INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

Context

Medical Records (Med Records) is an international, journal which published by Medical Records Association (Tıbbi Kayıtlar Derneği), open access periodical published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blinded peer-review principles.

The official language of the journal is English and published three annually in January, May and September. Manuscripts must be written in English and must meet the requirements of the journal. All manuscripts which will be published in the journal must be in accordance with research and publication ethics. The aim of Medical Records is to publish original research papers of the highest scientific and clinical value in all medical fields. In all fields of general medicine, editorial comment/discussion, invited review, original research, case report, letters to the editor, and surgical technique studies in the basic and clinical sciences are evaluated for publishing.

Began its publication life in 2019, and all of its issues have been available electronically since 2019.

The target audience of the journal includes researchers, physicians, and healthcare professionals who are interested in or working in all medical disciplines.

Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, available at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/medr Manuscripts submitted via any other medium and submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be evaluated.

Manuscript Preparation
The manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with ICMJE-Recommendations for the Conduct,Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated in December 2019 – http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines for randomized research studies, STROBE guidelines for observational original research studies, STARD guidelines for studies on diagnostic accuracy, PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, ARRIVE guidelines for experimental animal studies, and TREND guidelines for non-randomized public behavior. To find the right guideline for your research, please complete the questionnaire by Equator Network here.

The style of the manuscripts should be prepared according to AMA Manual of Style 11th Edition.

Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, available at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/medr submitted via any other medium and submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be evaluated.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal will first go through a technical evaluation process where the editorial office staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the submitting author with technical correction requests.

Authors are required to submit the following:
• Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship Form
• ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (should be filled in by all contributing authors) during the initial submission. These forms are available for download at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/medr

AUTHORSHIP
Each person listed as an author should fulfill the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE - www.icmje.org). The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on the following four criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. 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.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he/she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. Also, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the title page of the manuscript.

Medical Records requires corresponding authors to submit a signed and scanned version of the Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form (https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/medr) during the initial submission process to act appropriately on authorship rights and to prevent ghost or honorary authorship. If the editorial board suspects a case of “gift authorship,” the submission will be rejected without further review. As part of the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author should also send a short statement declaring that he/she accepts to undertake all the responsibility for authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript.

CHANGE OF AUTHORSHIP
Medical Records reviews the authorship according to the author’s declaration in the Title Page, thus it is the authors responsibility to send the final order of the complete author names. Requests in the change of authorship (e.g. removal/addition of the authors, change in the order etc) after submission are subject to editorial approval. Editorial Board will investigate this kind of cases and act following COPE flowcharts.

Change of authorship requests should be submitted to the Editorial Office with an official letter stating the reasons of the change. The letter must be signed by all authors and include their approval on the change in authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, authors need to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final order list.

Publication Fee

Medical Records, TUBITAK ULAKBIM, which is an open-access journal infrastructure software system, is using the Open Journal Systems software, Dergi Park ULAKBIM Journal Systems, within the scope of the Dergi Park Project with the status of Sponsor Institution. With this system, instant open access to the articles is provided to make the articles published in journals freely available online all over the world. There is no need to subscribe to access articles. All articles in the system can be accessed and read without being a journal user.

Article processing charges
There is for article submission, evaluation and publishing Medical Records journal were compensated by its own sources until now. Starting from November 30st of 2022, authors are required to pay an article processing charge to ensure articles are evaluated as quickly as possible and better consultancy and editing services.

Consulting, typesetting and editing services are provided by Effect Publishing.

As of January 1, 2024, the article processing charge has been updated to TL 4,000 (Turkish Liras) or $100 (US Dollars).

This fee must be paid in advance before providing consultancy and editing services. This amount will not be repaid in terms of the authors withdrawn or rejection of the articles in any stage and any reason. Article processing charge fee waivers are not available.

These charges are in no way related to our journal’s editors and reviewers who voluntarily contribute the scientific evaluations of manuscripts.

The Editor-in-Chief may reject articles without being sent to peers.

Medical Records has no legal or financial liability due to these fees.

