Information for Authors

Initial Evaluation

All submitted manuscripts will be checked by the Editorial Office to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal. All submitted manuscripts are screened for potential plagiarism via authenticate software. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer review. Incomplete manuscripts not prepared in the advised style will be sent back to authors without scientific review. After these checks, the Editorial Office will consult the journal’s Editor-in-Chief to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication will be rejected promptly. Please write your text in good English (American usage is accepted). The Editor reserves the right to reject a manuscript on the grounds of insufficient language quality. Reject decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.

Clinical Trial Registry

The journal would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.ctri.nic.in/; http://www.anzctr.org.au/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp; and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr. This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrollment of subjects in or after June 2008. Clinical trials that have commenced enrollment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in Mansoura Medical Journal only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2008). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of Mansoura Medical Journal are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Mansoura Medical Journal accepts manuscripts written in American English.

Manuscript Style

The review article must be sub-divided into the following sections:

Title page

(Should be comprise) A title of the paper, First name(s) and surname of author(s) Institutes - Author's workplace (affiliation to be indicated by numbers) Full address of the corresponding author, Short title (the shortened title of the article, that will appear as a page heading in the journal at the top Of the printed pages, not more than 60 type-written strokes including spaces).

Summary

Each paper should contain a summary of the main points (not more than 200 words). Keywords. Immediately following the summary, up to 5 keywords should be supplied for subject Indexing. Keywords should be taken from the Index Medicus (Medical Subject Headings) or be Composed of the same principle.

Text

The main text is divided into sections according to the topics.

References

See the original Article section.

Original article must be subdivided into the following sections:

Title page

Abstract

Each paper should contain a summary of the main points (not more than 250 words). It must Be structured abstract, i.e.; it has the following sections background, methods, results and Conclusions. Keywords. Immediately following the summary, up to 5 keywords should be supplied for Subject indexing. Keywords should be taken from the Index Medicus (Medical Subject Headings) or be Composed of the same principle.

Introduction

Should contain the background of the subject matter and explanation, why the research Was carried out.

Methods

In this section, all materials and methods must be clearly described.

Results

the results or findings must be described clearly in this section and contains figures and Tables

Discussion

Should be well-arranged and concise and ended with conclusions. Acknowledgments of Financial support or technical assistance may follow the main body of the paper.

References

Are to be listed in numbered format (Vancouver system) and must correspond to citations In the text. See the following examples for reference writing style.

If there are more than three authors: Gregor, M., Meisnar, J., Janovska, A., et al (1999). Fibers and Their Myofibrils. Physiol. Res, 48, 27-35.
If there are three authors: Hatle, L. K., Appleton, C. P., & Popp, R. L. (1989). Differentiation of constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy by Doppler echocardiography. Circulation, 79(2), 357-370.
If there are two authors: Yan, X., & Li, D. (2014). The protect role of Hydrogen sulfide in gastric injury. Inflammation and Cell Signaling, 1(2).
If there is only one author: Wang, R. U. I. (2002). Two's company, three's a crowd: can H2S be the third endogenous gaseous transmitter?. The FASEB journal, 16(13), 1792-1798.

References to monographs should be supplemented by the name of publishers, place of publication And in the case of a conference or symposial proceedings also by the name of editors, e.g.: Olney JW: Neurocytology of excitatory amino acids. In: Kainic Acid as a Tool in Neuro-biology. EG MCGEER, JW OLNEY, PL MCGEER (eds), Raven Press, New York, 1978, pp 95-121.

A reference cited "in press" should include "accepted by" with the name of the journal in which it was Accepted.

Rapid or Short communication will be subdivided into the following sections:

Abstract

The main body of the text

References

Units

It is necessary to use the system International d'Unites (SI) for the numerical expression of the results of measurements. In cases in which the SI unit is different from the conventional ones, the Conventional unit should be added in parentheses. In our journal, "liter" is marked as "l", not "L".

