Mediterranean Society of Otology and Audiology (MSOA)

The Mediterranean Journal of Otology

Instructions for the authors

MJO is a peer-reviewed, otology and audiology journal directed to an audience of physicians who are interested in both clinical and basic science. Original articles in the form of clinical and basic research and and those pertinent to scientific advances are accepted to be published. Controversial patient discussions, communications on emerging technology, and historical issues will also be considered. Manuscript submission: Only original manuscripts can be submitted. Previously published (except in the form of an abstract or a preliminary report) articles will not be accepted. The manuscripts must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Each person listed as an author should fulfill the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. http://www.icmje.org).

All manuscripts should be submitted online through the website  (http://www.mediotol.org/mjo.htm) of the Journal. E-mail submissions will not be accepted.

Before submitting a manuscript, the correspondent author should subscribe to the Manuscript Follow-up System, assigning a user name and a password to get access to the submission page, where there are boxes to upload all the files of the manuscript. Each independent file (Word documents, figures, tables, etc.) should be uploaded into a separate box. It is strongly advised that all the files for upload be prepared before logging in. The authors will be notified of a successful upload at the end of the procedure. Following the review process, the author will be informed by the same “automated system” about the result, i.e. acceptance, rejection, or requiring revision. If revision is necessary, the author will receive a Publishing Editor’s message and instructions to reach the reviewers’ comments. Using the same password and the user name, the author should log in to see the information needed for revision. The revised manuscripts will be uploaded again following the instructions on the website.

Ethics: When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration (JAMA 2000;284:3043–3049). Patient anonymity and informed consent: It is the author's responsibility to ensure that the anonymity of the patients be carefully protected and to verify that any experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent obtained and in adherence to all the guidelines for experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated. For recognizable photographs of patients, signed releases of the patient or of his/her legal representative should be enclosed; otherwise, patient names or eyes must be blocked out to prevent identification. Copyright: As part of submission of the manuscript, the correspondent author should send a short statement declaring that he/she accepts to undertake all the responsibility for authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript. However, at the final stage of publication, a signed statement on authorship responsibility and copyright transfer is required from all the authors. This statement should be sent to the publisher via mail or fax. A copy of this form is at http://www.mediotol.org/Copyright%20form.pdf.

Preparation of the manuscript:

The title page should be sent on a separate file and should include title of the paper, full names, highest academic degrees, and institutional affiliations of all authors. A correspondence mailing address together with telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address should be included. Any footnotes referring to the title should appear on the title page. Grant information and other sources of support should also be ncluded on the Title page.

Structured abstract: A concise abstract of not more than 250 words is required for all original clinical and basic science contributions. Manuscripts should contain several key words for indexing.

Text: Organize the manuscript into four main headings: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Define abbreviations at first mention in the text and in each table and figure. If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer’s name and address (city, state/country). Acknowledge all forms of support, including pharmaceutical and industry support, in an Acknowledgments paragraph. References: The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Cite the references in the text in the order of appearance. The use of automatic numbering or footnotes for references in the text file of the manuscript is strongly discouraged.

Unpublished data (papers submitted but not yet accepted for publication and personal communications, including e-mail communications) should be cited in parentheses in the text.

Abbreviations should be kept to minimum. They should not be used in the Abstract and should be used in the text only if the term represented appears more than 2 times. All abbreviations used in the Tables and Figures should be expanded in akey below their respective Table/Figure.

Generic names of drugs should be used.

Reference format should comply with the “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals” (www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html). All authors if six or fewer should be listed; otherwise the first six and “et al.” should be written. The style and punctuation of the references should follow the formats outlined below:

Journal article: Facco E, Munari M, Gallo F, Volpin SM, Behr AU, Baratto F, et al. Role of short latency evoked potentials in the diagnosis of brain death. Clin Neurophysiol 2002;113:1855-66.

Book: Nadol JB, Schuknecht HF, editors. Surgery of the ear and temporal bone. New York: Raven Press; 1993.

Chapter in a book: Stangerup SE, Tos M. Middle ear ventilation and pneumatization. In: Tos M, Thomsen J, Peitersen E, editors. Cholesteatoma and mastoid surgery. Amsterdam: Kugler & Ghedini; 1989. p. 251-4.

Figures: Cite figures consecutively in the text, and number them in the order in which they are illustrated. Include the figure number and figure part (1a, 1b, 1c) and an arrow to indicate the top edge of the figure. Figure legends must accompany all figures. They should be brief and specific. Color figures: Authors who submit color figures will receive an estimate of the cost for color reproduction. Otherwise the figures will be converted to black and white. Tables: Group all tables at the end of the manuscript. Cite tables consecutively in the text, and number them in that order. Do not embed tables within the body of the text.

Page proofs and corrections: The corresponding author will receive electronic page proofs (in PDF format) to check the copy-edited and typeset article before publication. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that there are no errors in the proofs. Changes that have been made to conform to journal style will stand if they do not alter the authors’ meaning.

Contact with the Publisher: Correspondence prior to publication of the manuscript concerning page proofs, authorship responsibility and copyright transfer, reprint requests, and any other related material will be directed to the publisher (Rekmay Publishing).