If you are not sure which reporting guideline and checklist are applicable to your research, please refer to the diagraph of EQUATOR Reporting Guideline Decision Tree . For more details about the research type and reporting guidelines, please visit the EQUATOR website.
Introduction: Clearly state the purpose and, where applicable, a brief and relevant background of the study, thus allow readers to understand the context and evaluate the results of the present study.
Materials and Methods: Describe the subjects (including criteria for selection) and the equipment involved, as well as the methods used. The sources of all equipment, drugs, chemicals, and experimental animals or cell lines must be identified. The methodology in this section should include sufficient information to fulfill repeatability by other researchers.
Results: The results of the study should be well organized and presented clearly and concisely. It is not necessary to narrate data displayed in tables and figures. Implications of the result should be put in the section of Discussion.
Discussion: Provide interpretation of the results of the current study in relation to previously published work. Emphasize innovation and importance of the study, followed by conclusion. Limitations of the current study that may bear on the interpretation of the results should be addressed. It is not recommended to repeat details listed in the results section or reiterate the introduction, and review the field in depth.
References: References should be numbered consecutively in order of citations in the main text. For citing an article of a journal, the volume, issue, page and doi are essential information. Please use abbreviate name of a journal according to the journal name listed by PubMed. Authors are suggested to read How to reference page for the citing formats of the common literature sources.
Tables and figures should be put in the text and numbered in the order of which they are cited in the main text. Figures including graphs, flow charts, diagrams, photographs, and radiographs, should be in high resolution (minimum 300 dpi). Figures in the main text and for online should be in TIFF, JPG, or PNG format and zipped into a single file, submit separately at the initial submission. Each component of a composite image must be submitted separately at submission and individually meet the minimum resolution requirement. Graphs, charts, some illustrations, as well as titles, legends may be re-created and edited when necessary to reach standard of publication.
Radiographic, micrographic, gel images should preserve scientific integrity. Only brightness, contrast, or color adjustments applied uniformly to an entire image are permissible, selectively highlight, misrepresent, obscure, or eliminate specific elements in the original figure are not accepted.
In tables, figures, and throughout the text, the International System of Units should be adopted as the standard. For instance, data should be presented in metric units, temperature in degrees Celsius, blood pressure in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), etc.
Use only standard abbreviations. Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract, and limit their uses in the text. Expand all abbreviations at first mention in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
When cite a literature in a manuscript, it should be numbered consecutively in the order of which they are first mentioned in the text. Avoid excessive reference list.
Chin Med Sci J adopts the recommendation on Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals by ICMJE in publishing practice. Below are examples for some common cases that may be of help to the authors. Details of referencing formats could be found in the NLM webpage of Samples of Formatted References for Authors of Journal
For journal articles
List the first 3 authors followed by et al.
Portelius E, Zetterberg H, Skillbck T, et al. Cerebrospinal fluid neurogranin: relation to cognition and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease. Brain 2015;138(Pt 11):3373-85. doi: 10.1093/brain/awv267.
For article published electronically ahead of the print version:
Portelius E, Zetterberg H, Skillb?ck T, et al. Cerebrospinal fluid neurogranin: relation to cognition and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease. Brain 2015; 138(Pt 11):3373-85. doi: 10.1093/brain/awv267. Epub 2015 Sep 15.
For non-English journal titles Indicate the language of the article after the location (pagination):
Wilkniss SM, Hunter RH, Silverstein SM. Multimodal treatment of aggression and violence in individuals with psychosis. Sante Ment Que 2004; 29(2):143-74. French.
For journal article with DOI provided:
Bhutta ZA, Darmstadt GL, Hasan BS, et al. Community-based interventions for improving perinatal and neonatal health outcomes in developing countries: a review of the evidence. Pediatrics 2005; 115(2Suppl):519-617. doi:10.1542/peds.2004-1441.
For books and monographs
Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
For conference paper
Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002. p. 182-91.
For dissertation
Borkowski MM. Infant sleep and feeding: a telephone survey of Hispanic Americans [dissertation]. Mount Pleasant (MI): Central Michigan University; 2002.
For reports
Issued by funding/sponsoring agency:
Yen GG (Oklahoma State University, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stillwater, OK). Health monitoring on vibration signatures. Final report. Arlington (VA): Air Force Office of Scientific Research (US), Air Force Research Laboratory; 2002 Feb. Report No.: AFRLSRBLTR020123. Contract No.: F496209810049.
Issued by performing agency:
Russell ML, Goth-Goldstein R, Apte MG, Fisk WJ. Method for measuring the size distribution of airborne Rhinovirus. Berkeley (CA): Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Environmental Energy Technologies Division; 2002 Jan. Report No.: LBNL49574. Contract No.: DEAC0376SF00098. Sponsored by the Department of Energy.
For journal article on internet
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs 2002; 102(6): [about1 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htmArticle. Accessed: 2002 Aug 12.
For monograph on internet
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html. Accessed 2002 Jul 9.