Author Guidelines

The Serbian Journal of the Medical Chamber publishes previously unpublished, original professional and scientific papers, reviews, short communications, editorials, letters to the editor, meta-analyses, case reviews, current topics, book reviews, papers on the history of medicine and more, from all fields of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry, therefore contributing to the promotion and development of the profession and science. The journal is published in print and electronic form four times per year.

In order for a paper to be considered for publication, it is necessary to prepare it according to the Journal’s guidelines, otherwise the editor may reject it without further explanation. The publication of papers is not paid.

Papers are submitted electronically.

The email address for submitting papers is https://aseestant.ceon.rs/index.php/smclk.

The Journal uses an open access system that allows automatic checking for plagiarism and autoplagiarism. Appropriate certificates should be provided with the paper (see at the end of these instructions).

Papers submitted for publication may not be sent at the same time to another journal for publication. In such situations, the editor-in-chief has the right to reject the paper without submitting it for review, to refuse to publish the paper, to inform the editors of the journal to which the paper was also sent, and to notify the head of the institution where the authors are employed. Papers submitted for publication may be previously printed in proceedings, in the form of a summary, and when this is the case, the editor should be notified of the name of the conference where the paper was presented, as well as when and where the paper was presented and printed.

The received papers are reviewed by the secretary of the Journal to determine whether the paper was written in accordance with the Instructions for Authors, and it is within the discretion of the editor of the Journal to assess the received manuscript and not publish it if it is deemed not to meet the stipulated content criteria. If the content of the manuscript is formally acceptable for the Journal, it is sent for blind review by two reviewers, experts in the pertinent field of medicine.

The reviews are considered by the editor-in-chief, the deputy editors-in-chief or members of the Editorial Board. The manuscript that is received by the Journal is considered confidential material as long as the paper is under review. The identities of the authors and reviewers remain unknown to each other. The remarks and suggestions of the reviewers are submitted to the corresponding author, for the final shaping of the paper. The revised paper is reexamined by the editor, deputy editors-in-chief and/or a member of the Editorial Board, and is sent to the corresponding author for approval for publication. The final decision to publish is passed by a majority vote of the present members of the Editorial Board.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

The paper should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document (.docx, .doc), using the Times New Roman font, size 12 pt. All four margins should be set to 25 mm and the page size to A4. The line spacing should be 1.5, with left alignment and 10 mm indentation of each paragraph. There should be no end-of-line hyphenation. The alignment tools should be used for aligning the text, not tabs or multiple spaces. Only the page-break should be used for a new page in the document. A single space should follow each punctuation mark. If special characters (symbols) are used in the text, use the font from the Symbol package. Use only generic names for drugs. Devices (equipment) should be identified using factory names, and the name and location of the manufacturer should be indicated in parentheses. If the text uses labels that are a combination of letters and numbers, it is necessary to appropriately write the number that appears in superscript or subscript (e.g. 99Tc, IL-6, O2, B12, CD8, etc.). If something is typically written in italic, it should be written so (e.g. gene names). International System of Units (SI) units should be used, with the exception of temperature (°C) and blood pressure (mmHg). If the paper is part of a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, or was created within a scientific project, this should be specifically indicated in the Notes section, at the end of the text.

Graphics attachments should be created using standard graphics software for MS Windows, preferably from the MS Office suite (MS Excel, MS Word Graph). Use of colors should be avoided, especially gradients and shading.

PREPARING THE PAPER

The sections of the paper are: the cover page, the abstract and keywords, the text of the paper, acknowledgements (optional), literature, and attachments.

COVER PAGE (first page) should include the title of the paper without acronyms, a suggested short title of the paper, the full names of the authors (without titles) indexed using numbers, the official name of the institutions where the authors work, place and country (in the order corresponding to the indexed numbers of the authors). At the bottom of the page, provide the name, contact address, phone number, fax number and email address of the corresponding author. The cover page should be in Serbian and English language (second page).

ABSTRACT should be up to 250 words, including acronyms (third page). For original papers, preliminary and short communications, meta-analyses and review papers, the abstract should have the following structure: Introduction/Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusion. Each of these segments should be written as a separate paragraph. For case reviews, the summary should have the following sections: Introduction/Objective, Case Report, Conclusion; each part should be written as a separate paragraph. For other types of papers, the abstract does not have a special structure. List three to six key words or phrases below the abstract. Words from the title should not be repeated, and the key words should be relevant and descriptive. The Medical Subject Headings – MeSH thesaurus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh) should be used for selecting the key word. The abstract should be submitted in both Serbian and English language.

The fourth page should contain the translation of the text from the third page. This page must have the identical structure as the third page.

The number of pages provided for the appropriate structure of the paper is counted from the fifth page.

STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER. Capital bold letters should be used for all subheadings. Original papers, meta-analyses, preliminary and short communications must have the following subheadings: Introduction (the objective of the paper should be stated in the last paragraph of the Introduction), Methodologies, Results, Discussion (concise and clear, it represents the interpretation and comparison of study results with relevant studies published in domestic and international literature), Conclusion (it must derived solely from the results of the research), List of acronyms (if used in the text), Acknowledgment, and Literature (listed using Arabic numerals, in the order in which they appear in the text, in square brackets, see below). The structure of literature review papers should be: Introduction, a number of subheadings, Conclusion, and Literature. The structure of the paper presenting one or more cases should consists of: Introduction (the objective of the paper should be given as the last paragraph of the Introduction), Case Report, Discussion, and Literature. Patient names, initials, and medical history numbers should not be used, especially in illustrations. Case reviews should not have more than five authors.

STATISTICAL METHODS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

If possible, all numbers should be rounded to one decimal place. The display of results in tables and graphs should not be repeated. When presenting results in tables and text, it is recommended that numerical data with normal distribution and without extreme values be presented as arithmetic mean ± standard deviation; that numerical data whose distribution deviates from normal distribution or when there are extreme values, and ordinal data, be presented as the median and range (minimum – maximum value); that nominal data and ordinal data with a small number of categories be displayed as n (%).

When describing the applied statistical methods, presentation and interpretation of results in the paper, follow the SAMPL Guidelines (Lang TA, Altman DG. Basic statistical reporting for articles published in biomedical journals: The “Statistical Analyses and Methods in the Published Literature” or the SAMPL Guidelines. Int J Nurs Stud 2015; 52(1):5-9.). The applied statistical methods should be described in sufficient detail so that the reader may repeat them using own data. Indicate the statistical test used and the level of significance. Report the correct p-value to the third decimal place.

ATTACHMENTS (tables, graphs, pictures, etc.) should be placed at the end of the manuscript, while clearly indicating in the text the place that refers to the given attachment. The final position of the attachment will be defined during the preparation of the paper for publication.

ACRONYMS should be used only when necessary, i.e. for very long names of chemical compounds and names that are already commonly used as acronyms (standard acronyms, such as DNA, AIDS, HIV). For each acronym, the full term should be given at the first appearance in the text, unless it is a standard unit of measure. Acronym should not be used in the title. Avoid using acronyms in the abstract, but if necessary, explain each acronym at the first appearance in the text.

DECIMAL NUMBERS. In the English text of the paper, in tables, graphs and other appendices decimal numbers are written with a point (e.g. 12.5 ± 3.8), and in the text in Serbian with a comma (e.g. 12,5 ± 3,8). Whenever possible, round the number to one decimal place.

UNITS OF MEASURE. Express length, weight and volume in metric units (meter – m, kilogram (gram) – kg (g), liter – l) or their parts. Express temperature in degrees Celsius (°C), amount of substance in moles (mol), and blood pressure in millimeters of mercury (mmHg). All results of hematological, clinical and biochemical measurements should be reported using the metric system, according to the International System of Units (SI).

ATTACHMENTS are tables, pictures (photographs, drawings, diagrams, graphs), up to six per paper. Each attachment is submitted as a separate document, labeled the same way as it appears in the text. If tables, graphs, charts or figures have already been published, the original source should be indicated, and written consent for their use attached.

TABLES. Tables should be easily comprehensible. The caption should be typed above the table, with an explanation below it. Tables are labeled with Arabic numerals, according to the order of appearance in the text. Tables should be drawn only in MS Word, using the Insert Table function, defining the exact number of columns and rows that will form the table grid. Use Merge Cells and Split Cells options to merge or split cells. Use Times New Roman font, size 12 pt, with single spacing and no indentation. The acronyms used in the table should be explained in the legend below the table. If the manuscript is in Serbian, attach the names of the tables and the legend in both languages. Also, enter the Serbian text and English text in the same table, within a single cell (never make two tables in two languages).

IMAGES. All forms of graphic attachments are images. Photographs, drawings, diagrams and graphs can be published. Images are labeled using Arabic numerals, according to the order of appearance in the text. Only digital photos (black-and-white or color) of at least 300 dpi resolution, in TIFF or JPG format are accepted (small, blurry and poor-quality images will not be accepted for print). If the authors do not have or are not able to submit digital photos, then the original images should be scanned at a resolution of 300 dpi and in original size. If the paper requires multiple images for illustration, several will be published in the paper, and the rest will be included in the e-version of the article, as a MS PowerPoint presentation (each image must be numbered and include a legend). The used microscope magnification should be noted in the image legend. Each photo should include the scale. The image names and the legend should be provided in both Serbian and English language.

GRAPHS. Graphs should be provided and submitted in MS Excel, in order to show the accompanying values arranged by cell. The same graphs should be copied into a MS Word document. Graphs are labeled with Arabic numerals, according to the order of appearance in the text. All data in the graphs should be displayed using the Times New Roman font. Acronyms used on the graph should be explained in the legend below the graph. Include the names of the graphs and the legend in both Serbian and English language.

