GENERAL INFORMATION | MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST | EDITORIAL POLICIES FOR AUTHORS | CONTENT TYPE | SUBMISSION GUIDELINES | REVIEW AND PUBLICATION PROCESS

 

Author Resources

 

AUTHORSHIP CHANGE FORM | COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AND AUTHORSHIP RESPONSIBILITY FORM | LICENSE TO PUBLISH FORM | MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST | OFFPRINT ORDER FORM

 

The Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials (JABFM) accepts submission through an online submission system. To submit a manuscript go to www.editorialmanager.com/jabfm and register or log in as an author. If you cannot register or if you think you have registered before, please contact the Editorial Office before you register again. If you are registered with ORCID and validated your account in Editorial Manager you may choose to log in with your personal ORCID ID.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

Full name: Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials
Journal name abbreviation: J Appl Biomater Funct Mater

eISSN: 2280-8000

Indexed in:


Medline/PubMed
Journal Citation Reports
Science Citation Index Expanded
Embase
Scopus
SCImago
Ovid
EBSCO Discovery Service
CNKI
J-Gate
CAS Source Index
Pubshub

Editor in Chief

Alberto Cigada
Milan, Italy


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MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST

Please use this checklist to ensure that your manuscript is complete and in compliance with the instructions to authors.

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EDITORIAL POLICIES FOR AUTHORS

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials (JABFM) must be an original contribution not previously published in any language or country (except as an abstract or preliminary report) and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Likewise, updates of previously published studies that add little data to an existing publication will not be considered.

The Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board are primarily responsible for ensuring a fair review process. The final responsibility rests with the authors and the statements and opinions are solely those of the individual authors and contributors.
 

Authorship

Each person listed as an author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content and agree to be accountable for all aspects related to its accuracy or integrity. This participation must include conception and design of the manuscript, data acquisition or data analysis and interpretation, drafting of the manuscript and/or revising it for critically important intellectual content, revision and final approval of the manuscript and statistical analysis, obtaining funding, administrative, technical, or material support, or supervision. Collaborators who do not meet the above criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments Section.

 
Once a manuscript has been submitted, the order of authorship (including adding or removing authors) cannot be changed without a written request to the Editorial Office from the corresponding author and a new Copyright Transfer and Authorship Responsibility Form, must be submitted. If an author is removed, a letter from that author agreeing to his/her removal is required; otherwise the paper should be withdrawn.


Authorship changes cannot be submitted with proof changes. The publisher is not allowed to make such changes and it will delay the publication of your manuscript.


Corresponding author


The corresponding author is responsible for the submission and all communication with the Journal regarding that submission. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors meet the required authorship criteria indicated above. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript is complete and for ensuring that the conflict of interest disclosures included in the manuscript are accurate and up-to-date.


Copyright


All manuscripts submitted for publication must be accompanied by the Copyright Transfer and Authorship Responsibility Form. This form states that each author owns the copyright or has written permission to use all the material in the article. This form must be downloaded from the Journal’s website, completed in print, signed, scanned, and uploaded with the manuscript upon submission. Additional forms can be used if necessary. Manuscripts will not be processed until the Copyright Transfer and Author Responsibility Form is received.


Disclosures of conflict of interest


Authors are required to disclose any form of conflict of interest in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

Financial conflict of interest may exist if any financial gain is brought to the author or to his/her family, business partners, or employer by direct or indirect commission; stock ownership or options in manufacturing companies; involvement in any for-profit or not-for-profit corporation where the author or his/her family is a director or recipient of a grant, including consultant and travel costs reimbursement.


Non-financial conflicts of interest may be political, personal, or intellectual.


Funding/Support

All financial and material support for the research and the work reported should be clearly identified in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.


Plagiarism, duplicate submission


Research and publication misconduct is considered a serious breach of ethics. The Journal systematically employs iThenticate, a plagiarism detection and prevention software designed to ensure the originality of written work before publication. Manuscripts including plagiarized content will be rejected.
 

Image manipulation


Figure and illustrations submitted with an article must be original. Image manipulation that may affect data interpretation is a frequent cause of rejection or retraction. For full information, refer to Image integrity.
 

Use of copyrighted material

 
If the manuscript submitted includes parts (quotations, tables, or illustrations) to which the authors do not own copyright, then written permission from the copyright owner must be submitted before the peer reviewing process is completed, along with full details on the original source. Give yourself ample time to request and receive permission. Any permission fees required by the copyright owner are the responsibility of the authors.
 

Research involving human subjects

If manuscripts report research performed on human subjects, human-derived materials, or human medical records, they must have obtained formal review and approval or waiver by an appropriate institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee and informed consent by all patients involved. The manuscript should contain a statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number if appropriate. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the committee that granted the exemption) in the Methods section. For investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed and stated in the Methods section of the manuscript.

• Clinical trial registration

• Patient confidentiality protection

• Research Reporting Guidelines

Research involving animals

Experimental research performed on animals must comply with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or equivalent. A statement that research has been performed according to the NIH Guidelines must be included in the Methods section.

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CONTENT TYPE

Original research articles

Previously unpublished manuscripts, describing biomaterials or materials and/or processes developed and used for specific applications, pre-clinical and clinical trials reported from the biomaterial perspective, and other relevant investigations, validated analytical methods, and appropriate statistical evaluation.

Original research articles should be structured as follows: Introduction (clearly stating an objective or hypothesis), Methods (describing the study design and methods applied, including the study setting and dates, patients or participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, and/or participation or response rates, or data sources, and how these were selected for the study), Results (describing the results of the study in context with the published literature and addressing study limitations), and Discussion (addressing relevant implications for clinical practice or health policy). A structured abstract is required.

Words: max 3000 (excluding figures and tables)
Figures/Tables: max 6
References: max 50
Complimentary pages: 6 (see Publication charges)

Reviews

Reviews are solicited by the Editor in Chief on topics that are deemed to be relevant to the audience of the Journal. Containing the current state of knowledge or practice, integrating recent advances with accepted principles and practice, or summarizing and analyzing consensus view of controversial issues in knowledge of practice. A non-structured abstract is required.

Words: max 5000 (excluding figures and tables)
Figures/Tables: max 8
References: no limit
Complimentary pages: 9 (see Publication charges)

Editorials

The purpose of the editorials is to provide the reader with a balanced overview of relevant and up to date subjects concerning the Journal's aim or future direction. A non-structured abstract is required.

Words: max 4000 (excluding figures and tables)
Figures/Tables: max 8
References: No limit
Complimentary pages: 6 (see Publication charges)

Correspondence

Letters to the Editor are intended to present opinions or comments on articles published in the Journal. Letters are subject to abridgement and editing for style and content. An abstract is not required.

If you are the corresponding author of an article cited in a Letter to the Editor and receive an email invitation to comment on it, you must log in to the system, accept the invitation immediately, and then upload and submit your reply to the Editorial Office. The response must cite the title of the letter, e.g., “Response to (Title of Letter)”.

Words: max 500 (excluding figures and tables)
Figures/Tables: 1
References: max 5

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Manuscripts must be submitted online at www.editorialmanager.com/jabfm.

First-time users: Click the “Register” button from the menu and enter the requested information. You will receive an email with your username and password. Keep a copy of this information for future reference. If you wish to change any of the data in your profile, log in with your current username and password and update your profile. You only need to register once and should always use the same email address. If you think you have registered before please contact the Editorial Office before you register again.

We recommend that each time authors log in to the system, they check the email address registered for correspondence.

Submit your manuscript according to the Instructions to Authors. Refer to the Author Tutorial, which offers detailed instructions on initial and revised submission.

Once you have initiated a submission, you can leave it and continue later, as the system will save your information. The corresponding author will be able to track the progress of the submission through the system. Should you have any difficulties, please contact the Editorial Office.

You must submit separate files for the following:

• Manuscript file
• Figures
• Supplementary materials, if included in your manuscript
• Copyright Transfer and Author Responsibility Form

Manuscript preparation

Submissions need to be of sufficient editing quality in order that they are easily interpreted by the readership of the Journal. If submitted work does not meet this standard, it will be returned to the authors. The Journal follows the AMA Manual of Style for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals.

Set your document as A4 (International Standard: ISO 216) paper, use double line spacing, Arial font size 12, number all pages, do not justify the right margin, and do not use line numbers. Save your manuscript as a Word document (.doc, .docx, or previous).

Structure your manuscript file as follows: Title page, Abstract and key words, Text, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure legends.

Title page

The first page (title page) of your manuscript file must include the following information:

• Full title (max 135 characters including letters and spaces), which must be concise and informative.
• Short title (max 75 characters, including letters and spaces).
• All authors listed as first name, initials, and last name (i.e., Paul M. Smith) with highest academic or medical degree first.
• Institutional affiliation for each author, using superscripts and not symbols (e.g., Paul M. Smith¹).
• Corresponding author’s information (full mailing address, phone and fax numbers, email address); this is usually the submitting author.
• Online-only supplementary material, with a short description.
• If you are submitting a manuscript that has been rejected previously, please inform the Journal of the previous review comments, and subsequent revision of the manuscript.
• Manuscript word count (excluding figures and tables).

Abstract and key words

The abstract must not exceed 250 words and must be structured and divided in the sections indicated in each article type.

Below the abstract, identify 3 to 6 key words in alphabetical order under which you believe the article should be indexed. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings list from lndex Medicus whenever possible. A library of terms is available at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.

Manuscript text

Divide the text into the sections described above depending on content type. Use commas (,) to separate thousands and full stop (.) for decimals (e.g. 12,354.55). Include tables in the manuscript file, after the references. Number all figures (graphs, charts, photographs, and illustrations) in the order of their citation in the text. Figures must be submitted as separate files and not embedded in the Word document.

Units of measure

Laboratory values are expressed using conventional units of measure, with relevant Système International (SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in parentheses) only at first mention. Articles that contain numerous conversion factors may list them together in a paragraph at the end of the Methods section. In tables and figures, a conversion factor to SI units should be provided in a footnote or legend. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. For more details, see the Units of Measure conversion table on the website of the AMA Manual of Style.

Names of drugs, devices, and other products

Use non-proprietary names of drugs, devices, and other products, unless the specific trade name of a drug is essential to the discussion. In such cases, use the trade name once and the generic or descriptive name thereafter. Do not include trademark symbols.

Abbreviations

Use only standard abbreviations: the full term for which an abbreviation stands for should precede its first use in the text. Do not use abbreviations in the title. All abbreviations must be spelled out when they are used for the first time in the abstract and again when they are used for the first time in the text. Abbreviations should appear first in parentheses immediately after the term or phrase to which they refer. Every abbreviation used in any table or figure should be defined in each corresponding legend. Please refer to the AMA Manual of Style for a listing of acceptable abbreviations and acronyms.

Acknowledgments

List in this section:

• Any substantial contribution when provided by a person different from the author and list all other persons who do not fulfil authorship criteria.
• The assistance of medical writing experts.
• All participating group authors who do not meet the full authorship criteria.
• All sources of funding for the manuscript and the financial disclosures for all authors.

Written permission must be obtained to include the names of all individuals included in the Acknowledgments section.

If the manuscript has been presented at a meeting, please indicate in this section its name, location, and date.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation. Personal communications, unpublished data, abstracts, and oral or poster presentations should be limited and incorporated in parentheses within the text without a reference number. A signed permission should be included from each individual identified in a personal communication or as a source for unpublished data, as well as the date of communication.

• References should follow the text and begin on a separate page.
• References must be double line spaced and numbered consecutively in order of appearance within the text, using the automated numbering tool of Word.
• Identify references in text, tables, and legends in Arabic numerals in parentheses, i.e. (7).
• List all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list only the first three and add et al.
• References used within tables or figure legends should be included in the reference list and numbered in consecutive order according to the table/figure citation in the text.
• Journals’ names should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus/Medline. If there is any doubt about abbreviation of a journal name, it should be spelled out completely.
• Any references to studies (including books or articles) that have been accepted for publication, but not yet published, should indicate where they will be published and have the term “in press” in the reference in place of volume and page numbers. These must be updated prior to publication, if possible.
• Do not add a discussion or comment to a reference.
• Suffixes such as Jr, Sr, and III follow author’s initials.

Examples of reference style:

1. Standard journal article

Yealy DM, Kellum JA, Huang DT, et al. A randomized trial of protocol-based care for early septic shock. N Engl J Med. 2014;370(18):1683-1693.

Domino FJ, Baldor RA, Grimes JA, Golding J, eds. 5-Minute Clinical Consult. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2014; 492-498.

3. Chapter in book

Yaksh TL, Luo ZD. Anatomy of the pain processing system. In: Waldman SD, ed. Pain Management. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier/Saunders 2011; 10-18.

4. Online-only reference

References to web resources must always include the full link and the date the information was accessed and the link was live. (e.g. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Postmarket drug safety information for patients and providers. https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/default.htm. Accessed June 10, 2014.)

Tables

Submit tables in your manuscript file after references. Do not submit them as separate files. As a general rule, tables should not unnecessarily offer duplicate information given within the text. Starting on a new page, type each table on a separate sheet, using double line spacing. Tables should be created in a Word document using the table tool. Do not format tables as columns or tabs and do not submit tables as figures. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals by order of citation in the text. Each table must include title, appropriate column headings, and explanatory legends, including definitions of any abbreviations used. References used within tables should be included in the reference list and numbered in consecutive order according to the table citation in the text. Identify statistical measures of variations such as SD and SEM. Follow the guidelines for creating tables.

Figure legends and legends for supplementary material

At the end of the manuscript, include a short title and a legend for each figure. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the figures, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.

For photomicrographs, include the type of specimen, original magnification or a scale bar, and stain in the legend. For gross pathology specimens, label any rulers with unit of measure. Digitally enhanced images (CT/MRI, blots, photographs, photomicrographs, ultrasound images, x-ray films, etc.) must be clearly identified in the figure legends as digitally processed images. References used within figure legends should be included in the reference list and numbered in consecutive order according to the figure citation in the text.

Any figure that has been published elsewhere should have an acknowledgment to the original source; a copy of the permission to publish the figure, signed by the copyright holder, must accompany the submission.

Figures and illustrations

Number all figures (graphs, charts, photographs, and illustrations) in the order of their citation in the text. Include a title for each figure (a brief phrase, preferably no longer than 10-15 words). Do not embed figures in the Word document. Figures must be submitted as individual .jpg or .tif files and have a high enough resolution for publishing. Do not submit figures as Word, Powerpoint or PDF files.

Clinical photographs that identify an individual must be accompanied by a signed statement by the patient or legal guardian granting permission for publication of the pictures for educational purposes or must be masked to prevent identification of the patient.

Please refer to the Artwork Guidelines for more details.

Color figures

Authors may use color figures. If a manuscript has been submitted, reviewed, and accepted with color figures, then it MUST be published with color figures.

Image integrity

Preparation of scientific images (clinical images, radiographic images, micrographs, gels, etc.) for publication must preserve the integrity of the image data. Digital adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color applied uniformly to an entire image are permissible as long as these adjustments do not selectively highlight, misrepresent, obscure, or eliminate specific elements in the original figure, including the background.

Supplementary material

Authors may submit supplementary material to accompany their article for online-only publication.

This material should be important to the understanding and interpretation of the report and should not repeat material within the print article. The amount of supplementary material should be limited and justified. Supplementary material should be original and not previously published and will undergo editorial and peer review with the main manuscript. Supplementary material must be listed on the title page of your submission and should be cited in the manuscript text in parentheses, in a similar way as when citing a figure or a table. Provide a legend for each supplementary material submitted.

If the manuscript is accepted for publication and if the supplementary material is deemed appropriate for publication by the editors, it will be posted online. This material will not be edited or formatted; thus, the authors are responsible for the accuracy and presentation of all such material.

Appropriate content

Tables

Expanded datasets and spread sheets, should be supplied in their original format or as PDF.

Type text using Arial font size 10, and single line spaced. The table title should be set in Arial font size 12, and bold. Headings within tables should be set in Arial font size 10, and bold. Table footnotes should be set in Arial font size 8, and single line spaced. See also instructions for Tables. If a table runs on to subsequent pages, repeat the column headings at the top of each page. Wide tables may be presented using a landscape orientation.

Figures

Additional digitized figures and illustrations, should be supplied according to the technical specifications for figures.

Video clips

Accepted file formats: .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .wmv, or .avi
Maximum size: 10 MB
Maximum length: 5 minutes

Verify that the videos are viewable in QuickTime or Windows Media Player.

For each video, provide a citation in the appropriate place in the manuscript text where a legend should also be included. If multiple video files are submitted, number them in the order in which they should be viewed.

Patients should not be identifiable, or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the video. It is the author's responsibility to supply video files in the correct format. The Journal will not consider video material not submitted according to specifications.

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REVIEW AND PUBLICATION PROCESS

Manuscripts submitted online at https://www.editorialmanager.com/jabfm are assigned a unique number upon submission and all correspondence and enquiries regarding the manuscript must include this ID number.

Manuscripts that do not adhere to the guidelines for submission will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing the peer review process. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication will be rejected promptly.

All correspondence related to the submission, including editorial decisions, will be sent by email to the corresponding author. In case of revision, detailed revision instructions will be sent and a point-by-point response will be required. The Journal does not reveal the identity of its reviewers.

During the review process, authors can check the status of their submitted manuscript via Editorial Manager.

Editing and page proofs

Accepted manuscripts will be edited by a professional style editor. The corresponding author will receive proofs, which will include all changes made by the style editor, and must be reviewed within 48 hours. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that there are no errors in the proofs.

Authorship changes including adding or removing authors cannot be submitted at proof stage. The publisher is not authorized to make such changes and it will delay the publication of your manuscript (see Authorship criteria).


Publication charges

Publication in the Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional Materials (JABFM) is free of charge. However, the Journal offers complimentary publication ONLY as indicated for each article type.

If extra page charges apply, the author will receive an Author Charge Form to return completed. Unless all charges are paid, the article will not be published or deposited to databases.

Extra page charge

Additional pages are subject to charge. Responsibility for arranging the payment is with the corresponding author. Please note that additional pages are calculated on the actual final typeset article: its length depends largely not only on the specifications supplied for each article type but also on the physical size of tables and figures included. Manuscript length cannot be amended after acceptance and typesetting. Pages exceeding the complimentary limit set by the Journal will be charged €95 each.

Open Access

In case of acceptance after peer review, you may choose to publish your article under Open Access terms. Open Access means that everyone around the world can read and download your article for free.

The article processing fee is €1,200 and will be payable before the article is finalized and published online. This service is a permissible cost in NIH grant allocation. For articles supported by some funders, such as Wellcome Trust, Open Access is mandatory and will be reimbursed by the funding body.

Open Access publishing is under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Wichtig Publishing acts as a central point for commercial requests in order to help protect your work from misuse.

For research funded by the Wellcome Trust, RCUK, and other organizations with the same requirements, Open Access papers are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0).

For additional information, you may contact Wichtig Publishing at [email protected].

Offprints

Corresponding authors will receive an email including links to an offprint order form with the page proofs which can be shared with co-authors. Offprints are normally shipped 2 to 4 weeks after publication of the issue in which the article appears.

Errata, corrections, and retractions

In case an article has been published with major errors, it is often necessary to publish an erratum in the Journal. Requests to publish corrections should be sent to the Editorial Office.

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