AUTHOR GUEDILINES

The Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease is an open access and a scientific publication journal that is published from the Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Children’s Hospital. The journal is published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blind peer review principles. The journal is published bimonthly (January, March, May, July, September, November)

The journal publishes original articles, reviews, case reports, short reports, editorials, book reviews, biographies and letters to the editor. Additionally, articles on topics related to pediatrics, including aspects of pediatric surgery, dentistry, public health, genetics, psychiatry and nursery, may be considered for publication. The publication language of the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease is English.

The editorial and the publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal conforms to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).

The originality, high scientific quality, and the citation potential are the most important criterias for a manuscript to be accepted for the publication. Manuscripts submitted for the evaluation should not have been previously presented or already published in an electronic or printed medium. The journal should be informed if manuscript have been submitted to another journal for the evaluation and have been rejected for the publication. The submission of previous reviewer reports will expedite the evaluation process. Manuscripts that have been presented in a meeting should be submitted with a detailed information of the organization, including the name, date, and location of the organization.

Manuscripts submitted to the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease will go through a double-blind peer-review process. Each submission will be reviewed by at least two external, independent peer reviewers who are experts in the field, in order to ensure an unbiased evaluation process. The editorial board will invite an external and independent editor to manage the evaluation processes of manuscripts submitted by editors or by the editorial board members of the journal. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all submissions. Articles accepted for publication in the Turkish Journal of Pediatrics are put in the order of publication, with at least 10 articles in each issue, taking into account the acceptance dates. If the articles sent to the reviewers for evaluation are assessed as a senior for publication by the reviewers, the section editor and the editor considering all aspects (originality, high scientific quality and citation potential), it receives publication priority in addition to the articles assigned for the next issue.

An approval of the research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects,” amended in October 2013, www.wma.net) is required for the experimental, clinical, and drug studies and for some case reports. If required, ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document will be requested from the authors. For manuscripts that are concerning experimental researchs on humans, a statement should be informed included that shows a written informed consent of the patients and the volunteers who were given a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. For studies carried out on animals, the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering of the animals should be stated clearly. Information of the patient consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number should also be stated in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect the patients’ anonymity carefully. For the photographs that may reveal the identities of the patients, releases signed by the patient or their legal representative should be enclosed.

A similarity report in terms of plagiarism will be requested in accordance with the agreement between DergiPark and intihal.net for all manuscript submissions. Authors will be informed during the submission process and the system will prepare a report during the file upload step and the result will be sent to the author via e-mail. The author will be able to complete the submission process at this stage. In order to submit a manuscript to the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease, the similarity rate should be maximum 20%.

In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, the Editorial Board will follow and act in accordance with the COPE guidelines.

Each individual listed as an author should fulfill the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE - www.icmje.org). The ICMJE recommends that authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND

4. Agreement to be accountable of all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or the integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he/she had done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for the specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

All those designated as authors should meet all of the four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all of the four criteria should be acknowledged in the title page of the manuscript.

The Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease requires corresponding authors to submit a signed and scanned version of the authorship contribution form (available for download through https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/tchd) during the initial submission process in order to act appropriately on authorship rights and to prevent ghost or honorary authorship. If the editorial board suspects a case of “gift authorship,” the submission will be rejected without a further review. As a part of the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author should also send a short statement declaring that he/she accepts to undertake all of the responsibility for the authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript.

The Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease requires and encourages the authors and the individuals who involved in the evaluation process of submitted manuscripts to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interests, including financial, consultant, and institutional, that might lead to the potential bias or a conflict of interest. Any financial grants or other supports received for the submitted study from individuals or institutions should be disclosed to the Editorial Board. To disclose a potential conflict of interest, the ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form should be filled in and submitted by all of the contributing authors. Cases of the potential conflict of interest of the editors, authors, or reviewers are being resolved by the journal’s Editorial Board within the scope of COPE and ICMJE guidelines.

The Editorial Board of the journal handles all of the appeal and complaint cases within the scope of COPE guidelines. In such cases, authors should get in direct contact with the editorial office to regard their appeals and complaints. When needed, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve cases that cannot be resolved internally. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all of the appeals and complaints.

When submitting a manuscript to the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease, authors should accept to assign the copyright of their manuscript to the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease. If authors rejected for publication, the copyright of the manuscript will be assigned back to the authors. The Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease requires each submission to be accompanied by a Copyright Transfer and Acknowledgement of Authorship Form (available for download at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/tchd). When using previously published content including figures, tables, or any other material in both of the print and electronic formats, authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder. Legal, financial and criminal liabilities in this regard belong to the author(s).