Text Format

The manuscripts should be typed in double-line spacing times roman, font 12. The form and contents should be carefully checked to correspond with our Instructions for Authors. The text of the Manuscript sent to the Editors should be considered as final. Prepare your manuscripts using Word format, Apple/Macintosh files should be avoided. Submit graphic files separately from the Text.

Figure Format

The number of illustrations should be kept to a minimum required for clarification of the text. Prepare High-quality figures (photographs, graphs or diagrams): Captions will be in English; the decimal place Must be denoted by a point (not a comma!). Figures should be sharp unmounted glossy photographs Or computer-generated laser print.

Figures should be prepared for either single-column width (8 cm), whenever possible, or for double-Column width (17 cm). All drawings for reduction to a given size should be drawn and lettered to the Same scale. Lettering must be proportionate to the size of the figure (not to be less than 2 mm high After the reduction). Freehand, typewritten, or dot-matrix lettering is not acceptable.

Each figure will contain a caption. An explanatory text, making the general meaning clear without Reference to the text, should be at the end of a manuscript text, in the text file. The color illustration will be accepted. However, the author will be expected to make a contribution to The additional costs. Required file formats for figures or images: jpg, cdr, or gif.

Manuscript Submission and Reviewing process

Online submission of the paper is made through the Editorial manager system. You must register an account first to obtain a username and password then log in on the system to submit your article. The Paper will be reviewed by 2 expert peer reviewers recommended by the editorial board. E-publish System will speed up the whole editing process.

Proofreading

Major changes in the proofs are not permitted. The authors should check if the text is complete and Tables or figures are included. The authors will receive PDF file of the proofs. The corrected proofs should be sent immediately back to the Editorial Office by e-mail

Article Charge

The publication fees of the original article are 1500 LE for Egyptian authors and 200 USD for Non-Egyptian authors. No submission fees. The accepted papers will not appear as preprints on our website (and in other databases), and they will not be sent to the printing office unless the publishing fees are received. The corresponding amount will be indicated in the letter announcing manuscript acceptance

Copies of Any Permission(s)

It is the responsibility of authors/contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

Ethics

Our policy is to ensure that all articles published by MMJ on work that is morally acceptable, and expects authors to follow the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki. To achieve this, we aim to appraise the ethical aspects of any submitted work that involves human participants, whatever descriptive label is given to that work including research, audit, and sometimes debate. Our policy on these issues and its key elements are explained further in the following points:

Statement of Ethics Approval

We require every research article submitted to include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required and why), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part.

In addition we welcome detailed explanations of how investigators and authors have considered and justified the ethical and moral basis of their work. If such detail does not easily fit into the manuscript please provide it in the covering letter or upload it as a supplemental file when submitting the article. We will also be pleased to see copies of explanatory information given to participants. Even if we do not include such detailed information in a final published version, we may make it available to peer reviewers and editorial committees. We already ask peer reviewers to consider and comment on the ethics of submitted work.

Appraisal of Ethical Issues

Editorial appraisal of ethical issues goes beyond simply deciding whether participants in a study gave informed consent although this is, of course, one very important issue to consider. Editors should judge whether the overall design and conduct of each piece of work is morally justifiable, as summed up by the following questions:

How much does this deviate from current normal (accepted, local) clinical practice?
What is the (additional) burden imposed on the patients (or others)?
What (additional) risks are posed to the patients (or others)?
What benefit might accrue to the patients (or others)?
What are the potential benefits to society (future patients)?

Even when a study has been approved by a research ethics committee or institutional review board, editors may be worried about the ethics of the work. Editors may then ask authors for more detailed information such as:

How they justified the ethical and moral basis of the work

To provide the contact details of the research ethics committee that reviewed the work, so that the journal can request further information and justification from that committee

To explain what ethical issues they considered and how they justified their work, for studies that have not been reviewed by research ethics committees or institutional review boards

Editors may ask other editorial colleagues to evaluate the ethical aspects of an article, the authors' comments, and the response of the relevant research ethics committee to the journal's queries about ethics approval. This consultation may be informal, between the journal's editors, or more formal, through seeking the advice of the MMJ Ethics Committee or the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Problems referred to COPE or the MMJ Ethics Committee will be considered as anonymised summaries of the relevant articles, written by the editors concerned.

