Submissions

Author Guidelines

AIM AND SCOPE

Modern medicine is thought to be in a paradigmatic crisis in terms of the accelerative demographic, epidemiologic, social, and discursive aspects. The ontological, epistemological, and methodological gaps in biomedicine lead to a chaotic condition in health beliefs and behaviors. The International Journal of Body, Mind and Culture (IJBMC) is an international, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary medical journal and a fully “online first” publication focused on interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and conceptual research. The researches should focus on paradigmatic shift and/or humanizing medical practice.

All interdisciplinary researches, such as social sciences (e.g., sociology, anthropology, and psychology), humanities (e.g., literature, religion, history, and philosophy), and arts (e.g., music and cinema), which have an impact on medical education and practice, are acceptable.

The IJBMC team is based mainly in Germany and Iran, although we also have editors elsewhere in Europe and in the US.

Instruction to Authors

MANUSCRIPTS

The website is updated weekly with IJBMC’s latest theoretical and original research, case reports, education, news, and comment articles. All IJBMC research is published with open access. There is an exception for theoretical papers; they can exceed the word limitation of the journal.

The mission of IJBMC is to lead the debate on health and to engage, inform, and stimulate doctors, researchers, and other health professionals in ways that will design more humanistic health promotion and clinical settings. We aim to help health system managers and therapists to make more integrative decisions.

STUDY DESIGN

We advise authors to design studies based on the appropriate guidelines. In randomized controlled trials, the CONSORT guideline (www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement), in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the PRISMA (formally QUOROM) guideline (www.prisma-statement.org), in studies of diagnostic accuracy, the STARD guideline (www.stard-statement.org), in observational studies in epidemiology, the STROBE guideline (www.strobe-statement.org), and in meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology, the MOOSE guideline (www.consort-statement.org/index.aspx?o=1347) should be used.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Researches involving human beings or animals must adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki

(www.wma.net/e/ethicsunit/helsinki.htm).

Types of Articles

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

• Original Articles are scientific reports of the results of original clinical research. The text is limited to 3000 words (excluding abstracts and references), with a structured abstract, a maximum of 5 tables and figures (total), and up to 30 references.
• Qualitative Researches focus to clear underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. The text is limited to 3500 words, with an abstract, a maximum of 5 tables and figures (total), and up to 30 references.
• Short Communication Articles are short scientific entities often dealing with methodological problems or with byproducts of larger research projects and are suitable for the presentation of research that extends previously published research. A short communication is for a concise, but independent report representing a significant contribution to cardiology. Short communication is not intended to publish preliminary results. It should be no more than 1000 words, and could include 2 figures or tables. It should have at least 15 references. Short communications are also sent to peer review.

CLINICAL CASES

• Brief Reports usually describe one to three patients or a single family. The text is limited to 1000 words, a maximum of 5 tables and figures (total), and up to 15 references. It does not include an abstract.

REVIEW ARTICLES

All review articles undergo the same peer-review and editorial process as original research reports. The text is limited to 7000 words, with unlimited number of figures, tables, and references.

OTHER SUBMISSIONS

• Editorials usually provide commentary and analysis concerning an article in the issue of the Journal in which they appear. They may include an illustration or table. They are nearly always solicited, although occasionally, unsolicited editorials may be considered. Editorials are limited to 1200 words, with up to 15 references.
• Book Reviews are generally solicited.
• Letters to the Editor are considered for publication (subject to editing and abridgment) provided they do not contain material that has been submitted or published elsewhere. The text, not including references, must not exceed 250 words if it is in reference to a recent Journal article, or 500 words in all other cases. A letter must have no more than 5 references and 1 figure or table. It must not be signed by more than three authors. Letters referring to a recent Journal article must be received within three weeks of its publication.

SUBMISSION

• Only online submission is acceptable. Please submit online at: http://ijbmc.org
• The manuscripts should be divided into the following sections: (1) Title page as a separate file, (2) Main text with Abstract and Keywords in a separate page, some parts according to the type of manuscript, References, Figure legends, Appendices, and Tables and Figures (figures should be submitted in separate files) if present.
• Please supply a word count in title page.
• Use normal page margins (2.5 cm), and double-space throughout.
• Prepare your manuscript text using a word processing package (save in .doc or .rtf format). Submissions of text in the form of PDF files are not permitted.

COVER LETTER

A covering letter signed by all authors should identify the corresponding author (include the address, telephone number, fax number, and
e-mail address). Please make clear that the final manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors, and that the authors accept full responsibility for the design and conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish.

