Information and Guidelines for Authors

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.

The following key points have to be closely followed. If not fulfilled, the submission will be promptly rejected.

Other issues that will lead to direct submission rejection: high similarity check index, poor English quality, improper statistics.

Submission documents

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.

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.

Authors are encouraged to use the Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest suggested by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which will automatically generate a disclosure statement that can be inserted at the end of the manuscript.

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.

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.

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 round 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 free reference management solutions (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley, Microsoft word bibliography), according to Vancouver citation style. Download the CSL style for Zotero, Mendeley, etc.

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.

Abbreviations, Acknowledgments, Authors' contributions, Conflict-of-Interest Statement should appear at the end of the article before References (in the mentioned order).