Author fees or waiver status do not influence editorial decision making. All submissions are evaluated by the Editorial Board and the external reviewers in terms of scientific quality and ethical standards. Medical Records payments do not have any effect on the outcome of the article's evaluation and/or publication priority.

The liable corporation is:
Tıbbi kayıtlar Derneği (MEDİCAL RECORDS Association) for consultancy and editing services and for usage of online article submission and tracking system

Account Name: Tıbbi Kayıtlar Derneği
International Bank Account Number (IBAN) for TL is Ziraat Bankası
54- DÜZCE BRANCH NUMBER 97646173-5001
IBAN: TR82 0001 0000 5497 6461 7350 01

Account Name: Medical Records Association
International Bank Account Number (IBAN) for USD is Ziraat Bankası
54- DÜZCE BRANCH NUMBER 97646173-5002
TR55 0001 0000 5497 6461 7350 02

Preparation of the Manuscript

Title page: A separate title page should be submitted with all submissions and this page should include:

• The full title of the manuscript as well as a short title (running head) of no more than 50 characters,
• Include only full names of the authors directly affiliated with the work. The maximum number of authors is eight for original articles, five for case reports and “How to Do It” articles, three for interesting images, and correspondence. Exceeding numbers will have to be justified to the Editor. Include the name and location of no more than two institutional affiliations where the work was actually done. If more than one department or institution are given, indicate affiliation of each author.
• Name(s), affiliations, highest academic degree(s), and ORCID IDs of the author(s),• Grant information and detailed information on the other sources of support,
• Name, address, telephone (including the mobile phone number), and email address of the corresponding author,
• Acknowledgment of the individuals who contributed to the preparation of the manuscript but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria.

Abstract: An abstract should be submitted with all submissions except for Letters to the Editor. Please check Table 1 below for word count specifications.

Keywords: Each submission must be accompanied by a minimum of three to a maximum of six keywords for subject indexing at the end of the abstract. The words should be separated by a semicolon (;). The keywords should be listed in full without abbreviations. The keywords should be selected from the National Library of Medicine, Medical Subject Headings database (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

Main Points: All submissions except letters to the editor should be accompanied by 3 to 5 “main points” which should emphasize the most noteworthy results of the study and underline the principal message that is addressed to the reader. This section should be structured as itemized to give a general overview of the article. Since “Main Points” targeting the experts and specialists of the field, each item should be written as plain and straightforward as possible.

ORCID ID
The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) number of each author must be submitted when creating an account for correspondence. To obtain an ORCID number, please visit https://orcid.org/

Manuscript Types

Original Articles: This is the most important type of article since it provides new information based on original research. Acceptance of original papers will be based upon the originality and importance of the investigation. The main text of original articles should be structured with Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion subheadings. Please check Table 1 for the limitations of the Original Articles.

Clinical Trials
Medical Records adopts the ICMJE’s clinical trial registration policy, which requires that clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov.

Instructions for the clinical trials are listed below.

• Clinical trial registry is only required for prospective research projects that study the relationship between a health-related intervention and an outcome by assigning people.

• To have their manuscript evaluated in the journal, the author should register their research to a public registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment.

• Based on the most up-to-date ICMJE recommendations Medical Records accepts public registries that include a minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration dataset.

• Authors are required to state a data-sharing plan for the clinical trial registration. Please see the details under the “Data Sharing” section.

• For further details, please check ICMJE Clinical Trial Policy at
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

Data Sharing
Authors are required to provide a data sharing statement for the articles that reports the results of a clinical trial. The data sharing statement should indicate the items below according to the ICMJE data sharing policy:

• Whether individual deidentified participant data will be shared

• What data, in particular, will be shared

• Whether additional, related documents will be available

• When the data will be available and for how long

• By what access criteria will be shared

Authors are recommended to check the ICMJE data sharing examples at
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

While submitting a clinical trial to Medical Records,

• Authors are required to make registration to a publicly accessible registry according to ICMJE recommendations and the instructions above.
• The name of the registry and the registration number should be provided in the Title Page during the initial submission.
• Data sharing statement should also be stated in the Title Page even the authors do not plan to share it.

