Instructions for Authors
“Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) is a peer-reviewed international medical journal that publishes original papers, reviews and case reports thus contributing to the development of pediatrics and family medicine.
“Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) also publishes updated information about the works of medical societies as well as editorial commentaries concerning given articles, reports and materials from international congresses, letters to the editors, information about new medicinal products, abstracts and discussions of articles published in other scientific journals, book reviews and other publications.
The journal a quarterly released in Polish and English versions.
Preparation of original papers, reviews and case reports
The manuscripts submitted for publication in the “Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) should be prepared in the MS Word program using font 12 (e.g. Arial, Times New Roman) and double-spaced. The volume of a paper should not exceed 15–20 standard typewritten pages. Measures and denominations should conform to the international system of units (SI).
All abbreviations and acronyms should be explained at their first use in the text. No acronyms are allowed in abstracts.
Figures and tables should not be included in the text, but their ultimate location should be indicated, e.g. (fig. 1), (tab. 1).
A figure legend should be presented on a separate page (beneath the references) and the tables should be placed at the end of the paper, after the figure legend, each table on a separate page. The number (using Arabic numerals) and title of the table should be placed above that table.
All acronyms used should be explained under the table as footnotes. Only high-quality figures are accepted for printing, i.e. in the *.eps, *.ai, *tif, *.bmp or *.jpg formats with the resolution of 300 dpi and 8 or 16 cm wide (respectively for single or double columns). Color photos should be prepared in CMYK mode and graphs – in Word, Power Point or Excel programs. No inscriptions on the photos should be made; only symbolic markings are acceptable, such as arrows, crosses or arrowheads, which must be sufficiently large and legible. Their explanations should be included in the figure description.
In the case of submitting the figures already published in another journal, a written consent of the copyright owner is required for their repeated use.
First author on behalf of all co-authors declares that the manuscript has not been concurrently submitted for publication in a different periodical and that no significant part of it has ever been published in another journal.
Statement of Human and Animal Rights
All experimental studies involving human subjects or animals require an approval of the local ethics committee (with respect to medical studies involving humans, authors shall conform to the principles included in the Declaration of Helsinki and with respect to experiments on animals – to the guidelines included in the Interdisciplinary Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, Testing and Education, issued by the New York Academy of Sciences – Ad Hoc Committee on Animal Research). A statement of the fact that the approval of the ethics committee has been obtained and its number should be included in the Material and methods section.
Statement of Informed Consent
In the case of studies involving human subjects, their written, informed consent to the participation in the trial is necessary. A statement that such a consent has been obtained should be included in the Material and methods section, according to the principles issued by the World Medical Association – the Declaration of Helsinki. It is prohibited to use patients’ names, initials, case history numbers or any other information that would enable the identification of the patient both in the actual text of the paper and in the illustrative material (figures, tables).
Conflict of Interest Statement
If there is a conflict of interest*, the source of financing the study (e.g. number and title of a grant) should be disclosed. At the end of the paper (i.e. directly before the References), the authors should include information concerning a possible conflict of interest and acknowledgements. If no conflict of interest exists, the authors should include the following statement: The authors do not report any financial or personal connections with other persons or organizations, which might negatively affect the content of this publication and/or claim authorship rights to this publication (an example).
Layout of manuscripts
Title page is the first page of a manuscript – it contains the title, full first and last names of all authors, their affiliations, i.e. full names of institutions, cities and countries. Consecutive Arabic numerals placed after last names as superscripts indicate the affiliated institution, e.g. Agata Kowalska1, Justyna Nowak2:
1 Department of Pediatrics, University...
2 Department of Imaging Diagnostics, Hospital...
The address for correspondence should be provided below affiliation data and should include complete details of a contact person, i.e. first and last names, postal address, electronic address and phone number.
Abstract – the second page of a manuscript. It should contain: for original papers and reviews between 200 and 250 words, for case reports between 100 and 150 words. The structure of the abstract of an original paper is as follows: aim of the study, material and methods, results, conclusions. Other types of papers do not require structured abstracts. In the abstract to a case report, apart from the aim and brief description of the disease history, conclusions should be mentioned as well – i.e. information concerning clinical relevance of the presented case. Acronyms and abbreviations are not allowed in abstracts.
Below the abstract, 3–5 key words should be provided based on the Index Medicus – Medical Subject Headings.
Introduction – description of the current knowledge concerning a particular subject which is concluded with the aim of the paper.
Material and methods – description of a group of patients included in the study, equipment used and statistical methods implemented. In this section, a note should be added stating that the patients’ written consent to participation in the study has been obtained and – in the case of experimental studies – the approval has been granted by the local ethics committee.
Results – should be presented in a clear and concise way, preferably in the form of tables or diagrams.
Discussion – interpretation of own results and their confrontation with literature reports.
Conclusions – presented clearly, in the form of one or a few sentences.
Conflict of interest – a statement concerning the source of financing or information about the lack of such a conflict.
Acknowledgements – thanks to persons who contributed to the creation of the paper.
References – list of publications quoted in the paper, presented in the order of appearance. Arabic numerals placed in semicircular parentheses, without spaces between the coma and the following number should be used as reference marks. In original and review papers, at most 30 other publications may be referred to; in case reports – up to 15 papers. Abbreviations of the names of other journals must conform to the Index Medicus. If the quoted paper has no more than three co-authors, they should all be listed. If there are more co-authors, the first three should be listed, followed by et al. Please observe punctuation marks, i.e. full stops, colons, spaces, etc.
Example references:
- articles:
1. Boney CM, Verma A, Tucker R et al.: Metabolic syndrome in childhood: association with birth weight, maternal obesity, and gestational diabetes mellitus. Pediatrics 2015; 115: e290–e296.
