General Points
Electronic Submission: Submissions are only processed online at URL: https://fnp.skums.ac.ir/.
Terms of Submission
Unsolicited manuscripts will be considered for publication concerning the considerations below:
1. The originality of the work
2. Not being already published nor being examined in another journal
3. Considering the accepted article the sole property of SKUMS journals and subjected to copyediting before publication
Note: Submission must be done by one of the authors.
2. Reporting Guidelines
Reporting guidelines have been codified for different types of works, including STROBE for observational studies, CONSORT for randomized trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, SPIRIT for study protocols, CARE for Case reports, AGREE for Clinical practice guidelines, COREQ for Qualitative research, ARRIVE for Animal pre-clinical studies, SQUIRE for Quality improvement studies, and STARD for Diagnostic/prognostic studies (search for reporting guidelines for more types of studies). Authors must follow these guidelines since they assist authors in describing the study in sufficient detail so that the work can be examined easily and systematically. Authors of systematic reviews must explain the protocols used for finding, choosing, retrieving, and synthesizing data. Reliable resources for reporting guidelines are the NLM's Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives and the EQUATOR Network.
3. Types of Articles
Manuscripts should be in one of the formats below:
a. Original Research
Original research must represent research, be methodologically accurate, and be relevant to global health policy and management. A manuscript reporting original research should include a clear aim or hypothesis, design, materials and methods (including study setting, participants, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sampling, and data), statistical analysis and interpretations, main results, discussion of the findings, study limitations, and the conclusion. An original research article must be written in around 5000 words, including tables, figures, and references, and should present novel observations pertinent to the journal’s scope. The abstract should be structured and include a maximum of 250 words. A total of 6 Tables/Figures are allowed to appear, and the number of references should not exceed 45.
b. Reviews and Meta-analyses
A review article (up to ~8000 words, including tables, figures, and references) must include an abstract and discussion of the literature relevant to any subject consistent with the journal’s scope. Review articles must include brief materials and methods, be well-focused, and sensibly document evaluations of timely related subjects. The abstract should be structured and not exceed 250 words. A total of 5 Tables/Figures are allowed to appear, and there is no limitation on the number of references.
c. Systematic Reviews
Systematic Reviews should raise a clear narrow research question and be done using a reproducible methodology, including an inclusive search protocol to seek out unpublished and published works using a screening process according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, PRISMA diagram, and PRISMA checklist to evaluate the quality of studies and bias risk, reasons for excluding studies, and also reliable and valid quality assessment instruments used to conduct the review, data extraction tools and protocols, and qualitative and quantitative analysis (meta-analysis).
d. Mini-Reviews
Mini-Reviews represent reasonably focused and appropriately documented evaluations of timely relevant subjects. They should be written in approximately 4000 words (including tables, figures, and references). The subjects may be controversial or may be relevant to a sharply focused field compared to those conventionally addressed in reviews. It is also worth mentioning that mini-reviews should be balanced with no excessive focus on the author’s own work. The mini-review abstract should not exceed 200 words.
e. Short Communications
Short Communications aim to present a preliminary report and quickly propagate original and significant information. For example, a Short Communication may accentuate a special aspect of a question or a novel finding that may be especially noticeable. Short articles include but are not limited to innovations in modeling and simulation, development of new materials, novel theories and experiments, and mechanisms explanation, and therefore particularly influence the field rather than reports on incremental research.
Short Communications should be written in approximately 2000 words, including tables, figures, and references. The publication should have an unstructured abstract (at most 150 words), main text, and 8-15 references, as well as 1-2 Tables/Figures. Communications are published following the topical sections in the table of contents with the Short Communication heading.
f. Commentaries
Commentaries represent the author’s viewpoint and should contain approximately 1000 words (tables, figures, and references) to critique an original research article to be published and are conventionally submitted by the reviewers. The abstract should be unstructured and be written in 100-150 words. A total of three Tables/Figures are allowed to appear in the publication with a maximum of 10-15 references.
g. Case Reports
Case Reports are to present rare cases (described in a maximum of ~1500 words, including tables, figures, and references). These reports must contain an introduction, case description, discussion, and conclusions. Patient confidentiality must be ensured. No identifying facts should appear. The patient should provide consent if applicable. The abstract should be unstructured and not exceed 150 words. A total of 1-2 Tables/Figures are allowed to appear in the report with at most 10-15 references.
h. Letters to Editor
Letter to Editor represents the author’s idea (within a maximum of ~1000 words, including tables, figures, and references). If a letter challenges an article’s content already appeared in the journal, the authors of the article will be provided with an opportunity to publish their response in the same issue where the letter appears. The total number of Tables/Figures should not exceed one, and 10-15 references are allowed.
