Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal?

EDITORIAL POLICY

Scope and Mission

Albanian Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (AJTES) which comes out two times a year, is a peer-reviewed and open-access international journal. The Journal is the official scientific publication of is the official publication of the Albanian Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ASTES) in Tirana, Albania. The language of the journal is English. 

AJTES was founded in 2017 for the first time and publishes scientific articles that aim to promote interest, knowledge, and quality of care in emergency and trauma surgery. Its mission is to open an interdisciplinary forum that allows for the scientific exchange between basic and clinical science related to pathophysiology, diagnostics, and treatment of traumatized patients. The journal covers all aspects of clinical management, operative treatment, and related research of traumatic injuries and health care research, conducted in all fields of medicine and health care, as well as interesting case reports and clinical images, invited reviews, invited medical education papers, editorials, opinions and viewpoints, comments and letters to the Editor. The structure of each edition of the publication comprises section categories determined by the Editor and reflects the views of the Editorial Board.

AJTES encourages academicians, researchers, and specialists of different medical and healthcare fields from all over the world to publish their valuable research in all branches of medicine and healthcare.

The journal’s aim is to publish original articles with high scientific and ethical quality.

The Editorial Board of the AJTES and the Publisher adhere to the principles of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the World Medical Association (WMA), the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE).

AJTES permits and encourages authors to post items approved for publication from the journal on personal websites or institutional repositories both prior to and after publication while providing bibliographic details of the publication in AJTES. All articles are also available in PDF format on our website https://journal.astes.org.al/ and can be downloaded free of charge.

The AJTES’s mission is to distribute and expand worldwide good quality research, focused primarily on the medical and health care problems of European and not only.

AJTES is open to publication for all authors that comply with the scientific and ethical requirements of the journal. All manuscripts submitted for publication are strictly internally and externally peer-reviewed for their originality, methodology, scientific relevance, quality, ethical nature, and suitability for the journal. A similarity check is performed on all manuscripts submitted. All the articles published at AJTES will be fully accessed online. The open-access publication fee for this journal is EUR 200 for full-length articles and EUR 150 for case reports. 

Submission of a manuscript implies that the submitted work has not been published before (except as part of a thesis or report, or abstract); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors. If and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) still holds the copyright and retains publishing rights without restrictions. Authors or others are allowed to multiply articles as long as not for commercial purposes. For the new invention, authors are suggested to manage their patent before publishing. 

Ethics

AJTES is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism in order to detect instances of overlapping and similar text. The editors will act in accordance with the relevant international rules of publication and research ethics (COPE guidelines, WAME resources, WMA policies, and ORI) if any ethical misconduct is suspected.

The journal recommends approval of the research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements “WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (last updated: October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil)”, "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011)" and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (2012)”. This approval is required for all experimental, clinical, and drug trial studies. For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. The journal may request a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. More details on the ethical principles of the journal may be found on the "Ethical Guidelines" and the "Instructions to Reviewers" pages. All reference for the ethical issues must be mentioned in the method section of the article.

Conflict of interest policy

The AJTES’s editorial review process is in accordance with the Good Editorial Practice set by international editorial organizations (WAME, COPE). WAME indicates that “conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor in the publication process (submission of manuscripts, peer review, editorial decisions and communication between authors, reviewers, and editors) has a competing interest that could unduly influence his or her responsibilities (academic honesty, unbiased conduct, and reporting of research and integrity of decisions or judgments) in the publication process”.

The AJTES requires that each author, reviewer, and editor must disclose to the editor-in-chief any conflict of interest related to family, personal, financial, political, or religious issues as well as any competing interest outlined above at the WAME’s definition. Whether or not a conflict of interest and financial support exist, they must be declared at the Conflict of Interest Statement (signed and approved by all the authors) as well as at the end of the manuscripts (Conflict of Interest Statement, before the Reference Section). If a reviewer or an editor has a conflict of interest and/or believes that it is not appropriate to be a reviewer or an editor for a given manuscript, the reviewer or the editor should resign from the assignment. The AJTES editorial board members may also submit their own manuscripts to the journal. However, they cannot take part in any stage in the editorial decision of their manuscripts. They will be treated like any other author and if any, final acceptance of such manuscripts can only be made by the positive recommendation of at least two external reviewers. Authors should not contact any of the editorial executive or scientific board members during the review process. All necessary information regarding the process of a manuscript will be regularly provided by the editorial office via the official e-mail addresses. The names of the handling editor and the reviewers are not disclosed to the author(s). Due to AJTES’s double-blinded review principles, the names of authors and reviewers are not known to each other. Please refer to the “conflict of interest statement and copyright form” section below for the conflict of interest declaration for authors. For a conflict of interest statement for reviewers, please refer to the “Instructions to Reviewers” page.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

AJTES is based on independent and unbiased double-blind and peer-reviewing principles. Only unpublished papers that are not under review for publication elsewhere can be submitted. The authors are responsible for the scientific content and the ethical compliance of the material to be published. AJTES reserves the right to request any research materials on which the paper is based. It is highly recommended that all manuscripts must be checked by a native English speaker with experience in Scientific English writing. The executive editorial board is committed to a rapid publishing process. The authors will be kept informed about all the stages of the reviewing process.

