Guidelines for authors

Archiwum Medycyny Sądowej i Kryminologii [Archives of Forensic Medicine and Criminology] accepts papers, articles and monographs in Polish and English – original contributions, case studies, review articles and historical submissions on forensic medicine, criminology and related areas, publications on medical ethics and deontology, reviews of books, reports on the work of Polish Society of Forensic Medicine and Criminology (PTMSiK), communications of the PTMSiK Main Board, reports on conventions held in Poland and abroad, and letters to the Editor. The author(s) should specify the category of the submission.

Submission

Contributions should be submitted to the Editor via the Editorial System available at http://www.editorialsystem.com/amsiken/.
The type of the submission, information about the author(s), their affiliation as well as the title, abstract and key words should be typed into the boxes as they appear on the screen of the editorial system. No information about the author(s) (names and affiliations) should be given in the text of the contribution. Tables and figures (photographs) should be attached as separate files.

Detailed guidelines

Text layout. The text of original contributions should feature the following parts:
– introduction,
– aim,
– materials and methods,
– results,
– discussion and conclusions.
Case studies should include:
– introduction,
– description of case study,
– conclusions.

An abstract of an original contribution should be from 200 to 250 words and should include: aim, materials, methods, results and conclusions; abstracts of case studies and review articles should be from 100 to 150 words.
From 3 to 6 key words should be chosen for each contributions; they should be indicative of the topic of the contribution (follow the guidelines given in Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings – MESH).
Only standard abbreviations should be used. Abbreviations in the title and abstract should be avoided. Any first use of an abbreviation should be explained, unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measure.
Measures of length, height, weight and volume must be given in metric units (metre, kilogram, and litre) or their decimals. Temperature is given in Celsius, blood pressure in millimetres of mercury. All results of haematological or biochemical measurements are given in the SI metric system with reference ranges.
The entire contribution (with figures, tables, literature and abstract) of original and review articles should be maximum 12 pages (1 page = 1800 characters), case studies – 7 pages and other contributions – 5 pages. In exceptional circumstances the Editors may accept contributions exceeding the page limit indicated above.
A file with the article should be free from any information that would permit identification of the author (a double-blind review process will be applied).

Tables and figures

The number of tables and/or figures should be sufficient to facilitate understanding of the text. Figure numbers and captions and titles of tables with explanations should be written in Polish and English.
Tables and figures should be attached as separate files and prepared with the help of generally used office and graphic software packages.
Tables should be numbered with Roman numerals in the order in which they appear in the article. Information given in the table(s) should not be repeated in the text. Information supporting the tables, e.g. explanation of the abbreviations, is given in footnotes under the table(s).
Figures (diagrams and photographs) should be numbered with Arabic numerals and attached as separate files. The following formats are acceptable: .cdr, .tif, .jpg, .ai, .bmp or.eps. Photographs should have a resolution of 300 dpi and should be submitted as .tif or .jpg files. Do not “embed” figures and photographs in MS Office documents. The dimensions of the figures should be sufficient to make them legible when their base is scaled to 1200 mm. Authors using materials from other sources should get permission for their use from the original authors or original publishers. The original source should be acknowledged in the caption.
Tables and figures are printed in a scale of gray. If the authors wish to have elements of their contributions printed in colour, they should contact the Editors. Any difference in the cost of standard and colour printing (which varies depending on the number of publisher’s sheets or inserts) is covered by the author(s). It is possible to submit a CD with files, which can be used to illustrate a printed contribution.

Literature

Any literature cited in the text should be sequentially numbered; references in the text should be given in square brackets. In an original contribution there should be a maximum of 20 references to literature, in a case study – 15 and in a review article – 30. Each reference must include the author(s)’ surname and first letter of the name, title of the article, title of the journal (use the abbreviations recommended in Index Medicus; titles of journals in Cyrillic should be transcribed according to the Polish rules), the year of publication, volume number, first and last page of the article, e.g.
Konopka T, Strona M, Księżniak-Baran D, Wojton D. Plastic bag suffocation in material collected by Department of Forensic Medicine in Krakow. Arch Med Sąd Kryminol 2013; 63: 93-8.

In the case of books – give the full title, publisher, place and year of publication, e.g.:
Butler JM. Sample collection, DNA extraction, and DNA quantification. In: Butler JM. Forensic DNA typing: biology, technology, and genetics of STR markers. Elsevier, Burlington – London 2005; 33-62.

