Instructions to Authors

Submission to The Archives of Rheumatology is only online. We do not accept submissions via email, nor hardcopies by hand or post. If you have trouble uploading and submitting the manuscript, please email us at ceratak@yazilimparki.com.tr or abdulvahap_kahveci@hotmail.com for guidance.

The office contact details of the publisher are given below: 

Bayçınar Tıbbi Yayıncılık ve
Reklam Hizmetleri Tic. Ltd. Şti.

Örnek Mah., Dr. Suphi Ezgi Sok.,
Saray Apt. No:11, D:6
34704 Ataşehir, İstanbul 

Phone: 0216 317 41 14
Fax: 0216 317 63 68
e-mail: info@baycinartibbiyayincilik.com 

Please note that no article will be processed without a cover letter and ethical approval of research.  

• All text must be written using MS Word. 
• Font Type: Calibri, Times New Roman
• Font Size: 18 for the article title, 12 for article text
• Line Spacing should be set as 1,5.
• Alignment justified throughout with at least 3 cm of space on both sides. 
• The page number should be added at the right bottom corner. 
• The main text should not contain any information about the authors' names and affiliations, and it must be blinded completely.
• Abbreviations: The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede the abbreviation's first use in the text in brackets and the use of standard abbreviations listed in the "Scientific Style and Format" is advocated.

Only the following types of articles are accepted. Case reports are no longer accepted for publication. 

Original Research Articles

Scientific research articles should include the following sections: title page, abstract, keywords, main text (introduction, materials, and methods, results, discussion), acknowledgments and references. Articles should not exceed 5000 words and 50 references.

The Archives of Rheumatology is using international standards for way of reporting research to the scholarly journals. The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network is “an international initiative that seeks to improve the reliability and value of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting and wider use of robust reporting guidelines.” The Archives of Rheumatology advise authors to visit the  EQUATOR Network website(http://www.equator-network.org/) to find guidelines for all study types. The Archives of Rheumatology encourages the use of CONSORT checklist for randomized trials, STROBE checklist for observational studies and STARD checklists for diagnostic/prognostic studies.

Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Review articles should include a title, abstract, keywords, main topics, and references. It should not exceed 5000 words and more than 150 references. The use of PRISMA checklist for all systematic reviews and meta-analyses is advised. 

Narrative Reviews 

The Archives of Rheumatology only accepts narrative reviews with the invitation.

Letters to the Editor

The Archives of Rheumatology can publish a letter to the editor in the following items:

• comment on a published article in the journal
• research reports
• case reports
• case series
• adverse reaction to a drug 

A letter must not exceed 500 words in length. The letters should not have abstracts. Letters that do not meet these specifications will be unpublished. Letters will be published on a space-available basis. The editor might also choose to invite a response from the authors of the original paper.

When an author wants to write a comment letter on a published article

• Do not use an impolite, and judgmental attitude
• Make specific rather than general comments
• The comments should be based on scientific evidence
• Do not repeat topics which were studied in the original article
• Approach the subject matter from a different perspective
• Present additional data

The Archives of Rheumatology may publish case reports in letter format which should provide novel insight into a disease.

Images

Images are a brief clinical report describing a unique image.  All images must have patient consent, and the author declaration form must be sent with your submission.

An abstract is not required in images. Maximum 3 figures can be submitted. Each figure should have a brief legend and the written material can be a commentary on the image, not all the details of the clinical observation and should not exceed 250 words. There may be a maximum of 5 references.

The title page and cover letter are generated automatically during the online submission process. There is no need to prepare and upload them separately. In addition to the title, a running title of the manuscript (not more than 40 characters including spaces) should be entered.

Original articles should have a structured abstract including the following subheads: Objective, Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusions. For letter to the editor and visual vignettes, the structured abstract is not used. Limit the abstract to 300 words. The abstract must be added to the beginning of the manuscript file.Abbreviations should be avoided. References, tables, and citations should not be used in an abstract. 

Authors must include relevant keywords (2-5) on the line after the end of the abstract. Use appropriate subject headings as listed in www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.

In the section for the cover letter, authors should state that there is no conflict of interest associated with the manuscript. This statement must also be added at the end of the manuscript body, before funding information and the contribution statement. In a case of a conflict of interest for any of the authors, please provide disclosure of interest by giving a detailed explanation.

Any sources of funding must be declared after conflicts of interests. The authors who have not received any funding must state ‘No funding received.'

