Author Guidelines

1.1. Editorial policy

Acta Medica Iranica is a  peer-reviewed journal and publishes original papers related to all areas of basic and clinical medical sciences. Reviews, symposia, short communications, letters to the Editor are also accepted. Case reports are considered if justified by their unique significance. Prior consultation with the editor is recommended before preparing or submitting review articles.

Manuscripts are accepted on condition that they have not been previously published or submitted for publication, and are not going to be sent to other journals. This restriction does not apply to works published in a form of abstracts or summaries.

Manuscripts should be submitted online via the Acta Medica Iranica online manuscript submission and review system. At the time of submission, ORCID number for all authors and complete contact information (postal/mail address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers) for the corresponding author are required. First and last names, e-mail addresses, and institutional affiliations of all coauthors are also required. Manuscripts submitted through the online system should not also be submitted by mail or e-mail. After the manuscript is submitted online, the corresponding author will receive a manuscript number. See Manuscript Preparation and Submission Requirements, and other details in these instructions for additional requirements. Manuscripts will be archived if not meet the required abovementioned information and Journal’s preparation checklist.

Due to non-compliance with the required information and the checklist for preparing the journal, the manuscripts will be archived.

 

Responsibility lies entirely with the author(s) for all statements contained in the paper, including bibliographic references.

Final decision on an article will be made by Editorial Boards after consideration of reviewers' evaluation.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are accepted on the understanding that the recommendations of the Declarations of Helsinki and Tokyo, for humans, and the European Committee guidelines for the use of experimental animal have been adhered to. Authors must state in the manuscript that the protocol complies with these guidelines and are approved by their institutional ethics committee. For any investigation involving human subject(s), informed consent must be obtained from the subject(s) and/or their guardian(s) and this must be clearly stated in the paper. All manuscripts have to mention the ethics’ approval code of their research or present an approval letter from the research deputy of their affiliated university in materials and methods part. Approval number of accepted research or received funding must be written in the acknowledgment part of the manuscript.

At least one senior author must have an academic affiliation.

 

The submitted manuscript should be accompanied by a written statement that the manuscript has not and will not be published or submitted in whole or in part in any other journal. This statement should have the signature of all authors.

A publication fee of 6,000,000 Iranian Rials for case and brief reports, and 10,000,000 Iranian Rials for original and review articles for Iranian authors and 100 US dollars for foreign authors has been applied from the beginning of January 2023.

 

1.2. Form of Manuscript

Manuscript should be typewritten or printed with double spacing (at least 6mm between lines) and with wide margin (not more than 26 lines per page). A laser-type or similar quality printer or a high-quality typewriter with a black carbon ribbon should be used to ensure proper contrast for the original. A standard, at least 12-point (0.0138 inch), typeface, not distorted and neither reduced nor enlarged, is to be used.

Note: Manuscripts printed with low-quality printers will be returned for retyping with an acceptable typeface.

Authors not fully acquainted with proper English usage should have their manuscripts read by a colleague proficient in English before submission of the manuscript. On their acceptance, manuscripts will, if necessary, be revised for English style and language. Should the change be extensive, the manuscripts will be returned to the authors for retyping. Webster's New International Dictionary or the Oxford English Dictionary should be consulted for spelling. Latin plurals should not be used if the English equivalent has become the accepted form, e.g. formulas not formulae. Use of hyphens, capital letters and numbers written or spelled out (e.g. 6 or six) should be consistent throughout the manuscript. Words at the end of a line should not be hyphenated. Latin words should be italicized (e.g. in vitro, in vivo, i.e., per se, etc.).

Ensure that the letter ‘l' and digit ‘1' (also letter ‘O' and digit ‘0') have been used properly.

 

1.3. Abbreviations

Abbreviations are a hindrance for the reader. Use as few abbreviations as far as possible and write out names of compounds, receptors, procedures, etc., in full throughout the text of the manuscript. Abbreviations must be written in complete form when they first appear in the manuscript and put in the parenthesis and then can be used throughout the manuscript. 

2. Organization and style of manuscripts

Authors should consult a current issue of the journal the general manner of presentation. Manuscripts should be written in clear, concise English. Terms that are not generally understood and insider's jargon should be avoided.

