1. About Discovery Medicine
Discovery Medicine is dedicated to elevating the exposure and awareness of important findings in medicine and all fields in life sciences in general and therefore their enhanced utility in patient care and research.
Among the vast, insurmountable medical life sciences literature, important findings are buried and neglected. To alleviate the problem, Discovery Medicine publishes relatively short reviews and original research articles written in less technical language so that more people (cross-disciplinary) could benefit from these findings. With a wider and bigger audience, these important findings should realize a greater “return on investment” and will extend the “mileage” and impact of your discoveries on medicine and care. Discovery Medicine also publishes original research articles.
2. Publishing in Discovery Medicine
Discovery Medicine publishes innovative ideas and research findings that challenge conventional notions about disease mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment, or any of the life sciences subjects, written in less technical language (see the Content Scope below). Its audience includes physicians, scientists, executives of healthcare companies of all levels, and health-conscious members of the general public.
Scientists and physicians are invited by the Editorial Board to submit review articles and/or original research articles to Discovery Medicine via its user-friendly web publishing platform. In order to submit a manuscript, an author needs to register a publishing account and submits the manuscript within the publishing account.
3. Manuscript Categories
Content Scope
Discovery Medicine publishes innovative, provocative, and disruptive ideas, insights, and discoveries in clinical medicine, preclinical research, basic biomedical sciences, and all other fields of life sciences (from plant biology to surgery).
Article
An article is a report summary based on original research or investigation, usually a form of presentation that advances theoretical, empirical, experimental, and/or methodological progress through analyzing research data. Scientific and reasonable data analysis methods are crucial for obtaining accurate research conclusions. The manuscript should be written using a structured abstract, and the main body should include an introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and other sections. The author should clearly describe the significance of the research in the introduction section and try to refer to the latest literature in the relevant field to write the full text.
Review
A review (excluding systematic review) typically requires authors to comprehensively summarize, analyze, or interpret published literature in a particular field, provide scientific insights into the recent status and development directions of the field, or offer suggestions for future research. A review generally does not contain unpublished or original data. It is recommended that authors use an indicative abstract, provided that it is concise and clear. The structure of the main text should include an introduction, the main body of the review, and a complete conclusion.
Systematic Review
A systematic review (meta-analysis) is a secondary literature that systematically investigates and analyzes previously published research findings around a specific topic. We encourage authors to register the detailed protocols in public registration forms such as PROSPERO before proceeding. The writing of a systematic review should also adopt a structured abstract and strictly follow the PRISMA checklist or Moose checklist. The checklist used for submission must be submitted as supplementary materials.
Commentary
A commentary is used to publish scholars' evaluations of a medical phenomenon, event, or viewpoint, usually submitted by authoritative experts in the relevant field invited by the editorial department, calling for action on hot issues related to scientific research. There is no strict word limit for commentary, but a brief summary is required to introduce the background outline of the comment topic, summarize the progress made so far and the main function of this commentary.
Editorial
An editorial is usually a short article written by an Editor or invited author on a certain topic, without an abstract. The content is mainly presented in the form of introduction, summary, and commentary, which can be continuous text or divided into sections. It is usually used to reflect a certain viewpoint, with independent and complete conclusions, and should not include unpublished research data.
Case report
A case report is a detailed report based on rare diseases or complications, used to describe the symptoms, signs, pathological characteristics, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of individual or minority cases. It aims to make other researchers aware of the possibility of specific phenomena occurring. The writing of case reports requires a structured abstract and should follow the Care guidelines. Authors are encouraged to upload the Care checklist as supplementary materials when submitting.
Letters
Letters or Letters to Editor (without abstracts) are used to publish brief comments from scholars on articles published in Discovery Medicine. Authors can raise critical questions, propose further reflections to drive the conclusion, or elaborate on their own views on a particular issue addressed in the article and establish a complete and independent conclusion, with the main purpose of advancing research progress in the field. Before commenting, the author should have a thorough understanding of the topic. At the same time, the original author of the article being commented on can defend themselves against criticism and questioning. In this case, the original author's reply is usually published simultaneously with the letter.
