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Instructions to Authors

Authors are requested to follow these instructions carefully. Manuscripts not prepared accordingly will not be accepted.

These instructions can be downloaded from here.

General

  1. Journal of Nippon Medical School is the official journal of the Medical Association of Nippon Medical School and aims to introduce achievements in the fields of basic and clinical medicine. Articles contributed are classified into the following categories: originals, reviews, and case reports.
  2. Articles must be submitted in English of a standard appropriate to an international academic journal. Those submitted by non-native speakers of English must be accompanied by certification that they have been edited either by a professional English-language editor or by a qualified colleague (a native English speaker with expertise and experience in the editing of scientific papers). Certificates must be submitted in PDF format together with the manuscript.
  3. The articles must comply with the following rules concerning the Protection of Personal Information:

    (1)No information that would facilitate the identification of a patient (name, initials, date of hospitalization, etc.) should be included;
    (2)The general location where a disease broke out may be identified only if it is relevant to the patient's condition;
    (3)The eyes should be blacked out in facial photographs of patients; if photographs of patients with eye diseases are used, the rest of the face should not be identifiable;
    (4)Identifying information such as numbers should be removed from images and from biopsy and autopsy data.

  4. Studies reported in contributions to the Journal of Nippon Medical School must be based on humane experimental practices and observe the latest versions of The Declaration of Helsinki, Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or the established guiding principles and standards in the relevant field of research. Papers that describe studies using human or animal subjects must include an Institutional Review Board approval statement in the Methods section, and documentary evidence of the Institutional Review Board's approval must be submitted together with the article. Informed consent should be obtained from all human subjects, and a statement confirming that consent has been obtained must be included in the Methods section.
  5. Journal of Nippon Medical School is designed primarily as a platform for members of the Medical Association of Nippon Medical School to publicize their research. However, articles may be submitted by other researchers in Japan and around the world.
  6. Articles submitted to Journal of Nippon Medical School implies that it is the original work of the authors, and is neither published before nor is being considered for publication elsewhere. Effective upon acceptance for publication, copyright of the article is transferred to the Medical Association of Nippon Medical School, although all responsibility for its content rests with the authors. A Copyright Transfer Statement by all of the authors must be sent to the editorial office via ScholarOne Manuscripts.
  7. Except in the case of articles requested by the Editorial Committee, publication expenses are borne by the author. Authors will be notified of the exact sum.
  8. Authors must disclose via the online submission system any financial support or relationships that could be taken to constitute a conflict of interest with respect to the submitted data (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/). All such disclosures should be made at the end of the text.
  9. The editorial board of JNMS reserves the right to edit any articles accepted for publication as it sees fit.
  10. Plagiarism is not acceptable in Journal of Nippon Medical School submissions. We use the iThenticate plagiarism detection system (Crossref Similarity Check). All submissions are processed via Crossref Similarity Check before being sent for peer review. We reserve the right to reject papers if plagiarism is found during the course of the peer review process. If plagiarism is found after publication, we will issue a correction or retract the paper.
    Examples of plagiarism:
    (1)Copying text from other sources without appropriate referencing
    (2)Paraphrasing a referenced text by using basically the same grammar and structure and changing only a few words, even if citations are provided
  11. Any articles found to contain plagiarized material or unauthorized duplication of work by other authors will be retracted. Contributors may be requested, at the Editor-in-Chief's discretion, to correct other aspects of the article like data or typographical errors. The Editor-in-Chief will also adjudicate authors' requests for changes to submitted manuscripts, and requests for correction of such minor errors as typographical errors and omissions may not be accepted.
  12. Authors should respond to any communications from the Editorial Office within one month of receiving the communication. If the response is delayed, the review process may, at the Editor-in-Chief's discretion, be terminated and the submission treated as withdrawn.

Open Access Policy

Journal of Nippon Medical School has adopted the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) for all articles published in the journal after Vol. 87 No. 2 (April, 2020). The Medical Association of Nippon Medical School remains the copyright holder of all articles. Anyone may download, reuse, copy, reprint, or distribute articles for non-profit purposes under this license, on condition that the authors of the articles are properly credited. Written permission from the Editor-in-Chief is required for any commercial use or modification of the original. Articles published before Vol. 87 No. 2 (April, 2020) are subject to the same conditions.