Reporting Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis to support conclusions is usually necessary. Statistical analyses must be conducted in accordance with international statistical reporting standards (Altman DG, Gore SM, Gardner MJ, Pocock SJ. Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals. Br Med J 1983: 7; 1489-93). Information on statistical analyses should be provided with a separate subheading under the Materials and Methods section and the statistical software that was used during the process must be specified.

Values for reporting statistical data, such as P values and CIs should be presented and rounded appropriately. P values should be expressed to 2 digits to the right of the decimal point unless the first 2 digits are zeros, in which case 3 digits to the right of the decimal place should be provided (eg, instead of P < .01, report as P = .002). However, values close to .05 may be reported to 3 decimal places because the .05 is an arbitrary cut point for statistical significance (eg, P = .053). P values less than .001 should be designated as P < .001 rather than exact values (eg, P = .000006).
Units should be prepared in accordance with the International System of Units (SI).

Review Articles: Reviews prepared by authors who have extensive knowledge of a particular field and whose scientific background has been translated into a high volume of publications with a high citation potential are welcomed. These authors may even be invited by the journal. Reviews should describe, discuss, and evaluate the current level of knowledge of a topic in clinical practice and should guide future studies. The main text should contain Introduction, Clinical and Research Consequences, and Conclusion sections. Please check Table 1 for the limitations of the Review Articles.

Case Reports: Brief descriptions of a previously undocumented disease process, a unique unreported manifestation or treatment of a known disease process, or unique unreported complications of treatment regimens. Case reports should include an adequate number of images and figures. Case reports should be accompanied by “Informed Consent” whether the identity of the patients is disclosed or not. The “Informed Consent Form” is available at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/medr Please check Table 1 for the limitations of Case Report.

Letters to the Editor: This type of manuscript discusses important parts, overlooked aspects, or lacking parts of a previously published article. Articles on subjects within the scope of the journal that might attract the readers’ attention, particularly educative cases, may also be submitted in the form of a “Letter to the Editor.” Readers can also present their comments on the published manuscripts in the form of a “Letter to the Editor.” Abstracts, Keywords, and Tables, Figures, Images, and other media should not be included. The text should be unstructured. The manuscript that is being commented on must be properly cited within this manuscript. Please check Table 1 for the limitations of the Letter to the Editor.

References
While citing publications, preference should be given to the latest, most up-to-date publications. If an ahead-of-print publication is cited, the DOI number should be provided. References should be written in compliance with the AMA Manual of Style 11th Edition style (see. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/). Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with the journal abbreviations in Index Medicus/ MEDLINE/PubMed.

When there are four or fewer authors, all authors should be listed. If there are five or more authors, the first three authors should be listed followed by “et al.” In the main text of the manuscript, references should be cited using Arabic numbers in parentheses. The reference styles for different types of publications are presented in the following examples. References should be limited to 10 for letters to the editor, 20 for case reports, 40 for clinical/experimental reports, and review articles. Journal abbreviations should conform to the style used in the Cumulated Index Medicus (please see www.icmje.org). Journal articles, books, web pages, conference presentations, newspapers, audio-visual sources like CDs and DVDs, articles pending publication, theses, and dissertations can be used as references.

Reference Format for Journal Articles: Authors’ initials, surnames, and names, article titles, journal titles, date, volume, and the pagination must be indicated. E.g.

For Journal Articles
Celbis O, Karakoc Y, Ozdemir B, et al. Investigation of lead mobilization from the buckshot residues to the critical organs. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2011;143:688-94.

For Book References
DiMaio WJ, DiMaio D. Time of death. In: Forensic Pathology. 2nd edition. CRC Press, London, 2001;21-42.

Madea B, Henssge C. Timing of death. In: Payne-James J, Busuttil A, Smock W, eds, Forensic Medicine: Clinical Pathological Aspects. London: Greenwich Medical Media Ltd. 2003;91-114.

