The Journal of the Chinese Medical Association is the peer-reviewed publication of the
Chinese Medical Association, based
in Taipei, Taiwan. The Journal invites original contributions relating to
all fields of medicine and related disciplines that
are of interest to the medical profession.
The Chinese Medical Association requires authors to be in compliance with the Uniform Requirements
for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URMs); current URMs are posted at 
http://www.icmje.org
Manuscript
Submission
Online Submission
The Journal accepts online submission of manuscripts through
the Elsevier Editorial
System (EES), which can be accessed
at http://ees.elsevier.com/jcma/. The site will guide authors
stepwise through the submission
process. If assistance is
needed, you may contact the Editorial Office.
Editorial Office
Journal of the Chinese Medical Association,
Taipei Veterans General Hospital,
201, Section 2, Shih-Pai Road,
Taipei 112,
Taiwan, R.O.C.
Tel: (+886) 2-2871-2121 ext
3043
Fax: (+886) 2-2877-1873
E-mail: jcma@vghtpe.gov.tw
Other Methods of Submission
1)
If you are unable to submit your manuscript via EES,
you may submit your manuscript, supporting documents,
and figures as e-mail attachments
to the Editorial
Office at: jcma@vghtpe.gov.tw
2) Alternatively, you can submit your material on a CD-R
and post it,
together with 4 hard copies of your manuscript
(that match the disk file exactly) and a cover letter
(that includes your name, address,
telephone and fax
numbers, and e-mail address), to the Editorial Office
(address as above).
Manuscripts should be submitted by 1 method
only.
Important Information
• Articles submitted by e-mail or on disk should be in
Microsoft Word document
format (*.doc) and prepared
in the simplest form possible. We will add in the correct
font, font size, margins and so on according to
our house
style.
• YYou may use automatic page numbering, but do NOT use
other kinds of automatic formatting such as footnotes,
endnotes, headers and footers.
• Put text, references, tables, and table/figure legends in
one file.
• Figures must
be submitted separately as high resolution
picture files, at the correct resolution of 600 dpi. The files
should be named according to
the figure number and
format, e.g. "Fig1-tif", "Fig2-jpg".
• Please note that the cost of color illustrations will be
charged
to the author.
Ensure that the following supporting documents are included
(refer also to the checklist that follows these author
instructions):
(1) Cover Letter. This must include your name, address,
telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of
both
the first author and corresponding author, and
state that all authors have contributed to the paper and
have never submitted the manuscript,
in whole or in
part, to any other journal. Your signature and those of
ALL your coauthors must be included.
(2) Conflict of Interest
Statement. See the relevant section
below.
(3) Ethics Statement. Articles covering the use of animal or
human samples in research,
or animal or human experiments
must be accompanied by a letter of approval from
the relevant review committee or authorities. Also see
the
relevant section below.
(4) Copyright Transfer Agreement. You may use the form
that follows these author instructions.
(5)
Articles where human subjects can be identified in descriptions,
photographs or pedigrees must be accompanied
by a signed statement of
informed consent to publish
(in print and online) the descriptions, photographs or
pedigrees from each subject who can be identified.
Also see the relevant section below.
(6) Where material has been reproduced or adapted from
other copyrighted sources, the letter(s)
of permission
from the copyright holder(s) to use the copyrighted
sources must be supplied.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
All authors are required to sign and submit the following
financial disclosure statement at the time of manuscript
submission:
- I certify that all my affiliations with or financial involvement in, within the past 5 years and foreseeable future, any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed (e.g. employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties).
Ethical Approval of Studies and Informed Consent
For human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee approval is required, and such approval should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed (World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Available at:
http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/17c.pdf).For investigations of human subjects, state explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adult subjects and from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (i.e. oral or written).
Identification of Patients in Descriptions, Photographs, and Pedigrees
A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees 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, or pedigrees, and should be submitted with the manuscript. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission. Omitting data or making data less specific to deidentify patients is acceptable, but changing any such data is not acceptable.