Submission of manuscripts

Papers should be submitted online via the Journal of Nippon Medical School's online submission and peer review page on ScholarOne Manuscripts (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jnms).
Simply log on to ScholarOne Manuscripts and follow the onscreen instructions for all submissions. You will need to register before your first submission to Journal of Nippon Medical School. If you have any technical problems or questions related to the electronic submission process, please contact our Editorial Office:
The Editorial Committee
The Medical Association of Nippon Medical School,
1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 113-8602, JAPAN
Phone: +81-3-3822-2131, Fax: +81-3-5814-6765,
E-mail: editorial-jnms@nms.ac.jp

Types of manuscripts

  1. Originals are scientific reports of unpublished clinical or experimental medical research. The maximum length is 8,000 words, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
  2. Reviews consist of a critical assessment of the literature and existing data. The maximum length is 4,000 words, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
  3. Case reports should have a maximum of 3,000 words, including the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.

Arrangement of manuscripts

The entire manuscript, including the whole text, references, legends to figures, tables etc., should be presented as a Microsoft Word file. Manuscripts must be typewritten and double-spaced on paper not exceeding 30×21 cm (standard A4 paper is suitable) with a 3-cm margin.
Manuscripts should be arranged in the following order:
1. title page, 2. abstract and key words, 3. main text, 4. references, 5. figures and figure legends, 6. tables and footnotes, and 7. any other relevant sections. Each of these items should begin on a separate page.

1. Title page

The title page of the manuscript should contain only the following:

  1. Title of the paper (no abbreviations should be used in the title)
  2. Running title (no more than 40 characters, including spaces)
  3. Full names of the authors
  4. Affiliations of the authors (if the publication originates from several institutes, the affiliations of all authors should be clearly stated)
  5. Correspondence address, including telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address.

2. Abstract and key words

The second page of the manuscript should contain only the abstract (maximum 250 words) and key words. The abstract must be fully comprehensible without reference to the text. For original manuscripts, a structured abstract is required with the following headings: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions. For other types of manuscript, the abstract should not be structured.

Key words

There should be no more than five key words. (Refer to Medical Subject Headings in MeSH).

3. Main text

Section headings

Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections and presented in this order:
Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; References.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the text. Abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least three times in the text. Avoid jargon and nonstandard usage.

4. References

References should be listed as shown in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 2nd Edition, published by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/

When a reference has 7 or more authors, the first 3 authors must be named, followed by "et al.". When a reference has no more than 6 authors, all authors must be named. Authors using EndNote can format references with the output style below.

J Nippon Med Sch Output Style (EndNote)

References, including those given in table and figure legends, should be numbered sequentially in the order they appear in the text and listed in numerical order at the end of the manuscript under the heading "References". In the text, the numbers should be set to the right of the reference in superscript, e.g. Rossi-Fanelli et al.1-3/Bennett et al.2,4, etc. Journal titles should be abbreviated as shown in NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals%20.

Please refer to the following examples.

Journal Articles:

Yokota H. Cerebral endothelial damage after severe head injury. J Nippon Med Sch. 2007 Oct 15;74(5):332-7.

Yoshida H, Taniai N, Yoshioka M, et al. The current status of laparoscopic hepatectomy. J Nippon Med Sch. 2019 Aug 15;86(4):Forthcoming 2019.

Journal Articles on the Internet:

Yokota H. Cerebral endothelial damage after severe head injury. J Nippon Med Sch [Internet]. 2007 Oct 15 [cited 2019 Jan 5];74(5):332-7. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1272/jnms.74.332

Yoshida H, Taniai N, Yoshioka M, et al. The current status of laparoscopic hepatectomy. J Nippon Med Sch [Internet]. 2019 Aug 15 [cited 2018 Sep 25];86(4):Forthcoming 2019. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1272/jnms.JNMS.2019_86-411

Contributions to Books:

Yokota H. Kyukyuiryou ni okeru Shumatsuki Iryo [Terminal Care in Emergency Care]. In: Aruga T, Tejima Y, editors. Series Seimei Rinrigaku Vol.10 [The Japanese bioethics series Vol.10]: Kyumei Kyukyu [Emergency Care]: Maruzen Publishing; 2012. p. 79-100. Japanese.

