Submissions and Guidelines

Articles should describe an account of hypothesis-based research in science and medicine. Length should not exceed 5,000 words (including figure legends). Include an abstract of 200 words or less. The body text should contain 5 sections: Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results, and Discussion.

Articles are descriptive reports of one patient or family. Length of case reports should not exceed 4,000 words (including figure legends), 3 tables and figures. Case reports submitted by students must receive prior approval from a faculty member.

Challenges cases are case vignettes with a multiple choice question at the end related to the case. Authors wishing to submit an unsolicited challenge case should send the topic and title of the planned case to wfjsm@wakehealth.edu for pre-submission approval.

Articles are critical reviews of topics related to science and medicine. Length should not exceed 10,000 words (including figure legends), 10 figures or tables. No more than 150 references should be cited in the review. Include an abstract of 200 words or less. 

Perspective articles are intended to briefly highlight current issues of relevance to medicine and healthcare, as well as discussions of the history of medicine. The Perspectives section welcomes submissions and aims to provide a forum to discuss models and ideas for medicine and healthcare from a personal viewpoint. With this objective in mind, we ask authors to provide a balanced presentation to stimulate further discussion of the issue. Length should not exceed 1000 words (including figure legends), 2 figures or tables.

Submissions are accepted electronically via email. Manuscripts should be sent by email to wfjsm@wakehealth.edu. There are no submission or publication fees. All manuscripts should be submitted as single Word files, including all graphics and references. Please contact wfjsm@wakehealth.edu for concerns not addressed in guidelines.

All figures, tables, and graphs should be formatted as JPEGS or TIFFS at 300 dpi or greater. Reference to any graphics should be included in the body of the manuscript.

References should be numbered consecutively and be formatted as follows: author(s) name(s), title of article, journal name, date, volume number, page numbers. List all authors when there are six or fewer. When there are seven or more authors, list the first three, followed by “et al.”

All manuscripts will be assessed by editors and may undergo a peer-review process. Manuscripts will be evaluated for scientific accuracy.

Editorial decisions will be

1.  Reject with review
2.  Reject or accept with revision
3.  Accept

A manuscript may undergo several rounds of revision before acceptance. Decisions will be communicated to the corresponding author via email.

Peer Review Flowchart

All submissions will be checked for plagiarism. The WFJSM uses the definition of plagiarism written by Dr. Miguel Roig for the DHHS Office of Research Integrity. Plagiarism is therein defined as: “Appropriating an idea (e.g., an explanation, a theory, a conclusion, a hypothesis, a metaphor) in whole or in part, or with superficial modifications without giving credit to its originator... Copying a portion of text from another source without giving credit to its author and without enclosing the borrowed text in quotation marks… Self-plagiarism occurs when authors reuse their own previously written work or data in a ‘new’ written product without letting the reader know that this material has appeared elsewhere.” - http://ori.hhs.gov/images/ddblock/plagiarism.pdf.  

Corrections and Retractions

Since the Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine is released annually, there is ample time for corrections before print publication and every effort will be made to ensure that errors are caught in the editing process. In regards to honest errors that are found after publication, the Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine will follow the ICMJE’S guidelines for corrections. Corrected versions of manuscripts will be electronically published with the previous version archived. Pervasive errors that invalidate previous results may lead to replacement of the manuscript altogether. Citations will be linked to the newest manuscript. 

Misconduct

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine agrees with the ICMJE’s definition of misconduct as including but not limited to data fabrication, data falsification including deceptive manipulation of images, purposeful failure to disclose conflicts of interest, and plagiarism. In regards to misconduct, staff will follow procedures delineated by the COPE flowcharts.  Manuscripts submitted by authors who have knowingly engaged in misconduct will not be reviewed for publishing. Manuscripts that have already been published will be labelled as ‘retracted’ online with an explanation for the retraction.

Authors are responsible for obtaining written permissions to republish or reproduce any previously published material from the copyright holder of the original source. The authors of manuscripts contained in the WFJSM grant WFJSM exclusive worldwide first publication rights and further grant a nonexclusive license for other uses of the manuscripts for the duration of their copyright in all languages, throughout the world, in all media. Copyright ownership of these articles remains with the authors. Authors may be asked to complete and sign a copyright form.

Authors must refrain from submitting work which they have published or hope to publish elsewhere. This practice will ensure that authors' works meet the ICMJE's standards regarding overlapping publications.

