Submissions

Author Guidelines

The style of writing should be clear and concise, although there are no restrictions on the length of manuscripts except an abstract (not more than 200 words). Manuscripts should neither be published previously nor be under consideration for publication in another journal.

Types of Articles

Research Articles: Research Articles are original research manuscripts that report scientifically new and sound information. Research articles should contain the following sections in this order: Introduction; Results; Discussion; Materials and Methods; Acknowledgements; References; Figures with the corresponding legend below each one; and Tables. Please prepare your manuscript using the Microsoft Word template of Scientific Letters.

Review Articles: Review Articles should provide an update of existing knowledge in a broad topic of general interest, with a critical and provocative vision, while pointing avenues to advance the state of knowledge.

Systematic Reviews: should clearly define the research question in terms of population, interventions, comparators, outcomes, and study designs (PICOS) and state which reporting guidelines were used in the study. PRISMA applies to systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Authors must complete the checklist and flow diagram and include them with their submission. The flow diagram of the studies should be included in the Results section. Additionally, authors must register their systematic review protocols in PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) prior to conducting their review. This helps ensure transparency and reduces the risk of bias. The PROSPERO registration number should be included in the manuscript submission.

Cover Letter

Submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter in which a brief explanation of the significance of the results is outlined, and why it fits the scope of the journal. Also, this cover letter should include the name, affiliation, and contact of the corresponding author; the name and contact of at least 3 suitable reviewers to be included for the revision process, and, if any, up to 3 reviewers to be excluded from reviewing. The corresponding author should state that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

Article Sections

Title Page

The title page of all manuscript should contain:

Title. The title should be concise, informative, and should capture a broad audience. The title should be no more than 25 words.

Author list and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the first and last name(s) of each author, the authors' affiliation addresses below the names, and complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and the e-mail address of each author. Please identify the corresponding author with asterisk.

Corresponding author. Please provide the name, institution, and email address of the corresponding author.

Abstract. The abstract should be no more than 200 words, without subheadings nor references. It should be a single paragraph, clear and concise, and should provide: a brief statement of the purpose of the study; the main methods used; the principal results; and major conclusions. Abbreviations should be avoided when not essential.

Keywords. Please provide a maximum of 6 keywords related to the actual work, that will be associated with your manuscript.

The Main Body of the Manuscript

Introduction. The introduction should be succinct, with only the background information needed to understand the purpose of the study, and without subheadings.

Results. Please provide informative and specific subheadings for the experimental results. Subheading should be specific and reflect information about the finding. For example, use “Inhibition of protein X promotes stability of protein Y” instead of “Analysis of the effect of protein X inhibition on the stability of protein Y”. This also applies to figure titles.

Discussion. In this section, the authors must explain the significance of the results and their integration in the current state of knowledge, as well as future perspectives.

Materials and Methods. Please provide subheading for this section. The authors should include sufficient detail to allow others researchers to replicate the study or build on published results. New methods should be included in detail. For well-established methods, authors may cite appropriate references, however they should include a brief but sufficient description to allow the reader to understand the results. Please give, if any, the registered clinical trial number, and the name and version of any software used. Please include required ethics statements if human or animal subjects and/or tissue were used in the actual work.

Acknowledgements. Please include funding source and grant numbers, as well as non-authors contribution (e.g. assistance in writing, proofreading, reagents, technical assistance).

Author contributions. Only authors that have made substantial contribution to the work should be included. Please specify the individual contributions of the authors to the paper, indicating the relevant roles. For example, AB conceived and designed the work, CD performed the experiments, AB and EF drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. (Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT))

Conflicts of interest. All authors must disclose any financial interests and personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests. Authors without financial or competing interests should explicitly include the statement ‘The authors declare no competing interests’.

References. References are listed in numerical order, in order of appearance in the text, within square brackets, and listed at the end of the paper. References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Author(s) name(s), journal title / book title, article title, year of publication, volume & issue / book chapter and the pagination must be present. The reference style required by the journal will be applied to the published version by IUCS-CESPU publishing.

