Guide for Authors

General Information

Trauma Monthly (TM) "2251-7464; eISSN: 2251-7472 " is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary international journal for life sciences. TM publishes original research articles, reviews, commentaries and visions/reflections dealing with all aspects of diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic aspects of trauma.

Main Considerations

  • TM is an open access journal.
  • TM follows ICMJE's (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals as well as World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
  • Manuscripts should only be electronically submitted through online submission system.
  • A covering letter must be included when submitting a paper and must state the novelty of the paper.
  • Authors' Agreement Form must be download, print, fill out and sign then submit through online submission.
  • TM makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in its publications. However, TM makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the content and disclaim all such representations and warranties whether expressed or implied to the maximum extent permitted by law.
  • Any views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and are not the views of TM.

Structure and Preparation of Manuscripts

Types of Articles

Prepared Manuscripts should be presented in one of the following formats:

Research Articles

A full-length research article (up to ~4000 words, including tables and figures- up to ~35 references) presents novel findings relevant to the Aims and Scope of the Journal.

Reviews

Review articles are invited by the editorial office of the journal. Also, authors who interested in publishing their review papers should contact directly to the editor in chief sending their proposal (~500 words) and he may refer the authors to one of the associate editors. A full-length critical Review [up to ~4000 words, including tables and figures] provides a summary and discussion of the relevant literature about any topic covered within the aims and scope of the Journal. Authors should refer to at least five papers/works of themselves in the subject which they write a review on. For this review format references should be up to 50.

Systematic Reviews

These types of publications should report the clear narrow research question and a reproducible methodology including: a replicable comprehensive search protocol to capture published and unpublished researches, screening process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, PRISMA follow diagram, quality assessment process of studies and assessment of risk of bias, unbiased reasons for exclusion of studies, verified quality assessment tools used in the review, data extraction tools, and qualitative and quantitative analysis (meta-analysis) methods.

In Focus Reviews

The “In Focus Reviews” (up to ~4000 words, including tables and figures) present a collection of full papers and/or other article types by different research groups as well as their own opinion as “Expert Opinion” on a theme of interest to the Journal's readership within a special/theme issue.

Short Communications

Communications are preliminary reports (up to ~2000 words, including tables and figures).

Perspectives

A Perspective is a lightly referenced scholarly opinion based article (up to ~1500 words, including tables and figures) about current or future directions in a field, which may impose great impacts.

Commentaries

Commentaries/Notes (up to ~1500 words, including tables and figures) are the explanatory discussions of a previously published article. These types of publications support, discuss or dispute previously published articles. If such a Commentary/Note criticizes an article already published in TM, then the authors of the original article will be given a chance to respond in the same issue in which the Commentary is published. Lessons Learned Lessons Learned are short articles (up to ~800 words, limited to one figure/table with four key references) which provide authors with a means of informing other scientists about critical issues, experiences and observations (e.g., key insights into an unanticipated manufacturing problem or biological impacts from a preliminary study), the descriptions of which would not be appropriate for any other types of articles. Such an article will be reviewed directly by one of the TM’s Editors who is an expert of such scientific field.

Correspondence

These articles are generally written in response to published commentaries by authors whose articles have been subject to commentaries. These articles should not exceed 1000 words including maximum 1 table or figure, references and the main text. No abstract is required for these articles.

Case Presentation

Only interesting and unique case reports with the following characteristics will be accepted;
word count up to 1500, structured abstract (max 250 words), introduction (the most important issue that the author(s) should talk about is the reason of the novelty of case(s) report at first and then case presentation followed by discussion and conclusion, references, up to 2 figures or tables.

Letters to Editor

Letters to the Editor can be either about or not about a recent journal article (as a commentary article). Also, some special limitations may be considered; Up to 1500 words, without figure or table, and up to 5-7 references. There is no need for abstracts in these articles. 

General Considerations

  • The manuscript should be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these).
  • In general, the main sections in the manuscript must be bolded. First subsections should be bolded and italicized, the second subsection should be only italicized and successive subsections should be written with 2 fonts smaller than the font of other sections. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
  • All manuscripts must be typed double-spaced, single column, in size 12 font and adequate margins should be left.
  • No manuscripts submitted to the Journal can exceed 4000 words.
  • Submitted manuscripts to the TM should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • Review articles should be finalized with the last section as “Concluding Remarks”.
  • Focus Reviews are written by invitation only. Authors will be invited by the Editor-in-Chief or a “Guest Editor” for contribution in a thematic special issue. These articles should be finalized with the last section of “Expert Opinion and Final Remarks”.

