Author Guidelines
AIMS AND SCOPE
Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine (CJEBM) is the official Chinese language journal of the Chinese Cochrane Centre. The journal aims to present the newest research results and promote the international understanding and development of evidence-based decision-making, research, practice, and education. Papers in any of the following fields will be considered: editorial, commentary, systematic review, clinical trial and register, methodology, policy-making and management, drug safety, education, patient safety, and knowledge translation. The journal encourages submissions from interdisciplinary studies.
EDITORIAL REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are double-blind peer reviewed by two anonymous reviewers and the Editors. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editors, who reserve the right to refuse any material for publication.
Manuscripts are assigned sequentially to Associate Editors. An Associate Editor solicits reviewers (typically, two external reviews are sought). The reviewers’ evaluations and Associate Editor’s comments are compiled by the Editor-in-Chief for disposition and transmittal to the authors.
The Editor-in-Chief will advise authors whether a manuscript is accepted, should be revised or is rejected. Minor revisions are expected to be returned within four weeks of decision; major revisions within three months. Manuscripts not revised within these time periods are subject to withdrawal from consideration for publication unless the authors can provide extenuating circumstances.
A number of manuscripts will have to be rejected on the grounds of priority and available space. A manuscript may be returned to the authors without outside review if the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor find it inappropriate for publication in the Journal.
The Editor-in-Chief’s decision is final. If, however, authors dispute a decision and can document good reasons why a manuscript should be reconsidered, a rebuttal process exists. In the first place, authors should write to the Editor-in-Chief.
If manuscripts are submitted by an Editor, they will be assigned to and processed by other Editors to avoid conflicts of interest.
Manuscripts should be written so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. They should be written in a clear, concise, direct style. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of scientific content, the Editors and the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader.
CJEBM employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to this journal, you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All articles submitted to the journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication.
To submit your article, please log on to CJEBM's online submission and peer-review system at http://mc.cjebm.com/Login.aspx?Role=author.
Covering letter
Papers are accepted for publication in the journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium. This must be stated in the covering letter.
The covering letter must also contain an acknowledgement that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript. In keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, each author’s contribution to the paper is to be quantified.
Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest by disclosing at the time of submission any financial arrangements they have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Such information will be held in confidence while the paper is under review and will not influence the editorial decision but, if the article is accepted for publication, the Editor will usually discuss with the authors the manner in which such information is to be communicated to the reader.
If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorization to reproduce the material, must be attached to the covering letter.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Brazil in 2013), available at http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/17c.pdf .
CJEBM retains the right to reject any manuscript on the basis of unethical conduct of either human or animal studies.
All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized (or an eye bar should be used). All clinical trials must be registered in the authorized registers of WHO International Clinical Trial Register Platform, and the registration number must be presented.
This journal is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
PREPARING YOUR PAPER
STYLE OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Manuscripts should follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ revised ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication’, as presented at http://www.ICMJE.org/. It is strongly recommended that authors read and refer to previous issues of the journal for guidance on style.
It is strongly recommended that the reports of clinical trials follow the CONSORT Statement and its extensions which are available at http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/overview0/, as well as similar publication practices, and the reports of meta-analyses and systematic reviews comply with the PRISMA(formerly QUORUM) Statement, which is available at http://www.prisma-statement.org/. All acupuncture treatment should be described according to the current STRICTA recommendations at http://www.stricta.info/.
The criteria should be referenced as: Revised Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA): Extending the CONSORT Statement. MacPherson H, Altman DG, Hammerschlag R, et al. Acupunct Med 2010;28:83-93.
Spelling. The journal uses US spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
Units. All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units. Please go to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website at http://www.bipm.fr for more information about SI units.
Abbreviations. Abbreviations should be used sparingly – only where they ease the reader’s task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, use the abbreviation only.
Trade names. Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name, and the name and location of the manufacturer, in parentheses.
Dates. Date format is 00 Month 0000; for example, 15 September 2003.
Format of paper
Title
The title should be concise and to the point, the Chinese title should be within 20 words, and the English title should be capitalized.
