Instructions for Authors

(August 1st, 2023)

I. Aim and Scope

Toho Journal of Medicine (“the Journal”) is an official, English-language, peer-reviewed journal, issued quarterly by the Medical Society of Toho University. The Journal publishes a variety of papers in the form of review articles, original research articles, short communications, case reports, data, or reports. It is the policy of the Journal to provide health professionals with texts and knowledge that are considered essential in the field of basic and clinical research in medical science.

II. Manuscript Preparation

1. Manuscript Types

Article Types Abstract
(Word Limit)		 Headings
(Word Limit*)		 Figures/Tables** References***
Review articles Unstructured
(250)		 -
(6,000)		 ≤8 ≤100
Original research articles Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions
(250)		 Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion
(6,000)		 ≤8 ≤50
Short communications Unstructured
(150)		 -
(1,500)		 ≤2 ≤15
Case reports Unstructured
(150)		 Introduction, Case report, Discussion
(3,000)		 ≤8 ≤15
Data Unstructured
(150)		 -
(3,000)		 ≤8 ≤15
Report Unstructured
(150)		 -
(3,000)		 ≤8 ≤15

*Word Limit: applicable only to the main text (abstract, bibliography, reference list and words used in tables and figures are not included in the word count).
**Figures/Tables: the total number of figures and tables allowed for the specific manuscript type.
***References: the total number of citations allowed for the specific manuscript type.

2. General Instructions

All articles should be typed in a normal-width English font, double-spaced throughout, and have margins of sufficient width. There should be only a single space between words, after semicolons, periods and colons.

This guideline is based in part on “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” as published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For any information that is not mentioned in these guidelines, authors should refer to the ICMJE Recommendations.

English Editing Support

Articles submitted by non-native English speakers will not be considered for publication unless they have undergone final editing and correction by an editor specialized in medical English of sufficient quality.

The Journal recommends authors using one of the following English editing services:

Wiley Editing Services:http://wileyeditingservices.com/en/
PALABRA:https://www.palabra.co.jp
Editage:https://www.editage.jp/services/english-editing/standard-editing-plan
HONYAKU CENTER:https://www.honyakucenter.jp/
San Francisco Edit:https://www.sfedit.net
Enago:https://www.enago.jp/

Authors whose first language is not English should indicate the name of English editing or writing support services in the Acknowledgement and must submit a Certificate of Editing signed by the editor at the time of submission.

If the quality of the English in the manuscript is deemed inadequate, the manuscript will be returned to the author(s) for correction and resubmission.

3. Manuscript Formatting

The items described in sections below should each be prepared on separate pages for submission:

3-1.Title page The following information should be included on the first page.

3-2.Abstract
A structured or unstructured abstract should summarize the content and conclusions of the paper. For original research articles, structured abstracts with no more than 250 words should be organized under the headings Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The abstract should clearly state, in the following order, the study background, the methods used, a clear statement of the main findings, and conclusions reasonably based on the results. The structured abstract is not mandatory for other types of papers except original research articles. Abbreviations in the abstract must be defined on first use. Keywords (5 or fewer) should appear below the Abstract. Reports of clinical trials must include the registration number and name of the registration database in the abstract. See further information on clinical trials below.

3-3.Main Text
The main text of the manuscript for original research articles should be separated into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each heading should be clearly noted at the beginning of the respective section.

Structure of the section headings (Original research articles only):

Structure of the section headings (For case reports):

3-4.Abbreviations
Define abbreviations at their first appearance in the abstract, in the main body of text, and also in tables and figure legends. Do not include abbreviations in the article title. Common statistical abbreviations, e.g., p, SD and SE, require no accompanying explanation.

3-5.Disclosures
Authors must include the following disclosure statements in relation to the submitted manuscript. The following information should be added at the end of the main text before the Reference section:

3-6.References
The authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.

