Title page
- First name/given name(s) and last name/family name of authors (see Authorship section below)
- Author affiliations: department, institution, city, state, country
- ORCID number(s) for all authors whenever available
- If 2 or more authors on a paper contributed equally, please use the following format:
- Author name1*
- Author name2*
- Author name3
- *These authors contributed equally to this work
Abstract
There are two types of abstracts, namely structured and unstructured. The original research papers require a structured abstract. Both abstracts must be no longer than 300 words.
Plain Language Summary (optional)
For researchers, it is useful to write a plain summary of their papers, making them available to a wider audience, and making research accessible to professionals in nearby fields. Efforts are mainly based on simple wording, which can improve public involvement in scientific and medical research. By helping the public to understand biomedical research, researchers can contribute to raising awareness of its value and increasing public support and participation.
As an author, promoting your work to a broader audience can help you:
- Attract more readers
- Increase the number of citations for your articles
- Gain recognition
- Create a strong reputation
- Connect with patients, carers, politicians, policy makers and other decision makers
- Attract more funding opportunities
- Expand your professional network
The summary of a plain language does not have a minimum length of words, but should not exceed 250 words, be written in simple English and placed after the abstract and before the introduction. A plain language summary should be distinct from abstract and written in an accessible and interesting way, without spinning or exaggerating the story.
A plain language summary should not be a “dumbed down” version of your work. You must not treat your audience as stupid or patronize readers.
Answering the following questions: Why did this study take place, what researchers did and what they found, and what the results mean?
Communicate facts in an interesting way and put them in an appropriate context.
Use short and clear sentences, divided into paragraphs, to make them readable. You can use bullet points.
Use active voice rather than passive voice (e.g., “The author writes the report.” rather than “The report is written by the author”).
Avoid jargon, complex grammatical structures, or abbreviations. You should use every day English rather than complex. If you need to use a technical term or abbreviation, please explain why it was used for the first time.
Phrase sentences in a positive rather than negative manner.
Use a person-centred language instead of focusing on condition/illness or disability.
Ask someone who does not know the topic to read the brief summary and give feedback. They must find it interesting and understand what the research is about, the conclusions and the impact of the research.
For more information on how to write in plain English on biomedical and health research, see the Involve Plain English Summaries resource of the National Institute of Health Research.
Keywords
3–6 keywords
Corresponding author
Name, physical address, phone, email
Introduction
Material and Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Abbreviations (if any)
Ethics approval and informed consent
All research studies on humans (individuals, samples or data) or animals must include an ethics approval statement and, if any, consent to human research. A statement that confirms the name of the Institute Review Committee (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committees that have approved the study must be included in the manuscript. The reference/permit number should also be included. For more information, please refer to our editorial policy.
Consent for publication
The consent to the publication of statements must confirm that the details of images, videos, recordings, etc. can be published and that the person (person) who gave consent has shown the content of the articles to be published. Authors must prepare to send copies of signed consent forms to the journal editorial office at the request of the publisher. More information can be found on our editorial policies.
Data availability (where applicable)
Please include an explanation of where to find data that supports the results reported in the manuscript and about the sharing of data, including, if applicable, links to publicly archived datasets. Data availability statements should describe which additional unpublished data from the study, if any, are available, to whom, and how to obtain these data. If the author does not want to share the data or is unable to do so, he or she should state why the data is not shared and the reasons for the data not being shared. For more information, please refer to the editorial policy of the journal.
Funding
Please declare all sources of funding, including financial support. The sponsor (s), if any, should be notified in each stage from study design to submission of the paper for publication. Please indicate whether the sponsor(s) did not participate in this form.
Please ensure that the information is accurate and meets the needs of your funder.
Competing interests
Your relationship with others or organizations can affect the interpretation and presentation of data in your research. This is known as competitive interest, and all authors who submit their papers to any journal of the Red Flower Publications are required to complete a declaration of competing interest. This includes all competing financial or non-financial interests, including employment with the study sponsor, shareholding or option, patents, royalties, personal fees, board positions, or political, religious or academic interests related to the published content. All competing interests are listed in the statement at the end of the article.
