All manuscripts submitted to the Korean Journal of Medicine should conform to the following author’s instructions, and if not specified below, must comply with Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).

1. Types of manuscript and language

The manuscripts submitted to the Korean Journal of Internal Medicine should be unique and creative that could contribute to the novel findings in the pathology, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. These include perspectives, review articles (What’s hot?, What’s new?, In-depth review, Clinical practice (Road map to diagnosis, Interpretation of a diagnostic test)), original articles, and case reports. All review articles should be submitted and published by the request of the Editorial Board. The manuscript should not have been published elsewhere and must not be submitted simultaneously to any other journal. All manuscripts should be prepared in grammatically correct Korean. All medical terms used should be those listed in the latest terminology book of the Korean Medical Association. Original articles and case reports written in English will be published in English after the review process by the editors. The copyright for articles published in our journal is fully reserved by the Korean Journal of Medicine.

2. Ethics of research and publication

The policies on the research and publication ethics of The Korean Journal of Medicine are followed by ‘Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals
(https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13&per_page=)’ or ‘Guidelines on good publication (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines)’.

1) All clinical research must be registered by national clinical research center (https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/index/index.do), WHO, or institutions certified by ‘International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’

Authors must certify that any financial interests such as employment, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, as well as any personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion which may inappropriately influence the actions, have been included within my manuscript.

Authors must keep the patient consent form for clinical trials as well as the study approval form certified by the Institutional Review Board. Authors must submit these documents when requested by the Korean Journal of Medicine.

Research using human subjects must conform to the Declaration of Helsinki (revised edition, 2013). Animal studies must be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and these document must be submitted upon request by the Korean Journal of Medicine.

All authors must have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript, and all subsequent versions. All authors should have made 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy of integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The manuscript should not have been published elsewhere and must not be submitted simultaneously to any other journal.

Re-print of the manuscript is possible if guidelines of the ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals’ is satisfied.

3. Manuscript review process

1) At least two experts in the given field review whether a submitted manuscript is publishable through the Journal. Based on their reviews, the editorial committee decides whether to publish the manuscript and recommends the author to revise and modify the manuscript when needed. Once the manuscript is revised/modified based on the recommendations, the revised version would be submitted again through the online submission and review system. At this time, the author needs to submit the original version of the manuscript, the modified version and a letter describing how the recommendations are met. In the modified version, any modification and revision made by the author need to be marked in red.

2) The revised manuscript with answers to the questions raised by reviewers should be submitted through the online submission and review system within 30 days. If this deadline is not met, the review process is concluded and the manuscript can not be published unless there is a special reason.

3) When the author is asked for the final revision once the review process is completed, he/she has to submit the revised version within one week.

4. Copyright

The Author of the Article as specified herein, hereby transfers copyright to Korean Journal of Medicine effective if and when the article is accepted for publication. The author warrants that his/her contribution is original and that he/she has full power to make this grant. The author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material on behalf of any and all co-authors. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature.

5. On-line submission of manuscripts

1) All manuscripts can be submitted though the online submission and review system (https://submit.ekjm.org). And also, subsequent reviews and editing are done through this homepage. Manuscript submission, review criteria and solutions to technical problems arising during the submission and review processes can be confirmed through this homepage as well. Manuscript can be submitted only by the corresponding author and first author through the online submission and review system. Additional help may be obtained by email (kaim@kams.or.kr), telephone (+82-2-2271-6791) or fax (+82-2-790-0993).

2) The answers to the questions regarding manuscript review and its process can be found in the online submission and review system at any time. When any change occurs in the review stage, the corresponding author and first author are notified.

6. Preparing manuscripts of original research articles

All materials must be written in clear, appropriate English. The manuscript must be written in 12-point font with double-line spacing and at least 3-cm margins on A4 or letter-size paper using Microsoft Word or other major word processing programs. All pages should be numbered consecutively starting with the title page. All measurements should be in metric units.

