Author Guidelines

Authorship

Authorship gives credit, assigns responsibility, and implies academic, social, and financial accountability for the published work. Those who substantially contributed to a paper are credited as authors, understand, and take on their roles and responsibilities, and are held accountable for published research.

The journal’s definition of authorship is based on the ICMJE’s recommendation. The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
• Final approval of the version to be published; AND
• 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.

Those who met all four criteria are identified as authors. In addition, responsibilities of co-authors for specific aspects of the work must be indicated. Please see the "Authorship information" section for details on how to indicate these responsibilities in the manuscript.

If the manuscript is authored by a large group or a consortium, all the members should meet all four authorship criteria. The corresponding author(s) must specify the group name and group members in line with the disclosure agreements.

For more information on how to acknowledge non-author contributors, equal contributors and corresponding author and other acknowledgements, please see the following sections and “Author Information” section.

Non-Author Contributions

Those who do not meet all the above-mentioned criteria are not qualified as authors, however, those who met at least one of the criteria should be acknowledged as non-author contributor and their contribution should be specified in the “Authors and Affiliations” section of the article. For more information on non-author contributions, please see: https://credit.niso.org. Non-author contributions do not include but are not limited to the administrative support, general supervision, acquisition of funding, technical editing, language editing and proofreading. Non-author contributions should be specified and indicated in the title page on submission.

Equal Contributions

Authorship status and authors who contributed to the work equally should be indicated when submitting and publishing multi-author articles. Northwestern Medical Journal adopts the definitions of CreDIT and ICMJE for equal contribution. Accordingly, authorship status and equal contributions are defined as follows:

• Equal contribution: The authors contributed equally to the research.
• First authorship: The authors share first authorship.
• Equal contribution and first authorship: The authors contributed equally to the research and share first authorship.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author is the designated author handling all correspondence with the journal, from submission to publication processes, on behalf of the authors. The corresponding authors are responsible for complying with the journal's administrative requirements, providing the necessary information and documents, including authorship details, contact details, ethics committee approval, registration documents, and signing publication agreements.

Article Types

Northwestern Medical Journal publishes only research articles, reviews, case reports, and letters to the editor. The manuscripts submitted to the Journal should be original that has not been published and not under review by any other publication.

Authors must select the article type for their manuscripts, and they must comply with the descriptions defined below.

Research Article:

Prospective or retrospective, all kinds of experimental and clinical studies related to all fields of medicine. It should include Abstract (with an average of 200-250 words and consist of Aim, Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusion sections), Keywords (indexing terms, up to 6 items), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion/Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Author Contributions, Conflict of Interest, Ethical Approval, Funding, References, Figures and Tables sections.

Review:

Prepared by invited authors. Uninvited reviews are not accepted. It should be prepared in a way to include the latest medical literature for all kinds of subjects with medical characteristics. It should include Abstract (average 200-250 words, no sections, in English), Keywords (indexing terms, up to 6 items), Subject Headings, and References, Figures and Tables sections.

Case Report:

Case reports cover rare cases with different diagnosis and treatment methods. It should include Abstract (average 100-150 words; no sections; in English), Keywords (indexing terms, up to 6 items), Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, and References, Figures and Tables sections.

Letter to the Editor:

These are responses to the articles published in the Journal within the previous issues. It includes a range of perspectives, personal experiences, and reader inquiries about the article. Letters to editors should include the number and date of the article to which it is dedicated. The author's name, institution, and address must be provided at the end of the document. Only the editors or authors of the article published in the journal will respond to letter.

Manuscript Formatting Guidelines

Manuscript Formatting Guidelines have been created to assist authors in meeting the structural requirements. Prior to submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors are strongly encouraged to carefully review the Manuscript Formatting Guidelines and refer to the most recent issue to acquaint themselves with the standard formatting.

Manuscripts should be submitted to the Journal's online submission system by the corresponding author.

The manuscripts should comply with the following format requirements.

All submissions should include following documents:

• Title Page: Title, author name(s) and affiliations, contact information, conflict of interest statement, ethics committee approval (if applicable), author contributions, acknowledgements (if applicable), funding.
• Blind Manuscript (in Word format version 2003 or above). All author names and affiliations should be EXCLUDED.
• Ethics Committee Approval (if applicable)
• Supplementary and ancillary material (if applicable)

Page Format

• A4 Portrait, Margins (Normal) (top, bottom, left, right 2,5 cm)
• Microsoft Office Word document or rich text format.
• Each section must start on a new page.
• Manuscripts should be numbered starting from the first page,
• Page numbers should be written in the lower right corner.
• All headings and titles should be written in bold.
• All the figures and tables should be embedded in the text. Each figure and table should be referred to in the text. (Please see “Tables and Figures”)

Font Family

Manuscripts should be typed using Times New Roman font 12 pt. and double spacing throughout the text (Also for abstracts, footnotes and references).

