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Table of Contents
General Information
Main Considerations
Structure and Preparation of Manuscripts
Types of Articles
General Considerations
Full Original Research Articles
Study Highlights
References
Tables
Figures
Formula
Media files
Submission
Common reasons for the rejection
Cover Image Competition
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Short Guideline:

1. The abstract must be structured (i.e., Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion). Click to see a sample article.

2. The image for the graphical abstract should be 900-pixel in width and 500-pixel in height, with a short "mini-abstract" (30-40 words).

3. Highlights of the study should be included as a table with (a) What is the current knowledge? (b) What is new here?

4. "Acknowledgments", "Funding source", "Ethical statement", "Competing interests" and "Authors contribution" should be stated. In the Ethical Statement, all necessary statements, including ethical approval, biosafety, and biosecurity concerns, should be clarified. 

5. References should meet the format of the journal. Click here to download the EndNote Style.

6. The maximum number of figures and tables in the papers submitted to BioImpacts are 8 and 4, respectively. Further figures, tables, and other information should be submitted as "Supplementary Data".

7. Authors are encouraged to prepare the language of their manuscripts with the utmost care. The language editors will check the language and grammar of your submitted manuscript. Beware that manuscripts in poor English will not be sent for review. We recommend having your manuscript professionally edited by a qualified English-speaking researcher in your field prior to submission, or BI will ask for language editing and a certificate for editing in any step of the paper process, before or even after acceptance. Please note that providing a certificate will not necessitate or guarantee the acceptance of the paper.

NOTE: Papers preprinted in preprint servers such as ResearchSquare, arXiv, and so on are not accepted in BI. Hence, BI can reject preprinted papers in each step of submission, review, revision, and so on.

Authors' Guideline

General Information

Main Considerations

• BI is a free open-access journal.
• BI follows ICMJE's (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals as well as the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
• Manuscripts should only be electronically submitted through the Online Submission System.
• A cover letter must be included when submitting a paper and must state the novelty of the paper.
• BI makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in its publications. However, BI makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the content and disclaims all such representations and warranties whether expressed or implied to the maximum extent permitted by law.
• Any views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and are not the views of BI.

Structure and Preparation of Manuscripts

Types of Articles

Full Original Researches

Reviews

Systematic Reviews

In Focus Reviews

Minireviews

Short Communications

Spotlights

Perspectives

Commentaries or Notes

General Considerations

• There are no page charges for publication in the BI.
• The manuscript should be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of them).
• In general, the main headings in the manuscript must be bolded. The first subheadings should be bolded and italicized, the second subheadings should be only italicized and successive subheadings should be written with 2 fonts smaller than the font of other headings. Each heading and subheading should appear on its own separate line.
• All manuscripts must be typed double-spaced, single column, in size 12 font and adequate margins should be left.
• No manuscripts submitted to the Journal can exceed 8000 words.
• Submitted manuscripts to the BI should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• Review and Minireview articles should be finalized with the last section as “Concluding Remarks”.
• Focus Reviews are written by invitation only. Authors will be invited by the Editor-in-Chief or a “Guest Editor” to contribute to a thematic special issue. These articles should be finalized with the last section of “Expert Opinion and Final Remarks”.

Full Original Research Articles

Title Page

• Title - A concise and informative title directed at the general reader. Lengthy systematic names and complicated/numerous chemical formulas should, therefore, be avoided where possible.
• Authors’ names - Full names (First, Middle, and Last) for all the authors of an article should be provided and specified with the superscript number(s) for the affiliation(s) (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths¹). The name of the corresponding author(s) should be specified with an asterisk after the name (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths^1*). Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly.
• Affiliation - Affiliation of all the authors should be given and specified with the superscripted number before the address (e.g., ¹ Faculty of …..). Email addresses of all the authors should be mentioned on Online Submission System.
• Running title - A very short running title should be provided on the title page.
• Corresponding author - Full address, telephone, and fax numbers (with country and area code) and email of the corresponding author(s) should be stated.

