Guide for Authors

Online Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online through our website : http://fmej.mums.ac.ir

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The manuscript submitted to the journal must not contain previously published material or material under consideration for publication elsewhere. Assurance should be given that the manuscript is not under simultaneous consideration by any other publication.
 
Instructions for Authors
 
The Future of Medical Education Journal (Future MED EDUC J) is a peer-reviewed journal, published by Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

FMEJ aims to develop the knowledge of medical education and tries to provide information in the field of education for medical and health care professionals. By publishing each abstract in 4 major West and South Asian languages, it seeks to reflect the situation of research in medical education in this area and worldwide. The main text is published in English.

The journal accepts and welcomes high quality papers in the forms of original research articles and rarely review articles, qualitative research articles, and scientific letters on all aspects of medical education including undergraduate and postgraduate education, continuing professional development and interprofessional education.

Ethics and malpractice statements of the Future of Medical Education Journal are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and pertain to all parties involved in the publishing: the editor, the peer reviewer and the author.

The Publication fee in the Future of Medical Education Journal is free.


All manuscripts will undergo peer review. A final report and a subsequent decision about publication will then be made by Editor in Chief. If the Editor in Chief requires revision of the article, authors must send the correct version within two months, after two months, the item will be archived, unless the authors did not apply for an extension.
 

Responsibilities of the Authors

By submitting a manuscript for publication, each author acknowledges having made a substantial contribution in:

  • the conception and design of the study
  • the analysis and interpretation of the results
  • the writing of the paper

and has approved the final submitted version of the manuscript. Each author thus also acknowledges responsibility for the integrity of the document, assures its originality, and guarantees that duplicate or redundant publications or submissions have not occurred. Authors should declare any possible conflict of interest. They are responsible for all statements done in the text. The copyright transfer form must be signed by each author.

Experiments on human should be made according to Helsinki Declaration 2008, http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih9/bioethics/guide/teacher/Mod5_Helsinki.pdf or after approval of local ethical committee. Experiments on animals should respect the "Animal Welfare Act", http://www.neavs.org/research/laws. Published Conflict-of-Interest Statement, Statements of Informed Consent and Human and Animal Right should be made according to International Committee of Journal Medical Editors http://www.icmje.org.

 

Ethics

Published research must comply with the guidelines for human studies and animal welfare regulations. It should be stated that the study has been conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors should state that subjects have given their informed consent and that the study protocol has been approved by the institute’s Research committee. Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data or any other kinds of fraud will be reported completely to COPE. Please visit Publication Ethics page

 

Peer review process

All manuscripts are peer-reviewed by at least 3 anonymous reviewers. After acceptance of a manuscript, it is scheduled for printing in the next available issue.

 

Manuscript Preparation and Submission for Anonymous Peer Review


The author(s) should submit two separate manuscript files, one with the author(s) details, and one without.

The author(s) should replace any information that would identify the author(s) by substituting: [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process].

All manuscripts submitted to FMEJ should adhere to the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals [Ann. Intern. Med. 1997; 126: 36-47]”, which has been made use of in the following instructions.

The manuscript should be typed in times new roman font, double-spaced throughout on one side of A4/Letter paper.

Organize the manuscript as follows:

Title page, Abstract (English and Persian), Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion including a Conclusion, Acknowledgments, References, Figure legends, and Tables.

 

Categories of Submission

Original article: Original articles should not exceed 250 words in abstract and 4500 in main text from introduction through references. They should be compiled in the following order: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Limitations, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, References, Tables with titles and Figures with legends (see below). The total number of tables and figures combined may not exceed 6, and the number of references may not exceed 50.

Short communication: These articles, which are consistent with original articles format, are brief reports on results of high significance and urgency. Their length may not exceed 2500 words from introduction through references, the total number of tables and figures combined may not exceed 4, and the number of references may not exceed 30.

Letter to editor: These articles should be limited to commentaries on previous articles published in FMEJ. Letters that are commentaries on previous articles must be submitted within 12 months after publication of the article. Length of letters should be no more than 2 pages, including references. Only 1 table and/or figure may accompany a letter to editor.

Review article: Review articles should not exceed 4,000 words in length, must include an abstract of 250 words or fewer, and may not have more than 100 references. The use of tables and color figures to summarize critical points is encouraged. They should be compiled in the following order: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results (this part can be divided into several headings), Discussion, Limitations, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, References, and Tables with titles and Figures with legends.

Authors of systematic or narrative reviews should clearly describe in methods section: (1) their search strategy (how authors obtained the relevant material from credible online databases or other sources of medical science distribution, textbooks, governmental reports and documents), (2) the search terms used for exploring online medical databases, (3) their selection criteria for inclusion of retrieved articles and texts to final analysis, (4) the criteria for exclusion of articles and texts in final analysis, (5) time-frame of publication of retrieved articles and texts (published years of retrieved articles and texts are pertinent to what time-frame), (6) data collection and analysis (how authors finally extracted the relevant data and analyzed them). 