For the specific study design, such as randomized control studies, studies of diagnostic accuracy, meta-analyses, observational studies and non-randomized studies, it is recommended that the authors follow the reporting guidelines listed in the following Table [1].

Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex or gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.

• 1) English abstract: Prepared in 250 words or less, an English abstract is divided into 4 sections including ① Background/Aims, ② Methods, ③ Results and ④ Conclusions in which the content is written concisely and clearly with specific data presented.
• 2) Introduction: The study purpose is written concisely and clearly and only that information related with the purpose of study is included as background.
• 3) Materials and Methods: The study plan, subjects and methods are described in the order. Detail information regarding to how the diagnosis is made in the subject patient(s) and how it was observed are recorded. When the study method is important, it is described so that it could be reproducible.
• 4) Results: The results are written clearly and logically. In the case of animal and human experiments, values that could be variable in measurement should be treated statistically. The contents of tables are not repeated in the main body of the paper but can be described in briefly when discussing an important aspects.
• 5) Discussion: The discussion related with the study results is done and the results are analyzed and interpreted with other data. Important and new information or observation are emphasized but are not repeatedly presented. And correlations between the results and purpose is done bounded by the content of the results. Also, the significance and limitations of the study would be described.
• 6) Summary: As in the case of English abstracts, the purpose, method, results and conclusion are listed.
• 7) References, figures, images/images and figure legends: Refer to the following section.

7. Items needed to be checked by the author(s)

• ① The manuscript contains the following sections in the order of the cover title, followed by an English abstract and key words (2 to 5 items), main body (introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and summary), references, tables and the legends of figures and images.
• ② The manuscript is written in A4 (21×30 cm) paper in double space texts by leaving 3 cm space in the right, left, top and bottom sides at 12 point fonts.
• ③ The entire manuscript should be paged starting from the cover page. The name of the author(s) and his/her/their affiliations are not included within the manuscript starting the English abstract section.
• ④ All equipment and chemicals should be listed followed by the manufacturer and city and country where the manufacturer is located are written in parenthesis.
• ⑤ All references used within the manuscript should be marked by a superscript at the end of author’s name or sentence.

The following items are written in the cover page.

• ① The title of the manuscript should be within 30 Korean letters and within 15 English words. The abbreviated title should be within 20 Korean letters and within 10 English words.
• ② The title of manuscript, names of the author(s) and affiliations are written in Korean and English.
• ③ As for the affiliating institutions, the one where the applicable research has been performed mainly is listed first, and other institutions are listed by number by placing a superscript next to the author starting the second author and listed as the order of the superscripts.
• ④ In the lower portion of the cover page, the name, address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address of the corresponding author are listed. This section is used to acknowledge any grants obtained.

The English abstract is placed following the cover page.
Background/Aims: The purpose of the paper is described concisely and clearly in one to two sentences. It should in accord with the title of the manuscript and the content of introduction.
Methods: What and how things are done specifically to achieve the purpose described in the first paragraph are described in this section. This section also contains information regarding what data were collected, how data were analyzed and how the bias was adjusted.
Results: The contents of the previous section are described regarding how the observation and analysis were made logically and the specific data are presented.
Conclusions: The conclusion drawn from the results is described in one to two sentences, befitting the purpose described in the first section.

• ① Abbreviations or references can not be used.
• ② Two to five key words from MeSH (Medical Subject Headings, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html) befitting the content of the bottom section of English abstract are listed.

• ① The reference section starts in a new page in which Korean references are placed first and listed according to the arabic numbers appearing in the body of the manuscript.
• ② All references listed should appear in the body of the manuscript.
• ③ Any data not published can not be placed in the reference section. When needed in the body of the manuscript, not published data are shown as “(personal opinion exchange)” or “(non-published data)” in parenthesis following the data.
• ④ Official abbreviations recognized by Index Medicus are used for any journals.
• ⑤ As for the names of authors, Korean names are written so that the sir name appears first and given name. English names are written so that the last name followed by the given name in which both the sir and given names start in capital letters.
• ⑥ The first and last pages of reference section are marked.
• ⑦ The number of reference should be less than 40 in the case of original articles, and less than 10 in the case of case reports.
• ⑧ The following example is followed to list references as shown in Vancouver group.
  