Others
In general, Discovery Medicine does not accept articles that fall outside the above-mentioned categories. If you have any questions regarding the article category for submission to Discovery Medicine, please contact the Editorial Office at: editorial@discovmed.com.
4. Format of a Contribution (Manuscript Submission Requirements)
For both review and original research articles, a contribution may include tables, graphs, and/or images and is preceded by an abstract (250-400 words) and followed by a list of key references (please see details below).
4.1 Abstract and Keywords
The abstract must adhere to the specifications under the section “3. Manuscript Categories”. The abstract should not contain any citations, figures, tables, or undefined abbreviations or acronyms. General statements (e.g., “the significance of the results is discussed’’) should be avoided. After the Abstract, 3-8 keywords should be provided.
Where relevant, the study project registration number (e.g., registration number for a clinical trial, a clinical guideline, a systematic review and meta-analysis, or an animal study) should be included at the end of the abstract. For studies that have a registration number, this number should be included initially when a trial acronym is used to refer to the trial in the report or to other trials discussed in the paper. For data that have been deposited in a public repository and/or are the subject of analysis elsewhere, the distinctive, persistent data set identifier, the repository name, and the number should be included at the end of the abstract.
4.2 Text
For a contribution to be published in Discovery Medicine, the minimum length is 2,000 words (excluding the abstract, tables, figures and figure legends, and references). Generally, the length is not to exceed 9,000 words for a review and 7,000 words for an article. At the Editors’ discretion, exceptions are granted.
Authors are advised to include headline subtitles in the article to make the article more readable and allow readers to grasp the key points of the article more readily and quickly.
For review articles, avoid the excessive use of acronyms and jargon and explain them if they have to be used. You may explain a term/phrase inside a pair of parentheses immediately following the term/phrase. Or, you may consider adding a separate sentence to explain the term. For an original research article, avoid the use of acronyms and jargon as much as possible and always provide the full name when an acronym or an abbreviation is first used in the article.
4.3 Footnote
4.3.1 Availability of Data and Materials
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. More details.
4.3.2 Author Contributions
An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. According to the ICMJE guidelines, to qualify as an author one should have (i) made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and (ii) been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and (iv) agreed 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. Acquisition of funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group alone; does not usually justify authorship.
The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified, and initials should be used to refer to each author's contribution (e.g., WK and LMC designed the research study; WK, XGH, CGG, CGL, YKL, LF, SML and XCZ performed the research; XGH and CGG collected and analyzed the data. WK and LMC have been involved in drafting the manuscript and all authors have been involved in revising it critically for important intellectual content. All authors give final approval of the version to be published. All authors have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to its accuracy or integrity). If any changes to the list of authors of a manuscript are necessary after the initial submission but before publication, the corresponding author must contact the journal staff and provide a clear reason for the change.
All manuscripts must be submitted by an author and may not be submitted by a third party.
The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal and Editorial Office during the submission process, throughout peer-review, and during publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for ensuring that the submission adheres to Discovery Medicine requirements including, but not exclusive to, details of authorship, study ethics and ethics approval, clinical trial registration documents, and conflict of interest declaration. The corresponding author should also be available post-publication to respond to any queries or critiques. Although the corresponding author has primary responsibility for correspondence with Discovery Medicine, the Discovery Medicine Editors should send copies of all correspondence to all listed authors.
4.3.3 Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate
In this section, please add the Institutional Review Board Statement and approval number for studies involving humans or animals. Please note that the Editorial Office might ask you for further information. More details.
4.3.4 Acknowledgment
Collate acknowledgments in a separate section at the end of the article before the Funding and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance, or proof-reading the article, etc.).
4.3.5 Funding
List funding sources. If the research was carried out without funding, "This research received no external funding." should be stated in this section.
In providing details of funding, authors should adhere to the following guidance:
• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, (i.e., ‘National Institute of Health’, not ‘NIH’). Grant numbers should be given in brackets (e.g., [grant number xxxx]).
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma (e.g. [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]).
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (with ‘and’ before the last funding agency).
Example: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa].’
