• Title page. Required for all submissions except for Correspondence-response to letters to the editor).
Upload one copy of the complete title page. The title of the paper must be less than 20 words. Include
a short (<50 characters including spaces) running title.
o Author names: Identify all authors by first name, middle name initial (if applicable), and last
name, followed by the author’s highest professional degrees (e.g., DO, DrPH, DVM, MD, MPH,
MS, PharmD, PhD, etc.). The journal will not publish baccalaureate degrees (e.g. BA or BS),
registrations or technical degrees (e.g. RN, RDMS), or acronyms indicating fellowship
membership (FRCP). Using numeric superscripted footnotes (e.g., author name
1
), indicate each
author’s institution, city and state (or city and province or city and country), and email address.
Indicate which author is the corresponding author. If an author’s affiliation has changed since
the work was completed, list the new and old affiliations. The journal does not limit the number
of authors; however, once a paper has passed the first stage of peer review, no additional
authors can be added unless a new author is required to meet requests from initial peer review.
If an author is added at the time of revision, this must be justified in a cover letter created at the
time of resubmission.
o Presentations: If the work described in the manuscript has been formally presented at a
scientific meeting or has won a presentation award, provide the name of the organization, date,
and location of the meeting.
o Financial support: Identify financial support of the investigation or manuscript development.
o Author contributions: On the title page, and the second page if necessary, list the contributions
of each author (using initials) with respect to study concept and design, acquisition of the data,
analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting of the manuscript, critical revision of the
manuscript for important intellectual content, statistical expertise, and acquisition of funding.
o Conflict of Interest Disclosure: At the bottom of the title page, and on the second page if
necessary, list any potential financial conflicts of interest within the past three years that could
be seen as having an influence on the research for each author. These include any payments or
tangible gifts (including equipment and/or grants) to the author or an author’s family, an
author’s business, or the author’s employing institution. Conflicts of interest also include
financial interest products or intellectual property which may be competitive with the subject
matter of the submitted paper. Authors need not make distinctions about degree of conflict;
instead, authors must disclose all financial relationships that could be considered relevant by
someone knowledgeable in the subject matter of the work. The corresponding author is
responsible for gathering up-to-date and accurate financial conflict of interest information from
each author at the time of submission and updating these statements, if necessary, at the time
of publication. Journal personnel will investigate reports of undeclared conflicts of interest as
possible misconduct in accordance with general guidelines and core practices provided by the
Committee on Publication Ethics with consideration of policy statements from the World
Association of Medical Editors (WAME). At the bottom of the title page, please list each author’s
initials, followed by a declaration of the potential conflict. Please name the following
information: 1) the funding source, 2) who received the funds (e.g., the author, a family
member, or the author’s employer), and 3) the reason for the funds (e.g., salary support, fees for
consulting, paid participation in a speaker’s bureau, paid participation in an advisory panel, grant
funding for research, grant funding for educational activities, contracts, patents, stock
ownership, or other). The following examples serve as guides to report conflicts of interest:
No conflict of interest
[Author Initials] reports no conflict of interest.
Consulting for commercial interests, including advisory board work
[Author Initials] has received funding personally from [Company Name] for consulting.
Grant money for commercial research