Please note that review articles are usually solicited by the editors, but FMEJ may consider unsolicited material. Also note that articles, texts and documents quoted in review articles should not be published older than 20 years ago. Review Articles are rigorously peer reviewed before a final publication decision is made.

Types of Review article

• Research reviews: Reviews aimed at comparing research on similar or related topics. 

• Theoretical reviews: Reviews able to critically describe the evolution of theories and the way they are understood in different contexts. 

• Methodological reviews: Reviews devoted to methods and methodologies used in education. 

• Thematic reviews: Reviews based on description of particular educational approaches or learning models. 

Case report: FMEJ does not publish standard case reports. We publish articles about real cases as long as they are suitable for presentation in specifically educational formats. 

 

*Manuscript Format*

1. Title page: The first page of each paper should indicate the title of the article, the authors’ names, the institutional affiliations, the name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed, grant support and contact information for corresponding author including mailing address, telephone numbers, fax number, and e-mail. Also, it is necessary to mention your ORCID within your affiliation.

 Please also provide a short Running Head no more than 40 characters (including letters and spaces), and a word count for the text only (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, figure legends, and references) and a separate word count for the Abstract at the bottom of the title page. Please write down the number of figures and tables at the end.

 

2. Abstract: All original articles should have a structured abstract up to 250 words, it should be a structural abstract containing Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions followed by 3 to 7 keywords. The medical terminology should conform with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list. 

Note: Articles submitted by Persian-language authors should also have Persian abstract.

 

3. Introduction: Provide a context or background for the study (that is, the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objectives, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation. Provide only directly pertinent references, and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

 

4. Methods: This section should be consist of:

a-      Selection and Description of Participants

b-      Technical Information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures.

c-      Statistics: Describe statistical methods with enough details such as P-value. Specify the computer software used.

In the Methods section, please mention if the study has been conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki, also state that subjects have given the informed consent.

 

5. Results: Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or illustrations in the text. do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess supporting data. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables.

All the tables and graphs should be referenced in the text. Please send an original Excel file as well as a JPEG file for each graph. Tables should be included in the text at the end of the Results section. All the tables, graphs and figures should be listed in the legend section at the end of the manuscript. Figures should be in the JPEG format.

 

6. Discussion: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow  them in the context of the totality of the best available evidence. Do not repeat the detail data or other information given in the Introduction or the Results section.For experimental studies, it is useful to begin the discussion with briefly summarizing the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for those findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of the findings for future research and for clinical practice.

 

7. Acknowledgements: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgement section. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.Acknowledgements should appear on a separate page.

 

8. Style and Punctuation of References

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses.

Follow the Vancouver Style for writing references. Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names.

The following are examples of correct format.

Journal Article. [Reference number] Fisher GA, Sikic BI. Drug resistance in clinical oncology and hematology. Introduction. Hematol Oncol Clin North Am 1995 Apr; 9(2): 58-63.

Chapter in a Book. [Reference number] Byrne JLB. The role of oral contraceptives. In: Wilansky S., Willerson JT, editors. Heart Disease in Women. New York, NY:Churchill Livingstone, 2002:122-127.

Book. [Reference number] Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.

URL (Web Page). [Reference number] Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Conference Paper. [Reference number] Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002. 25.

Foreign/Translated works (Non-English). At the end of the reference, the language should be noted. For example:   

 Jadidi R, Memari F, Anbari Z. The relationship between organizational structure and organizational intelligence in teaching hospitals of Arak University of Medical Sciences. J Arak Uni Med Sci. 2013; 16(8):21-31. Persian.

 

9.    Conflict of interest: Authors must acknowledge and declare any source of funding. Papers are accepted for consideration on the understanding that their contents have not been published elsewhere or are currently under review at another journal.

 

10.  Funding and support: Source of funding and any financial support should be mentioned if applicable. Also, the approval of the research by institute research committee should be stated if applicable.

 

11.  Research committee approval: The approval of the research by institute’s Research committee should be stated if applicable.

 

12.  Tables: Each table should be given on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. Each table has a short, descriptive title. Tables are numbered in the order cited in the text. Abbreviations are defined as footnotes at the bottom of each table. Tables should not duplicate data given in the text or figures.

13. Figures and Legends: The complete sets of original figures must be submitted. Figures are numbered in the order cited in the text. Labels should contrast well with the background. Images should be uniform in size and magnification. Illustrations should be free of all identifying information relative to the subject and institution. Line drawings should be professional in quality. Written permission for use of all previously published illustrations must be included with submission, and the source should be referenced in the legends. Written permission from any person recognizable in a photo is required. 

 

Copyright Notice

 

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0), which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly. 

 

Plagiarism Detection

 

Future of Medical Education Journal is a member of CrossCheck by iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. The iThenticate software checks submissions against millions of published research papers, documents on the web, and other relevant sources. Authors can also use the iThenticate system to screen their work before submission by visiting  http://research.ithenticate.com.