Please read and follow these instructions carefully. Doing so will ensure that the publication of your manuscript is as speedy and efficient as possible.
General information
Health Science Monitor (Health Sci. Monit.) is an international, multidisciplinary peer-reviewed open-access journal. It is publishes quarterly electronically by Urmia University of Medical Sciences (UMSU). HSM is aimed at all health practitioners and researchers and those who manage and deliver Health Science Monitor across all age groups and settings.
Article Categories
Articles will be published in Health Science Monitor under seven categories: Original articles, Reviews articles, Case reports, Scientific letters, Letters to editor, Short communications and Protocols
Original Articles
Should be divided into the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, and References. Contributions should not exceed 4000 words in length for research papers adopted from quantitative studies. The length of papers which include a qualitative research study can be just extended by a maximum of 5000 words for the main text (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, references, and acknowledgements). The number of references must be kept to a minimum, preferably not exceeding 40, and tables/figures not more than 5 in number.
Abstract: Structured as Background, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion (up to 250 words).
Reviews Articles
Consist of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, and References. Articles bearing on updated topics conducted by proficient researches are more welcome. The main text (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, references, and acknowledgements) does not exceed 5000 words in length. Maximum number of references shouldn’t be more than 70, and tables/figures not more than 5 in number.
Abstract: Structured as Background, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion (up to 350 words).
Case Reports
Consist of Abstract, Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgment, and References. The main text (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, references, and acknowledgements) does not exceed 1500 words in length. Maximum number of references shouldn’t be more than 20, and tables/figures not more than 2 in number. Necessary documentations of the case(s) like pathology and laboratory test reports should be included in the submission package.
Abstract: Structured as Background, Case Presentation, and Conclusion (up to 150 words).
Scientific letters
The main text does not exceed 1000 words in length and the text will not be structured into sections. A maximum of three (6) authors and 10 references are allowed. Tables/figures not more than 2 in number.
Abstract: normally include no abstract.
Letters to Editor
The main text does not exceed 500 words in length. A maximum of three (3) authors and 10 references are allowed. Tables/figures not more than 1 in number.
Abstract: normally include no abstract.
Short Communications
Consist of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, and References. The main text (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, references, and acknowledgements) does not exceed 2000 words in length. Maximum number of references shouldn’t be more than 25, and tables/figures not more than 3 in number.
Abstract: Structured as Background, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion (up to 150 words).
Protocols
Consist of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, and References. The main text (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, references, and acknowledgements) does not exceed 4000 words in length. Maximum number of references shouldn’t be more than 40, and tables/figures not more than 5 in number.
Abstract: Structured as Background, Materials and Methods, and Conclusion (up to 250 words).
Manuscript Submission
All manuscripts should be submitted at the HSM e-submission website (http://hsm.umsu.ac.ir/). After registration, authors can login and follow the submission process and upload their manuscript. The submission tool generates an automatic reply which incorporates the manuscript number for future correspondence. Manuscripts can be submitted at any time. Original source files (cover letter and manuscript) are required for submission.
Manuscript Preparation
HSM language is American or British English (but not a mixture of these). Manuscript files should be provided in a standard processing format including Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007 for texts. The PDF format is not acceptable.
Manuscripts should be typewritten on A4 and justified and double-spaced, using a 12-point Times New Roman and leaving 2.54 cm margins on all sides without headers or footers. All pages should be numbered consecutively on the bottom of the page. Illustrations (line drawings and photographs) should be submitted in JPEG or GIF format and figures generated in Excel Software.
All submissions should be arranged and submitted as a single file including:
A) Title Page: The title page should be included the following items: Type of manuscript (Original article, Review article, Case report, Scientific letters, Letter to editor, and Short communication), Manuscript title, Running title (up to 50 characters including spaces), Authors' full names in order with their last academic degree as well as full affiliations, E-mail addresses, and ORCID iD. Corresponding author's name and complete contact information including Telephone and Fax numbers, Postal code and E-mail address.
B) Abstract: Abstract should be structured for original articles providing Background, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion. It should not exceed 250 words altogether. Preferably, abbreviations should not be mentioned in the abstract.
