1 Research Article

2 Manuscript Title
3
4 First Name(s) Surnamea, First Name(s) Surnamea, First Name(s) Surnameb, First Name(s) Surnamec,
5 First Name(s) Surnamea

a
7 Department, Institute/University/Hospital, City, (State,) Country
b
8 Department, Institute/University/Hospital, City, (State,) Country
c
9 Department, Institute/University/Hospital, City, (State,) Country

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11

12 Short Title: to be used as running head

13

14 Corresponding Author:

15 Full name

16 Department

17 Institute/University/Hospital

18 Street Name & Number

19 City, State, Postal code, Country

20 Tel:

21 E-mail:

22

23 Number of Tables: Please indicate the number of tables submitted.

24 Number of Figures: Please indicate the number of figures submitted.

25 Word count: Please indicate the word count including Abstract and body text. This is not to include
26 the title page, reference list or figure legends.

27 Keywords: Please provide 3–5 keywords highlighting the most important points of your paper.

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28 Abstract

29 A short Abstract should summarize the main points and reflect the content of the article. It should be
30 written in a clear and concise way and be structured using the following subheadings: Introduction,
31 Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion. Abbreviations used in the main text may be introduced
32 and used. Use neither bibliographic references nor references to figures or tables in the Abstract.

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34 Please refer to the Author Guidelines for more information about the maximum accepted word
35 count of the Abstract in your chosen journal. Where no specific word count is provided, an abstract
36 of between 200-400 words is permitted.

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37 Introduction

38 The Introduction should provide a summary of the background to the relevant field of research and
39 the specific problems addressed and should state the hypotheses being explored as well as the main
40 goal(s) of the study. Conclusions or findings should not appear in the Introduction.

41 Materials and Methods

42 The Materials and Methods section should clearly list all inclusion and exclusion criteria, methods of
43 research, and variables evaluated and should state how outcomes were assessed. All terms should be
44 adequately defined and statistical information should be sufficiently detailed so that a study can be
45 repeated. If your manuscript is a clinical trial, please provide the clinical trial number.

46 Results

47 The Results section should describe the most important findings of the study, analysis, or
48 experiment. The most important results should be indicated, and relevant trends and patterns should
49 be described.

50 Discussion/Conclusion

51 The Discussion/Conclusion should provide an evaluation of the results. There should be a clear
52 discussion of the implications, significance, and novelty of the results presented and whether the

53 data support or contradict previous studies .

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54 Statements

55 All papers must contain the following statements after the main body of the text and before the
56 reference list:

57 Acknowledgement (optional)

58 In the Acknowledgement section, authors must include individuals and organizations that have made
59 substantive contributions to the research or the manuscript. An exception is where funding was
60 provided, which should be included in Funding Sources. Please refer to the Guidelines issued by the
61 ICMJE to determine non-author contributors that should be included in the Acknowledgement
62 section.

63 Statement of Ethics

64 Published research must comply with the guidelines for human studies and should include evidence
65 that the research was conducted ethically in accordance with the World Medical Association
66 Declaration of Helsinki. In the manuscript, authors should state that subjects  have given their written
67 informed consent and that the study protocol was approved by the institute’s committee on human
68 research.  If ethics approval was not required, or if the study has been granted an exemption
69 from requiring ethics approval, this should be detailed in the manuscript. Studies involving animals
70 must have been approved by the authors' Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or
71 equivalent ethics committee and must follow internationally recognized guidelines such as
72 the ARRIVE guidelines. Please address the following aspects in your Statement of Ethics. 

73 Study approval statement: Provide name and affiliation of the committee who approved the
74 study and the decision reference number. An example statement can be found here: "This study
75 protocol was reviewed and approved by [committee name and affiliation], approval number [XXX]." If
76 ethics approval was not required, or if the study has been granted an exemption from requiring
77 ethics approval, this should also be stated, including the name of the ethics committee who made
78 that decision. 

79 Consent to participate statement: For studies using human participants, state whether
80 written informed consent was obtained from participants (or their parent/legal guardian/next of kin)
81 to participate in the study. If written informed consent was not required, or if the study has been
82 granted an exemption from requiring written informed consent, this should also be stated, including
83 the name of the ethics committee who made that decision. 