Full Research Articles

Full research papers present original high-quality primary research that has not been previously published elsewhere.

Title Page

  • Title - A concise and informative title directed at the general reader. Lengthy systematic names and complicated/numerous chemical formula should, therefore, be avoided where possible.
  • Authors’ names - Full names (First, Middle and Last) for all the authors of an article should be provided and specified with the superscript number(s) for the affiliation(s) (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths1). The name of the corresponding author(s) should be specified with an asterisk after name (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths1*). Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly.
  • Affiliation - Affiliation of all the authors should be given and specified with the superscripted number before address (e.g., 1 Faculty of …..). Email addresses of all the authors should be mentioned in the title page as well as online submission system.
  • Running title - A very short running title should be provided on the title page.
  • Corresponding author - Full address, telephone, and fax numbers (with country and area code) and email of the corresponding author(s) should be stated.

Main Document

The main document of the manuscript should include "title" not the "title page" at the top. The author is the responsible person for the anonymity of the article. Therefore, the author names should not be provided in the main document.

Graphical Abstract

A graphical abstract must be included with the manuscript for display in the abstract. This graphic should be attractive to the reader and relevant to the manuscript title. Further, it should give the reader a prompt visual impression of the necessity of the manuscript with no specific results.

  • It should be simple yet informative
  • Colorful graphics are preferred
  • The originality of graphics is required
  • Use of graphics implying any bias to/against organizations or individuals should be avoided
  • Graphics should be clear enough and the labels used inside it should be readable even in a very small font
  • The graphical abstract file should be saved in TIFF with 300 dpi and 1200 dpi for respective color and black & white images

Abstract Page

  • Abstract - A factual concise and informative abstract (350-450 words) is required for every manuscript. The structured abstract should briefly state the background, Objective and Methods of the research, the Resultsand Conclusion. References should be avoided, but if necessary, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, however, if necessary, they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
  • Keywords - Immediately after the abstract, 3-6 relevant keywords should be included using American/British spelling and avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts. Notice: Readers increasingly use search engines to find literature using keywords; thus recognizable and searchable keywords should be provided to maximize the visibility of the article.
  • "Abstract" and following "keywords" should be placed at the top of "main document" after the "title".

Background and Objective

This section should clearly and briefly (up to 600 words) provide an adequate background with relevant references, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. The last paragraph should address the main objectives of the work.

Materials and Methods

This section should provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced, with details of the supplier (i.e., company’s name, city, country) and catalog number when appropriate. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. The company’s name, city, and country of the manufacturer of the major equipment should be given. Unexpected hazards encountered during the experimental work should be noted. Any unusual hazards inherent in the use of chemicals, procedures or equipment in the investigation should be clearly identified. In cases where a study involves the use of live animals or human subjects, the author should include a statement that all experiments were performed in compliance with the relevant laws and institutional guidelines, and also state the institutional committee(s) that has approved the experiments. They should also include a statement that informed consent was obtained for any experimentation with human subjects. As TM follows ICMJE, please consider their Guideline for more information.

Results

Results should be clear, descriptive and concise. Attention should be paid to the matter of significant figures and tables.

  • The same data should not be presented in more than one figure or in both a figure and a table.
  • Basically, as a rule, interpretation of the results should be reserved for the discussion section of a research article.
  • If necessary, results and discussion sections can be combined in a single section in 'Short Communication' type of article.

Discussion

The discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work (without repeating them) in comparison with other similar reports.

  • A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate for 'Short Communications'.
  • Extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided.

Conclusion

The main question of the work should be very concisely stated and the final conclusions of the study may be presented in a short “Conclusions” section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or ‘Results and Discussion’ section(s).

Acknowledgments

Authors should acknowledge any scientific, technical, statistical and financial supports. Contributors other than coauthors may be very briefly acknowledged in a separate paragraph at the end of the paper. All sources of funding should be declared. Also, authors could mention any extra notes pertaining to the paper including notes on presentation of the paper in poster or oral format in conferences.

Funding Sources 

Funding sources (including "grant ID", the name of the grant-receiving researcher, and the grant provider) should be clearly stated. 

