The Chiba Medical Journal is issued as an academic open access journal by the Chiba Medical Society based at Chiba University. The Journal publishes outcomes of basic and clinical studies in the medical life sciences.
We publish articles in the following categories.
(1) Original article
Original articles are for full-length manuscripts describing original studies that are classified as primary literature. This article format is suitable for various types of basic and clinical studies including clinical trials and meta-analyses. There is no limit on article length and the number of tables and figures, although appropriately concise presentation is required.
(2) Original short communication
Original short communications report original studies having a more focused scope than original articles. Suitable examples of short communications include manuscripts describing a single unexpected finding revealed by various basic and clinical studies, and first-time reports for studies on small case series for which novel diagnostic or therapeutic observations are made. No more than 3 figures and/or tables are allowed for short communications.
(3) Case report
Case reports describe a single clinical case or a series of up to 5 similar cases. Case reports provide valuable clinical lessons but do not have a research component.
(4) Review article
Review articles present focused and critical analyses of published works in a given field and provide a perspective for future research on unsolved problems. Systematic reviews without meta-analyses may be published as review articles, whereas those that include meta-analyses will be considered as original articles. Review articles are typically invited, although the editor welcomes suggestions for review article topics.
(5) Other article types
Other types of articles such as tutorials, opinions, and essays are usually commissioned by the editor, although suggestions for these articles are welcomed.
The Chiba Medical Journal is committed to maintaining high standards of publication and research ethics. The Journal supports and adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations) ( http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/ ). Submission of a manuscript to the Journal implies that all authors have agreed to these recommendations.
The Journal also endorses 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) (e.g., https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/ ).
(1) Authorship
The first author and the corresponding author of submissions to the Chiba Medical Journal must be members of the Chiba Medical Society. The manuscript should be approved by all co-authors. Authorship requires substantial contributions, which should be listed for each author in the “Contributors” section of the paper.
(2) Scientific integrity
Scientific articles should be free of misconduct including data fabrication, data falsification, plagiarism, and other types of misconduct as listed in the COPE Retraction Guidelines ( https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines ). Submitted manuscripts may be checked using plagiarism detection software. Manuscripts that have been previously published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere will not be accepted. Scientific misconduct is handled in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines and Flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20English%20flowcharts_9Nov2016.pdf ), and ICMJE Recommendations, which allow the editor to retain the right to express editorial concern or retract an article.
(3) Financial support
All relevant funding and grant-awarding bodies should be declared and described in the “Financial support” section.
(4) Conflict of interest
A. Authors
In addition to financial support, all authors are required to disclose any competing interests including (but not limited to) employment, honoraria, stocks, patents, materials, and equipment, in the “Conflict of interest” section. The editor will take declared conflicts into consideration when evaluating reviews.
B. Reviewers and Editors
Candidates for reviewers and editors are also asked to declare their own conflicts of interest, and are requested to decline if necessary. Editors who submit their own study to the Journal are segregated from review and decision-making processes, and should include a statement of their personal conflict of interest with the Journal.
C. Advertising
The Chiba Medical Society will not accept any advertisement for products or services to be published or posted in the Chiba Medical Journal and its related webpages.
(5) Human research ethics
Human research including clinical research must be conducted according to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects ( https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/ ), and should be approved by an independent local, regional, or national review body such as the ethics committee or institutional review board. Statements concerning approval by these bodies should be included in the “Ethical approval” section.
(6) Informed consent
The ICMJE Recommendations state “Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent.” In human research, statements on informed consent of participants or their guardians/legally authorized representatives should be included in the manuscript to clarify one of the following consequences: obtained, exempted, not sought, or not obtained though sought. In the latter three cases, authors are required to specify why consent was not required and cite the relevant guidelines/legislation and/or approval of the ethics committee/institutional review board.
For obtained consent, authors are required to specify what the consent was for (e.g., participation in research, use of samples, or publication of patient information). The authors should state whether the obtained consent was written or verbal, and in the latter case why verbal consent was chosen and how consent was recorded.
Case reports, which are not classified as research papers, also require informed consent particularly about publication of patient information.
Statements on informed consent should be included in the “Ethical approval” section.
(7) Animal research ethics
Statements on animal welfare should confirm that the study was performed according to the national and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. The study should be approved by a review body such as the ethics committee, institutional review board, and/or institutional animal care and use committee. Statements on the approval should be included in the “Ethical approval” section.
