General Information

• State the type of submission (Original Article, Review, Case Report, etc) on the up right corner of title page.
• Manuscript should be formatted as described below, in this particular order: Title Page, Abstract, Text, Acknowledgments, Funding Sources, Disclosures, References, Figure Legends, Tables, and Figures.
• Authors must adhere to acceptable use of American English and syntax.
• Maximum Word Length: 6000 words, including title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and figure legends.
• Maximum Number of References: 50.
• Maximum Number of Figures and Figure Legends: 8.
• Manuscript should be typed double-spaced, with a 1-inch margin on all sides.
• Define acronyms and abbreviations at first appearance, including in abstract.
• Cite references, figures, and tables in numeric order.
• Acceptable figure formats include GIF, TIFF, EPS, JPEG, and single slides of Power Point. Formats NOT supported are as follows: Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), Bitmap (.bmp), PICT (.pict), Excel (.xls), Photoshop (.psd), Canvas (.cnv), CorelDRAW (.cdr), and locked or encrypted PDFs.
• Use SI units of measure. A more conventionally used measurement may follow in parentheses.
• The JCDR Editors reserve the right to make corrections, both literary and technical, to the papers. Authors should keep a complete copy; rejected manuscripts will not be returned.

Title Page

The title page (page 1) should contain these elements:

• Type of submission (Original Article, Review, Case Report, etc).
• Full title. Please note to define acronyms and abbreviations.
• In addition to the full title, authors should provide a short version (running head), not more than 100 characters long, including spaces.
• Authorship Details: include authors’ names, academic degrees, and affiliations.
• Authorship implies a substantial contribution to concept and design, analysis and/or interpretation of data; critical writing or revising the intellectual content; and final approval of the version to be published. Give names as initial(s) only 2 followed by surnames, which should be clearly linked to the respective addresses, if more than one, by use of the following symbols: *, †, ‡, §, ¶) which, for more than six addresses, may be doubled as follows: **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ¶¶, etc. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship and their respective contributions should be listed, with their permission, in 'Acknowledgements' or an appendix. Technical assistance should be acknowledged in a separate paragraph.
• Name and complete address for correspondence (include street name and address as well as post office box, email, and address for reprints if different from correspondence).
• The total word count of manuscript.
• The corresponding author is responsible for reading the proofs and communicating with the other authors, and informing the JCDR editorial of any change in details until the paper is published. JCDR reserves the right to contact another author if the corresponding author is not available to check proofs.

Abstract and Key Words

• Original Articles and Review Articles should include an abstract. Other types of manuscript submissions should not include an abstract.
• Do not cite references in the abstract.
• Limit use of acronyms and abbreviations. Define at first use acronym or abbreviation in parenthesis.
• Limit within 300 words.
• In the case of Original Articles, it should be structured under the following headings:

Background – rationale for study Methods and Results – brief presentation of methods and presentation of significant results Conclusions – succinct statement of data interpretation

• Provide no more than six keywords in alphabetical order following the Summary

Main Text

• Main headings of text should include Introduction, Materials and Methods (or Patients and methods or Patients, materials, and methods, if appropriate), Results, and Discussion, and be organized in this particular order.
• Abbreviations must be defined at first mention.
• Experimental animals: State the species, strain, number used, and pertinent descriptive characteristics. When describing surgical procedures, identify the preanesthetic and anesthetic agents used and the amounts, concentrations, 3 routes, and frequency of administration of each. Paralytic agents are not considered acceptable substitutes for anesthetics. For other invasive procedures on animals, report the analgesic or tranquilizing drug used. If none were used, provide justification for exclusion.
• Human studies: Indicate that the study was approved by an institutional review committee and that the subjects gave informed consent.
• Drugs and Devices: In the Methods, the complete name and location of the manufacturer must be supplied for all reagents, equipment, and devices used. In all other instances, the generic rather than trademark names of all drugs and devices.

Acknowledgements

Authors should obtain written permission from all individuals who are listed in the “Acknowledgments” section of the manuscript, because readers may infer their endorsement of data and conclusions. The corresponding author must sign the Acknowledgment Section of the Copyright Transfer Agreement, certifying that (1) all persons who have made substantial contributions in the manuscript (e.g., data collection, analysis, or writing or editing assistance), but who do not fulfill authorship criteria, are named with their specific contributions in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript; (2) all persons named in the Acknowledgments section have provided the corresponding author with written permission to be named in the manuscript; and (3) if an Acknowledgments section is not included, no other persons have made substantial contributions to this manuscript.

Funding Sources

All sources of support for the research should be listed under this heading.
All grant funding agency abbreviations should be completely spelled out.

