Instructions to Authors

The Journal of Pediatric Research is an official peer-reviewed publication of Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Ege Children’s Foundation. This publication organ is responsible for the issue of unique clinical and laboratory research papers, case reports, reviews directly or indirectly related to children’s health and diseases. The publication language of the journal is  English.

The abbreviation of The Journal of Pediatric Research is JPR; however, it should be denoted as J Pediatr Res when referenced. In the international index and database, the name of the journal has been registered as The Journal of Pediatric Research and abbreviated as J Pediatr Res. A manuscript will be considered only with the understanding that it is an original contribution that has not been published elsewhere. All manuscripts submitted to the journal for publication are peer-reviewed. Authors shall be informed within a period of 8 weeks about the process. Upon review, those manuscripts, which are accepted, shall be published in the journal and issued on the http://www.jpedres.org official website.

The scientific and ethical liability of the manuscripts belongs to the authors, and the copyright of the manuscripts belongs to the JPR. Authors are responsible for the contents of the manuscript and the accuracy of the references. All manuscripts submitted for publication must be accompanied by the Copyright Agreement Form. Once this form, signed by all the authors, has been submitted, it is understood that neither the manuscript nor the data it contains have been submitted elsewhere or previously published and authors declare the statement of scientific contributions and responsibilities of all authors.

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Pediatric Research are screened for plagiarism using the ‘iThenticate’ software. Results indicating plagiarism may result in manuscripts being returned or rejected.

Experimental, clinical and drug studies requiring approval by an ethics committee must be submitted to The Journal of Pediatric Research with an ethics committee approval report confirming that the study was conducted in accordance with international agreements and the Declaration of Helsinki (revised 2013). The approval of the ethics committee and the fact that informed consent was given by the patients should be indicated in the Materials and Methods section. In experimental animal studies, the authors should indicate that the procedures followed were in accordance with animal rights as per the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and they should obtain animal ethics committee approval.

Authors must provide disclosure/acknowledgment of financial or material support, if any was received, for the current study.

If the article includes any direct or indirect commercial links or if any institution provided material support to the study, authors must state in the cover letter that they have no relationship with the commercial product, drug, pharmaceutical company, etc. concerned; or specify the type of relationship (consultant, other agreements), if any.

Authors must provide a statement on the absence of conflicts of interest among the authors and provide authorship contributions.

The Journal of Pediatric Research is an independent international journal based on double-blind peer-review principles. The manuscript is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who reviews the manuscript and makes an initial decision based on manuscript quality and editorial priorities. Manuscripts that pass initial evaluation are sent for external peer review, and the Editor-in-Chief assigns an Associate Editor. The Associate Editor sends the manuscript to reviewers (internal and/or external reviewers). The reviewers must review the manuscript within 21 days. The Associate Editor recommends a decision based on the reviewers’ recommendations and returns the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief makes a final decision based on editorial priorities, manuscript quality, and reviewer recommendations. If there are any conflicting recommendations from reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief can assign a new reviewer.

The scientific board guiding the selection of the papers to be published in the Journal consists of elected experts of the Journal and, if necessary, selected from national and international authorities. The Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, biostatistics expert and English language consultant may make minor corrections to accepted manuscripts that do not change the main text of the paper.

In case of any suspicion or claim regarding scientific shortcomings or ethical infringement, the Journal reserves the right to submit the manuscript to the supporting institutions or other authorities for investigation. The Journal accepts the responsibility of initiating action but does not undertake any responsibility for an actual investigation or any power of decision.

The Editorial Policies and General Guidelines for manuscript preparation specified below are based on “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations) ” by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (2016, archived at.

The presentation of the article types must be designed in accordance with trial reporting guidelines:

Human research: Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines

Case reports: the CARE case report guidelines

Clinical trials: CONSORT

Animal studies: ARRIVE and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals

GENERAL GUIDELINES

Manuscripts can only be submitted electronically through the Journa lAgent online manuscript system after creating an account. This system allows online submission and review.

The manuscripts are archived according to Web of Science-Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), EBSCO, British Library, CINAHL Complete Database, ProQuest, Gale/Cengage Learning, Tübitak/Ulakbim TR Index, TurkMedline, J-GATE, IdealOnline, Hinari, GOALI, ARDI, OARE, AGORA and Türkiye Citation Index.

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

Format: Unique research papers cover clinical research, observational studies, novel techniques, and experimental and laboratory studies. Unique research papers shall consist of a heading, abstract, keywords related to the main topic of the paper, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, bibliography, tables and figures. Manuscripts should be prepared using 12 pt “Times New Roman” and 1.5 line spacing. The text shall not exceed 2500 words. Case reports must contain rare cases or those that are unique in diagnosis and treatment, those which contribute to current knowledge and provide educational information, along with the introduction, case reporting and discussion sections. The whole text must not exceed 1500 words. Reviews are texts in which a current subject is examined independently, with reference to scientific literature. The whole text must not exceed 18 A4 paper sheets. Letters to the Editor must be manuscripts, which do not exceed 1000 words, with reference to scientific literature, and those written in response to issued literature or those which include development in the field of paediatrics. These manuscripts do not contain an abstract. The number of references is limited to 5.