Author's Names
The authors’ names are sorted according to their contribution to the article, and each author’s detailed name, city and postal code must be provided. The corresponding author is fully responsible for the paper, and his/her email must be provided.
Funded project
If a project fund is involved in the article, please indicate the name and serial number of the fund in both Chinese and English.
Abstract
The submitted article should adopt a structural abstract in both Chinese and English within 500 words for each version. However, for a short treatise or summary, only a Chinese abstract of less than 200 words is needed. The abstract should include objective, methods, results, and conclusion written from the third-person perspective. The content of the Chinese and English abstracts should be basically consistent, and the English abstracts can be slightly expanded to facilitate foreign exchange.
Key words
Generally, 5-7 key words should be selected. The words listed in the medical thesaurus should be used correctly, and free words can also be used if necessary.
Text
The paper should be divided into four parts: preface (introduction), materials and methods (clinical data), results, and discussion. Preface: The preface should summarize the theoretical basis, research ideas, research status at home and abroad, and clarify the research purpose. Materials and methods (clinical data): This part should describe the selection and basic situation of experimental objects (human or experimental animals), list the literature of establishing experimental methods, and clarify the improvements of new or substantially improved methods. All cases, animals, plants, drugs, reagents, and instruments shall be provided with source, batch number, and specification. The observation methods should be listed in detail. Results: According to the logical order of materials and methods, the research results should be described in detail and objectively. Discussion: This part focuses on new findings and conclusions drawn from the research, which should be closely related to the contents of the report.
Special attention:
● The hierarchical serial numbers of titles in the manuscript should be clear and accurate. The serial numbers of the first level titles are 1, 2, 3, for the second level titles are 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and for the third level titles are 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3. In principle, they can be divided into three levels of titles. If necessary, they can be arranged in the form of ①, ②, ③, and ④.
● The chart should be concise, scientific in design, and avoid repetition with the text. The charts and tables of the manuscript should be coded consecutively according to the order in which they appear in the text, and each chart should be crowned with Chinese and English chart (table) titles and notes. The table should adopt three line forms, and the effective digits of the same index data in the table should be consistent. The main observation contents should be indicated by arrows in the histological picture, the staining method and magnification factor should be indicated, and the scale should be provided when the size is involved; the clinical picture should be marked with arrows to indicate the lesion position; if there is a portrait photo, it should be approved by the patient and attached with explanation; if the statistical chart is made by Excel, please provide excel raw data; if it is produced by statistical software, it should be presented as a vector diagram and can be edited (wmf, eps, emf, or pdf format).
● Statistical methods need to introduce the statistical software package, data description method, inter group difference test method, and test level α value, and provide specific statistics and P value for statistical results. Statistical symbols should be written in accordance with relevant provisions of statistical terms and symbols.
● When a clinical study involves follow-up results report, it is suggested that the follow-up time of skin flap transfer for wound repair should be more than 6 months, the functional reconstruction of severed limbs (fingers) and bone scaffold repair should be more than 12 months, and the follow-up time of joint function reconstruction, spinal cord injury repair, and tumor treatment should be more than 2 years.
Acknowledgement
This part is devoted to expressing gratitude to those who participate in part of the work, provide technical assistance, provide work convenience, give guidance but are not qualified for authorship, as well as organizations or individuals who provide financial assistance. It should be noted that the consent of the person who has been appreciated should be obtained.
Reference
The references should be recorded according to GB7714-2015 "description rules for bibliographic references". This journal adopts the sequential coding system, and the documents are sorted according to the order in which they appear in the text. The number of references is required to be more than 20 for basic research, and more than 18 for clinical treatises. There is no limit to the number of references for review, and the number of short treatises is 5-8.
Author contribution
For co-authored articles, please indicate the contribution of each author in the research and publication.
Conflict of interest
Indicate whether there are conflicts of interest among the authors in the process of research and writing. If there are funded projects, it should be stated whether the financial support affects the viewpoint of the article and the statistical analysis and report of the objective results of the research data.