Instructions for Authors

- Maltepe Medical Journal is the scientific publication of Maltepe University. It is published every four months (April, August, and December). Original research, review, case report, technical note, letter to the editor in the fields of basic and clinical medical sciences that have not been published elsewhere in the journal are published. The publication language of the journal is English or Turkish.

- Articles submitted to the journal should be prepared according to ICMJE-Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated in December 2019 -http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).

- Articles submitted for publication in Maltepe Medical Journal should comply with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration, Good Clinical Practices, and Good Laboratory Practices Guide. For this reason, it should be stated that ethics committee approval was obtained in the Materials - Methods section of the article in all studies conducted on humans. The patients or volunteers that the research was conducted on should be informed, and their consent should be obtained, and this should be stated. In studies conducted on animals, it should be noted in the Materials and Methods chapter of the article that the study was carried out in accordance with the Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and ethics committee approval was obtained from the relevant institution. If necessary, a copy of the ethics committee approval may be requested from the authors by the Editor.

- Randomized studies should be submitted to the journal in accordance with CONSORT guidelines and, in the same way, STROBE for observational studies, STARD for diagnostic valuable studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, ARRIVE for animal studies, TREND for nonrandomized behavioral and public health studies should be followed.

- Articles should be submitted by using the article submission system through the Dergipark system. Applications made by any other means of communication or other than authors will not be accepted.

- The articles will first be reviewed by the relevant department of the editorial committee for technic al analysis. Articles with errors according to the spelling rules will be sent back to the author, and 15 (fifteen) days will be given to correct the errors in the relevant chapter. The articles passing through the technical analysis will be forwarded to the referees appointed by the department editors. The referee evaluation period is 15 (fifteen) days. According to referee decisions, publishable, Major revision, Minor revision, Rejection decision is made. Authors are given 1 (one) month for the articles for which revision decision is made. At the end of one month, the articles are re evaluated, and the final decision is reported to the authors.

- Authors should send the following forms together with the articles through the system;

- Copyright Transfer Form
- ICMJE Disclosure Form and Conflicts of Interest Form
- Author Contribution Form

- These forms should be signed by all authors.

- Authors should obtain permission from the copyright holder when using previously published content, including images, tables, or any other content in print or electronic format. Legal, financial, and penal responsibilities in this matter belong to the authors. The views and opinions expressed in the articles published in the journal reflect the perspectives of the author(s), not the Maltepe Medical Journal, the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Editor Committee, Editorial Board and Publisher. Maltepe Medical Journal Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Editor Committee, Editorial Board, and Publisher accept no responsibility or liability for such situations. All responsibility for the published content belongs to the authors.


General Rules:

- It should be written in A4 size, double-spaced, 12 points, in Times New Roman format, with 2.5 cm margins on all sides of the page.
- Titles and text should be left-aligned. The main title should be written in bold, and the sub-titles should be written in italics.
- Pages should be numbered sequentially, starting from the title page. The page number should be written in the lower right corner of each page.
- Units are prepared in accordance with the International System of Units (SI), which is the international unit system.
- The abbreviations used in the article should be in the internationally accepted form, they should be written clearly where they were first used, and its abbreviated form should be shown in parentheses.
- When devices, software, drugs, etc. are mentioned in the main text, the product information, including the name of the product, the manufacturer, the city, and country of manufacture, should be given in parentheses; Eg; "Discovery St PET/CT scanner (General Electric, Milwaukee, WI, USA)".


Chapters of the Article:
The chapters of the article should be as follows:

- Title page
- Abstract (Turkish and English) and keywords,
- Main text,
- Tables,
- Figure Captions

Each chapter should start on a new page.

Title page:

- A separate cover page should also be submitted along with all submitted articles. This page should contain;
- The Turkish and English title of the article and its short title in Turkish and English, not exceeding 40 characters, including spaces,
- The names of the authors, the clinic, department/science where the studies were conducted, the name of the institution and their ORCID numbers,
- Detailed information about financial support information and other support sources, name, correspondence address, telephone (including mobile phone), and e-mail address of the corresponding author,
- Whether acknowledgment, research funding, or sponsorship was received from individuals who contributed to the article preparation process but did not meet the authorship criteria, if received, the name of the institution, if it was previously submitted as a declaration in a congress or symposium, the name, place, and date of the congress.

Abstract:

- All articles other than Letters to the Editor should have English and Turkish abstracts. Abstracts of Original Research articles should be prepared in a way that includes the sub-titles of "Purpose," "Material - Methods," "Results," and "Conclusion" and should not exceed 250 words. Abstract sections of case reports and invited reviews should not contain subtitles.
- Keywords: English keywords should be selected in accordance with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and Turkish keywords should be chosen in accordance with Turkish Science Terms (TBT) at least three and at most 6, they should be listed alphabetically and the first letter should be capitalized.

Main text:

- The main text should contain sub-titles of "Introduction", "Material - Methods", "Results," and "Discussion". For restrictions on Original Research, please refer to Table 1.