Manuscript formatting

The manuscript format must follow the guidelines described below that are in accordance with the ICMJE (Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals - updated in August 2013 - http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf. The manuscript must be submitted to the following address: ajtes.editor@gmail.com

Papers that do not comply with the format of the Journal and submission requirements will be returned to the author for correction without further review.

General Format

The manuscript should be typed in a Microsoft Word™ file, single-column format, double-spaced with 2.5 cm margins on each side, and 11-point type in Times New Roman font.

All abbreviations must be defined the first time they are used and should be displayed in parentheses after the definition. Abbreviations should be limited to those defined in the AMA Manual of Style, current edition. Authors should avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract and limit their use in the main text.

Decimal points should be used in decimals throughout the manuscript. Measurements should be reported using the metric system according to the International System of Units (SI). Consult the SI Unit Conversion Guide (New England Journal of Medicine Books, 1992). An extensive list of conversion factors can be found at http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units. For more details, see:

http://www.amamanualofstyle.com/oso/public/jama/s i_conversion_table.html

When a drug, product, hardware, or software is mentioned within the main text product information, it should include the name of the product, the producer of the product, and the city or country of the company. It should be provided in parenthesis in the following example format: “Examination BIO- AUTO analyzer (Beckman-Coulter, New Jersey, NJ, USA)”.

Article Type

Identification of the article type is the first step of manuscript preparation and submission. The article type dictates the rules that should be followed, including formatting and word limits of the manuscript. The main categories of article types are outlined below:

Original Article: Original contributions are manuscripts containing substantial novel research. These articles can include randomized controlled trials, observational (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional) studies, diagnostic accuracy studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, non-randomized behavioral and public health intervention trials, experimental animal trials, or any other clinical or experimental studies. Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 300 words.

Abstracts should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Study Design (case-control study, cross-sectional study, cohort study, randomized controlled trial, diagnostic accuracy study, meta-analysis, and systemic review, animal and in vitro experimentation, non-randomized study in behavioral sciences and public health, etc.), Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Keywords.

The main text should be structured with the following subheadings:

Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Conflict of Interest statement, Authorship contribution, References, Tables, and Figure Legends.

The main text should not exceed 4500 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. There should be a maximum of 100 references.

Review of Article. A review article is an article that summarizes the current state of understanding of a particular topic. A review article surveys and summarizes previously published studies, rather than reporting new facts or analysis.

Review articles are sometimes referred to as survey articles or, in news publishing, summary articles.

Academic publications that specialize in review articles are known as review journals.

Review articles learn about:

• Main people who were/are working in a field
• Recent major advances and discoveries
• Significant gaps in the research
• Current debates
• Ideas on where the research might go next

Review articles in journals to analyze or discuss research previously published by others, rather than reporting new studies results. An expert's opinion is valuable, but an expert's assessment of the literature can be more valuable. When reading individual articles, readers could miss features that are apparent to an expert clinician-researcher. Readers benefit from the expert's explanation and assessment of the validity and applicability of individual studies.

Literature reviews provide a summary of what the authors believe are the best and most relevant prior publications.

Systematic reviews determine an objective list of criteria, and find all previously published original papers that meet the criteria; they then compare the results presented in these papers.

Some journals likewise specialize in the review of a field; they are known as review journals.

The concept of a "review article" does not need to do peer-reviewed or non-peer-reviewed.

Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 350 words.

Abstracts should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Keywords.

The main text should not exceed 4500 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. There should be a maximum of 20 tables and/or figures and 150 references.

Commentaries articles: are usually by invitation only, are short, narrowly focused articles that are usually ordered by the journal. These articles are generally not reviewed.

A comment generally takes one of two forms:

• The first form aims to highlight one or more exciting research articles or clinical trials recently published in a journal or other one, to discuss specific issues within a subject area, rather than across the field, and to explain the clinical implications of the article rather than new findings in context. Opinions are welcome as long as they are based on fact.
• The second form is more editorial in nature and includes an aspect of an issue that is relevant to the purpose of the journal. Examples of this type of comment could be a discussion on the impact of new technology on research and treatment or a discussion on peer review changes or grant application procedures and their effect on research. By their nature, the second form of comment is less common. Comments are usually commissioned by well-known experts in a particular field, and authors are asked to provide a balanced summary of the field, to cover only the work that has been published (or is still in print at the time of writing), and not to discuss and mention mainly their work or that of their close colleagues.

Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 250 words.

Abstracts should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Methods, Discussion, Conclusion, and Keywords.

Commentary articles must be maximum of 2000 words and have a maximum of 40 references. Typically, do not contain pictures or tables. For more information click here

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4789530/

Perspective articles; have an important role in academic research. They stimulate further interest in presented topics within the reader audience.

They are different from other types of articles because they present a different take on an existing issue, tackle new and trending issues, or emphasize topics that are important but have been neglected, in the scholarly literature.

In some scientific fields, they bridge different areas of research that the journal publishes, while in others they bring new issues and ideas to the forefront. In general, their role is to enlighten a general audience about important issues.

It gives researchers the opportunity to contribute to their discipline in different ways, while at the same time enhancing their own professional work.

A perspective article is a way for young researchers to gain experience in the publication process which can be often arduous and time-consuming. It can be a way in which they learn from the publication process while they are working on their original research articles which often take years to complete.

In the case of experienced researchers, provides them with at least two distinct benefits:

• First, it allows them to step back and reflect on a significant issue that they may know a lot about, but that they have never had the time to address.
• The second benefit is that the researcher gets the opportunity to give their own authorial voice to a published article that will reach a wide audience.

Before one decides to write and submit a perspective research article to an academic journal, it is important to become familiar with the article's expectations of the target journal.

Although academic journals hold a similar definition and purpose of a perspective article, there are differences in the technical requirements each journal has. When it comes to the length of the perspective article, some journals have strict limitations while others allow articles to vary the length within a given range. The perspective article has a limitation of 2,500, with defined reference and figure limits. Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 250 words.

With respect to the structure of the perspective article, journals define their expectations in different terms. The perspective article emphasizes the structure of the article, requiring sections such as the abstract, introduction, topics, and conclusion.

Opinion Articles: allow readers of a newspaper to voice their thoughts and ideas on topics ranging from local happenings to international controversy. Most opinion articles are about 1500 words long, with a professional tone. If you want to try your hand at writing an op-ed, you can learn to choose a compelling topic, write an effective draft, and finish off your op-ed like e professional editor.

The perspective article emphasizes the structure of the article, requiring sections such as the abstract, introduction, topic, and conclusion. Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 250 words

The latest articles discuss the current or recent news of general interest (the problem of the day) or of a specific topic (of interest to the general public and its results are quite welcome). A final article may include randomized and non-randomized (complete and partial) scientific data in the interest of a local, national, regional, continental, and global study. The Latest articles emphasize the structure of the article, requiring sections such as the abstract, Background, Aims, Study, Methods, Results, Discussions, and Conclusion.

The main text should not exceed 4500 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. There should be a maximum of 20 tables and/or figures and 100 references.

Abstracts should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Study, Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Keywords. Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 250 words.

Short Report:

Short reports or short communications are short versions of research, applications, or work in progress limited to 1500 words. These articles can include clinical or laboratory work, collected case reports of scientific significance, etc.

Abstracts must begin on a separate page and should not exceed 250 words.

Abstracts should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Study, Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Keywords.

The main text should be structured with the following subheadings: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, and Figure Legends. The main text should not exceed 1500 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. There should be a maximum of 8 tables and/or figures and 25 references.

Invited Review or Medical education articles: Invited review and Medical education articles are comprehensive analyses of specific topics in medicine, which are written upon invitation due to the extensive experience and publications of authors on the review subjects. They can also be articles focused on clinical teaching and guidelines.

All invited review articles will also undergo peer-reviewing prior to acceptance. Review articles must not exceed 5000 words for the main text (excluding references, tables, and figure legends) and 250 words for the unstructured abstract. A review article can be signed by no more than 6 authors and can have no more than 50 references.

Case Report: Interesting cases demonstrating new findings can be reported. Cases should be unique, representing a diagnostic or therapeutic challenge, and having a learning point for the readers.

Abstracts of case reports should mainly include information about the case and should be limited to a maximum of 250 words.

The abstract must begin on a separate page and should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Case Report, Conclusion, and Keywords.

The main text of case reports should be structured with the following subheadings: Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and References.

Case reports must not exceed 1500 words (excluding references, tables, and figure legends).

Case reports can be signed by no more than 6 authors and can have no more than 15 references and 6 figures or tables. It is highly recommended that the Case reporting must follow the CaRe (Case Report) guidelines.

