Journal of Oral Medicine and Oral Surgery

Author information

Instructions for authors

General

Journal of Oral Medicine and Oral Surgery (JOMOS) is the official journal of the French Society of Oral Surgery (SFCO). The journal publishes quarterly issues. JOMOS publishes original scientific and clinical articles in the areas of oral medicine and oral surgery. The journal accepts submissions in English only and publishes the articles after acceptation. Authors are requested to respect the rules of substance and form set out in the instructions to authors and to use the dedicated online submission system.

JOMOS is approved by the International Commitee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

JOMOS is indexed in international scientific databases Scopus and Copernicus.

The editors encourage submissions of original articles, reviews articles, educational articles, technical notes, images for diagnosis, original case reports and correspondence in the form of letters to editor.

Please read the instructions below carefully for details on the submission of manuscripts, the journals’ requirements and standards as well as information concerning the procedure after a manuscript has been accepted for publication in JOMOS.

Avoiding allegations and plagiarism

All submitted manuscripts will be automatically sent to Similarity Check to ensure against plagiarism. Similarity Check allows editors to upload a paper, and receive a report giving immediate feedback regarding a manuscript’s similarity to other published academic and general web content. By submitting your manuscript to JOMOS you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published work. The system will also, signal whether a paper may be plagiarized by repeating work of the submitting authors and thus be regarded as duplicate or redundant publication

Previously published results, including numerical information and figures or images, should be labeled to make it clear where they were previously reported. Papers that present new analyses of results that have already been published (for example, subgroup analyses) should identify the primary data source, and include a full reference to the related primary publications.

Important

In accordance with ICMJE guidelines, the instructions for authors have been updated. Please read carefully the following guidelines to prepare your paper accordingly.

Your manuscript must include the following sections between the Conclusion and References : Conflict of Interest, Funding, Ethical approval, Informed consent, Authors contributions, Acknowledgements.

Ethical guidelines

JOMOS adheres to the ethical guidelines given below for publication and research.

Authorship and acknowledgements

Authorship: JOMOS adheres to the International Standards for Authors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All authors named on a paper should agree to be named on the paper, and all authors so named should agree to the submission of the paper to JOMOS and approve the submitted and accepted versions of the publication. Any change to the author list should be approved by all authors, including any author who has been removed from the list.

JOMOS also adheres to the definition of authorship set up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). According to the ICMJE authorship, criteria should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design of the article, or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2 and 3.

Authors contributions

Authors should use this section to outline their individual contributions to the article with the corresponding roles:

The following format should be used:

J. Arnaud: Conceptualization, Methodology, T. Gaston: Writing original draft. R. Raymond: Visualization, Investigation. M. Leroy: Supervision. B. Arnaud: Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

Acknowledgements

Authors must acknowledge individuals who do not qualify as authors but who contributed to the research. Authors must acknowledge any assistance that they have received (e.g. provision of writing assistance, literature searching, data analysis, administrative support, supply of materials). If/how this assistance was funded should be described and included with other funding information. “Acknowledgements” should be brief and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors.

Please ensure that all individuals have given written permission to be acknowledged.

Informed consent

This field should not be left empty

Human subjects: Experimentation involving human subjects will only be published if such research has been conducted in full accordance with ethical principles, including the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2002 version available at www.wma.net) and the additional requirements, if any, of the country where the research has been carried out. Manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject and according to the above mentioned principles.

When informed consent has been obtained, it must be stated in the published article :

Written informed consent was obtained from all patients and/or families.

Sample sentence if not applicable : This article does not contain any studies involving human subjects.

Photographs of people: JOMOS follows current HIPAA guidelines for the protection of patient/subject privacy. If an individual pictured in a digital image or photograph can be identified, his or her permission is required to publish the image. The corresponding author must submit a letter signed by the patient authorizing JOMOS to publish the image/photo. The approval must be received by the Editorial Office prior to final acceptance of the manuscript for publication. Otherwise, the image/photo must be altered such that the individual cannot be identified (black bars over eyes, tattoos, scars, etc.). JOMOS will not publish patient photographs that will in any way allow the patient to be identified, unless the patient has given their express consent. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there are doubts as to whether appropriate procedures have been used.

