Information and Guidelines
for Authors
Version: 2018,
May 28

Manuscript submission
Manuscripts and all attached files (tables and illustrations) should be submitted in electronic form, using the on-line manuscript submission
system Editorial Manager available for Romanian Journal of Laboratory
Medicine at http://www.editorialmanager.com/rrlm.
Please note that general reviews and course notes are invited by the
editor. Questions may be directed to Editor of this Journal at minodora.dobreanu@rrml.ro.
Key points for submission
The following key points have to be closely followed. If not fulfilled, the submission will be promptly rejected.
- All submission documents have to be correctly and completely filled.
- No personal information of the authors is allowed within the manuscript, because of the double-peer review process.
- The statement of informed consent / ethics committee approval (where appropriate) has to be mentioned in materials and methods section.
- Authors' contributions have to be inserted at the end of the manuscript (initials only).
- Conflict-of-Interest Statement, has to be inserted at the end of the manuscript
- References style: Vancouver, without DOI numbers.
- Quality of images according to the journal's requirements.
For details on each point, check the sections below.
Other issues that will lead to direct submission rejection: high similarity check index, poor English quality, improper statistics.
Submission documents
License to publish
At the time
of submission, the Romanian
Journal of Laboratory Medicine requires an explicit
statement (License to
publish) by the corresponding author warranting that the
manuscript, as submitted, has been reviewed by and approved by all
named authors; that the corresponding author is empowered by all of the
authors to act on their behalf with respect to the submission of the
manuscript; that the article does not infringe upon any copyright or
other proprietary right of any third party; that neither the text nor
the data have been published previously (abstracts excepted); and that
the article or a substantially similar article is not under
consideration by another journal at that time. Upon submission of the
manuscript, the corresponding author must provide the Editorial Board
with documents proving that all those quoted for personal
communications or listed in the Acknowledgement section have agreed to
their inclusion. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to
reproduce copyrighted material from other sources and send an
authenticated copy of the permission to the Editorial Board.
Authorship
All named
authors should meet the criteria for authorship as stated in
the „Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication” issued by the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org):
„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. [...]
All persons
designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who
qualify should be listed.”
The Romanian
Journal of Laboratory Medicine considers all authors
responsible for the content of the entire paper.
Authors are requested to describe their individual contributions to a
study paper in a section that will be signed, attached to and sent via
online submission system Editorial Manager available at http://www.editorialmanager.com/rrlm together with the ”License
to publish” form, as soon as possible. The authors' contribution have to be inserted at the end of the manuscript at the time of submission (see the manuscript preparation and authors' contribution sections).
Individuals who gave advice on the manuscript should be
acknowledged, but are not considered authors.
Manuscript
preparation
Before submitting a paper, please assure that the manuscript fit in one of the journal category described by the Journal's Editorial Policy
The following article types are accepted: Review, Research article, Original professional paper, Short Communication, Case study / Series case studies, Course Notes, and Letter to the Editor. Advertisements, news, and special issues are also acceptable as non-indexed publications.
The following article types are accepted, with their formatting limitations:
Article type |
Manuscript word limit |
Maximum number of references |
Maximum number of figures and tables |
Abstract (max 250 words) |
Supplemental data (online only) |
Review |
5000 |
70 |
6 |
Yes |
Yes |
Research article |
3500 |
40 |
6 |
Yes |
Yes |
Original professional paper |
3000 |
30 |
5 |
Yes |
Yes |
Short Communication |
2500 |
25 |
4 |
Yes |
No |
Case study / case series |
2000 |
25 |
3 |
Yes |
No |
Course Notes |
2000 |
15 |
3 |
No |
No |
Letter to the Editor |
1500 |
10 |
1 |
No |
No |
Editorial |
2000 |
10 |
1 |
No |
No |
Manuscripts
must be
written in English and prepared in conformity to the “Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing
and Editing for Biomedical Publication” issued by the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org).
Authors
should consult
someone proficient in the English language, if they feel it is
necessary. If the manuscript is not conform to accepted standards of
English usage, the manuscript will be rejected. If reasonable
corrections are necessary, the authors will be required to bear the
cost of English supervision: the charge is 10 EUR (or equivalent in
RON)/ supervised page.
Articles
must
be written in Microsoft Word, Style: Normal + Justified, Font: Times
New Roman, font size 12. All manuscripts must be typed
double-spaced. Original source files, not PDF files, are required. In
text editing, authors should not use spacing with spacebar, tab or
paragraph mark, but use the indentation and spacing options in Format →
Paragraph. Automatic paging is preferred.