Ethical Statement

Ethical Issues is an obligatory section in all types of articles. If there is no ethical issue to be considered, please declare it as “not applicable” or “None to be declared”. Every experimental or clinical study may raise controversial ethical issues (e.g., Institutional Ethical Approval for working with the animal or human subjects). Thus, TM expects all authors, reviewers, and editors to consider COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)ICMJE and Equator Network’s reporting guidelines in medical ethics plus scientific writing. If any, authors should state related declaration(s), unless otherwise the following sentence should be given “None to be declared”.
Please take a look at the following guidelines provided by COPE for editors and reviewers that may be helpful for authors, too:

Competing Interests

Editors and reviewers of TM declared no conflict of interests and authors must declare any conflict of interests of contributed authors very briefly in a separate paragraph at the end of the paper.
All sources of funding should be declared; unless otherwise the following sentence should be given “Authors declare no conflict of interests”.

Authors’ Contributions

The contributions of all authors must be clearly described. Each author’s individual contribution(s) to the study must be stated based on  COPE authorship guideline (e.g., conceptualization, data handling, experiments design, data analysis, provision of study materials and equipment, study validation, supervision, data presentation, draft preparation, study consultation, writing and reviewing, project administration).

References

Arrange references as a simple list at the end of your manuscript based on our Endnote style. In references, the journal titles should be abbreviated according to MEDLINE journal abbreviations. Check journal abbreviations using PubMed. If the journal is not listed in PubMed, then it should be written out in full.

  • Authors are responsible for the accuracy of cited references and these should be checked before the manuscript is submitted.
  • Only one publication can be listed for each number.
  • Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, and preprints on recognized servers may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details, and acknowledgments may not.

Citing in the text

  • Cite references in the text sequentially in the Vancouver numbering style, as a superscripted number after nearest punctuation mark without parentheses or brackets. For example,…as reported by Saito and colleagues.13
  • Two references are cited with a comma and no space. Three or more consecutive references are cited in a range with dashes.
  • References in tables, figures, and panels should be in numerical order according to where the item is cited in the text.
  • Reference numbers should NOT be cited in parentheses.
  • Please note that if references are not cited in order, the manuscript may be returned for amendment before it is passed on to the Editor for assessment.
  • Only papers published or in press should be included in the reference list. Personal communications or unpublished data must be cited in parentheses in the text with the name(s) of the source(s) and the year. Authors should request permission from the source to cite unpublished data.

In reference list

List the surnames and initials of first names of all authors if there are 6 or fewer; otherwise, list the first 6 and add ‘et al.’ Use one space only between words up to the year and then no spaces. The journal title should be in italic and abbreviated according to the style of PubMed. If the journal is not listed in PubMed, then it should be written out in full. Check journal abbreviations using PubMed.

Text

Submit your text in DOC or RTF format. Do not embed figures or tables in this document. They should be submitted as separate files.

Tables

  • Tables should be inserted into the main text with the relevant caption atop, immediately after their mention in the manuscript. Meanwhile, remember that captions should not be a row/column of the table.
  • Be prepared with real rows and columns and not aligned with tabs, returns, or spaces.
  • Multi-part tables with varying numbers of columns or multiple footnotes should be organized as separate tables.
  • Be plain with NO colors, shading, or graphics.
  • Should not contain inserted text boxes, tables within tables or cells within cells.
  • Should be cited in numerical order upon their first mention.
  • Symbols and abbreviations should be defined immediately below the table, followed by an essential brief description.
  • The maximum number of tables in the papers submitted to TM are 5 respectively. Further tables and other information should be submitted as "Supplementary Data".

Figures

  • Figures/illustrations must be cited within the main text in numerical order and legends should be provided at the end of the manuscript and not appear on the figures.
  • Figures must be prepared in one of the following formats: Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF or TIFF) for photography or microscopy, Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) for illustrations or diagrams, enhanced metafile (emf) for Chembioffice files, PDf for Matlab, windows metafile (wmf) for MathType software. Excel charts should be submitted in their original format, i.e., editable file in Word, not in a graphical format.  The editors may request to see these data (e.g., Office, SPSS, and other line art images).
  •     All digitized images submitted with the manuscript must be of high quality; that is, resolutions of at least 300 dpi for color figures, 600 dpi for greyscales and 1200 dpi for line arts.
  •     Histograms should be prepared in a simple, two-dimensional format, with no background grid.
  •     Make sure that any specific patient/hospital details are removed or blacked out (e.g., X-rays, MRI scans, etc).
  •     If photographs of patients are used, they should not be identifiable. However, do not use a black bar to obscure a patient’s identity.
  •     Lettering in figures (e.g., labeling of axes) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop. All text should be in a sans-serif typeface, preferably Arial.
  •     Submit multi-panel figures (with labeled parts as a,b,c,d,..) as a grouped file.
  • The maximum number of figures in the papers submitted to TM are 5, respectively. Further figures other information should be submitted as "Supplementary Data".

