Instructions for Authors

Aims and Access: Medical Science Monitor is published continually as an electronic journal. It is an international, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in basic medical research, clinical research, and biomedical disciplines, including epidemiology, public health, and medical technology.

Indexing: Journal Citation Reports (JCR)/Clarivate, Web of Science (Clinical Medicine), SCI-Expanded, NLM/PubMed and PubMed Central, Index Medicus/MEDLINE, CiteScore in SCOPUS, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Chemical Abstracts Services (CAS), BIOSIS Previews, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), BIOBASE, and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP).

Ethical Approval for Original Research Articles: All original research articles require completion and submission of an authorized institutional Ethics Committee approval form, or Institutional Review Board (IRB) form, or independent Ethics Committee (IEC) form, or an Ethical Review Board (ERB) form, or Research Ethics Board (REB) form.

Research Involving Human Subjects: All studies involving human participants must be conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Research studies involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) before being conducted. The primary purpose of the IRB is to safeguard the rights and welfare of human participants involved in research. While the specific criteria for IRB certification may vary slightly among institutions or countries, the following types of research often necessitate IRB approval:

Biomedical Research: This category encompasses studies involving medical procedures, interventions, drugs, devices, or biological samples obtained from human participants. It includes clinical trials, genetic research, studies on new treatments, and disease investigations. It is important to ensure that any human-related elements, such as data or samples, are handled ethically and with appropriate consent. In cases where human-derived materials (e.g., tissue samples) contain identifiable private information, IRB approval may be necessary to protect participant privacy and confidentiality.

Clinical Research: This category involves direct interaction with human participants or their identifiable private information, including access to patients' medical records. It encompasses studies investigating medical procedures, interventions, drugs, devices, or behavioral aspects of human health. IRB approval is typically required for clinical research due to the direct involvement of human subjects and the need to access sensitive medical information. Whether the study focuses on diagnostics, treatments, or behavioral interventions, IRB review is necessary to protect participant rights, privacy, safety, and welfare. This includes obtaining informed consent, implementing appropriate data management and privacy protocols, safeguarding the confidentiality of medical records, and mitigating potential risks associated with the study.

Social and Behavioral Research: This category includes research in fields such as psychology, sociology, education, anthropology, economics, and political science. It involves surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments that involve human participants.

Research with Identifiable Private Information: Studies that involve collecting, accessing, or analyzing data containing identifiable private information about individuals, such as medical records, employment records, or educational records, will likely require IRB certification.

Research with Sensitive Topics: Studies exploring sensitive or controversial topics, such as sexual behavior, substance abuse, mental health, or illegal activities, may necessitate IRB review due to potential risks to participants or the need for confidentiality.

Vulnerable Populations: Research involving vulnerable populations, such as children, prisoners, pregnant women, individuals with cognitive impairments, or economically disadvantaged individuals, often requires special consideration and may require IRB certification. The Editors may request written evidence that informed consent has been obtained.

Patient Confidentiality: Data analysis, the presentation of results, and figure images should not include confidential details that breach patient confidentiality.  If data from deceased individuals is used in research studies, the legal representative or next-of-kin should provide written informed consent.

Research Involving Experimental Animals: All animal studies should be conducted according to local and international guidelines for animal care and welfare and the use of humane methods of euthanasia. Submission of an authorized Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) form is required for all animal studies. Please upload this form to the Medical Science Monitor system with your submission files. Manuscripts without the required IACUC form will not be considered for publication. If the IACUC approval is in a language other than English, please submit an English translation, signed by the Corresponding Author, in addition to the original authorization form.

Requirements of the Corresponding Author: One Corresponding Author should provide their full name, institutional address, e-mail address, and telephone number. The Corresponding Author has primary responsibility for communication with the Editorial Office during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process. The Corresponding Author is required to provide all details of authorship, ethics committee approvals, conflicts of interest forms and statements, and other supporting documents required by the Editorial Office. The Corresponding Author must be available throughout the process and promptly respond to Editorial queries. The Corresponding Author is required to communicate with all authors at each stage of the publication process. The Corresponding Author must confirm that the study was conducted ethically and submit all ethical approval forms.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the copying or duplicating of previously published written content and is considered as research fraud and a breach of publication copyright. Therefore, all manuscripts undergo electronic scanning by several methods at all stages of manuscript submission, peer review, and revision. If the authors have previously published a study as an Abstract from a meeting presentation, they are requested to declare this. Self-plagiarism from previous publications, including an Abstract, is unacceptable, and all content should be re-written and not copied. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, detected at any stage will result in the rejection of the manuscript, and all paid processing fees will be forfeited.

Conflict of Interest: When submitting a manuscript, all authors should disclose any commercial or financial interests they may have with a study, a product, or a medical device.