To avoid unnecessary errors and waste of time, authors are strongly recommended to prepare the references with an automated reference manager, such as EndNote, Mendeley, or Zotero.

Figures, Tables, and Media Files.  Figures and tables should be embedded within the text, numbered in the order of citation in the text. High resolution images (including chemical structure), with a minimum of 300 dpi at their appropriate size, are required. Use the following format for citations: Fig. 1A,B or Figs 1, 2 or Table 1. Please provide a title and concise legend below each figure, followed by a description of each panel. Please provide a title at the top of each table, and include, below the table, footnotes or legend, smaller fonts no less than 8 points in size may be used.

Graphical Abstract. A graphical abstract (GA) is a single image designed to quickly gain an overview on the main findings of a paper, and helps the readers to understand the central message. Please provide a 5 cm by 17 cm (189 height x 642 width pixels) image, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, using Arial font with a size of 12-16 points. Please submit the GA in a separate file.

Ethics Declaration for Human and Animal Experiments.  When applicable, authors need to include an ethics statement during submission to indicate the institutional review board or ethics committee that approved the experiments, and/or the guidelines and regulations that have been followed, and the compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines.

Supplementary Material. Only data files such as datasets, movies, audio, figures and tables are accepted. However, essential data should be included in the main article. Editors reserve the right to limit the scope and length of Supplemental Data. Please supply all supplementary material as a single PDF file, including figures and tables, and uploaded as 'Supplementary Material'. This file should include the title of the manuscript and author list on the first page. All figures, tables, and movies should have titles and legends. Movies and audio are uploaded separately. Supplementary material should be cited at the appropriate point(s) in the main article, as Fig. S1, Table S1, Movie S1. Supplemental movies may be submitted as .mov, .avi, .mpeg, or .gif files. The authors are required to check all items before submission, as the final supplementary file will not be copyedited by Scientific Letters, and will be published as is.

Units and Gene Nomenclature

Please use the SI units (International System of Units). Click here for guidance on using the SI system.

Please use the appropriate nomenclature databases for correct gene names and symbols. You may consult this useful link here.

Language

The manuscript should be written in good quality English (USA only). Authors that are non-native English speakers are required to have their manuscript edited before submission by a professional native English-speaking colleague or an English editing service. Papers written in poor English will not be sent for peer-review, and are more likely to be rejected.

Inclusive Language and Equal Opportunities

Scientific Letters promotes equal opportunities for all, and privileges the individual merit regardless of nationality, color, religion, political affiliation, gender, or sexual orientation. Authors should ensure that writing is free from prejudices, and use inclusive language.

Authorship

Scientific Letters follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which state that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. 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.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Contributors who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section.

Retraction Guidelines

The journal adheres to the COPE Retraction Guidelines, and Editors reserve the right to consider retracting accordingly. Complaints and appeals shall be directed to the Journal Editors.

Complaints

Regardless of their status or identity, any complaints made against our published content are investigated in a discreet manner and in compliance with COPE rules. In many cases, an internal review will be conducted to see if a thorough inquiry is necessary. Every investigation we do into one of our articles will involve the author and the Journal Editor. We may frequently need to get in touch with outside parties, such as impartial experts, author institutions, or their financial sources, and this will always be done in compliance with GDPR requirements. 

Self-Archiving

We encourage authors to deposit the final published PDF in their institutional repository, in a website, or any other free public server, immediately on publication. Please provide source by citing DOI and linking to the published article on the journal website.

Manuscript Deposition

Please note that as a newly launched journal, it will take time for Scientific Letters to be indexed in PubMed Central (PMC). The journal will apply for indexing as soon as it meets the PMC pre-application requirements, namely in terms of content volume. However, once accepted, all past published articles will be indexed retrospectively. Meanwhile, authors can self-archive their open access articles in PubMed Central /Europe PubMed Central.

 Article processing charges

The journal has no publication charges.

Editorial decision

Please see Editorial Process section.