Clinical Reasoning: Clinical reasoning represents rational thinking through the various aspects of patient care to better define the medical strategy regarding the diagnosis and/or treatment of a clinical problem in a specific patient. Conducting a physical exam, taking a medical history, ordering complimentary exams, and describing safe and effective treatment are necessary steps in gathering clinical data from a patient before engaging in the process of clinical reasoning. The latter represents a critical thinking process about all the important clinical information using personal skills and abilities often achieved from the experience.

This article type is intended to help clinicians think differentially and take the next step which determines the best course of action to take based on what is known or what can reasonably be hypothesized from clinical data.

The authors are encouraged to present clinical cases from their experience which has generated a real diagnostic dilemma.

The first section, case presentation, should include the patient’s complaints as well as historical and clinical data enough to present an initial differential diagnosis.

The second section, complementary exams, is dedicated to pertinent and necessary complementary examinations according to previous topographic and clinical differential diagnoses.

In the third section, the authors should present all steps (surgery, biopsy, pathological exam) needed in defining the final diagnosis.

A supplementary section should include an overview of the final diagnosis.

The maximum lengths of the text and the references should not exceed 2500 words and 30 references, respectively. No abstract is required.
A summary of the article type’s characteristics is given in the table below.

Preparation and submission of a manuscript.

All manuscripts should be submitted via email to the following address: ajtes.editor@gmail.comajtesjournal@gmail.com

The submission should be divided into SEPARATE files in the following order:

1. Cover Letter ( separate file)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pKueirCkP2-DNd6RsY5Lk-NzQOBjQnKO/view?usp=sharing

2. Authorship Contributions, Copyright Transfer, and Conflict of Interest Statement Form(separate signed file). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lVGYfpvqsXruNwFeKothDX0zt2WGiXxb/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_53doLRgxRIp1kVbiyYVh9XDLzaDtjv_/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hB-5WsprQAiwsqWNiL4Yqrr0Zkm2tf-I/view?usp=sharing

3. Manuscript (Title page, Abstract page, main text, references, tables, and figure legends).
4. Figures (if applicable).

1. Cover Letter

The cover letter addressed to the Editor in Chief from the corresponding author should include:

the article title and type of article he/she is submitting (for example original article, case report, review article, or clinical image).

The corresponding author should briefly summarize why their work is a valuable addition to the scientific literature. Furthermore, there should be a statement that the manuscript has not already been published, accepted, or under simultaneous review for publication elsewhere.

AJTES does not accept multiple submissions or duplicate submissions. For manuscripts that have been presented orally or as a poster, this must be stated on the title page with the date and the place of the presentation.

An example of a cover letter can be found on the journal’s webpage (AJTES Cover Letter). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pKueirCkP2-DNd6RsY5Lk-NzQOBjQnKO/view?usp=sharing

2. Authorship Contributions, Copyright transfer, and Conflict of Interest Statement Forme

This is a statement of the scientific contributions and responsibilities of all authors.

The form is available for download on the journal’s webpage. https://journal.astes.org.al/

The ICMJE recommends that authorship has to be based on the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

A contributor should meet all four criteria to be identified as an author. If a contributor does not meet all four criteria, he/she should be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript. All authors must sign the corresponding declaration.

For more details please refer to the ICMJE’s definition of the role  of  authors  and  contributors  at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

AJTES recommends that the author ranking in the authorship list has to follow the importance of the contribution of the individual co-authors in the study, with the exception of the last author who is generally the author group coordinator or leader and whose contribution is comparable with the first author.

The authors must state in the section dedicated to the Author Contribution Form and in the main text (before the Reference section) if they have agreed to another ranking order (for example authors A.B. and C.D. have an equal contribution to this study, etc).

The specific contribution of each author must be stated at the end of the manuscript, before the references.

All contributing authors must sign the Authorship Contributions, Copyright Transfer, and Conflict of Interest Statement Form and submit it through the submission system during submission. Please see Authorship Contributions, Conflict of Interest Statement, and Copyright form for detailed information regarding “Acknowledgement of Authorship, Exclusive Publication Statement, Conflict of Interest Statement, and Transfer of Copyright Agreement”.

Please refer to the “conflict of interest policy” for more information. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hB-5WsprQAiwsqWNiL4Yqrr0Zkm2tf-I/view?usp=sharing

1 - Manuscript must contain: Title Page (separate page)

This should include:

a - The complete manuscript title (no more than 150 characters).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YznkUnqHJR9NWah39QOe6gWfUfX1njk3/view?usp=sharing

b - The running head (no more than 50 characters).

c - Word counts for the abstract and text (the text word count does not include references, tables, and figure legends).

d - The number of references and the number of figures and/or tables.

e - All authors' full names.

f - Detailed affiliations and e-mail addresses (all authors should meet the ICMJE’s requirements for authorship – see details at “author contribution form”). http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

g - The name, address, telephone, and fax numbers, and email address of the corresponding author.

h - Key-words: (3 to 6 key-words) from the list provided in Index Medicus under “Medical Subject Heading (MeSH)”. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html

e - Information about where and when the study has previously been presented. 