  Manuscripts published in regular academic journals:

Journal articles:

1. Yoo BM, Lehman GA. Update on endoscopic treatment of chronic pancreatitis. Korean J Intern Med 2009;24:169-179.
2. Caselli RJ, Dueck AC, Osborne D, et al. Longitudinal modeling of age-related memory decline and the APOE epsilon4 effect. N Engl J Med 2009;361:255-263.

Entire book:

3. Gilman AG, Rall TW, Nies AS, Taylor P. Goodman and Gilman’s the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 9th ed. New York: Pergamon Press, 1996.

Part of a book:

4. Costa M, Furness JB, Llewellyn-Smith IF. Histochemistry of the enteric nervous system. In: Johnson LR, ed. Physiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Raven, 1987:1-40.

Dissertation:

5. Hong GD. The relationship between low serum cholesterol level and cancer mortality [dissertation]. Seoul (KR): Seoul National University, 2009.

Conference paper:

6. Rice AS, Brooks JW. Canabinoids and pain. In: Dostorovsky JO, Carr DB, eds. Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Pain; 2002 Aug 17-22; San Diego, CA. Seattle (WA): IASP Press, 2003:437-468.

Online publication:

7. Suzuki S, Kajiyama K, Shibata K, et al. Is there any association between retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy and survival benefit in ovarian clear cell carcinoma patients? Ann Oncol 2008 Mar 19 [Epub]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdn059.

Online sources:

8. American Cancer Society. Cancer reference information [Internet]. Atlanta (GA): American Cancer Society, c2009 [cited 2009 Nov 20]. Available from: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_0.asp.
9. National Cancer Information Center. Cancer incidence [Internet]. Goyang (KR): National Cancer Information Center, c2009 [cited 2009 Oct 20]. Available from: http://www.cancer.go.kr/cms/statics.

• ① All tables are written in English and numbered using Arabic numbers. The titles of tables are written concisely. The first letter of the table title starts with a capital letter.
• ② Tables should not go over one page including more than four lines of data.
• ③ The tables are numbered as used in the order used in the manuscript.
• ④ Abbreviations used in the tables should be explained in the bottom section of the applicable table.
• ⑤ Symbols used should be in the order of ^{a, b, c} and are explained in the footnote section in English.
• ⑥ Tables should be easy to understand and need to function by itself.
• ⑦ Any tables already published could not be used as it is.

• ① Letters in images and figures are written in English.
• ② All images and figures should be explained in English in which the legends are listed in a separate paper in sentences, rather than clauses or phrases.
• ③ Only high-resolution figure files (preferably 600 dpi for color figures and 1,200 dpi for line art and graphs) should be submitted. Figure images should be provided in EPS or TIF format, although the JPEG format is allowed for color figures. Each figure should be saved as a separate electronic file. When more than two figures are needed in the same number, capital alphabet letters are used (Ex: Figure 1A, Figure 1B).
• ④ In the case of microscopic images, staining method, magnification and scale should be specified.
• ⑤ Color figures are submitted upon the request by the editor (such as when black and white figures do not clearly show intended images) and the author(s) is responsible for the expense.

8. Manuscripts other than original articles

Perspectives address current topics in medical policy or problems including public health, insurance, ethics, and political issues and projects of the Korean Association of Internal Medicine. An unstructured abstract of less than 250 words should be placed after the title page before the main body. Otherwise, these articles can be written freely without any specific format. The text should have maximum 1,000 words.

Review articles discuss about specific topics which will be submitted by specific authors who are requested by the editorial committee. Submitted manuscripts are published after review process. The articles are categorized as ‘What’s hot?’, ‘What’s new?’, ‘In-depth review’ and ‘Clinical practice’.
‘What’s hot?’ covers medical and academic issues which can entertain our readership. The text should have maximum 1,500 words including unstructured abstract in English.