Main Document

Graphical abstract

• It should be simple yet informative
• Colorful graphics are preferred
• The originality of graphics is required
• Use of graphics implying any bias to/against organizations or individuals should be avoided
• Graphics should be clear enough and the labels used inside it should be readable even in a very small font
• The graphical abstract file should be saved in TIFF with 300 dpi and 1200 dpi for respective color and black & white images

Abstract Page

• Abstract - A factual concise and informative abstract (up to 250 words) is required for every manuscript. The abstract should briefly state the Introduction and Methods of the research, the Results, and the Conclusion. References should be avoided, but if necessary, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, however, if necessary, they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
• Keywords - Immediately after the abstract, 3-6 relevant keywords should be included using American spelling and avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts. Notice: Readers increasingly use search engines to find literature using keywords; thus recognizable and searchable keywords should be provided to maximize the visibility of the article.
• "Abstract" and the following "keywords" should be placed at the top of the "main document" after the "title".

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Results

• The same data should not be presented in more than one figure or in both a figure and a table.
• Basically, as a rule, interpretation of the results should be reserved for the discussion section of a Full Original Research Article.
• If necessary, results and discussion sections can be combined in a single section in the 'Short Communication' type of article.

Discussion

• A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate for 'Short Communications'.
• Extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided.

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

The authors should acknowledge any scientific, technical, statistical, and financial support. Contributors other than coauthors may be very briefly acknowledged in a separate paragraph at the end of the paper. All sources of funding should be declared. Also, authors could mention any extra notes pertaining to the paper including notes on the presentation of the paper in poster or oral format in conferences.

Funding sources

Funding sources (including "grant ID", the name of the grant-receiving researcher, and the grant provider) should be clearly stated.

Ethical statement

• Flowcharts show how we behave with unethical papers
• Redundant (duplicate) publication in submitted manuscript and published article
• Suspected plagiarism in submitted manuscript and published article
• Suspected fabricated data in submitted manuscript and published article

Competing Interests

Editors and reviewers of BI declared no conflict of interests and authors must declare any conflict of interests of contributed authors very briefly in a separate paragraph at the end of the paper.
All sources of funding should be declared; unless otherwise the following sentence should be given “Authors declare no conflict of interests”.
Example from: Shokraneh F, Ilghami R, Masoomi R, Amanollahi A. How to Select a Journal to Submit and Publish Your Biomedical Paper? BioImpacts 2012; 2(1): 61-68
“Farhad Shokraneh and Roghayeh Ilghami are paid as editors in the editorial office of BioImpacts. Also, Alireza Amanollahi is one of the honored editors of the Journal of Health Administration. Authors declared that their affiliations may affect the content of this paper but this paper does not reflect thoughts of their affiliated journals.”

Authors' Contributions

The contributions of all authors must be clearly described. Each author’s individual contribution(s) to the study must be stated based on COPE authorship guidelines (e.g., conceptualization, data handling, experiments design, data analysis, provision of study materials and equipment, study validation, supervision, data presentation, draft preparation, study consultation, writing and reviewing, project administration).

Study Highlights

Study Highlights

What is the current knowledge?

Examples are:

• The systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is the main approach for the selection of aptamers.
• Aptamers have been used as diagnostic and analytical sensing tools known as “aptasensors”.

What is new here?

Examples are:

• DNA aptamers are stable probes to engineer biosensors.
• Aptasensors can simultaneously determine various targets for the detection of biomarkers in complex biological samples.
• Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic-oriented aptasensors display a versatile method with a low limit of detection.

References

• Authors are responsible for the accuracy of cited references and these should be checked before the manuscript is submitted.
• Only one publication can be listed for each number.
• Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, and preprints on recognized servers may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details, and acknowledgments may not.

Citing in the text

• Cite references in the text sequentially in the Vancouver numbering style, as a superscripted number after the nearest punctuation mark without parentheses or brackets. For example,…as reported by Saito and colleagues.¹³
• Two references are cited with a comma and no space. Three or more consecutive references are cited in a range with dashes.
• References in tables, figures, and panels should be in numerical order according to where the item is cited in the text.
• Reference numbers should NOT be cited in parentheses.
• Please note that if references are not cited in order, the manuscript may be returned for amendment before it is passed on to the Editor for assessment.
• Only papers published or in press should be included in the reference list. Personal communications or unpublished data must be cited in parentheses in the text with the name(s) of the source(s) and the year. Authors should request permission from the source to cite unpublished data.