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 85 Conflict of Interest Statement

86 Authors are required to disclose any possible conflicts of interest. All forms of support and financial
87 involvement (e.g. employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership and options, expert
88 testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties) which took place in the previous three
89 years should be listed, regardless of their potential relevance to the paper. Also the nonfinancial
90 relationships (personal, political, or professional) that may potentially influence the writing of the
91 manuscript should be declared. If there is no conflict of interest, please state: “The authors have no
92 conflicts of interest to declare.”

93 Funding Sources

94 Authors must give full details about the funding of any research relevant to their study, including
95 sponsor names and explanations of the roles of these sources in the preparation of data or the
96 manuscript.

97 Author Contributions

98 In the Author Contributions section, a short statement detailing the contributions of each person
99 named as an author should be included. Contributors to the paper who do not fulfil the ICMJE
100 Criteria for Authorship should be credited in the Acknowledgement section.  

101 If an author is removed from or added to the listed authors after submission, an explanation and a
102 signed statement of agreement confirming the requested change are required from all the initially
103 listed authors and from the author to be removed or added.

104 Data Availability Statement

105 Authors are required to provide a Data Availability Statement in their article that details whether
106 data are available and where they can be found. The journal’s data sharing policy strongly
107 encourages authors to make all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to
108 editors, reviewers and readers without unnecessary restriction wherever possible. In cases where
109 research data are not publicly available on legal or ethical grounds, this should be clearly stated in
110 the Data Availability Statement along with any conditions for accessing the data. Examples of Data
111 Availability Statements and additional information on the data sharing policy can be found on the
112 journal homepage under “Guidelines”.

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 References [Numerical]

113 References in the text should be identified using Arabic numerals [in square brackets]. 

114 References should be listed using the Vancouver style. The reference list should include only those
115 publications which are cited in the text, arranged numerically in the order in which they are cited.
116 Please number the reference list as shown below (i.e., without using full stops, brackets, etc.). The
117 authors’ surnames should be followed by their initials with no punctuation other than a comma to
118 separate individual authors. A maximum of 6 authors should be listed (followed by “et al.” if there
119 are more than 6 authors). Material submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be referred
120 to as “unpublished data” and should not be included in the reference list. More information on good
121 referencing practice, as well as further examples, can be found in The National Library of Medicine
122 Style Guide for Authors.

123

124 Examples

125 Papers published in journals:

126 1 Sawant KV, Xu R, Cox R, Hawkins H, Sbrana E, Kolli D, et al. Chemokine CXCL1-mediated neutrophil trafficking in the lung:
127 role of CXCR2 activation. J Innate Immun. 2015 Jul;6(7):647–58.

128 (Journal names should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus.)

129 Papers published only with DOI number:

130 2 Chen C, Hu Z. ApoE polymorphisms and the risk of different subtypes of stroke in the Chinese population: a
131 comprehensive meta-analysis. Cerebrovasc Dis. DOI: 10.1159/000442678.

132 Monographs:

133 3 Matthews DE, Farewell VT. Using and understanding medical statistics. 5th ed, revised. Basel: Karger; 2015.

134 Edited Books:

135 4 Cohen SR, Gardner TW. Diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. In: Nguyen QD, Rodrigues EB, Farah ME, Mieler
136 WF, Do DV, editors. Retinal pharmacotherapeutics. Dev Ophthalmol. Basel: Karger; 2016. Vol. 55; p. 137–46.

137 Websites:

138 5 Karger Publishers [Internet]. Basel: Transforming Vesalius: The 16th-Century Scientific Revolution Brought to Life for the
139 21st Century [cited 2013 Feb 4]. Available from: http://www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/new-fabrica.html.

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 Figure Legends

Fig. 1. Legend text.

Fig. 2. Legend text.

Figures should be mentioned in the manuscript text as follows:

“…shown in Figure 1…” or “…shown in Figures 1 and 4…” or “…shown in Figures 2–6…” always with
capital letters and written out.

With round brackets:

“(shown in Fig. 1)” or “(shown in Fig. 1, 4)” or “(shown in Fig. 2–6)”, always abbreviated as “Fig.”
followed by the number or numbers after a full stop and a space.

In the Legend:

“Fig. 1.” or “Fig. 1. a”, always abbreviated as “Fig.” followed by the number after a full stop and a
space

140 Please note that the actual figures and all tables should be uploaded as separate items in their
141 original file format.

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