Abbreviations: Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. Internationally accepted abbreviations should be used; refer to scientific writing guides as necessary.

Cover letter: The cover letter should include statements about manuscript type, single-journal submission affirmation, conflict of interest statement, sources of outside funding, equipment (if applicable), approval of language for articles in English and approval of statistical analysis for original research articles.

Use of Large Language Models and Generative AI Tools

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

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

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

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

Example:

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

REFERENCES

Authors are solely responsible for the accuracy of all references.

In-text citations: References shall be listed as the below formats on a separate page according to their sequence within the text and referred to within the text in parentheses.

Presentations presented in congresses, unpublished manuscripts, theses, Internet addresses, and personal interviews or experiences should not be indicated as references. If such references are used, they should be indicated in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence in the text, without reference number and written in full in order to clarify their nature.

References section: All author names shall be stated within all references. References shall be listed as the below formats on a separate page according to their sequence within the text and referred to within the text in parentheses. However, in studies where author numbers exceed 6, names of the first 3 authors shall be stated;“et al.” additions shall be made to the list of authors in English references, respectively. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the Index Medicus.

Reference Format

Journal: Last name(s) of the author(s) and initials, article title, publication title and its original abbreviation, publication date, volume, the inclusive page numbers.

Example: Koening JQ. Airpollutionandasthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1999; 104:717-22.

Book: Last name(s) of the author(s) and initials, chapter title, book editors, book title, edition, place of publication, date of publication and inclusive page numbers of the extract cited.

Example: Fletcher CDM, Unni KK, Mertens F. Genetics of Tumours of Soft Tissue and Bone. Lyon, France, IARC Press, 2002. p. 225-419.

Book Chapter: Last name(s) of the author(s) and initials, chapter title, book editors, book title, edition, place of publication, date of publication and inclusive page numbers of the cited piece.

Example: Whitsett JA, Pryhuber GS, Rice WR. Acuteres piratory disorders. In: Avery GB, Mac- Donald MG (eds). Neonatology: Pathophysiology and Management of the Newborn, 5th ed. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1999;505-15.

TABLES, GRAPHICS, FIGURES, AND IMAGES

All visual materials, together with their legends, should be located on separate pages that follow the main text. Original documents such as films, ECG records must not be delivered. All cost related to colored printouts shall be covered by the authors’ own expenses.

Images: Images (pictures) should be numbered and include a brief title. Permission to reproduce pictures that were published elsewhere must be included. All pictures should be of the highest quality possible, in JPEG format, and at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Tables, Graphics, Figures: All tables, graphics, or figures should be enumerated according to their sequence within the text, and a brief descriptive caption should be written. Tables shall be numbered by Roman numerals (I, II) according to their sequence and shall include a heading. Figures shall be numbered by Arabic numerals (1,2) according to their sequence.  Any abbreviations used should be defined in the accompanying legend. Tables, in particular, should be explanatory and facilitate readers’ understanding of the manuscript and should not repeat data presented in the main text. A maximum of 2 figures or photographs shall be added to case reports.

BIOSTATISTICS

To ensure controllability of the research findings, the study design, study sample, and the methodological approaches and applications should be explained, and their sources should be presented.

The “p” value defined as the limit of significance along with appropriate indicators of measurement error and uncertainty (confidence interval, etc.) should be specified. Statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols used in the article should be described, and the software used should be defined.

Statistical terminology (random, significant, correlation, etc.) should not be used in non-statistical contexts.

All results of data and analysis should be presented in the Results section as tables, figures and graphics; biostatistical methods used and application details should be presented in the Materials and Methods section or under a separate title.

CLINICAL TRIAL POLICY

All clinical trials, which are any research projects that prospectively assign individuals or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, in order to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome, must be registered in a public trials registry acceptable to the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE). Authors of randomized controlled trials must adhere to the CONSORT guidelines , and provide both a CONSORT checklist (for protocols, see the SPIRIT guidance) and flow diagram. We require that you choose the MS Word template at www.consort-statement.org for the flow chart and cite/upload it in the manuscript as a figure. Starting from August 2024, submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the Abstract as evidence of registration.

You can register for clinical trials by visiting the following link:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/

To register the relevant record in the system and learn more about the protocol to be followed, please review the link below:

https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/manage-recs/how-register

MANUSCRIPT TYPES

Original Articles

Unique research papers cover clinical research, observational studies, novel techniques, and experimental and laboratory studies. Unique research papers shall consist of a heading, abstract, keywords related to the main topic of the paper, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, bibliography, tables and figures. The text shall not exceed 2500 words. Case reports must contain rare cases or those that are unique in diagnosis and treatment, those which contribute to current knowledge and provide educational information, along with the introduction, case reporting and discussion sections. The whole text must not exceed 1500 words. Reviews are texts in which a current subject is examined independently, with reference to scientific literature. The whole text must not exceed 18 A4 paper sheets. Letters to the Editor must be manuscripts, which do not exceed 1000 words, with reference to scientific literature, and those written in response to issued literature or those which include development in the field of paediatrics. These manuscripts do not contain an abstract. The number of references is limited to 5.

