INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
"MEDICINA" is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published monthly, which is indexed and abstracted in Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch®), Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, MEDLINE, Index Copernicus, and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). It publishes original research articles, reviews, and case reports that will contribute to current knowledge and encourage future research.
Manuscript submission
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically using the online submission at http://medicina.lsmuni.lt.
In order for an article to be published, all coauthors must sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) stating that all copyrights are transferred to publisher in case the article is published. Authors' signatures guarantee that their article is original, does not interfere with copyright regulations and is not previously published, handed or planned for handing to other journals, except in form of thesis or presentation.
After filling in and signing the CTA, the authors must upload its scanned image in JPG or TIF format during the Step 3 of submission process.
Manuscripts must be accompanied by a covering letter, stating clearly why the work is considered suitable for publication in "Medicina" and explaining the importance of the study. The text of the covering letter can be typed into the appropriate form during the Step 4 of submission process.
Further information about submission process is available at http://medicina.kmu.lt/submission.htm.
Manuscript preparation
All pages of the manuscript should be double-spaced interval with 2.5 cm margins and numbered including references, tables, figures, and figure legends. Use of abbreviations should be limited to the minimum; full terms should be presented together with the first abbreviation. There should not be abbreviations in the title of the article.
"Medicina" attaches importance to the use of correct, clear, reader-friendly English. Manuscripts should be written in American English. In case of poor language, the manuscript can be sent back to authors for correction or as a service to authors, "Medicina" provides a fee for language-editing service to improve the quality of manuscript, which is acceptable for publication.
Manuscripts must not contain the same information as manuscripts under review, accepted, or published. This restriction does not apply to results published by the authors as abstracts, letters to editors, or contributions to symposia, provided that the manuscript submitted adds significantly to the previously published contribution.
Manuscripts must include:
1. Title page
2. Summary
3. Introduction
4. Material and methods
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Conclusions
8. Acknowledgments (if applicable)
9. Statement of conflicts of interest
10. List of references
11. Tables
12. Figures and legends
Title page
The title page must include:
A concise title (no more than 150 characters including spaces) accurately reflecting the findings of the study;
A short running title (50 characters with spaces maximum) for use as page header;
Full names (not initials) of all authors without degrees or titles; each author's name should carry a superscript number, assigned in ascending numerical order, to indicate an institutional affiliation;
Institutional affiliations of all authors, which should be presented in the same order as the numbers in the authors' superscripts, and should include department, institution, city, country;
Name, address, phone, fax, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
Summary
The summary must not exceed 250 words and should describe the essential aspects of the study. It should be intelligible to the non-specialist without reference to the text. No citations are allowed in the summary. Abbreviations must be kept to a minimum; non-standard abbreviations should be explained in brackets. The summary must be organized under the following four subheadings (not as undivided text):
Background and objective (background information and rationale for the study should be stated);
Material and methods (should state in outline what methods were used; details of statistical tests and other irrelevant information should not be given);
Results (should summarize the most actual findings);
Conclusions (present a brief statement directed to the stated objective).
Keywords. Up to 5 keywords or phrases (including names and terms used in the title) should be displayed at the beginning of the summary. Unhelpful or unqualified terms should be avoided.
Introduction
The introduction should give a brief and clear account of the background of the problem and the rationale of the study. It should not include data or conclusions. The final sentence should clarify the objective of the study.
Material and methods
This section should describe the observational and experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls; age, gender, and other relevant characteristics of patients should be given), the study design (retrospective or prospective cohort study, prospective randomized trial, case-control, cross-sectional, etc.), and how it was performed (e.g. inclusion/exclusion criteria, ethical considerations, etc.).
The methods, equipment (give the manufacturer's name in parentheses), and procedures should be described in sufficient detail to allow an experienced investigator to interpret and repeat the experiments. Give references where established methods are used. All drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration should be identified precisely. Statistical methods should be given in sufficient detail to allow a knowledgeable reader to verify the reported findings.
Results
The major findings obtained during this study should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures in this section. They should be presented clearly and concisely. Do not repeat the data in the text, tables, and figures; do not duplicate data in tables and figures.
Discussion
Discussion should present a brief (normally not exceeding one-third of the total length of the manuscript) and pertinent interpretation of the results against the background of existing knowledge and should include comparison with similar studies, limitations of the findings and potential directions for future research. Details of data given in results section should not be repeated.
Conclusions
In a separate section, the conclusions should summarize the major findings of the study together with implications for clinical practice. This section should address the hypothesis or objective stated in the study. Speculation and unqualified statements should be avoided.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements should state sources of support in the form of grants or funding, equipment, or drugs. Other appropriate acknowledgments, for example, to other scientists for their help or advice, may be included.
