Author Guidelines

Only manuscripts that have not been previously published (in print or electronically) and are not currently under review elsewhere will be considered. Presentation of data at a scientific symposium or conference does not preclude submission.

All submissions are screened using Turnitin. Authors who submit previously published work will be permanently banned from future submissions, and their funding body and/or institution will be notified.

Use the official KPCJ manuscript template as your formatting guide. Download it from Google Drive before beginning your manuscript preparation.

Provide the ethical clearance number and a copy of the ethical approval certificate. For case series or case reports, also email the patient/family informed consent form (in English) and complete the ICMJE disclosure form.

All potential conflicts of interest — financial or otherwise — must be disclosed throughout the manuscript. If there are no conflicts of interest, state this explicitly in the manuscript.

Include a funding statement identifying all sources of financial support for the research. If no funding was received, state "This research received no external funding." Use the ICMJE disclosure form if applicable.

List the specific contributions of each author using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework — e.g., Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing, etc. Use the template form provided below.

Conception & Design or Data Acquisition: Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.

Drafting or Critical Revision: Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.

Final Approval: Final approval of the version to be published.

Accountability: Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are properly investigated and resolved.

Non-Authorship Contributions

Individuals who provided technical support, general writing assistance, or only supervised the research group do not qualify as authors. They should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.

Author Order

Authors are typically listed in order of contribution significance. Alphabetical order may be used when all co-authors contributed equally. Author names, order, and affiliations cannot be changed after submission.

Large Multicenter Groups

For multicenter studies, the group must designate individuals who take full responsibility for the manuscript and meet all authorship criteria. These individuals will complete author and conflict-of-interest disclosure forms.

Submission & Manuscript Blinding

Initial Editorial Evaluation

Double-Blind Peer Review

Editorial Review & Production

General Formatting

• File format: Microsoft Word (.docx)
• Font: Times New Roman, 12pt
• Margins: Justified
• No headers, footers, or endnotes
• Text: center-aligned on title page; justified in body

Title Page (File 1)

• Full manuscript title
• Short running title
• First name, middle initial, last name of each author
• Institutional affiliation (in English)
• Corresponding author: address, phone, fax, email
• Word count; number of tables and figures

Reports of original research presenting a significant advance in pre-clinical or clinical medicine. Section order:

• Abstract: unstructured, max 300 words
• No references, source data, or statistics in abstract
• Max 40 references, single-spaced, justified
• Crossref DOI must be included for all references

In-depth, critical analyses of research areas or methodological approaches of significant interest to medical researchers. The review must be interpretive — not merely a summary — and should compare available methods, discussing their relative strengths, limitations, and specific applications. Reviews should be comprehensive, balanced, and evidence-based.

Tables

• Double-spaced; placed on separate pages at the end of the manuscript, each with a title and sequential number
• Use Word's "Insert Table" function — do not build tables using tabs or spaces
• Tables with internal sub-divisions (e.g., 1A and 1B) must be submitted as separate tables (Tables 1 and 2)
• Unit symbols in column headings only; define all acronyms in the legend
• No shading; use footnote symbols in this order: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, #, **, ††, ‡‡
• Tables reproduced from other sources must include written permission from the original publisher

Figures

• Size: Create at final print size — no wider than one or two columns. Minimize white space in multi-panel figures
• Fonts: 8–10pt at 100%, consistent across all figures
• Text: Use acronyms on axes; y-axis label must read vertically; use white space within the figure for key information
• Multi-panel: Label panels A, B, C, etc.; describe each panel in the legend, not on the figure itself
• Line/bar graphs: Black or white bars for up to two datasets; use bold hatch marks or stripes for additional bars — avoid shades of grey. All line and bar graphs must be constructed in black and white
• Reproductions: Written permission from the original publisher required; state source in the legend

Figure Legends

Figure legends must be numbered sequentially and placed at the end of the manuscript text — not embedded in figure files. Describe all symbols in plain words within the legend.

Abbreviations

Use abbreviations only when necessary — for long chemical names (e.g., HEPES), standard procedures (e.g., ELISA), or terms repeated frequently throughout the article. Abbreviate units of measurement only when paired with a number. Abbreviations are permitted in tables and figures.

Units

Clinical laboratory values must be expressed using the International System of Units (SI). Use kilocalories (kcal) rather than kilojoules (kJ) where applicable. HbA1c values must be reported in dual format: % (mmol/mol). Use the NGSP HbA1c converter at ngsp.org/convert1.asp to calculate both values.

References — Vancouver Style

All references must follow Vancouver Style, numbered consecutively in the order cited in the text. List all authors and inclusive page numbers. Abbreviate journal titles per the NLM (National Library of Medicine) list; spell out titles not indexed in MEDLINE. Include the Crossref DOI for every reference where available.

KPCJ follows the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Position Statement on AI and Authorship and the ICMJE recommendations on AI in scientific publications. Authors are required to disclose any use of AI or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of their manuscript.

AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini) cannot be listed as authors. Authorship requires accountability for the work, which AI systems cannot assume. Any researcher who uses AI assistance but meets ICMJE authorship criteria remains fully responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the content.

If AI tools were used during manuscript preparation, authors must disclose this in the Acknowledgements section (for writing/editing assistance) or in the Methods section (for data analysis or image generation). The disclosure must specify:

• The tool(s) used (name and version)
• The purpose (e.g., language editing, data analysis)
• The extent to which the tool was used

Authors bear full responsibility for all content in their manuscript, including any content generated with AI assistance. Authors must verify the accuracy of AI-generated text, data interpretations, and references. AI tools are known to produce hallucinated citations — all references must be independently verified by the authors before submission.

The following uses of AI are strictly prohibited:

• Fabricating or manipulating research data using AI
• Generating fictitious references or citations
• Submitting AI-generated text as the sole intellectual contribution without substantial human revision
• Using AI to bypass plagiarism detection (e.g., paraphrasing plagiarised content)

The following uses are acceptable when fully disclosed:

• Grammar and language editing (e.g., Grammarly, ChatGPT for copyediting)
• Translation assistance (when followed by expert review)
• Literature search assistance or summarisation tools
• Statistical analysis software with AI features (when described in Methods)
• Figure generation or enhancement (when described in figure legends)

Reviewers and editors must not input unpublished manuscript content into AI tools, as this constitutes a breach of confidentiality. KPCJ may use AI-assisted plagiarism and integrity screening tools (e.g., Turnitin, iThenticate) as part of editorial quality control — these are applied to all submissions as part of standard editorial process.