Article Categories
Original article
An original article is a story of a complete academic investigation that covers a significant advance in a specialty. It usually includes a structured abstract, an introduction, sections with headings of Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Meta-analyses are published as original articles as well.
Review
A review address a particular subject and provide a profound and comprehensive look into a field which usually highlights unresolved questions, historical perspectives, and provides developmental trends or directions of investigation based on literatures. Systematic reviews without meta-analysis are published as reviews, and a non-structured abstract is needed.
Perspective
A perspective is an article within 2000 words that presents a personal opinion or fresh insights into new advances in an important and popular topic scholarly. Viewpoints should be well focused and logically.
Case report
A case report narrates a medical condition experienced by one or more patients for clinical, scientific, or educational purposes. It includes an introductory paragraph, case description, discussion, and references section. CARE guideline and reporting checklist are encouraged when preparing the manuscript. A non-structured abstract is needed.
Short communication
A short communication is a concise article that aims to report a new idea developed from a small investigation or a pioneer study. Because of the high novelty and originality, short communication can go through fast track. The text should be within 3000 words, with similar structure of articles.
Guideline or Consensus
Guideline or consensus is usuallly developed by a working task group of experts for the purpose to guide clinical practice in a specific scope or a clinical question. To facilitate Chinese works being recognized and disseminated globally, high quality guideline or consensus that has published in Chinese is acceptable for the second publication in English on Chin Med Sci J in conditions of being compliant with the ethics of second publication.
Editorial
An editorial is usually solicited, offering commentary and analysis to the current issue of the journal. Editorials are meant to influence public opinion, promote critical thinking, and sometimes motivate people to take actions on a specific issue.
Data article
A data article is a scientifical descriptor for a dataset in terms of data generation, characteristics, quality control, applicable value, etc. The Author Instruction for Data Article provides detail information. The dataset is required to be deposited to a recognized database, e.g., National Population Health Data Achive (PHDA), for peer review, and for public access and reuse if the manuscript is accepted.
Letter