Animal study: When experimental animals are used the methods section must clearly indicate that adequate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort. Experiments should be carried out in accordance with local laws and regulations.

Clinical trials

Clinical Trials should be reported using the CONSORT guidelines (available at www.consort-statement.org). A CONSORT checklist and flowchart should also be included in the submission material. Clinical trials can be registered in any free, public clinical trials registry such as https://www.clinicaltrials.gov or http://isrctn.org/. All manuscripts reporting results from a clinical trial must indicate that the trial was fully registered at a readily accessible website. The clinical trial registration number and name of the trial register will be published with the paper.

Ethical approval

This field should not be left empty.

A statement regarding the fact that the study has been independently reviewed and approved by an ethical board should also be included.

If your study requires ethical approval, include the ethical protocols followed and the name of the committee which approved the study for example : This study received ethical approval from the Ethics committee of X hospital under the protocol number XXXX.

If your study does not require ethical approval, please state that : Ethical approval was not required.

Conflict of interest

This field should not be left empty.

Information on any potential conflict of interest should be disclosed at submission.

Authors are required to disclose any possible conflict of interest. These include financial (for example patent, ownership, stock ownership, consultancies, speaker’s fee).

At the time of submission, the manuscript must be accompanied by a duly completed “declaration of conflict of interest” form available at: http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/ .

Editors are not involved in any part of the peer review or decision-making process for papers which they have authored or co-authored. All such submissions are handled according to usual journal practices, with the peer review process proceeding independently of the relevant Editor and their research group. This also applies to papers written by family members or colleagues of the Editors, or which relate to services or products which the Editor is associated with.

When there is no conflict of interest in connection with the drafted article, the following statement must appear at the end of the manuscript: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Source of funding

This field should not be left empty.

Information on sources of funding should be disclosed at submission.

All sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential grant holders should be listed.

For compliance purpose, funding sources should be listed as following:

Funding: This work was supported by the A Foundation [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the B Agency [grant number zzzz];

If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence : This research did not receive any specific funding.

Appeal of decision

The decision on a paper is final and cannot be appealed.

Permissions

If all or parts of previously published illustrations are used, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder concerned. It is the author's responsibility to obtain these in writing and provide copies to the publishers.

Copyright

If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email from the production department, prompting them to login into their account in Saga (production sytem). He MUST complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper as it is a requirement for publication.

Manuscript submission procedure

JOMOS only accepts online submission of original manuscripts. Manuscripts should be submitted at the online submission site: https://www.editorialmanager.com/mbcb. Complete instructions for submitting a manuscript are available at the site upon creating an account.

Upon successful submission, the journal Editors will check that all parts of the submission have been completed correctly. If any necessary part is missing or if the manuscript does not fulfil the requirements as specified below, the corresponding author will be asked either to adjust the submission according to specified instructions or to submit their paper to another journal.

Submitting your manuscript

After you have logged into 'Editorial Manager', submit your manuscript by clicking the submission link ‘Submit New Manuscript’.

You are first required to upload your files: Click on the 'Browse' button and locate the files on your computer. Select the designation of each file in the drop down next to the Browse button. When you have selected all files you wish to upload, click the 'Upload Files' button.
Enter data and answer questions as appropriate. You may copy and paste directly from your manuscript and you may upload your pre-prepared cover letter.
Click the 'Proceed' button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen.
You are required to register all of your co-authors with a functioning e-mail address.
Review your submission (in PDF format) before completing your submission by sending it to the journal. Click the 'Submit' button when you are finished reviewing.

Data protection: By submitting a manuscript to JOMOS or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (EDP Sciences) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed.

Manuscript files accepted

Manuscripts should be uploaded as Word (.doc/.docx) plus separate figure files. GIF, PNG or JPEG files are acceptable for submission. The files will be automatically converted to PDF on upload and will be used for the review process. The text file must contain the entire manuscript including abstract, text, references, acknowledgements, tables, and figure legends, but no embedded figures. A title page containing the authors’names and their affiliation should be uploaded separately. In the text file, please reference figures as for instance 'Figure 1', 'Figure 2' etc. to match the tag name you choose for individual figure files uploaded. Manuscripts should be formatted as described in the author guidelines below.