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

1. Title of the manuscript as concise and explanatory as possible, including no abbreviations, up to 135 characters

2. Short title up to 60 characters

3. Name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s) (without abbreviations and academic titles) and affiliations

4. Name, address, e-mail, phone and fax number of the corresponding author

5. The place and date of the scientific meeting in which the manuscript was presented and its abstract published in the abstract book, if applicable

Abstract: A summary of the manuscript should be written in English. References should not be cited in the abstract. The use of abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible; if any abbreviations are used, they must be taken into consideration independently of the abbreviations used in the text.

For original articles, the structured abstract should include the following sub-headings:

Aim: The aim of the study should be clearly stated.

Materials and Methods: The study and standard criteria used should be defined; it should also be indicated whether the study is randomized or not, whether it is retrospective or prospective, and the statistical methods applied should be indicated, if applicable.

Results: The detailed results of the study should be given, and the statistical significance level should be indicated.

Conclusion: Should summarize the results of the study, the clinical applicability of the results should be defined, and the favorable and unfavorable aspects should be declared.

Keywords: A list of minimum 3, but no more than 5 keywords must follow the abstract. Keywords in English should be consistent with “Medical Subject Headings (MESH)”.

Original research articles should have the following sections:

Introduction: Should consist of a brief explanation of the topic and indicate the objective of the study, supported by information from the literature.

Materials and Methods: The study plan should be clearly described, indicating whether the study is randomized or not, whether it is retrospective or prospective, the number of trials, the characteristics, and the statistical methods used.

Results: The results of the study should be stated, with tables/figures given in numerical order; the results should be evaluated according to the statistical analysis methods applied. See General Guidelines for details about the preparation of visual material.

Discussion: The study results should be discussed in terms of their favorable and unfavorable aspects and they should be compared with the literature. The conclusion of the study should be highlighted.

Study Limitations: Limitations of the study should be discussed. In addition, an evaluation of the implications of the obtained findings/results for future research should be outlined.

Conclusion: The conclusion of the study should be highlighted.

Acknowledgements: Any technical or financial support or editorial contributions (statistical analysis, English evaluation) towards the study should appear at the end of the article.

References: Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. See General Guidelines for details about the usage and formatting required.

Case Reports

Case reports should present cases that are rarely seen, feature novelty in diagnosis and treatment, and contribute to our current knowledge. The first page should include the title in English, an unstructured summary not exceeding 50 words, and keywords. The main text should consist of an introduction, case report, discussion and references. The entire text should not exceed 1500 words (A4, formatted as specified above). A maximum of 10 references shall be used in case reports.

Review Articles

Review articles can address any aspect of clinical or laboratory pediatry. Review articles must provide critical analyses of contemporary evidence and provide directions for future research. The journal only accepts and publishes invited reviews. Before sending a review, a discussion with the editor is recommended.

Reviews articles analyze topics in depth, independently and objectively. The first chapter should include the title in English, an unstructured summary and keywords. Source of all citations should be indicated. The entire text should not exceed 18 pages (A4, formatted as specified above).

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor should be short commentaries related to current developments in pediatrics and their scientific and social aspects or may be submitted to ask questions or offer further contributions in response to work that has been published in the Journal. Letters do not include a title or an abstract; they should not exceed 1.000 words and can have up to 5 references.

COMMERCIALIZATION

Commercialization issues shall be discussed with the editor. It is possible to include an advertisement on the outer and inner pages of the journal.

COPYRIGHT

All copyright of the journal belongs to the related institutions.

The Journal of Pediatric Research is the publication organ of Ege University Faculty of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, supported by Ege Children’s Foundation (EÇV).

Article Processing Charges (APC)

The Journal of Pediatric Research applies an Article Processing Charge (APC) only to manuscripts that have been accepted for publication. No fees are requested from authors during the submission or peer-review stages.

The APC is requested after acceptance and applies to all article types except editorials and reviews, which are published free of charge. The applicable APC for each article type is detailed below.

The manuscripts must be submitted via the Online Manuscript System, represented on the journal website.

Article Types and APCs

Payment Process

Following acceptance, the corresponding author will receive a secure payment link via the online manuscript submission system. Upon completion of payment, an official receipt will be issued.

Payment of the APC does not influence editorial decisions, peer-review outcomes, or publication priority. All manuscripts are evaluated solely on the basis of scientific merit, originality, and compliance with ethical standards.

Refund Policy

If an accepted article is withdrawn or returned to the authors before publication, the APC may be refunded in accordance with the journal’s financial procedures. Detailed refund conditions are communicated to the corresponding author upon request.

Correspondence

Prof. Dr. Özgür Çoğulu

Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Bornova, 35100 İzmir/Türkiye

Phone: +90 232 390 10 05 - 390 10 31

Fax: +90 232 390 13 57

E-mail: ozgur.cogulu@ege.edu.tr

Publisher

Galenos Publishing House

Address: Molla Gürani Mahallesi Kaçamak Sokak No: 21 34093 Fındıkzade - İstanbul/Türkiye

Phone: +90 (212) 621 99 25

E-mail: info@galenos.com.tr