(8) Data sharing
Data supporting the conclusions of the paper should be freely available to any person in order to verify the published work as well as to facilitate further study. In the “Data availability” section of the manuscript, methods for data access should be indicated. Datasets such as DNA, RNA and protein sequences, microarray data, deep sequencing data, human genomic data, and macromolecular structures must be deposited in appropriate public repositories.
Reports on clinical trials should reference the identification number of the trial registration that includes “Statement regarding the intended sharing of deidentified individual clinical trial participant-level data (IPD). Should indicate whether or not IPD will be shared, what IPD will be shared, when, by what mechanism, with whom and for what types of analyses.” [the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) Data Set] (Version 1.3.1, https://www.who.int/ictrp/network/trds/en/ )
Articles should be written in standard English of sufficient quality to be understood. English editing is recommended for authors for whom English is not their first language.
Manuscripts including figures and tables, except for supplemental materials, are recommended to be submitted as a single PDF file sent as an e-mail attachment or CD. For manuscript review and publication, we may request submission of original files for the text, figures and tables. The cover letter should be sent as a separate file. When electronic media is inconvenient, manuscripts may be submitted as paper copies.
Manuscripts should be formatted on A4 paper with 25 mm margins on all sides. The font should be 12-point Century or Times at a spacing of ~25 lines per page.
Abbreviations, when necessary, should be defined by spelling out the entire term and introducing the abbreviation enclosed in parentheses upon the first appearance of the term in each of the title, abstract, and main text.
Symbols for units of measurement should be concordant with the International System of Units (SI) and its concerns ( https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/ ). A concise summary is available ( https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si-brochure/SI-Brochure-9-concise-EN.pdf ), also as is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guide ( https://www.nist.gov/pml/special-publication-811 ). Examples of units are as follows. Time: second (s), minute (min), hour (h), and day (d). Volume: liter (L or l). Temperature: degree Celsius (°C). Blood pressure: millimeter of mercury (mmHg). These and other symbols of SI units may be used without definition.
Manuscripts must include the following items in the order listed below, and pages should be numbered. The figures and tables should be also numbered.
(1) Title page
Include the title, authors’ names, institutional affiliations, a short running title, and contact information (name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address).
(2) Abstract
Depending on the content, either a structured abstract of no more than 500 words or an unstructured single-paragraph abstract of no more than 250 words is required.
(3) Key words
A list of 5 key words or phrases should be provided.
(4) Main text
A. Original articles
Include Sections I-IV in the order listed below.
I. Introduction
Provide a brief review of background information, and indicate the purpose of the study.
II. Methods
Provide brief but sufficient information for qualified investigators to reproduce the study. (The “Methods” section can also appear after the “Discussion” section.)
III. Results
Describe the findings concisely with appropriate reference to figures and tables.
IV. Discussion
State the summary of the principal findings and their significance in relation to other published work.
B. Original short communications should NOT be divided into sections I-IV.
C. Case reports should include the following sections in this order:
I. Introduction, II. Case, and III. Discussion.
D. For other types of manuscripts, include headings if required.
(5) Contributors
Specify how each author (identified by initials) contributed to the article, as described above in “3. Editorial and ethical guidelines (1) Authorship”.
(6) Financial support
State all funding and grant-awarding bodies, with the full names of the bodies and reference numbers for funding.
(7) Conflict of interest
For each author, state any competing interest including (but not limited to) employment, honoraria, stocks, patents, materials, and equipment, as described above in “3. Editorial and ethical guidelines (4) Conflict of interest”. Editors who submit their own article to the Journal should state their personal conflict of interest with the Journal.
(8) Ethical approval
If applicable, state human research ethics, informed consent, and animal research ethics, as described above in “3. Editorial and ethical guidelines (5) Human research ethics, (6) Informed consent, and (7) Animal research ethics”, respectively. For research approval, the full name of the approving body and the approval reference number should be included.
(9) Data availability
State the availability of datasets generated in the reported study, as described above in “3. Editorial and ethical guidelines (8) Data sharing”. Provide the dataset list with the respective database records such as the repository name, accession number/identifier/DOI and/or URL. For clinical trials, also indicate the identification number of the trial registration that includes a statement regarding the intended sharing of deidentified individual clinical trial participant-level data (IPD).
