Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences

Case Reports: presentation of a clinical case which may suggest novel working hypotheses, with a short discussion on the pertinent literature. The text should not exceed 2400 words.

Correspondence: letters to the Editors should not exceed 500 words, should not be signed by more than three authors and should not have more than 5 references. Preferably, letters should be in reference to a Journal article published within the last 3 months or to novel hypotheses so as to stimulate comments on issues of common interest. Authors of the letters accepted for publication will receive the galley proofs. The Editors will generally solicit replies. The Editors reserve the right to modify the text.

Current Perspectives: invited articles by recognized authorities, to include position papers, reviews, and special topics of general interest. Independent submission will also be considered.

Editorials: invited articles or brief editorial comments that represent opinions of recognized leaders in biomedical research.

Fast-Track Articles: short articles on laboratory or clinical findings, representing important new insights or major advances, produced with established methods or new applications of an established or new method. The text should not exceed 2400 words.

All submitted manuscripts are initially evaluated by at least two scientific and academic members of editorial board. An initial decision is usually reached within 3–7 days.

Submitted manuscripts may be rejected without detailed comments after initial review by editorial board if the manuscripts are considered inappropriate or of insufficient scientific priority for publication in the BJBMS.

If sent for review, each manuscript is reviewed by scientists in the relevant field. Decisions on reviewed manuscripts are usually reached within one month.

When submission of a revised manuscript is invited following review, the revision must be received in short time of the decision date.

The BJBMS can publish only about 25% of the more than 300 submissions received per year. Submitted manuscripts may be rejected without detailed comments after initial review by editorial board if the manuscripts are considered inappropriate or of insufficient scientific priority for publication in the BJBMS. All other manuscripts undergo a complete review by consulting editors or other selected experts. Criteria for acceptance by the BJBMS include originality, validity of data, clarity of writing, strength of the conclusions, and potential importance of the work to the field of basic (preclinical) sciences. Submitted manuscripts will not be reviewed if they do not conform to standard English usage and to the Instructions for authors, which are based on "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" (http://www.icmje.org/).

Authorship

All authors have to sign the submission letter. We ask all authors to confirm that: they have met the criteria for authorship as established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors; they believe that the paper represents honest work, and are able to verify the validity of the results reported.

You might also be interested to read the debate on authorship in general in the British Medical Journal's Authorship collection (http://bmj.com/cgi/collection/authorship). Many of the points covered above are discussed in the New England Journal of Medicine's collection of papers entitled 'Editorials on Journal Policy' (http://authors.nejm.org/Misc/Policies.asp).

Redundant or duplicate publication

We ask the authors to confirm in the submission letter form that the paper has not been published in its current form or a substantially similar form (in print or electronically, including on a web site), that it has not been accepted for publication elsewhere, and that it is not under consideration by another publication. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has provided details of what is and what is not duplicate or redundant publication (http://www.icmje.org). In the submission letter to the editors, authors are asked to draw attention to any published work that concerns the same patients or subjects as the present paper.

Author Contributions

Authors are required to include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author in the submission letter form. The statement can be made in one sentence, describing the tasks of individual authors referred to by their initials. (i.e. L.L. has written the paper and performed most of the experiments. M.A. has provided essential reagents. G.J. has evaluated the results and designed experiments. S.K. has contributed to experiment design and result evaluation, etc.)

Patient consent forms

The protection of a patient's right to privacy is essential. The authors are asked to send copies of patient consent forms on which patients or other subjects of the experiments clearly grant permission for the publication of photographs or other material that might identify them. If the consent form for the research did not specifically include this, authors should obtain it or remove the identifying material.

Ethics committee approval

The authors must state clearly in the submission letter and in the Methods section that the conducted studies on human participants are with the approval of an appropriate named ethics committee. Please also look at the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm). Similarly, the authors must confirm that experiments involving animals adhered to ethical standards and must state the care of animal and licensing guidelines under which the study was performed.

Declaration of Interest

We ask the authors to state all potential financial support received for the work. This applies to all papers including editorials and letters to the editor (see below). If you are sure that there is no conflict of interest, please state this. You might like to look at an editorial in the British Medical Journal on 'Beyond conflict of interest'

(http://bmj.com/cgi/content/short/317/7154/291).

Copyright

Submission letter form contains authors statement that all the copyrights are transferred to the publisher if and when the manuscript is accepted for publishing.

Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the publisher and credit the source(s) in the article.

Submissions of manuscripts are made by sending the email Editorial office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Email must be composed of: Covering letter, in which authors explain the importance of their study, title of the manuscript, author names and email addresses, abstract and attached files of the Submission letter and manuscript. See the detailed list here.

Authors are required to download a Submission letter (here), complete and sign it, scan and submit it together with manuscript file. Details about editorial policies and formating requirements can be found in Instructions for authors at the Journals' web site.

Authors should NOT in addition post a hard copy of the manuscript and submission letter, unless they are supplying artwork, letters or files that cannot be submitted electronically, or have been instructed to do so by the editorial office.