C) Keywords: Keywords appear below the abstract and should include 3 to 6 MeSH headings selected from 'MeSH Database' available from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.
D) Introduction: draws attention to the purpose and rationale of the study and a brief review of the relevant literature. Findings and results should not be referred to here.
E) Materials and Methods: contains a clear description of the experimental design and sampling procedures and sufficient details of the methods, instruments, analytic processes, software version selected, and statistical analyses performed. If the method has been applied somewhere before, the exact reference should be cited; If otherwise, detailed description must be provided.
F) Results: must be written in the text format. Tables, figures and illustrations must be referenced sequentially in the same order as in the text. They should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the main text. Particular care should be taken to make tables self-explanatory with adequate headings and footnotes without abbreviations. Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and referred to by superscript letters (a, b, etc). Figures should be provided only if they improve the article. A brief title (without abbreviations) should be provided for each figure.
G) Discussion: includes data analysis, comparison of the findings with those of other relevant surveys, and limitations of the scope the study. Any hypothesis put forward in the main text must be either accepted or rejected here. Implications for future developments are also proposed in this section.
H) Conclusion: involves clear and precise deductions from the results which should not go further beyond the scope of the study.
I) Acknowledgements: If necessary, gratitude must be expressed towards all people or institutions which have made any financial or technical contributions to data generation and collection.
In line with the commitments related to transparency and ethical aspects, authors are obliged to state any use of artificial intelligence technology in the “Acknowledgements” section as follows: the specific artificial intelligence tools or technologies used in the article; the reason for using artificial intelligence tools or technologies in the process of completing their own evaluation; the functions used in artificial intelligence tools or technologies; the explanations about how to use the output of artificial intelligence tools or technologies in the research. If part of the text has been generated with the help of artificial intelligence, the authors must include the following statement:
“Hereby, the authors acknowledge that [specific parts of the text] in this work have been generated with the help of artificial intelligence technology. The specific technology used in this work was [refer to the artificial intelligence technology or model used]. Therefore, the contribution of its in producing this content is confirmed.”
J) Ethical Permissions: 1) Please state that informed consent was obtained from all human adult participants and from the parents or legal guardians of minors. 2) Include the name of the appropriate institutional review board that approved study proposal. 3) Indicate that the maintenance and care of experimental animals complies with National Institutes of Health guidelines for the humane use of laboratory animals, or those of your Institute or agency. 4) Authors should follow the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (www.wma.net).
K) Conflict of Interest: It should be disclosed here according to the statement in the Research and Publication Ethics regardless of existence of conflict of interest. If the authors have nothing to disclose, please state: "The authors have no conflicts of interest associated with the material presented in this paper".
L) Funding: All sources of funding applicable to the study should be stated here explicitly.
M) Data Availability:
In accordance with the journal's open data policy, authors are required to provide information about the availability of their research data. This includes any data used to support the findings of the study, such as datasets, software, models, or other materials.
Please provide one of the following statements:
- Data are available in the supplementary materials: If the data are included in the supplementary materials accompanying the article.
- Data are available upon request: If the data are not publicly available but can be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.
- Data are publicly available: If the data are publicly available and can be accessed through a specific repository or website, please provide the DOI or URL.
- Data are not available: If the data are not available due to restrictions or other reasons, please explain why.
- Additionally, authors are encouraged to deposit their data in a publicly accessible repository, such as [list specific repositories, e.g., Figshare, Zenodo, etc.]. This will help to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of the data.
- Please note that the journal reserves the right to request access to the data during the peer-review process.
N) Author Contributions:
To promote transparency and accountability in authorship, the journal requires authors to provide a detailed description of their contributions to the research and manuscript preparation.
Please provide a brief statement (no more than 50 words per author) describing the specific contributions of each author, using the following categories:
Conceptualization: Development of the research idea and study design.
Methodology: Development of methodology, data collection, and data analysis.
Validation: Verification of the results and data quality control.
Formal Analysis: Statistical analysis, data modeling, and data interpretation.
Investigation: Conducting the research, data collection, and experiments.