For Internet References
Beware: Toy Noise may be too loud for kids. http://hearingaiddocs. wordpress.com/tag/loud-toys access date 22.04.2013

For Congress Presentations
Brandes U, Wagner D. A Bayesian paradigm for dynamic graph layout. 11th International Symposium on Graph Drawing, 12-15 November 2003. New York, USA, 236-47.

For Newspaper References
Susan S. How to prevent breast cancer. Australian 23 October 2003.

For CD-ROM References
The Oxford English Dictionary [CD-ROM]. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 1992.

Online Journal Articles
Tamburini S, Shen N, Chih Wu H, Clemente KC. The microbiome in early life: implications for health outcometes. Nat Med. Published online July 7, 2016. doi:10.1038/nm4142

For Accepted Articles
Kaya A, Aktas EO. Perception differences between in violence against child. Med-Science. Published Online: Nov 19, 2013.

Epub Ahead of Print Articles
Cai L, Yeh BM, Westphalen AC, Roberts JP, Wang ZJ. Adult living donor liver imaging. Diagn Interv Radiol. 2016 Feb 24. doi: 10.5152/dir.2016.15323. [Epub ahead of print].

For Thesis
Karakoc Y. Biological effect of direct electrical current in essential (idiopathic) hyperhidrosis. Ph.D. thesis, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 1996.

In case of use of a previously published table, figure, or illustration, a reference of the material must be cited in the reference list.

Tables
Tables should be included in the main document and presented after the reference list, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text. A descriptive title must be placed above the tables. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the tables by footnotes (even if they are defined within the main text). Tables should be created using the “insert table” command of the word processing software and they should be arranged clearly to provide easy reading. Data presented in the tables should not be a repetition of the data presented within the main text but should be supporting the main text.

Figures and Figure Legends
Figures, graphics, and photographs should be submitted as separate files (in TIFF or JPEG format) through the submission system. The files should not be embedded in a Word document or the main document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should not be merged to form a single image. Each subunit should be submitted separately through the submission system. Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks, and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legends. Like the rest of the submission, the figures too should be blind. Any information within the images that may indicate an individual or institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process, all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions: 100 × 100 mm). Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document.

All acronyms and abbreviations used in the manuscript should be defined at first use, both in the abstract and in the main text. The abbreviation should be provided in parentheses following the definition.
When a drug, product, hardware, or software program is mentioned within the main text, product information, including the name of the product, the producer of the product, and city and the country of the company (including the state if in the USA), should be provided in parentheses in the following format: “Discovery St PET/CT scanner (General Electric, Milwaukee, WI, USA)”
All references, tables, and figures should be referred to within the main text, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text.

Limitations, drawbacks, and shortcomings of original articles should be mentioned in the Discussion section before the conclusion paragraph.

Revisions
Authors must indicate the changes in the main text while resubmitting revised files, and also answers to each reviewer's suggestions separately must be included in the letter. Page and line number of corrections must be included as well. A revised form of the manuscript must be sent to the journal within 30 days, otherwise, the revision option may be canceled. A warning letter will be sent and then after 15 days, the manuscript will be rejected. If authors need an extension of time for revisions anyhow, the journal must be informed before the deadline for revision.
Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, and format by professional language editors. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.

Proofs and Publication DOI Number
Accepted manuscripts are copyedited for grammar, punctuation, and format. Following the copyediting process, the authors will be asked to review and approve the changes made during the process. Authors will be contacted for a second time after the layout process and will be asked to review and approve the PDF proof of their article for publication. Once the production process of a manuscript is completed it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue.

Chief Editors
Assoc. Prof. Zülal Öner
Address: İzmir Bakırçay University, Department of Anatomy, İzmir, Turkey

Assoc. Prof. Deniz Şenol
Address: Düzce University, Department of Anatomy, Düzce, Turkey

E-mail: medrecsjournal@gmail.com

Publisher:
Medical Records Association (Tıbbi Kayıtlar Derneği)
Address: Düzce / Türkiye