et al.

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(4):284-7.

 

Issue with supplement

Glauser TA. Integrating clinical trial data into clinical practice. Neurology. 2002;58(12 Suppl 7):S6-12.

Issue with no volume

Banit DM, Kaufer H, Hartford JM. Intraoperative frozen section analysis in revision total joint arthroplasty. Clin Orthop. 2002;(401):230-8.

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. Journal article on the Internet

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm

 

Tables and Figures should be given on separate sheets with indications on the left hand margin to the text, as to the appropriate placement (highlighted in yellow - Table 1.). Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively in order of their citation in the body of the text, with Arabic numerals. Supply the word “Table” or “Figure”, followed by its respective number and a brief title. The footnotes should contain all the necessary explanations of symbols and findings, and statistics. For the footnotes use the following symbols: *, †, ‡, §, ††, ‡‡,…

Data Tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word table format. Tables should not contain vertical lines. Give each column a short heading. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Figures. Diagrams, charts, line drawings, chemical formulas and photographs should be referred to as figures. Figures should be drawn professionally. Do not put the title of the figure in the figure! Each axis of charts should be labeled with a description of variable it represents. Only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized, and size for letters should be 10 points. Charts should be in gray scale.

 

Photographs, chemical formulas and diagrams should be saved as separate, stand-alone files and not embedded as part(s) of the text file. The files containing photographs, chemical formulas, etc. should be named with the number of the figure in the text (e.g. Figure 5). It is preferable to submit images, created at 100% image size. File formats in order of preference are JPEG, TIFF, BMP; always use a minimum of 300 dpi. The title and the legend of figures should be given in the text file after tables and graphs.

Optional suggestions for the referees (excluding co-authors or collaborators for the last three years) of the paper, with the complete mailing address, e-mail address, phone and fax numbers.

 

Manuscripts are not returned to authors.

 

All correspondence, including notification of the Editor’s decision and requests for revisions, will be sent to you by e-mail.