| The Journal of Korean Medical Science
(JKMS) is an international,
peer-reviewed bimonthly journal of medicine published in English. The
Journal’s publisher is the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences
(KAMS). JKMS aims to publish
evidence-based, scientific research articles from various disciplines
of the medical sciences. The Journal welcomes articles of general interest
to medical researchers especially when they contain original information.
Articles on the clinical evaluation of drugs and other therapies, epidemiologic
studies of the general population, studies on pathogenic organisms and
toxic materials, and the toxicities and adverse effects of therapeutics
are welcome. When an article is written in a language other than English
and has not been propagated in any international information services
(abstract journals), secondary publication of the article is negotiable.
I. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Authors should submit manuscripts via the electronic manuscript management
system for JKMS, http://esubmit.jkms.org.
Please log in first as a member of the system and follow the directions.
Manuscripts should be submitted by the corresponding author, who should
indicate the address and phone number for correspondence in the title
page of the manuscript. If available, a fax number and e-mail address
would be helpful. The revised manuscript should be submitted through
the same web system under the same identification numbers.
Queries concerning manuscript submission should be directed to:
Editor-in-Chief, Professor Sung-Tae Hong through
Tel: 82-2-740-8373
Fax: 82-2-765-6142
E-Mail: jkms@kams.or.kr
Mail address:
Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine,
Seoul National University College of Medicine,
#103 Daehangno Jongno-gu,
Seoul 110-799, Korea
II. CATEGORIES OF PUBLICATIONS
JKMS publishes editorials,
invited review articles, original articles, case reports, and correspondences.
Editorials are invited perspectives on an area of medical
science, dealing with very active fields of research, current medical
interests, fresh insights and debates.
Invited review articles provide a concise review of
a subject of importance to medical researchers written by an invited
expert in medical science.
Original articles are papers reporting the results
of basic and clinical investigations that are sufficiently well documented
to be acceptable to critical readers.
Case reports deal with clinical cases of medical interest
or innovation.
Brief communications are short original research articles
on issues important to medical researchers.
Correspondence includes a reader’s comment on
an article published in JKMS and a reply from the authors.
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III. EDITORIAL AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS
JKMS reviews all manuscripts
received. A manuscript is first reviewed for its format and then sent
to the 3 most relevant investigators available for review of the contents.
The editor selects peer referees by recommendation of the Editorial
Board members or from the Board’s specialist database. In addition,
if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be requested. Authors’
names and affiliations are removed during peer review. Acceptance of
the manuscript is decided based on the critiques and recommended decision
of the referees. A referee may recommend "acceptance without revision,"
"acceptance after minor revisions," "review again after
revisions," or "rejection." If there is a marked discrepancy
in the decisions between two referees or between the opinions of the
author and referee(s), the Editor may send the manuscript to another
referee for additional comments and a recommended decision. Three repeated
decisions of "review again after revision" are regarded as
a "rejection." The reviewed manuscripts are returned back
to the corresponding author with comments and recommended revisions.
Names and decisions of the referees are masked. A final decision on
acceptance for publication or rejection for publication is forwarded
to the corresponding author from the Editorial Office. The usual reasons
for rejection are topics that are too specific and target an audience
that is too limited, insufficient originality, serious scientific flaws,
poor quality of illustrations, or absence of a message that might be
important to readers. Rarity of a disease condition is itself not an
acceptable justification for a case report. The peer review process
takes usually four to eight weeks after the manuscript submission.
Revisions are usually requested to take account of criticisms and comments
made by referees. The revised manuscript should be resubmitted via the
web system. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 2 months
without any notice from the corresponding author is regarded as a withdrawal.
The corresponding author must indicate clearly what alterations have
been made in response to the referee’s comments point by point.
Acceptable reasons should be given for noncompliance with any recommendation
of the referees.
IV. EDITORIAL POLICY
The Editor assumes that all authors listed in a manuscript have agreed
with the following policy of JKMS
on submission of manuscripts. Except for the negotiated secondary publication,
manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be previously unpublished
and not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Under any
circumstances, the identities of the referees will not be revealed.
If a new author should be added or an author should be deleted after
the submission, it is the responsibility of the corresponding author
to ensure that the authors concerned are aware of and agree to the change
in authorship. JKMS has
no responsibility for such changes. Minimum page charges and additional
fees for reprints will be due for every manuscript. Costs for printing
color illustrations are charged to the authors. All published manuscripts
become the permanent property of the KAMS and may not be published elsewhere
without written permission.
V. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Research
Ethics
All of the manuscripts should be prepared in strict observation of research
and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science
Editors, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, World Association
of Medical Editors, and the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors.
Any study including human subjects or human data must be reviewed and
approved by a responsible institutional review board (IRB). Please refer
to the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm)
for all investigations involving human materials. Animal experiments also
should be reviewed by an appropriate committee (IACUC) for the care and
use of animals. Also studies with pathogens requiring a high degree of
biosafety should pass review of a relevant committee (IBC). The editor
of JKMS may request submission
of copies of informed consents from human subjects in clinical studies
or IRB approval documents.
Conflict of Interest
The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the Editor of
the authors’ potential conflicts of interest possibly influencing
their interpretation of data. A potential conflict of interest should
be disclosed in the cover letter even when the authors are confident that
their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript.
Such conflicts may be financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical
companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academic problems.
The Editor will decide whether the information on the conflict should
be included in the published paper. Before publishing such information,
the Editor will consult with the corresponding author. In particular,
all sources of funding for a study should be explicitly stated. The JKMS
asks referees to let its Editor know of any conflict of interest before
reviewing a particular manuscript.
Authorship
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception
and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual
content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors
should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.
When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should
identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript.
When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author
should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual
authors as well as the group name. Journals generally list other members
of the group in the Acknowledgments. Acquisition of funding, collection
of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute
authorship.
Redundant Publication and Plagiarism
Redundant publication is defined as “reporting (publishing or attempting
to publish) substantially the same work more than once, without attribution
of the original source(s)”. Characteristics of reports that are
substantially similar include the following: (a) “at least one of
the authors must be common to all reports (if there are no common authors,
it is more likely plagiarism than redundant publication),” (b) “the
subject or study populations are often the same or similar,” (c)
“the methodology is typically identical or nearly so,” and
(d) “the results and their interpretation generally vary little,
if at all.”
When submitting a manuscript, authors should include a letter informing
the editor of any potential overlap with other already published material
or material being evaluated for publication and should also state how
the manuscript submitted to JKMS
differs substantially from this other material. If all or part of your
patient population was previously reported, this should be mentioned in
the Materials and Methods, with citation of the appropriate reference(s)
VI. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMAT
1. Original Articles
The manuscript should be prepared according to "Uniform Requirements
for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" (2008) ( http://www.icmje.org).
In addition to the Uniform Requirements, a number of reporting guidelines
have been developed by groups of experts to facilitate reporting of
research studies or clinical trials (http://www.equator-network.org/resource-centre/library-of-health-research-reporting/library/).
The JKMS requires compliance
with some or all of the following reporting guidelines:
• |
CONSORT
Statement (reporting of randomized controlled trials) |
• |
STARD
(reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies) |
• |
STROBE
(reporting of observational studies in epidemiology) |
• |
QUOROM,
recently renamed PRISMA (reporting of systematic reviews |
• |
MOOSE
(reporting of meta-analyses of observational studies) |
All materials must be written in proper and clear English. The manuscript
including tables and their footnotes, and figure legends, must be typed
in one double space. Materials should be prepared with a standard 12-point
font. The manuscript should be in the following sequence: title page,
abstract and key words, introduction, materials and methods, results,
discussion, acknowledgments, references, tables, and figure legends. All
pages should be numbered consecutively starting from the title page. All
numbers should be written in Arabic numerals throughout the manuscripts
except for the first word of a sentence.
Our preferred file type for new manuscript submissions is Adobe Acrobat
portable document format (.PDF) with all figures inserted in the same
document. We will also accept Microsoft Office Word (DOC), WordPerfect
(.WPD), and text (.TXT) documents or (.RTF) file format. Acceptable formats
for pictures, photos, and figures are PDF, DOC, PPT, JPG, GIF, TIF, and
BMP.