4. Preparation of Manuscripts
Text
Manuscripts submitted must be in DOC format, written in Times New Roman (size 12), and be double-spaced. Authors are advised to see an article recently published in the journal.
Blinded Article File: This file should contain the main text, from Abstract to References (including tables/figures). The file should contain no information on the authors' names or initials, affiliations, or acknowledgments.
a. Title Page
Publication Types: Original Article, Review Article, Clinical Trial, Short Communication, Letter to Editor, etc.
Article Title: The title represents a brief description of the whole work and should include facts that, along with the abstract, will help to specifically and sensitively retrieve the article from electronic databases. The SKUMS journals require that information on the study design be included in the title (especially systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and randomized trials). Complex or numerous chemical formulae and long systematic names should be avoided as much as possible.
Running Title: A short title of no more than 40 characters (including spaces) must be provided as well.
Authors’ names: Full names (first, middle, and family) for all the authors of an article should be provided, followed by the superscript number(s) for their respective affiliation(s) (for example, Mark Junior Smiths1). The name(s) of the corresponding author(s) should be followed by an asterisk (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths*). In the case of an ambiguous family name (e.g., a double name), the ambiguity should be clarified. In addition, the affiliations of all the authors should be provided and specified with superscript numbers before correspondence information (e.g. Faculty of ….). For all authors, Open Researcher and Contributor Identification (ORCID) should be provided. Regarding the criteria of authorship and contributorship, moreover, Future Natural Products abides by the items mentioned by ICMJE as follows:
- Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
- Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
- Final approval of the version to be published; AND
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Correspondence: Complete postal address(es), telephone and fax number(s) (with country and area code), and email(s) of the corresponding author(s) must be provided.
Disclosure of Relationships and Activities: Disclosure information of each author must be a part of the manuscript; The ICMJE has codified a uniform Disclosure Form for use by ICMJE member journals, yet the ICMJE advises the authors to adopt it for other journals. Along with this form, editors may need to declare disclosure of relationships and activities on the manuscript’s title page or other sections so that the corresponding author does not need to collect disclosure forms from all authors.
b. Abstract Page
Abstract: A factual concise abstract (up to 250 words) is needed. The abstract must be assumed as separate from the main. Citing references in the abstract must be avoided. In addition, non-standard abbreviations should be avoided; however, they must be defined in their first appearance if needed. The abstracts of original research articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses must be structured. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should incorporate the study's purpose, basic procedures (sampling, settings, measurements, statistics), main results including statistical and clinical significance if applicable), and conclusions.
Keywords: Three to six keywords must be provided after the abstract (Notice: Readers conventionally use search engines to retrieve publications using keywords; therefore, keywords should be identifiable for databases for visibility purposes). Keywords must be selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and the abstract should precisely represent the article’s content.
Notice: Original research articles may also be published in their brief format by the editor’s offer. The authors can also submit their manuscripts for potential publication in a brief format. An unstructured abstract of a maximum of 200 words is essential. The main body should be limited to 2000 words, without any headings or subheadings. At most, 2 Tables and/or Figures are allowed to appear, and the maximum number of references should be 15.
c. Introduction
This section should unambiguously and summarily (up to 600 words) represent satisfactory literature. The final paragraph of this section should clearly state the work’s main objectives.
d. Materials and Methods (Patients and Methods for Clinical Investigations)
This section should give so sufficient details that readers can reproduce the procedure. The manufacturing details of the instruments used (e.g., company’s name, city, country) and their catalog number, if applicable, should also be provided. Procedures described in previous publications should be referred to, and only modifications should be explained. Potential risks that may be faced throughout the experiments should be stated. Any risks related to procedures, chemicals, or instruments should be clarified. If it is necessary to use live animals or humans, the author must clearly state that all experiments were conducted as per respective regulations and institutional instructions and also mention the institutional committee(s) that approved the study protocol. It is definitely essential that the author(s) mention the ethics code/approval, whether national or international, in this section (For more information on ethics, details can be found in the Ethics section of the journals’ guidelines). It should also be stated that informed consent was provided by human subjects for any experimentation with them.