 

2.1. Full-length manuscripts and short communications

2.1.1. General

The manuscript of a short communication (which should not exceed 4 pages in print, i.e. aprox. 2000-2300 words including abstract, legends and references) and a full-length paper should be arranged as follows:

Title page (first page): title (not exceeding 100 characters including space between words); surname(s) of author(s), preceded by one name spelled out in full; name and address of the establishment where the work was done; name, full postal address, telephone, fax number and e-mail address of the author to whom proofs and other correspondence should be sent. Second page: abstract and keywords (indexing terms, normally 3-6 items). The abstract should include: the reason why the experiments were done, a very brief description of the experiments (including species, tissue, procedures, etc.), followed by the main results, and finally, a conclusion giving the relevance of the results to the question asked. The abstract must be completely self-explanatory. All original articles and reviews or all manuscripts should start with an abstract less than 250 words  (150 words for short communication). No footnotes and subtitles may be used and a reference, if cited, must be given in full.

Third page onward, body of the manuscript, divided in to the following sections: 1. Introduction: The introduction should assume that the reader is knowledgeable in the field and should therefore be as brief as possible. State the purpose of the article and summarize the rationale for the study or, observation. Give only strictly pertinent references and do not include data or coclusion from the work being reported.

 

2.1.2. Materials and methods

Describe your selection of the observational or experimental subjects (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly. Identify the age, sex, and other important characteristics of the subjects. The definition and relevance of race and ethinicity are ambiguous. Authors should be particularly careful about using these categories. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in paprantheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Procedures detail that has been published previously should be referred to by citation. When a modified procedure is used, only the author's modifications of the previously published method need to be given in detail. SI units should be used throughout the text. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic names (s), dose (s), and route (s) of administration. Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all study elements, including the protocol (study population, interventions or exposures, outcomes, and the rationale for statistical analysis), assignment of interventions major study elements, including the protocol (study population, interventions or exposures, outcomes, and the rationale for statistical analysis), assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding). Authors submitting review manuscripts should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract. Reports of experiments involving patients and healthy volunteers must demonstrate the steps taken to obtain consent and to maintain confidentiality. The procedures followed must be in accordance with institutional, regional, international guidelines and conform to accepted ethical standards.

2.1.3. Results

Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainly (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P-value, which fails to convey important quantitative information.

Report complications of treatment. Give numbers of observations. Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). Specify the statistical methods used to analyze the data. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid non technical uses of technical terms in statistics.

2.1.4. Discussion

Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the results section. Include in the Discussion section the implications of the findings and their limitations, including implications for further research. Relate the observations to other relevant studies. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the data. In particular, authors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analysis. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.

2.1.5. Acknowledgements

These should be included at the end of the text and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies.

2.1.6. References

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are 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.

Only references closely related to the author's work should be listed and these should be confined to published articles or those accepted for publication and in press. If applicable, list previous related papers published in Acta Medica Iranica in the references. Citation of submitted manuscripts, unpublished data and personal communications should be avoided, but if essential, they should be cited parenthetically in the text (e.g., Tanaka JA., pers. Comm.). In such cases, the authors must obtain permission from the data owner to quote his or her unpublished work. Journal abbreviations should conform to those in the latest edition of Index Medicus. All authors should be quoted. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.

Examples of references:

If number of authors is more than 6, write et. al.

1. Nakamura Y, Kitamura Y, Sumiyoshi Y, Naito N, Kan S, Ushio S, et al. Involvement of 5-HT2A receptor hyperfunction in the anxiety-like behavior induced by doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide combination treatment in rats. J Pharmacol Sci 2018;138:192-7.
2. Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar publishers; 1996.
3. Phillips SJ, Whisnant Jp. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: patho-physiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd edition. New York: Raven Press; 1995:465-78.
4. Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct  15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.

2.1.7. Tables

Tables should be typed on separate pages and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes indicated by lower case letters, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table. Footnotes should not include extensive experimental details. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully.

2.1.8. Illustrations

Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed. Send sharp, glossy, photographic prints, no larger than 203×254 mm. All four copies of the manuscript must include photocopies of the figures, grouped on A4 pages, to enable the referees to obtain an overview of the paper. If the photocopies are insufficiently clear for the referees to see the detail, glossy prints must also be submitted.

Letters, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Each figure should have a self-adhesive label on its back indicating the number of the figure, author's name, and top of the figure. Human subjects must not be identifiable in photographs, or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. The original source of a previously published figure must be acknowledged. Written permission from the copyright holder is required, except for public documents. Legends for illustrations should be typed using double spacing, starting on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. Symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters used to identify parts of the illustrations must be identified and explained in the legend.