Previous Publication or Duplicate Submission
Submitted manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format (except in abstract or poster form) and are not under consideration in totality or in part by another publication or electronic medium.
Basic Criteria
Articles should be written in English (using American English spelling) and meet the following basic criteria: the material is original, the information is important, the writing is clear and concise, the study methods are appropriate, the data are valid, and the conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data.
Categories of Articles
The categories of articles that are published are described below.
Editorials
These are usually written by invited authors or editorial board members. Typical length: no more than 1,200 words and not more than 15 references. The paper must be accompanied by a Cover Letter and Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Review Articles
These should aim to provide the reader with a balanced overview of an important and topical subject in medicine, and should be systematic and critical assessments of literature and data sources, emphasizing factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, or prevention. All articles and data sources reviewed should include information about the specific type of study or analysis, population, intervention, exposure, and tests or outcomes. All articles or data sources should be selected systematically for inclusion in the review and critically evaluated.
The following are given as examples of possible section headings: Introduction (to include a definition of the disease to be discussed, its incidence and relationship to age, sex and geography), Etiology, Pathology (macroscopic and microscopic), Diagnosis, Clinical Features/Complications, Prevention, Treatment, Prognosis, Conclusion or Summary. Figures, tables, algorithms and other forms of illustration should be included as appropriate.
Reviews are usually written by invited authors who are recognized experts on that particular topic. Typical length: abstract, no more than 300 words; main text, no more than 3,500 words and not more than 100 references. The paper must be accompanied by a Cover Letter, Ethics and Conflict of Interest Statements, and Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Original Articles
These may be randomized trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, laboratory and animal studies, cohort studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control studies, and surveys with high response rates, that represent new and significant contributions to medical science.
Each manuscript should state the objective/hypothesis, design and methods (including the study setting and dates, patients/participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, or data sources and how these were selected for the study), the essential features of any interventions, the main outcome measures, the main results, discussion placing the results in context with the published literature, and conclusions.
Typical length: structured abstract, no more than 300 words; main text, no more than 3,000 words and not more than 60 references. The paper must be accompanied by a Cover Letter, Ethics and Conflict of Interest Statements, and Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Case Reports
These are short discussions of a case or case series with unique features not previously described. Typical length: abstract, no more than 200 words; main text, no more than 1,200 words, with no more than 20 references. The paper must be accompanied by a Cover Letter, Ethics and Conflict of Interest Statements, and Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Brief Communications
These may be prepared according to the format of Original Articles, but are expected to be short and concise. Typical length: abstract, no more than 200 words; main text, no more than 1,200 words and not more than 40 references. The paper must be accompanied by a Cover Letter, Ethics and Conflict of Interest Statements, and Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Letters to the Editor
These are short letters written in response to articles previously published in the Journal. Typical length: no more than 500 words and not more than 10 references. The paper must be accompanied by a Cover Letter and Copyright Transfer Agreement.
Manuscript Preparation
Text should be typed double-spaced on one side of A4 (297 x 210 mm) paper, with outer margins of 2.5 cm. Each section of the manuscript should begin on a new page.
Title Page
The title page should contain the following information:
• category of paper
• manuscript title
• the names (spelled out in full) of all the authors and their affiliations (where the actual work was done, i.e. Department, University, City, Post Code, Country); indicate all affiliations with a superscript number immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate affiliation
• corresponding author details (e-mail address, telephone number)
Abstracts
The first page following the title page should contain a concise abstract and up to 5 relevant key words/MeSH terms in alphabetical order. Abstracts should be structured for Original Articles, with the section headings:
• Background: describe the rationale for the study
• Methods: briefly introduce the methods used to perform the study
• Results: briefly present the significant results
• Conclusions: state your conclusions concisely
No abstract is required for Editorials, Mini Reviews, and Letters to the Editor.
Main Text
NO author information such as names, affiliations and contact information should appear in the main text.
