Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

You will be asked to upload files, identify co-authors, and provide information such asthe title and abstract.

When filling out the forms, provide as many details as possible in order to help our editors evaluate your work. Once you begin, you can save your submission and come back to it later. You will be able to review and correct any information before you submit.

Please provide the following details to help us manage your submission in our system.

Submission Process Overview

1. Submission: Authors submit their research paper to the SJM.

2. Editorial Review: The SJM Editor-in-Chief or a Section Editor assesses the paper's suitability for review, considering factors like originality, relevance, and methodology.

3. Reviewer Selection: The handling editor then selects experts (minimum two) in the field (peers) to review the paper.

4. Review Process: Reviewers evaluate the paper for validity, significance, and originality.

5. Feedback and Revisions: Reviewers provide feedback to the handling editor, who then relays it to the authors. The authors revise the paper based on the feedback.

6. Final Decision: The handling editor, considering the reviewers' reports, decides regarding publication, which may be to accept, reject, or request more revisions.

7. Types of Review: We are using single-blind that reviewers know authors, authors do not know reviewers.

Manuscripts are considered for publication in Serican Journal of Medicine with the understanding that neither the manuscript nor any part of its text, figures, or tables have been published in, accepted for publication in, or submitted at the same time to another journal. This does not preclude consideration of a complete report that follows publication of preliminary findings elsewhere. When submitting a manuscript, the author should make a full statement to the Editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as prior or duplicate publication of the same or very similar work. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper to help the Editor decide how to deal with the matter. Serican Journal of Medicine endorses the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (ICMJE). Each manuscript will be peer reviewed by members of the Editorial Board or assigned specialty reviewers.

Peer review: All submitted manuscripts are reviewed initially by Serican Journal of Medicine editors. Manuscripts are evaluated according to the following criteria: material is original and timely, writing is clear, study methods are appropriate, data are valid, conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data, information is important, and topic has general medical interest. From these basic criteria, the editor assesses a paper's eligibility for publication. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected. Other manuscripts are sent to expert consultants for peer review. Peer reviewer identities are kept confidential. Author identities are not made known to reviewers. The existence of a manuscript under review is not revealed to anyone other than peer reviewers and editorial staff. Peer reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts they review and must not divulge any information about a specific manuscript or its content to any third party without prior permission from the journal editors. If necessary, the manuscript will be returned to the author(s) for revision(s) prior to a final decision. All attempts are made to obtain prompt reviews and a decision regarding need for revision, acceptance, or rejection.

Revisions: After receiving a decision from the Editor and revising the manuscript as instructed, the final revision should include a cover letter explaining revisions based on reviewers' comments, the final/revised manuscript, and accompanying files.

Proofs: Once your article is accepted for publication, galley proofs will be sent via e-mail to the corresponding author for correction prior to publication.

Statistical Support: Serican Journal of Medicine currently does not offer statistical support for submissions. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their statistical analyses are accurate and appropriately reported. We recommend consulting with a professional statistician if needed.

After Submitting your Manuscript/Article

Given the high volume of submissions and our thorough review process, we anticipate that it may take 2-3 weeks from the submission date to conclude the initial editorial evaluation. We strive to respond to all authors as promptly as possible and sincerely appreciate your patience during this period.

All Submissions Must Include:

Cover letter to the Editor providing corresponding author's information (name, address, telephone number, and email address) and stating the category of article the manuscript represents.

The cover letter must contain:

i) A statement confirming the paper has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium;

ii) An acknowledgment that all authors have contributed significantly and in keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, each author’s contribution to the paper is to be described, i.e., what role each author participated in;

iii) a statement confirming that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.

Free format submission

Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files - whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible (> 300 DPI). If the figures are not of sufficiently high quality your manuscript may be delayed. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.

An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.

The title page of the manuscript, including:

Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.

Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following.  We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication.

• data availability statement
• funding statement
• conflict of interest disclosure
• ethics approval statement
• patient consent statement
• permission to reproduce material from other sources
• clinical trial registration

Title page, abstract (for original research and brief report manuscripts), up to five keywords, article, references, and acknowledgments; tables and figures in separate files (tables formatted in Word and .jpg or .tiff figures). Include a legend for tables and figures.