Resources: Provision of study materials, reagents, or other resources.
Data Curation: Management and organization of data.
Writing - Original Draft: Preparation of the initial manuscript draft.
Writing - Review & Editing: Review and revision of the manuscript.
Visualization: Creation of figures, tables, and other visualizations.
Supervision: Oversight and guidance of the research.
Project Administration: Management and coordination of the research project.
Funding Acquisition: Securing funding for the research.
Please list each author's contributions in a separate sentence, using the above categories. For example:
John Doe: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Original Draft
Jane Smith: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing
This information will be published as part of the article and will help to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each author.
References: Vancouver Style
References should be numbered consecutively e.g. (1). Persian references must be translated to English and marked as [Persian] at the end. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the list of journals indexed in 'Journal Database' 'available from: http://www.pubmed.gov; http://cassi.cas.org/search.jsp. All authors should be listed when six or less; when seven or more, only the first six should be listed and followed by et al. The unpublished data or manuscripts under review should be excluded from the reference list.
A) Journal Article:
Khiyali Z, Ghahremani L, Kaveh MH, Keshavarzi S. The effect of an educational program based on protection motivation theory on pap smear screening behavior among women referring to health centers in Fasa. Journal of Education and Community Health. 2017;3(4):31-7. (Persian)
B) Book:
Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
C) Book Chapter:
Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. p. 465-78.
D) Dissertation:
Bashirian S. Application of the theory of planned behavior to predict drug abuse related behaviors among adolescents [PhD thesis]. Tehran: Tarbiat Modares University; 2011.
E) Conference paper:
Murphy KA. Safe at Heart: An empowerment approach to relationship abuse prevention. In: Connecting Research and Practice in Relationships; 2009 Nov 7-8; QUT Kelvin Grove Campus, AU. Melbourne (AU): Australian Psychological Society; 2009; p. 28-34.
F) Conference proceedings:
Harris AH, editor. Economics and health. Proceedings of the 19th Australian Conference of Health Economists; 1997 Sep 13-14; Sydney, AU. Kensington (AU): School of Health Services Management, University of New South Wales; 1998.
G) Webpage:
National Cancer Information Center. Cancer incidence [Internet]. Goyang: National Cancer Information Center; 2012 [cited 2015 Jan 2]. Available from: http://www.cancer.go.kr/
Cover letter
A cover letter must accompany every manuscript submission. During the submission process, you may type it or paste it into the submission system, or you may attach it as a file.
The following elements are required to be included in the letter:
Manuscript title
Name of the corresponding author with signature and date
Names (s) of all other authors with signature and date
A statement confirming that the manuscript, or its contents in some other form, has not been published.
Previously by any of the authors and/or is not under consideration for publication in another journal at the time of submission.
A statement confirming that all authors have directly participated in the preparation of the manuscript.
A statement confirming that all authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to Health Science Monitor.
A statement confirming that all authors have seen and agree with the journal's guidelines.
Copyright and Consent
By submitting a manuscript to this journal, authors agree to download and sign a copyright agreement form, which is available on the journal’s website. The signed form and a cover letter from the corresponding author must be sent along with the manuscript, indicating the authors’ consent to transfer all the rights of reproduction and distribution of the article to the journal. The editorial board of the journal has the sole discretion to accept or reject the article at any stage and at any time, and to edit or remove any part of the text, tables or figures if necessary.
Ethics policies:
All research must have been conducted within an appropriate ethical framework. Details of approval by the authors’ institution or an ethics committee must be provided in the Methods section.
Trial registration:
If your article reports the results of a clinical trial, it must be registered in an appropriate registry and Trial Registration details must be provided: name of registry, registration number and date of registration.
Abbreviations and symbols:
Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid using them in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
Other
Authors are responsible for contents of their articles and the intellectual property of articles is reserved for authors.
Proof Reading: A computer printout is sent to the corresponding author for proof reading before publication in order to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be marked clearly and sent immediately to the Journal office.
The Editorial Board of the Journal, reserves the right to accept or reject the article in any stage and any time or delete a part of the text, tables or figures, if necessary.
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