Statistical analysis to support the conclusions are usually necessary. Statistical analyses must be conducted in accordance with the international statistical reporting standards (Altman DG, Gore SM, Gardner MJ, Pocock SJ. Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals. Br Med J 1983: 7; 1489-93). Information about the statistical analyses should be provided with a separate subheading under the Materials and Methods section and the statistical software that was used during the process must be specified certainly.

Statements or opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease reflect the views of the author(s) and not the opinions of the editors, the editorial board, or the publisher; the editors, the editorial board, and the publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials. The final responsibility in regard to the published content rests with the authors.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

The manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the ICMJE-Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (Updated January 2024 - http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations).

Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, available at
www.dergipark.org.tr/en/journal/2846/submission/step/manuscript/new. Manuscripts submitted via any other medium will not be evaluated.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal will go firstly through a technical evaluation process where the editorial office staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. Submissions not conforming to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the submitting author with the technical correction requests.

Authors are required to submit the following:

Copyright Transfer  ( https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2846/file/4522/download )and Author Contribution Form ( https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2846/file/3899/download )
ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (  https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2846/file/3901/download )should be filled in by all of the contributing authors) during the initial submission. 

Manuscripts should be written using Microsoft Word™ (2010 and higher) software, in Times New Roman, 12 point size and double line spacing. There should be 2 cm margins on all sides on the pages. "System International" (SI) units should be used in manuscripts. Tables and graphics should be cited in the text. Abbreviations can be used provided that they are written openly at the first place they appear in the abstract and text, and the abbreviation is given in parentheses.

In the article, when giving the mean and percentile, 2 digits should be used after the decimal point (such as 231.69 or 231.70, instead of 231.7). In the representations other than integers, two digits should be written after the dot, and in the representation of statistical values (such as p, r, t, z values), three digits should be written after the dot. In the presentation of p values, instead of p<0.05 or p>0.05, the full p value should be given with three digits after the dot (eg p=0.029) with the test statistic. If this value is less than one thousandth, it should be displayed as p<0.001.

Preparation of the Manuscript Title page:

Title page should be submitted for all of the submissions and this page should include:

Title page of the manuscript should include the English title of the article. The title page should include the authors’ names, degrees, ORCID number and the institutional/professional affiliations, a short title (max 50 character), abbreviations, financial disclosure statement, and the conflict of interest statement. For manuscripts sent by the authors in Turkey, a title in Turkish is also required. If a manuscript includes authors from more than one institution, each author’s name should be followed by a superscript number that corresponds to this/her institution, which is listed separately. Please provide a contact information for the corresponding author, including name, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers.

Important Notice: The cover page must be uploaded as a separate document. The title form must be downloaded from https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2846/file/7262/ show and edited completely.


Keywords: Each submission must be accompanied by a minimum of three to a maximum of six keywords for subject indexing at the end of the abstract. The keywords should be listed in full without abbreviations. The keywords should be selected from the National Library of Medicine, Medical Subject Headings database (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). For manuscripts sent by the authors in Turkey, key words in Turkish are also required.


Manuscript Types

Original Articles:
Word count: up to 3,500 (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion)
Title: maximum of 20 words
Structured abstract: up to 250 (Objective, Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusion)
Keywords: 3-6 word, listed in alphabetical order.
Figures and tables: are not limited, but must be justified thoroughly
References: It should be at least 20 and at most 40.

It is required that original articles include an English title, an English structured abstract and English keywords. Additionally, the Turkish title, Turkish structured summary and Turkish keywords are required. It is widely acknowledged that the abstract is of critical importance to the majority of readers, as it is the first section they will read. Furthermore, a significant number of electronic databases only integrate abstracts into their index, which emphasises the importance of including key findings in the abstract. The remaining sections of the manuscript should include the following: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement (if required) and References. All sections of the manuscript should start on a new page.


Review Articles:
Word count: up to 5000
Abstract: up to 500 (Objective, Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusion)
Keywords: 3-6 word, listed in alphabetical order.

Figures and tables: are not limited, but must be justified thoroughly
References: up to 80
Review articles are accepted by the Editor of the Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease by invitation.

