Guide for Authors

Aim and Scope

The Judishapur Journal of Oncology (JJO) is published semiannual in print and online and includes high quality manuscripts including basic and clinical investigations of Cancer fields and covers areas such as diagnosis, treatment, epidemiology, etiology, biology, and molecular aspects as well as clinical genetics of these diseases editor, as they affect children, adolescents, and adults. The JJO also includes studies on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, immunology, virology, genetics, and gene-therapy. The journal accepts original papers, systematic reviews, case reports, brief reports and letters to the editor, and photo clinics.

The JJO is being published since 2015 by the Cancer Research Center (CRC), Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS), Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, Iran. The contents of the journal are freely available for readers and researchers and there is no publication or processing fee. The JJO has Permission letter number 93/11065 dated 05/08/2014 from the Ministry of Information and Islamic Guidance, and Permission letter number 700/d/3743 dated 10/11/2014 from the Ministry of Heath Publica­tions Commission.

All Submission should be sent online via our online submission system. For further inquiries please email the journal directly. The JJO benefits from editorial freedom. Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by WAME.

http://www.wame.org/resources/policies#independence

Submission Process

Manuscripts should be sent through the on-line submission system. A submission code is allocated to each article as well as a short submission ID and all the future contacts should be based on this code or ID. The articles are primarily evaluated by our internal screeners who check the articles for any methodological flaws, format, and their compliance with the journal’s instructions. Through a double-blind review, the articles will be reviewed by at least two external (peer) reviewers. Their comments will be passed to the authors and their responses to the comments along with the reviewers’ comments will then be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief, the Scientific Editor, and a final reviewer who can be a member of the Editorial Board. The final review process will be discussed in regular editorial board sessions and on the basis of the comments, and the journal’s scope, the Editors-in-Chief will decide which articles should be published.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

1)      Publication and Authorship

  • All submitted papers are subject to strict peer-review process by at least two international reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper. Reviewers are being selected by Associate Editors and Editor in Chief. Author also can propose reviewers for some journals and article types.
  • The factors that are taken into account in review are relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity and language.
  • The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revision or rejection.
  • If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
  • Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
  • The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
  • No research can be included in more than one publication, whether within the same journal or in another journal.

2)      Authors' Responsibilities

  • Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.
  • Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere, or even submitted and been in reviewed in another journal.
  • Authors must participate in the peer review process and follow the comments.
  • Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
  • All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. Level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.
  • Authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
  • Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
  • Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
  • Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.
  • Authors must not use irrelevant sources that may help other researches/journals.
  • Authors cannot withdraw their articles within the review process or after submission, or they must pay the penalty defined by the publisher.

3)      Peer Review/Responsibility for the Reviewers

  • Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
  • Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decision.
  • Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in 500 to 1000 words.
  • Reviewers may identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
  • Reviewers should also call to the Editor in Chief's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
  • Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

4)      Editorial Responsibilities

  • Editors (Associate Editors or Editor in Chief) have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
  • Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
  • Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
  • Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
  • Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
  • Editors should have a clear picture of a research's funding sources.
  • Editors should base their decisions solely one the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope.
  • Editors should not reverse their decisions nor overturn the ones of previous editors without serious reason.
  • Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers (in half blind peer review journals).
  • Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to international accepted ethical guidelines.
  • Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
  • Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
  • Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.
  • Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers and board members.
  • Editors must not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after reject or accept) unless they have a serious reason.

5)      Publishing Ethics Issues

  • All editorial members, reviewers and authors must confirm and obey rules defined by COPE.
  • Corresponding author is the main owner of the article so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).
  • Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
  • All editorial members and authors must publish any kind of correction honestly and completely.
  • Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data or any other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.

Reference

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Available:

https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf

Conflict of Interest

We request all the authors to inform us about any kinds of “Conflict of Interest” (such as financial, personal, political, or academic) that would potentially affect their judgment. Authors are preferably asked to fill the uniform disclosure form available through:

(http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf)

Plagiarism

The authors are not allowed to utilize verbatim text of previously published papers or manuscripts submitted elsewhere.

Copyright

If a manuscript contains any previous published image or text, it is the responsibility of the author to obtain authorization from copyright holders. The author is required to obtain and submit the written original permission letters for all copyrighted material used in his/her manuscripts.

Author Consent Form

All authors must sign an Author Consent Form and return this form via Email so that the journal can begin the article evaluation process. You hereby warrant that “This article is an original work,    has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form”.

Type of Articles

Original Articles: Should contain title page, abstract, keywords,Highlights, Plain Language Summary, Background, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, Ethical Considerations (Compliance with ethical guidelines, Funding, Authors' contributions, Conflict of interest, acknowledgment), references, tables, and figures, enumerated from the title page. The length of the text should be limited to 3000 words excluding the references and abstract. Original Articles might have 1 to 5 accompanying figures and/or tables.

Case Reports and Brief Reports: Should not exceed 1600 words. Both should include abstract, keywords,Highlights, Plain Language Summary, Background, case presentation, discussion, conclusion, Ethical Considerations (Compliance with ethical guidelines, Funding, Authors' contributions, Conflict of interest, acknowledgment) and references. Case reports might have 1 to 4 accompanying figures and/or tables but brief reports should not have more than one figure or table. Necessary documentations of the case(s) like pathology and laboratory test reports should be included in the submission package.

Clinical Trials: should contain patients’ informed consent and the approval of the ethics committee of the corresponding institution.

