Author Guidelines

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

 Purpose

 Technology and Innovation in Life Sciences (TILS Journal) is a multidisciplinary scientific journal that aims to disseminate latest results in field of innovation and technology in life sciences (e.g. artificial intelligence, machine learning, bigdata, VR, digital health, robotic surgery, endoscopy, nano technology, pharmacology).The journal uses double blind review, meaning that the names of both reviewers and authors are hidden from each other.

Focus and Scope. Technology and Innovation in Life Sciences (TILS) is a peer-reviewed journal published by The Innovation and eHealth Center of Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Bucharest. The journal aims to contribute to the development and dissemination of multidisciplinary knowledge on use of technology and innovation in various fields of medicine and life sciences. The journal publishes original papers, review ar¬ticles, preliminary notes, short communications and invited editorials

The content of the journal is published in OPEN ACCES mode, which means that readers are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles and to use them for any other lawful purpose.

There are no APC's or other fees.

The journal uses double blind review, which means that the identities of both the reviewer and the author are concealed from each other, throughout the review process. 

The journal will publish different types of articles: editorial, original article, review (narrative, systematic or meta-analysis), short communications and image-article.

The journal operates in a continuous publication mode where accepted articles are posted online as soon as they have completed the production process.

The papers submitted should refer to any surgical topic.

Article submission

Submitted articles can be included in one of the four categories below:

1. Research articles
2. Reviews (narrative, systematic, meta-analysis)
3. Short Communoications
4. Image article

The first step is submitting the article on the TILS web page:

https://tilsonline.com/

The articles will be evaluated by our editors and, once a decision on its publication is reached, the author will be contacted by email or phone.

The article must be sent by only one author, so that he can receive all the notifications and answer them promptly.

Works that do not meet the criteria mentioned in this document or works not considered as a priority by the journal’s scientific reviewers will be returned to the authors.

The selection criteria include: the importance of objectivity and scientific information, clarity, and brevity of exposure. The authors assume responsibility, in accordance with the principles of ethics and scientific truth in getting data and presenting the results.

The journal and articles published herein are protected under the law on Copyright.

Article content

Articles will be submitted exclusively in English.

 Articles sent for publication must include:

1. Title page containing: article title, name of the authors with their academic degrees and institutes or departments to which they belong, the author responsible for correspondence (name, postal address, phone number, e-mail, fax) and acknowledgments (if necessary).

2. Manuscript which will contain:
3. Title
4. Short title – if the title is longer than 90 characters including spaces
5. Abstracts – given that this will be indexed in an electronic abstracts databases, it should be carefully written, reflecting the content and relevance of the article, while complying with orthographic and linguistic rules. The abstract should be structured as a single text block (no paragraphs) with less than 250 words and must not contain references.
6. Keywords – 3-5 representative keywords
7. The article text will have a structure adapted to the material type:

Original works and Reviews must include: introduction, materials and method (referring to the selection of participants, inclusion and exclusion criteria, technical information, statistical method used for the calculation of the data), results, discussions and conclusions.

Bibliography

The bibliography should comply with the Recommendations of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors as follows:

Authors should provide direct references to original research sources whenever possible. Although references to review articles can be an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature, review articles do not always reflect original work accurately. On the other hand, extensive lists of references to original work on a topic can use excessive space. Fewer references to key original papers often serve as well as more exhaustive lists, particularly since references can now be added to the electronic version of published papers, and since electronic literature searching allows readers to retrieve published literature efficiently.

Do not use conference abstracts as references: they can be cited in the text, in parentheses, but not as page footnotes. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming.” Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source.

Avoid citing a “personal work” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. The limit of accepted auto-citing is 10%.

We reserve our right to check the accuracy of all reference citations to avoid errors.

IEEE citation style includes in-text citations, numbered in square brackets [X], which refer to the full citation listed in the reference list at the end of the paper. The reference list is organized numerically, not alphabetically.

Place bracketed citations within the line of text, before any punctuation, with a space before the first bracket.

Number your sources as you cite them in the paper. Once you have referred to a source and given it a number, continue to use that number as you cite that source throughout the paper.