Abstract Page (separate page)

Original articles, invited review articles, and case reports should include an abstract on a separate page.

Abstracts for original articles and short reports should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Study Design, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

Abstracts for case reports should be structured with the following subheadings: Background, Case Report, and Conclusion.

Abstracts for review articles should not be structured. Clinical images, clinical reasoning, Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and Commentaries or Opinions/Viewpoints should not contain an abstract.

Main document

The main document should include the main text, acknowledgments, conflict of interest disclosure, authorship contribution description, references, tables, and figure legends, in that order.

Main text

The main text should be structured according to the article type, as described in the Article Type section above.

Acknowledgments

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship (ICMJE: authorship and contributorship: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

should be mentioned in this subheading.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s-yaIzH5B36WKsr9U8VzvrFzDlsjU86B/view?usp=sharing

Conflict of interest disclosure: The authors should disclose any potential conflict of interest.

Statement about specific author contribution to the study (including concept, design, supervision, resource, materials, data collection and/or processing, analysis and/or interpretation, literature search, writing, and critical reviewing).

For example A.B. (concept, design, data collection, etc); B.C. (data collection, analysis, writing, reviewing, etc).

They should comply with ICMJE recommendations that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html#two

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

A contributor should meet all four criteria to be identified as an author. If a contributor does not meet all four criteria, he/she should be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

References

Authors are encouraged to cite primary literature rather than review articles in order to give credit to those who have performed the original work. Reference listings must be in accordance with ICMJE standards and numbered consecutively at the end of the manuscript in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. While citing publications, preference should be given to the latest, most up-to-date publications. Full papers must be clearly differentiated from abstracts presented in scientific meetings and published as supplements in scientific journals (see below: Abstract example).

If an ahead-of-print publication is being cited the DOI number should be provided. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of references.

Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with the journal abbreviations in Index Medicus/ Medline/Pub Med (for journal abbreviations consult the List of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE, published annually by NLM).

When there are 6 or fewer authors, all authors should be listed. If there are 7 or more authors, the first 6 authors should be listed followed by “et al”. In the main text of the manuscript, references should be cited using Arabic numbers in parentheses.

The reference styles for different types of publications are presented in the following examples:

Journal article: Bendo Hysni, Halimi Omer, Traka Luan, Sakakushev Boris, Zago Mauro. Blunt abdominal trauma management… P 321 genes in three ethnic groups from Albania. Albanian Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery 2018; 2 (2): 84-92.

Book: Skibe Michal Ocular manipulation. 1st ed. Stuttgart-New York: Georg Thieme Verlag; 2009.

Book chapter: Moor Ernest. the relationship between PATI and ISS score. In: Mos F, Thompton J, Peitersen E, editors. Trauma Management. New York: Springer Verlag; 2012:325-30.

Abstract: Erion Spaho, Artid Lame et al. Management of C4-C5 Fracture with Approach 360⁰ Without the Spinal Instrumentation 2018; 36: (abstract).

Article in electronic format: Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis (serial online) 1995 Jan-Mar (cited 1996 June 5): 1(1): (24 screens). Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626 828/pdf/8903148.pdf.

For other reference styles, please refer to “ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Sample References”.

Tables

Tables should be presented within the main document and after the reference list. All tables should be referred to within the main text and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text. A descriptive title should be provided for all tables and the titles should be placed above the tables. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the tables (even if they are defined within the main text). Tables should be created using the “insert table” command of the word processing software and they should be arranged clearly to provide an easy reading.

Figures and Figure Legends

Figures, graphics, and photographs should be submitted as separate files (in TIFF or JPEG format). They should not be embedded in a Word document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should be labeled in small letters (a, b, c, etc.). Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks, and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legends. Like the rest of the submission, the figures should be blind too. Any information within the images that may indicate an individual or institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions 100x100 mm).

Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document. When there are figure subunits, the figure legends should be structured in the following format.

Example: Figure 1. a-c. Primary culture of choroid plexuses on day 2 after seeding of dissociated cells (×400). Nesting staining in green (a). GFAP staining in red (b). Nuclear labeling in blue and merged images (c).

Checklist

Before submission, the corresponding author should ensure that all files mentioned below meet the journal requirements:

• A cover letter containing
• The article title and type
• A brief statement describing the novelty and importance of the work
• A statement declaring the absence or presence of a conflict of interest
• A statement that the manuscript has not been previously published or accepted for publication and is not submitted or under simultaneous review for publication elsewhere.

