Instructions to Authors

Caucasian Medical Journal (Caucasian Med J) was established in 2023 as the official periodical publication of the Azerbaijan Gastroenterology and Invasive Endoscopy Society. The journal publishes peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts from all fields of medicine in the English language.

Caucasian Medical Journal does not charge any article submission or processing fees.

All manuscripts submitted to the Caucasian Medical Journal are screened for plagiarism using the ‘iThenticate’ software. Articles may be rejected or returned due to the results of plagiarism detection.

The English abbreviation is recorded as “Caucasian Med J”.

Peer Review Process

The manuscripts sent to the Caucasian Medical Journal are first evaluated by the editor. The editor checks up on every manuscript to determine whether it is worth evaluating or not, and assigns an assistant for each. If the editor and the assistant find the manuscript worth evaluating, they send it to two reviewers or one reviewer with one editorial board member for evaluation. The manuscript is not under evaluation if it does not require the evaluation of the reviewer or editorial board members because it has no scientific value and is not original, or it does not fit the reader population.

The scientific and ethical liability of the manuscripts, as well as the copyright, belongs to the authors, and the commercial rights of the manuscripts are transferred to the Azerbaijan Gastroenterology and Invasive Endoscopy Society. The authors are responsible for the content and resources of the articles. The authors should send the certificate of approval (Copyright Agreement Form) with their articles, which states that commercial rights are transferred to the publisher. These certificate documents written by the authors mean the writers declare their scientific responsibilities and guarantee that the study has never been published or not be published in the near future by another journal.

MANUSCRIPT

We are looking for the clinical cases that are infrequently reported in scientific literature previously, unreported clinical reflections or complications of a well-known disease, unknown adverse reactions of known treatments, or case reports including a scientific message that might trigger further new research, preferably.

Case reports should include an abstract, case, and discussion. It should include 2000 words (8 double-spaced pages), 15 or fewer references, and three tables or pictures.

We recommend that authors check their case reports using this guide, prepared based on the CARE Case Report Checklist, before submitting them.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Manuscript Submission Agreement: It is available in every new print of the Caucasian Medical Journal, the editorial of the journal, and also found on the website of the journal. It should be filled in on all article submissions.

Cover Letter: Author, in this letter, should provide a short explanation of their report and whether it has been presented in a scientific meeting or not, in detail. Additionally, the address, phone, fax numbers, and e-mail address of the person to contact about the writing should be present at the lower pole of the letter.

The ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) number of the corresponding author should be provided while sending the manuscript. A free registration can be created at http://orcid.org.

Use of Large Language Models and Generative AI Tools

AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements. Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent about how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.” COPE Position Statement on Authorship and AI tools. Detailed information about the statement can be accessed at https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author 

After reviewing the COPE statement, the editors of the Caucasian Medical Journal have decided that papers should include a statement in a section called “Declaration Regarding the Use of AI and AI-Assisted Technologies” to let readers know if AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the writing process. It's important to remember that all authors are responsible for the content of their work. This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, or references (such as Mendeley, EndNote, Zotero, and others). If there is nothing to declare, there is no need to add a statement. 

It is suggested that authors follow this format when preparing their statement: 

During the preparation of this work, the author(s) utilized [NAME OF TOOL(S) USED] to [DESCRIPTION OF HOW THE TOOL(S) WERE UTILIZED AND HOW THE VALIDITY OF THE OUTPUTS WAS EVALUATED]. After carefully reviewing and editing the content as necessary, full responsibility for the publication's content is taken by the author(s). This incorporation of AI tool usage primarily impacted [SPECIFY WHICH ASPECTS OF THE STUDY, ARTICLE CONTENTS, DATA, OR SUPPORTING FILES WERE AFFECTED/GENERATED]. 

Example:

During the preparation of this work, the author(s) utilized OpenAI's ChatGPT to generate summaries of research articles related to the topic. These summaries were evaluated by comparing them to manually written summaries by experts in the field. Upon confirming the accuracy and relevance of the generated summaries, they were integrated into the literature review section of the manuscript. After carefully reviewing and editing the content as necessary, full responsibility for the publication's content is taken by the author(s). This incorporation of AI tool usage primarily impacted the efficiency of the literature review process and the comprehensiveness of the gathered research insights.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Format: Preserve the copy of the case report manuscript. The article should be sent as 4 copies, which is written as double-spaced (do not use 1,5 space) on A4 paper with standard side spaces (2 cm away from each side) in the format of Arial 10 point writing style. No need for a printed copy for the online submissions.

