Use this checklist to prepare and finalize your manuscript for submission.
Formatting Requirements
- Font & Spacing: 12-point Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, 2.54 cm (1 inch) margins
- Headings: Main and subheadings in 12-point bold
- Spacing: Single space after sentences
- Style: Avoid bold for emphasis; use italics for foreign words/concepts
- Numbers: Write out one to ten unless a unit of measurement.
- Paragraphs: Single hard return; no tabs/indents.
- Technical Settings: No auto-hyphenation, headers, or footers
- Page & Line Numbers: Require
- Language: US English
Required Documents
- Cover Letter
- Article title & type, corresponding author’s details
- Conflict of interest statement
- Ethics approval and/or patient consent
- Funding information
- Data availability statemen
- Title Page
- Article type, title, running title
- All authors’ details and ORCID ID
- Conflict of interest and funding statements
- Corresponding author's contact details
- Acknowledgments for non-author contributors
- Conference presentation details (if applicable)
- Financial or other supports
- Word counts (abstract & main text)
Main Manuscript
- Title, abstract, and keywords
- Text with required subheadings per journal guidelines
- Correct figure/table citations in-text
- References formatted as per journal style
- Descriptive legends, figures, tables
- Figures and tables uploaded separately
- Required forms (Author Contribution, Copyright, ICMJE Disclosure
Final Checks
- Statistical Analysis: Verified
- Language & Grammar: Use US English spell check.
- References: Cited in-text and listed correctly
- Permissions: Obtained for reproduced figures, tables, and photograph
- Ethical Approval & Informed Consent: Included for human subject research
- Abbreviations: Define
- Compliance: Journal policies followed
REVISED MANUSCRIPT RE-SUBMISSION
- Title page
- Clean revised version of the main text (without line numbers).
- Highlighted main text: A revised version of the manuscript with changes made in bold, underlined or highlighted (adding page and line numbers)
- Tables in Word format should be separately uploaded
- Figures in TIFF or JPEG format should be separately uploaded
- Response to Reviewers: a point-to-point reply to the reviewers' comments that addresses each comment of each reviewer. Please be as specific as possible in your response to the reviewer(s).
- If you have not already done so, please download the submission statements, fill them in and have each co-author sign the form(s).
