Instructions to Authors

Editorial content is restricted to original papers on the following areas:

  • Pathophysiology of important diseases and disease vectors
    • Novel therapeutic strategies
    • Novel methodologies facilitating the search for therapies
    • High-throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry, parallel synthesis and library design
    • 3D Structures and functions of therapeutic targets
    • Structural biological studies of relevant ligands and targets
    • Discovery, design and synthesis of biologically active agents, including natural products, therapeutic macromolecules
    • Drug delivery
    • ADME/Toxicology
    • Advances in key compound classes and therapeutic areas
    • Omics in pharmaceutical sciences
    • Biological databases, web-based software for pharmaceutical sciences
    • Studies of biological activity or mode of action
    • Structure-activity correlations of drugs
    • Development of new imaging and diagnostic tools
    • Computational studies the SAR of compounds, target informatics
    • Business strategy for pharmaceutical industry
    • Clinical research and trials, meta-analysis
    • Management, commercial and regulatory issues in pharmaceutical R&D
    • Other aspects of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

Article Types

Acta Materia Medica publishes research articles, review articles, mini-reviews, commentaries, editorials, short communications, case report articles and study protocols.

All research articles, including original research and short communications, must include a graphical abstract.

  • Research Articles

The text of research articles should be divided into sections with the headings:

  • Abstract
  • Key words
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Conflict of interest
  • References
  • Graphical abstract

The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. 

The prescribed word count for research articles is no more than 5000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures, and Tables).

  • Review Articles

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field.

The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles will depend upon the topic reviewed.

Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and analyzing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

Post-publication updates on the subject of review covering the advances in the areas should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major developments occur in the field.

The prescribed word count is no more than 10,000 words excluding tables, and the Abstract, Acknowledgements, References, figures, and Tables sections.

  • Short Communications

The text of Short Communications should be divided into sections with the following to be included without headings:

Abstract (unstructured, less than 100 words)

Keywords (3 to 10)

Introduction

Results and Discussion

For the following, if included, please add headings:

Acknowledgments

Conflict of interest

References

The prescribed word count for Short Communications is no more than 3,000 words (excluding Abstract, Acknowledgements, References, Figures and Tables). It is recommended that less than 30 references are included.

  • Study Protocol

The text of Study Protocols should be divided into sections with the headings:

Abstract (unstructured, Objective/Methods/Results/Conclusion, approximately 300 words)

Keywords (3 to 10)

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Conflict of interest

References

The prescribed word count for Study Protocols is no more than 4,000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 30 references can be included.

  • Commentaries

Commentaries are commissioned by Editors, and free contributions are not accepted. The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (200 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles will depend upon the topic presented.

The prescribed word count for Commentaries is no more than 2,000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 20 references can be included.

  • Editorials

Editorials are written by editorial board members commissioned by Editors, and free contributions are not accepted. The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (200 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles will depend upon the topic presented.

The prescribed word count for Editorials is no more than 2,500 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 20 references can be included.

  • Case report

The text of Case report should be divided into sections with the headings:

Abstract (unstructured, approximately 150 words)

Keywords (3 to 10)

Introduction

Case presentation

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Conflict of interest

References

Graphical abstract

The prescribed word count for Case report is no more than 1,200 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 15 references can be included.

  • Letter to the Editor

The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (150 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles will depend upon the topic presented.

The prescribed word count for Letter to the Editor is no more than 1,000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 15 references can be included.

Online Article Submission

Submissions to Acta Materia Medica are made using ScholarOne, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access are available at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/ammed.

Papers submitted to the Journal should present previously unpublished data or interpretations; they should not be submitted elsewhere while under editorial consideration. Manuscripts should be clear and credible in argument, have a clear hierarchy, use concise headings and have an appropriate mix of text, figures and tables.

Text

Presentation

Text should be double-spaced and free of all corrections. Word format is preferred. Figures should be separate from the text; each figure should be presented on a separate A4 sheet.

Style

  • Author’s addresses and affiliations should be on the first page. Authors should provide all their names, professional titles, academic degrees and full work addresses including email address information.
  • An Abstract. The length of the text should generally not exceed the equivalent of about 12,000 words.
  • Please provide the name and serial number of the fund project if the research is supported by a research fund or the relevant government departments or social organizations.
  • All mathematical formulae should be numbered consecutively within parentheses at the end of the formula; formulae should be presented on separate lines; longer formulae should be broken at an operation symbol.

Illustrations and Tables

The number of illustrations submitted should not exceed six. Authors should pay particular attention to the clarity and spelling of any lettering on the diagrams, and some reduction in size should be allowed for. All figures must be colour and of a resolution suitable for reproduction.

All illustrations should be clearly numbered with the figure number and caption clearly indicated on the bottom of the figure.

Accepted file formats include JPG or TIF. Vector files should be CDR format.

Table numbers and names should be centred; table footnotes should be included at the bottom of the table; table symbols and units should be clearly designated. Authors are requested to express decimal fractions with full-stops, not commas. Tabulated ‘raw’ data should be kept to a minimum.

References

Only those references cited in the text, tables and figures should be listed numerically in the bibliography. There should be a minimum of 10 references in each article.

