Notice to Contributors  

1  ABOUT AJSMMU

Acadecmic Journal of Second Military Medical University (AJSMMU)  is a monthly peer-reviewed biomedical journal,  sponsored by the Second Military Medical University, a well-known medical university in Shanghai, China. The coverage of the journal includes basic medical sciences, clinical medicine, public health and epidemiology, military medicine, pharmacology and Traditional Chinese Medicine. AJSMMU is indexed and abstracted in Excerpta Medica Database, Chemical Abstracts, the VINITI Abstracts Journal, CAB Abstracts, Index Copernicus, Scopus, Global Health, Chinese Medical Current Contents (CMCC),Chinese Scientific Citation Index(CSCI) and Chinese Pharmaceutical Abstracts(CPA).

2  SUBMISSION

2.1 Scope of Contributions.
    AJSMMU welcomes manuscripts in Chinese or English on the  aspects of biology and medicine from any part of the world. Original research articles (on both basic science studies or  clinical trials) are especially welcome. Short communications, reviews  and case reports are also accepted.

AJSMMU has a special channel for fast publication of innovative papers. When the peer reviewers have appraised a thesis as innovative, it will be published at the fastest speed. The theses from the projects financed by the National Foundation enjoy the priority in being accepted and published. We are among the sponsors of “ Chinese Clinical Trials Registration and Publication Collaboration Network”, so we give priority to publication of the clinical research report registered at the Chinese Clinical Trials Registration Center (www.Chictr.org).

2.2 Manuscript Submission.
    Manuscripts can be submitted online at http://www.ajsmmu.cn and  should be accompanied by a cover letter giving details of 1) the title of the manuscript；2) a statement that the manuscript has not been published in part or whole (except in the form of abstract) or  under consideration for publication elsewhere in any language；3) a statement that all authors have agreed to their name rankings  and have read  and approved the manuscript and its submission to AJSMMU;4) a full postal address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address; 5) financial arrangements or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.

Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page. The manuscript should be sent as an e-mail attachment in a Microsoft WORD (.doc) document. If an electronic submission is not possible, postal mailing of 3 hard copies plus a disk is required, preferably in Microsoft WORD. Illustrations such as figures, graphics and tables should be embedded in the text file or  sent in separate files, preferably the former if possible.

3  PUBLICATION PROCESS

3.1 Manuscript received.
    Upon the receipt of the manuscript, the AJSMMU Editorial Office will assign a code number to it, which is to be used to stand for it in all subsequent correspondence.

3.2 Peer review.
    The editorial staff member or designated advisory board member will determine whether the manuscript warrants further peer review, in which case the manuscript will be sent to at least two outside peer-reviewers . The peer-review process takes approximately 1-2 months. Based on the comments of the peer reviewers, the journal editor determines whether the manuscript is accepted, rejected, or requires revision before publication, and the decision will be sent to the authors.

3.3 Revision.
    If revision is required, the authors should amend and then resubmit the manuscript within 30 days. Resubmission after 30 days may be considered a new submission. If the revision is not satisfactory to the reviewers, the author may be asked to make a second revision. Articles are normally published within 3 months after their acceptance.

3.4 Rejected Manuscripts.
    If a manuscript is not accepted, the authors will receive a decision letter that may or may not include the reviewers' comments. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned to the authors.

3.5 Proofreading.
    The corresponding author of a manuscript to be published will receive proofs. Checking the proofs is solely the authors' responsibility. The publisher is not responsible for any errors not marked by the author on the proof. The proof must be returned to the Editorial Office within 7 days after its receipt.

3.6 Copyright Assignment.
    The copyright agreement form should be submitted once your paper has been accepted for publication. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining signatures of coauthors. Upon acceptance of your paper, please fax the copyright agreement form to the Editorial Office of AJSMMU.

3.7 Costs.
    No charge will be levied on international manuscripts. Page charges are only required for manuscripts from within China.

4  MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

The following are in accordance with the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted  to Biomedical Journals”. Recent issues of AJSMMU could be consulted as  examples.

4.1 Title Page.
 The title page should present the following information:
 1) title of the article;
 2) name and institutional affiliation of  authors;
 3) the designated corresponding author's name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address;
 4) source(s) for financial support of the study.