Statements

- statement of authors (DOC)
- scope of work information (DOC)
- declaration of conflict of interest (DOC)

On the transfer of copyrights, (non)-existence of a conflict of interests, and how the research was financed.
A statement on the transfer of copyrights and publishing rights to the Polish Society of Forensic Medicine and Criminology, signed by all the authors, must be attached to each contribution submitted to the Editors. The author(s) must also submit a statement that their contribution has not been published before (in whole or in parts) and/or that it has not been submitted for publication to another publisher. The statement should feature consent for publication given by the head of the institution (chair, department).
Authors must also submit a statement about the existence or non-existence of a conflict of interests and should a conflict exist, they should explain it. Furthermore, authors should indicate the sponsor of the publication (grant, R&D institution, association, other) or indicate that the publication is not sponsored.
Templates of statements are available on the periodical’s website (www.termedia.pl/AMSIK) and in the editorial panel (http://www.editorialsystem.com/amsiken/). Completed and signed statements must be scanned and attached when the article is loaded into the electronic submission system.
The Editors will follow the rules of impartiality when accepting the contribution for publication.

Input by individual authors

The periodical follows the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) procedure to ensure originality of scientific publications. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the input of individual authors to the publication, i.e. specify the author of the research concept, its assumptions, methods, and research protocol, each author’s affiliation, etc. A relevant statement template is available on the periodical’s website (www.termedia.pl/AMSIK) and in the editorial panel (http://www.editorialsystem.com/amsiken/).
The Editors follow the highest standards of scientific publications and their cooperation with authors is based on disclosed information about the actual contribution of persons or institutions to the publication. Any cases of “ghost-writing” and “guest authorship”, as manifestations of conduct unbecoming of true scholars, will be subject to ordinary penalties.

Permission of research ethics committee

Permission of a relevant bioethical committee is required in the case of contributions presenting results of research involving living persons, dead bodies or animals. Such permission is also required in the case of contributions describing experiments involving human biological material (also in the case of retrospective contributions). The authors must follow the guidelines defined in the current text of the Helsinki Declaration (2008). Authors should obtain permission of a relevant research ethics committee and the permission of each of the living persons taking part in the research who must be fully aware what they sign. Such information must be disclosed in the “Materials and methods” part of the publication. Authors should not disclose the identity of the persons described in the publication.

Review process

Contributions submitted to the Editors in accordance with these Guidelines are subject to a review process. Contributions which do not meet the Regulations will not be assessed for their merits.
The Editors choose reviewers relevant to the topic of the contribution submitted for publication. Each contribution is assessed by two reviewers in the double-blind review process.
Review principles are explained in detail on the periodical’s website (www.termedia.pl/AMSIK); and follow the guidelines of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (www.nauka.gov.pl).

Approval

The Editors reserve the right to make all necessary corrections and amendments, including stylistic ones, and abridge the publication without consultation with the author(s). Texts accepted by the Editors for publication should be finally approved by the first author or one of the co-authors electronically or by fax within 4 days from their receipt. When no approval has been submitted within seven days, the Editors will assume that the text has been approved by the author(s). When the contribution has been approved for print, all copyrights to the publication are deemed to have been transferred by the author(s) to the Polish Society of Forensic Medicine and Criminology.
No royalties are paid for the contributions accepted for publication and authors do not receive any offprints. The published texts are available as PDF files on the periodical’s website (www.termedia.pl/AMSIK) in exactly the same form in which they have been printed.





ETHICAL STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES
Termedia Publishing House is committed to upholding standards of ethical behaviour at all stages of the publication process. We follow closely the industry associations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), that set standards and provide guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
The author is obliged to prepare and send the article in accordance with the requirements set out in the journal Editor. Moreover the author is obliged to submit editorial complemented by a statement which will be included: a statement about the originality of the content of the article (work not yet published anywhere), the integrity of the copyrights of others, no conflict of interest or its application, as well as the superior permission to publish an article in the journal. Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias or be seen to bias their work.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA AND/OR WHO SHOULD BE LISTED AS A CONTRIBUTOR
Termedia Publishing House in the matter of authorship criteria and/or who should be listed as a contributor, respects standards recommended by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). Detailed information about those criteria you can find in COPE Report publicationethics.org/files/2003pdf12_0.pdf.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Articles are selected for publication in double blind selection system and published in open access system. Reviewer shall review by the electronic system on the basis of questions prepared for a specific title. Reviewer is also possible to send individual comments to be published in the article content.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS
Editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles accepted for publication. Editors act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.







Copyright: © 2015 Polish Society of Forensic Medicine and Criminology (PTMSiK). This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.