When citing multiple sources at once, the preferred method is to list each number separately, in its own brackets, using a comma or dash bteween numbers, as such: [1], [3], [5] or [1] - [5].

The below examples are from Murdoch University's IEEE Style LibGuide.

Examples of in-text citations:

"...end of the line for my research [13]."

"This theory was first put forward in 1987 [1]."

"Scholtz [2] has argued that..."

"Several recent studies [3], [4], [15], [16] have suggested that...."

"For example, see [7]."

The Reference List appears at the end of your paper and provides the full citations for all the references you have used.  List all references numerically in the order they've been cited within the paper, and include the bracketed number at the beginning of each reference.

Title your list as References either centered or aligned left at the top of the page.

The author's name is listed as first initial, last name. Example: Adel Al Muhairy would be cited as A. Al Muhairy (NOT Al Muhairy, Adel).

The title of an article is listed in quotation marks.

The title of a journal or book is listed in italics.

The below examples are from the IEEE Citation Reference Guide and Murdoch University's IEEE Style LibGuide.

Examples of citations for different materials:

Technical instructions

Authors should send us the final version of the article. Future changes would be done only upon the editor’s request.

The authors will use symbols of the Système Internationale d'Unités and their abbreviations. Other official abbreviations and acronyms must be defined when used for the first time in the text, even after they have been defined in the abstract. Do not use abbreviations in title and in key words.

Tables and figures (graphs, charts, drawings, photographs) will have titles, will be numbered (figures separate from tables) and will include a legend (if needed) and will be mentioned in text.

Graphs will indicate the scale and units of measurement.

Photos will have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and should be well focused. Unclear or pixilated photos can we rejected by editors.

The authors must have the rights of using and publishing all the tables, graphs and photos.

The article must be sent as a Microsoft Word document (*.doc or *.docx) and should comply with the following rules:

1. Font:
   • Times New Roman
   • 12 pc.
2. Indents and Spacing: General:
   • Alignment: justify
   • Outline level: body text
   • Indentation: left: 0
   • Right: 0
   • Special: none
   • Spacing: single line
   • Before: 0
   • After: 0
   • Line spacing: single
3. Page Layout:
   • Margins:
   • Top: 2.5cm
   • Bottom: 2.5cm
   • Left: 2.5cm
   • Right: 2.5cm
   • Gutter: 0
   • Gutter position: left
4. Orientation: portrait
5. Pages: multiple pages: normal
6. Use only RETURN key to jump to next row or to indicate the end of a paragraph

Copyright and patient confidentiality

All authors will be asked to complete a Copyright Transfer Agreement, transferring copyright for the article to the Publisher and declaring any competing of interests.

Once accepted for publication, the article may not be published elsewhere. Upon acceptance of an article by the Journal, the author(s) implicitly transfer(s) the copyright of the article to the Publisher. The copyright covers the exclusive and unlimited rights to reproduce and distribute the article in any form of reproduction (including electronic media); it also covers translations for all languages and countries. This transfer ensures the widest possible dissemination of information. 

Our policy about patient rights is based on the principle of confidentiality and the traditions of medical ethics.

Any article that contains personal medical information about an identifiable living individual should be accompanied by the patient’s explicit consent before publication.

If consent cannot be obtained, the publication will be possible only if the information can be sufficiently anonymised. In such cases the following note should be inserted at the end of the paper: Detail has been removed from this case description/these case descriptions to ensure anonymity. The editors and reviewers have seen the detailed information available and are satisfied that the information backs up the case the authors are making.

If the patient is dead the Data Protection Act does not apply, but the authors should seek permission from a relative (as a matter of courtesy and medical ethics).

Our policy on obtaining consent for publication of pictures of patients is a subset of our general policy on patient confidentiality. If there is any chance that a patient may be identified from a photograph or other image or from its legend or accompanying text we need the patient’s written consent to publication in the JSS.

Images – such as X rays, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, pathology slides, or images of indistinctive parts of the body – may be used without consent as long as they are anonymised.

 An exception to this policy of needing consent for recognizable photographs of individuals is when we use photographs from picture agencies.