The author's contribution, Transfer of Copyright Agreement, and Conflict of Interest Statement Form (all in a separate signed file) are included and signed by all the authors.

A title page including

• Title (less than 150 characters), running title (less than 50 characters)
• Authors’ affiliations and e-mail addresses, including the name of the corresponding author
• Keywords: 3 to 6 key-words
• Word count for the abstract and main text
• A statement of the date and place of the meeting where the manuscript was presented orally or as a poster, if
• Structured Abstract (on a separate page-see above)

Structured main text (see above)

Ethical approval and/or informed consent has to be mentioned in the text (Methods)

References are in the correct format and cited sequentially in the text

All Tables and Figures have been included and appear correctly

Permission for reprinted figures, tables, materials, or photographs has been obtained (if available)

REVIEWING PROCESS

Revisions

When submitting a revised version of a paper, the author must submit a detailed “Response to reviewers” reporting in great detail how each issue raised by the reviewers was covered.

Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 30 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option will be automatically canceled. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request a 2-week extension before the initial 30 days period is over.

Change of authorship and withdrawal request Any request to change the author list after submissions, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of author names, is subject to the Editorial Board’s approval.

In order to obtain this approval, please include in a letter to the editor the following information:

1 - The reason for the change of authorship.

2 - Signatures of all authors (including the new and/or removed author).

Please note, if you are adding or removing author/authors, a new copyright transfer form signed by all authors should also be sent to the editorial office after the Editorial Board approves the change of authorship.

All withdrawal requests at any stage after submission are evaluated by the Editorial Board. The Albanian Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery has the right to not accept a withdrawal request. The authors should explain their reason to withdraw the paper in a detailed letter.

If the reason for withdrawal is not justified by the Editorial Board, the authors of the paper can be banned for up to 1 (one) year from submitting a new paper to the Journal.

Ethical guidelines

AJTES is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. If ethical misconduct is suspected, the Editorial Board will act in accordance with the relevant international rules of publication ethics (i.e. COPE guidelines, WAME resources, WMA policies, and ORI).

An approval of research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements (“WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil”, "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals, 8th edition, 2011" and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals, 2012”) is required for all experimental and clinical and drug trial studies. For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. All recognizable photographs of a patient must be accompanied by written permission from the patient for reproduction. Procedures that were performed to eliminate any pain, harm, and distress in subjects/animals should clearly be stated. The authors should clearly state their compliance with internationally accepted guidelines and the guidelines issued by the relevant authority of their country. The journal requests a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority.

All authors should meet the ICMJE’s authorship criteria outlined in the “authorship contribution form” section. AJTES does not accept the gift, guest, or ghost authorship, and will act according to the COPE guidelines and flowcharts when faced with cases of suspected misconduct.

Plagiarism Detection

AJTES does not allow any form of plagiarism. In accordance with our journal policy, submitted manuscripts are screened with plagiarism software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text at least two times (during the evaluation process and after acceptance).

Appeals and complaints

Appeal and complaint cases are handled within the scope of COPE guidelines by the Editorial Board of the journal. Appeals should be based on the scientific content of the manuscript. The final decision on the appeal and complaint is made by the Editor in Chief. An executive Editor or the Ethical Committee of the Journal is assigned to resolve cases that cannot be resolved internally. Authors should get in contact with the Editor in Chief regarding their appeals and complaints via e-mail at ajtes.editor@gmail.com.

Proofs and DOI number

Manuscripts accepted for publication are provided with a DOI number immediately after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, and format. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it is published online on the journal’s webpage ahead of print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue.

A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.

Pre-submission inquiries and rapid evaluation requests

Pre-submission inquiries and rapid evaluation requests can be sent to the AJTES.

Pre-submission inquiries are usually sent by the authors to determine if a possible submission of their current work to AJTES would receive a high enough priority for publication.

These inquiries are handled by the Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board and positive feedback from the Editor in Chief does not guarantee the publication of the work in question as all manuscripts submitted to AJTES must be peer-reviewed. Pre-submission inquiries should be sent to ajtes.editor@gmail.com via e-mail and should include a shorter version of the cover letter accompanied by the title and the abstract of the manuscript.

Rapid evaluation requests are usually sent by the authors to state the particular importance of their current work which requires the manuscript to be evaluated as quickly as possible. These requests are handled by the Editor in Chief of the journal; should be sent to ajtes.editor@gmail.com and should include a shorter version of the cover letter explaining the importance of the manuscript accompanied by the title and the abstract of the manuscript.

