International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

The International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism considers Original Articles, Case Reports, Review Articles, Short Reports and Comments in the field of endocrine and metabolic disorders. Original Articles should present original rather than confirmatory data, and should conform to the format outlined below. Case Reports should illustrate either a previously unknown disorder or a new and important aspect of a known condition. Short reports and Comments are articles primarily based on essentially negative or confirmatory data or are of a relatively minor relevance. Review articles should provide an up-to-date and authoritative review of a topic in any area of experimental and clinical endocrinology. These are generally invited by the editor, but authors may otherwise suggest writing a Review Article on an issue of interest. Review articles should not exceed 15 pages including figures and tables.

Manuscript Submission: Only the online manuscript submission is acceptable. Each manuscript must be accompanied by a covering letter, signed by all authors (by confirmation email), stating that the authors wish to have their paper evaluated for publication in the International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and that no substantial part has been, or will be published elsewhere. Accepted manuscripts are published in the order of receipt of the final approved version, after review, revision and return of galley proofs.

The editor retains the right to refuse a manuscript at any stage of the publication process.

Style: Manuscripts must be in concise and correct English. They should be double-checked for typing, spelling and grammar before they are submitted. Manuscripts should be organized in the following order: 1. Title Page, 2. Abstract, 3. Text, 4. Acknowledgments, 5. References, 6. Tables, and 7. Figures legends.

1. Title Page: This should include in not exceeding 150 characters: (A) Title of the paper which should be concise and clear, and should not contain any abbreviations; (B) A Running Title not exceeding 40 characters; (C) Authors (full first, middle and surnames), (D) Each author’s affiliation (E) Name and full Address, Telephone, Fax, and E-mail of the corresponding author.

2. Abstract: An abstract of 200- 250 words should be provided stating the reason for the study, the main findings and the conclusions drawn from the observation. The abstract should be self-explanatory, without reference to the text. Abbreviations may be included, provided that they are defined in the abstract as well as in the main text. Abstract of original papers should be structured under the following headings: objectives, methods, results and conclusions. A list of 3-10 keywords must be provided for indexing purposes.

3. Text: Original articles should be organized to the following format: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. The Introduction should include a brief review of the literature strictly related to the paper, and a short statement on the aims of the work presented. Materials and Methods should be described with sufficient details to allow others to duplicate the study. Previously reported procedures may be referred to by citation, but newly adopted modifications should be specified in detail. All drugs and chemicals used should be identified by generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Nomenclature for hormones and chemical compounds should conform to current recommendations of appropriate international committees. Results must be clearly and concisely described with the help of appropriate use of tables and figures. The Discussion should be limited to the reported findings, their implications, and comparison with previous reports.

4. Acknowledgments: Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

5. References: Each reference should be coded in numerical order (in the form of superscripts) in the text and listed in the same numerical order at the end of the manuscript. References first coded in tables or figure legends must be numbered so that they will be in sequence with references coded in the text. Articles in press (i.e. accepted for publication), may be included in the bibliography; the name of the journal in which they will appear, and if possible volume and year, should be indicated. References to unpublished material may be coded in parentheses in the text, but not in the bibliography. Abstracts may be coded only when they contain substantial data not published elsewhere, and the term "(Abstract)" at the end of the reference must be used. Authors are advised to check references against original sources for accuracy. The style of references is that of Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Vancouver Style). The following are sample references:

► Standard journal article
List all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first six, then “et al”

Mackness MI, Mackness B, Durrington PN, Fogelman AM, Berliner J, Lusis AJ, Navab M, Shih D, Fonarow GC. Paraoxonase and coronary heart disease. Curr Opin Lipidol 1998; 9: 319-24.

► Article, no author given

Cancer in South Africa. S Afr Med J 1994; 84: 15.

► Chapter in a book

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.

►Book, personal author(s)

Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.

►Book, Organization as author and publisher

Institute of Medicine (US). Looking at the future of the Medicaid program. Washington: The Institute; 1992.

►Article in electronic form

Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [coded 1996 Jun 5]; 1 (1): [24 screens]. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

►Conference proceedings

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.

►Conference paper

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland.

6. Tables, Figures & Illustrations: tables, figures & illustrations should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers. Data in the tables should not duplicate those in the text or figures.

Headers for tables and legends for figures and illustrations should be typed double-spaced on a separate sheet. Four complete sets of unmounted illustrations must be submitted. Graphs and drawings should be submitted as high quality JPG, JPEG, TIFF, DOC, BMP or PPT files.

Abbreviations: Uncommon abbreviations should appear in full form followed by the abbreviation in brackets, the first time they appear in the text.

 Proofs: Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author, unless otherwise indicated. Galley proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt with clear indication of any changes.

Review Process: All submitted manuscripts are examined by the Editorial Board and sent to two or three expert referees. The reviewers are masked as to the identity of the authors and their affiliation. Authors are usually notified within 2-3 months about the acceptability of their manuscript. On receiving reviewers’ comments, authors are requested to upload a revised manuscript, a copy of their reply to the reviewers, including the comment and explaining the replies to questions and changes made to the revised version.