Blinded review

All manuscripts submitted to JOMOS will be reviewed by two experts in the field. JOMOS uses double blinded review. The names of the reviewers will thus not be disclosed to the author submitting a paper and vice-versa.

Suggest a reviewer

JOMOS attempts to keep the review process as short as possible to enable rapid publication of new scientific data. In order to facilitate this process, you must suggest the names and current e-mail addresses of two potential reviewers whom you consider capable of reviewing your manuscript in an unbiased way.

Suspension of submission mid-way in the submission process

You may suspend a submission at any phase before clicking the 'Submit' button and save it to submit later. The manuscript can then be located under ‘Incomplete Submissions’ and you can click on 'Edit Submission' to continue your submission when you choose to.

E-mail confirmation of submission

After submission you will receive an e-mail to confirm receipt of your manuscript. If you do not receive the confirmation e-mail after 24 hours, please check your e-mail address carefully in the system.

Manuscript status

The average time from submission to first decision for manuscripts submitted to JOMOS is 45 days. You can access to Editorial Manager any time to check the status of your manuscript. The journal will inform you by e-mail once a decision has been made.

Submission of revised manuscript

To upload a revised manuscript, locate your manuscript under ‘Submission needing Revision’ and click on 'Submit a revision'. Please remember to delete any old files uploaded when you upload your revised manuscript.

Manuscript types accepted

Original research articles:

Manuscripts reporting laboratory investigations, well-designed and controlled clinical research, and analytical epidemiology are invited. Studies related to aetiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention and treatment are all of interest, but all papers must be based on rigorous hypothesis-driven research. Areas of interest include oral medicine and oral surgery.

Randomised trials must adhere to the CONSORT guidelines (available at www.consort-statement.org), and a CONSORT checklist and flowchart must be submitted with such papers. Please also refer to section Clinical trials (page 2).

JOMOS supports the all trials initiative and encourages authors submitting manuscripts reporting a clinical trial to register the trials in any of the following free, public clinical trials registries: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov or http://isrctn.org/. The clinical trial registration number and name of the trial register will then be published with the paper.

Observational studies must adhere to the STROBE guidelines (available at www.strobe-statement.org), and a STROBE checklist must be submitted with such papers. Diagnostic accuracy studies must adhere to the STARD guidelines (available at www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/), and a STARD checklist must be submitted with such papers.

The original research article should be structured according to the IMRAD map: Introduction, Material (or Patients) and Methods, Results and Discussion. Conclusion and references come to close the manuscript. It must comply with the following characteristics: 1,500 to 5,000 words; 30 references to the maximum; 12 figures at most; 5 tables maximum; One structured abstract limited to 250 words (Objectives, Material or Patients and methods, Results, Conclusions); 3 keywords. The sections “Material (or Patients) and Methods”; and “Results” must be written in the past tense or past simple as everything related to the experience of other authors in the introduction or in the discussion. The use of this tense is limited to general data and well established in the introduction, discussion and conclusion. The use of the future is limited to the expression of perspectives in the discussion or conclusion.

The Introduction describes the current state of knowledge, justification and labor interest and purpose. It contains the question posed by the work.
The Material (or Patients) and Methods expose precisely the study protocol, the primary and secondary objectives when appropriate, criteria for judgment and employed statistical analysis. Explicit figures are highly desirable. For the statistical analysis, the values must be expressed as the mean with standard deviation (SD) or the average error (SEM: standard error of the mean) or odds ratio (OR) with confidence interval. The nature of the statistical test must be specified and the significance level of p value.
The Results section presents objectively without comment stated results. Tables, figures and graphics are highly recommended. It is unnecessary to repeat in the text the numerical values provided in the tables and graphs.
The Discussion section comments results and compares them with the literature. It always begins with the answer to the question posed in the introduction. Interpretation of results should not only be based on statistical differences and correlations, it must also assess the medical significance of these differences and correlations. The discussion also aims to criticize the study, to give the biases and limitations objectively. The length of the discussion should not exceed half of the article (abstracts and references excluded).
The Conclusion highlights the main facts provided by the work and issues. It concludes with prospects.