If appropriate, a copy of the permission to reproduce previously published materials from the publisher or owner of the material; permission to use photographs of identifiable subjects; and permission for the use of personal communications.

Submitted manuscripts will not be returned. Once accepted for publication, all manuscripts are subject to editorial changes. The Editor reserves the right to edit manuscripts to comply with Serican Journal of Medicine ’s format, remove redundancies, and improve clarity without altering the meaning. Copyright of the material will be retained by the authors.

If a manuscript is accepted for publication, all authors must submit a conflict-of-interest form and one author must sign a Creative Commons License agreement on behalf of all authors. The manuscript will not be published until all documents are received.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Serican Journal of Medicine encourages authors to appropriately use technology throughout the research process. Software that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) may be used. However, it does not permit the inclusion of ML tools, such as ChatGPT, as authors. If any such tool is used to generate drafts of the submitted manuscript, it must be explicitly disclosed. These tools often use existing text and may not effectively incorporate proper citations. Borrowing text from others without proper attribution constitutes plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional. All human authors of manuscripts assisted by a ML tool are accountable for ensuring that any ideas or text derived from previously published work are appropriately and accurately cited.

Submitting Papers Rejected from Other Journals

Serican Journal of Medicine welcomes submissions of papers that may have been rejected from other journals. If reviews are available, please include them along with your responses to reviewer comments in your submission. Clearly state in your cover letter that you are including these materials. Additionally, all submissions to Serican Journal of Medicine should adhere to the required elements outlined in Manuscript Preparation.

Preprint policy 

Serican Journal of Medicine accepts articles previously published on preprint servers. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. You may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication.

Data Sharing and Data Availability: 

The SJM adopts NIH's Data Management and Sharing (DMS) policy (effective January 25, 2023) that requires NIH-funded researchers to submit a plan outlining how scientific data from their research will be managed and shared. The SJM also uses NIH's Genomic Data Sharing Policy that mandates the sharing of human and non-human genomic data. The SJM encourages/expects/mandates/mandates and peer reviews data sharing.

Funding You should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal rights, and Informed Consent

Conflict of Interest Statement

The author is responsible for disclosing any financial support or benefit that might affect the content of the manuscript or might cause a conflict of interest. When submitting the manuscript, the author must make a statement of conflict-of-interest at the end of the manuscript. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.

To ensure that the review process is free of conflicts, Editors-in-Chief will select a Section Editor when there is a conflict of interest with respect to an author. Editors-in-Chief will ensure that reviewers are free of conflict of interest with respect to an author. Reviewers will contact the editorial office to declare any potential conflicts of interest in advance of refereeing an article. Minor conflicts do not disqualify a reviewer from reporting on an article but will be taken into account when considering the referees’ recommendations.

Editors will not make any editorial decisions or get involved in the editorial process if they have any COI (financial or otherwise) for a submitted manuscript. An editor may have COI if a manuscript is submitted from their own academic department or from their institution in such situations; they should have explicit policies for managing it. When editors submit their own work to their journal, a colleague in the editorial office should manage the manuscript and the editor/author should recuse himself or herself from discussion and decisions about it.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights

All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, Editors will follow may reject the manuscript, and/or contact the author(s)’ ethics committee. On rare occasions, if the Editor has serious concerns about the ethics of a study, the manuscript may be rejected on ethical grounds, even if approval from an ethics committee has been obtained. Specifically, clinical research should be conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki). Clinical studies that do not meet the Helsinki Declaration will not be considered for publication. For human subjects, identifiable information, such as patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, and other protected health care information, should not be disclosed. For animal subjects, research should be performed based on the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The ethical treatment of all experimental animals should be maintained.

Statement of Informed Consent

Per the SJM journal policy, patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. 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, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article. Authors may be asked to submit a blank, sample copy of a subject consent form. If consent was verbal instead of written, or if consent could not be obtained, the authors must explain the reason in the manuscript, and the use of verbal consent or the lack of consent must have been approved by the ethics committee. More information about patient privacy, anonymity, and informed consent can be found in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Privacy and Confidentiality guidelines.

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