Please
do not
import tables or figures into the text document, but only specify their
insertion in text (e.g. Table No3 insertion) and their caption.
They have to be sent in separate files. Files should be labeled with
appropriate and descriptive file names, without diacritics (e.g.
Imunofluorescenta.doc, Imunofluorescenta Fig1.tiff,
Imunofluorescenta Table2.doc). The file names must not contain any self-revealing information (e.g. authors' name).
Charts and
tables should be
designed in black and white or in greyscale, unless color reproduction
is essential for the understanding of the message.
The preferred
format for
all digital image files is TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). PNG format
is also acceptable. Resolution of images must be at least 300 dpi at
the size they will appear in the print. Any special instructions
regarding sizing should be clearly noted. Scanned images should be free
of technical faults (e.g. shadows, malrotation). Authors should state
the coloration technique and the magnification factor of all images of
microscopic samples. Test your figures by sizing them to their intended
dimensions and then printing them on your personal printer. The result
should not look fuzzy, jagged, pixelated, or grainy.
Revisions of the submitted papers
We require that the revised manuscript to be clearly marked, to indicate each change made in response to the peer review report. In Microsoft Word, use the track changes function or highlight the relevant text. Use a short file name, such as revised for your new manuscript file.
Manuscript
organization
The text of original papers will be organized in one document, in a
so-called “IMRAD” structure: introduction (no more than 25% of the
text), material and methods, results, comments or discussions and
acknowledgements. The manuscript content and filename must not include any self-revealing information. All information about the author(s), affiliation, contact, as well as the abstract and keywords, will be provided only within the online submission process.
Material
and methods have to be described in enough detail to
permit reproduction by other teams. The same product names should be
used throughout the text (with the brand name in parentheses at the
first use). The statement of informed consent has to be mentioned in this section, right after the presentation of the study groups. Results should be presented concisely. Tables and figures should not duplicate
text. The discussion should set the results in context and set forth the major conclusions
of the authors. Information from the Introduction or Results should not
be repeated unless necessary for clarity. The discussion should also
include a comparison among the obtained results and other studies from
the literature, with explanations or hypothesis on the observed
differences, comments on the importance of the study and the actual
status of the investigated subject, unsolved problems, and questions to
be answered in the future. In addition to the customary recognition of
non-authors who have been helpful to the work described, the acknowledgements section must disclose any substantive conflicts of interest.
Abbreviations shall be preceded by the full term at their first apparition in text. A
list of all abbreviations used shall be made at the end of the article.
Separate documents:
tables, graphics, pictures and schemes will appear on separate documents.
Tables will have a reasonable number of rows and columns. The tables, charts, schemes etc. should be sent in
their original file format (for example, xls files if they were created
in Microsoft Excel), together with the main manuscript, via on line system (http://www.editorialmanager.com/rrlm).
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first
mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends
by Arabic numerals in parentheses. References cited only in tables or
figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence
established by the first identification in the text of the particular
table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according
to the style used in Index
Medicus. Consult the list of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE,
published annually as a separate publication by the National Library of
Medicine. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of
all references and are also responsible for ensuring that references
are not used out of context.
For journal articles use the following form: authors’ surnames and
first names initials, article’s title, the journal abbreviation
according to the Index
Medicus, year, volume, starting and ending pages of the
article. If there are more than six authors, list the first six and add
et al. We recommend to automatically insert the references using dedicated reference management solutions (e.g. Zotero, Microsoft word bibliography, Endnote web), according to Vancouver citation style.
e.g. "Zimmermann MB, de Benoist B, Corigliano S, Jooste PL, Molinari L,
Moosa K, et al. Assessment of iodine status using dried blood spot
thyroglobulin: development of reference material and establishment of
an international reference range in iodine-sufficient children. J Clin
Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Dec;91(12):4881-7"
For books or monographs: the names of the cited chapter’s authors,
chapter’s title, the editors, the title of the book or monograph, the
name and location of the publisher, the year of the appearance and
pages.
Acknowledgements and Authors' contribution: inserted at the end of the manuscript, should be short and concise. Please state each author's contribution concisely (use CRediT taxonomy) and use initials to indicate author identity.
Further reading
Authors' contributions
Statement of Informed Consent
Statement of Human and Animal Rights
Conflict-of-Interest Statement
Scientific misconduct
Publication fees
Editorial process
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