Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal’s editorial management system.
Note that the manuscript should be uploaded as one file with tables and figures included. This file can be a Word document, a PDF, or a zip file.

Publication Fee
The Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism does not charge a publication fee.

Required files for final submissions
After the article has been accepted, the authors should submit the final version as source files, including a word processor file of the text, such as Word or LateX (If using LaTeX, please use the standard article.sty as a style file and also send a PDF version of the LaTeX file).

Colour figures
It is possible to have figures printed in colour, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. See Preparation of Manuscripts for the required file formats.

Open Access option
The IOS Press Open Library offers authors an Open Access (OA) option. By selecting the OA option, the article will be freely available from the moment it is published, also in the pre-press module. In the Open Library the article processing charges are paid in the form of an Open Access Fee. Authors will receive an Open Access Order Form upon acceptance of their article. Open Access is entirely optional.
See also our website for more information about this option IOS Press Open Library.

Article Types
Research Papers
Original research papers. The journal considers all original research manuscripts of work that contains scientifically valid experiments and provides a substantial amount of new information. Brief Communications of preliminary results will be considered. Research papers should conform to the following reporting guidelines: Observational studies: STROBE, Microarray experiments: MIAME. Other types of health-related research: Consult the EQUATOR web site. Guidelines on preparation of manuscripts can be found below (at the Preparation of manuscripts section).

Reviews
Reviews should be authoritative and topical and provide comprehensive and balanced coverage of a timely and/or controversial issue. When possible, systematic reviews are strongly encouraged and will be given stronger consideration for publication. For systematic reviews, authors should consult PRISMA (prisma-statement.org) and prepare their reviews as per the "PRISMA 2009 Checklist document" at this site, and this compliance stated in the manuscript. Title of the review should be in the following format "SYSTEMATIC REVIEW: full article title". We recommend the EQUATOR Network (equator-network.org) and the NLM's Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives (nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html) as good sources for reporting guidelines. Commentaries Commentaries can be around 1000 words with an abstract and no other subdivisions. Comments that refer to a paper in the journal must be received within 3 months of the paper's publication. The comment should have no more than 500 words and a maximum of 10 references. All comments must include a conflict of interests' statement.

Study Protocols
Study protocol articles can be for proposed or ongoing prospective clinical research, and should provide a detailed account of the hypothesis, rationale and methodology of the study. Study protocol articles will only be considered for proposed or ongoing studies that have not completed participant recruitment at the time of submission. Authors will be asked to confirm the status of their study at submission. Study protocols for pilot or feasibility studies are not usually considered. Authors are encouraged to submit the results of the pilot as a research article and the study protocol for the definitive study. Study protocols are generally not considered if the authors have other articles relating to the protocol published or under consideration. The final decision on whether to consider a study protocol for publication will rest with the Editor and appeals will not be considered. Protocols of randomized trials should follow the SPIRIT guidelines (https://www.spirit-statement.org/), including the SPIRIT flow diagram in the main body of the text, with the populated checklist provided as an additional file. Editorials (by invitation only). Proposals may be submitted; authors should only send an outline of the proposed editorial. There is no abstract required and an editorial should not exceed 1000 words, have a maximum of 2 figures or tables and have no more than 5 references.

Letters to the Editor
Authors can submit comments of 1000 words or less concerning prior articles published in the journal to the Editor-in-Chief including any conflicts of interest. Letters to the Editors should not have more than 4 authors, and not contain more than 25,000 characters and 10 references. The Editor-in-Chief will consider the merits of any comments received and decide whether or not they should be published in the journal.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Organization of the paper and style of presentation
Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to consult a professional English language editing service or a native English speaker prior to submission.

Manuscripts should be prepared with wide margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Try to avoid the excessive use of italics and bold face.

Supplementary data
If there is an online dataset associated with the paper, you are welcome to provide information about where the data supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper can be found. Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other identifier associated with the dataset(s).

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

• Title page
• Body of text (divided by subheadings)
• Acknowledgements
• Funding Statement
• Conflict of Interest Statement
• Author Contributions
• References
• Tables
• Figure captions
• Figures

Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation.

SI units should be used, i.e., the units based on the metre, kilogramme, second, etc.