‘What’s new?’ covers new guidelines, new clinical research findings and medications which can broaden knowledge of our readership. The text should have maximum 3,000 words with unstructured abstract in English.

‘In-depth review’ covers topics about common diseases in the field of Internal Medicine which provide continuing medical education. The text should have maximum 2,000 words with unstructured abstract in English.

‘Clinical practice’ is composed of ‘Road map to diagnosis’ and ‘Interpretation of a diagnostic test’.

‘Road map to diagnosis’ presents symptom-based approach for diagnosis, that is actual scenario about specific symptoms or conditions followed by practical algorithm to diagnosis. Authors should present a brief case of a patient with specific symptoms or abnormal conditions, and then describe step by step processes for final diagnosis. The treatment course is followed and simply described. The text should have a maximum 1,500 words, consisting of no more than 1,500 words for the case presentation, followed by problem, diagnostic steps, management, clinical course and short discussion. The text should have no more than 10 references (negotiable).

‘Interpretation of a diagnostic test’ covers interpreting methods and clinical application of laboratory tests and imaging studies. This manuscript covers interpretation for commonly used and typical diagnostic tests and imaging methods. The text should have a maximum 2000 words with no more than 10 references (negotiable).

All manuscripts are required to have conflict of interest, funding, acknowledgements between the main body and references.

• ① It is prepared less than 10 pages of A4 paper.
• ② An English abstract should be written in less than 150 words without distinguishing the section.
• ③ Discussion is done by emphasizing the case by focusing on a certain aspect of the case and elaborate literature discussion is avoided.
• ④ The number of references should be up to 10, figure should be less than 5 (negotiable).
• ⑤ The number of author should be less than seven.

9. Article-processing Charges

Effective from January 1, 2015, an article processing charge of $300 (￦300,000 KRW) for original articles and $200 (￦200,000 KRW) for case reports will be applicable for articles accepted for publication in the Korean Journal of Medicine. Submission of the article to the journal can be completed once the payment method has been agreed. Any applicable article processing charge must be paid prior to publication.

10. Preprints Policy

A preprint can be defined as a version of a scholarly paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. KJM allows authors to submit the preprint to the journal. It is not treated as duplicate submission or duplicate publication. KJM recommend authors to disclose it with DOI in the letter to the editor during the submission process. Otherwise, it may be screened from the plagiarism check program — Similarity Check (Crosscheck).
Preprint submission will be processed through the same peer-review process with a usual submission. If the preprint is accepted for publication, authors are recommended to update the info at the preprint with a link to the published article in KJM, including DOI at KJM. It is strongly recommended that authors cite the article in KJM instead of the preprint.

11. Others

• 1) When needed, the editorial committee could change the text and format and as long as they do not affect the content of the manuscript itself.
• 2) The editorial committee decides to publish the manuscript after review and can recommend to change or delay the publication for those manuscripts not meeting the criteria of the Journal.
• 3) The Journal recognizes the fact that once the manuscript is turned over to the Journal, the copy right of the manuscript is also transferred to the Journal from the author.
• 4) The revised guidelines of manuscript submission take effect starting the January issue of 2012.
• 5) KoreaMed could quote parts or entire portion of the Journal.

Manuscript Checklist

• □ The manuscript is double-spaced and written in a standard 12-point font.
• □ All pages are numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.
• □ Material is presented in this order (in the case of an original article): Title page, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, and Figure legends.
• □ The title page lists the article title, all authors names and affiliations, a name and address for correspondence, a short running title, and footnotes.
• □ The abstract contains no more than 250 words in original articles or 150 words in case reports. Up to five relevant MeSH keywords are included.
• □ References have been checked for accuracy and are listed in the proper format. All references listed in the References section are cited in the text and vice versa.
• □ Figures have been made professionally in the acceptable formats. All figures are high resolution.