3-7.Tables and Figures
Tables, figures, and photographs should be submitted on individual pages, in the order they are to appear in the text, and numbered accordingly. Abbreviations in tables should be defined in the legend below the relevant table (e.g., “TAI: transcatheter arterial infusion”), except when the abbreviation is in common use (e.g., MRI, CT). Common statistical abbreviations, e.g., SD and SE, also require no accompanying explanation. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used and *, **, *** should be reserved for p-values. If the submitted manuscript includes color figure or table files, please clearly indicate if they should be printed in color or black-and-white.
If any copyrighted or previously published materials, edited or otherwise, are used in the manuscript, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) prior to submitting the manuscript. Also, the authors must cite the source and indicate the permission to use such materials in the corresponding Figure or Table caption, as required by the copyright owner(s). The authors must upload the pdf version of the written permission from the copyright holder to the online manuscript submission system with the manuscript files.

Tables: Each table should have a short title above it and a legend below, when necessary. Tables should contain no vertical or diagonal lines. Horizontal lines should be used to clearly that indicate the top and bottom of the table. Units such as percentages (%) should be indicated in parentheses in the table headings, when possible.
Figures and photographs: Each figure and photograph should be submitted on a separate page, and all figure legends, in English, should be included together on a separate page in the manuscript. The resolution of all images should be at least 300 dpi, and data files should be submitted as TIFF, JPG or EPS files. Figures submitted as PowerPoint files are not acceptable. Tissue cell photographs should clearly specify the stain and magnification used.

See the samples for manuscript formatting

III. Clinical Trials

In accordance with ICMJE’s policy on trial registration, all clinical trials must be registered with a public trials registry before the time of first patient enrollment. ICMJE defines clinical trials as any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions include but are not limited to those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-care changes.

The Journal requires all clinical trials to be registered with databases that are accessible to the public at no charge, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a not-for-profit organization, have a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data, and are electronically searchable.

Submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the title page as evidence of registration. The name of the registration database must also be provided. For details regarding the required minimal registration data set, please go to the ICMJE website.

The Journal accepts registration from the following list of registries as well as others listed at ICMJE website:

In reporting randomized clinical trials, authors must comply with published CONSORT guidelines (http://www.consort-statement.org/). The recommended checklist must be completed and provided to the Journal at the time of manuscript submission. The recommended trial flow diagram should be presented as “Supplementary File”.

Reporting Guidelines

Various reporting guidelines have been developed for different study designs. Authors are encouraged to follow published standard reporting guidelines for the study discipline.

Please access http://www.equator-network.org/ to find the guideline that is appropriate for your study.

It is extremely important that when you complete any Reporting Guideline checklist, you consider amending your manuscript to ensure your article addresses all relevant reporting criteria issues delineated in the relevant reporting checklist prior to submission. The purpose of a reporting guideline is to guide you in improving the reporting standard of your manuscript. The objective is not to solely complete the reporting checklist, but to use the checklist itself in the writing of your manuscript. Taking the time to ensure your manuscript meets these basic reporting needs will greatly improve your manuscript, while also potentially enhancing its chances for eventual publication.

Data Sharing

The Journal encourages the authors of manuscript which includes clinical trials to share their de-identified research data including, but not limited to raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, materials, study protocol, statistical analysis plan, informed consent form, clinical study report, analytic code.

As required by ICMJE, all manuscripts that report the results of clinical trial must include a data sharing statement with a link to the trial registration. The statement should include the following information:

The statement is published alongside their paper.

IV. Manuscript Submission

Submit manuscript electronically via ScholarOne system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tohojmed) in the following order: Title page, Main Text, Tables, and Figures (≧ 300 dpi). The total size of the uploaded files should be within 100 MB. Authors are required to upload COI Declaration Form ( Form 1) and Contract ( Form 2). The manuscripts that do not adhere to the instructions will be returned to the corresponding author without review.

V. Peer Review Process

1. General Process

Peer review is an important process of evaluation for any manuscript submitted to the Journal. All submitted manuscripts will be initially reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal to evaluate eligibility for publication. Then, the editors will assess the importance and originality of the research, suitability and interest to the readership of the Journal, and the quality of the manuscript. Any manuscripts that satisfy our screening criteria will generally be sent to two experts in the field of study for peer review, and to the statistical reviewer if necessary. If the two reviewers disagree as to whether the submission merits publication, a third reviewer will be appointed by the Journal’s editorial committee to arbitrate. The names of reviewers will not be revealed.