Disclosures

All potential conflicts of interest must be stated within the text of the manuscript, under this heading. This pertains to relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or other corporations whose products or services are related to the subject matter of the article. Such relationships include, but are not limited to, employment by an industrial concern, ownership of stock, membership on a standing advisory council or committee, being on the board of directors, or being publicly associated with the company or its products. Other areas of real or perceived conflict of interest could include receiving honoraria or consulting fees or receiving grants or funds from such corporations or individuals representing such corporations.

References

• Only papers closely related to the author's work should be referenced; 4 exhaustive lists should be avoided. Verify all references for completeness and accuracy, and format references as a plain, unstructured list.
• We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.

EndNote reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

• Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the author.
• Verify all references against original sources.
• List all authors for each reference; do not use “et al.”

Example of a good reference:
1. Smith HJ, Allen S, Yu W, Fard S. This is the title. Circulation. 2004; 104:276-308. For further examples, see the 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals' at http://www.icmje.org/index.html.

• Cite references in numeric order according to first mention in the text. In the text, ensure accuracy of spelling and details of publication, i.e., the text citation should match the reference information.
• Personal communications, unpublished observations, and submitted manuscripts are not legitimate references. They must be cited in the text only (not in the reference list) as follows: author name, degree(s) held, unpublished data, year.
• Abstracts may be cited only if they are the sole source and must be identified in the reference as “Abstract.”
• References must be from a full length publication in a peer reviewed journal.
• “In press” citations must have been accepted for publication and the name of the journal or book publisher must be included.

Figures

• Figure parts should be clearly labeled. Letters must be uniform in size and style within each figure, and when possible, between figures. (The font size must be 8 point or higher.)
• Avoid headings on the figure. Heading information should appear in the figure legend.
• Line art should not contain hairlines, which are hard to reproduce.
• Supply a scale bar with photomicrographs.
• Provide double-spaced copy for figure legends on a separate page.
• Symbols and abbreviations must be defined in the figure or its legend.
• Limit white space between the panel and panel label.
• Figures should be sized as close as possible to their final print size. Please note that very few figures qualify for a 2-column format.

Tables

• Tables should be kept to a minimum and contain only essential data. Verify
• nformation for accuracy and consistency with the manuscript's text.
• The title (legend) of the table should contain only minimal text. Any other information, such as definitions of abbreviations, probability statistics, etc., should be in the table footnote; if symbols are necessary, they should be the same as given for the authors' details above. Headings and columns should be laid out clearly; avoid use of sub-headings. Avoid wordy, over-full tables. Any blank cells should have a dash.
• Begin each table on a separate page, double-spaced. Please remember that tables prepared with Excel are not accepted unless embedded within your text document.
• The table number should be arabic, followed by a period and brief title.
• Use same size type as in text.
• Indicate footnotes in this order: *, †, ‡, §, ||, #, ** etc.
• Do not use vertical lines between columns. Use horizontal lines above and below the column headings and at the bottom of the table only. Use extra space to 6 delineate sections within the table. 

Ethical Policy

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they contain original material, which the manuscript and material within the manuscript have not been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere in whole or in part in any language, including publicly accessible web sites or e-print servers, except as an abstract. The authors also certify that any and all other work in preparation, submitted, in press, or published that is potentially overlapping either in the actual data presented or in the conceptual approach is enclosed along with the original submission. Any material within the manuscript that has appeared elsewhere must be cross-referenced and permission to use or adapt the material must be received, in writing from the copyright holder. 

Guidelines for Clinical Trials

In accordance with the Clinical Trial Registration Statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Circulation. 2005;111:1337) and (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMe078110), all clinical trials in Circulation must be registered in a public trials registry at or before the onset of participant enrollment. This requirement applies to all clinical trials that begin enrollment after July 1, 2005.

Research is considered to be a clinical trial if it involves prospective assignment of human subjects to an intervention or comparison group to study the relation between a health-related intervention and a health outcome.

The registry must be accessible to the public at no charge, searchable, open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization. The registry must include the following information: a unique identifying number, a statement of the intervention(s), study hypothesis, definition of primary and secondary outcome measurements, eligibility criteria, target number of subjects, funding source, contact information for the principal investigator, and key dates (registration date, start date, and completion date). The registry sponsored by the United States National Library of Medicine (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov) meets these requirements and is recommended by the editors. Other registries are acceptable if they meet these requirements. In addition to www.clinicaltrials.gov, the following registries are recommended by the ICMJE: 1) http://isrctn.org 2) www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm 3) www.actr.org.au 4) www.trialregister.nl In accordance with the ICMJE’s recommendation, we will also accept registration of clinical trials in any of the primary registers that participate in the World Health Organization’s International Clinical Trial Registry Platform. Primary registers are WHO selected registers managed by not-for-profit entities that will accept registrations for any interventional trials, delete duplicate entries from their own register, and provide data directly to the WHO. Please note that registration in any WHO partner registers is insufficient. The authors will be requested to provide the exact URL and unique identification number for the 7 trial registration at the time of submission. Since this information will be published in a footnote on the first page of the article, we ask that you include the URL and identification number on the title page of your manuscript.