Review articles are comprehensive analyses of the specific topics in medicine, which are written upon the invitation due to extensive experience and publications of authors on the review subjects. All invited review articles will also undergo peer review prior to the acceptance.

Review articles should include; English title, English abstract and English key words. For manuscripts sent by authors in Turkey, a Turkish title, Turkish structured and Turkish key words also required.

Case Reports:

Word count: up to 2000
Abstract: up to 200
Keywords: 3-6 word, listed in alphabetical order.
Figures and tables: total 5
References: up to 15
There is a limited space for the case reports in the journal and reports on rare cases or conditions that constitute challenges in the diagnosis and the treatment, those offering new therapies or revealing knowledge that are not included in the literature, and interesting and educative case reports are being/ will be accepted for publication. The text should include Introduction, Case Presentation and Discussion.

Case reports should include; English title, English abstract and English key words. For manuscripts sent by authors in Turkey, a Turkish title, Turkish abstract and Turkish key words also required.

Letters to the Editor:
Word count: up to 1500
Figures and tables: total 3
References: up to 15
This type of manuscript discusses about the important parts, overlooked aspects, or lacking parts of the previously published article. Articles on subjects within the scope of the journal that might attract the readers’ attention, particularly educative cases, may also be submitted in the form of a Letter to the Editor. Readers can also present their comments on published manuscripts in the form of a Letter to the Editor. An abstract and Keywords should not be included. Tables, Figures, Images, and other media can be included. The text should not include subheadings. The manuscript that is being commented on, must be properly cited in this manuscript.
Letters to the Editor should include; English title. For the letter to the editor sent by authors in Turkey, a Turkish title also required.

Study Protocols:
The Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease welcomes study protocols to improve the transparency of research and inform the scholarly community about the trials that are being underway. Publication decision of study protocols will be by editorial decision. Study protocols for the pilot or feasibility studies are not generally taken into consideration.

Study protocol articles should follow the SPIRIT guidelines that provides a detailed account of the hypothesis, rationale, and methodology of the study. All study protocols must provide an Ethics Committee Approval. All protocols for the clinical trials require a trial registration number and the date of registration.


Tables
Tables should be included in the main document, presenting after the reference list, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred in the main text. A descriptive title must be placed above the tables. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the tables by the footnotes (even if they were defined within the main text). Data presented in the tables should not be a repetition of the data presented within the main text but should be supporting the main text. The following symbols should be used for abbreviations in sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡.

Figures and Figure Legends

Figures, graphics, and photographs should be submitted as separate files (in TIFF or JPEG format) through the submission system. The files should not be embedded in a Word document or in the main document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should not be merged to form a single image. Each subunit should be submitted separately through the submission system. Images should not be labeled (a, b, c, etc.) to indicate figure subunits. Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks, and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legends. Like the rest of the submission, the figures should also be blind. Any information within the images that may indicate an individual or an institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process, all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large size (minimum dimensions: 100 × 100 mm). Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document.

All acronyms and abbreviations used in the manuscript should be defined at first use, both in the abstract and in the main text The abbreviation should be provided in parentheses following the definition.

When a drug, product, hardware, or software program is mentioned within the main text, product information, including the name of the product, the producer of the product, and city and the country of the company (including the state if in USA), should be provided in parentheses as in the following format: The skin prick tests were performed using a multi-prick test device (Quantitest, Panatrex Inc, Placentia, California, USA).

All references, tables, and figures should be referred in the main text, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order that they are referred in the main text.
Limitations, drawbacks, and the shortcomings of original articles should be mentioned in the Discussion section before the conclusion paragraph.

References
While citing publications, the preference should be given to the latest, most up-to-date publications. Authors should avoid using references that are older than ten years. The limit for the old reference usage is 20% in the journal. If an ahead-of-print publication is cited, the DOI number should be provided. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Reference numbers should be indicated at the end of the sentences in parentheses and references should be numbered consecutively in the order that they are mentioned in the text. Journal names should be abbreviated as listed in “Index Medicus” or in “ULAKBIM/Turkish Medical Index”. References should be typed in consistence with the following examples. Native references should be used as much as possible.


If the reference is a journal;
Author(s)’ surname and initial(s) of the first name (all authors if the number of authors are 6 or less, first 6 authors if the number of authors of an article is more than 6 followed by “ve ark.” in Turkish references and “et al.” in international references). Title of the article, title of the manuscript abbreviated according to Index Medicus
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/query.fcgi?db=nlmcatalog). Year;Volume:First and last page number.
Example: Benson M, Reinholdt J, Cardell LO. Allergen-reactive antibodies are found in nasal fluids from patients with birch polen-induced intermittent allergic rhinitis, but not in healthy controls. Allergy 2003;58:386-93.