Permissions and Copyright Approvals for the Use of Figures, Data, and Personal Communications: The use of previously published images, diagrams, tables, and data requires written copyright permission from the original publisher. It is the duty of the authors to obtain copyright permission to duplicate any previously published content. The use of unpublished personal communications should be accompanied by a written statement from the source that allows the communication to be published in Medical Science Monitor.

Open Access under a Creative Commons License: Medical Science Monitor has adopted the Open Access publishing model. All publications are under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). A Creative Commons License allows others to download and share articles only if they acknowledge the authors and the publisher, but without permission to change them in any way or use them commercially.

Disclaimer: Every effort is made by the Publisher and the Editorial Board to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinions, or statements appear in the  Medical Science Monitor. However, the data and opinions appearing in the publications are the responsibility of the authors and their institutions. Accordingly, the Publisher and Editorial Board of Medical Science Monitor accepts no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such inaccurate or misleading data, opinion, or statement. Readers of Medical Science Monitor are advised that drug doses, drug regimens, and any medical treatments that form part of a published study should not replace current local or national clinical guidelines or prescribing recommendations.

The Editorial Board of Medical Science Monitor considers original articles in basic biomedical sciences, clinical medicine, and related disciplines.
The categories of original manuscripts include:
Research Articles
Review Articles
Editorials

All submitted manuscripts undergo peer review by external experts in all disciplines.
An original manuscript should be submitted that has never previously been published, in whole or in part, in print or electronically. The Title, Abstract, main manuscript, Figures, and Tables should all be original. The Journal discourages the submission of more than one article dealing with related aspects of the same study.

Submission of Original Data (Raw Data): The Editors of Medical Science Monitor may request submission of original study data (raw data) to support Research Articles.
Original Figure Images: The Editors of Medical Science Monitor may request an author Statement of Originality of Submitted Figure Images.

The following original articles are considered for publication by Medical Science Monitor:
Research Articles
Review Articles
Editorials

The following topics are considered for publication in Research Articles, Review Articles, or Editorials: Laboratory and in vitro studies; laboratory medicine; animal studies; animal models; molecular biology; drug discovery and development; biotechnology; epidemiology and population studies; observational clinical studies; retrospective and prospective clinical studies; development of laboratory methods and diagnostics; medical imaging studies, psychology, and social sciences.

Research Articles
Original Research Articles aim to describe a research study on a topic that is published by Medical Science Monitor. The manuscript should be formatted according to the template provided in Word and should include: Title Page, a structured Abstract (≤250 words), Keywords using terms from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used for indexing articles for PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/), Background., Material/Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References, and Acknowledgments. Original Tables and Figures should be included at the end of the manuscript. References should be formatted according to the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style, which is the same format used by PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: These manuscripts should be prepared as Research Articles and require systematic (or complete) literature searches and meta-analyses undertaken by experienced medical statisticians.
Medical Science Monitor will only consider manuscripts that have been conducted according to the mandatory Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 and reported using the PRISMA checklist (http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist).
See - Page MJ, McKenzie JE, Bossuyt PM, et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. PLoS Medicine 2021;18(3):e1003583. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003583
Network meta-analysis should be conducted and reported according to the PRISMA-NMA extension (http://www.prisma-statement.org/Extensions/NetworkMetaAnalysis).
The study protocol for all submitted manuscripts should be registered and approved in advance by the international database of Prospectively Registered Systematic Reviews in Health and Social Care (PROSPERO). All submitted manuscripts should contain the PROSPERO registration number (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/).
A PRISMA-style study flow diagram of the study design should be included as a Figure or supplement.

Review Articles
Original Review Articles should be on a topic within the author's expertise. Review Articles should aim to inform, educate, or update the reader. A Review Article should be supported by recent, relevant, and accessible references. A Review Article should be formatted to include: Title Page, an unstructured Abstract (≤250 words), Keywords (MeSH), an Introduction, topic section headings, Conclusions, References, and Acknowledgments. Original Tables and Figures should be included at the end of the manuscript. References should be formatted according to the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style, which is the same format used by PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Editorials
Medical Science Monitor Editorials are short reviews of less than 2,000 words, which present an update on current topics of interest, including new clinical guidelines, newly identified clinical conditions, and new approvals of diagnostics and therapies. An Editorial aims to concisely present a current topic of interest, supported by the most recent references. An Editorial should be formatted to include: Title Page, an unstructured Abstract (≤250 words), Keywords (MeSH), Editorial, Conclusions, and References. References should be formatted according to the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style, which is the same format used by PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Please note that Letters to the Editor and Case Reports are no longer considered for publication by Medical Science Monitor. All Case Report submissions will be automatically redirected to the American Journal of Case Reports (https://www.amjcaserep.com).