Clinical trial reports should also comply with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) and include a flow diagram presenting the enrollment, intervention allocation, follow-up, and data analysis with number of subjects for each (http://www.consort-statement.org/?o=1011). Please also refer specifically to the CONSORT Checklist of items to include when reporting a randomized clinical trial.

Results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the primary registration resides will not be considered prior publication if they are presented in the form of a brief abstract (<500 words or less) or a table.

Guidelines for Meta-Analyses

See “Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology: A Proposal for Reporting,” JAMA. 2000; 283: 2008-2012.

Guidelines for Studies on Diagnostic Tests

See “The STARD Statement for Reporting Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy: Explanation and Elaboration,” Ann Intern Med. 2003; 138: 40-44.

Guidelines for Human Phenotype-Genotype Association or Linkage Studies

1. Reporting issues.
   1. Report process for selecting genes and SNPs.
   2. Report Hardy-Weinberg statistics or p-values and method of calculating same.
   3. Refer to existing public domain websites for the Human Gene Ontology name and the rs number for SNPs.
      
      http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/SNP/
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=Snp
      
      
   4. Describe genotyping methods. If numerous primers have been used, please include them in an online supplement.
2. False positive and false negative concerns.
   Given well-described problems with both false positive and false negative associations, phenotype-genotype association studies should meet some or all of the criteria below: 8
   1. Phenotype is clearly defined, is heritable, and if a quantitative phenotype is reported, reproducibility data are provided.
   2. The sample size is adequate to detect a SNP or haplotype with a modest effect. For genotype-trait associations, provide an estimate of the effect size that could be detected with power 0.80 or higher with the allele frequency and sample size reported.ı
   3. Since multiple statistical testing methods are frequently used in genotypingphenotyping studies, please include specifics of the primary model(s) tested. Nonessential secondary models may be published as electronic data supplements. Clinically relevant confounders should be included in multivariable models or residuals.
3. Review criteria for human linkage studies.
   Manuscripts should include the following:
   1. Identifying plausible candidate genes under the linkage peak.
   2. Follow-up fine mapping to narrow the region of linkage, &/or genotyping some of the candidate genes under the linkage peak.
   3. Replication data from another sample.

Guidelines for Genomic and Proteomic Studies

Preparation of Data Submitted:

Data should follow the MIAME checklist (for more information see http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html).
Accessibility of Data: Authors of papers that include genomic, proteomic, or other high-throughput data are required to make their data easily accessible for the reviewers and the editors during the review process.

You may submit your data to the NCBI gene expression and hybridization array data repository (GEO, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and provide the GEO accession number; or,
You may provide a link to a secure or publicly accessible website which hosts the data. Prior to publication, the data must be submitted and an accession number obtained. Access to the information in the database must be available at the time of publication. GEO has a web-based submission route, suitable for a small number of samples, or a batch submission tool (called SOFT). GEO is accessible from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/. The submission FAQ is available at 9 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/geo/info/faq.html.

Guidelines for Proteins and Nucleic Acid Sequences

Newly reported nucleotide or protein sequences must be deposited in GenBank or EMBL databases, and an accession number must be obtained. Access to the information in the database must be available at the time of publication. Authors are responsible for arranging release of data at the time of publication. The authors must also provide a statement in the manuscript that this sequence has been scanned against the database and all sequences with significant relatedness to the new sequence identified (and their accession numbers included in the text of the manuscript).

GenBankıı
National Center for Biotechnology Information
8600 Rockville Pike, Building 38AıRoom 8N-805ıBethesda, MD 20894
Tel: (301) 496-2475
On the web at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html

EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Submissions
European Bioinformatics Institute
Hinxton Hall Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK
Tel.: 44-1223-494401; Fax: 44-1223-494472ıe-mail: support@ebi.ac.uk
On the web at: http://www.ebi.ac.ukıı

DNA Data Bank of Japan
Center for Information Biology National Institute of GeneticsıMishima, Shizuoka,
411, Japan
Tel.: 81-559-81-6853; Fax: 81-559-81-6849ı
On the web at: http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp

Submission to any data bank is sufficient to ensure entry in all.