Table 1: Restrictions for article types

- Introduction: The purpose of the article, the justification for the study or observation should be summarized, the data or the conclusions of the study should not be explained.

- Material - Methods: The study plan should be clearly described. It should include whether the study was randomized, whether it was retrospective or prospective, the number and characteristics of the experiment/subjects, and the statistical method used. It should be noted that the experimental and clinical studies in the article were approved by the relevant ethics committee. References should be given for established methods, and a short explanation should be given for new methods. Statistical analysis is often required to support the result. Statistical analysis should be performed according to the rules for reporting statistical data in medical journals (Altman DG, Gore SM, Gardner MJ, Pocock SJ. Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals. BrMed J 1983: 7; 1489-93). Information on statistical analysis should be written as the last paragraph in the Material - Methods chapter and the software used should be strictly defined. P values should be given explicitly.

- Results: The findings obtained in the study should be given in tables and figures, results should be presented with statistical evaluation methods. Each table should be written on a separate page with the title and footnotes. They should be numbered according to their order in the text. Non-standard abbreviations should be explained with footnotes. Figures (drawings, graphics, and photographs) should be numbered according to their order in the text, figure captions should be written respectively on a separate page from the text under the title of "Figure Captions".

- Discussion: The findings of the study should be discussed by comparing with the literature, and the contribution of the study to the literature should be summarized as a result. Restrictions, obstacles and inadequacies of original research should be mentioned in the "Discussion" section before the Conclusion paragraph. The last paragraph should be the conclusion paragraph, and the outputs should be stated in line with the results of the article.

- Acknowledgments (Optional): Names of people who contributed to the study, other than the authors, can be written in this field. In addition, the information of the project and its reference that the study is supported can be entered in this field.

- References: The references of the journal should be written according to the reference rules of the journal.

Article Types:

Original Research Articles:

- It includes clinical research involving clinical observations, new techniques, or laboratory studies. Scientific research articles should consist of title, abstract, keywords, introduction, material & methods, results, discussion, limitations of the study, conclusion, references, table/figure/images, and acknowledgments. Title, abstract, and keywords chapters should be prepared in both Turkish and English. Restrictions according to article types are given in Table 1.

Editorial Comment:

- It is aimed to briefly interpret research published in the journal by a referee who is an expert on the subject or makes a high-level evaluation. Authors are selected and invited by the journal. Abstract, keywords, tables, figures, images and other visual are not used.

Review:

- Invited articles prepared by experts who have knowledge in the subject of the article and whose knowledge is reflected in the number of publications and citations in the international literature are taken under review. It should be prepared in a format that describes, discusses, and evaluates the latest level of knowledge or topic for use in the clinic, and directs future studies. The main text should include "Introduction", "Clinical and Research Effects" and "Conclusion" chapters. It should contain Turkish title, Turkish abstract and Turkish keywords, English title, English abstract, English keywords. In review-type articles, the summary should be prepared in a single paragraph. Please see Table 1 for restrictions on review-type articles.


Case Report:

- Limited quota is reserved for case reports and only cases with interesting and instructive features, suggesting a new method for rare diseases difficult to diagnose and treat, reflecting information not included in the books accepted for publication. -- Main text; should include sub-titles of "Introduction", "Case Report", "Discussion", "Conclusion" and "References". The Introduction and Discussion parts of the case reports should be short-concise, and the Abstract part should be prepared in a single paragraph. For restrictions on the Case Report, please refer to Table 1.


Letter to the Editor:

- Can discuss the importance, overlooked detail, or missing parts of a previously published article in the journal. In addition, articles can be published in the form of a letter to the Editor on topics that may interest the readers in the fields covered by the journal, and especially on educational cases. Readers can also submit their articles in a letter to the Editor format, which includes comments on published articles. Abstract, keywords, tables, figures, images, and other visuals are not used. The main text should not include subtitles. The volume, year, issue, page numbers, the title of the article, and the authors' names of the publication about which the letter is written should be clearly stated, written in the reference list, and addressed in the text.

Tables
- Tables should be added to the main file, submitted after the reference list, numbered according to their transition order in the main text, and referenced in this order in the text.
- A descriptive title should be placed on the tables, and expansions of abbreviations in the table should be defined under the table.
- Tables should be prepared using the "Insert Table" command in a Microsoft Office Word file and arranged in an easy-to-read way.
- Each data should be given in its own cell, and the box titles should not be empty. The data presented in the tables should not be a repetition of the data given in the main text; such as to support the data in the main text.