Author contributions must be added to the end of the manuscript, after funding information. The authors’ role must be stated clearly. 

Contributors who do not meet all the four criteria for authorship, but helped in the study, may be listed in the acknowledgment section. These may be named, and their function or contribution should be described - for example, "scientific advisor critical review of study proposal, "data collection," or "participation clinical trial." Such persons must have given their permission to be named. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from the person acknowledged by name, because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions. Technical help should be recognized in a paragraph separate from those acknowledging other contributions.

Unpublished observations and submitted manuscripts should not be given in the references section. They must be cited in the text as "name(s), unpublished data, 19..."

Number references in the order in which they are mentioned in the text; do not alphabetize. In the text, the author's citations must be followed by a reference number in parenthesis. At the end of the book, identify references with Arabic numerals in the text and abbreviate the names of journals by the Index Medicus (www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html). In reference, the names of all authors should be stated if less than six. Otherwise, after six names, it should be followed by "et al." Examples related to correct use of references are given below.

Standard Journal Article

Russell IJ, Orr MD, Littman B, Vipraio GA, Alboukrek D, Michalek JE, et al. Elevated cerebrospinal fluid levels of substance P in patients with the fibromyalgia syndrome. Arthritis Rheum 1994;37:1593-601.

Book

Guttman L. Spinal cord injuries: comprehensive management and research. 2nd ed. London: Blackwell Scientific Publications; 1976. p. 353-4.

Chapter in Book

Zvaifler NJ. Antimalarials. In: McCarty DJ, editor. Arthritis and allied conditions. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger; 1985. p. 497-501.

Proceedings

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy, and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Reinhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; September 6-10, 1992; Geneva, Switzerland. North-Holland; 1992. p. 1561-5.

Electronic Journal

Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious disease. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 1(1):[24 screens]. Available from: http://www/cdc/gov/ncidoc/EID/eid.htm.

Tables, graphs, figures, and illustrations should not be placed in the main text. Separate files should be prepared for tables (each table on a separate page), graphs, figures, and illustrations. Please supply the electronic files for all figures and illustrations including photographs as gif or jpg images with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Each table and figure should have a clear title and be numbered in order of their citation in the text. Arabic numbers should be preferred for tables, graphs, figures, and photographs. Also, each legend should describe clearly what the illustration shows and what each abbreviation means. Tables should not repeat the data of the text. In the case of the use of a previously published table, figure or illustration, written permission from the publisher should be submitted with the manuscript. Identifying information including names, initials, hospital numbers and pedigrees should not be written. Information or illustrations must not permit the identification of patients, and written informed consent for publication must be sought for any photograph. 

Copyright

Turkish League Against Rheumatism. All rights reserved. The Archives of Rheumatology is published using the open access model. All content is available free of charge without restrictions from the journal's website at www.archivesofrheumatology.org.

Patient Consent Form

For manuscripts concerning experimental research on humans, a statement verifying that written informed consent of the patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures should be included. For studies carried out on animals, the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering of the animals should be stated clearly. Information on patient consent should also be stated in the manuscript. It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect patients’ anonymity. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patient, releases signed by the patient or his/herlegal representative should be enclosed.

Plagiarism Detection

Whether intentional or not, plagiarism is a serious violation. We define plagiarism as a case in which a paper reproduces another work with similarity and without citation. If evidence of plagiarism is found before/after acceptance or after publication of the paper, the author will be offered a chance for rebuttal. If the arguments are not found to be satisfactory, the manuscript will be retracted and the author sanctioned from publishing papers for a period to be determined by the responsible Editor(s). The journal uses iThenticate plagiarism screening tool to screen all submissions and to verify the originality of content before publication.

Material Disclaimer

Scientific and legal responsibilities pertaining to the papers belong to the authors. The Contents of the manuscripts and accuracy of references along with the copyright authority of the figures and tables are also the author's responsibility. Neither The Turkish League Against Rheumatism, the Editor, the Editorial Board nor the publisher accepts any responsibility for the articles. 

Preprint Policy

Preprints are precursor version of a document (scientific paper, project report, or other) that has not yet been peer reviewed, but that may, if corrected and submitted to a scholarly journal for peer review, have a similar content to the final published version. Unless it meets a very urgent and important need scientifically, it is not desirable to upload the articles to various systems as preprints due to there are several concerns about preprints. The authors should clearly state that manuscript published as preprinted before and give the DOI number of preprint version during submission. Changing of DOI number of peer reviewed accepted version to preprint version was completely authors responsibility.

