Acta Medica Marisiensis

Submission guidelines

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
  2. The manuscript is an original work without fabrication, fraud, or plagiarism.
  3. No personal information of the authors is present within the manuscript, because of the double-peer review process.
  4. With Microsoft Office documents, author identification has to be removed from the properties for the file (Info > Check for issues > Inspect document > Inspect, then click on Remove all button for Document properties), or (File > Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save)
  5. The statement of informed consent/ethics committee approval (where appropriate) is mentioned in the materials and methods section.
  6. The submission file is in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx).
  7. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining; all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  8. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author’s Guidelines.
    Authors’ contribution at the end of the manuscript (Name initials only!)

Author Guidelines

All submitted manuscripts must be written in English.

All authors should sign a Licence to publish, according to the model available here. This license to publish signed by all authors should be uploaded together with the manuscript on the editorial manager platform at the time of submission.

The corresponding author must complete and sign a Cover Letter, on behalf of all authors. The cover letter must contain the title of the article, the name(s) of all author(s), affiliations, and contributions, and be uploaded in editable DOC format. The Cover Letter should attest that:

  1. The manuscript is not submitted for publication elsewhere; in this case the cover letter must include the topic: “this paper has not been published previously” or “the results presented in this paper have not been published previously in whole or in part, except in abstract form”;
  2. The manuscript is an original work without fabrication, fraud, or plagiarism;
  3. The author has read the complete manuscript and takes responsibility for the content of the manuscript;
  4. Authors are required at the time of submission to disclose any potential conflict of interest (employment, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, and patent-licensing arrangements);
  5. Affiliation of the authors should be stated here, in the form that will be published upon acceptance;
  6. A description of each author’s contribution must be included. Authorship credit should be based on (a) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (b) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (c) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions a, b, and c. (See Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research: Authorship and Contributor ship).

Manuscripts that do not conform to the format guidelines will be returned to the authors for reformatting.

Manuscripts should respect all the requirements outlined below.

Acta Marisiensis Seria Medica accepts for publication the following types of articles: original research, review, brief report, case presentation, case series, state-of-the-art, letter to editor, editorial.

Font size and style, page layout and manuscript length

The manuscript template can be downloaded from here.

The text of the manuscript should be typed 1.5 spaced in 11 point Calibri font using 2 cm margins all around. Do not write with “Caps lock” on, not even for names and titles. For emphasys use only italics or bold (no underline). All pages should be numbered consecutively. As a guide for manuscript length, there should be no more than 1 figure or 1 table for every 500 words.

Copyright

If any tables, illustrations or photomicrographs have been published elsewhere, written consent for re-publication must be obtained by the author from the copyright holder and the author(s) of the original article.
The signed permissions must be submitted with the manuscript and be identified as to the relevant item in the manuscript (e.g., “permissions for Figure 1”).

Abbreviations

Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are strongly discouraged. Don not use abbreviations unless absolutely necessary. In order to abbreviate – the first time an abbreviation appears, it should be preceded by the words for which it stands.

Manuscript style

Assemble manuscripts in the order listed:

  1. Title page, without author information. Do not write with “caps lock” on!
  2. Abstract and keywords
  3. Introduction
  4. Methods
  5. Results
  6. Discussion
  7. Conslusion
  8. Authors’ contributions
  9. References
  10. Acknowledgements and funding page
  11. Appendices

The format may be altered for review articles and case reports, if necessary.

Title page

The title page should contain only the title of the article, without any information related to name of authors, their affiliation or the address for correspondence. This information will be uploaded directly on submission platform and their appearance in the text of the manuscript should be avoided, in order to ensure a blinded review process.
Use titles that stimulate interest, are easy to read and concise and contain enough information to convey the essence of the article. Title must not contain abbreviations. Do not write with „caps lock” on. Do not use symbols, special characters, or math formulas.

Abstract

Include no more than 250 words with the following headings: ObjectiveMethodsResults, and Conclusions. Insert a hard return (press the Enter key) before each heading. References should not be cited in the Abstract. Do not use acronyms or abbreviations. Do not use symbols, special characters, or math formula or spell them out (i.e.: alpha, beta, microns, etc.) or translate them (mean, chi square, etc.). Abstract should be written on a separate page following the title page.

Keywords: not more than 5, characterizing the scope of the paper, the principal materials, and main subject of work. Keywords must be written in small letters and separated by commas. Please use academically accepted keywords.

Manuscript text

Original research articles must include five main headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.

The presentation must be clear, concise and logically organized.