Websites:

National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Ver. 2 [Internet]. 2018 Jan 17 [cited 2019 December 4]. Available from: https://www2.tri-kobe.org/nccn/guideline/lung/english/non_small.pdf

Databases:

SEER Summary Staging Manual-2000 [Internet]. U.S National Institutes of Health. 2000 [cited 2018 April 1]. Available from: http://seer.cancer.gov/tools/ssm/

5. Figures and figure legends

Figures

All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Digital photograph files should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Figures and photographs should be numbered in order of appearance with Arabic numerals (for instance Fig. 1, Fig. 2/Photo 1, Photo 2). Each figure must have an accompanying legend, which should be understandable without reference to the text. All of these legends should be collected together on a separate page (typewritten and double-spaced) rather than placed under the figures they refer to. Each figure's position in the text should be clearly indicated.

Figure legends

-Legends for all figures should be listed as part of the text document. Please do not write a legend below each figure.
-Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce or modify materials from other sources, including adaptations. Permission letters from the copyright holder of the original source must be submitted with the manuscript.
-The works from which figures are borrowed should be cited in the reference list. A full credit line should be added to the figure legend.

6. Tables

-Number tables consecutively in accordance with their citation in the text.
-All tabular material (including footnotes) should be double-spaced.
-Tables (with suitable titles and numbered with Arabic numerals) should be placed at the end of the text on separate sheets (one table per page). They should be understandable without reference to the text.
-Column headings should be kept as brief as possible and indicate units.
-Footnotes should be labeled a), b), c), etc. and typed on the same page as the table they refer to.
-Each table's position in the main text should be clearly marked.
-The same rules governing the use of materials taken from articles of other authors for use in figures apply to materials used in tables also.

Supplementary Materials

-Supplementary materials can be published in the online version of the journal (J-STAGE). Submissions should be made via ScholarOne Manuscripts, together with the main manuscript. The title and legends should also be submitted in MS Word format.
-Supplementary materials must be limited to 50 MB per file. One figure/table will count as one file, and the maximum number of figures and tables is as stipulated in our submission regulations. For video and audio files, the extensions should be ones that can be played with Windows Media Player or QuickTime, such as mp4 or wmv.
-In order to maintain a link with the printed version, the location of supplementary materials must be clearly indicated in the main text. The link will be maintained through the paper's DOI number.
-Copyright for supplementary materials is transferred to the Medical Association of Nippon Medical School, although all responsibility for their content rests with the authors. In the case of videos, the copyright holder should be clearly indicated at the bottom of the screen. An example is given below.

©2021 The Medical Association of Nippon Medical School-Created by . . . (Insert author's name)

-Be sure to remove any information that identifies patients, etc. in video or audio files. Any identifying information in the file properties (date and time of recording, location, etc.) should also be deleted. Authors are required to make a consent form showing that both the subject(s) and the person(s) who made the recording are aware that the material will be available for download and have given their approval.
-The publication fee for each video or audio file, payable by the authors, is JPY3,000 + consumption tax.
-The editorial board of JNMS reserves the right to request authors to edit any video/audio files if the content or editing of the material is deemed inappropriate.

Materials used from articles of other authors

If a paper submitted to JNMS contains figures, tables, or any other part of another article for which the submitting authors hold no copyright, permission must be obtained from the copyright holders. Authors must submit a certificate of permission to JNMS together with their article.

Publication fees

Payment of publication fees (as a contribution to the costs of production) is required after a manuscript has been accepted for publication. The article publication charges, excluding tax, are as follows:

Item Fee
Page charge (yen/page) ¥10,000
Supplementary charge (yen/page) for printed color pages
(there is no supplementary charge for color pages in the online version)
¥15,000
Processing fee (yen/article) (Original and Review)
(Photogravure and Case Reports)
¥20,000
¥10,000
Online publication (PDF) (yen/page) ¥400
Online publication (HTML) (yen/article) ¥1,000

(Revised February 15, 2022)