Information for Authors

IMPORTANT!

Instructions for Authors

Siriraj Medical Journal (SMJ) is a peer-reviewed biomedical journal. It is published bimonthly and accepts the manuscripts in the forms of original article, case report, review article, and others in various aspects of biomedical sciences. In addition to a member of the editorial board who is assigned to review the manuscript, the editorial office will seek at least one expert outside the editorial staff to be a reviewer by considering the manuscript content. Peer review is intended to examine the quality of manuscripts in term of accuracy, clarity, research methodology, ethics, and usefulness to the readers and the general public. The peer reviewers should not have any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript assigned for the revision. The Editor-in-Chief will make the decision regarding acceptance of any manuscript for publication by taking the opinions from at least one member of the editorial board and from the peer reviewers into the consideration. More opinions from other experts may be sought for the decision to accept some particular manuscripts for publication.

General information for submission of manuscripts

Starting from March 1, 2009, all manuscripts submitted to SMJ should follow the details given below. Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts via e-mail to sijournal@diamond.mahidol.ac.th Registration is required for the new user of this system. Please read the instruction how to register on the webpage. Manuscripts can also be submitted to the editorial office as digital files stored in CD or DVD. For the text and tables, the manuscripts should be saved in a Microsoft word file. Page setup should be made on the size of A4 paper (210 x 297 mm) and the type setting should be double-spaced. The font should be “Times New Roman” with the size of 12 pt. The top, bottom and side margins should be 25 mm. wide. All pages should be numbered consecutively together with the first author’s name at the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page. For illustrations, the digital file should be in JPEG format, no larger than 800 kB per file. All digital files should be free of any virus or other malicious threats (e.g. spyware, adware, trojan, worm). No printout of the manuscripts is required for submission in order to conform to our “less-paper usage” policy to save the world and reduce the global warming crisis. Any manuscript submission that fails to follow this instruction will be returned to the authors without review. 

SMJ accepts the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (Seoul, 2008), which states:

“30. Authors, editors and publishers all have ethical obligations with regard to the publication of the results of research. Authors have a duty to make publicly available the results of their research on human subjects and are accountable for the completeness and accuracy of their reports. They should adhere to accepted guidelines for ethical reporting. Negative and inconclusive as well as positive results should be published or otherwise made publicly available. Sources of funding, institutional affiliations and conflicts of interest should be declared in the publication. Reports of research not in accordance with the principles of this Declaration should not be accepted for publication.” [http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm]. 

Thus, for any new research project involving human research subjects, including case report of more than 1 patient, starting from 1 March 2009, the authors need to submit a photocopy of a document of approval from Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Ethic Committee (IEC). For any research project involving human research subjects starting before 1 March 2009 that does not have a document of approval from IRB or IEC, the authors need to convince the editorial board that the research does not violate any ethical concern on human research subjects. 

SMJ also accepts the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (Seoul, 2008), which states:

“19. Every clinical trial must be registered in a publicly accessible database before recruitment of the first subject.” [http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm]. 

Thus, for any new clinical trial starting from 1 March 2009, the authors need to register at the public clinical trial registry prior to the research conduct. Registration number should be placed at the end of the abstract in parentheses. For any clinical trial starting before 1 March 2009 that does not have registration number, the authors need to convince the editorial board that the clinical trial does not violate any good clinical practice guidelines or any ethical concern on human research subjects.

All manuscripts submitted to SMJ should follow the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication” that has been updated on April 2010 by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Authors who want to submit manuscript to Siriraj Medical Journal are encouraged to learn more about the latest version of the “Uniform Requirements” from the website of ICMJE at http://www.icmje.org/ The “Uniform Requirements” also provide criteria for authorship.

 All authors should approve the submission of the manuscript and the cover letter should indicate that the manuscript is submitted to SMJ only and it has never been published elsewhere in English or other languages. Authors should be aware of copyright violation, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, and other misconducts in biomedical research and publication. Written permissions from persons who provide personal communication or from those to be acknowledged in the manuscript are required in case the readers may infer their endorsement of such activities as technical assistance, provision of illustration, etc.

Since 1949, SMJ has maintained the same policy as that the present “open-access” journals adopt that the authors are not required to transfer their copyright to the editorial office. Thus, after publication in SMJ, the copyright of the printed material in forms of both hard-copy and online versions still belongs to the author(s). The readers who are interested in reproduction or dissemination of a particular article published in SMJ should make a direct contact to the corresponding author of the paper. 