The editors of the Journal make all decisions on the manuscript publication, which include acceptance, major or minor revisions, and rejection. The decision letters along with the comments by the editors and reviewers will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail.

In accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics’ Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, reviewers are not allowed to contact the authors directly before, during, or after the reviewing process to discuss any information that is presented in the manuscript. Reviewers must keep the manuscripts and information obtained strictly confidential and must not publicly discuss or disclose the contents and any other information of the manuscript to the third party. The guidelines for reviewers are available here.

2. Revised Manuscripts

Manuscripts that receive a minor or major revision, authors should submit the revised manuscript within two (2) months from the date that the decision letter has been sent. When submitting a revised manuscript authors must include a detailed point-by-point response to the comments by the editors and the reviewers. In the revised manuscript file, authors are required to highlight, or underline in red, all parts that are revised. All authors must approve every revision, correction and amendment prior to re-submission of the revised manuscript.

3. Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or our journal staff will follow the same process as outlined above. However, they are excluded from any editorial decision process of their own manuscript and have neither access to that manuscript nor any information about the review process other than what is provided in the editor’s decision letter. The editorial office will assign the paper to an editor who is not an author on the paper nor has any conflict of interest with the authors. The manuscript submitted by the Journal’s editors, editorial board, and staff should include a statement which declares their personal conflict of interest.

VI. Proofreading and Publication

After the acceptance of a manuscript for publication the copy-edited version of the manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author, which authors are required to correct the manuscript according to the copy-editor’s instruction and returned to the Editorial Office at their earliest convenience. Once the copy-editing is completed, the Editorial Office will send the proof to the corresponding author for corrections of minor errors such as spelling errors and omitted characters or letters. Authors must be aware that any other corrections and revisions at this stage are not permitted unless requested by the Editorial Committee of the Journal. Upon completion of the proofing authors are expected to return the revised proof to the Editorial Office at their earliest convenience for timely publication.

After publication, further changes, or corrections, can only be made in the form of an Erratum which will be hyperlinked to the original article.

VII. Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics

The Journal supports and adheres to the guidelines and best practices including Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) by the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (a joint statement by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the World Association for Medical Editors (WAME) and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA); (http://doaj.org/bestpractice).

Authorship

All authors listed in the manuscript must meet the following criteria of contribution described by ICMJE in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.

The corresponding author must ensure that a manuscript is read and approved by all authors prior to submission.

Contributors who do not meet the criteria above should not be listed as authors. Guest or honorary authorship is not permitted.

Those who do not qualify for an authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading with “Acknowledgements”. Examples of activities that do not qualify for authorship are acquisition of funding, general supervision of a research group, or general administrative support and writing assistance, language editing, and proofreading.

Authors should discuss, determine and (if they exist) settle any disagreements about the order of authorship before submitting their manuscript. Any changes such as order, addition, and deletion of authors, between the initial manuscript submission and the final decision, should be discussed and approved by all authors. Any request for such changes must be agreed by all authors.

Adding, deleting, or changing the author names and their order is not permitted after the acceptance of the manuscript for publication.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Tools/Technologies

In consonance with the COPE’s position statement, WAME’s recommendations, and ICMJE’s Recommendation, the Journal does not allow artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools/technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots (such as GhatGPT), or image creators to be listed as author or co-author. As described in the ICMJE, those tools cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, thus they do not meet the ICMJE’s criteria for authorship listed above. The authors (humans) are fully responsible for any materials of the submitted work, including the use of AI-assisted tools or technologies. AI should not be cited as an author. Authors (humans) are also responsible for plagiarism including in text and AI-produced images. Authors must disclose, upon submission and in the Methods (or similar section), any use of AI-assisted tools or technologies in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data.

Exclusive Submission

Articles that have been previously published or are being considered for publication in another journal in any language will not be considered for publication.