You may either insert figures in the text file or upload your figures
separately. It is permissible to send low-resolution images for peer review,
although we may ask for high-resolution files later. Title
Page:
The title page should contain the title of an article, full names of authors,
and institutional affiliation(s). If several authors and institutions
are listed, it should be clearly indicated with which department and institution
each author is affiliated by using superscript numbers in sequence. In
a separate paragraph, an address for correspondence, including the name
of corresponding author, academic degree, address (institutional affiliation,
city, zip code and country), telephone and fax numbers, and email address
(if present), should be given. Information concerning sources of financial
support should be placed as a footnote. The running title of less than
10 words should not be a declarative or interrogative sentence. One original
article should not exceed these maximums: word count from introduction
to conclusion, 5500 words; number of references, 30; number of figure
parts, 10; number of tables, 5. Any article longer than these limits should
be discussed with the editor.
Abstract
and Key Words:
The abstract should be concise, less than 200 words, and describe concisely,
in a paragraph the purpose, methods, important results, and derived conclusions
of the study in an unstructured format. Abbreviations, if needed, should
be kept to an absolute minimum with proper identifications. Up to 10 key
words should be listed at the end of the abstract to be used as index
terms. For the selection of key words, refer to Medical Subject Headings
(MeSH) in Index Medicus, or at the internet site, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.
Introduction:
A brief background, references to the most pertinent papers general enough
to inform readers, and the relevant findings of others should be included.
The specific question that the authors' particular investigation studied
should also be stated.
Materials
and Methods:
The explanation of the experimental methods should be concise and sufficient
for repetition by other qualified investigators. Procedures that have
been published previously should not be described in detail. However,
new or significant modifications of previously published procedures need
full descriptions. Clinical studies or experiments using laboratory animals
or pathogens should mention approval of the studies by relevant committees
in this section. The sources of special chemicals or preparations should
be given along with their location (name of company, city and state, and
country). Method of statistical analyses and the criteria for determining
significance levels should be described.
Results:
This section should be presented logically using text, tables and illustrations.
Excessive repetition of table or figure contents should be avoided.
Discussion:
The data should be interpreted concisely without repeating materials already
presented in the results section. Speculation is permitted, but it must
be directly supported by the presented data of the authors and be well
founded.
Acknowledgments:
All persons who have made substantial contribution, but who are not eligible
as authors should be named in the acknowledgments.
References:
Citation of references in the text should be made by giving consecutive
numbers in parenthesis (Vancouver style). They should be listed in the
order of citation in the text with consecutive numbers in this separate
section. The style for citing papers in periodicals is: name and initials
of all authors, full title of article, journal name abbreviated in accordance
with Index Medicus, year, volume, and first and last page numbers. The
style for a chapter of a book is: author and title of the chapter, editor
of the book, title of the book, edition, volume, place, publisher, year,
and first and last page numbers. All other references should be listed
as shown in the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical
Journals" (2008). Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness
of their references and correct text citations. Papers in press may be
listed among the references with the journal name and tentative year of
publication. Unpublished data or personal communications can be listed
only with the author's written permission. The maximum number of cited
references should be 30.
Examples
of Reference Style:
1. Park MS, Chung SY, Chang Y, Kim K. Physical activity and physical fitness
as predictors of all-cause mortality in Korean men. J Korean Med Sci 2009;
24: 13-9.
2. Floch MH. Probiotics, probiotics and dietary fiber. In: Buchman A,
editor, Clinical nutrition: a guide for gastroenterologists. Thorofare,
NJ: Slack Incorporated, 2005, p18-24.
3. WHO. WHO statistical information system. Available at http://www.who.int/whosis/en/menu.cfm
[accessed on 1 April 2009].
Tables
and Figures:
Tables and figures should be submitted separately from the text, and figure
legends should be typed on separate sheets. Tables should be simple and
should not duplicate information in figures. Title all tables and number
them with Arabic numerals in the order of their citation. Type each table
on a separate sheet. Explain all abbreviations. Each column should have
an appropriate heading, and if numerical measurements are given, the unit
should be added to column headings. The significance of results should
be indicated by appropriate statistical analysis. Table footnotes should
be indicated with superscript symbols in sequence: *, †, ‡,
§, ∥, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡. All units
of measurements and concentrations should be designated. Exponential terminology
is discouraged. Flow diagram and complex biochemical structures should
be prepared professionally. Graphics should be used only when a relevant
point needs illustration. X-ray films or Polaroid photographs are not
acceptable. Except for especially complicated drawings, which show a large
amount of data, all figures are published in one-page or one column width.
When the figures are reduced to the size of a single-column or of a single-page
width, the smallest parts of the figure must be legible.