Data Sharing Policy

The journal encourages authors to share the data in the manuscript by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors may provide a data availability statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published in their paper. Shared data should be cited. If you have shared data, you need to describe how the data can be accessed) from the repository. The authors can use the proposals of The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for data sharing. (Taichman DB, Backus J, Baethge C, Bauchner H, de Leeuw PW, Drazen JM, et al. Sharing clinical trial data: a proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [Editorial]. Ann Intern Med. 2016;164:505-6. [PMID: 26792258] doi:10.7326/M15-2928)

Article Processing Charge

The Archives of Rheumatology is an official journal of the Turkish League Against Rheumatism (TLAR).

Publication fee will only be applied for publishing approved articles. This fee is only to cover the cost of publication and there will be no benefits to the organization.

Publishing fee is €38 per page for ready to publish articles. There may be a discount for the articles that are selected by editorial team.

If the corresponding author is a member of TLAR, a 20% discount will be applied to the article fee.

Publication fees will not be charged for individuals who have served as peer reviewers for our journal on five occasions, provided they are the corresponding authors.

Once the articles you have submitted as Word files are accepted for publication, they will be charged according to the number of pages they cover in the journal. This fee will be notified to you by the Publisher. Please do not pay before you receive an e-mail from the Publisher.

Publication fee will be calculated according to the number of pages which the articles cover in the Journal. For example:

38 € x 5 per page = 190 Euro + 38 Euro (20% € VAT) = 228.00 € [Euro]

38 € x 10 per page = 380 Euro + 76 Euro (20% € VAT) = 456.00 € [Euro]

Bank Account:
VAKIFBANK / Hastaneler şubesi
€ [Euro] IBAN: TR93 0001 5001 5804 8023 0875 83
Swift code: TVBATR2A
Payee’s name:
Türkiye Romatizma Araştırma ve Savaş Derneği İktisadi İşletmesi

Subscription

The Archives of Rheumatology is freely delivered to all physicians in the Rheumatology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation fields. For subscription, please contact the Turkish League Against Rheumatism. It is online at www.archivesofrheumatology.org. Tables of contents, abstracts and full texts of all articles published since 2000 are free to all readers.

Address

Yaşam Caddesi No: 13/A Neorama Plaza Kat:6 Daire:26 Söğütözü/Ankara, Türkiye.

Phone: +90 312 562 13 22
Fax: +90 312 562 13 22
Web Address: www.archivesofrheumatology.org

Permission Requests

Permission requests to reproduce copies of articles for non-commercial use may be obtained from the Editorial Office.

Editorial Contact

Meltem ALKAN MELİKOĞLU, MD, Professor
E-Mail Address: mamelikoglu@gmail.com

Abdulvahap KAHVECİ, MD, Asst Professor
E-Mail Address: abdulvahap_kahveci@hotmail.com

Technical Contact

Çiğdem ERATAK
Yazılım Parkı Bilişim Teknolojileri D.O.R.P. Ltd. Şti.
E-Mail Address: ceratak@yazilimparki.com.tr
Web Address: www.yazilimparki.com.tr

Expressions of Concern & Retractions

Where substantial doubt arises as to the honesty or integrity of a submitted or published article, it is the Editor-in-Chief's responsibility to ensure that the matter is adequately addressed, usually by the authors' sponsoring institution. In general, the Editor-in-Chief is not responsible for conducting the investigation or making a definite decision. The Editor-in-Chief should be promptly informed of the decision of the sponsoring institution and a retraction printed should it be determined that a fraudulent paper was published. Alternatively, the Editor-in-Chief may choose to publish an expression of concern over the aspects of the conduct or integrity of the work.

Retraction Note

Journal Editors should consider retracting a publication if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct or honest error the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification it constitutes plagiarism it reports unethical research. The text for retraction notes can be submitted/written by the author(s), Journal editor, Society or jointly.

Appeals

Authors may submit a formal appeal for rejected submissions. Appeal requests must be made in writing via email to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Authors must provide detailed reasons for the appeal and point-by-point responses to the reviewers' and/or Associate Editor's comments. Decisions on appeals are final without exception.

If you have further questions at any stage in the process, please contact us via ceratak@yazilimparki.com.tr