What happens when the journal considers a study to be unethical?

We believe that editors have a duty to take on issues of unethical audit or research, not to seek punishment for the authors, but to prevent unethical practice and to protect patients. If the Editor, with or without the advice of its ethics committee and/or COPE, considers the work in a submitted article to be ethically unsound the editor may seek further advice or recommend investigation or action. The fact that the article would have been rejected any way for other scientific or editorial reasons would not prevent the editor from taking such further action on serious ethics problems. In the first instance the editor would usually contact the head of the department where the work was done to explain their concerns and recommend a local investigation. Secondly, the editor might write to the professional registration body of the paper’s guarantor or principal investigator. For a doctor in the UK, this body would be the General Medical Council.

Exceptional Circumstances

In rare instances the journal might publish an article despite ethics problems in the work it reported. The usual reason would be that work done in one setting might not reach the ethical standard of work done in another setting, because of differing local resources and standards for health care and research. In deciding to publish such an article, we would consider carefully the context of the study and aim to balance the overall benefit to society against the possible harm to the research participants.

Ethical Approval of Research Involving Animals

All material published in MMJ which reports experiments performed using animals must adhere to high ethical standards concerning animal welfare.

Manuscripts will be considered for publication only if the work described:

follows international, national and institutional guidelines for the humane treatment of animals and complies with relevant legislation;
has been approved by the ethics review committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted (where such a committee exists);
for studies involving non-human primates, demonstrates that the standards meet those of the NC3Rs primates guidelines;
for studies using client-owned animals, demonstrates a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care and involves informed client consent.

Before a manuscript can be accepted, authors must:

confirm that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regards to the humane treatment of animals described in the study;
specify in the Materials or Methods section the ethical review committee approval process and the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines followed.

Editors retain the right to reject manuscripts on the basis of ethical or animal welfare concerns. Papers may be rejected on ethical grounds if the study involves unnecessary pain, distress, suffering or lasting harm to animals, or if the severity of the experimental procedure does not appear to be justified by the value of the work presented. We ask that the work would be likely to gain approval in Europe under the European Directive 2010/63/EU (on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes).

See 'What happens when the journal considers a study to be unethical?' above for an outline of how ethical concerns will be dealt with.

Manuscripts describing animal research must include a justification for the use of animals, and for the particular species used. They should also provide details of animal welfare, including information about housing, feeding and environmental enrichment, a description of steps taken to minimise suffering, humane endpoints and method of euthanasia. If the study has any implication for the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement), these should be discussed in enough detail so that readers can implement the 3Rs in similar experiments

Study Design:

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Guideline	Type of Study	Source
STROBE	Observational studies including cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies	https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists
CONSORT	Randomized controlled trials	http://www.consort-statement.org
SQUIRE	Quality improvement projects	http://squire-statement.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=471
PRISMA	Systematic reviews and meta-analyses	http://prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist.aspx
STARD	Studies of diagnostic accuracy	https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.2015151516
CARE	Case Reports	https://www.care-statement.org/checklist
AGREE	Clinical Practice Guidelines	https://www.agreetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/AGREE-Reporting-Checklist-2016.pdf

The reporting guidelines for other type of studies can be found at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/

Statistics

Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as, dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.
If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

Sending a Revised Manuscript

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the "First Page" or "Covering Letter" file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the 'referees' remarks along with point-to-point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Publication Schedule

The journal is quarterly published with 4 issues per year and 1 volume per year. Issues are predominantly published in March, June, September, and December.

Copyrights

The journal is an Open Access journal. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/