Systematic reviews:

JOMOS commissions review papers and also welcomes uninvited reviews. Systematic reviews with or without meta-analyses must adhere to the PRISMA guidelines (available at www.prisma-statement.org), and a PRISMA checklist and flowchart must be submitted with such papers.

Review papers highlight key facts provided by the work and issues on a theme within the field of oral medicine and oral surgery. It must be systematic and elaborated with a literature research strategy which is explained in the section Materials and Methods. It must respect the following plan: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion. It concludes with prospects. This type of publication is limited to recent acquisitions. This type of article can be either asked by the Editor in Chief, either spontaneously proposed by one or more authors to the editor. This type of article follows the submission process and conventional acceptance. It must comply with the following characteristics: 3000 to 8000 words; 50 references to the maximum; 5 maximum figures; 4 tables at most; One structured abstract limited to 500 words (Introduction, Materials (or Patients) and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion). ; 3 key words.

Educational articles:

JOMOS encourages the submission of educational articles. This type of article includes 3 distinct parts: Introduction, Corpus, and Conclusion. It must be conceived as a publication of training for students, residents or practitioners. Topics covered in this article should be focused on the diagnosis and therapy in oral medicine and oral surgery, especially decision-making strategies, how to behave in a particular situation, the recommendations and the results of consensus conferences, evaluation reports. It must comply with the following characteristics: 2000 to 5000 words, 50 references maximum. One structured abstract limited to 500 words (Introduction, Corpus, and Conclusion); 3 keywords.

The introduction should include learning objectives clearly identified.
The corpus of the article must be based on clearly defined part depending on the subject.
The tables, diagrams, figures and graphics are welcome to illustrate it.

A conclusion recalling the messages to remember closes this type of article.

Case Reports:

This type of article often add little to the scientific and educational knowledge base. However, JOMOS considers excellent case reports if they meet certains criteria : (1) rare or unsual lesions/conditions that need documentation, (2) well-documented cases showing unusual or atypical clinical or microscopic features or behavior, (3) cases showing good long-term follow-up information.

Case reports must adhere to the CARE guidelines, and a CARE checklist must be submitted with such papers. It should be structured under the following headings : Introduction, Observation and Discussion. Conclusion and references come close the manuscript. The observation section must be written in the past tense or past simple as everything related to the experience of other authors in the introduction or in the commentary. The use of this tense is limited to general data and well established in the introduction, commentary and conclusion. The use of the future is limited to the expression of prospects in the commentary or the conclusion. It must comply with the following characteristics: 500 to 1500 words; 20 references to the maximum; 6 photographs maximum; 4 tables at most; One structured abstract limited to 200 words (Introduction: What is unique about this case and what does it add to the scientific literature ; Observation (s): Patients main concerns, important clinical findings, primary diagnoses, interventions and outcomes ; and Conclusion: What are one or more “take-away” lessons from this case report?); 2 to 5 key words in English.

The introduction briefly summarizes why this case is unique and may include medical literature references.
The observation is limited to patient informations, clinical findings, timeline, diagnostic assessment, therapeutic intervention, follow-up and outcomes.
The discussion must be based on strengths and limitations in your approach to this case, disucussion of the relevant literature and the rationale for your conclusions.

The conclusion should be the primary “take-away” lessons from this case report in one paragraph.

Images for diagnosis:

This type of article captures and illuminates the sense of discovery and variety that practitioners experience every day in clinical practice. This type of article is not intended for case report. Up to two authors may be credited. JOMOS reserves rights to edit or abridge submitted images. The submission should only include a title comprising up to 8 words in total, 1 to 3 images, and a descriptive text up to 150 words in length that succinctly describes:

Relevant clinical information, including important features of the patient’s history, where they presented, relevant physical and laboratory findings, clinical courses, response to treatment (if any), and condition at last follow-up.
A teaching point that makes clear the clinical importance of the submission.

This type of article should not comprise abstract, key words and references.