If the reference is a journal supplement;
Author(s)’ surname and initial(s) of the first name. Title of the article. Title of the manuscript abbreviated according to Index Medicus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/query. fcgi?db =nlmcatalog). Year;Volume (Suppl. Supplement number): First and last page number.
Example: Queen F. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Envirol Health Perspect 1994;102 (Suppl. 1):S2755-S2782.

If the reference is a book;
Author(s)’ surname and initial(s) of the first name. Title of the book. Edition number. City of publication; Publisher, Year of Publication.
Example: Ringsven MK, Bond N. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, 1996.

If the reference is a book chapter;
Surname and initial(s) of the first name of the author(s) of the chapter. Title of the chapter. In: Surname and initial(s) of the first name(s) of the editor(s) (ed) or (eds). Title of the book. Edition number. City of publication: Publisher, Year of publication: First and last page numbers of the chapter.
Example:Phillips SJ, Whistant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM (eds). Hypertension: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Management. 2 nd ed. New York: Raven P, 1995:466-78.

If the reference is a conference paper presented in a meeting;
Author(s)’ surname and initial(s) of the first name (all authors if the number of authors are 6 or less, first 6 authors if the number of authors of a conference paper is more than 6 followed by “et al.”. Title of the conference paper, If applicable In: Surname and initial(s) of the first name(s) of the editor(s) (ed) or (eds). Title of the abstract book. Title of the meeting; Date; City of the meeting; Country. Publisher; Year: Page numbers.
Example: Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Reinhoff O (eds). MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sep 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland. North-Holland; 1992: 1561-5.

If the reference is an online journal:
Author(s)’ surname and initial(s) of the first name (all authors if the number of authors are 6 or less, first 6 authors if the number of authors of an article is more than 6 followed by “ve ark.” in Turkish references and “et al.” in international references).Title of the article, title of the manuscript abbreviated according to Index Medicus Year; Volume (Number). Available from:URL address. Accessed date:day.month.year.
Example: Arrami M, Garner H. A tale of two citations. Nature 2008;451(7177): 397-9. Available from: URL:www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7177/full/451397a.html. Aaccessed 20 January 2008.

If the reference is a website:
Name of the web site. Access date. Available from: address of the web site.
Example: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Acsess date: 12 March 2013. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/

If the reference is a thesis:
Author’s surname and initial of the first name. Title of the thesis (thesis). City; Name of the university (if it is a university); Year.
Example: Özdemir O. Fibrillin-1 gene polymorhism and risk of mitral valve disorders. (Thesis). Ankara: Gazi University, 2006.


REVISIONS

When submitting a revised version of a paper, the author must submit a detailed “Response to the reviewers” that states point by point how each issue were raised by the reviewers, and where it can be found (each reviewer's comment, followed by the author’s reply and line numbers where the changes have been made) as well as an annotated copy of the main document. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 30 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option may be cancelled. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request this extension before the initial 30-day period is over.

Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for the grammar, the punctuation, and the format. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it will be published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before being included in it’s scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval will be requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.


CHANGE OF AUTHORSHIP AND WITHDRAWAL REQUEST

Change of Authoship
Any request to change the author list after submission, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or the addition of author names, is subject to the Editorial Board’s approval. To obtain this approval, please find and complete the change of authorship form on the Journal’s website and send it to the Journal’s office. This form should include the following information: The reason for the change of authorship signatures of all authors (including the new and/or removed author)
Please note, if you are adding or removing author/authors, a new copyright transfer form signed by all authors should also be sent to the editorial office after the Editorial Board approves the change of the authorship.

Withdrawal Policy
Turkish Journal of Pediatric Disease is committed to provide high quality articles and uphold the publication ethics to advance the intellectual agenda of science. We expect our authors to comply mbestly with the practice in publication ethics as well as in the quality of their articles.
Withdrawal of a manuscript will be permitted only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons. For the withdrawal of a manuscript, authors need to submit an "Article withdrawal Form", signed by all of the authors mentioning the reason for withdrawaling to the Editorial Office. The form is available at the web page of the journal. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the editorial office.
In a case where a manuscript has taken more than six months’ time for the review process, that this allows the author for withdrawing the manuscript.