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Guide for authors
Submission Guidelines
- Topical articles on forensic science, legal medicine, toxicology, the harmful effects of xenobiotics on human and animal health, all clinical aspects of forensic medicine and toxicology, and related specialties are published in the peer-reviewed, six-monthly Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.
- For the Full aim and scope, please visit Journal Aim and Scope.
The journal complies with the ICMJE's guidelines for medical journal conduct and publishing standards and best practices from other professional organizations, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and Committee on Publication Ethics COPE's.
- Plagiarism, illegitimate authorship, undeclared conflicts of interest, and duplicate publication are all prohibited under ethical standards. Ethical responsibilities of writers: authors are required to disclose such financial relationships at the time of submission and to update such disclosures prior to publication. For detailed information, see the Publication Ethics before submitting the article.
- All manuscripts must be submitted online. Authors should register for the Editorial System on the Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology website (https://zjfm.journals.ekb.eg/).
- Please follow the instructions under the "Manuscript Preparation" heading below to upload all of your manuscript files after clicking the "Submit Manuscript" hyperlink. According to the Journal Template, editable files (such as Word) are necessary for final publishing.
- The journal is published in both print and online versions. All articles published in ZJFM are fully open-access and freely available online.
2. The Publication Fee:
In Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, article processing and publishing are free of charge.
The journal permits the author or authors to maintain their publishing rights and copyright without any limitations. Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Please refer to the journal Publication Ethics for further information.
Writers need to make sure that their writing is unique. The authors have properly cited or quoted any other works and/or language that they have used.
The originality detection service may check your article to ensure it is original. Within the editorial system, every new manuscript submitted to the Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology is automatically checked for plagiarism using Crossref Similarity Check, which iThenticate powers. Before submitting their work, authors and researchers can also utilize iThenticate to review it by visiting http://www.ithenticate.com/.
The Zagazig Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology can publish reviews, case reports, short reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and original pieces.
- Original articles describe new and unique research that hasn't been published before.
- Reviews ought to give a short overview of a certain illness or condition.
- Case reports outline the distinctive features of an uncommon or well-known illness.
- Short reports outline a novel or altered forensic method.
- Book reviews are short summaries of certain works.
- Letters to the Editor are comments on previously published journal papers or other observations that the authors believe merit publication.
The author should never have published the material that was submitted. No other place is considering publishing it. The work's publication has been approved, either explicitly or implicitly, by the relevant authorities at the institute where it was carried out and by any co-authors. Please click the "Submit a manuscript" hyperlink and upload all of the suggested files by following the on-screen directions.
Please make sure that every source file you submit is editable. Your article will not be considered for review if you do not supply a complete set of editable source files.
- This publication uses a double-masked review process. This implies that during peer review, the author should continue to be anonymous to the reviewers. The authors' names or affiliations should not be included in the main file of the manuscript or any supporting files (like figures and tables).
Submissions of manuscripts must be made in a Word file. The text should be written in a standard, plain font (such as 12-point Times Roman), with italics used for emphasis.
Incorporate continuous line numbering into the main manuscript file and number the pages using the automatic page numbering feature. Save your file in either doc format (previous versions of Word) or docx format (Word 2007 or later).
6.1 Title Page
• Title: Brief and educational. Information retrieval systems frequently employ titles. Use titles clear of formulas and abbreviations wherever you can.
• Names and affiliations of the authors:
The authors must ensure that their names are spelled correctly and specify each author's given name and family name. They should also complete their affiliations. A lowercase superscript letter is used after the author's name and before the relevant affiliation. The email address of each author should be added.
• Corresponding author:
The corresponding author is the individual responsible for communication with the journal throughout the publication process and during the post-publication phases. Ensure that the appropriate author keeps the contact information up to date and provides the email address. The corresponding author's permanent address should be detailed, including the city, state, country, and ZIP code.
6.2 Abstract
A 250-word abstract that is factual and concise is needed. The background, the goal of the study, the techniques, the main findings, and the main conclusions should all be briefly stated in the abstract. An abstract ought to be able to stand alone because it is frequently given apart from the article. References and unusual or non-standard abbreviations should be avoided; however, if they are necessary, they must be specified in the abstract at their first mention.
Keywords:List no more than six keywords right after the abstract. Use American spelling and steer clear of generic, plural, and multi-concept expressions (e.g., "and" and "of"). Use acronyms sparingly; only those that are well-established in the field may qualify. Indexing will be done using these keywords.
6.3 Introduction
The introduction should include a concise statement of the work's objectives and adequate background information; a comprehensive literature review, results summary, or conclusions should be avoided.
6.4 Methods
The authors should include a declaration confirming the study's approval (or exemption) by the relevant national and/or institutional research ethics committee.
- Suppose human subjects are used in the research. In that case, the author must ensure that the study complies with the Uniform Requirements for articles submitted to Biomedical Journals and the World Medical Association's Code of Ethics (Declaration of Helsinki) for research involving humans.
- The authors should clearly state in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained before using human participants in any experiments. The rights of human subjects to confidentiality must always be upheld.
- Only when medical research directly targets the health needs or priorities of a vulnerable group—such as newborns, children, pregnant women, convicts, etc.—and cannot be carried out in a non-vulnerable population can it be ethically justifiable. This group's parents or guardians must provide their informed consent. Members in this category should also expect to gain from the information, methods, or treatments that come from the study. Refer to the COPE's guidelines.
