Author Guidelines
Editorial Policies for Authors
Dear author:
It is strongly recommended to register in the above section, however for your convenience we provide a standard author account with which you can log in as an author and process your submission. The account is:
User Name: author; Password: author
After logged in please enter New Submission and follow the 5-step instruction to complete your submission.
Alternatively the manuscript can be sent to the journal official email: editor@najms.net. Please indicate your detailed inforamtion.
Most of NAJMS’s editorial policies for authors are summarized in these instructions. Citations and links to the AMA Manual of Style and other publications with additional information are also provided.
Authorship Criteria and Contributions and Authorship Form
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article.
Each author should be accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done. In addition, each author should be able to identify which coauthors are responsible for specific other parts of the work and should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of any coauthors.
All those designated as authors should meet all 4 criteria for authorship, and all who meet the 4 criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all 4 criteria should be acknowledged (see Acknowledgment Section).
All authors (ie, the corresponding author and each coauthor) must read, complete, and submit an electronic Authorship Form with signed statements on Authorship Responsibility, Criteria, and Contributions; Confirmation of Reporting Conflicts of Interest and Funding; and Publishing Agreement.
For reports of original data and systematic reviews, authors’ specific contributions will be published in the Acknowledgment section (see Manuscript Preparation and Submission Requirements, Acknowledgment Section). All other persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in this manuscript (eg, data collection, analysis, or writing or editing assistance) but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria should be named with their specific contributions and affiliations in an Acknowledgment in the manuscript. Written permission to include the names of individuals in the Acknowledgment section must be obtained (see Manuscript Preparation and Submission Requirements, Acknowledgment Section).
The authors also must certify that the manuscript represents valid work and that neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under their authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere (see also Duplicate/Previous Publication or Submission).1 Authors of manuscripts reporting original data or systematic reviews must provide an access to data statement from at least 1 named author, often the corresponding author (see also Data Access and Responsibility). If requested, authors should be prepared to provide the data and must cooperate fully in obtaining and providing the data on which the manuscript is based for examination by the editors or their assignees.
Role of the Corresponding Author
The corresponding author (or coauthor designee) will serve on behalf of all coauthors as the primary correspondent with the editorial office during the submission and review process. If the manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author will review an edited manuscript and proof, make decisions regarding release of information in the manuscript to the news media, federal agencies, or both, and will be identified as the corresponding author in the published article. The corresponding author also must complete the Acknowledgment statement part of the Authorship Form confirming that all persons who have contributed substantially but who are not authors are identified in the Acknowledgment section and that written permission from each person acknowledged has been obtained (see sample Authorship Form and Acknowledgment Section).
Changes in Authorship
Authors should determine the order of authorship among themselves and should settle any disagreements before submitting their manuscript. Changes in should be approved by all authors. Any requests for such changes in authorship after initial manuscript submission and before publication should be explained in writing to the editor in a letter or email from all authors.
Group Authorship
If authorship is attributed to a group (either solely or in addition to 1 or more individual authors), all members of the group must meet the full criteria and requirements for authorship as described above, and all group member authors must complete Authorship Forms (see sample Authorship Form and ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest).
Conflicts of Interest and Financial Disclosures
A conflict of interest may exist when an author (or the author’s institution or employer) has financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence (or bias) the author’s decisions, work, or manuscript. All authors are required to complete and submit the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Note: This form will be requested after a manuscript has been submitted, but authors should also include conflict of interest disclosures in the Acknowledgment section of the submitted manuscript.
Authors are expected to provide detailed information about all relevant financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations (other than those affiliations listed in the title page of the manuscript) including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, funding and grants received or pending, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued.
Funding/Support and Role of Funder/Sponsor
All financial and material support for the research and the work should be clearly and completely identified in an Acknowledgment section of the manuscript. At the time of submission, information on the funding source must also be completed via the JAMA online manuscript submission and review system. The specific role of the funding organization or sponsor in each of the following should be specified: “design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.”
Acknowledgment Section
The “Acknowledgment section” is the general term for the list of contributions, disclosures, credits, and other information included at the end of the text of a manuscript but before the references. All other persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (eg, data collection, analysis, and writing or editing assistance) but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria should be named with their specific contributions in an Acknowledgment in the manuscript.
Duplicate/Previous Publication or Submission
Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. Copies of related or possibly duplicative materials (ie, those containing substantially similar content or using the same or similar data) that have been previously published or are under consideration elsewhere must be provided at the time of manuscript submission (see Previous or Planned Meeting Presentation or Release of Information).1(pp151-152)
Public Access
Based on the current policy of NAJMS, all research articles are made free access online after publication on the journal website, and all articles are made free access on the day of publication.
Unauthorized Use
Published manuscripts become the permanent property of the Acmes Publications Inc. and may not be published elsewhere without written permission. Unauthorized use of the NAJMS name, logo, or any content for commercial purposes or to promote commercial goods and services (in any format, including print, video, audio, and digital) is not permitted and subject to legal consequences.
Categories of Articles
NAJMS accept in general the following categories of manuscripts:
Original Research
Review
Case Report
Commentary
Manuscript Submission
All manuscripts must be submitted online via the NAJMS online manuscript submission and review system. The methods are:
- Email with all attachments to: editor@najms.net
- Najms.com
- Online submission system
At the time of submission, complete contact information (affiliation, postal/mail address, email address) for the corresponding author is required. After the manuscript is submitted, the corresponding author will receive an acknowledgment confirming receipt and a manuscript number. Authors will be informed the status of their manuscripts by the editors.
