Submission Instructions for authors

Iranian Journal of Medical Law (Iran J Med Law) is the official organ of the Iranian Medical Law Association, and is published quarterly. It is an open-access Journal and published in Persian with English abstracts. Authors need to submit their articles to the journal website. Authors are responsible for both their article content and procedures involved from submission to publication of their article.

Guidelines:

1. Articles must be written in the field of medical law with scientific findings and conclusion.
2. Articles must be submitted to the journal website. All steps from submission to the publication of the manuscript are administered through the Journal website.
3. The observation of clarity and correct usage of grammar is necessary in the text of the manuscript.
4. The authors must affirm that their manuscript is original and all statements asserted as facts are based on authors’ careful investigation and accuracy. The manuscript has not been published in total or in part and has not been simultaneously submitted or considered for publication in total or in part elsewhere. For this purpose, authors are required to fill out, sign and submit the cover letter which endorses the commitment of the authors to the requirements reflected in this paragraph.
5. Original articles must be written in 3500-5000 words and Review articles must be included up to 6000 words. Case Reports should be limited within 1000-2500 words.
6. The font used by the Journal for English words is Times New Roman 12 and for Persian Nazanin 14 (abstract 13).
7. The title of the article, introduction, methods, findings, discussion, Conclusion and references should be bold. Authors can use numbers for subtitles if necessary.
8. All scientific terms should be used in parenthesis in English for the first time.
9.  It should be noted that if the article is a clinical trial, the inclusion of the registration code of Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials required.
10.  The observation of moral and ethical codes and considerations are necessary in the articles: http://hbi.ir/Forms/Special.aspx
11.  The Editors reserve the right to make editorial and literary corrections. Any expressed opinion or advocated policy does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the editors.

First page of the article (Article title and names of the authors):

Title should be concise and comprehensive within 15 words. Authors should avoid using acronyms in the title to avoid.

Names: full name of the author(s) and their affiliation, fax number, contact number and email address need to be included in the first page. If the article is written by more than one person, the corresponding author should be specified.

Second and third page of the article (abstract and key words in Farsi and English):

The abstract should contain details of the topic and the most important supporting evidences and implications. Great care should be taken to provide an informative abstract which summarizes the main argument of the paper. Abstracts in Persian and English should be limited to 250-300 words. English abstracts must match to Persian ones. Abstracts in original articles should be structured in four paragraphs that include: background and objectives, methods, findings and discussion. Abstracts in review articles should be in one paragraph. Keywords should be 3 to 7 terms using Mesh Terms that are available on:

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html

Types of Articles

The types of articles could be published in this Journal including:

1. Original articles: original papers contain the following sections:

Introduction: this section discusses about the problem known so far and the importance of the subject. The research questions are raised in this section where the explanation on how the findings could address such questions will be given.

Methods: This section must be written in such a way that any reader could conduct the research as the author(s) have done. In this section, the authors should detail the ethical considerations and aspects of the study.

Findings: This section summarizes key findings and results related to the research objectives.  Reporting the research findings should be conducted in the past tense. Authors should avoid the comparison and interpretation of results in this section. Tables and graphs should be used minimally. Tables are titled on the top of the relevant tables, and charts and diagram are titled underneath. The content of tables and charts should be in Persian. The resolution of images should be dpi 250.

Discussion: In this section, the author(s) should write about how the findings of their article relate to the findings of other studies and existing theories.  The first paragraph should start with the answer to the main research question and explain the study findings. Then these findings must be completed with other findings. In the next paragraph, the practical application and generalization of the results, strength and limitation of the study and suggestion for further research should be presented. At the end of this section authors should explain the outcome of his study and how the study contributes to the knowledge.

Conclusion: The conclusion of the article should be clear and concise in relation to the question or research objective such that it does not go beyond the scope of the research findings.

Acknowledgement: In this section, authors should acknowledge the financial support (the name of the institution) they have received to conduct their research. Also, authors need to mention their conflict of interest involved in the study.

Furthermore, confirmation code of ethics committee of the university or organization should be stated.  If the submitted article is part of a thesis, title and full details of the relevant thesis must be written.

2. Review Articles: These types of articles describe the latest findings regarding a specific subject and include literature review. In writing this type of articles, it is necessary to pay attention to the following points:

1. The articles to provide the latest scientific findings about a specific topic

2. The purpose of the article and the research question should be mentioned in the introduction section.

3- The author of this article is an expert in the relevant field, usually.

4- The author(s) should cite to their own articles.

3. Case report: For presenting the rare cases. Its length should be about 1000-2500 words.

Citation Style

Iranian Journal of Medical Law follows the Vancouver Citation Style. All references should be numbered as they appear in the text of the Article. Only relevant references should be cited. The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author. They must be in English. If the original reference is in Persian and it was published without English abstract please refer to its title in Pinglish in brackets; but if it was published with English abstract please indicate the reference using the English title (please do not translate the Persian title). Authors are encouraged to consider the latest papers published in J Med Ethics and History of Medicine Ideas for the general format of presentation. Examples are as follow:

Articles with up to 6 authors:

Mohammadi S, Borhani F, Roshanzadeh M. Moral distress in students: A cross-sectional study in educational environment. J Med Ethics 2015; 9(31): 29-47.

Articles with more than 6 authors:

Abbasi M, Nejadsarvari N, Kiani M, et al. Moral Distress in Physicians Practicing in Hospitals Affiliated to Medical Sciences Universities. Iran Red Crescent Med J 2014; 16(10): 1-8.