- Research animals' well-being must be respected. Authors who report animal experiments should confirm approval by a research ethics committee at the relevant institution or practice and adhere to ARRIVE guidelines as well as international, national, and/or institutional norms for animal care and use.
- Study design: For randomized, controlled trials, we recommend using the CONSORT statement; for observational research, we recommend using the STROBE statement. Authors are urged to follow the global initiative for Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR) for further information.
- First, capital letters should be used to denote proprietary names of medications, tools, etc.
- International System of Units (SI) or SI-derived units should be used for all measurements.
Statistical analyses: Provide enough information on statistical procedures so that an informed reader who has access to the source data can confirm the reported results. Any computer software used for purposes other than the commonly accepted conventional statistical processes should be indicated by the name, abbreviation, creator, or original organization. It is also necessary to include the number of observations (n) when expressing variability in terms of the SEM or SD. It is important to predetermine the sample size and the statistical significance using p values.
Manuscripts not meeting the previous conditions will be rejected at the editors' discretion.
6.5 Results
- The findings should be presented without discussion and usually without citations. The same data should not be included in figures and tables.
- Authors should keep data for a fair amount of time after publication, and they may be requested to submit raw data for editorial review.
6.6 Discussion
Rather than restating the findings, the discussion should address how the results should be interpreted. We advise authors to follow this format when writing their discussion:
- Summary of the main findings.
- Advantages and disadvantages of the research.
- Advantages and disadvantages compared to other research.
- Examining significant variations in the findings and the significance of the research.
- Future research and unsolved questions.
6.7 Conflict of Interest
- The authors must disclose any financial or personal ties to individuals or groups that can unnecessarily affect their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are stock ownership, consultancies, paid expert testimony, patent applications and registrations, grants, and other funding. If there are no conflicts of interest, the following should be stated: "Conflicts of interest: none."
- All authors who contributed to the research must approve the final manuscript before submission, and their roles should be mentioned.
6.8 References
Citation in text
All of the references cited in the text must be included in the reference list, and vice versa.
Reference style
The recommended reference style is APA referencing style with the following guidelines:
In-text citations
1- A single author is cited by the author's name and publication year.
2- Two authors: both authors' names and publication year.
3- Three authors or more: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and publication year.
Direct or parenthetical citations are also acceptable. Reference groups should be arranged chronologically after being arranged alphabetically.
As illustrated by Allan (2000a, 2000b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1999), for instance. Recently, Kramer et al. (2010) demonstrated...
List of references:
The references should be sorted chronologically after they are initially grouped alphabetically. Letters such as a, b, c, etc. must indicate multiple references from the same author or authors in the same year, and they should be placed after the year of publication.
- From book
Author Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year Published). Title of work. Publisher.Book chapter from an edited book
- Journal article (print)
Author Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year Published). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Volume(Issue), page range.Website or webpage
- Website
Author Last Name, first initial. (Year, Month Date Published). Title of web page. Name of Website. URL
6.9 Figures
Diagrams and graphs: Professional-quality line drawings and graphs are required. Numbering and lettering done by hand or by type are not acceptable.
Images: EPS, JPEG, and TIFF file types are accepted for figure submissions. Numbers, letters, or symbols should be appropriately sized for clear readability.
Figure legends should be concise and provide sufficient details to describe the figures, allowing them to stand independently from the text.
6.10 Tables
Tables should not be submitted as images but rather as editable text. Tables can be positioned at the end of the article on a different page or adjacent to the pertinent text. Add any table notes beneath the table and number the tables sequentially based on how they appear in the text. Use tables with restraint and ensure the information does not duplicate findings already discussed in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules.
7- Further information
7.1 Highlights
Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 90 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).
7.2 Abbreviations
Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such unavoidable abbreviations in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.
7.3 Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments should not be included on the title page as a footnote to the title or in any other way; instead, they should be gathered in a separate section at the conclusion of the piece before the references. List here the people who helped with the research (e.g., editing the article, helping with writing, helping with language, etc.).
7.4 Formatting of funding sources
- To make it easier to comply with the funder's requirements, list funding sources in this standard format:
-Funding: The National Institutes of Health provided support for this work [award numbers xxxx, yyyy].
- When discussing funding for research, there's no need for detailed explanations of grants and awards. Please provide the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding if it came from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or research institution. If the research did not receive any funding, please include the following statement: "This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors."
Submission Checklist
The following list will be helpful when finalizing an article before sending it to the journal for review. For more information about any item, please refer to this Guide for Authors.
One author has been delegated to be the corresponding author with contact details:
- E-mail address
- Full postal address
All following files are necessary and should be uploaded:
- Cover letter
- Title page
- Anonymous manuscript
- Point-by-point response to reviewers' and/or editor's comments (For revised manuscript).
Additional files are necessary (optional)
- Supplemental data for publication
- Supplemental data for reviewing purposes.
Further recommendations:
- All references in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa.
- The manuscript has been "grammar checked."
- The references are formatted according to journal style.
- Using copyrighted content from other sources, including the internet, has been authorized.
- A printed copy of the figures, either in color or black & white, if applicable
- Make it apparent whether color or black-and-white printing is necessary.