For those authors who have no option but to submit by postal mail please send one copy of the article, together with an electronic version on CD or DVD to the following address: Editorial office "Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences", University of Sarajevo Medical Faculty, Čekaluša 90, 71 000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Abbreviations and symbols

Abbreviations should be defined on their first appearance in the text; those not accepted by international bodies should be avoided. Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

Title Page

The Title Page should carry the full title of the paper and a short title to be used as a 'running head' (and which should be so identified). The first name, middle initial and last name of each author should appear marked with superscript numbers or/and symbols corresponding to their affiliation or/and note. Affiliations of the authors should be written below authors name list. Full name, address, phone and fax number and e-mail of the author responsible for correspondence should appear on the Title Page. Please include the word count of the abstract and word count of text on the title page.

Abstracts

For Original Articles the second page should carry a structured abstract of no more than 250 words. The abstract should state the Objective(s) of the study or investigation, basic Methods (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals; observational and analytical methods), main Results (giving specific data and their statistical significance, if possible), and the principal Conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Current Perspectives, Research Methods articles and Case Reports should be accompanied by a short abstract of no more than 150 words.

Keywords

The abstract should be followed by a list of 3–10 keywords or short phrases which will assist the cross-indexing of the article and which may be published. When possible, the terms used should be from the Medical Subject Headings list of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Text

Full papers of an experimental or observational nature may be divided into sections headed Introduction, Materials and Methods (including ethical and statistical information), Results, Discussion and Conclusion, although reviews may require a different format.

Acknowledgements

One or more statements should specify (a) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a department chairman; (b) acknowledgements of technical help; (c) acknowledgements of financial and material support, specifying the nature of the support. Persons who have contributed intellectually to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their function or contribution described – for example, 'scientific adviser', 'critical review of study proposal', 'data collection', 'participation in clinical trial'. Such persons must have given their permission to be named. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from persons acknowledged by name because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.

Declaration of Interest

A statement must be provided listing all financial support received for the work and, for all authors, any financial involvement (including employment, fees, share ownership) or affiliation with any organization whose financial interests may be affected by material in the manuscript, or which might potentially bias it. This applies to all papers including editorials and letters to the editor. If you are sure that there is no conflict of interest, please state this. You might like to look at an editorial in the British Medical Journal on Beyond conflict of interest (http://bmj.com/cgi/content/short/317/7154/291).

References

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they first appear in the text. They should be assigned Arabic numerals, which should be given in brackets, e.g. [17]. References should include the names of all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first six names and add et al. References should also include full title and source information (Vancouver style). Journal names should be abbreviated as in MEDLINE (http://www.medscape.com/Home/Search/ IndexMedicus/IndexMedicus.html).

Articles in journals

Standard journal article:

 Tashiro H, Shimokawa H, Sadamatu K, Yamamoto K. Prognostic significance of plasma concentrations of transforming growth factor-ß. Coron Artery Dis 2002; 13(3):139-143.

More than six authors:

Yetkin E, Senen K, Ileri M, Atak R, Tandogan I, Yetkin Ö, et al. Comparison of low-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography and echocardiography during glucose-insulin-potassium infusion for detection of myocardial viability after anterior myocardial infarction. Coron Artery Dis 2002; 13(3):145-149.

Books:

Heger JW, Niemann JT, Criley JM. Cardiology, 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; 2003.

Chapter in a book:

Braunwald E, Perloff JK. Physical examination of the heart and circulation. In; Braunwald E, Zipes DP, Libby P (eds). Heart disease; a textbook of cardiovascular medicine, 6th edn. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 2001, pp. 45-81.

Personal communications and unpublished work should not feature in the reference list but should appear in parentheses in the text. Unpublished work accepted for publication but not yet released should be included in the reference list with the words 'in press' in parentheses beside the name of the journal concerned. References must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents.

Tables

-Provide each table on a separate page of the manuscript after the references.

-Each table should be typed on a separate sheet in double spacing.

-Number the table according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables. Each table should be assigned an Arabic numeral, e.g. (Table 3).

-Include a brief and self-explanatory title with explanations essential to the understanding of the table at the bottom of the table.

- Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean or other where appropriate.

Figures

-Provide each figure on a separate page of the manuscript after the references. Number the figures according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all figures.

-Graphs and figures should be in black/white or grayscale format. Color illustrations are acceptable but authors will be expected to cover the extra reproduction costs (for current charges, contact the publisher).

-All figures should be 100% of a suitable final size and have the printing resolution of 300dpi and be cropped to include the figure only (no blank space).

Units of measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples. All hematologic and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI).

Copyediting and production

All correspondence concerning the copyediting and production of accepted manuscripts should be addressed to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Proofs

Rough galley proofs are supplied to the corresponding author as a PDF, along with instructions. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours. Authors will be provided with information on charges at that time.

Charges

Authors will be charged 150 EUR (150 KM for authors from BiH). Additional charges for color reproduction of figures may apply. Authors will be informed about this when the poof is supplied to them. The charges must be completed before the article is released.