4.3.6 Disclosure Statement
Authors are required to include a statement to fully disclose any known or potential conflict of interest. More details.
4.4 Figure
• File type: JPG, PNG or TIFF
• Image resolution: Figures should be submitted at a high resolution ① Line Art 800 dpi, ② Combo (Line Art + Halftone) 600 dpi, ③ Halftone 300 dpi. We do not accept 72 dpi web-quality graphics (usually jpg or gif format) in which the colors are not realistic, the text is illegible, or where the images are pixelated. It is important to stress that the objective is to obtain the highest-quality images available.
• Color space: RGB (not CMYK).
• Alpha channels: None.
• Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough. The font used within the figure should be between 8 and 10 points for legibility. Label units of measure consistently with the text and legend, following AMA Style for unit abbreviations.
• Solid lines should not be broken up. Any lines in the graphic should be no smaller than 2 points wide.
• Do not include trial logos in figures.
• Figure should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind. Individual figures should not be longer than one page and with a width that corresponds to 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm).
• All figures should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their order of appearance (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). In addition, file for figures can be provided during submission in a separate file.
Photomicrographs and clinical and diagnostic images requirements:
Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
For radiological and other clinical and diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send high-resolution photographic image files. Before-and-after images should be taken with the same intensity, direction, and color of light.
Original images for blots and gel requirements:
Authors must provide the original, uncropped and unadjusted images supporting all blot and gel results reported in an article’s figures and supporting information files.
Please create a zip folder that contains all the original blot and gel images contained in the manuscript’s main figures and supplemental figures. Authors should annotate each original image, corresponding to the figure in the main article or supplementary materials, and label each lane or loading order.
All labeling and annotation should be performed without obscuring any data or background bands. All experimental samples and controls used for one comparative analysis should be run on the same blot/gel image. The different images should not be spliced together to illustrate the results.
4.5 Table
You are advised to use simple tables and avoid using complicated, wide-and-long ones.
• All tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their order of appearance (Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
• Do not submit tables in any other format such as an image, PDF file, etc.
• Each table must be a real table with columns, rows and cells.
• Do not use tab to create tables.
• Each piece of information should reside in its own cell.
• Tables must be numbered sequentially in the text and in the table title.
• Do not use any numbering style other than 1, 2, etc.
• Each table should have a short title. Any other text should be included at the bottom of the table and not in the table title.
• Please refer to any notation within the table with sequential superscripted numbers and not by any other attribute such as a, #, etc.
• If abbreviations are used, please list them below the table such as IFN: interferon.
4.6 Reference and Citation
Reference list:
An article is followed by generally no more than 75 references. A full citation of a reference includes the authors (if there are less than 6 authors, please list the names of all authors. If there are more than 6 authors, please list the first six authors’ names, then use "et al.", article title, the journal’s full name, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. Use the [number] for the references in the text. Sample reference citation (Download EndNote style).
(1) Journal:
• Less than 6 authors
[1] Cokkinos DV, Krajcer Z, Leachman RD. Coronary artery disease in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The American Journal of Cardiology. 1985; 55: 1437–1438.
• More than 6 authors
[1] Kurisu S, Inoue I, Kawagoe T, Ishihara M, Shimatani Y, Hata T, et al. Brockenbrough-Braunwald-Morrow phenomenon in tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy. International Journal of Cardiology. 2007; 115: 123–125.
(2) Book:
[1] Atlas D. IDF Diabetes Atlas. 10th edn. International Diabetes Federation: Brussels, Belgium. 2021.
[2] Shukla UV, Tripathy K. Diabetic Retinopathy. StatPearls Publishing: Treasure Island (FL). 2023.
(3) Patent:
[1] Smith MK, Duggan JM, Stalzer CM, Smith SC, Mowry GJ, inventors; Smith MK, assignee. Universal flexible arm. USA: United States patent US 5,823,486. 20 Oct 1998.
(4) If there are non-English journals in the reference, please insert the journal language as the ending:
[1] Li Y, Li TH, Yang ZL, Bau T, Dai YC. Atlas of Chinese macrofungal resources. Zhongyuan Farmers’ Press: Zhengzhou, China. 2015. (In Chinese)
(5) Website:
[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Facts about Encephalocele. 2020. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/encephalocele.html (Accessed: 4 October 2022).
