General Information
Frigid Zone Medicine (FZM) is a peer-reviewed online journal with quarterly print on demand compilation of issues published. The journal allows free access (Open Access) to its contents and permits authors to self-archive final accepted version of the articles on any OAI-compliant institutional/subject-based repository. The official website is at: http://www.frigidzonemedicine.com. All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website (http://www.editorialmanager.com/fzm).
Scope of the Journal
This journal publishes articles on the latest research results and leading developments in the field of frigid-zone medicine, providing an international academic platform for the local and overseas researchers of related fields. It aims at building a qualified international medical bridge for academic communication and development, leading the academic study of frigid-zone medicine, promoting the basic and clinical research levels in frigid zones, and improving the academic impact of China in this field.
The Editorial Process
A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to FZM alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. During this process, editors will also check if the manuscripts are prepared according to the Author Instructions and the “International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” (The Requirements, at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the readers of FZM are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.
Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in the Journal are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as ‘Ahead of Print’ immediately on acceptance.
Authorship Criteria
Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:
1. Concept and design of study or 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.
Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope and number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.
Contribution Details
Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed along with the article. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.
Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests
All authors of must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.
Statement of Human and Animal Rights
For research studies using human or animal subjects, the trial’s design, conduct and reporting of results must conform to Good Clinical Practice guidelines (such as the Good Clinical Practice in Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-Regulated Clinical Trials (USA) or the Medical Research Council Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice in Clinical Trials (UK)) and/or to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki. Generally, we suggest that the national standard of the lead investigator be followed. If authors have any doubt as to whether the research was conducted in accordance with the above standards, the rationale for the chosen experimental approach must be clearly presented, along with a statement and proof of explicit approval given by the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB, for human subjects) and/or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC, for animal subjects) for conducting the doubtful aspects of the study.
All research reports that are submitted for consideration of publication in this journal must include statement(s) of proof that the appropriate approvals were obtained from the relevant IRB or research ethics committee. Any manuscript describing a study that used human subjects must include a statement that affirms the experiments were performed with prior informed consent (written or verbal, as appropriate) from each participant. All personal information must be anonymized prior to publication, unless a record of explicit consent from the involved patient(s) has been provided. Any manuscript describing a study that used animal subjects must include a statement in the Materials and Methods section (or text describing the experimental procedures) that affirms all appropriate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, and details of the animals’ care should be provided.
Tables
● Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
● Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
● Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
● Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
● Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.
● For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||,¶ , **, ††, ‡‡
● Tables with their legends should be provided at the end of the text after the references. The tables along with their number should be cited at the relevant place in the text
Illustrations (Figures)
● Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 1024 kb in size while uploading.
● Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
● Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
● Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
● Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
● When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
● The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
● If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
● If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
● Legends for illustrations: Type or print out legends for illustrations using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
● Final figures for print production: Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, color photographic prints, with height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript. Print outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. If digital images are the only source of images, ensure that the image has minimum resolution of 300 dpi or 1800 x 1600 pixels in TIFF format. The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.
Informed Consent
Any research article describing a study (clinical research and case report) involving humans should contain a statement in the title page clearly stating that all involved persons (subjects or legally authorized representative) gave their informed consent (written or verbal, as appropriate) prior to study inclusion. In general, FZM requires that any and all details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study should be omitted or anonymized. In the rare situation that a study participant’s identifiable information is crucial to the case presentation, the statement of informed consent is absolutely necessary, unless the participant is deceased. In addition, a copy of any approval document(s)/letter(s) or waiver should be provided to the FZM in PDF format.
Copyrights
The entire contents of the Journal are protected under international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Checklist
Covering letter
● Signed by all contributors
● Previous publication / presentations mentioned
● Source of funding mentioned
● Conflicts of interest disclosed
Authors
● Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
● Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided
● Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions
● Identity not revealed in paper except title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of institute in photographs, etc.)
Presentation and format
● Double spacing
● Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
● Page numbers included at bottom
● Title page contains all the desired information
● Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
● Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
● Abstract provided (structured abstract of 250 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 150 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
● Key words provided (three or more)
● Introduction of 75-100 words
● Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
● The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with square bracket.
● References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
● Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’
Language and grammar
● Uniformly American English
● Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
● Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
● Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
● If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
● Species names should be in italics
Tables and figures
● No repetition of data in tables and graphs and in text
● Actual numbers from which graphs drawn, provided
● Figures necessary and of good quality (color)
● Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
● Labels pasted on back of the photographs (no names written)
● Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)
● Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
● Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
● Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote