Manuscript Submission

We encourage authors to submit manuscripts as e-mail attachments to the Editorial Office at:tcmj@tzuchi.com.tw

Hann-Chorng Kuo, MD
Editor-in-Chief
Tzu Chi Medical Journal
Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital
707, Section 3, Chung-Yang Road,
Hualien 970, Taiwan
Tel: (+886) 3-8561825 ext. 2113

Please note that manuscripts submitted by e-mail should not also be submitted by mail or fax. Whichever method you choose to submit your manuscript, please ensure that the following documents are also included, where applicable.

- A brief cover letter should accompany all manuscript submissions and include your name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address, and state that all authors have contributed to the paper and have never submitted the manuscript to other medical journals.
- Articles covering the use of human samples in research and human experiments must be accompanied by a letter of approval from the relevant review committee.
- Articles covering the use of vertebrates in scientific application planning must be accompanied by a letter of approval from the animal experiment management team of the relevant authorities.
- Where material has been reproduced from other copyrighted sources, the letter(s) of permission from the copyright holder(s) to use the copyrighted sources must be supplied.

Important Information

• Articles submitted by e-mail or on disk should be in Microsoft Word document format and prepared in the simplest form possible. We will add in the correct font, font size, margins and so on according to the journal's style.
• You may use automatic page numbering, but avoid other kinds of automatic formatting such as footnotes, endnotes, headers and footers.
• Please put text, references, tables, figures, and legends in one file, with each table and figure on a new page.
• Figures that are line drawings or photographs must also be submitted separately as high resolution picture files, in *.EPS or *.TIFF format. Please ensure that files are supplied at the correct resolution of a minimum of 600 dpi.
- If you are unable to submit such figures by e-mail, please post 3 sets of the original figures to the Editorial Office at the above address. They will not be returned.

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).

Authors who have no relevant financial interests should provide a statement indicating that they have no financial interests related to the material in the manuscript.

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 subjects (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including by the subjects themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs or pedigrees. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission. Omitting data or making data less specific to de-identify 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 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 (clinical or laboratory jargon is to be avoided), 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. The maximum length of an article is 3000 words, inclusive of tables and figures, but not including references.

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.

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. Section headings should be: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.

Case Reports

These are short discussions of a case or case series with unique features not previously described. Section headings should be: Abstract, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion.

Medical Ethics

These are original research articles in relation to ethical aspects of biomedical research and clinical practice, including professional choices and conduct, medical technologies, healthcare system and health policies.

Medical Education

These are review or original research articles discussing teaching methods, curriculum reform, the training of medical teachers, the selection of entrants and assessment techniques. The issues and commentaries include the undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education, postgraduate training, continuing professional development and interprofessional education.

Clinical Practice and Therapeutics

These are evidence-based reviews of topics focusing on clinically oriented information about clinical diagnosis, clinical evidence, pathophysiology, therapies, adverse effects, clinical guideline and recommendations.

Images in Clinical Medicine

These are characteristic or atypical images of common medical conditions. The length of text should be limited to a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 4 images is allowed.

Pathology Pages

These are characteristic or atypical histological findings of common medical diseases. The length of text should be limited to a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 4 figures is allowed.

Special Articles

These are review articles or scientific reports of original research in such areas such as vegetarianism and health, medical economic policy, and health care policies.

Manuscript Preparation

Text should be typed double-spaced on one side of A4 (297 x 210 mm) paper, with outer margins of 3 cm. Each section of the manuscript should begin on a new page. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title 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 institutions
• corresponding author details (e-mail address, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers
• short running title not exceeding 50 characters
• declaration of any source of financial support

Abstracts

The first page following the title page should contain a concise English abstract of no more than 300 words and up to 5 relevant key words/index terms in alphabetical order. A brief Chinese version of the abstract should follow the English abstract (with Chinese key words that match the English key words). A Chinese abstract is not required from non-Chinese authors, but the Editors are authorized to translate the abstract into Chinese for them. Abstracts should be structured, with the section headings:

• Objectives: describe the rationale for the study
• Methods: briefly introduce the methods used to perform the study
• Results: briefly present the significant results
• Conclusion: state your conclusions concisely

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.

Drug Names

Use the Recommended International Non-proprietary Name for medicinal substances, unless the specific trade name of a drug is directly relevant to the discussion.

Abbreviations

Where a term/definition will be continually referred to, it must be written in full, followed by the subsequent abbreviation in brackets, when it first appears in the text. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used.

