Author Guidelines

Format and Structure

The manuscript should be prepared with 3 cm margins on all sides, using Times New Roman, 12-point font, fully justified, and double-spaced throughout, including the abstract, tables, figures, and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, must be numbered, and all text must include continuous line numbering.

The manuscript may be submitted in either Turkish or English. The language should be clear and comprehensible. In Turkish manuscripts, the spelling guide of the Turkish Language Association should be followed. Wherever possible, Turkish equivalents should be preferred to foreign terms. If a rarely used Turkish term appears, its foreign-language equivalent should be given in parentheses at first mention.

In numerical expressions used in the text, tables, figures, and graphs, decimals should be separated by a comma in Turkish manuscripts (for example, 42,8%) and by a period in English manuscripts (for example, 42.8%).

The sections Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion may be divided into subheadings where necessary. Subheadings may be used up to the third level.

Main headings should be bold, uppercase, and left aligned.
Second-level headings should be bold, left aligned, and written with initial capitals.
Third-level headings should also be bold and written with initial capitals, followed by a colon, with the text continuing on the same line.

The TAB key should not be used to create paragraph indentation.

Symbols, Abbreviations, and Units of Measurement

Generally accepted abbreviations may be used in the manuscript; however, each abbreviation must be defined in parentheses at first mention. Abbreviations that appear in the abstract must be defined both in the abstract and again at first mention in the main text.

For abbreviations of units used in clinical and laboratory studies, the International System of Units (SI) should be followed. The metric system should be used for expressions of length, area, mass, and volume.

Types of Manuscripts

The journal accepts the following manuscript types:

Original Research Articles

Original research articles are studies that have completed the scientific research process and have been fully reported. Including the abstract, figures, tables, and references, these articles should not exceed 5,000 words.

They should be organized as follows:
Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations, References

Review Articles

Review articles are prepared on current and needed topics in the field of health sciences, based on national and international literature, and include discussion together with the views of the author(s). They should not exceed 8,000 words.

They should be organized as follows:
Abstract, Topic-Related Headings, References

Case Reports

Case reports present cases that include important clinical experience in the field. They should not exceed 3,000 words.

They should be organized as follows:
Abstract, Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion, References

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor include opinions, contributions, or questions regarding articles published in the journal. They do not contain title or abstract sections and should not exceed 1,000 words.

The title, issue, and publication date of the cited article must be specified, and the name, institutional affiliation, and address information of the letter writer must be included.

Cover Letter

The cover letter should begin with introductory information about the manuscript. This should be followed by current literature related to the topic and the factors that motivated the study. The outcome of the research should then be stated.

The letter should also include a declaration that the manuscript, including its abstract, has not previously been published in any language and is not currently under consideration elsewhere.

Title Page

The title page must include the following:

  • Title of the manuscript in Turkish and English

  • Full names of all authors

  • Academic titles

  • Institutional affiliations

  • ORCID numbers

  • Office telephone/mobile phone numbers

  • E-mail addresses

  • Correspondence addresses

The corresponding author should be indicated in parentheses.

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a 16-digit URI compatible with the ISO Standard (ISO 27729), also known as the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI).

If the study has previously been presented as a poster or oral presentation, this should be stated on a separate line on the title page.

Abstract

Each manuscript must include an informative abstract not exceeding 250 words.

For original research articles, the abstract should be structured under the following headings:

Introduction/Aim
Material and Method
Results
Conclusion

For review articles, the abstract should briefly reflect the main points of the manuscript.

Review articles and case reports should not contain subheadings in the abstract. Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible. Non-standard or rarely used abbreviations should be avoided, and references should not be cited in the abstract.

The Turkish and English abstracts must fully reflect the manuscript and must be consistent with one another in both content and language. Authors who submit the main text in English are not required to prepare a Turkish “Özet.”

Keywords

A minimum of three and a maximum of five keywords should be provided in both Turkish and English. Keywords should be separated by commas.

English keywords must conform to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and Turkish keywords must comply with Türkiye Bilim Terimleri (TBT).