4.7 Supplementary Materials
Additional data and files can be uploaded as "Supplementary Files" during the manuscript submission process. The supplementary files will also be available to the reviewers as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable, however, we recommend that common, non-proprietary formats are used where possible.
5. Statistical Requirements
Regardless of the article type, the presentation of data in your article should follow the SAMPL guidelines for statistics, as shown in detail, linked to: https://www.equator-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SAMPL-Guidelines-3-13-13.pdf
Of note:
• The authors should describe the statistical methods in as much detail as possible so that readers with the requisite knowledge and access to the data can verify the results reported in the article.
• If possible, quantify the results and provide the quantified results and associated parameters of measured uncertainty as appropriate (e.g., confidence intervals) and avoid providing only the results of statistical hypothesis tests (e.g., P values) because they do not convey important information about statistical effects. For example, reporting "2.75; 95% CI - 1.89 to 3.86; p = 0.26".
• When 95% CIs are wide, statistics should be interpreted with caution, whether or not they are statistically significant.
• Unless the study design calls for the use of a one-sided test, such as a noninferiority trial, other reported p values should be two-sided tests.
• For secondary, subgroup analyses, the possibility of Type I errors due to multiple comparisons should be described and the interpretation of such analyses should be done with caution, similarly for post hoc analyses.
• Caution should be taken for the cases of p = 0 and p = 1.
Reporting of p values:
• The description of the p value should be in uppercase italic format, i.e., "p".
• Do not round p values, do not report "not significant" simply because the data is greater than an arbitrary value.
6. Preprints
When submitting the manuscript to Discovery Medicine, authors should disclose the detailed information of about the article published on the preprint server, including a URL link and licensing terms. Once the preprint is published, it is the author's responsibility to ensure that the publication reference on the preprint servers is updated, including the DOI and a URL link to the published version of the article on the journal website. Further information for preprint is provided in Copyright & License.
7. Submission of Your Contribution
Authors first create their publishing accounts and then submit their manuscripts including uploading and placing/positioning their figures, figure legends, and tables in the text. Authors are advised to write their manuscripts in Microsoft Word.
For any questions, please contact our Editorial Office by e-mail: editorial@discovmed.com.
8. Editing by Editors and Reviewers of Discovery Medicine
Editors of Discovery Medicine reserve the right to edit your article. In the majority of the cases, editing would involve changing a small number of words for the purpose of achieving a greater clarity and readability. Any edits would be recorded in a separate manuscript revision in your publishing platform or tracked in a Microsoft Word file. You may compare your original draft to the Editors’ revision and see where the edits are. An email will be sent to you when a final manuscript revision is ready for you to review. If the Editors need clarifications or should you disagree with the Editors on the edits, you may make changes and save them in a new revision and submit it to the Editors for further review.
9. Peer-Review Process
For specifications, please refer to The Discovery Medicine Editorial Process.
10. Article Processing Charge
For specifications, please refer to Article Processing Charge.
11. Copyright and Permissions
For specifications, please refer to Copyright & License.
12. Ethical Guidelines for Authors
• Authors must certify that the work reported in the manuscript is original and free from any plagiarism.
• Authors must state that all data in the article are real and authentic.
• Authors must certify that the work has not been published elsewhere or submitted to any other journal(s) at the same time.
• Authors must disclose any potential conflict of interest associated with the manuscript.
• Authors should actively participate in the peer-review process and provide suitable responses to the comments raised by peer reviewers on time.
• All authors must have significantly contributed to the research and fulfill the authorship criteria recommended by the ICMJE.
• Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
Responsible research publication international standards for authors:
To manage authorship disputes we follow COPE guidelines, particularly How to spot authorship problems. In case of any authorship disputes, a clear explanation from the authors should be submitted to be evaluated by the journal and the decision will be made based on the recommendations of the COPE and other related organizations including but not limited to the ICMJE. If not, we require an authoritative statement from the authors' institution(s) concerning authorship qualification.
Updated on 31 March 2023