Books

Beauchamp TL, Childress J. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 7th Ed. USA: Oxford University Press, 2013:310-45

Book Chapters

Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW. The genetic basis of human cancer. 8th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002:93-113.

Read JL. The new era of quality of life assessment.  In: Walker SR, Rosser RM. Quality of Life Assessment. Key issues in the 1990s, 6th edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers: The Netherland, 1993:3-10

Thesis

Weisbaum LD. Human sexuality of children and adolescents: a comprehensive training guide for social work professionals [Master’s Thesis]. Long Beach (CA): California State University, 2005.

Clark JM. Referencing style for journals. [PhD Thesis], University of Leicester, UK, 2002.

Conference papers

Chu H, Rosenthal M. Search engines for the World Wide Web: a comparative study and evaluation methodology. Paper presented at: American Society for Information Science 1996 Annual Conference; October 19 24, 1996; Baltimore, MD. http://www.asis.org/annual-96/electronicproceedings/chu.html. Accessed February 26, 2009

Patents

Smith ST. Referencing styles for journals – a new method. Patent 12346-ZH, USA, 2011.

Jones P. Referencing styles for journals – a new method. Patent application 12346-ZHA, USA, 2011.

Website materials

Outbreak notice: Cholera in Haiti. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/outbreak-notice/haiti-cholera.htm. Updated January 9, 2012. Accessed February 1, 2012.

World Health Organization. Tuberculosis Facts 2008/WHO Fact Sheets on Tuberculosis and Stop TB Partnership [Internet]. 2008 Apr [cited 2011 Mar 1]

http://www.who.int/tb/publications/2008/factsheet_april08.pdf

Institute of Medicine. Meeting 2: Impact of Pregnancy Weight on Maternal and Child Health [Internet]. 2006 May 15 [cited 2011 Mar 1]

http://www.iom.edu/Activities/SelectPops/pregweightwrkshp/2006-MAY-30.aspx

Report

MacDonald S. The state of social welfare in the UK. Report, University of Durham, UK, June 2011.

Kishor, S., & Subaiya, L. (2008). Understanding women’s empowerment: A comparative analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data (DHS Comparative Reports No. 20). Calverton, MD: Macro International.

Magazines and newspapers

Clark JM. Referencing style for journals. The Independent, 21 May 2006, p.10.

Acts and international treaties

Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, P.L. 108-446, 20 U.S.C. § 1401, 118 STAT. 2657 (2004).

World Trade Organization. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_01_e.htm. Accessed June 1, 2015.

Cases

Vranjilal Manilal & Co v Bansal Tobacco Co (2001) PTC 99. http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1864885/. Accessed April 1, 2014.

Bernard L. Bilski v David J. Kappos (2010) 130 S. Ct. 3218. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2277797231762274855&q=28.+Case+130+S.+Ct.+3218,+2010&hl=en&as_sdt=2006&as_vis=1. Accessed April 1, 2015.

Figures and Tables
Authors are allowed to indicate their new hypotheses or ideas by providing diagrams, schemes, tables, or figures. Tables, diagrams, schemes, and figures are better to be in Word. Images should be in jpeg format. The frequency must be reported in each column as following: the number (percentage). To illustrate the point, use a decimal point: Examples: 49(70%) - 24/78

Cover letter& Copyright form  

All of the authors must sign the cover letter and send it with manuscript.

Copyright form will be sent to the corresponding author and should be returned with the least possible delay. Author’s declaration: Authors should state that their material is original and not previously published/submitted.

Peer review process

All manuscripts will be acknowledged upon submission to the Journal’s website, all mentioned requirements are assessed. The manuscript is sent to two or more reviewers. The revised article is re-evaluated, mostly by the first reviewers. Corresponding Author must make corrections and underline them and also write an accompanying letter, in reply to each comment to the secretariat of the journal message, up to 2 weeks. The whole review process depends on receiving referees’ comments and revising the manuscripts. Obviously, otherwise it will not be-reviewed and will be deleted from review process.

After final approving by those reviewers and the editor- in- chief, the letter of acceptance is issued to the Corresponding Author.

In order to eliminate any error before publishing, final version of the article (galley proof) will be sent to the Corresponding Author. All corrections must be announced within 48 hours to the Journal office.

Disposal of material

Once published, all copies of the manuscript and correspondence will be held for 6 months before disposal.

Final Checklist: authors should send their paper, after ensuring of provision the followings:

 
1. Title page contains the title, authors’ name, and their affiliations
2. Abstracts in Farsi and English
3. The anonymous text
4. References
5. Tables and figures
6. Cover letter; In accordance with the journal template

Cover letter &Copyright form (Template)

The Name of GOD

To the editor –in-chief

Attached here with is the manuscript, entitled “…………………………………………………………………………………………………” which we would like to be considered for review and possible publication in the Iranian Journal of Medical Law

The authors hereby affirm that the manuscript is original and all statements asserted as facts are based on authors’ careful investigation and accuracy. The manuscript has not been published in total or in part and has not been simultaneously submitted or considered for publication elsewhere.

The authors have full power and authority to enter into this copyright assignment. Each author acknowledges that he participated in the work in a substantive way, approved the manuscript as it stands, and is prepared to take public full responsibility for the work. There are no financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest.

All correspondence conducted via Corresponding Author email. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors transfer all of the relevant rights and interests to the journal, in any form, including electronic or revised versions of publications, etc.  

	Name, Family Name	Affiliation	E-mail	Signature and Date
1
2
3
4
5
6

Corresponding author:

Tel:

Fax:

Cell Phone:

E-mail: