Sections
Author's guide
Romanian Journal of Rheumatology
Author's templates
1. Aims and scope
Romanian Journal of Rheumatology (Rom J Rheumatol) publishes papers pertaining to any aspect of rheumatology and rheumatological diseases.
The Journal provides a formal and scientific environment for publication of the following types of papers:
▪Reviews – these papers may embrace and comment the results of various workers / practitioners in a given area of rheumatology or may feature recent developments from the author’s own laboratory (clinic);
▪Original Papers – definitive reports on a full study, describing original research of high scientific level and timeliness.
▪Case Reports – shorter pieces of work and report-limited studies of the same level as described in original papers;
▪Short Historical Review, Biomedical Research Ethics, Letter to the Editor, Conference Announcement, In Memoriam, and Book Review – these sections appear in the Journal from time to time.
To ensure a timely publication process, authors are requested to read the following instructions carefully and to prepare their manuscript accordingly.
If possible, consult a recent issue of the Journal to become familiar with layout and conventions.
2. Manuscript submission
Authors are invited to submit their manuscripts using the Journal online submission system.
All manuscripts submitted are subject to peer review.
The minimum requirements for a manuscript to qualify for peer review are to be prepared by strictly following the format and style of the Journal as mentioned, to be written in good English and to be complete.
Manuscript originality and quality are determined by at least two independent reviewers, who maintain the option of requesting that the authors modify their manuscripts.
Manuscripts that have not fulfilled these requirements will not be accepted for publication.
2.1. General procedures
Papers will be published in English.
Authors must include the following contact details on the title page of their submitted manuscripts: position title and academic degree, full institutional postal address, phone / fax numbers, and e-mail.
2.2. Electronic format requirements
No changes to the accepted version are permissible without the explicit approval of the Editor.
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the Word processor used.
The preferred software is MS Word for text, Adobe Photoshop or Corel for figures or schemes, and MS Excel for charts.
Keep image files (*.tif or *.bmp, min. 300 dpi) separate from text.
3. Manuscript format
Manuscripts should be typed single-spaced throughout, using RJR_Paper_template (*.doc file).
The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible.
Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article.
Do not break and hyphenate words.
Use the word processor’s options only to justify or center text, bold face, italics, underline, subscripts, and superscripts.
Do not embed “graphically designed” equations or tables.
Do not import the figures or tables into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic manuscript.
Footnotes in text are not permitted.
Italics should be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, in vitro, et al.
Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).
Abbreviations (except standard units of measurements) should be identified on first use.
To avoid unnecessary errors, you are strongly advised to use the “spell checker” function of your Word processor.
Pages should be numbered consecutively and organized as follows: Title, Abstract and Keywords, Main text, References, Conflict of interests, Acknowledgments, Tables and Figure captions.
3.1. Title
The title page should include: (1) Title of the article, short and descriptive; (2) First name and last name of each author; (3) Names of departments and institutions with which authors are associated; (5) Institutional postal address, phone / fax numbers, and e-mail of the corresponding author.
Ensure that phone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail and the complete institutional postal address.
3.2. Abstract and Keywords
A concise abstract of MAXIMUM 250 words is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the main results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand-alone.
Immediately after the abstract, provide 3–6 keywords, preferably taken from Index Medicus or Excerpta Medica Index.
3.3. Main text
The manuscript should be written clearly and concisely.
The authors are responsible for providing the correct nomenclature, which must be consistent and unambiguous.
The text should be arranged in the following order: Introduction, Materials and Methods (or Patients, Materials and Methods), Results, Discussions, and Conclusions. For Case Report papers, the sections Results and Discussions will be merged under the name of Case presentation(s).
Each section should be clearly marked with a separate, numbered heading and may be numbered down to the third order.
The introduction should be a brief overview of the topic.
The body of the text should describe the topic in an orderly manner, using subheadings to divide the various sections.
A few summary paragraphs should conclude the paper.
3.4. References
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.
Please ensure that every reference cited in the manuscript is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).
Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full.
Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text.
Citation of a reference as “in press” / “online first view” implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
References (indicated by numbers in square brackets) should be cited in consecutive order of their appearance in the text. If there are three or less authors, list names of all the authors. If there are more then 3 authors, list the first three then write et al.
The complete references must be reproduced at the end of the manuscript.
References should be typed in the following style (DOI, PMID and PMCID numbers are mandatory):
Periodical
[1] Ahn S, Woo JW, Lee K, et al. HER2 status in breast cancer: changes in guidelines and complicating factors for interpretation. J Pathol Transl Med, 2020, 54(1):34–44. https://doi.org/10.4132/jptm.2019.11.03 PMID: 31693827 PMCID: PMC6986968
Book
[2] Hossler FE. Ultrastructure atlas of human tissues. 1st edition, Wiley–Blackwell, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 2014, 303–358. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118284551
Chapter in an edited book
[3] Gordon RE. Electron microscopy: a brief history and review of current clinical application. In: Day CE (ed). Histopathology: methods and protocols. Book Series “Methods in Molecular Biology”, vol. 1180, Humana Press–Springer Verlag, New York, NY, USA, 2014, 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1050-2_7
Conference Proceeding
[4] Lahiani A, Gildenblat J, Klaman I, Albarqouni S, Navab N, Klaiman E. Virtualization of tissue staining in digital pathology using an unsupervised deep learning approach. Digital pathology, Proc 15 Eur Congr ECDP, Warwick, UK, 2019, 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23937-4_6
3.5. Conflict of interests
Each author that has a financial or personal relationship with a third party, whose interests could be positively or negatively influenced by the article’s contents, should disclose them in a handwritten and signed document.