Title page
The title page should provide the following information:

• Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
• Name(s) of author(s); please indicate who is the corresponding author
• Full affiliation(s)
• Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
• Complete address of corresponding author, including tel. no., fax no. and e-mail address
• Abstract
• Keywords

Authorship
IOS Press has adopted Sage’s Authorship Policy.  Please go to:  Authorship guidelines | SAGE Publications Ltd for details.

Abstract
The abstract should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory and not longer than 200 words, it should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services.
The abstract for research papers should follow the “structured abstract” format. Section labels should be in bold uppercase letters followed by a colon, and each section will begin on a new line.
BACKGROUND:
OBJECTIVE:
METHODS:
RESULTS:
CONCLUSIONS:

Tables
Number as Table 1, Table 2 etc, and refer to all of them in the text.

Each table should be provided on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should not be included in the text.

Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.

Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.

Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Acknowledgments

Funding
Specify sources of funding. If there are none, do still include this section and insert "The authors report no funding". 

Conflict of Interest
If there is no conflict of interest to declare, do still include this section and insert "The authors have no conflict of interest to report". If an author is also on the Editorial Board of this journal, the following statement should be included in this section: “<AUTHOR> is an Editorial Board Member of this journal, but was not involved in the peer review process. (because of the legacy pipeline after introduction of the requirement to add this as a statement to the COI section, this will not manifest consistently in all published articles before Volume 15, Issue 1.)

Author Contributions
For every author, his or her contribution to the manuscript needs to be provided using the following categories: conception; performance of work; or interpretation of data; writing the article (also see CRediT contributor roles). All authors should also state whether they had access to the data. However, because of the legacy pipeline after introduction of this policy, statements on data access will not be manifest consistently in all published articles before Volume 15, Issue 1.

REFERENCES

Authors are requested to use the Vancouver citation style.

Place citations as numbers in square brackets in the text. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references at the end of the manuscript. List the references in the order in which they appear in the text. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be listed as (author(s), unpublished data). If an article has a DOI, this should be provided after the page number details. The number is added after the letters 'doi'. Manuscripts will not be considered if they do not conform to the Vancouver citation guidelines.

References must be listed in Vancouver style:

[1] Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002; 935(12): 406. 
[2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002. 
[3] Berkow R, Fletcher AJ, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 16th ed. Rahway (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1992. 
[4] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGrawHill; 2002. p. 93113. 
[5] Canadian Cancer Society [homepage on the Internet]. Toronto: The Society; 2006 [updated 2006 May 12; cited 2006 Oct 17]. Available from: www.cancer.ca/.

Footnotes
Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it is possible to incorporate the information in the text. 
If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers and kept as short as possible.

Policy on Use of Human Subjects
IOS Press has adopted Sage’s Publication ethics policies.  Please go to:  
Publication ethics and research integrity: policy guidelines for authors | SAGE Publications Ltd for details.

Policy on Ethics
IOS Press has adopted Sage’s Ethics Policy.  Please go to: Ethics & Responsibility | SAGE Publications Ltd for details.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of your article
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Article sharing
IOS Press adopted Sage’s Article Sharing Policy from 8^th of July 2024. 
Please go to:  Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines | SAGE Publications Ltd for details. If your manuscript was submitted prior to 8^th of July 2024, please contact editorial@iospress.nl with details of your enquiry.

PROOFS AND PRE-PRESS

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors.

The corrected proof is published online in the journal’s pre-press module shortly after the proof is created and author corrections are implemented. This is not the final version. As soon as the article is assigned to an issue, the final bibliographic information will be added and the pre-press file will be replaced by the updated, final version. Pre-press articles are fully citable by using their DOI number.

PURCHASES

How to order reprints, a PDF file, journals, or IOS Press books
The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal will receive a complimentary PDF Author’s Copy of the article, unless otherwise stated. This PDF copy is watermarked and for personal use only. A free PDF copy will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues. An order form for a PDF file without watermark, reprints or additional journal copies will be provided along with the PDF proof.

If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation. IOS Press, Fax: +31 20 687 0019. Email: editorial@iospress.nl.

An author is entitled to 25 % discount on IOS Press books. See Author's discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

KUDOS

Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at our authors section.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK

Would you like some pointers on how to help your research achieve a wider reach and greater impact? Please consult our Promotional Toolkit for Authors for tips.

Please visit the IOS Press Authors page for further information.