Technical notes:

This type of article is suited to describe significant improvements in clinical practice such as the report of a novel surgical technique or a breakthrough in technology or pratical approaches to recognized clinical challenges. They should conform to the highest scientific and clinical practice standards in the field of oral medicine and oral surgery. It should be organized with Introduction, Innovation report, Discussion and Conclusion. Innovation report must be written in the past tense or past simple as everything related to the experience of authors. It must respect the following, from 1000 to 3000 words maximum. A total of no more than 12 figures and tables and 15 references maximum. No abstract is required.

Letters to the Editors:

Letter to the editor regards topical texts in the field of Oral Medicine and Oral Surgery or personal experience on a recently published article. It is subject to approval by Editors in Chief. The views expressed are personal and those of the authors. It must comply with the following characteristics: 250 to 500 words. 5 references and 1 illustration maximum. No abstract is required.

Editorials

An editorial follows a free plan. It is the product of a single author. It was asked by the Editor in Chief on a specific and usually current topic and subject to its approval. The views expressed are personal and commit only the author. It must meet the following specifications, 500 to 1500 words, 2 or 3 figures, charts, tables and graphs can illustrate the future. 3 or 4 references maximum may be included. No abstract is required. These may be submitted by invitation of the Editors in Chief only.

Manuscript format and structure

Format

Language: Authors should write their manuscripts in British or American English using an easily readable style. Authors whose native language is not English should have a native English speaker read and correct their manuscript. Spelling and phraseology should conform to standard British or American usage and should be consistent throughout the paper.

Presentation: Authors should pay special attention to the presentation of their findings so that they may be communicated clearly. The background and hypotheses underlying the study as well as its main conclusions should be clearly explained. Titles and abstracts especially should be written in language that will be readily intelligible to any scientist. The text is typed in Time New Roman font 12 double-spaced on A4 paper with high margins and low side of 2.5 cm. The page numbering begins with the title page.

Technical jargon: should be avoided as much as possible and clearly explained where its use is unavoidable.

Abbreviations: JOMOS adheres to the conventions outlined in Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Medical and Scientific Editors and Authors. Non-standard abbreviations must be used when three or more times uses and written out completely in the text when first used.

Structure:

All papers submitted to JOMOS should include 2 files: a Title Page file and a Manuscript (without author names) file. All papers should be structred as follows :

Title page
Structured Abstract (if required)
Main text
References
Tables
Figures
Figure Legends

Title Page: should be separated from the manuscript uploaded for review:

It includes:

The title without abbreviations, 120 characters and spaces maximum.
The full names of the authors in small letters with asterisks in case of different affiliations.
The authors' affiliations (organization (s), town (s), country) corresponding to asterisks.
The name and address of the corresponding author (and necessarily his (her) email address).

Abstract: should be structured and is limited in length according to the article type. It should contain no abbreviations. The abstract should be included in the manuscript document uploaded for review as well as separately where specified in the submission process. The abstract should convey the essential purpose and message of the paper in an shorten form.

Keywords: All keywords should be extracted from the MESH list available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/

The main text of articles should be organised as described in the section: Manuscript types accepted.

Acknowledgements: Should be used to provide information on sources of funding for the research, any potential conflict of interest and to acknowledge contributors to the study that do not qualify as authors. All sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential grant holders should be listed. Acknowledgements should be brief and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors.

Conflict of interest: A declaration of conflict of interest or lack of conflict of interest must be produced. It appears before the references. All authors must disclose all relationships that can be considered as a potential interest related to the manuscript. These links or absences of links will be registered during the online submission process in a dedicated section.

References

In the text, the references are called by a number in brackets [ ] in order of appearance before the end of the sentence punctuation.

All references cited in the references section should be included in the text and vice versa.

In case of multiple references, the numbers are separated by a comma or a hyphen if they are consecutive; [3,6] means references 3 and 6, [3-6] means references 3 to 6.

At the end of the article, they are classified in the "references" in order of appearance in the text (not alphabetically).

No reference may be used in the title, abstract, or the results section.

The number of references allowed is depending on the type of item (see dedicated section).

Only references easily accessible in Pubmed bases or ISI web of knowledge are allowed.

