Submission Guidelines
The
journal has adopted clear and rigorous ethical guidelines for best working
practices. It follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
and abides by its Code of Conduct in dealing with potential cases of
misconduct. It adheres to the principles outlined below, which have been
devised to ensure accurate, trustworthy, transparent, and efficient publication
of scientific papers.
Article
processing charge (APC)
If,
after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time
article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of
publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in
perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
An introductory
article processing charge (APC) of 600 USD is discounted from the full
rate of 1,200 USD is available for a limited time.
Article
types
Original
Article: MedWeb Open Medicine strongly encourages the
submission of original research with positive or negative results. Original
research papers should be no more than 8,000 words and be structured for peer
review as follows: cover page (including title, all authors and affiliations,
contact details, keywords), structured abstract (objectives, methods, results,
and conclusions), introduction, methods, results, discussion/conclusion,
acknowledgments, funding acknowledgments, declaration of conflict of
interest, references, figure and table legends. Figures and tables should be submitted
as separate files.
Reviews:
literature reviews, systematic reviews, market reviews, and critical reviews
will be accepted for consideration. Reviews must contain no more than 5,000
words. There are no limits to figures or references, but authors are advised
that the Editorial Board will not accept poorly-focused reviews.
Letter to the Editor: Short reports allow authors to publish the results from a small number of experiments, provided that the results are novel or of high importance. Findings should be clear and of interest to most readers. Intended as a short format, these articles should be a maximum of 2,000 words and 2 figures and 10 references.
Case reports: A case report may include a single case study or case series. They should be based on an interesting observation or a unique case. Case reports should be no more than 1,000 words and include no more than 20 references.
Note:
Traditional Chinese Medicine studies are considered if it is clear what the
active ingredient is. It must have been isolated and shown to have an
acceptable standard of efficacy and safety through randomized controlled
trials.
Editorial
policies
·
Peer-review policy
Following
a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for MedWeb Open
Medicine all papers are sent out for review. The covering letter is important.
To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think
the paper is suitable for publication. If your paper should be considered for
fast-track publication, please explain why. The journal’s policy is to have
manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers.
MedWeb
Open Medicine utilizes a double-blind peer-review
process in which the reviewer’s name and information are withheld from the
author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible while maintaining
rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the
Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.
Authorship
Papers
should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all
contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all
those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing
authors.
The
list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship.
This is all those who:
• Made a substantial contribution to the
concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of
data,
• Drafted the article or revised it critically
for important intellectual content,
• Approved the version to be published,
• Each author should have participated
sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions
of the content.
Authors
should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large,
multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the
individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These
individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Please
refer to the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more
information on authorship.
Acknowledgments
All
contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an
Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a
person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided
only general support.
Third-party submissions
Where
an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of
the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of
the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance
– including the individual’s name, company, and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this
assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have
authorized the submission of their manuscript via a third party and approved any
statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where
appropriate, MedWeb reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts
submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Writing
assistance
Individuals
who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company,
do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements
section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the
individual’s name, company, and level of input – and identify the entity that
paid for this assistance.
Any
acknowledgments should appear first at the end of your article prior to your
Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes, and your
References.
Funding
MedWeb
Open Medicine requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent
fashion under a separate heading. Please
state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in
the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Declaration
of conflicting interests
It
is the policy of MedWeb Open Medicine to require a declaration of conflicting
interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the
paginated pages of all published articles.
Please
ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at
the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgments, and prior to the
references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s)
that there is no conflict of interest’.
For
guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE
recommendations.
Research
ethics and patient consent
Medical
research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World
Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted
manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations
for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in
Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must
state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or
Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that
you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in
addition to the approval number.
For
research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section
whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was
written or verbal.
Information
on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be
included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether
written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was
provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.
Please
also refer to the ICMJE
Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
All
research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an
ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were
conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus
Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals
published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.
Clinical
trials
MedWeb
Open Medicine conforms to the ICMJE
requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public
trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition
of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL and registration
number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Reporting
guidelines
The
relevant EQUATOR Network
reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For
example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should
include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should
be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews
and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA
flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be
uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can
help you identify the appropriate guideline.
Publishing
policies
Publication
ethics
MedWeb
Publications is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We
encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’
International Standards for Authors.
Plagiarism
MedWeb
Open Medicine and MedWeb Publications take issues of copyright infringement,
plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We
seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of
plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the
reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be
checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is
found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material
without permission or with insufficient acknowledgment, or where the
authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action
including, but not limited to" publishing an erratum or corrigendum
(correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of
department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies
or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
Prior
publication
If the material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for
publication in a MedWeb journal. However, there are certain circumstances where
previously published material can be considered for publication. Please contact
the Editor at the address given below editorialoffice@medwebpublications.com.
MedWeb
Open Medicine publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The
standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution
Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without
permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is
non-commercial.
Permissions
Authors are responsible for obtaining
permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables,
figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.
5.4
Preprints
MedWeb
Open Medicine supports the submission of manuscripts posted on community
preprint servers. We do, however, ask you to respect the following summary of
our policies:
• Authors must declare prior publication or
distribution to the Editor upon submission
• Authors should not post an updated version
of their paper on the pre-print server while it is being peer-reviewed
The
published version may be posted after publication but must include a full
attribution (including DOI, volume numbers, and a link to the article published
on the BNA website). Full author archiving policy is available here.
Preparing
your manuscript
Word
processing formats
The
preferred format for your manuscript is Word.
Reference
style
MedWeb
Open Medicine adheres to the Vancouver reference style.
Information
required for completing your submission
You
will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all
co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the
corresponding author. These details must match what appears in your manuscript.
At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and
declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including
reporting guidelines where relevant).
Corresponding
author contact details
Provide
full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing
address, and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all
co-authors. These details should be presented separately from the main text of
the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
Permissions
Please
also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright
holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy
quotations previously published elsewhere.
On
acceptance and publication
If
your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be
asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript
files have been checked for Production, the corresponding author will be asked to
pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been
processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online
within an average of 20 days. Please note that no production work will occur on
your paper until the APC has been received.
Production
Your
Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress
throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the
corresponding author via email to the corresponding author and should be
returned promptly. Authors are reminded
to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information,
including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and
that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate
Online
publication
One
of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open-access journal is
the speed of publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be
published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has
completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to
view and download for all.
Promoting
your article
Publication
is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure
it is as widely read and cited as possible.
Further
information
Any
correspondence, queries, or additional requests for information on the
manuscript submission process should be sent to MedWeb Open Medicine editorial
office as follows:
editorialoffice@medwebpublications.com