Main Page: This page including title, full name of the authors, academic degree not more than two for each author, address and city of the authors at time of writing; if the manuscript was presented or excepted to be presented at any scientific meeting, the date, place and the name of that meeting (related evidence), financial support and the owner of it, if there is a consultant, the name, academic degree and address, the count of the words of article, the name, address, phone-fax numbers and e-mail address of the contact person all should be located at the bottom of the letter.

For Blind Preliminary Assessment: Be sure that no name, academic career, address, or city of authors is present on the pages of the article and English abstracts. The articles that don’t obey this rule can be rejected and returned.

Values: General standards should be obeyed, considering the material, drug, and laboratory result values used in the study.

References: References should be written on a separate page in double-spaced font. References should be numbered according to the order they are used in the article. No alphabetical order should be done. For the articles referred to as abstracts, it should be written in parentheses as “abstract” for English manuscripts. When citing references, include a maximum of five authors. If a reference has more than five authors, include only the first five. Use 'et al.' for any additional authors not included in the list. The authenticity of the reference is the responsibility of the author.

Examples;

  • Article: Raftery KA, Smith-Coggins R, Chen AHM. Gender-associated differences in emergency department pain management. Ann Emerg Med. 1995;26:414-21.
  • For Article in Printing: Littlewhite HB, Donald JA. Pulmonary blood flow regulation in an aquatic snake. Science. 2002 (in print)
  • Book: Callaham ML. Current Practice of Emergency Medicine. 2nd ed. St. Luis, MO: Mosby;1991.
  • Book chapter: Mengert TJ, Eisenberg MS. Prehospital and emergency medicine thrombolytic therapy. In: Tintinal-li JE, Ruiz E, Krome RL (eds). Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide. 4th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill;1996:337-43.
  • For a part of the book, if there is Editor: Mc Nab S. Lacrimal surgery. In: Willshaw H (ed). Practical Ophthalmic Surgery. NewYork: Churchill Livingstone Inc, 1992: 191-211
  • Turkish book Section: Yilmaz HL. Pediatric Emergency Architecture. Including: Karaböcüoğlu M, Yılmaz HL, Duman M (ed.ler). Pediatric Emergency Medicine: Comprehensive and Easy Approach. 1. Edition. İstanbul, İstanbul Tıp Kitabevi, 2012:7-13
  • If editors are also the writers of the text or the texts in the book, first the name of the text cited, and the name of the book is written with the words starting with Capital letters: Diener HC, Wilkinson M (editors). Drug-induced headache. In Headache. First ed., New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988: 45-67
  • For citation from Translated Book: Milkman HB, Sederer LI. Treatment Options in Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. Doğan Y, Özden A, İzmir M (Çevirenler) 1. Edition, Ankara: Ankara University Publish House, 1994: 79-96
  • For Congress Reports: Felek S, Kılıç SS, Akbulut A, Yıldız M. A Case of Shigellosis Accompanied by Visual Hallucination.

Tables: Tables should be legible, summarizing the data. Data in the table should not be present in the text of the article. Table numerization should be as located in the text. A sentence pointing to the table should be present in the text. Each table should be sent as located on one page order after the “References” page. Page site rules should be obeyed while the tables are prepared. Be sure that each table is referred to in the text. Graphics, figures, and tables in the text should be numbered by “Arabic” numbers. Each table should be printed on a separate page as double-spaced.

A short title should be set for each table by numbering them in the order in which they appear in the text. MS Tables should be prepared due to “table classic 1” or “table simple 1” automatic table options of Word 2000 and further versions. Authors should write explanations in footnotes, not in titles. All abbreviations that are not standard should be explained in footnotes. The following symbols should be used for the footnotes respectively: (*, +, ^, §, ii, l, **, ++, ^^).

Figures/Pictures: Information in the Figure/Picture should not be repeated in the text. A sentence pointing out the figure/picture should be present in the text. Pictures should be recorded in EPS or TIF format. Colorful pictures must be at least 300 DPI, pictures in grey tone at least 300 DPI, and drawings at least 1200 DPI resolution.