Each reference shall be in Vancouver standard. The reference of an article contains the name of each author followed by the (the) initial (s) of his (her) name (s) to a maximum of 6 authors (above, add "et al.") followed by the title of the article in its original language, the name of the journal abbreviated according to Index Medicus/PubMed, the year of publication, volume (without further mention) and finally meaningful numbers of the first and the last pages of the article separated by a hyphen (eg :111-9 and not 111-119). Doi reference is highly desirable.

For a text book or a book chapter, it is appropriate to also include the full title of the book, the chapter title, the publisher and the publishing city.

For an electronic reference, it is appropriate to well specify the date on which it was consulted.

Example for a journal article: Ramus F, Rosen S, Dakin SC, Day BL, Castellote JM, White S, et al. Theories of developmental dyslexia: Insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults. Brain 2003;126(4):841–65. doi: 10.1093/brain/awg076

Example for a text from a book: Neville BW, Damm DD, Allen CM, Bouquot I. Oral and maxillofacial pathology. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Saunders Elsevier, 2009. pp 99-100.

Example for a book chapter: Lesclous P, Abi Najm S, Samson J. Support in oral surgery patients before, during and after treatment with bisphosphonates. In Handbook of Oral Surgery. Perrin D, Ahossi V, Larras P, Lafon A, Gerard E. 1st ed. Coll. JPIO. Rueil Malmaison: CdP, 2012, pp 447-62.

Example for an electronic reference: Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors and publishers [internet]. 2nd ed. Wending D, technical editor. Bethesda (MD): National library of Medicine (US), 2007. http: //www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine (updated 2011; consulted 15 march 2013).

Tables, Figures and Figure legends

Tables: Tables are presented on separate sheets and numbered in the order of appearance in the text. All tables should be provided in word doc or docx format. In the text, they are referred to by numbers in parenthesis () according to their order of appearance. Example (Table 1).

The units must be listed in the column heading. Tables should not exceed an initial type A4 format with margins of 2 cm. Table of footnotes should be placed under the body of the table indicated by a small letter in superscript.

Figures: All figures and artwork should be provided in JPEG or TIFF format with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Figures are presented on separate sheets and numbered in the order of reference to the text. In the text, they are referred to by numbers in parenthesis () according to their order of appearance. Example (Fig. 1). Graphs or diagrams should not exceed an initial type A4 format with margins of 2 cm. Color figures are accepted in JOMOS.

Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected. The units must be listed on the axis for the graphs.

Figures divided into parts should be labelled with a lower-case, boldface, roman letter, a, b, and so on, in the same type size as used elsewhere in the figure. Lettering in figures should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized. Units should have a single space between the number and unit, and follow international nomenclature common to a particular field. Unusual units and abbreviations should be spelled out in full or defined in the legend. Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined in the legend rather than on the bar itself. In general visual cues (on the figures themselves) are preferred to verbal explanations in the legend (e.g. broken line, open red triangles etc.).

Figure legends: Figure legends are presented on separate sheets and numbered in the order of reference to the text. Each should have a title (50 characters) and a legend (50 words maximum). The legend must specify the abbreviations used, the technique used, the magnification levels of statistical significance.

After acceptance

Upon acceptance of a paper for publication, the manuscript will be forwarded to the Production Editor who is responsible for the production of the journal.

Proof Corrections

The corresponding author will receive an e-mail alert containing a link to a website. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a pdf (portable document format) file from this site.

Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following website: https://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen, and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. In your absence, please arrange for a colleague to access your e-mail to retrieve the proofs.

Proofs must be returned to the Production Editor within 6 days of receipt.

As changes to proofs are costly, we ask that you only correct typesetting errors. Other than in exceptional circumstances, all illustrations are retained by the publisher. Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the copy editor.

Articles are available online as soon as the production process is complete.

Corrections and withdrawal after publication

If an author discovers a material error or inaccuracy after the article has been published, he / she agrees to promptly inform the editor-in-chief of the journal or the publisher and to cooperate with the publisher to either retract or correct the paper (by an erratum).

If the editor or publisher learns from a third party that a published article contains a material error, he or she must inform the author who must either retract promptly, correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor for the correctness of the original article.