Types of manuscripts subject to peer review

All original articles, case reports, and review articles are subjected to the peer review. Special issues and editorials are invited by the Editor-in-Chief or the editorial board members; they are not subjected to the peer review unless the content seems to require so. Not all manuscripts will undergo editorially reviewing process. The submitted manuscript may be returned to the author(s) without delay if its format is not correct or its content does not fit into the scope of the journal.

Original Articles

The manuscript must be written in English with no longer than 3,000 words for the text, including abstract, acknowledgments, references, and legends for illustrations (figure legends). Tables and illustrations should not exceed 6 in total.

Review Articles

No longer than 4,500 words for the text, including abstract, acknowledgments, references, and legends for illustrations (figure legends). Tables and illustrations should not exceed 8 in total.

Case Reports

No longer than 1,500 words for the text only, including abstract, acknowledgments, references, and legends for illustrations (figure legends). Tables and illustrations should not exceed 3 in total. Written permission (consent) to publish the case details (potential risk to breach of privacy) or use photograph of unavoidably identifiable person must be obtained. The authors do not need to send the original written permission with the manuscript but they need to make a statement in the cover letter that they have already obtained such permission.

Letters to the Editor

No longer than 250 words. Only one table or illustration is permitted. Exception can be allowed by the Editor-in-Chief when appropriate. Correspondence letter will be sent to the corresponding author of the original artible for reply.

Editorials

Usually no longer than 1,500 words, but exception can be allowed by the Editor-in-Chief, when appropriate.

Special Issues

Usually no longer than 3,000 words, but exception can be allowed by the Editor-in-Chief, when appropriate. Tables and illustrations should not exceed 6 in total.

Obituaries

No longer than 750 words, but exception can be allowed by the Editor-in-Chief, when appropriate. Only one table or illustration is permitted.

Manuscript Format

This is strictly applied to the preparation of original articles but may also be applied to the preparation of other types of manuscripts whenever possible.

Title Page:

- A concise title, no more than 150 characters including spaces.
- A short running head, no more than 50 characters including spaces.
- Each author’s name followed by no more than two highest academic degrees.
- Institutional affiliations listed corresponding to the authors.
- The contact information of the corresponding author, including telephone, FAX, and e-mail address.
- Disclaimer (if any)
- Source of support (if any)
- Total word count for the text only
- Number of tables and illustrations

Conflict-of-Interest Notification Page:

Authors should state whether there is any potential conflict of interest or not.

Abstract:

- Total word count is not more than 250 words.
- The abstract should include Background/Objective, Materials & Methods, Results, and Conclusion, whenever possible.
- Registration number for the clinical trial (if applicable) at the end of the abstract (trial acronym followed by the registration number).
- Provide no more than 5 keywords.

Introduction:

- Provide concisely the background or context of the study. 
- Do not provide any data or conclusion of the study being reported.

Materials & Methods: 

- When the study is involved in human research subjects or materials obtained from human subjects or both, the authors should indicate that the study has been approved by the institutional research board (IRB) or institutional ethic committee (IEC). The approval number should be given. The conduct of study should follow the Declaration of Helsinki (revised in 2008). Details of the declaration can be found at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm
- Describe the recruitment including inclusion and exclusion criteria, period of the study, location of the study, methods, and instruments (give the manufacturer name and address in parenthesis) used in adequate detail.
- Provide the references for the established methods. Describe briefly the previously published method that may not be well-known.
- Describe briefly the statistical methods and provide the computer software used.

Results:

- Describe properly the data in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat all the data already shown in the tables or illustrations. Summarize only the important data in text.
- Tables, illustrations (figures), and figure legends are provided in separate sections (see below).

Discussion:

- Concentrate in the new or important data from the study. Compare briefly with the results from previous studies. Table may be used to ease the readers’ understanding. Do not repeat the data already present in the introduction or results. Avoid speculations that have not been tested. Benefits obtained from the study should be confirmed appropriately before claiming as such.
- Make a concise conclusion of the study at the end.

Acknowledgments:

- List the name of contributors that do not meet the criteria of authorship here. Financial and material support should be acknowledged as well. Written permission from persons to be acknowledged should be provided with the manuscript.