In reference list

List the surnames and initials of first names of all authors if there are 6 or fewer; otherwise, list the first 6 and add ‘et al.’ Use one space only between words up to the year and then no spaces. The journal title should be in italic and abbreviated according to the style of PubMed. If the journal is not listed in PubMed, then it should be written out in full. Check journal abbreviations using PubMed.

Journal article:

Siminzar P, Omidi Y, Golchin A, Aghanejad A, Barar J. Targeted delivery of doxorubicin by magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles armed with mucin-1 aptamer. J Drug Target 2020; 28:92-101. doi: 10.1080/1061186X.2019.1616745

Tables

• Tables should be inserted into the main text with the relevant caption atop, immediately after their mention in the manuscript. Meanwhile, remember that captions should not be a row/column of the table.
• Be prepared with real rows and columns and not aligned with tabs, returns, or spaces.
• Multi-part tables with varying numbers of columns or multiple footnotes should be organized as separate tables.
• Be plain with NO colors, shading, or graphics.
• Should not contain inserted text boxes, tables within tables, or cells within cells.
• Should be cited in numerical order upon their first mention.
• Symbols and abbreviations should be defined immediately below the table, followed by an essential brief description.

Figures

• Figures/illustrations must be cited within the main text in numerical order with the relevant caption and not appear on the figures.
• Figures must be prepared in one of the following formats: Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF or TIFF) for photography or microscopy, Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) for illustrations or diagrams, enhanced metafile (emf) for Chembioffice files, PDf for Matlab, windows metafile (wmf) for MathType software. Excel charts should be submitted in their original format, i.e., editable files in Word, not in a graphical format. The editors may request to see these data (e.g., Office, SPSS, and other line art images).
• All digitized images submitted with the manuscript must be of high quality; that is, resolutions of at least 300 dpi for color figures, 600 dpi for greyscales, and 1200 dpi for line arts.
• Histograms should be prepared in a simple, two-dimensional format, with no background grid.
• Make sure that any specific patient/hospital details are removed or blacked out (e.g., X-rays, MRI scans, etc).
• If photographs of patients are used, they should not be identifiable. However, do not use a black bar to obscure a patient’s identity.
• Lettering in figures (e.g., labeling of axes) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop. All text should be in a sans-serif typeface, preferably Arial.
• Submit multi-panel figures (with labeled parts as a,b,c,d,..) as a grouped file.

Acceptable digital formats

• Corel Draw
• Adobe Illustrator
• Unlocked PDFs created from a vector program
• Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word as long as graphs are not placed into these programs as rasterized (pixel-based) images.

Not acceptable file formats

Formula

• Equations should be typed only in MathType ( Click to download the software from http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/).
• Graphical objects should not be used.
• Make sure that your equations are editable.
• If you have already composed your paper in Microsoft Word and used its built-in equation editing tool, the equations will become unusable during the typesetting process. To resolve this problem, re-key your equations using MathType.
• Long equations should be set off from the text and numbered sequentially. You may refer to the equations in the next references by their number (e.g., "Eq. 1," "Eqs. 2 and 3").

Media files

All authors are welcome to include in their article any podcast, animation, or movie that they think would be of help in clarifying the subject to the readers. This accompanying file should be submitted as supplementary while submission, and in the case of article acceptance, it will be made online as a supplementary file.

Submission

Authors should ensure that papers conform to the scientific instructions and style aforementioned. In order to accelerate the publication process, the Journal requires that manuscripts be submitted online using the Online Submission System.

BI offers a completely digital submission, review, and production process. At the time of submission of a manuscript, thus, it is advised to prepare production-quality files beforehand to speed up the process. It is advised that authors follow the given guidelines above; unless otherwise, the submission will be returned to the authors for additional revision which may decelerate the manuscript evaluation process and hence delay publication. Thus careful attention is fully applied by the editorial members of the journal.

Authors are required to register to create an account for submission at the Online Submission System. They can also follow on-screen instructions and the system will provide the essential guide through the submission process.
After the creation of an account, authors are able to exit/re-enter the account at any stage.
All submissions are kept strictly confidential.

Common reasons for the rejection

The common reasons for the rejection of a manuscript are:

• Being out of scope, the manuscript does not meet the scope of the journal regarding research related to the treatment of human diseases.
• Being too preliminary data, the manuscript represents an insignificant amount of experimental data.
• Lack of novelty, the manuscript does not deliver novel findings.
• Lack of compelling data, the manuscript does not contain compelling data.
  

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