Introduction

Use very short introductions for presenting the context of the research for readers. Always end the introduction section with a clear statement of the study’s objectives or hypotheses.

Methods

This section must describe the design of the study (selection/recruitment of patients, the number of patients), the study procedures including any interventions, measurements and data collection techniques and also the methods used for the statistical analysis.

For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants or animals, formal review and approval by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee is required and should be described in the Methods section. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed. For investigations of humans, state in the Methods section the manner in which informed consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e., oral or written). Editors may request that authors provide documentation of the formal review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study.

Results

In this section, the main characteristics of participants and your major findings must be presented.

Tables

Each table should have a brief descriptive title placed above the table. The approximate position of each table should be indicated in the manuscript (i.e.: Insert Table I). Tables must not duplicate material in text or figures. Cite each table in text in numerical order. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Roman numerals and must be cited exactly as “(Table I, Table II, etc)”. All explanatory information and abbreviations should be given in a footnote below the table. Tables should be submitted as editable text and not as images. Each table should be typed single-spaced on a separate page after the Reference section in the submitted manuscript.

Figures

Each figure should have a brief descriptive title placed below the figure. Figures must be numbered as they appear in the text and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc). Letters of permission from the copyright holder must accompany submission of borrowed material. Each figure should be presented on a separate page after the Reference section in the submitted manuscript. Figure legends should be typed single-spaced.

Photomicrographs should include stain and magnification data at the end of the legend for each part of the figure. A magnification bar should be added to each photomicrograph. If no scale marker appears in the figure, the original magnification should be reported in the legend.
Figures are either drawings, halftones (photographs), computer graphs or prints. Authors are also responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce previously published figures. Where photographs of patients are included, consent to publish the photograph, signed by the patient must accompany the manuscript.

All figures should be submitted at a proper resolution as follows: monochrome images (images such as line graphs) will be submitted at a resolution of a minimum 900 DPI; black/white or color images will be submitted at a resolution of 300 DPI; combination halftones (images containing both pictures and text labeling) should be submitted at minimum of 600 DPI. Acceptable figure formats are TIFF, PNG, JPG with no compression. Labels should be written using a font size appropriate for easy reading.

When submitting bar graphs, it should be taken into consideration that various patterns of black do not reproduce well.

All figures submitted for the review process must be also sent separately in the submission form and must be named as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

Identification of Patients in Descriptions and Photographs

A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions and photographs should be obtained from all persons (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including by the patients themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs and should be submitted with the manuscript and indicated in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript.
Names of Drugs, Devices, and Other Products. Use only generic names of drugs, devices, and other products, unless the specific trade name of a drug is essential to the discussion.

Reproduced Materials

When previously published figures or tables are used, the author must obtain written permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) to reproduce the material in print and online. An appropriate credit line should be included in the figure legend or table footnote, and full publication information should be cited in the reference list.

Discussion

Provide a brief synopsis of your major findings, with particular emphasis on how the findings add to the body of pertinent knowledge, discuss possible mechanisms and explanations for the findings, compare study results with relevant findings from other published work, and discuss the limitations of the present study.

Conclusions

Provide only conclusions of the study directly supported by the results, along with implications for clinical practice, avoiding speculation and over-generalization.

Authors’ contribution

Contributor Roles have to be attributed to each Author of a submission.  The roles listed are from the CRedit Taxonomy, a classification standard used to ensure that Authors are credited for their contributions toward published scholarly works:

  • Conceptualization
  • Data curation
  • Formal analysis
  • Funding acquisition
  • Investigation
  • Methodology
  • Project administration
  • Resources
  • Software
  • Supervision
  • Validation
  • Visualization
  • Writing – original draft
  • Writing – review & editing

Example for authors with innitials AB and XY:

AB (Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Validation; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing)
XY (Conceptualization; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Supervision; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing)

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.

We recommend to automatically insert the references using dedicated free reference management solutions (e.g. ZoteroMendeley, Microsoft word bibliography), according to Vancouver citation styleDownload the CSL style for Zotero, Mendeley, etc.

The references should be numbered in the text between square brackets in citation order, making sure each is quoted in sequence in the text. In-text reference numbers may be repeated but not omitted. References cited in a table or figure legend should also be numbered.
The references list should follow the Vancouver style, giving the name and initials of surname of all authors unless there are more than six, when only the first three should be given followed by et al.  The authors’ names should be followed by the title of the article, the title of the Journal abbreviated according to the style of Index Medicus, the year of publication, the volume number and complete page numbers.