References:

- List only important references, in particular the key original ones, as the total word count also includes references.
- References should be numbered consecutively in the order that they first appear in the text, tables, and illustrations. Use arabic numbers in parentheses to indicate references. 
- The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. None of the references should not cite retracted articles, except that they are the issue of concern in the text. The authors can check the retracted publication by typing “retracted publication [pt]” in PubMed for MEDLINE-indexed journals. 
- Only published articles can be used as references. For accepted articles awaiting for publication, “[in press]” should be indicated at the end. Written permission to use this particular article and a photocopy of the letter of acceptance for publication should be provided with the manuscripts. 
- Abstract published in the journal without full paper is not accepted as a reference.
- “Personal communication” or “unpublished observations” should be put in the text with the name of the provider and date of communication. Written permission and confirmation of the information accuracy should be provided with the manuscripts.
- In accordance with the Uniform Requirements, authors should consult NLM’s Citing Medicine for reference style and format at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine/ In case of 6 authors or more, list the first 6 authors followed by comma and et al.

Tables:

- Provide tables on a separate page. 
- Good tables will present the data clearly and shorten the length of the text. 
- Cite the tables in the text accordingly. Provide a brief title for each table. Other explanatory notes regarding nonstandard abbreviations and symbols in the table should be provided in the footnotes of the table. Use the following symbols in sequence: *, ?, ?, , ||, , **, ??, ??. 
- Only 3 horizontal lines are used in each table: above and below the first line of table (heading) and at the end of the table (above the footnotes of the table). Do not use inter-horizontal lines or vertical lines. 
- Data from unpublished source requires written permission and acknowledgement for the source.

Illustrations (Figures):

- Provide professionally drawn or photographed figures in digital files (JPEG format), no larger than 800 kB per file. Only symbols, arrows, numbers, internal scale, or letters are allowed to identify particular items in the figures. The descriptions, however, should be provided in a separate page as legends for illustrations (figure legends). 
- Written permission to use photograph of potentially identifiable person must be obtained from that person. The authors do not need to send the original written permission with the manuscript but they need to make a statement in the cover letter that they have already obtained such permission.

Legends for illustrations (figure legends):

- Provide legends on a separate page.
- Brief title is needed. Describe symbols, arrows, numbers, internal scale, or letters present in the illustration clearly. Also provide the staining method or other special techniques applied in the photomicrograph.

Units of measurement:

- Use SI units unless it is not universally used. Normal value of each test should be provided in parentheses.

Abbreviations: 

- Use universal abbreviations. Avoid using abbreviations in the title. Nonstandard abbreviations can be used after introduction of the full name followed by the first abbreviation in parentheses.

Summary Check List to Submit Manuscript to SMJ

• A cover letter indicating that the manuscript is submitted to SMJ only, it has never been published elsewhere in English or other languages, and it has been approved by all authors. Also state in the cover letter that written permission (consent) to publish the case details (potential risk to breach of privacy) or use photograph of unavoidably identifiable person has been obtained (if any, especially all case reports).
• Submit online at http://www.sirirajmedj.com or submit the digital storage of the manuscript files to the SMJ editorial office (Note: Do not submit printout of the manuscript according to our “less-paper usage” policy).
• Manuscript typed and saved in Microsoft word file.
• Illustrations saved in JPEG format, no larger than 800 kB per file.
• A photocopy of a document of approval from Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Ethic Committee (IEC) for all original articles concerning human research subjects (a must for any new research project involving human research subjects, including case report of more than 1 patient, starting from 1 March 2009).
• A photocopy of a printout of document indicating registration of the original article concerning clinical trials (a must for any new clinical trial starting from 1 March 2009).
• Written permissions and confirmation of the information accuracy from persons who provide the “in press” reference, personal communication, or those to be acknowledged in the manuscript (if any).

• To improve the reporting of health research studies, the author is highly recommended to visit the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Tranparency Of health Research) network at http://www.equator-network.org/ that provides library for health research reporting guidelines for several types of studies.
• To improve the reporting of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), the author is highly recommended to follow the CONSORT (CONsolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials) Statement 2010 that helps the author improve reporting of two-parallel design RCTs by using a checklist (containing 25 items) and flow diagram. Please visit the CONSORT Statement website athttp://www.consort-statement.org/