JOURNAL POLICY

Case Report: Case reports should present cases that are rarely seen, feature novelty in diagnosis and treatment, and contribute to our current knowledge. The first page should include the title, an unstructured summary up to 250 words in length, and keywords. The main text should include the introduction, case presentation, discussion, and references. The entire text should not exceed 5 pages (A4 format).

Title Page: This page should include the manuscript title, short title, and author name(s) and affiliation(s). The following descriptions should be stated in the given order:

  1. Title of the manuscript, as concise and explanatory as possible, including no abbreviations, up to 135 characters
  2. Short title, up to 60 characters
  3. Each author’s full name (without abbreviations and academic titles) and affiliation
  4. The corresponding author’s name, postal address, e-mail address, and phone and fax numbers
  5. If the study was presented at a congress and its abstract was published in the congress abstract book, please provide the date and location of the relevant scientific meeting.
  6. The online access link and date should be given for the articles that have been published in preprint repositories.

Abstract: The article should be summarized in an abstract not exceeding 250 words. References should not be cited in the abstract. The use of abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible; any abbreviations in the abstract should be defined and used independently of those used in the main text.

Keywords: The abstract should be followed by 3 to 5 keywords. Keywords should be consistent with the Medical Subject Headings (MESH) terms (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

More than One Author: All of the authors included in the article share the responsibility for the information and duties during the steps of preparation of the article.

Permissions: Any picture, table, etc. in the article, if it has been published in any scientific journal or book before, a document must be provided regarding their availability.

Informed Consent Form: In all studies conducted on humans, patients or volunteers should be informed, and their consent should be obtained, and the consent forms must be written in English.

EVALUATION AND PUBLICATION PROCESS

Preliminary Evaluation: Journal applies a blind preliminary assessment for all articles. All articles are examined by the journal editor, and the appropriate ones are sent to consultants (editor assistants) for preliminary assessment. The writings that are sent from the editor of the journal directly to the writer can not be printed in the Caucasian Journal of Medicine. The duration period between the application and the preliminary assessment time is a maximum of 15 days. A letter informing the status of writing is reported by the editor to the author during this period. The articles that are found inappropriate are not sent back.

All articles are assessed by editors regarding the journal's writing rules and scientific content. When necessary, required changes in the writing are reported to the author in a written letter by editors.

Manuscript Responsibility: Authors take all the responsibility for the information included in their printed articles. The journal takes no responsibility for the article. The authors take a copy of the printed article.

Publication Rights: The full text or a section of the article printed in a journal, pictures, or tables in the article can not be printed in another journal without the information and written permission of the editor of the Caucasian Journal of Medicine.

Necessary Information: Journal editors can request the basic data about the article from the author to investigate, when necessary. Therefore, essentially, the address and other communication data should exist on the main page.

Addition: Editorial board can make changes in the writing by taking permission from the authors. The editor and language editor are completely authorized about the language, spelling, and references, and similar subjects to be written as they are in Index Medicus.

After the article is sent to be published, none of the authors can be deleted from the list without the written permission of all other authors, and no new name can be added, and the author order can not be changed either.

Measurement units: The length, weight, and volume units should be reported in the metric system (meter, kilogram, liter) and decimal multiples of them. Temperature should be in Celsius degrees, and blood pressure should be millimeters of mercury (mmHg). Both local and international unit systems (SI, International System of Units) should be specified as measure units. Drug concentrations will be given as SI or mass units; it may be given as an option in parentheses.

Abbreviations and Symbols: Use only the standard abbreviations; non-standard abbreviations might be confusing for the reader. Abbreviations must be avoided in titles. Unless it is a standard measure unit, abbreviations should be open in the first writing, and the abbreviation in parentheses should be given as well.

In addition to References: Monotype rules have basically accepted an ANSI standard type adopted by the American National Library of Medicine (NLM). Authors may apply to the website address of “https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html for seeing examples of citation in reference.

Journal names should be abbreviated as seen in Index Medicus. The “List of Journals Indexed” in Index Medicus, which is a yearly published list and which takes place in the January edition of Index Medicus as a list, might also be a reference to look at. The list is also available at the “https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/” website.