Figures
- Figures, graphics and photos (in TIFF or JPEG format) should be uploaded to the system as separate files.
- Figures should not be presented in a Word file document or main document.
- Figures should be saved at a resolution of at least 600x600 pixels, scaled to fit in single or two columns in magazine sizes.
- Graphic drawings should be prepared inappropriate resolution. When there are images divided into sub-units, sub-units should not be given in a single image. Each sub-unit should be loaded into the system as a separate file.
- Images should not be labeled to indicate sub-units (a, b, c, etc.).
- Photos and Graphics should be named as "Figures" in the text and listed together.
Color photos will be used in color in the online publication of the journal but will be converted to black and white in paper printing. For this reason, it is recommended not to use colored markers in photo markings. If the patient's photograph is to be used, either the patients should not be recognized in the picture, or the written permission should be obtained from the patients or their legally responsible relatives.
Figure titles should be placed on a separate page, sequentially, under the title of "Figure Titles" at the end of the main text.

Revisions:
- Authors should mark their changes to the main text when submitting revision files of their articles. In addition, send their notes on the recommendations made by the referees in the "Reply to Referees" file.
- In the Reply to Referees file, the author's reply should follow each referee's comment, and the line numbers where the changes were made should also be indicated.
- Revised articles should be sent to the journal within 30 days following the decision letter.
- If the revised version of the article is not uploaded within the specified time, the revision option may be canceled. If the authors need additional time for revision, they should submit their extension requests to the journal before the first 30 days expire.

References:
- The ability to determine the citation numbers of journals as healthy is directly related to the formal writing of references. Vancouver reference writing style is used in our journal. Reference spelling rules of the Vancouver style are defined below according to the type of reference text. For detailed information, please click on the link about Vancouver reference writing style.
- References should be numbered according to the order in which they are used in the article.
- The latest and most up-to-date publications should be preferred when referring.
- Referential articles should have received a DOI number. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.
- Unpublished data and studies should not be included in the references section. These should be included in the text as "name(s), unpublished data, year".
- The writing of the references should be in accordance with the examples below

If the reference is a journal;
- Initial(s) of the author's name(s) and surname(s) (all authors for 6 or fewer authors, the first 6 authors for articles with more than 6 authors should be specified, "ve ark." phrase for Turkish references and "et al." phrase for foreign references" should be used). Title of the article. Abbreviated name of the journal according to Index Medicus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ sites/entrez/query.fcgi?db=nlmcatalog). Year; Volume (Issue): First and last page number.

Example: Aakre KM, Langlois MR, Watine J, Barth JH, Baum H, Collinson P, et al. Critical review of laboratoryinvestigations in clinicalpracticeguidelines: proposalsforthedescription of investigation. ClinChemLabMed. 2013;51(6):1217-26.

If the reference is a book;
- Initial(s) of the author's name(s) and surname(s). Name of the book. Which edition. Place of publication: Printing house, Year of Publication: page number

Example: Green AB, Brown CD. Textbook of PulmonaryDisease. 2nd ed. London: Silver Books, 1982: 49.

If the reference is a chapter from the book;
- Initial(s) of the chapter author's name(s) and surname(s). Chapter title. In: The initial(s) of the editor(s) name(s) and surname (ed) or (eds). Name of the book. Which edition. Place of publication: Publishing house, year of publication: First and last page numbers of the chapter.

Example: Sitar ME, Akduman Alasehir E, and Ongen Ipek B. ImmuneModulationandIts Role in Antiaging. In: Rizvi S I, Cakatay U (eds) MolecularBasisandEmergingStrategiesfor Anti-agingInterventions. Singapore, Springer, 2018: 111-132.


If the reference is a journal published electronically;
- Initial(s) of the author's name(s) and surname(s) (all authors for 6 or fewer authors, the first 6 authors for articles with more than 6 authors should be specified, "ve ark." phrase for Turkish references and "et al." phrase for foreign references" should be used). Title of the article. The abbreviated name of the journal in accordance with Index Medicus, Year; Volume; First and last page numbers. Date of publication electronically as year, month, and day.

Example: Lemmon GH, Gardner SN. Predictingthesensitivityandspecificity of published real-time PCR assays. AnnClinMicrobiolAntimicrob 2008; 7: 18. Epub 2008 Sep 25.

- Articles accepted for publication are checked for grammar, punctuation, and format.
- The articles whose publication process has been completed are notified to the authors by e-mail before they are published, together with the number they are included in the publication plan.
- PDF files of the accepted articles are sent to the responsible authors, and the publication approvals are requested to be submitted to the journal within two days.

Final Checklist

● Cover Letter
● Copyright Transfer and Authors Information Form
● ICMJE Potential Conflicts of Interest Form
● If previously printed material (text-image-table) is used, a permit document
● Author Contribution Form
● Compliance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki in the "Materials - Methods" chapter in studies with human elements, statement of ethics committee approval from their own institution, and "informed approval (consent)" from patients and Clinical Studies Ethics Committee Decision Letter
● If the animal subject is used, statement of the compliance with the principles of "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" in the "Materials - Methods" chapter and the Animal Experiments Ethics Committee Decision Letter
● Title page
● Abstract (Turkish and English) and keywords,
● Main text,
● Tables,
● Figure Titles.