Author Information

Authors must be declared at the time of submission and in the publication. Authors are responsible for the correct declaration of their names. Exact and correct names of the authors should be given under the main title of the manuscript, listed together, and separated by comas.

The following information should be keyed to the authors’ names and placed on the footer of the first page of the manuscript:

• Full author names
• Affiliation following the exact sequence (in line with the availability). In case of your affiliation changes, please list where your research is conducted and include your current status or affiliation.
• Department, Institute or Faculty, University, City, Country
• E-mail addresses
• ORCID iD

Ahmet Ural, Department of Otorhinolaryngology- Head & Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Bolu, Türkiye. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9875-7321.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author should be marked with an asterisk (*) in the author list.

e.g. (under the title): Ayşe Yılmaz (*)

e.g. (on the footer): *Corresponding Author

Equal Contribution

• The authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (ؙƐ)
• The authors who share first authorship should be marked with a symbol (Ω)
• The authors who contributed equally to the research and share first authorship (±)
• Please use the appropriate standard statement(s) to indicate equal contributions:
• For (ؙƐ): The authors contributed equally to the research.
• For (Ω): The authors share first authorship.
• For (±): The authors contributed equally to the research and share first authorship.

e.g (under the title): Ayşe Yılmaz(±), Levent Doğan(±), Gündüz Kaya(ؙƐ), Güler Erdoğan (*)(ؙƐ)

e.g. (on the footer):

{Author information}

*Corresponding Author

Ɛ The authors contributed equally to the research.

± The authors contributed equally to the research and share first authorship.

Sections of the Manuscripts

It is recommended to divide your manuscripts into the sections detailed below. However, heading and subheading can differ according to the subject area, the type of manuscript and research itself.

Title page should include the following information and sections:

1. Title
2. Author information (Please refer to the “author information” section for the format requirements.)
3. Contact information of corresponding author
4. Author contribution
5. Ethics committee approval (if applicable)
6. Conflict of interest
7. Funding
8. Acknowledgements (if applicable)

Anonymized blind manuscript should include the following sections:

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Keywords
4. Introduction
5. Materials and Methods
6. Results
7. Discussion*
8. Conclusions*
9. Suggestions*
10. References
11. Figures and Tables
12. Appendices (if applicable)

*Discussion, Conclusions and Suggestions could be given under the same title or separately.

Title

The title of the study should reflect the content clearly and be precise. Titles do not exceed two lines and should be in sentence case capitalization except proper nouns. Titles do not include abbreviations, numbers, acronyms, and punctuations.

Min-Max Characters/Words

Abstract

Abstracts include the aim of the study, its scope, method, main findings, and results, briefly and clearly. Abstracts should not include abbreviations, numbers, acronyms, and punctuations.

Min-Max Characters/Words

Keywords

Keywords increase the discoverability of articles. They should reflect the scope of the article. The selection of key words should be from MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). The authors can easily select the key words of the manuscript from the MeSH on Demand homepage (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov).

e.g. Keywords: Conflict resolution, ingroup favouritism, social identity

Min-Max Characters/Words

Introduction

While drafting introduction section, first provide general scientific background for your study. Then provide the specific background information to specify the scientific sub-area that your manuscript is addressing so that readers can have a clear understanding about the literature, your results and their significance.

Thirdly, depending on the general and specific background address the knowledge gap in the literature, how and to what extent your research fills this gap, and what is your aim and research question, and importance of your study.

Finally, summarize your methods, findings, and prominent implications for the discussion.

Materials and Methods

Materials and Methods section should address the type, research group, data collection tools, data collection techniques, data analysis, validity and reliability, limitations and ethical committee approval (if necessary) of your research.

Studies requiring ethics committee approval should include a statement of ethics committee approval in the methods section and at the end of the article. This notification should include the name of the university, date and number of the ethics committee approval.

Results

The results of the study should be explained detailly with tables, diagrams, graphics or pictures in a way that supports the aim and problem of the study.

Discussion*

In accordance with the significance of the study, the results should be discussed referring to literature and knowledge gap while providing your opinions and unique perspectives.

Conclusion*

The main ideas and takeaways of the discussion should be explained in the conclusion.

Suggestions*

In line with the discussions and conclusions, suitable suggestions should be presented to contribute to the literature and future studies.

*Discussion, Conclusions and Suggestions could be given under the same title or separately.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments should be extended to those individuals or institutions whose contributions to the study were limited or minimal. Acknowledgements should be a brief statement at the end of the text.