Submissions are accepted from physicians, scientists, and students at all levels from any academic institution. They are evaluated by both Editors-in-Chief, along with respective Section Editors, for clarity, interest, and unique contribution to their field. If Editors decide that a submission requires further steps before it can be reviewed, they use written communication to inform authors of the steps they would need to take in order to fit the qualifications for submission. If a manuscript is deemed appropriate for peer review, Section Editors take on a liaison role in finding qualified members of that field for a double-blind process. Editors-in-Chief and Section Editors teach junior editors how to identify a knowledgeable peer reviewer and are encouraged to use the Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute database to find appropriate candidates. Editors relay anonymized comments between authors and reviewers through standardized forms until the manuscript is accepted with no further changes or declined. After this process has concluded, Section and Chief Editors continue to evaluate accepted text for grammar, structure, flow of ideas, minor flaws, and placement of figures, tables, and images. This final product is sent to the authors for any changes before publishing.

If a manuscript is rejected, authors have the option to use any comments from the reviewers to revise their manuscript and re-submit it to the journal. If they choose to do so, the re-submission will be read by a new set of reviewers.

Peer Review Process

Submitted articles will be peer-reviewed for strong methodology, clear and communicative technical writing, as well as meaningful contribution to the collective body of knowledge. Studies with negative results or those challenging previously published work will receive equal consideration. We actively encourage the submission of content relevant to the community even if it does not fit one of the categories listed in the author guidelines. Editors-in-Chief use their experience and insight to advise authors on how to modify manuscripts to fit into an acceptable category.  

Authorship

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine recognizes the ICMJE’s criteria for authorship. These include: 

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
• Drafting or revising of the work
• Final approval of the version to be published
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work

If all four of these requirements are not met, then the member in question does not qualify for authorship, but may still qualify as a contributor. Acknowledgements and descriptions of their contributions may be made in a separate section following the Conclusions of the manuscript, before any Conflicts of Interest are stated. 

Conflict of Interest

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine agrees with the ICMJE’s definition of conflict of interest as well as their reporting policies. Authors are required to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. These may be through financial support of the research or non-financial influences that may call an author’s perspectives or authenticity into question. All submissions must include a ‘Disclosures’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all conflicts of interests. If the authors do not have conflicts of interests, the statement should read, “No financial support given. Authors report no conflicts of interest.” Editors may ask for further information relating to competing interests. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and will be excluded from the peer review process if a conflict of interest exists.

In cases where students must give constructive comments or rejections to authors in their field of interest, two expert faculty advisors are in place to relay this information. This policy is in place to maintain the integrity of an honest peer review while allaying any concerns student editors may have of receiving negative attention from their superiors.   

Human and Animal Rights

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine agrees with the ICMJE’s definitions and policies regarding human research participants as well as the IAVE’s consensus author guidelines on animal ethics and welfare in research. Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been approved by the Institutional Review Board. All research must have been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework. If there is suspicion that work has not taken place within an appropriate ethical framework, editors may reject the manuscript. Authors will be expected to have obtained ethics committee approval and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment.

Informed Consent

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine agrees with the ICMJE’s definitions and policies regarding the protection of research participants. Informed consent must be acquired from any participants before any identifiable details of their information, such as their name or image, are included in a manuscript.  

Data sharing policy

Readers who are interested in the data generated by published manuscripts as it relates to their own field of work or research may request it from published authors. Requestors may contact the authors by using their information listed on the first page of every article. Requests should clearly state who the requesting party is and the reason they require the data. If this request is deemed appropriate, we strongly encourage that authors make this information available as soon as possible to the requestor.

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine is published in hard copy annually each Spring. Manuscripts may be published electronically any time of the year shortly after acceptance, with reasonable time allotted for configuration to an online format.

Electronic Publishing

Electronic Publishing allows finalized manuscripts to be read online ahead of print publication. The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine follows the guidelines set by the ICMJE on electronic publishing notably that all manuscripts will be kept on an internal site, that the state of published work is kept up to date, and that an archive will contain all corrected or retracted manuscripts. 

Advertising Policy

The Wake Forest Journal of Science and Medicine maintains financial independence and does not publish advertisements. No income is derived from advertisements. This policy keeps editors free from outside influence and maintains the integrity of our content.  In addition, the Journal calls for manuscripts by sending an electronic flyer to department coordinators at Wake Forest Baptist Health, with no monetary incentive.