PREPARING A PAPER FOR A MEDICAL SCIENCE JOURNAL

A scientific product represents a newly produced or adapted knowledge. The scientific text is meant to be a result of careful consideration and evaluation of all details of the report. Presentation of scientific information is supposed to have strict consistency and sequence, a concise and exact wording, objective assertion of facts; convincing argumentation. Clearness of wording is a priority. The scientific report is characterized by specific requirements for the structural-compositional appearance of different genre types (article, review, case report, abstract).

The following are accepted for publishing: original articles, reviews, clinical case reports, reference papers, book reviews, short communication papers (letters to editor, etc.). The first three genres are subject to peer review (with standardized forms), and the rest are submitted to expert evaluation on behalf of the editorship.

Title of a scientific paper, irrespective of its genre determination, should attract the attention, be understandable, short, and exact – it represents the study object. A subtitle can be prepared for extended informativeness.

Abstract contains the specific features of the study in a concise manner – aim/subject matter, methods used, main results and findings. It is distributed also through secondary informational titles (data bases), i.e. it should include the main elements of the scientific contribution. It should not contain either citation or illustrative material, or abbreviations, which can be precluded.

Key words are used for topical categorization of a paper in data bases and related search in inquiries. The objective of the author is to propose the most significant concepts of his work in a synthetic manner. Key words to any kind of publication range between 3 and 8; they can be single words or short word-groups, which are commonly accepted in the specific area of knowledge.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Original scientific articles necessarily review a unique material according to thoroughly described methods. The format of Introduction/preface +objective – Materials and Methods – Results – Discussion – Findings/Conclusion is of a normative character.

Preface. Its main function is to provide answer of the following questions: what are the rationales to perform the study and what is its direct aim. Auxiliary functions: preface gives the main information that is required to understand the article; a short review of similar studies performed by other authors; relation to similar problems; the intended purpose; an assessment of the significance of the topic.

Materials and Methods. In this section, the characteristics of studied groups are specified – showing the correspondence of the study material to the set objective of the study; the method of selection – criteria for inclusion/exclusion, and technique of randomization, are analyzed; the comparability of compared groups is discussed; the used method is explained as being appropriate for the set objective, statistical methods are shown and the compliance with ethical standards is declared.

Results. This section contains all the results and nothing more than the results. The text is supplemented with illustrative material – pictures, charts, and tables. The author is expected to assess the objectivity or subjectivity of the results as well as whether they answer the preset questions. Avoidance of doubled information (the same data is presented as table or figure; within the text and with an illustration) is required.

Discussion. Data and its significance are interpreted; the issues of the used methods/techniques are reviewed; similarities and differences with other studies from literature references are compared; the contribution of results in the clarification of a set problem is depicted. Contradictions, unsolved questions, undesired events, unexpected results, doubts, alternative interpretations and hypotheses, statistical differences, and limitations of the study are discussed. Data is summarized. Avoidance of the following is required: unproven statements, exaggeration of the data significance, diverging/peripheral questions, attacking and non-critical retelling of other studies and authors, and emotional appeals to readers.

Conclusion: The main results are resumed and the conclusions based on the study are shown.

SCIENTIFIC REVIEW

It summarizes the contents of a number of sources dedicated to a single subject during a defined period of time. Discussion of authors and text should be in compliance with the thematic and problematic relevancy to the study aim. It is intended to review the experience, current state and trends in a given problem, asses the material by an argued manner and suggest the specific, practicable conclusions and recommendations. A logically linked, consistent narration, without mechanically retelling the sources, is expected. Subtitles are thematic.

CLINICAL CASE REPORT (CASUISTRY)

Clinical Case Reports consists of Introduction, Clinical Case Description, Discussion and Conclusions. An extended review section is used to demonstrate the significance of the presented case. The telegraphic style with duplication of a case history, is unacceptable.

SHORT COMMUNICATION GENRES follow approximately the structure of an original article.

LETTERS TO EDITOR discuss a scientific issue, which is unsolved at the time, in a critical manner or consider other papers.

THE LIST OF LITERATURE REFERENCES at the end of the work has to embrace only the publications virtually used and required to delineate the basis, on which the study is designed. Avoid presenting abundant references at the account of their up-to-dateness. Minimize self-citation. Citing (familiarity with) Bulgarian sources is strongly recommended, too.