Points of observation should be noted with different symbols rather than
with different types of lines and their significance can be directly shown
in the body of the figure or in the legend. If a figure contains a left-
or right-hand ordinate, explanation of the left ordinate should read in
the upward direction and that of the latter should read downward.
All photographs should be of the highest quality. The preferred size of
photograph is 8 ´ 8 cm, but one-page width (16.5 cm in width ´
8 cm in length) is also acceptable. The entire expense of reproducing
color photographs will be charged to the author. The author is responsible
for submitting figure files that are of sufficient quality to permit accurate
reproduction, and for approving the final color galley proof. All photographs
should be correctly exposed, sharply focused, and prepared in files of
500 dpi or more. The JKMS
assumes no responsibility for the quality of the photographs as they appear
in the Journal. Current estimates for color reproduction can be obtained
from the Editorial Office. The figure numbers, in Arabic numerals, should
appear in figure legends. Multiple figures under one figure number should
be marked on the photographs using capital alphabet letters, at the lower
right corner. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photographs should contrast
well with background. The legend for each light microscopic photographs
should include names of stain and magnification. Electron microscopic
photographs should have an internal scale marker. All kinds of figures
may be reduced, enlarged or trimmed for publication by the Editor.
All the legends for figures should be typewritten in double space. Do
not use separate sheets for each legend. Figure legends should describe
briefly the data shown, explain any abbreviations or reference points
in the photographs, and identify all units, mathematical expressions,
abscissas, ordinates, and symbols. Maximum length, 40 words.
Abbreviations. Except for units of measurement, abbreviations
are strongly discouraged. Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract
and limit their use in the text. Expand all abbreviations at first mention
in the text.
Units of Measurement. Laboratory values are expressed
using conventional units of measure, with relevant Système International
(SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in parentheses) only at
first mention. Figures and tables should use conventional units, with
conversion factors given in legends or footnotes. The metric system is
preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume.
Names of Drugs, Devices, and Other Products. Generic
names should be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include
the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses after the
first mention of the generic name in the Methods section.
Gene Names, Symbols, and Accession Numbers. Authors describing
genes or related structures in a manuscript should include the names and
official symbols provided by the US National Center for Biotechnology
Information (NCBI) or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee.
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2. Invited Review Articles
Review articles are generally prepared in the same format as original
articles, but the details of manuscript format may be flexible
according to the contents. Review articles should not exceed the
following maximums: one paragraph abstract, 200 words; word count
from introduction to conclusion, 6500 words; number of references,
100; number of figure parts, 24; number of tables, 4. Review articles
are accepted after editorial evaluation.
3. Case Reports
The manuscript should be in the following sequence: title page,
abstract and key words, introduction, case report, discussion,
acknowledgments, references, figures and figure legends. Maximums:
one-paragraph unstructured abstract, 150 words; word count from
Introduction through Discussion, 1500 words; number of references,
20; number of figure parts, 6; no tables.
4. Brief Communications
A brief communication manuscript should be prepared in the following
sequence: title page, abstract and key words, text without section
titles, acknowledgments, references, and figures or tables. Maximums:
one-paragraph unstructured abstract, 150 words; word counts of
the text, 1500 words; number of references, 20; number of figure
parts, 2; table, 1.
5. Editorials and Correspondences
An abstract is not required, and a brief text should be prepared
with references. Maximum word count of the text is 1000.
VII. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF REVISED
MANUSCRIPTS
When you prepare a revised version of your manuscript, you should
carefully follow the instructions given in the editor’s
letter. Please submit both a clean copy of your manuscript and
an annotated copy describing the changes you have made. Failure
to do so will cause a delay in the review of your revision. If
references, tables, or figures are moved, added, or deleted during
the revision process, renumber them to reflect such changes so
that all tables, references and figures are cited in numeric order.
The annotated copy should have changes highlighted (either by
using the Track Changes function in MS Word or by highlighting
or underlining the text) with notes in the text referring to the
editor or reviewer query.