For books one should give the name and initials of surname of all authors, the title of the book, which should be followed by the place of publication, the publisher, the year and the relevant pages.

For book chapters one should provide the name and initials of surname of all authors of the chapter, the title of the chapter, which should be followed by the name of editors, the name of the book, the place of publication, the publisher, the year and the relevant pages.

The titles of the journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Names of journals that are not cited should be entirely spelled out.

Avoid using abstracts as references. Avoid citing a “personal communication”.

The format for journal article, chapter, book, and publish-ahead-of-print journal article references is exactly as below:

For journals:

Hammermeister KE, Dodge HT. Evidence from a nonrandomized study that coronary surgery prolongs survival in patients with two-vessel coronary disease. Eur Heart J. 1979;59:1430-1435.

For book chapters:

Franz M. Monophasic action potential mapping, in Shenasa M, Borggrefe M, Breithardt G (eds): Cardiac Mapping. Futura Publishing Co.Inc. Mount Kisco, NY, 1993, 2565-2583

Acknowledgments

The Acknowledgments section may acknowledge contributions from non-authors, list funding sources, and should include a statement of any conflicts of interest.

Acta Medica Marisiensis considers all authors to be responsible for the content of the entire paper.

Other types of articles

a. Reviews

Review articles should include a brief abstract of no more than 200 words and the text should be limited to 5.000 words including references, tables and figures.

Review articles can be submitted by invitation or unsolicited.

b. Case reports and case series

Case reports should be limited to presentation of a single particular and uncommon case, or uncommon presentation of a disease. Case series include description of a series of a maximum of 10 cases with common particularities. The abstract should be limited to 200 words, being divided into introduction, case presentation / presentation of case series and conclusions. The full manuscript should not exceed 2.000 words including references, figures and tables, being divided into sections headed Introduction, Case presentation / presentation of case series, Discussions, Conclusions.

c. Brief reports

Brief reports refer to articles presenting a short communication related to an original preclinical or clinical study which is not a case presentation or a case series report. The abstract should be limited to 200 words and the full text (including references, tables and figures) to 3.000 words.

d. Letter to editor

A letter to the editor may refer to an article recently published by the journal, commenting on the article in a constructive professional manner the content of which, in the opinion of the author(s) would add the current status of knowledge in the field. The letters should be limited to 1500 words, 5 references and 3 authors. No abstract is required.

e. Editorial

Editorials should be limited to 2000 words (including references) and should be related to an article published in the current number or to a specific topic that is current and of high interest to the readers.

f. State-of-the-art papers

The journal publishes state-of-the-art articles that aim to provide an update on the current status of areas of high interest. The principal aim of such articles is to offer the specialist and other practitioners a source of continuing education and forum for discussion. A state-of-the-art article should have a full text limited to 4.000 words, in addition to a 200 word unstructured abstract. Sections of the article should be divided using headings relevant to each particular case.

Manuscript limits specifications

Article type

Manuscript word limit

Maximum number of references

Maximum number of figures and tables

Abstract (max 250 words)

Review

5000

70

6

Yes

Original article

3500

40

6

Yes

Case report

2000

25

3

Yes

Letter to the Editor

1500

10

1

No

For any further information, please contact the Journal’s editorial office at ammjournal@umfst.ro

Publication fee

The publication fee for an accepted article is 250 RON or 50 Euro. The manuscript will be sent to the publication system only after the corresponding author pays the publication fee.

The publication fee can be paid online by credit/debit card on our website. If the case, the online payment process should automatically perform the conversion from your currency into RON (lei). The payment will be processed by EuPlatesc.ro gateway.

The wire-transfer or online banking transfer should be made in the name of the corresponding author at the George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Targu Mures cash desk or by bank transfer to one of the following accounts for: Universitatea de Medicină, Farmacie, Ştiinţe şi Tehnologie “George Emil Palade” din Târgu-Mureş, CF 4322742, Str. Gh. Marinescu nr. 38, Mureş:

  • Banca Comercială Română Tg. Mures, IBAN (RON): RO22RNCB0193015967800001, SWIFT code: RNCBROBU
  • Banca Comercială Română Tg. Mures, IBAN (EUR): RO92RNCB0193015967800002, SWIFT code: RNCBROBU
  • Trezoreria Tg.Mures, IBAN (RON): RO29TREZ47620F331600XXXX

Please mention “Article publication fee for Acta Marisiensis – Seria Medica”.

Please send the scanned proof of payment to ammjournal@umfst.ro, with the subject “Publication fee”.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Last update: February 12, 2023