Review Articles: might be requested by the editor, but JJO will also accept submitted reviews. Review articles are expected to be clear, concise and updated. should include an abstract of less than 300 words. The maximum length is 5000 words. The inclusion of a maximum of 8 high quality tables and/or colored figures to summarize critical points is highly desirable. Reviews should include 5 to 10 key points that briefly summarize or highlight the main content of the article. References should not exceed a maximum of 150.

Letters to the Editor: JJO accepts letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 700 words. Letters might discuss articles published in the journal during the previous six months or other important aspects related to the field of Cancer. Letters will undergo peer-review processing and will be edited for clarity.

Photo clinics: Figures that convey a significant medical point can also be accepted. Photo clinics should contain one or two high quality figures and a description of the figure no more than 500 words. 2-4 references should be included.

Paper Preparations

Cover letter should contain a statement that you will not resubmit your article to another journal until the reviewing process will be completed. Also please indicate whether the authors have published or submitted any related papers from the same study.

Title Page of the article should include 1) the title of the article; 2) authors’ names; 3) name of the institution where the work was done; 4) running title (short form of the main title presented on the top of pages); and 5) complete mailing address, telephone/fax numbers, and email address of the corresponding author. This page is unnumbered.

Abstract should be structured for original articles providing Background, Materials and Methods, results, and conclusion. It should not exceed 250 words altogether. Number this page as page 1.

Abstracts of other types of contributions should be non-structured providing the essential information.

When abstracting a review article a concise summary of the salient points should be addressed.

Keywords are used for indexing purposes; each article should provide 3 to 5 keywords selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/

Background should provide a context and specifies the purpose or research objective of the study or observation.

Materials and Methods must indicate clearly the steps taken to acquire the information. Be sure that it includes only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was written. It should be detailed (including: controls, inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc) and may be separated into subsections. Repeating the details of standard techniques is best avoided.

For reports of randomized controlled trials, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement .org/). All randomized clinical trials should be registered in any international RCT registration centers approved by the WHO. For research conducted in Iran, it is advised to register at IRCT(www.irct.ir).

Reporting guidelines such as STROBE, STARD, and PRISMA would help you to produce high quality research and to provide all required information and evidence for related methodology. EQUATOR Network website would help you in using these guidelines.

The software used for statistical analysis and description of the actual method should be mentioned.

Results should be presented in chronological sequence in the text, table, and illustration. Organize the results according to their importance. They should result from your own study.

Tables and illustrations must be cited in order which they appear in the text; using Arabic numerals. Tables should be simple and should not duplicate information in the text of the paper. Figures should be provided only if they improve the article. For radiographic films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send the high resolution figures in jpeg or bitmap format. Color photographs, if found to improve the article, would be published at no extra-charge at the print version of the journal. Type or print out legends for illustrations on a separate page, and explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Discussion should emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow them. Possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings should be explored. The limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for future research or clinical practice should be explored.

Conclusion should state the final result that the author(s) has (have) reached. The results of other studies should not be stated in this section.

Supplementary Materials such as movie clips, questionnaires, etc may be published on the online version of the journal.

Acknowledgments: Any technical help, general, financial, and material support or contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, can be cited at the end of the text as Acknowledgments.

Conflicts Of Interest:

We request all the authors to inform us about any kinds of “Conflict of Interest” (such as financial, personal, political, or academic) that would potentially affect their judgment. Authors are preferably asked to fill the uniform disclosure form available through:

(http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf)

Authors’ Contributions: All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. Level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.

References should be complied numerically according to the order of citation in the text in the Vancouver style. The numbers of references should not preferably exceed 100 for original articles, 150 for Review articles, 30 for brief, and 20 for case reports.

For the references credited to more than 6 authors please provide the name of the first six authors and represent the rest authors by the phrase “et al.”

For various references please refer to “the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers”. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/) 

Listed below are sample references.

Journal Article

• Gaydess A, Duysen E, Li Y, Gilman V, Kabanov A, Lockridge O, et al. Visualization of exogenous delivery of nanoformulated butyrylcholinesterase to the central nervous system. Chem Biol Interact. 2010;68(8):295-8.

•Javan S, Tabesh M. Action of carbon dioxide on pulmonary vasoconstriction. J Appl Physiol. In press 2005

Complete Book

• Guyton AC: Textbook of Medical Physiology. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA, Saunders, 1996.

Chapter in Book

• Young VR. The role of skeletal muscle in the regulation of protein metabolism. In Munro HN, editor: Mammalian protein metabolism. Vol 4. San Diego; Academic; 1970. p. 585-674.

Language and Style

Contributions should be in either American or British English language. The text must be clear and concise, conforming to accepted standards of English style and usage. Non-native English speakers may be advised to seek professional help with the language.

All materials should be typed in double line spacing numbered pages. Abbreviations should be standard and used just in necessary cases, after complete explanations in the first usage. The editorial office reserves the right to edit the submitted manuscripts in order to comply with the journal’s style. In any case, the authors are responsible for the published material.

Correction of Errata

The journal will publish an erratum when a factual error in a published item has been documented.

For further information please contact the Editorial Office

Corresponding address of JJO: Journals Office, 2nd Floor, School of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Golestan Blv, Ahvaz. Iran. Zip Code: 61357- 15794

P.O. Box: 61355- 45, Iran

Tel: +986133738283, +986133362419

Fax: + 986133624419

Email: jjo@ajums.ac.ir 

URL: http://jjo.ajums.ac.ir/author