The first letter of each keyword should be uppercase and the remaining letters lowercase. The order of “Anahtar kelimeler” and “Keywords” must be identical.

Introduction

This section should provide current information related to the subject of the manuscript. The statements that form the basis of the study should be developed in light of previous research.

This section should not include discussion or results. It should not be written as a general review of the subject but should clearly explain the research question.

Materials and Method

This section should clearly describe the study population/sample, data collection tools and methods, and statistical analyses.

For studies requiring ethics committee approval, information regarding ethics committee approval and informed consent from patients must be clearly stated in this section.

For studies conducted on humans, the heading Individuals and Method should be used. For other studies, the heading Materials and Method should be used.

At the end of this section, under the subheading Statistical Evaluation of Data, all statistical methods used should be described briefly and clearly. Standard statistical methods should be preferred whenever possible. If rare or novel statistical methods are used, appropriate references should be provided. The name and version number of the statistical software used must also be stated.

Results

This section should present the findings of the study, including tables, figures, and graphs. Results should be reported without interpretation.

Data presented in one table or figure should not be repeated in another. Long explanations of tables and figures, and repetition in the text of numerical values already given in tables, should be avoided.

Discussion

Statements made in the Introduction and Results sections should not be repeated in this section. The findings should be discussed in relation to the relevant literature. If applicable, the limitations of the study should also be stated.

Conclusion

This section should present the conclusions reached on the basis of the study and the related recommendations.

Any conflict of interest, financial support, donation, and all editorial or technical assistance (such as statistical analysis or English/Turkish language editing) should be stated at the end of the text.

Acknowledgement

The authors may thank individuals, other than co-authors, who have made significant contributions to the development of the study or manuscript.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations that are not standard in the field should be listed in alphabetical order before the references.

When defining abbreviations, the abbreviated form should be written first, followed immediately by a colon, with no space before the explanation.

Example:
BMI: Body mass index

Conflict of Interest

Authors must declare any conflicts of interest related to their manuscripts.

If there is any direct or indirect commercial relationship related to the manuscript, such as employment, direct payments, stock ownership, consultancy, patent licensing, or service fees, or if an institution has provided financial support for the study, authors must clearly state whether they have any commercial relationship with the product, drug, or company used in the study.

If such a relationship exists, it must be explained under the heading Conflict of Interest, in the notes to the editor, and in the manuscript before the references and immediately after the acknowledgements.

If no conflict of interest exists, the following statement should be used:

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding Sources

Under this heading, the names of any funds or organizations supporting the study should be written.

For studies supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) or by Scientific Research Projects (BAP), the type of support must be stated explicitly.

If no financial support has been received, the following statement should be used:

Funding sources: The authors declare that they have not received financial support.

Author Contributions

This section should be written first in Turkish and then in English.

In multi-authored original research articles, contributions should be specified under categories such as:

  • Study design

  • Data collection

  • Data analysis

  • Data interpretation

  • Drafting the manuscript

  • Critical revision for intellectual content

  • Final approval of the version to be published

In review articles, contributions should be specified as:

  • Study design

  • Literature review

  • Drafting the manuscript

  • Critical revision for intellectual content

  • Final approval of the version to be published

This section should appear before the references.

Example:
SS, DD, and SDS collected the data. LS and LA, with contributions from CH, wrote the first draft. All authors reviewed and commented on subsequent drafts of the manuscript.

References

References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and cited at the end of the sentence in parentheses using Arabic numerals.

Example:
… was found to occur (21).

If more than one source is cited, the format should be:
(3,7,15-19)

There should be no spaces before or after the commas.

If an author’s name is mentioned in the text, English manuscripts should use the form Author et al., whereas Turkish manuscripts should use Yazar ve ark.

Personal experience, unpublished publications, theses, and other unpublished materials should not be cited as references.

Journal title abbreviations should conform to ISI Web of Science abbreviations.