Author Contribution

Author’s contribution should be explained in the title page as in the example . Initials of the authors must be in compliance with the following templates:

e.g. Surgical and Medical Practices: AU; Concept: AU; Design: AU; Data Collection or Processing: AU; Analysis or Interpretation: AU; Literature Search: AU; Writing: AU. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the article.

e.g. for review: Review conception and design: AU; literature review: AU; draft manuscript preparation: AU. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

When submitting the manuscript to the Journal, information about author contribution should be included in the title page.

Ethics Committee Approval

Studies that require ethics committee approval should include Ethics Committee Approval in the Methods section and at the end of the article. It is imperative to ensure de-identification of any relevant identifying information within the ethics committee approval prior to submission. The title page must also include information on the university, date and number of the ethics committee approval. Ethics Committee Approval must be submitted.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors should declare any potential conflict of interest in the title page. There may be a conflict of interest when authors (or their employer, sponsor, or family/friends) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional connection with other organizations or those working with them that could impact the research or the way the results are interpreted. Therefore, authors have to declare financial, commercial, legal or professional competing interests in their title page. If there is no conflict of interest, authors also must declare it in their manuscript using the standard wording below:

“The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.”

For more information on publishing ethics policies and conflicts of interest, please see "Research and Publication Ethics" section.

Funding

Authors are required to disclose all funding and financial support received during the development of the study. Authors should indicate this in the title page using the standard wording below:

• The authors declare that the study received no funding.
• The authors declare that the study is supported/funded by [e.g. TUBITAK].

References

Everything cited in your manuscript must be in the reference list, and everything in your reference list must be referred to in your manuscript. References should be numbered consecutively (in bracket) as they appear in the manuscript. References should be formatted according to NLM Style Guide.

Authors are directly responsible for ensuring accurate citation and adherence to the specified reference and citation style. Reference management tools such as Zotero, Endnote and Mendeley are highly recommended.

In-text citation examples:

Reference list examples:

Tables and Figures

Visual elements such as tables, figures and diagrams must be referred in the body text. Tables and figures should be small and simple, and placed in order of appearance in the body text. Each should be numbered and have a clear descriptive title. If visual elements are not created by the authors, they should be cited and added to the references. Visual elements are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) in Northwestern Medical Journal; therefore the acquisition of any necessary permissions is the responsibility of the authors. Copyright information of the visual elements is under the authors responsibilities and must be taken into consideration when reproduced or reused.

Figures should be in vector format (Illustrator, EPS, WMF, FreeHand, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or bitmap format (Photoshop, TIFF, PNG, JPG, etc.). Figures presented in bitmap formats should be at least 600 DPI resolution. Figures, tables, and graphs must contain self-explanatory labels and unit tags for each parameter or axis.

Tables should be generated using drawing tools of programs such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice. Each data should be given in separate table cells, and no insertions such as enter or spaces should be made. Tables should be editable and should not contain images.

If the diagrams include a picture or a visual that cannot be edited it should be transferred into Word with 600 DPI resolution and the original diagram should be included in the manuscript.

Tables and Figures should be numbered consecutively and accompanied by a title above the table or figure. All tables and figures should not exceed 16x20 cm in size. Avoid using vertical lines in tables.

Appendices

Additional lists, tables, graphics and etc. should be given separately at the end of the manuscript. Each appendix should be numbered and titled.

e.g. Appendix 1 – List of Data Collection Tool.

Units

• Ensure that all units of measurement are in SI units.
• Use a period in decimal fractions (e.g., 1.24 instead of 1,24).
• Maintain a single space between the number and the unit (e.g., 4 kg/ha, 20 N m, 100 kPa, 22 °C).
• Exceptions for angular definitions, minutes, seconds, and percentage; do not include a space (e.g., 10°, 45’, 60’’, 29%).
• The abbreviation of liter is "L".

Formulas and Equations

For clarity and consistency in formulas and equations, please follow these guidelines:

• Number each formula with the reference number placed in parentheses at the end, e.g., (1).
• Utilize a Word mathematical processor for formulas, ensuring a font size of 12pt.
• Present variables in italics, while numbers and mathematical definitions should be in plain text.
• When referencing a formula in the text, use a format similar to the example provided.

e.g. "...the model, as depicted in Equation 1."

Manuscript Length

There is no specific word limit for publication in Northwestern Medical Journal. However, the editors may ask authors to shorten their submissions if necessary.

Language Editing

The publication language of the Northwestern Medical Journal is English. Manuscripts can be submitted in English only. The submitted manuscript should comply with the grammar and spelling rules, and the relevant scientific literature, and meet language standards for publication.

Editors may ask authors for language editing and proofreading. Accepted articles can be published only after the language editing and proofreading request are met.