Citation of bibliographic references within the text is designated by numbers in square brackets following the order of appearance. Bibliography is arranged following the order of appearance of the sources within the text. Each source is written in a new line, with an Arabic number. Sources are structured in the following manner:

­­– Articles: Author(s). The article title. Journal title (abbreviated under the Index Мedicus), year, volume, number (issue) in round brackets, papers (from-to). Example: Yakub YN, Freedman RB, Pabico RC. Renal transplantation in systemic lupus erythematosus. Nephron, 2019, 27(1):197-201.

­– Papers from an edited book: Author(s). Title. In: The edited book title. Edition number, editors. Place of publication (city), publishing house, year of publication, pages (from-to). Example: Wilkinson AH. Evaluation of the transplant recipient. In: Handbook of Kidney Transplantation. 6th ed. G. M. Danovitch (Ed.). Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 2019, 109-122.

­– Books. Author(s). Title. Place of publication (city), publishing house, year of publication, pages (from-to). Example: Sheytanov Y. Systemic Vasculitis. Sofia, Medicina i Fizkultura, 2019, 8-11.

– Citation format for electronic resources available on the Internet includes also the publication URL and the date you accessed the resource online, besides author(s) and article title.

In cases of not more than three authors, their surnames followed by their initials (without periods) are written. In cases of more than three authors, “et al.” is written after the name of the third author. For translated books, also the original book language and the translator are written. When citing Bulgarian sources, below its Cyrillic writing the source should be presented also in Latin, with the title translated in English, while the names of the authors and the journals or publishers should be transliterated (e.g., Bulg. sp. psihiatr. or Med fizk.).  

ETHICAL NORMS IN PUBLISHING

Authors must warrant that they submit for publication their own studies and in case different author’s data and/or text are used, these are specified by citations. Strict adherence to copyright issues is maintained – texts including more than 10% of literal replication of different publication are returned for reprocessing.

A secondary publishing of the same science paper in a periodical is allowable only in the form of a secondary publication reflecting the data from an original publication, which is explicitly quoted. Corresponding author declares that the material has not been published previously, except in the form of an abstract for a scientific event, and has not been submitted to other journal.

All researchers contributing to the concept and fulfillment of the scientific study should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author must ensure that they have approved the final variant of the paper submitted for publication and have been informed on the critical notes and recommendations for correction following peer review.

In the end of the paper, authors can express acknowledgements to individuals or authorities providing intellectual contributions or a material or financial support. When the authors are more than three persons, the specific contribution of each c-author  should be stated.

Authors assume the responsibility for the contents of their publications. Presented papers and the studies described in them should comply with the established ethical standards on performance of the clinical and/or experimental studies on human subjects (the Helsinki Declaration) and experimental animals. Patients must not be referred by names and initials and images, on which they can be identified, must not be presented.

Declaring conflict of interests, or lack of such conflict as well as absence or presence of financial association of study and the institutions performing it, is obligatory.

STATISTICAL PROCESSING

Statistical methods must be described sufficiently so the informed reader with access to original data can check the presented results. The results must be presented quantitatively (if possible) by appropriate indicators for the measurement error or uncertainty (e.g., confidence intervals). Avoid using only p-values in the verification of a hypothesis since this approach does not generate sufficient quantitative information. Quoting the correct p-values in addition to the appropriate confidence intervals is desirable.

The number of measurements (sample size) is mandatorily given and the method of calculation is justified.

Statistical programs for the performance of analysis must be described.

The used statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols should be defined unambiguously.

TECHNICAL LAYOUT

An article starts with the title (without abbreviations), the names of authors (without academic or other titles), their workplaces designated by numeric indices, abstract, key words.

Corresponding author shows contact data (e-mail, optionally – postal address and telephone).

Volume (approximately) of submitted papers:

MS Word files are acceptable. No specific requirements on the font size and type, spacing, margins and other formatting are defined.

Illustrative material (tables, figures, images) is positioned at the corresponding places within the text with captions and legends. Captions of figures must not be shown within the image. Images with good quality (at least 300 dpi) and appropriate file format (.jpg, tif, .png) are required. Tables must be presented in an editable format rather than as images.

Specific abbreviations used in the text are introduced in round brackets with the first appearance of the entire designation.

Measurement units should follow the SI system.

Manuscripts should be sent to the e-mail: bulg.j.psychiatry@gmail.com