EDITORIAL POLICIES

Competency Criteria
The editorial board comprises research scientists and medical specialists with a rich research experience. Editors play a key role in this journal. Our strategy is to select editors who can manage journal growth. Typically, we prefer those with impressive academic careers. Excellent communication skills, teamwork capability, and prominence in the community are advantageous. The editors and editorial board work as volunteers for this journal. We usually follow the guidelines stated on "ONET," based on the knowledge, skills, and ability of the editorial staff.

Peer Review
The single most important criterion for acceptance of a paper is its novelty and scientific rigor. Peer-review and editorial processes are the main mechanisms for ensuring the quality of published articles. To this end, the submitted articles are subjected to a rigorous double-blinded peer-review process to ensure that high-quality submissions are published. These published articles reflect up-to-date research findings, with reliable and sound results and an objective and unbiased discussion of the results. 

Author Contributions
Authors are those individuals who have made significant and substantial contributions to the manuscript, including the conception, design, execution, and interpretation of the study. All named authors must meet the ICMJE criteria for authorship, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and give final approval for the version to be published. Finally, the corresponding author should sign the copyright agreement on behalf of the co-authors. An author is generally considered to be someone who meets all the following authorship criteria: 1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 2) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 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.
All authors must declare that their submission represents original research. Moreover, they must affirm the factuality and authenticity of their data. In addition, they must declare that their manuscript has not been published or submitted elsewhere and is not under review by another journal. Authors may not use the verbatim text of previously published papers or of manuscripts submitted elsewhere. The same research project must not be published in more than one journal. The corresponding author should take primary responsibility for communication with the journal office during all the steps toward publication. Furthermore, the corresponding author should respond to the editorial office, cooperate with any requests from the journal after publication, actively participate in the peer-review process, and provide an erratum if necessary. This journal does not allow the addition or deletion of authors or changing of the authorship order after the final acceptance. Funding sources and Acknowledgment should be clearly declared in all submissions. References should be cited numerically, based on the order of citation, in the Vancouver style. Moreover, all resources that assisted in the performance of their research should be clearly acknowledged.
 
Study Design
All animal studies should follow the Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines. Protecting the rights of patients or animals is of great importance. The welfare of the animals used for research must be respected. The following reporting guidelines are recommended for specific study types: Randomized clinical trials, CONSORT; systematic reviews, PRISMA; diagnostic studies, STARD; study protocols, SPIRIT; clinical practice guidelines, AGREE; and qualitative research, SRQR. The authors should adhere to the Declaration of Helsinki in medical research involving human subjects, human materials, or human data. Independent local, regional, or national review bodies should approve the study. Authors should guarantee the integrity of the reported data and respond to all comments made by peer reviewers during the publication process. If the authors fail to provide a satisfactory answer to the comments of peer reviewers, the paper will be rejected. Ethical issues should be addressed by the authors. All participants in a research project should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects.
The authors should mention the clinical trial registration number in the Methods section. Reports of RCTs should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT guidelines. Permission should be obtained by the authors for use of all copyrighted materials, including figures or tables, from another journal. The journal retains the right to ask for raw data, even after publication.
 
Informed Consent
Written informed consent should be obtained from all participants or their legal representatives, if applicable. Patient information should be kept confidential and anonymous. In addition, the journal reserves the right to ask for related documents.
 
Publication Fees
The journal receives no governmental, educational, charitable, or any other kind of funding. We do not accept advertisements and, therefore, require authors to pay the article-processing fees. Submission of a manuscript and peer-review processes are free of charge. A publication-processing fee of 2,400 EUR applies to accepted manuscripts prior to proof. This covers the cost of open-access, journal production, web hosting, CMS, database, online repository, archiving, XML conversion, reference formatting, an unlimited number of color figures, and extensive English editing. 
 
Conflict of Interest
Any conflict of interest related to the manuscript should be declared by the authors. These include, but are not limited to, commercial, personal, political, and intellectual aspects. All editors, editorial staff, and reviewers should also report potential conflicts related to the submissions with which they are working. Authors should preferably complete the uniform disclosure form available at http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.
 