Statement of conflict of interest
Provide here any financial disclosures and/or conflicts of interest for all authors.
Please list any past or present financial relationships with manufacturers of any of the materials or devices described in the manuscript. This includes relevant consultancies or other links with the pharmaceutical industry or regulatory agencies that may cause potential conflicts of interest.
If none exist, please indicate, “The authors state no conflict of interest.”
References
Should be based on Vancouver system and on "Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals" (JAMA 1997; 277:927-34). All references should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, followed by any in tables or figure legends. When reference is cited for the first time, its number should be indicated in parenthesis, e.g. (1). Reference citations should not appear in titles, summary, and conclusions. The list of references for scientific article should be limited to 30 references; for review article limited to 70 references. It is recommended that mostly last five-year publications would be referenced.
Paper in a journal
1. Parkin DM, Clayton D, Black RJ, Masuyer E, Friendl HP, Ivanov E, et al. Childhood-leukaemia in Europe after Chernobyl: 5 year follow-up. Br J Cancer 1996;73:1006-12.
When journal article is referenced, up to six authors should be listed. If there are more than six authors, only the first six should be listed followed by “et al.”.
If article is not in English, the title should be presented in original language, and English translation should be given in parenthesis:
1. Malinauskienė V, Gražulevičienė R. Socialinių darbo veiksnių įtaka miokardo infarkto rizikai tarp 25- 64 metų Kauno vyrų. (Social status and risk of myocardial infarction among 25-64 years old male population in Kaunas.) Medicina (Kaunas) 2000;36:217-25.
Chapter in a book
1. Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.
Monographs and books
1. Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
2. Norman LJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.
Journal article in electronic form
1. Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun 5]; 1(1): [24 screens]. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm.
PhD thesis
1. Rokaitė R. Maisto alergenų įtaka ir dietoterapijos reikšmė atopiniu dermatitu sergantiems vaikams. (The influence of food allergens and the value of diet therapy for children with atopic dermatitis.) [dissertation]. Kaunas: KMU; 2006.
Tables
Tables should be embedded at the end of the manuscript. They should be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order of citation in the text, and a brief descriptive title should appear above each table. Tables should normally be self-explanatory. Each column should have a heading, and the units of measurement should be given in the heading. Numbers up to four digits should be written without spaces; longer numbers should be spaced in 3-digit groupings, without commas. Explanatory matter and necessary information should be placed in footnotes (explain all nonstandard abbreviations).
Figures and legends
All figures (graphs, charts, photographs, and illustrations) should be of good quality and inserted at the end of the manuscript. All figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order of their citation in the text and should include figure legends, which should explain the figures in sufficient detail that they could be understood without reference to the text. Symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters used to identify parts of the illustrations should be identified and explained clearly in the legend. Authors are encouraged to use colors to enhance the impact and clarity of figures, but publication of color figures will have to be paid for by the authors. Submitting uncolored figures, follow the principle that a figure should make sense in black and white. For figures supplied in parts, please use A, B, C, etc. to label the parts of the figure. In addition, "Medicina" requires all figures to be provided in electronic format (preferred file formats are TIFF and JPG).
Review articles, not exceeding 5000-8000 words, should present an update of recent developments in a field being discussed. Preparation of a review article follows the standard format for research articles, with respect to text style, tables, figures, figure legends, and references. A summary up to 250 words describing the need and objective of a review article, methods used for gathering and analyzing data, and main conclusions is required, although the subheadings stipulated for research articles do not apply. Up to 70 references should be included.
Case Reports should consist of clinical cases highlighting uncommon conditions or presentations and should provide information regarding new or unusual aspects of etiology, diagnosis, or management, which contribute to the existing knowledge. Preparation of case reports follows the standard format for research articles, with respect to text style, figures, tables, and references. The text should not exceed 2000 words and should be divided into the following sections: summary (up to 100 words), introduction, case report(s), and discussion. Number of references should be limited to 15 most recent.
Review process
Once submitted, manuscripts will be quality checked by the editorial office before being sent for review, usually by an Executive Editor and two referees. This process takes one month on average from submission to the initial decision. On acceptance, after any required changes have been made, proofs will normally be sent electronically within 2 weeks, with a request to correct and return them within 48 hours. Extensive corrections cannot be made at this time. The paper will then be accepted for publication. These timings are provisional, and do not include author delays.
Manuscript publication fees
Accepted manuscripts will be processed/published with the understanding that the authors will be charged a fee of 35 EUR (120 Lt) +VAT per printed page. Charges completely cover the costs of peer reviewing, copyediting, and publishing manuscripts.