3.6. Acknowledgments
Place acknowledgments, including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.
3.7. Tables and Figures
Tables and Figures’ captions are to be typed, in this order, on separate pages at the end of the manuscript.
Ensure that each illustration or table has a caption attached, which should comprise a brief title and a description.
Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum, but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Tables should be on separate sheets, one table per sheet, and should bear a short descriptive title. Number tables consecutively, with Arabic numerals, in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules and shading. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
Figures should be cited and consecutively numbered with Arabic numerals, according to their order of appearance in the main text. Mark the appropriate position of a figure / graphic / scheme in the text.
Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed, of high quality, ready for direct reproduction, no more than 5×7 centimeters overall size; all markings within the figure should be of sufficient size to be visible when the figure is reduced to column width.
For color / grayscale images, use only *.tif or *.bmp formats with a minimum 300 dpi resolution. Photocopies are unacceptable as they give unsatisfactory results after final printing. Submit color illustrations as original photographs or high-quality computer prints.
Graphics and schemes are suitable for mention as figures. Ensure that high-resolution graphic files are provided, even if the graphic appears as part of your normal word-processed text file.
4. International Public License
Romanian Journal of Rheumatology open-access articles are distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Public License, which permits unrestricted use, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium, non-commercially, provided the new creations are licensed under identical terms as the original work and the original work is properly cited.
5. Publication agreement
Articles and any other material published in the Rom J Rheumatol represent the opinions of the author(s) and should not be construed to reflect the opinions of the Editor and the Publisher.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as a part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.
The authors take all responsibility regarding the content of the article and its veracity, being original, and thus exonerate the Rom J Rheumatol and its Editorial Board of any judiciary and moral responsibility, as per current legislation.
Contributions are accepted on the understanding that the authors have obtained the necessary authority for publication. Submission of multi-authored manuscripts implies the consent of each of the authors. The Publisher will assume that the senior or corresponding author has specifically obtained the approval of all other co-authors to submit the article to this Journal.
Each author that has a financial or personal relationship with a third party whose interests could be positively or negatively influenced by the article’s contents, shall disclose them in a dedicated form and at the end of the article.
6. Statement of Human and Animal Rights
The research studies using human or animal subjects must conform to Good Clinical Practice in Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-Regulated Clinical Trials (USA), the Medical Research Council Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice in Clinical Trials (UK) and/or to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki. Generally, we suggest that the national standard of the lead investigator be followed. If authors have any doubt as to whether the research was conducted in accordance with the above standards, the rationale for the chosen experimental approach must be clearly presented, along with a statement and proof of explicit approval given by the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB, for human subjects) and/or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC, for animal subjects) for conducting the doubtful aspects of the study.
All research reports that are submitted for consideration for publication in Rom J Rheumatol must include statement(s) of proof that the appropriate approvals were obtained from the relevant IRB or Research Ethics Committee. Any manuscript describing a study that used animal subjects must include a statement in the “Materials and Methods” section (or text describing the experimental procedures) that affirms all appropriate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, and details of the animals’ care should be provided.
The World Health Organization expects from the authors that they submit only data that have arisen from human or animal experimentation carried out in an ethically proper way by following guidelines as set. The Editor will not accept manuscripts that violate these principles.
7. Informed Consent
Any manuscript describing a study that used human subjects must include a statement that affirms the experiments were performed with prior informed consent (written or verbal, as appropriate) from each participant. All personal information must be anonymized prior to publication, unless a record of explicit consent from the involved patient(s) has been provided.
8. Peer review process
Upon submission of any manuscript for consideration for publication in Rom J Rheumatol, the Editor-in-Chief first performs a search of the Web of Science, Google and/or PubMed databases to determine the topical relevance and timeliness of the manuscript’s content, as well as to make an initial assessment of potential academic misconduct related to the general features of the study and/or topical content. The results of this initial review are either approval to enter into the double-blind peer review process or rejection. The first step in the peer review process involves delivery of the manuscript to one to three external reviewers with expertise in the paper’s topic and/or field. The reviewers are allotted a period of 14 to 28 days in which to assess the manuscript and return comments to the Editorial Office, at which time the Editor-in-Chief conducts a decision-making meeting to assess the reviewers’ comments. For the manuscripts that have received positive comments and meet the general publication requirements of Rom J Rheumatol, the Editor-in-Chief provides signatory approval recommending that the manuscript is “to be accepted”.
If the manuscript fails to meet the high-quality standard assessed by the peer reviewers or does not meet the Rom J Rheumatol specific criteria, it is rejected.
All manuscripts recommended for acceptance must pass a final review by the Editor-in-Chief before they are officially accepted for publication and entered into the production phase.
The Editor-in-Chief is the final authority on all editorial decisions.
Reviewer’s Guide can be accessed at: https://www.rjrheumatology.org/reviewers-guide/
9. Proofs
Galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author, unless otherwise indicated on the manuscript. These should be corrected and returned as quickly as possible.
10. Reprints
Reprints are available for all published papers and can be ordered in black and white or full color. The minimum order is 50 reprints. Authors can purchase reprints at a discounted price.
Download author's templates.