Please consider the following when you make your competitive interest declaration:
- Financial competing interests
Have you received funding from an organization that may have financial interest in the manuscript in the last three years? If so, please indicate.
Do you have shares or options in an organization that may be financially interested in publishing this manuscript? If so, please specify.
Does the manuscript's content relate to a patent you have or is a current patent application?
If so, please specify.
Have you received funding or salaries from an organization that holds a patent on the content of the manuscript or has applied for a patent? If so, please specify.
Has your other competing financial interests? If so, please specify.
- Non-financial competing interests
Have you received drugs or equipment from an organization that may benefit financially or in terms of reputation from the results published? If so, please specify.
Have you held a position in a private industry board or company that could benefit financially or reputationally from the results published? If so, please specify.
Are you considered to have competing interests in personal, political, religious, ideological, academic and intellectual matters related to publish content? If so, please specify.
If you are unsure whether you or your co-authors have competing interests, please discuss this with the editor.
Red Flower Publications supports the general intention of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on data control for publications resulting from sponsored research. The author who submits a manuscript for a paper for any study financed by a body with an intellectual property or financial interest in the results shall have access to all the data in that study and assume full responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the data and for the decision to publish. For more information, see our editorial policies.
Authors' contributions
Red Flower Publications attributed the ICMJE authorship guidelines and recommended that the authorship credit should be based on the following criteria:
- Whether it is the conception, design, execution, data collection, analysis and interpretation of all these areas, we have made significant contributions to the reported work.
- Have drafted or written or substantially revised or critically reviewed the article.
- Have agreed to the journal in which the article will be submitted.
- Review and agree on all versions of the article before submission, during revision, the final version approved for publication and any major changes introduced in the proof phase.
- It agree to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the article.
All authors must comply with clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and the contributions of each author should be credited accordingly.
Funding, data collection or general team supervision are not the authors alone.
Increasingly, multi-centre trials are attributed to a group. All members of the group designated as authors must meet the above criteria for authorship and contribution.
The group should jointly decide on the contributors/authors before submitting the manuscript. Contact persons should be prepared to explain the presence and order of these individuals. The role of editors is not to make a decision on authorship or contributorship, nor to arbitrate conflicts related to authors.
Acknowledgments
All contributors who do not meet the criteria of authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgment section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged are those who only provided technical help, writing assistance or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should declare that they have received assistance in study design, data collection, and data analysis or manuscript preparation. If this assistance has been provided, the author should reveal the identity of the persons who have provided it with their permission in the published article. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.
Groups of people who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify their authorship may be listed under the headings of “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators”, and their roles or contributions should be described – for example, “serving as scientific advisers”, “critically reviewing the proposal of the study”, “collecting data” or “provide and care for study patients”. As readers can infer their approval of the data and conclusions, these persons must obtain written permission for acknowledgment.
Collaborating authors or Study Group members
To allow the authors/study group members to be searched in PubMed/PMC (the journals listed in PubMed):
- On the title page under the author list, add the name of the group, such as “On behalf of...”,
- under the heading “Collaborators”, this must be a text not a table, the format of first name, middle name (optional), last name
- Place between the contribution of the author and acknowledgement.
- In addition, you can provide a list of additional materials and include links in the paper
Please note that only a list of names will be displayed, no affiliations will be shown.
Because PubMed needs more time to encode these groups, they may not be present when articles are first published on PubMed.
Please note that the section entitled "Input and Authors List in Acknowledgments" is reprinted from the uniform requirements of the ICMJE for manuscripts submitted to the Biomedical Journals. Red Flower Publications has prepared this reprint. The ICMJE has not endorsed or approved the contents of this reprint. The official version of the Uniform requirements for Manuscripts Submission to Biomedical Journals is at http://www.icmje.org/. The user should cite the official version when citing the document.
Authors' information (optional)
Information about authors and those who may be relevant for the interpretation of the article is listed here. This may include author affiliations, qualifications or other relevant background information. This section does not list any competing interests.
References
See Reference Style Guidelines