Corrections and Retractions
We respect research integrity and have a research integrity officer and committee. If serious scientific misconduct is found during any step of production or post-publication, the article will be withdrawn or retracted. If fraudulent behavior is suspected, further investigations may involve the author’s higher authorities. Corrections or retractions of published articles will be made by publishing a correction or retraction note. In this way, the original article remains in the public domain, and subsequent notes will be published. The decision to publish a correction or retraction is based on COPE guidelines. However, if the error is minor, a correction statement will be published rapidly. Moreover, the journal assumes responsibility if errors are caused on our side. If errors are caused by the authors, a correction will be published in the next earliest possible issue.
All statements expressed in our publications are merely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the publisher’s or editorial board’s opinion. The publisher and board members do not endorse any service or product presented in our publications and disclaim any accountability or liability for such materials.
Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License, which permits copying and redistributing the material for non-commercial usage if the original work is properly cited. 
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Guidelines for Authors to Submit a Manuscript
The paper should be unique and not published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. All authors should read and approve authorship responsibility and publication ethics principles presented on our website. All authors should provide a competing interest statement. One author should be designated as the corresponding author, with their contact details and postal address provided. All abstracts should be structured. The following types of manuscripts are accepted: original article, review article, hypothesis, editorial, letter, and case report (preferably with a comprehensive literature review).

Requirements for Different Types of Articles
Original articles: 
An original article should contain a structured abstract, 3–5 keywords, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, ethical declaration, funding, acknowledgment, and references. There is no restriction on number of supporting documents. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) should be registered at any RCT Registries approved by the WHO.
Case reports (preferably with a comprehensive literature review): A case report should contain a structured abstract, 3–5 keywords, introduction, case presentation, discussion, conclusions, ethical declaration, funding, acknowledgment, and references. The structured abstract of this article type should consist of a background, case presentation, and conclusions. Informed consent should be obtained from the patients to report their cases. The Journal retains the right to ask for the original signed informed consent form. 
Review articles: Review articles, especially systematic reviews, or meta-analyses are most welcome. The protocol of the study should adhere to the PRISMA guideline.
Hypothesis: The structured abstract of this article type should consist of a background, hypothesis, and conclusions. The main body of this manuscript consists of an introduction, hypothesis, evaluation of hypotheses, and conclusions.
Editorials and letters: Letters and editorials should preferably be less than 2,500 words. Letters discussing any articles published in this journal should be submitted within a period not exceeding 6 months after the publication of the main article. These articles will undergo the peer-review process. No abstract is required.
Manuscripts should be prepared with the following segments:
Cover letter should contain the rationale of performing the study and a statement that the article will not be submitted to another journal until the reviewing process has been completed. Moreover, authors should indicate whether they have published or submitted any related papers on the same study.
Title page should include the title of the study and names of the authors (with an email address) with their affiliations, as the first page of the manuscript. The complete mailing address, telephone number, and email address of the corresponding author should be mentioned.
Abstract should be less than 300 words. It should be structured under appropriate headings, and should be concise and comprehensible to readers. Keywords are used for indexing purposes; three to five keywords should be selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
Introduction should cover a short background of former studies and potential gaps in the literature, and should specify the aim of the study.
Methods should indicate, evidently, the stepwise approach taken to acquire the data, including the statistical analysis. It should mention the inclusion and exclusion criteria and should be preferably presented in chronological order. For reports of randomized clinical trials (RCTs), the authors should refer to the CONSORT statement. Reporting guidelines would help authors present a high-quality study and deliver all required information and evidence. The EQUATOR Network website can assist authors in following these guidelines.
Results should be presented in chronological order in the text, tables, and illustrations. Tables and figures must be cited in the order in which they appear in the text. Figures must have captions presented in a separate section with all abbreviations expanded. Tables must have a title and a footnote with all abbreviations expanded. Ensure all figures and tables have been cited in the text. Do not present tables with information repeated from the text of the paper. Figures should be provided only if they add further information. High-resolution figures (600 dpi) should be presented in the TIFF format. If you have reused or adapted figures, tables, or sections of text from papers published elsewhere, please approach the copyright owner and obtain their permission to re-use those elements.
Discussion should challenge the outcomes of the research with other publications in the literature in the format of arguments and counterarguments. The limitations and strengths of the study and implications of the findings for future research or clinical practice should be presented.
Conclusions should present the final outcomes and brief recommendations that have been reached through the study. Of note, conclusions should not overstate and/or overreach the results.
Ethical declaration comprises ethical approval and conflict of interest, which should be reported.
Funding resources and Acknowledgments should be clearly declared in all submissions.
References should be complied numerically in the order of citation in the text. We follow the Vancouver style, as outlined in the PubMed style. For various references please refer to the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers. All references cited in the reference segment should be cited in the text.
 
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