Information and Guidelines for Authors

Manuscript submission

Manuscripts and all attached files (tables and illustrations) should be submitted in electronic form, using the on-line manuscript submission system for Romanian Journal of Laboratory Medicine at https://www.editorialsystem.com/rrml/.

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.

• Articles must be written directly in this template file.
• 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. Download the CSL citation style.
• 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 with already published materials, poor English quality, improper statistics.

Submission documents

Cover letter

At the time of submission, the Romanian Journal of Laboratory Medicine requires an explicit statement (in Cover letter and authors’ contribution) by the corresponding author warranting that the manuscript, as submitted, has been reviewed by and approved by all named authors; 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.

License to publish

At the time of ahead of print, the Romanian Journal of Laboratory Medicine requires an explicit statement on Open Access License. This journal provides immediate open access to its content under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of CC BY 4.0 license.

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):

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 Cover letter and authors’ contribution that will be signed by all authors, attached to authors’ statements section in Editorial System. The authors' contribution has 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.

ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

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 are also acceptable as non-indexed publications.

The following article types are accepted, with their formatting limitations:

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.

-= Articles must be written directly in this template file =-

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.

Images

• the images must be uploaded to the editorial system as separate files, JPG or TIF format with a resolution of 300 dpi
• the width of images that will occupy one column of text must be 1028 pixels (87 mm) and those that will occupy two columns of text must be 2126 pixels (180 mm) at a resolution of 300 dpi; for conversion and size verification, see the tutorial below 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.
• 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.
• images must be named "fig1.jpg" (or .tif), "fig2.jpg" (or .tif), etc.;
• the title of the figures must be sent as text in a Word file named "Figure legends" (not as a jpg or tif image); the title of the figure must not appear in the respective image or graphic
• in the case of composite figures (with two or more than two images), they must be identified with a letter, in alphabetical order, in the upper-left corner of each image; the color and size of the identification letters must be chosen to ensure adequate legibility; it is advisable that the images are in order from left to right and from top to bottom;
• if the images include text and/or numerical labels (e.g. variable names, measurement units, P values) they must be written in Calibri-Regular characters; the font size must have a maximum of 11 points (to harmonize with the overall appearance of the final pages) and a minimum of 8 points and to be legible at the final image size
• as far as possible, the figures should be created in black and white or using a palette of slightly differentiable grays; for color figures, please check the details about the potential fees
• the graphics in the figures must have a white background, without a visible frame.

Image conversion tutorial

1. Go to https://clideo.com/dpi-converter
2. Click Choose file and upload your image.
3. Make sure 300 dpi is selected and then click Continue.
4. When conversion completed, click Download and save the image file on your drive.
5. Open Windows Explore and go the file you saved.
6. Right click on the image file, then click on Properties (in Windows 11, first click on Show more options, then Properties), then click on the Details tab and look at Image width and height.
7. For images intended to spread over 1 column the width should be at least 1028 pixels (equivalent to 87 mm). 8. For images intended to spread over 2 columns the width should be at least 2126 pixels (equivalent to 180 mm).

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.

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).

Further reading

Authors' contributions

Statement of Informed Consent

Statement of Human and Animal Rights

Conflict-of-Interest Statement

Scientific misconduct

Publication fees

Editorial process