2. Go AS, Chertow GM, Fan D et al.: Chronic kidney disease and the risks of death, cardiovascular events, and hospitalization. N Engl J Med 2004; 351: 1296–1305.
- papers published with a DOI number only:
Hachisuka S, Kamei N, Ujigo S et al.: Circulating microRNAs as biomarkers for evaluating the severity of acute spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 2014. DOI: 10.1038/sc.2014.86.
- books:
Goroll AH, Mulley AG: Primary Care Medicine: Office Evaluation and Management of the Adult Patient. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia 2006.
- chapters in books:
Roden DM: Principles of clinical pharmacology. In: Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL et al. (eds.): Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 18th ed., vol. 1, McGraw-Hill, New York 2011: 13–25.
List of Figures should be placed on a separate page beneath the references using Arabic numerals.
Tables – each on a separate page. The heading should contain the number and title of the table. The abbreviations and acronyms used should be explained below the table as footnotes.
Biographical note – a biographical note with a photograph of the main author can be attached to each manuscript. The note (approximately 5–10 sentences) should be written in the third person and contain information concerning the academic degree, university that the author graduated from, current place of work, past and current responsibilities/positions, academic interests, awards, etc. The photograph should be delivered in a digital form in one of the commonly used graphic formats in the best possible resolution (preferably 300 DPI).
Case studies should be divided to the following sections: introduction (including the reasons for particular case study), case report, discussion and conclussions.
Delivering the manuscripts
The papers in “Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) are published in Polish and English versions. Manuscripts may be sent to the Editorial Office in one or both languages, on the condition that the translation is a professional one. At the request of the principal author and at their expense, the editors can send the article for translation into English (or order correction of the English version prepared by the author) to qualified translators.
The manuscripts with all their attachments should be sent via Editorial System: https://www.editorialsystem.com/pimren/.
Peer-review procedure
The review procedure conforms to the recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education published in the document Good practice in peer-review procedures in science.
The manuscripts submitted for publication in the “Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) are evaluated in terms of their content and formal requirements. It is assumed that all co-authors agree for the publication of the submitted paper and that the signature of the author responsible for correspondence confirms the consent of all others.
The manuscripts submitted for publication are first assessed with respect to their formal requirements by the Managing Editor. Incomplete papers or those that do not fulfill the above-listed requirements are sent back to their authors for correction. The papers that fulfill all formal requirements undergo further evaluation. Each manuscript is registered under a specific number and sent for review to two independent reviewers – recognized experts in the field the paper relates to who are not affiliated with the authors’ institutions and have no conflict of interest with the authors (kinship, professional dependency or direct scientific cooperation over the period of two years preceding the peer-review).
The Editorial Board of “Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) uses the “double-blind review” model, i.e. the identity of the reviewers is not revealed to the authors and vice versa – the reviewers do not know the identity of the authors and the remaining reviewers. Nevertheless, for the sake of transparency and clearness of the procedure, in the first issue of the quarterly in a given year and on its web site, the Editorial Board publishes a list of all reviewers that evaluated the manuscripts in the previous year. The peer-review procedure lasts 2 weeks. The reviewers are obliged to provide a content-related justification for their evaluation of the submitted paper and express unambiguous opinion by selecting one of the following options:
- the paper is ready for publication without any corrections;
- the paper can be published after minor corrections have been introduced in accordance with the reviewer’s recommendations, without the need for a repeated review;
- the paper can be published after its correction in accordance with the reviewer’s comments and after a repeated review;
- the paper should not be published.
Upon obtaining a positive opinion of both reviewers, the manuscript is accepted for printing. In the case of divergent opinions, the Editor-in-Chief requests the opinion of the third reviewer. The entire editorial process does not exceed 3 months.
Scientific reliability
The Editorial Board of the “Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) draws attention to the fact that the transparency and availability of information on the persons that have contributed to the creation of a paper (content-related, material, financial contribution etc.) constitutes the evidence of the researcher’s ethical attitude and of the highest editorial standards. Not only does it reflect good practice, but also is a manifestation of social responsibility.
We remind that the authors of publications are obliged to present the results of their studies in a transparent, reliable and honest way. Particular forms of scientific dishonesty are ghostwriting and guest authorship:
- the phenomenon of ghostwriting occurs, when the authors of a paper do not reveal the name of the person who significantly contributed to the creation of that paper – the name is not mentioned either as a co-author or in the Acknowledgements section;
- the unethical instance of guest authorship is a situation, when the contribution of one of the authors is negligible or none, but they are still listed as the co-authors of the publication.
The Editorial Board declares that the authors of the published papers assume full responsibility for their publications and all detected cases of dishonesty will be disclosed. The authors are asked to reveal their actual contribution to the submitted article, whereby the author who submits the manuscript assumes the major responsibility.
Copyright
“Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”) is an open journal, available online on, among others, www.pimr.pl. It can be accessed free of charge and with no other barriers on the basis of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) – CC-BY-NC-ND (certain rights reserved for the publisher and authors). The license allows for redistribution, presentation and preparation of the material for non-commercial purposes only, as long as it remains in its original form (without creating derivative works). The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright and retain publishing rights without restrictions. When deciding to publish an article in “Pediatria i Medycyna Rodzinna” (“Paediatrics and Family Medicine”), the author consents to its redistribution on the aforementioned terms and guarantees that the article does not infringe the rights of the third party.
* Conflict of interest exists when at least one of authors is connected, e.g. financially (by investments, employment, counseling, royalties etc.) with the institutions which might have an influence on his/her independence and objectivity. If a paper assesses particular products that are partially or entirely sponsored by commercial companies, the authors are obliged to disclose this fact.