4.2 Original Research Articles
4.2.1 An abstract of no more than 250 words should be on  the title page consisting of four paragraphs, labeled Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
4.2.2 Key Words.  Following the abstract, authors should provide 3 to 8 key words that capture the main topics of the article. Terms from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be used.
4.2.3 Text. Word count for original research manuscripts should be no more than 4 000 words in English, or 6 000 words in Chinese. The text is usually divided into sections with headings such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. For reports of randomized controlled trials authors should refer to the CONSORT statement, which can be found at www.consort-statement.org.
4.2.4 Ethics. When reporting experiments on human subjects or animals, the authors should include a statement in the section of Materials . Human experiments must be performed in accordance with international ethical standards such as the Declaration of Helsinki, and the research protocol must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent human ethics committee. Documented informed consent must be obtained from all human subjects of clinical research prior to any experiment, the confidentiality of patients' information must be preserved, and a statement to that effect must be included. Laboratory research involving animals must comply with guidelines for animal care and use, the experimental protocol must be approved by the institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC), and a statement to that effect must be included.
4.2.5 Statistical Methods. Statistical methods should be described in sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader to assess the appropriateness of the statistical analysis used. Statistical terms, abbreviations, and symbols must be defined, and computer software must be specified. Lacunae in observations, such as dropouts from the study, should be reported, and the intend-to-treat method should be applied.
4.2.6 Tables. Number the tables consecutively in the order of their  citations in the text, and supply a brief title for each . Abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Identify statistical significance by superscripts  in front of the probabilities (P),as in:a P>0.05, b P<0.05,c P<0.01 .  .
4.2.7 Figures/illustrations. Number the figures/illustrations consecutively in the text. Figures/illustrations should be professionally drawn or photographed. Drawings must be of an acceptably high standard, and only letter-set printed material (not freehand or typewritten) should be employed. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should be clear. Titles and detailed explanations should be given in the figure legend. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Legends for figures should be printed out with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining and magnification of photomicrographs.  Symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters should be clear in the  identification of the different parts of the illustrations. Abbreviations must be explained. If the photographs of human subjects  are used,  they  must not be identifiable or written permission must be obtained from them . If a figure from another source has to be used in publication ,  written permission must be submitted from the copyright holder for  its reproduction .
4.2.8 Acknowledgment(s)may briefly include assistance from 1) contributors that do not warrant authorship, 2) technical help, and 3) material support, as well as 4) financial support such as a grant.
4.2.9 References. Authors should check the accuracy of all reference citations. Unpublished data, classified periodicals, and personal communications should  not be used as references. They  should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are  cited in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by superscript of Arabic numerals in parentheses. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. List the authors (surname, initials), title of the article, name of the journal or book, year, volume (issue) and first and last pages. If there are more than 6 authors, list  the first  6 authors followed by “et al”.

4.3 Other Types of Articles
4.3.1 Reviews  are welcome and will undergo the same peer-review and editorial process as original research papers . A  review  discusses a focused topic of recent research in integrative medicine, with commentary and analysis concerning the topic. The author(s) of a review  should provide a comprehensive and critical but balanced view of the field. A single-paragraph summary of fewer than 150 words should be included. Reviews  may be up to 5 000 words in English or 6 000 words in Chinese.
4.3.2 Literature reviews should provide overviews of important subjects closely related to integrative medicine, with the principal focus on developments during the past five years. These should be less than 3 000 words in English or 4 000 words in Chinese and contain available references. Personal views without documented evidence are not to be accepted. Literature reviews need not to have  an abstract with them.
4.3.3 Case reports are to be accepted if they are of particular interest. These should be less than 800 words, with no need for  an abstract, and should include a brief introduction and concise discussion describing the value of the case report.
4.3.4 Short Communications should be no more than 2 000 words in English or 3 000 words in Chinese, including title, author affiliations, references, and  figure or table. They need not to have  an abstract with them.

5  NOTICES.

Announcements of forthcoming academic conferences or symposiums can be published on AJSMMU free of charge. Please specify the title of the meeting, the dates and venue, organizers, and correspondence or secretariat address.

Questions concerning the submission process should be directed to:  

Editorial Office

Acadecmic Journal of Second Military Medical University

800 Xiangyin Road, Shanghai 200433, China