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations:
Manuscripts for submission to Medical Science Monitor should be prepared in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, 2019 (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).

Manuscripts should be written clearly in American English.
The text should be written using 1.5 line spacing and 12-point font. (Times New Roman, Times, or Palatino).
Page margins should be 2.5 cm (1 inch) at the top, bottom, right, and left. 
The manuscript should include the following content beginning on a separate page: Title Page, Abstract and Keyword Page, Text Pages, References, Tables, and Figures.
Medical Science Monitor provides a manuscript template in Word (See Section 9).

Authorship:
The ICMJE provides clear criteria for who should be an author (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). An author is someone who has made a substantial contribution to the conduct of the study and the manuscript, who has contributed to the study analysis, and who agrees to be accountable for the study.
Please carefully consider the list of authors before submitting the manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of manuscript submission.
Any changes to the list of authors should be made before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Editor.
All authors should agree to be named before the manuscript is submitted for publication.

Supporting Ethical Documents:
All research studies require completion and submission of an authorized institutional Ethics Committee approval form, or Institutional Review Board (IRB) form, or independent Ethics Committee (IEC) form, or Ethical Review Board (ERB) form, or a Research Ethics Board (REB) form. If the Ethics Committee/IRB approval form is in a language other than English, please submit an English translation, signed by the Corresponding Author, in addition to the original authorization form.
Informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained for all human study participants. The Editors may request written evidence that informed consent has been obtained.
Submission of an authorized Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) form is required for all animal studies. If the IACUC approval is in a language other than English, please submit an English translation, signed by the Corresponding Author, in addition to the original authorization form.
Please upload the required ethical approval forms to the Medical Science Monitor system with your submission files.
Manuscripts without the required ethical approval forms will not be considered for publication. 

The manuscript should include:

Submitted manuscripts are evaluated if they present new insights to the investigated topic and are likely to contribute to changes or advances in research and clinical practice or the understanding of disease processes. All authors listed in a manuscript are assumed to have agreed to its submission. The Corresponding Author is responsible for ensuring that all submission requirements are fulfilled. The Editors of Medical Science Monitor first examine the received manuscripts. Manuscripts that do not meet the criteria for publication are rejected. Incomplete submissions or manuscripts not prepared in the advised style will not be sent for peer-review until the correct and complete submission has been provided. The authors are given a reference number upon manuscript registration at the Editorial Office. The registered manuscripts are sent for independent peer review. We encourage authors to suggest the names of possible reviewers, but we reserve the right of final Reviewer selection. Submitted papers are accepted for publication after a positive recommendation from the independent Reviewers. Following recommendations for revision, the Authors should return a corrected paper within 1–6 weeks, depending on the recommendations given. The manuscript evaluation process usually takes between one and two months.

Please Note: Fabrication or manipulation of the peer-review process by providing false names or contact information to the recommended Reviewers that is detected at any stage will result in rejection of the manuscript, with all paid processing fees being forfeited.

Plagiarism is the copying or duplicating of previously published written content and is considered as research fraud and a breach of publication copyright. Therefore, all manuscripts undergo electronic scanning by several methods at all stages of manuscript submission, peer review, and revision. If the authors have previously published a study as an Abstract from a meeting presentation, they are requested to declare this. Self-plagiarism from previous publications, including an Abstract, is unacceptable, and all content should be re-written and not copied. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism that is detected at any stage will result in the rejection of the manuscript, and all paid processing fees will be forfeited.

Medical Science Monitor uses the Open Access publishing model in which all published articles are freely available to readers directly from the Journal's website and PubMed, and PubMed Central. However, this publishing model depends on author fees. The submission of a manuscript and the peer-review process are free of charge.
The article processing fee applies only to manuscripts accepted for publication. Online credit card payment is our preferred method of payment. We also accept bank checks and wire transfers. The payment instructions will be provided after a manuscript has been accepted for publication.

The Article Processing Fee is USD 2800

The estimated processing time is between 25 and 28 weeks, depending on the length of the peer review process, the time required for manuscript correction by authors, the speed of response to galley proof acceptance, your institution's payment procedures, and the number of manuscripts awaiting publication.

Please note: Detection of written plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, or fabrication of copying of images, or fabrication of the conduct of the study or manuscript, providing false author names or contact information that is detected at any stage will result in rejection of the manuscript and forfeit of all paid article processing fees.

The Editors of the Medical Science Monitor accept only electronic submissions via the Authors’ Service available on the Journal's website. Please register first if this is your first submission to the Journal, enabling efficient communication with the Editors, monitoring manuscript status, re-submission of corrected files, and payment of fees. Please follow the instructions on the Journal's website.