AUTHORSHIP

As stated in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/#privacy), credit for authorship requires substantial contributions to: 1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND 2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND 3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND 4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Each author must sign authorship form attesting that he or she fulfills the authorship criteria. There should be a statement in manuscript explaining contribution of each author to the work. Acknowledgments will be limited to one page of International Journal of Body, Mind and Culture space, and those acknowledged will be listed only once.

Any change in authorship after submission must be approved in writing by all authors.

ASSURANCES

In appropriate places in the manuscript please provide the following items:

• If applicable, a statement that the research protocol was approved by the relevant institutional review boards or ethics committees, and that all human participants gave written informed consent
• The source of funding for the study
• The identity of those who analyzed the data
• Financial disclosure, or a statement that none is necessary

TITLE PAGE

With the manuscript, provide a page giving the title of the paper; titles should be concise and descriptive (not declarative). Title page should include an abbreviated running title of 40 characters, the names of the authors, including the complete first names and no more than two graduate degrees, the name of the department and institution in which the work was done, and the institutional affiliation of each author. The name, post address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author should be separately addressed. Any grant support that requires acknowledgment should be mentioned on this page. Word count of abstract and main text, and number of tables, figures, and references should be mentioned on title page. If the work was derived from a project or dissertation, its code should also be stated.

Affiliation model: Academic Degree, Department, Institute, City, Country.

Example: Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

ABSTRACT

Provide, on a separate page in main text, an abstract of no more than 250 words. This abstract should briefly describe the problem being addressed in the study, how the study was performed, the salient results, and what the authors conclude from the results, respectively. In total, 3 to 10 keywords may be included. Keywords are preferred to be in accordance with MeSH (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh) terms.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors of research articles should disclose, at the time of submission, any financial arrangement they may have with a company whose product is pertinent to the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Such information will be held in confidence while the paper is under review and will not influence the editorial decision, but if the article is accepted for publication, a disclosure will appear with
the article.

Because the essence of reviews and editorials is selection and interpretation of the literature, the International Journal of Body, Mind and Culture expects that authors of such articles will not have any significant financial interest in a company (or its competitor) that makes a product discussed in the article.

REVIEW AND ACTION

Submitted papers will be examined for the evidence of plagiarism using some automated plagiarism detection service. Manuscripts are examined by members of the editorial staff, and are sent to external peer-reviewers under a double-blinded peer-review process. We encourage authors to suggest the names of possible reviewers, but we reserve the right of final selection. Communications about manuscripts will be sent after the review when the editorial decision-making process is complete. After acceptance, the editorial system makes a final language and scientific edition. No substantial change is permitted by authors after acceptance. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to answer probable questions and approve the final version.

COPYRIGHT

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

4. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
5. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
6. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

PUBLICATION FEE

The fee for publication in this journal will be calculated and informed the authors based on the word count of the article.

JOURNAL STYLE

Tables

Provide double-space tables and a title for each.

Figures

Figures should be no larger than 125 (height) x 180 (width) mm (5 x 7 inches), and should be submitted in a separate file from that of the manuscript. The name of image or figure files should be the same as the order that was used in the manuscript (fig1, fig2, and etc.). Only jpeg, tif, gif, and eps image formats are acceptable with CMYK model for colored image at a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Graphs must have the minimum quality: clear text, proportionate, not 3 dimensional, and without disharmonic language. Electron photomicrographs should have internal scale markers.

If photographs of patients are used, either the subjects should not be identifiable or the photographs should be accompanied by written permission to use them. Permission forms are available from the Editorial Office.

Medical and scientific illustrations will be created or recreated in-house. If an outside illustrator creates the figure, the Journal of Body, Mind and Culture reserves the right to modify or redraw it to meet its specifications for publication. The author must explicitly acquire all rights to the illustration from the artist in order to publish the illustration. Legends for figures should be an editable text as caption and should not appear on the figures.

References

The American Psychological Association
(6^th ed., 2^nd printing) style of referencing should be used. References must be double-spaced.

Units of Measurement

Authors should express all measurements in conventional units, with Système International (SI) units given in parentheses throughout the text. Figures and tables should use conventional units, with conversion factors given in legends or footnotes. In accordance with the Uniform Requirements; however, manuscripts containing only SI units will not be returned for that reason.

Abbreviations

Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are discouraged. Consult the Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (6^th ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994) for lists of standard abbreviations. Except for units of measurement, the first time an abbreviation appears, it should
be preceded by the words for which it stands.

Drug Names

Generic names should generally be used, except for studies on comparative effects of different brands. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses in the Methods section.