VIII. FIGURES AND TABLES FOR ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS
Graphs and illustrations: Graphs, illustrations, and drawings
rendered in professional graphics programs should be submitted
in Photoshop (.PSD), TIFF, or encapsulated Postscript (.EPS) format
at 1200 dpi. Layers should be retained (ie, do not "flatten" the
image). If the graph or illustration was created in MS Excel or
Word, we recommend that you submit the original file in the native
format (.XLS for Excel, .DOC for MS Word). Files created by vector
programs are best for accurately plotting and maintaining data
points. Graphs, charts, and diagrams may be imported or copy/pasted
into applications such as MS Word or PowerPoint for labeling and
formatting, but must be accompanied by vector files created by
the statistical software application. o Preferred file formats
(vector files): AI, EMF, EPS, PDF, WMF, XLS.
Electronic photographs- photomicrographs, electron micrographs,
Western blots, radiographic images, ECG and EEG tracings, and
so on-and scanned images must have a resolution of at least 300
dpi. If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be converted
to paths or outlines or they must be embedded in the files. Color
images must be created/scanned and saved and submitted as CMYK
files. Send the electronic original with appropriate labeling
and arrows. The following formats are preferred for submission
of digital files of photographic images: EPS, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop,
JPEG (use only the maximum quality compression setting).
Color is acceptable for charts and graphs. Do not use patterns
or textures; use of three-dimensional graphs is discouraged unless
all three axes are needed to depict data.
Symbols (e.g., circles, triangles, squares), letters (e.g., words,
abbreviations), and numbers should be large enough to be legible
on reduction to the journal's column widths. All symbols must
be defined in the figure caption. If the symbols are too complex
to appear in the caption, they should appear on the illustration
itself, within the area of the graph or diagram, not to the side. |
IX. AUTHOR'S MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST
| 1. |
Double-spaced typing with 12-point font |
| 2. |
Sequence of title page, abstract and keywords, introduction, materials
and methods, results, discussion, references, and tables and figure
legends. All pages should be numbered consecutively starting from
the title page. |
| 3. |
Title page with article title, authors' full name(s) and affiliation,
address for correspondence (including telephone and fax numbers
and e-mail address), running title (less than 10 words), and footnotes
or acknowledgments, if any. |
| 4. |
Abstract in unstructured format of 200 words maximum for original
or review articles, and key words as in MeSH. |
| 5. |
On the title page, include a word count for text only, exclusive
of title, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. |
| 6. |
All tables and figure numbers should be found in the text. |
| 7. |
References listed in a proper format. Check that all references
listed in the references section are cited in the text and vice
versa. |
| 8. |
A covering letter stating the material has not been published
previously, and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere,
and stating conflicts of interest of all listed authors, if any. |
| 9. |
Include a title for each table and figure (a brief phrase no longer
than 10 to 15 words) and explanatory legend as needed. |
| 10. |
Have each author read, complete, and sign the Authorship Form
which includes Copyright Transfer/Publishing Agreement. After submission,
add the manuscript number to the top of each authorship form and
send it by mail or fax to the editorial office. |
X. GALLEY PROOF
JKMS provides the corresponding
author with galley proofs for their correction. Corresponding authors
will receive electronic page proofs to check the copyedited and typeset
article before publication. Portable document format (PDF) files of
the typeset pages and support documents (e.g., reprint order form) will
be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail. Complete instructions
will be provided with the e-mail for downloading and printing the files
and for faxing the corrected page proofs to the publisher. Those authors
without an e-mail address will receive traditional page proofs.
Corrections should be kept to minimum. The Editor retains the prerogative
to question minor stylistic alterations and major alterations that might
affect the scientific content of the paper. Authors may be charged for
alterations to the proofs beyond those required to correct errors or
to answer queries. Any fault found after the publication is the responsibility
of the authors. We urge our contributors to proofread their accepted
manuscripts very carefully. The corresponding author may be contacted
by the Editorial Office, depending on the nature of the correction in
the proof. If the proof is not returned or faxed to the Editorial Office
within 48 hours, it may be necessary to reschedule the paper for a subsequent
issue.
XI. REPRINTS
Authors will receive a reprint order form and a price list with the
page proofs. Reprint requests should be faxed to the publisher with
the corrected proofs, if possible. Reprints are normally delivered 4
weeks after publication of the issue in which the item appears. Contact
the publishing company, Academya, 316 Yangjae-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul,
137-130 Korea (academya@korea.com, phone 822-576-0922, fax 822-577-8091),
with any questions.
XII. COPYRIGHT
All authors must sign a copy of the Journal’s "Authorship
Responsibility and Copyright Transfer" form and submit it at the
time of manuscript submission or fax a copy to +82-2-765-6142.
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