Text for Original Articles and Brief Communications should be organized into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if applicable), References.
The sections for Case Reports are: Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if applicable), References.
Abbreviations
Where a term/definition will be continually referred to, it must be written in full when it first appears in the text, followed by the subsequent abbreviation in brackets. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used. Restrict the number of abbreviations to those that are absolutely necessary.
Units
Système International (SI) units must be used, with the exception of blood pressure values which are to be reported in mmHg. Please use the metric system for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius.
Names of drugs, devices and other products
Use the Recommended International Non-proprietary Name for medicinal substances, unless the specific trade name of a drug is directly relevant to the discussion. For devices and other products, the generic term should be used, unless the specific trade name is directly relevant to the discussion. If the trade name is given, then the manufacturer name and the city, state and country location of the company must be provided.
Statistical requirements
Statistical analysis is essential for Original Articles and Brief Communications. Use correct nomenclature for statistical methods (e.g. two sample t test, not unpairedt test). Descriptive statistics should follow the scales used in data description. Inferential statistics are important for interpreting results and should be described in detail.
All p values should be expressed to 2 digits to the right of the decimal point, unless p < 0.01, in which case thep value should be expressed to 3 digits to the right of the decimal point. The smallest p value that should be expressed is p < 0.001, since additional zeros do not convey useful information; the largest p value that should be expressed isp > 0.99.
Personal communications and unpublished data
These sources cannot be included in the references list but may be described in the text. The author(s) must give the full name and highest academic degree of the person, the date of the communication, and indicate whether it was in oral or written (letter, fax, e-mail) form. A signed statement of permission should be included from each person identified as a source of information in a personal communication or as a source for unpublished data.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments for consultations, statistical analysis and so on should be listed concisely, including the names of the individuals who were directly involved. Consent should be obtained from those individuals before their names are listed in this section. All financial and material support for the research and any work from internal or external agencies, including commercial companies, should be clearly and completely identified. Ensure that any conflicts of interest (financial and/or non-financial) are explicitly declared.
References
In the main text, tables and figure legends:
• References should be limited to those cited in the text and listed in numerical order, NOT alphabetical order.
• Do not cite abstracts unless they are the only available reference to an important concept.
• Do not list uncompleted work or work that has not yet been accepted for publication (e.g. personal communications, unpublished data) as references.
• References should include, in order, author names, article title, journal name, year, volume, and inclusive page range numbers. If there is only 1 page, state if the article is an abstract or letter. The last names and initials of all the authors up to 6 should be included, but when there are more than 6 authors, include the last names and initials of the first 6 authors only, followed by "et al".
• Abbreviations for journal names should conform to those used in MEDLINE.
• If citing a website, pro vide the author information, article title, website address and the date you accessed the information.
• Reference to an article that is in press must state the journal name and, if possible, the year and volume.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.
Examples are given below.
Journal articles:
Chen CC, Wang SS, Tsay SH, Lee FY, Lu RH, Chang FY, Lee SD. Effects of nitric oxide synthase inhibitors on retrograde bile salt-induced pancreatitis rats. J Chin Med Assoc 2004;67:9.14.
Wu CJ, Hsu PI, Lo GH, Lo CC, Lin CK, Shie CB, Peng NJ, et al. Comparison of cetraxate-based and pantoprazolebased triple therapies in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection. J Chin Med Assoc 2004;67:161.7. Hofele C, Schwager-Schmitt M, Volkmann M. Prognostic value of antibodies against p53 in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.five years survival rate. Laryngorhinootologie 2002;81:342.5. [In German]
Books:
Stevens J. Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1996.
Book chapter in book with editor and edition:
Greaves M, Culligan DJ. Blood and bone marrow. In: Underwood JCE, editor. General and systematic pathology. 4th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone; 2004, p. 615-72.
Items presented at a meeting but not yet published:
Weber KJ, Lee J, Decresce R, Subhasis M, Prinz R. Intraoperative PTH monitoring in parathyroid hyperplasia requires stricter criteria for success. Paper presented at: 25th Annual American Association of Endocrine Surgeons Meeting, April 6, 2004; Charlottesville, VA.