If the number of authors is six or fewer, all authors should be listed. If there are more than six authors, the first six should be listed, followed by et al. in English references and ve ark. in Turkish references.

If citation-management software such as EndNote or Mendeley is used, the Vancouver style should be selected. Article titles should be written in sentence case. References in the text and in the reference list should not remain in EndNote format.

Reference Examples

Journal Article

  1. Brooks C, Siegler JC, Cheema BS, Marshall PW. No relationship between body mass index and changes in pain and disability after exercise rehabilitation for patients with mild to moderate chronic low back pain. Spine. 2013;38(25):2190-5.

  2. Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002;40(5):679-86.

Book

  1. Murtagh J. John Murtagh’s General Practice. 4th ed. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd; 2007.

  2. Tür A. Emergency airway management and endotracheal intubation. In: Şahinoğlu AH, editor. Yoğun Bakım Sorunları ve Tedavileri. 2nd ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2003. p. 9-16.

Book Chapter

  1. Kansu E. Scientific misconduct and its prevention. In: TÜBA, Dünyada ve Türkiye'de Bilim Etik ve Üniversite. TÜBA Scientific Meetings Series No: 1. Ankara; 1994. p. 71-75.

  2. Patchell C. Cystic fibrosis. In: Shaw V, Lawson M, editors. Clinical Paediatric Dietetics. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing; 2007. p. 178-202.

Online Book

Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/

Web Page

American Medical Association [homepage on the Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2002 [updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12]. AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html

Conference Paper

  1. Suttrup I, Hamacher C, Oelenberg S, Dziewas R, Warnecke T. Assessment of laryngeal movement during swallowing to detect dysphagia in Parkinson’s disease. In: Reza S, editor. 2nd Congress of European Society for Swallowing Disorders; 2013 Oct 25-27; Barcelona. Dysphagia; 2013. p. 288-9.

  2. Ayhan B, Bilici S. The effect of chlorine on the microbiological load of chopped and whole lettuce. IX International Congress of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2-5 April 2014, Ankara, Türkiye. Congress book; 2014. p. 259-260.

Scientific or Technical Report

WHO Scientific Group on Nutritional Anaemias, World Health Organization. Nutritional anaemias: report of a WHO scientific group. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1968. 40 p. Report No.: 405.

Web Page Examples

  1. Nainggolan L. New salt paper causes controversy. Heartwire. May 3, 2011. Available at: http://www.theheart.org/article/1220043.do Accessed June 12, 2011.

  2. Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Turkish Food Codex Regulation. Communiqué on the Amendment of the Communiqué on General Labeling and Nutritional Labeling Rules of Foodstuffs, Communiqué No. (2007/40). Official Gazette: 23.08.2007-26622. Access: http://www.kkgm.gov.tr/TGK/Teblig/2002-58.html Accessed: 15 August 2011.

Tables, Figures, Images, and Graphs

Tables, figures, graphs, and images should be placed after the references section, with their intended positions indicated within the text. The maximum number of tables and figures is six.

All tables and figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they are cited in the text. Table and figure titles should be written with initial capitals. Abbreviations should not be used in titles.

Above each table, the table number and title should be written in 12-point font. Within tables, horizontal lines should be used only below the column headings, at the top of the table, and at the bottom of the table. Explanations for abbreviations used in the table should be written below the table in alphabetical order in 10-point font.

Below each figure, graph, and image, the figure number and explanation should be written in 12-point font. When images are set to a width of 8 cm, their resolution should not be less than 18 pixels/cm. Images should be scanned at 800 dpi and submitted in JPEG format. All abbreviations and symbols used in figures and graphs must be defined in 10-point font.

Tables, figures, graphs, and images should be submitted in an editable format that can be modified by experts authorized by the journal.

Including subtitles, titles, column headings, and footnotes, tables and figures should not exceed 16 × 20 cm in size and should not be narrower than 8 cm in width.

For all tables, Word’s Draw Table feature should be used. Tabs or inserted spaces should not be used when creating tables. Repetition of information already presented in figures should be avoided.