Acceptable Digital Formats

  • Corel Draw
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Unlocked PDFs created from a vector program
  • Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word as long as graphs are not placed into these programs as rasterized (pixel-based) images.

Not Acceptable File Formats

Canvas, DeltaGraph, Tex, SigmaPlot. Convert these files to PDF, EPS or postscript formats before submission.
Formula

  • Equations should be typed only in MathType (Click to download the software from http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/).
  • Graphical objects should not be used.
  • Make sure that your equations are editable.
  • If you have already composed your paper in Microsoft Word and used its built-in equation editing tool, the equations will become unusable during the typesetting process. To resolve this problem, re-key your equations using MathType.
  •     Long equations should be set off from the text and numbered sequentially. You may refer to the equations in next references by their number (e.g., "Eq. 1," "Eqs. 2 and 3").

Media Files

All authors are welcome to include in their article any podcast, animation, or movies that they think would be of help in clarifying the subject to the readers. This accompanying file should be submitted as supplementary while submission, and in the case of article acceptance, it will be made online as a supplementary file.

Submission

Authors should ensure that papers conform to the scientific instructions and style aforementioned. In order to accelerate the publication process, the Journal requires that manuscripts be submitted online using online submission system facility of the journal.

TM offers a completely digital submission, review, and production process. At the time of submission of a manuscript, thus, it is advised to prepare production-quality files beforehand to speed up the process. It is advised that authors follow the given guidelines above; unless otherwise, the submission will be returned to the authors for additional revision which may decelerate the manuscript evaluation process and hence delay publication.  Thus careful attention is fully applied by the editorial members of the journal.

Authors are required to register to create an account for submission at the online submission system. They can also follow on-screen instructions and the system will provide the essential guide through the submission process. After creation of an account, authors are able to exit/re-enter in the account at any stage. All submissions are kept strictly confidential.

Complaints Process

Trauma Monthly (TM) is committed to publication ethics as well as all journal contributing authors, reviewers and readers. In case of any problems, contributors can send their complaints to journal’s official E-mail address (available at “Contact us” page). HPR will make every effort to put matters right as soon as possible in the most appropriate way, offering right of reply where necessary. As far as possible, we will investigate complaints in a blame-free manner, looking to see how systems can be improved to prevent mistakes occurring.

Publication Fee

Trauma Monthly (TM) is an Open Access journal. Publishing an article in TM requires Article processing charges (APC) that will be billed to the submitting author following the acceptance of an article for publication. Apart from these APC, there are no submission charges, page charges, or color charges. T

Iranian authors pay two Article Processing Charges (APC). The first charge covers the costs of peer review administration and management, designing, professional production of articles in PDF and other formats, and dissemination of published papers in various venues, in addition to other publishing functions. The second charge covers the language editing process. This charge is considered to be optional. Authors can either submit an English Native Certificate along with its track change file or can pay the language editing charge in order for the journal to carry out the language editing process.

There are no charges for rejected articles, no submission charges, and no charges based on the length of an article, figures or supplementary data. 

 

The APC for Iranian authors (manuscripts published from ….):

First Charge (Charges for Acceptance Letter): 

  • Research Article, Short Communication, Brief Report, Mini-Review, Review Article, Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Article: 23.000.000 IRR
  • Case Reports, Commentaries and Perspectives: 17.000.000 IRR
  • Letter to Editor and Correspondence: 6.500.000 IRR

 Second Charge (Charges for Language Editing): 9,000,000 Rials 

For Iranian authors, please pay the fees via below bank account and send the receipt of your payment with code and title page of your manuscript to traumamon.journal@gmail.com

Card number: 5892-1070-4416-0045  

Sheba: IR390150000181463115050501

 

The international authors who wish to publish their valuable research in the TM also pay a one-time APC to cover the costs of peer review administration and management, language editing, designing, professional production of articles in PDF and other formats, and dissemination of published papers in various venues, in addition to other publishing functions. There are no charges for rejected articles, no submission charges, and no charges based on the length of an article, figures or supplementary data. 

These authors pay an APC once their manuscript gets accepted for publication. The bank account will be sent to them at that stage for their payments.

 

The APC for international authors (manuscripts published from …):

Charges for Acceptance Letter and Language Editing: $500