DIAGRAMS AND DRAWINGS. Diagrams and drawings can be submitted in JPG or TIFF format. All data in the diagram should be displayed using the Times New Roman font, size 10 pt. The acronyms used in the diagram should be explained in the legend below the diagram. If the manuscript is submitted in Serbian, the names of the diagrams and the legends should be provided in both Serbian and English language.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. List all associates who contributed to the production of the paper but do not meet the authorship criteria, such as persons providing technical assistance, assistance in writing the paper, or managing the department that provided general support. Financial and material assistance, in the form of sponsorships, scholarships, donations, equipment, medicine, etc., should also be listed.

LITERATURE. The list of references is the responsibility of the author, and the cited articles should be easily accessible to the readers of the Journal. References should be numbered using Arabic numerals, according to the order of appearance in the text. The number of references should not exceed 30, except in the case of literature reviews, in which case it may be up to 50, and up to 100 in the case of meta-analyses.

Original papers must account for at least 80% of the total number of references, i.e. the number of cited books, book chapters, and reviews must be less than 20%. Citing abstracts is not recommended. References to articles that have been accepted for publication but have not yet been published should be marked “in press” and proof of acceptance of the paper for publication should be attached.

Information about the literature used in the paper is indicated in the text by Arabic numerals in square brackets, e.g. [1, 2], in the order in which they appear in the text.

In the Literature section, references are cited according to the Vancouver style (Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals), established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org), whose format is used by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and scientific publication databases. Examples of citations of publications (articles, books and other monographs, electronic, unpublished and other published material) are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. When citing literature, it is very important to abide by the mentioned standard and include an article’s DOI link if available, because it is one of the most important indexing factors when classifying scientific journals. Online data is cited with the date of access to that data.

NUMBER OF PAGES FOR THE PAPER (WITH ALL ATTACHMENTS)

• Editorials (up to 5 pages) present opinions or discussions on a particularly relevant topic for the Journal, as well as on data published in this or other journals. They are usually written by one author, by invitation.

• Original articles (up to 12 pages) present the results of the research of the authors of the paper and their interpretation. The research should be processed and presented in a way that can be repeated, and the analysis of results and conclusions should be clear so that they can be verified.

• Reviews (up to 10 pages) represent the systematic, comprehensive and critical presentation of a problem on the basis of analyzed and discussed data from literature, which reflect the state of the science in a particular area of research. The literature used in the paper must contain at least 3 papers by the author of the article from the specific scientific field addressed in the paper.

• Preliminary and short communications (up to 4 pages) contain extremely important scientific results that should be published as soon as possible. They do not have to contain a detailed description of the methodology and results, but they must contain all the same sections as original articles, in a concise form.

• Professional articles (up to 10 pages) refer to the verification or presentation of previous research; they represent a useful means of disseminating knowledge and adapting original research to the needs of existing science and practice.

• Case reports (up to 6 pages) describe rare cases from practice and are similar to professional articles. These papers present unusual forms and courses of disease, unexpected reactions to the applied therapy, application of new diagnostic procedures, or rare and new diseases.

• History of medicine articles (up to 10 pages) describe developments from the past, with the aim of preserving medical and health culture. They have the same form as professional articles.

• Other articles - book reviews, excerpts from foreign literature, reports from congresses and professional conferences, statements on the operation of health organizations, branches and sections, editorial statements, letters to the editorial board, medical news, questions and answers, professional and scientific news and articles written in commemoration (In memoriam).

IN THE SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

In the submission procedure it is necessary to point out which category the paper belongs to: editorial, professional paper, original paper, preliminary or short communications, review article, case review, case series review, paper on the history of medicine, or other.

Together with the paper, it is necessary to include:

1. Signed statements of all the authors that the work has not been partially or entirely published, sent or accepted for publication in another journal.

2. Signed statements of all authors that they have read the manuscript and approved it for publication in the Journal, stating their contribution to the study or the writing of the paper,

3. A declaration on absence of conflict of interest.

Authors are required to ensure that their authors' team listed in the manuscript includes all and only those persons who have significantly contributed to the manuscript's content. If other individuals have participated in significant aspects of the research project and preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or a special note (Acknowledgments).

Authors are obligated to specify the title and code label of the scientific research project under which the work was created, as well as the full name of the funding institution. If the submitted manuscript has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or a similar title), the details of this should be listed in the same place.

Authors are obliged to fully and correctly cite sources that significantly influenced the content of the research and manuscript. Parts of the manuscript, including text, equations, figures, pictures, or tables, which are taken verbatim from other works must be precisely marked with a special note, e.g. quotation marks with a precise indication of the download’s place (page number) or, if they are more extensive, given in a separate paragraph.

Full references of each quotation in the text (citations) must be listed in a separate section (Literature or References) and in a uniform manner, by the Vancouver citation style used by the journal. In the Literature section, only cited sources are listed, not other sources used during the manuscript preparation.

If authors discover an important error in their paper after its publication, they are obliged to immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief (or publisher) and cooperate in retracting or correcting the work.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.

It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to the Serbian Journal of the Medical Chamber are written in accordance with ethical standards (The Declaration of Helsinki, The Basel Declaration, Good Laboratory Practice, Good Clinical Practice, ICMJE guidelines).

Authors are obliged to give statement in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY).

Downloads: Statement of Authorship