(10) Acknowledgements
Refer to individuals or groups that provided support such as assistance, advice, supply of materials, or comments on the manuscript.
(11) References
A. Citations in the text should be numbered in the order that they appear, and should be formatted according to the following examples:
a. … was shown [1], … was suggested [2,3].
b. … has been noted [1-5,7,8,13-15].
c. A reference by 2 authors: Jacob and Monod [10] …
d. A reference by 3 authors or more: Sakura et al. [33] …
B. References should be formatted according to the following examples:
a. Journal article
1. Oi H, Matsuura D, Miyake M, Ueno M, Yamamoto T, Kubo M, Moss J, Noda M. (2002) Identification of factors that inhibit cholera toxin-induced fluid accumulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99, 3042-6.
2. Granada AE, Herzel H. (2009) How to achieve fast entrainment?: the timescale to synchronization. PLoS ONE 4, e7057.
b. Book chapter
3. Azzi J, Milford EL, Sayegh MH, Chandraker A. (2015) Transplantation in the treatment of renal failure. In Kasper D, Fauci AS, Hauser SL, et al., editors: Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 19th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 1825-31.
C. Website URLs should be cited within parentheses in the text only, and should NOT be included in the reference list. If the website is frequently updated, provide the date when the site was accessed.
(12) Figure legends
Figure legends should NOT be included on the same sheet as the figure, but instead should appear after the reference list.
(13) Figures
Figures should NOT be embedded in the text, but instead should be numbered serially and be presented on separate pages.
(14) Tables
Tables should NOT be embedded in the text, but instead should be numbered serially and be presented on separate pages.
(15) Supplemental information
Data and other materials, which are necessary to support the conclusions of a paper but which cannot be included in the main part of the paper due to space limitation or file format restrictions, can be published online as supplemental information. Supplemental information may include supporting data, primary data, large datasets, movies, 3-D images, and detailed methods. All data in the supplemental information should be cited in the main part of the paper. During the review process, supplemental information is judged by the same criteria as those for the main paper, and cannot be added after acceptance.
The cover letter should briefly describe the novelty and significance of the study. Authors are encouraged to suggest reviewer candidates in the cover letter, although the editor has the discretion to assign appropriate reviewers.
(1) For electronic submission, PDF files of the main paper, supplemental materials, and the cover letter can be sent as e-mail attachments to:
info@c-med.org
(2) For papers submitted on a CD or as a typescript, one CD or two copies of the typescript should be mailed to:
Journal Editorial Office
Chiba Medical Society
Chiba University School of Medicine
Inohana 1-8-1, Chiba 260-8670, Japan
Tel: +81-43-202-3755, Fax: +81-43-202-3757
The editor will assess whether or not a submitted manuscript is potentially suitable for publication. The editor’s decision will be mainly based on criteria described above in “3. Editorial and ethical guidelines”. When a submitted manuscript is found to be unsuitable for peer review, the editor will send a letter of decline to the author, usually by e-mail. Submitted manuscripts that are suitable for peer review typically will be assigned to two reviewers who are selected by the editor from members of the Chiba Medical Society and/or external experts.
To guarantee rigorous reviews, the Chiba Medical Journal applies a single-blind review process wherein reviewers’ identities are anonymous to the authors but authors’ identities are known to the reviewers. Although authors are encouraged to suggest reviewer candidates when submitting a manuscript, it is regarded as serious misconduct for authors to attempt to unmask assigned reviewers’ identities.
Based on the reviewers’ evaluation, the editor will make a decision as to whether the manuscript is to be accepted, revised or declined. The time to this first decision following review is usually 3-4 weeks after submission.
When revision is requested, the updated version of the manuscript should be submitted before the date specified in the decision letter. Detailed point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ comments and editorial requests are required in the cover letter accompanying the revised version.
The Chiba Medical Journal is issued bimonthly, and the time to publication is usually 3-4 months after acceptance.
Authors of submitted manuscripts must pay a publication fee in principle. The fee is listed on the Journal website.
Proofs of accepted papers will be sent to the corresponding author only once. Only correction of typographical errors is permitted.
Reprints are produced upon request. Actual costs of reprint production will be included in the publication fees.
In case of editorial erratum and author corrigendum, corrections will be published.
The Chiba Medical Journal is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), and promotes wide dissemination of published articles. Anyone is free to copy and redistribute articles published in the Journal, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided they cite the original authors and source properly.