References

• References should be limited to those cited in the text.
• Each reference citation within the main body of the text should be an Arabic numeral enclosed in square parentheses.
• References must be numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text, and listed in number order in the reference list: do not alphabetize.
• References cited in tables or figure legends should be included in sequence at the point where the table or figure is first mentioned in the text.
• Abstracts should not be cited unless the abstract is the only available reference to an important concept.
• Do not cite uncompleted work or work that has not yet been accepted for publication as references.
• References should include the complete title of the article and the last names and initials of all the authors up to 6. If there are 7 or more authors, include the last names and initials of the first 3 authors only, followed by "et al".
• Abbreviations for journals should conform to those used in MEDLINE.
• Always give the last page number as well. If there is only 1 page, state if the article is an abstract or letter.
• If citing a website, please provide the author information, article title, the 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.
• Use the "Vancouver" style, as described in: "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. JAMA 1997;277:927-34."
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.

Examples are given below

Journal articles:
1. Chuang MH, Lin CL, Wang YF, Chung MI, Cham TM. Southern Taiwan findings from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Medication Safety Self Assessment for Hospitals survey. Tzu Chi Med J 2007;19:74-83.
2. Chen SC, Teo BT, Yen PS. Isolated intrascranial Rosai- Dorfman disease—report of 2 cases and review of the literature. Tzu Chi Med J 2007;19:90-3.
3. 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:
1. Stevens J. Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1996.
2. Jones CJ, Smith TH. Kidney disease. Boston: Little Brown & Company; 1973, p. 50—3.
3. Lin HC, Lee FY, Lee SD. Cirrhosis and portal hypertension. In: Sung JJY, Wong LKS, Li PKT, Sanderson J, Kwok TCY, eds. Principles and practice of clinical medicine in Asia. Treating the Asian patient. Hong Kong: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002, p. 312—23.

Tables

Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should be labeled in Arabic numerals and titled concisely. Number all tables in the order of their citation in the text. Tables should be typed doublespaced in as simple a form as possible. Information requiring explanatory footnotes should be denoted using these symbols (in order of appearance): *,†, ‡, §, ||, ¶, #, **, ††, ‡‡, §§.

Figures

The number of figures should be restricted to the minimum necessary to support the textual material. Figures must be submitted as high resolution picture files, in *.EPS or *.TIFF format, at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

If you are unable to submit such figures by e-mail, please post 3 sets of the original figures to the Editorial Office. They will not be returned. The figures should be in the form of unmounted, unretouched glossy prints (no larger than 4 x 6 inches in size), and marked on the back with the figure number, top of the figure, and the principal author's name, using a soft lead pencil or stick-on labels. Patient identification should be obscured. Do not mark directly on the prints. Indicators/arrows and labels may be marked on a photocopy of the original print to indicate subtle but salient points. Include internal scale markers in photomicrographs and electron micrographs.

All figures must be labeled in Arabic numerals in order of their citation in the text, and accompanied by legends and indicate the anatomic area and/or pathologic condition shown. For photomicrographs, include the type of specimen, original magnification, and stain. All symbols and abbreviations not defined in the text should be defined in the legend.

Statistical Requirements
• Statistical analysis is essential for all research papers except case reports.
• Use correct nomenclature of statistical methods (e.g. two sample t test, not unpaired t test).
• All p values should be presented to the third decimal place for accuracy, unless they are less than 0.001.
• Descriptive statistics should follow the scales used in data description. Inferential statistics are important for interpreting results and should be described in detail.

Editorial and Peer Review

Submitted manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editorial Board, whose members will determine which articles will be published based on their scientific merit, readability and interest. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected promptly. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned to authors unless requested. All other manuscripts are sent to 2 or more recognized experts on the subject for blinded peer review, where the reviewers will not know the identity of the authors. When relevant, a biostatistician (a member of the editorial board) will also review the submitted manuscript.

Preparation for Publication

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the authors should submit the final version of their manuscript (in MS Word format) by e-mail to:
tcmj@tzuchi.com.tw

Accepted manuscripts are copyedited according to the journal's style and the galley proofs in the form of a PDF file are emailed to the corresponding author for final approval. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the copy editor. All authors must sign a statement of authorship responsibility and copyright transfer prior to publication of their paper. This form will be provided by the Editorial Office. All authors are required to sign and return the form before the final acceptance of their manuscripts.

Reprints

Authors receive 25 stapled offprints of their articles free of charge. Additional professional reprints with a cover page may be ordered at terms based on the cost of production. Reprint order forms are available on the journal's website at http://www.tzuchimedjnl.com/.

Unauthorized Use

Published manuscripts become the permanent property of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation and may not be published elsewhere without written permission. However, the following rights of the authors are reserved: (i) the right to use, free of charge, all or part of their article in future works of their own, such as books and lectures; (ii) the right to reproduce the article for their own noncommercial and educational purposes.