As part of the requirement, the authors for publication should complete the Authorship Form and submit by fax or through email.
Publication Fee
North American Journal of Medicine and Science charges the corresponding author(s) a publication fee of $100 for each 300 words (covering figures and tables if any) prior to the reviewing process. The fee covers the submission, editing and processing expenses. The fee should be sent to the NAJMS office: ACMES Publications, 1500 District Avenue, Burlington, MA 01803.
The publication fee can be reduced if the first and last authors are members of the NAJMS or an appeal letter to reduce the fee has been approved. Please send your appeal letter to editor@najms.net.
Cover Letter
Include a cover letter and complete contact information for the corresponding author (affiliation, postal/mail address, email address, and telephone number) and whether the authors have published or submitted any related papers from the same study (see Duplicate/Previous Publication or Submission).
Manuscript Style and Formats
Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the AMA Manual of Style, 10th edition,1 and/or the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Title
Titles should be concise, specific, and informative and should contain the key points of the work. Please limit the length of titles to 150 characters for reports of research and other major articles and 100 characters for Editorials, Viewpoints, Commentaries, and Letters. For scientific manuscripts, overly general titles are not desirable and questions and declarative sentences should be avoided. For reports of clinical trials, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews, include the type of study as a subtitle (eg, A Randomized Clinical Trial, A Meta-analysis, A Systematic Review). For reports of other types of research, do not include study type or design in the title or subtitle.
Author information
The article should provide the full names, highest academic degrees, and affiliations of all authors. The corresponding author should be marked with star. If an author’s affiliation has changed since the work was done, the new affiliation also should be listed.
Abstracts
Include a non-structured abstract of no more than 350 words for all articles.
Figures and Tables Format
Figures and Tables will be adopted to NAJMS format.
Abbreviations
Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Expand all abbreviations at first mention in the text, or list the common abbreviations at the end of the article.
Methods and Statistics
Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to reproduce the reported results. Put a general description of methods in the “Methods” section. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the article and to assess its support. Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics. Provide a brief description of statistical tests used and levels of significance to the Statistical Analysis paragraph in the Methods section.
Reproduced Material
NAJMS promotes original documents and does not republish material from other publishers such as text, tables, figures, unless the authors can establish the necessity under rare circumstances.
References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation. Number references in the order they appear in the text; do not alphabetize. In text, including tables and legends, identify references with superscript Arabic numerals.
When listing references, follow AMA style and abbreviate names of journals according to the journals list in PubMed, except the issue number should be omitted. List all authors and/or editors up to 6; if more than 6, list the first 3 followed by “et al.”
- Frye RE, Tippett M, Delhey L, etc. Test-Retest Reliability and Validity of the Autism Symptoms Questionnaire. N A J Med Sci. 2015;8:149-153.
- Youngster I, Russell GH, Pindar C, Ziv-Baran T, Sauk J, Hohmann EL. Oral, capsulized, frozen fecal microbiota transplantation for relapsing Clostridium difficile infection. JAMA. 2014;312:1772-1778.
Wansink J, van der Kleij. Vertebral-Body Erosion in Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(9):10-12.
- Murray CJL. Maximizing antiretroviral therapy in developing countries: the dual challenge of efficiency and quality. JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.16376.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS proposals to implement certain disclosure provisions of the Affordable Care Act. http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=4221. Accessed January 30, 2012.
- McPhee SJ, Winker MA, Rabow MW, Pantilat SZ, Markowitz AJ, eds. Care at the Close of Life: Evidence and Experience. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Medical; 2011.
For more examples of electronic references, please check AMA Manual of Style.
Privacy Statement
Patients and Study Participants
Patient’s privacy right should not be violated without informed consent. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived either with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws.
Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, authors should assure that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
Authors and Reviewers
Manuscripts must be reviewed with due respect for authors’ confidentiality. Authors’ rights may be violated by disclosure of the confidential details during review of their manuscript. Reviewers also have rights to confidentiality, which must be respected by the editor. Confidentiality may have to be breached if dishonesty or fraud is alleged but otherwise must be honored.
Editors must not disclose information about manuscripts (including their receipt, content, status in the reviewing process, criticism by reviewers, or ultimate fate) to anyone other than the authors and reviewers. This includes requests to use the materials for legal proceedings.
Editors must make clear to their reviewers that manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and are the private property of the authors. Therefore, reviewers and members of the editorial staff must respect the authors’ rights by not publicly discussing the authors’ work or appropriating their ideas before the manuscript is published. Reviewers must not be allowed to make copies of the manuscript for their files and must be prohibited from sharing it with others, except with the editor’s permission. Reviewers should return or destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting reviews. Editors should not keep copies of rejected manuscripts.
Reviewer comments should not be published or otherwise publicized without permission of the reviewer, author, and editor.
NAJMS reviewers should remain anonymous. The reviewers’ identity must not be revealed to the author or anyone else without the reviewers’ permission.
Sometime NAJMS publish reviewers’ comments with the manuscript which should be adopted with the consent of both the authors and the reviewers. In this circumstance, reviewers’ comments should be sent to other persons reviewing the same manuscript. Reviewers also may be notified of the editor’s decision to accept or reject a manuscript.