Non-scientific reasons, such as academic career needs, will not be considered and may result in immediate rejection of a manuscript. Authors are not allowed to contact reviewers for their manuscripts. This is unacceptable behavior and may lead to the rejection of the manuscript and the author/s may be banned for further submissions to the journal. Any question related to the editorial process should be forwarded to the secretariat, managing editor, or editor-in-chief.

Documents to download

Cover Letter, Authorship Contributions, Conflict of Interest Statement, and Copyright Transfer Form 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR REVIEWERS

AJTES is a peer-reviewed open-access international journal that publishes interesting clinical and experimental research conducted in all fields of medicine and health sciences, interesting case reports and clinical images, invited reviews, editorials, comments, and letters to the Editor including reports on publication and research ethics.

The language of the Journal is English. The Journal is based on independent and unbiased double-blinded peer-reviewing principles. Only unpublished papers that are not under review for publication elsewhere can be submitted.

The primary aim of the journal is to publish original articles with high scientific and ethical quality and serve as a good example of medical publications in the region. The AJTES believes that the quality of publication will lead to the progress of medical sciences and healthcare.

The Editorial Board of the AJTES and the Publisher adhere to the principles of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE). The editor-in-chief has full authority over the editorial and scientific content of the AJTES and the timing of publication of the content.

All articles submitted for publication are strictly reviewed for their adherence to the following criteria:

Criteria for Publication

Manuscripts should represent a significant advance in medical science or medical practice in terms of:

• Originality
• Importance to researchers or practitioners in the field
• Interest for researchers or practitioners outside the field
• Rigorous methodology with substantial evidence for its conclusions
• Adherence to the highest ethical standards
• Quality and suitability for the Journal

The Review Process

AJTES uses an established scheme for the evaluation process aiming at fair, quality-based, and rapid article processing (Please refer to the "Instructions to Authors" page for more information).

Manuscripts that comply with the main rules of the journal are sent to at least two external reviewers that are asked for their opinion about the suitability of the paper for publication.

The reviewed manuscripts are then re-reviewed by the Executive Editorial Board and a decision of rejection or acceptance is taken.

Any information that may indicate an individual or institution should be excluded from the main document to ensure a blinded review process. If the reviewers have any potential competing interests, they must notify the editor before agreeing to review a submission.

AJTES is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. Editors will act in accordance with the relevant international rules of publication ethics (i.e., COPE guidelines, WAME resources, WMA policies, and ORI) if any ethical misconduct is suspected. The Executive Editorial Board encourages reviewers to comment on possible research or publication misconduct such as unethical research design, duplication, plagiarism, etc. Plagiarism is a serious problem and the most common ethical issue afflicting medical writing. AJTES does not allow any form of plagiarism. In accordance with our journal policy, submitted manuscripts are screened with plagiarism software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text. If the reviewers have any suspicions, the editors can provide Copyright © Albanian Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ASTES) & AJTES © 2020, the information obtained by plagiarism screening tools.

An approval of research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements (“WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (last updated: October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil)”, “Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011)” and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (2012)” is required for all experimental and clinical and drug trial studies. For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. All recognizable photographs of a patient must be accompanied by written permission from the patient for reproduction. Procedures that were performed to eliminate any pain, harm, and distress in subjects/animals should clearly be stated. The authors should clearly state their compliance with internationally accepted guidelines and the guidelines issued by the relevant authority of their country. The journal requests a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority.

AJTES wants reviewers to treat the manuscripts in confidence. The material of the manuscripts must not be used or shared in any way until they have been published. AJTES follows the COPE flowchart in cases of suspected reviewer misconduct. Please refer to COPE ethical guidelines for peer reviewers for "Basic principles to which peer reviewers should adhere" and "Expectations from reviewers". If the reviewers need, they can go through the "Instructions to Authors".

Writing the Review

The purpose of the review is to provide the editors with an expert opinion regarding the quality of the manuscript under consideration and should also supply authors with explicit feedback on how to improve their papers so that they will be acceptable for publication in AJTES. Although confidential comments to the editors are respected, any remarks that might help to strengthen the paper should be directed to the authors themselves. The best possible review would answer the following questions:

The reviewers can also use the questions below when reviewing the manuscripts:

• Please state any conflict(s) of interest that you have in relation to the review of this manuscript (state "none" if this is not applicable).
• Do you suspect any research or publication misconduct? If yes, please indicate it in
• Does the manuscript contain new and significant information to justify publication?
• What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?
• Are these claims novel? If not, please specify reasons (or papers) that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.
• Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?
• Is the title of the article appropriate?
• Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the article?
• Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
• Are the methods described comprehensively?
• If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it?
• If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?
• Is the results section clear and satisfactory?
• Do the results support the claims?
• If not, what other evidence is required?
• Are the interpretations and conclusions justified by the results?
• Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper?
• Would the extra work exert a strong influence on the scientific quality of the paper?
• Is adequate and current reference made to other work in the field?
• Who would find this paper of interest? Why?
• Is the language acceptable?
• Please rate the priority for publishing this article (1 is the highest priority, 10 is the lowest priority).
• Is the terminology used appropriately in the text?
• Are the figures or the tables sufficient to present the list of facts or numbers treated in the paper?
• Is it necessary to shorten the article?
• Do you have major remarks? Please explain them in
• Do you have minor remarks? Please explain them in
• If the paper is considered unsuitable for publication in its present form, does the study itself has enough potential to encourage the authors to resubmit a revised version of their manuscript?