- Selection and Description of Participants: The sampling of observational or experimental participants (healthy individuals or patients, including controls) should be fully and clearly explained, such as inclusion and exclusion criteria and the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age, sex, or ethnicity is not consistently known at the time of the study design, researchers should aim for the inclusion of representative populations in all study types and at least provide descriptive data for them and other related demographic variables. The terms related to sex and gender should be used appropriately; otherwise, the gender of study participants and the sex of animals or cells must be reported, and the methods of determining sex and gender must be described. If the study has been conducted with only one sex, the authors should give the reason, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should describe the procedure to determine race or ethnicity and explain their relevance. Authors should use precise and respectful terms to describe participants and avoid stigmatizing language.
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Technical Information: The study's main and secondary aims-namely primary and secondary objectives-should be determined. Procedures and instruments (followed by the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses) should be explained in sufficient detail to allow the readers to repeat the study protocol. Established procedures, such as statistical methods (see below), should have references; methods that have already appeared but are not widely known should also have references and be briefly described. In addition, considerably modified or new procedures should be described, and their use and limitations be mentioned and justified. All chemicals and drugs, such as generic names, doses, and administration routes, must be mentioned. Scientific and gene names should be properly provided.
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Statistics: Data analysis methods should be clearly and sufficiently described to allow access to the original data to decide whether they are appropriate for study purposes and to verify the obtained results. If applicable, findings should be quantified and presented with appropriate measures of error or uncertainty (e.g., confidence intervals), because statistical hypothesis testing, such as p-values, alone may not represent decisive information on estimate precision and effect size. The design of the study and statistical methods should be supported by referring to standard works as much as possible. Statistical terms, symbols, and abbreviations should be defined. The statistical software package(s), including their versions, must be mentioned. Exploratory analyses, including subgroup analyses, should be specified.
e. Results
Results should be presented in a logical sequence through the text, tabulation, and illustrations, with the main findings reported first. Do not repeat reporting the data through both tabulation and illustration and in the text. Data on all primary and secondary outcomes already determined in the Methods section should be provided. Supplementary materials and technical nuances can be given in an appendix so that they will also be accessible but will not interrupt the text, or they can appear only in the journal's electronic version.
Numeric results should be expressed as both derivatives (for example, percentages) and the absolute number from which the derivative had already been drawn. The number of tables and figures should be limited so that they will contribute to the argument of the study and to supporting data. Tables with numerous entries can be replaced with graphs. Technical terms in statistics should not be used non-technically, such as random (suggesting a randomizing device) and normal, significant, etc. Data should be reported by demographic characteristics, e.g., gender and age.
f. Discussion
It is recommended to briefly state the main results and potential explanations or mechanisms for them at the beginning of the discussion. The novel and substantial dimensions of the work should be accentuated, and the findings should be contextualized in the whole previous relevant observations. The limitations of the study and the potential implications of the observations for the clinical setting and further studies should be stated as well. If applicable, the potential impact or relationship of studied variables, including gender and age, should be discussed concerning the findings and the data's limitations. Do not repeat the information provided in other sections of the paper.
g. Conclusion
The potential relationships between conclusions and the objective(s) of the work should be explored, but unqualified arguments not sufficiently backed by the data should not be addressed. Especially, statistical and clinical significance should be clarified, and arguments about economic aspects should be avoided unless the work entails relevant economic aspects. New hypotheses must be adequately supportable and be clearly labeled.
h. References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the citations concerning the content of the respective references, which should be numbered sequentially in order of their appearance in the manuscript's text, and the numbers should be superscripted with no parentheses. The references should be listed in a separate section, under the References heading, following the manuscript's text, and be double-spaced. Unpublished observations or results and personal communications should be parenthesized in the text.
The references should be within the past 5 years.
The references list must be organized as per the Vancouver style, including the following items:
Numbered references should appear at the end of the article and consist of surnames and initials of all authors when six or fewer; otherwise, list the first six and then add et al. The title of the article, the name of the journal, the year of publication, the volume (issue) number, and the first and last page numbers should also be provided.
Authors. Title. Journal's name (Abbreviated according to the MEDLINE). Year; Volume (Issue): first-page number-last page number.
Notice: In case of the standardized abbreviations of the names of the journals that are not indexed in the MEDLINE, consult the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations available at: https://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/
Example:
Larkin J, Chiarion-Sileni V, Gonzalez R, Grob JJ, Cowey CL, Lao CD, et al. Combined Nivolumab and Ipilimumab or Monotherapy in Untreated Melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2015;373(1):23-34.
For books, the names and initials of all authors, the full title, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, and page numbers should be provided.
Authors. Title. Place of publication: Publisher; Year. (pp. Page Numbers of Chapter).
For references with Digital Object Identifier (DOI), it must be also mentioned at the end of the reference.
i. Tables