Conflict of Interest and Source of Funding

Authors must explicitly state whether potential conflicts of interest (COI) exist or not. Any possible COI related to the study presented in the manuscript must be disclosed on the title page under the heading “Conflicts of Interest” using the following examples for each author:
“A (author name) received honoraria from Z (entity name); B holds an advisory role in Y; C is an employee of Company X.”
If a manuscript is accepted for publication, the disclosures will be published as they appear in this section. When there are no COIs, the authors should state “The authors declare that there are no relevant conflict of interest” in the main text of the manuscript. The COI Statement (Form 1) form must be signed by all the authors and uploaded with your manuscript.

If authors received financial support for research or writing of the manuscript, or sponsorship or assistance in the form of monetary contributions, equipment, pharmaceuticals, cell lines, or other types of contribution, such assistance should be clearly described in the Acknowledgments section, together with the name of the organization from which the contribution was received. You must ensure that the full, correct, details of your funder(s) and any relevant grant numbers are included.

Reviewers should disclose to the editor who invited them to review the manuscript their own conflicts of interest as soon as they realize they may not be able to provide an impartial review. We recommend they follow the information provided by COPE here.

An editor who realizes a conflict of interest with a manuscript or person involved in the peer review process must recuse himself/herself from further handling of that manuscript/relationship and ask the editorial office to reassign the paper to another editor or ask another editor to arbitrate the relationship in question.

Research Ethics

  1. All research using human subjects should involve the following statement in the manuscript:
    1. ）Approval from the ethics committee/institutional review board (IRB):
        2. "The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXXXX (approval number: YYYYY) (e.g. Faculty of medicine, Toho University (No. YYYYY)).
    2. ）Agreements from the participants:
      • "Written informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study."
      • "The potential participants were given the opportunity to decline to be further enrolled in the study (opt-out)."
      • If the authors performed a clinical research that does not require the approval from the ethics committee/ IRB, it should clearly be stated in the manuscript.
      • If the research protocol was approved by the ethics committee/ IRB outside of the Toho University and Toho University Hospitals, a copy of approval by the ethics committee/ IRB and the approved research protocol should also be submitted along with the manuscript file. Please note that the editor/reviewer may request the details about the research protocol.
  2. Any data or information such as patient names, initials, hospital patient identification codes (patient IDs), specific dates, or any other information that may identify patients must not be presented anywhere in the manuscript, including the Figures and Tables. All pictures should focus on the affected areas only.
  3. Articles reporting on data from animal testing must indicate in the manuscript the approval of the testing design by the affiliated institution’s Animal Care and Use Committee with mentioning the name of the institution
  4. Authors of articles reporting on new DNA sequences must furnish those data to the Gene Bank and include the accession number in the article.

Misconducts and Breach of Publication Ethics

The Journal follows the recommended procedures outlined by COPE International Standards for responsible research publication for authors and editors when dealing with allegations of misconduct. Please see here for the information.

VIII. Fees

Submission fees

All submissions to the Journal by the non-members of the Medical Society of Toho University must be accompanied by a submission fee of 10,000 Japanese yen. No submission fee is required, if the corresponding author of the submission is a member of the Medical Society of Toho University.

Publication fees

Authors are charged post-acceptance publication fees which include, but not limited to, page/color-independent fees and copy-editing fees at the time of publication of your paper. Offprints can be ordered upon production of your manuscript. For more information about the fees, please see here.

IX. Publication Date

The Journal is published quarterly (March, June, October, December), and the editorial committee will be solely responsible for all decisions regarding submission selection or rejection, order of appearance, and presentation style in any given issue, and other editorial decisions, as applicable. The guiding principles governing publication order include (but are not limited to) submission type and submission date.

X. Copyright

Forms:

Form 1: COI Declaration for Manuscripts Submitted to the Toho Journal of Medicine
Form 2: Contract
Form 3: Copyright Permission Request Form

Inquiries/submissions
Toho Journal of Medicine Editorial Office
3-46-10, Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo, 114-0024, Japan
e-mail: tohojmed@kyorin.co.jp