Comments to Editor:

Use this space to transfer to the Editor the basis for your recommendation for acceptance or rejection. These comments will NOT be conveyed to the author.

Comments to Author: Use this space to convey specific feedback to the author on your recommendation. Please, specify in detail all the minor or major remarks referring precisely to the section of the paper, subheading, paragraph number, and line number.

The editors make their decision based on the reviewers' comments.

There are several types of decisions possible:

• Accept the manuscript as
• Accept it with minor
• Invite the authors to submit a major revision of the manuscript before a final decision is reached.
• Reject, typically because it does not fit the criteria outlined above of originality, importance to the field, cross-discipline interest, or sound methodology.

When differences of opinion occur between reviewers, the professional editor and the academic editor weigh all comments and arrive at a balanced decision based on all comments.

To assist in this process, the reviewer should provide the editors with as much information as possible.

A review that clearly outlines reasons both for and against publication is therefore of as much, or even more, value as one that makes a direct recommendation.

If reviewers appear to disagree fundamentally, the editors may choose to share all the reviews with each of the reviewers and by this means elicit additional comments that may help the editors to make a decision. The academic and professional editors then assess the recommendations and comments of the reviewers alongside comments by the authors and material that may not have been made available to those reviewers.

When a paper has been revised in response to comments by reviewers or when authors feel their argument has been misconstrued in review, we ask reviewers to offer additional comments on the revised or contested manuscript. We request that reviewers make themselves available to provide such follow-up advice. We are nevertheless aware that reviewers do not wish to be involved in extended discussions over papers and we keep such consultations to a minimum while still allowing authors a fair hearing.

Confidentiality

The review process is strictly confidential and should be treated as such by reviewers. Because the author may have chosen to exclude some people from this process, no one not directly involved with the manuscript, including colleagues or other experts in the field, should be consulted by the reviewer unless such consultations have first been discussed with the professional editor.

Timely Reviewing

AJTES believes that an efficient editorial process that results in timely publication provides a valuable service both to authors and to the community at large. We, therefore, request that reviewers respond promptly, usually within 14 days of receipt of a manuscript. If reviewers need more time, we request that they contact us promptly so that we can keep the authors informed and, if necessary, assign alternate reviewers.

Subscriptions/Permissions and Reprints / Advertisements

Free full-text articles can be accessed from the following link: https://journal.astes.org.al/

Applications for subscriptions, permissions, reprints, and advertisements should be made to the following addresses.

Editorial Office

Albanian Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (AJTES)

Editor in Chief: Prof. Dr. Kastriot Haxhirexha

The State University of Tetovo, RN of Macedonia, Str. Ilinden, nn.1200 Tetova Republic of North Macedonia

Tel/Fax.: +38970241232,

E-mail address: ajtes.editor@gmail.com

Publisher

Albanian Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ASTES), Str. Lord Bajron, Nr. 40, AL1026, Tirana, Albania, https://journal.astes.org.al/

Tel/Fax.: +355692056123

E-mail: ajtesjournal@gmail.com

Material Disclaimer

All opinions and reports within the articles that are published at the Albanian Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ASTES) are the personal opinions of the authors. The Editor and the publisher of the AJTES do not accept any responsibility for these articles.

Advertising Policies

The journal accepts display and classified advertising. Frequency discounts and special positions are available. The journal reserves the right to reject any advertisement considered unsuitable according to the set policies of the journal. The appearance of Copyright © Albanian Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ASTES) & AJTES © 2020,

advertising or product information in the various sections of the journal does not constitute an endorsement or approval by the journal and/or its publisher of the quality or value of the said product or of claims made for it by its manufacturer.

Subscriptions

AJTES is published three times a year and is available by subscription. For further information contact Editorial Office:

Albanian Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (AJTES), Str. Lord Bajron, Nr. 40, AL1026, Tirana, Albania, https://journal.astes.org.al/

Tel/Fax.: +355692056123

Editorial e-mail: ajtes.editor@gmail.com; ajtesjournal@gmail.com;

Website: https://journal.astes.org.al/