Examples of style are:

Article within a journal
Surname A, Surname B, Surname C: Article Title. Acta Materia Medica 2021, 13:266-267.

Article within a journal supplement
Surname A, Surname B, Surname C: Article Title. Acta Materia Medica 2021, 43(Suppl 3):149-170.

In press article
Surname A, Surname B, Surname C: Article Title. Acta Materia Medica 2021, in press.

Published abstract
Surname A, Surname BC, Surname C: Article Title [abstract]. Acta Materia Medica 2021, 42:s250.

Article within conference proceedings
Surname AB, Surname B: Article Title. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Acta Materia Medica: 27-30 June 2020; New York. Edited by Surname AB. Publisher Location: Publisher Name; 2021:16-27.

Book chapter, or article within a book
Surname A: Article Title. In Acta Materia Medica. Volume 1. 2nd edition. Edited by Surname AB. Publisher Location: Publisher Name; 2019:53-76.

Whole issue of journal
Surname A, Surname BC (Eds): Article Title. In Acta Materia Medica 2018, 10:1-72.

Whole conference proceedings
Surname A (Ed): Proceedings of the First National Conference on Acta Materia Medica: 27-30 June 2020; Publisher Location: Publisher Name; 2021.

Complete book
Surname A: Book Title. Publisher Location: Publisher Name; 2020.

Monograph or book in a series
Surname AB, Surname B: Chapter Title. In Book Title. Edited by Surname AB. Publisher Location: Publisher Name; 2015:54-56. [Surname A (Series Editor): Series Title, vol 1.]

Book with institutional author
Advisory Committee on Acta Materia MedicaAnnual Report. Publisher Location; 2019.

PhD thesis
Surname A: Thesis Title. PhD thesis. University Name, University Department; 2015.

Link/URL
Tumor Biology Database [http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/cancer_links.html] Accessed on date XX

Abbreviations
Terminology, quantities, units of measurement and symbols should all adopt the international standard and should be consistently used throughout the manuscript.

Competing Interests

Conflict of interests/competing interests can be defined as factors which could influence the judgment of an author, reviewer or editors, and may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial in nature. Put simply, they are interests which, if revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information pages on our Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statements.

Standards of Reporting

The journal requires all authors to follow the correct standards of reporting regarding biomedical research. Please refer to EQUATOR for guidelines for health research and MIBBI  for guidelines and tools for bioscience reporting. Authors are strongly encouraged to use these guidelines as a checklist when writing their manuscripts.

Other available checklists include CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE for observational studies, MOOSE  for meta analyses of observational studies, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, RATS  for qualitative studies, and CHEERS for economic evaluations.

Authors of systematic reviews must provide a link in the Methods section that shows all details of the search strategy. Refer to Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook for examples of the presentation of search strategies.

Authors must use standardized gene nomenclature. The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee  details human gene symbols and names. Information on other species can be found at https://www.genenames.org/help/faq/; the Human Genome Variation Society provides guidelines on mutation nomenclature.

Where appropriate authors should follow CARE guidelines for case reports, STREGA guidelines for genetic association studies and SRQR guidelines for qualitative studies.

Authors are expected to comply with current field-specific standards regarding the preparation and recording of data (https://fairsharing.org/search?fairsharingRegistry=Standard), while also maintaining strict patient confidentiality. In addition, when using unpublished data, authors must make contact with the owners of the data before starting their own research.

Human and Animal Testing

All human or animal studies should be approved or exempted by the appropriate institutional human and/or animal subject review committee, or if no formal ethics committee is available, are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. This approval or exemption should be stated in the Methods section of the article.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals are followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare and ARRIVE guidelines https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines.

Patient Consent

All authors must declare that, where relevant, patient consent has been obtained (or the consent of their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain patient confidentiality, including illustrations, which should be anonymized as far as possible.

Clinical Trials Registration

The journal adheres to ICMJE’s Clinical Trials Registration Statement. All clinical trials published in the journal must be registered in a public trial’s registry at or before the onset of participant enrolment. Manuscripts should include the exact URL and unique identification number for the trial registration at the time of submission. This information will be published in the article and we ask that you include the URL and identification number on the title page of your manuscript.

For any clinical trials commencing prior to 2008, retrospective registration will be accepted. A list of recommended registries can be found on the ICMJE website. Results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the primary registration resides will not be considered prior publication if they are presented in the form of a brief abstract (500 words or less) or a table.

Clinical trials must be reported according to the relevant reporting guidelines, i.e. CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, TREND for non-randomized trials, and other specialized guidelines as appropriate. The intervention should be described according to the requirements of the TIDieR checklist and guide. Submissions must also include the study protocol as supporting information, which will be published with the manuscript if accepted.

Authors of manuscripts describing the results of clinical trials must adhere to the CONSORT reporting guidelines appropriate to their trial design, available on the CONSORT Statement web site. Any deviation from the trial protocol must be explained in the paper. Authors must explicitly discuss informed consent in their paper, and we reserve the right to ask for a copy of the patient consent form.

Registration of Systematic Reviews

The prospective registration of systematic reviews is welcomed, and we encourage all authors to register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). Please include the registration number in the last line of the manuscript abstract.