Khuri FR, Lee JJ, Lippman SM. Isotretinoin effects on head and neck cancer recurrence and second primary tumors. In: Proceedings from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, May 31-June 3, 2003; Chicago, IL. Abstract 359.
Item presented at a meeting and published:
Cionni RJ. Color perception in patients with UV- or bluelight- filtering IOLs. In: Symposium on cataract, IOL, and refractive surgery. San Diego, CA: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery; 2004. Abstract 337.
Thesis:
Ayers AJ. Retention of resin restorations by means of enamel etching and by pin [MSD thesis]. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University; 1971.
Website:
American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.Wisdom teeth. AAOMS Website. http//www.aaoms.org/ wisdom_teeth.php. Published 2008. Accessed September 25, 2010.
Company/manufacturer publications/pamphlets:
Eastman Kodak Company, Eastman Organic Chemicals.Catalog no. 49. Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak; 1977, p. 2-3.
ZstatFlu [package insert]. Oklahoma City, OK: ZymeTx Inc; 2000. Tables
Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should have a concise table heading, be self-explanatory, and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text.
Information requiring explanatory footnotes should be denoted using superscripted lowercase letters: a, b, c, etc. Abbreviations used in the table must be defined and placed after the footnotes.
If you include a block of data or a table from another source, whether published or not, you must acknowledge the original source.
Figures
The number of figures should be restricted to the minimum necessary to support the textual material. They should have an informative figure legend and be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. All symbols and abbreviations should be defined in the legend.
Patient identification should be obscured. All lettering should be done professionally and should be in proportion to the drawing, graph or photograph. Photomicrographs must include an internal scale marker, and the legend should state the type of specimen, stain used, and original magnification.
The Editorial and Peer Review Process
As a general rule, the receipt of a manuscript will be acknowledged within 2 weeks of submission; authors will be provided with a manuscript reference number for future correspondence. If an acknowledgment is not received in a reasonable period of time, the author should contact the Editorial Office.
Submissions are reviewed by the Editorial Office to ensure that it contains all parts. Submissions will be rejected if the author has not supplied all the material and documents as outlined in these author instructions.
Manuscripts are then forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief, who makes an initial assessment of it. If the manuscript does not appear to be of sufficient merit or is not appropriate for the Journal, the manuscript will be rejected without review. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned to authors unless requested. All other manuscripts are sent to 2 or more expert consultants for double-blind peer review. Authors will usually be notified within 6 weeks of whether the manuscript is accepted for publication, rejected, or subject to revision before acceptance. However, do note that delays are sometimes unavoidable.
Preparation for Publication
Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors should submit the FINAL VERSION of the manuscript (in MS Word format) through the method by which the manuscript was originally submitted, i.e. via EES or e-mail (jcma@vghtpe.gov.tw) or by post to the Editorial Office (save manuscript on CD-R and post, together with 1 paper copy of the manuscript that matches the disk file exactly).
Accepted manuscripts are copyedited according to the Journal's style and PDF page proofs are sent by the Publisher to the corresponding author for final approval. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the copy editor and authorized by the corresponding author.
Publication Charges and Reprints
The journal will bear the cost of publication for articles of 7 printed pages or less for Original Articles, and 5 printed pages or less for Case Reports and Brief Communications. Authors will be charged for the cost of extra pages at NTD 1,000/page. Authors will also be charged for every figure or table that is in color.
Authors receive 40 stapled offprints of their articles free of charge, which are sent by the Editorial Office to the corresponding author. Additional professional reprints (which include a cover page for the article) may be ordered at prices based on the cost of production. A reprint order form is provided by the Publisher, together with the PDF page proofs.
Copyright
Published manuscripts become the permanent property of Elsevier and the Chinese Medical Associ ation, and may not be published elsewhere in any form without written permission
• Checklist (pdf)