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About the LMQA
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Article
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For Contributors
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E-Submission
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Policy
For Contributors
Instruction to Authors
Instruction to Authors
Latest revision : May 2022
The Laboratory Medicine and Quality Assurance (Lab Med Qua Assur) is the official journal of the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service. It is published quarterly (on the last day of March, June, September, and December). The Laboratory Medicine and Quality Assurance aims to share knowledge in laboratory medicine and quality assurance. The Laboratory Medicine and Quality Assurance covers new scientific and scholarly content on laboratory medicine and quality assurance.
GENERAL CONSIDERATION
1. The manuscript should be written in Korean or English, and the authors should first refer to the Laboratory Medicine Terminology (published by the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine in 2020) for the Korean terms. The journal publishes Original Articles, Case Reports, Brief Communications, Letters to the Editor, Reviews, EvaluationBriefs, and Reports on Proficiency Testing. Other manuscript types could be submitted with the approval of the editorial board. Case reports that had been reported more than three times domestically or internationally will be rejected. Brief Communications and Evaluation Briefs are intended for the presentation of brief observations that do not warrant full-length papers but have sufficient originality and utility to be considered for publication. The information must be presented in sufficient detail so that readers can understand and appreciate the material presented. Manuscripts are classified according to the following eight specific areas, and the authors should state the appropriate area of interest to which their manuscripts belong. However, the executive editor may request the author to change the area of interest and resubmit the manuscript, if necessary.
Specific areas include
Diagnostic Hematology
Clinical Chemistry
Clinical Microbiology
Diagnostic Immunology
Transfusion Medicine
Diagnostic Genetics
Laboratory Informatics
Laboratory Medicine General
2. Authorship
(1) Manuscripts are accepted only on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere. The manuscripts published in this journal cannot be submitted for publication elsewhere.If the author(s) wishes a duplicate or a secondary publication, for example, for the readers of a different language, the author must obtain approval from the editors-in-chief of both the first and second journals. Further, the conditions specified in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals should be met, such as the insertion of a footnote in the title page of the second journal stating the primary reference and the duplicate nature of the paper (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). Only those who have made significant contributions to the preparation and publication of the manuscript are eligible for authorship and should take responsibility for the same. Each author should sign a consent form, including a statement that copyright is transferred to the Laboratory Medicine and Quality Assurance after acceptance for publication
(2) When a researcher involves minors (those aged 19 or younger) or family members (spouse, children, within cousinage) (hereinafter referred to as 'specially related persons') in research or writing paper, it must be notified to the editorial board in advance, and the reason for the participation of the relevant person as a co-author must be clarified. When submitting paper for a specially related person, prior consent is required to provide personal information.
3. Disclosure of conflict of interest : Each author is responsible for disclosing to the Publisher all potential conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript (including sources of support, consulting fee or honorarium, stocks, etc.). Even in case the authors have no conflicts of interest, the authors should declare it: None declared. Each author also should sign a statement disclosing any conflicts of interest.
4. Acknowledgements : General acknowledgements and research grant are described between disclosure of conflict of interest and references.
RESEARCH PUBLICATION ETHICS
Each member should recognize that honesty, truth, and Instruction For Authors revision : November 2018 Vol. 40, No. 4, Dec 2018 www.jlmqa.org accuracy are essential for ensuring the reliability of research results and comply with the following in all research activities.
ETHICS FOR RESEARCHERS
Experiments conducted on human subjects should be performed according to the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinkiethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-humansubjects/; adopted in 1964, amended in 2013) and comply with Korea’s Good ClinicalPractice. The authors must demonstrate that the research ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB) of their institution approved the study. If necessary, the patient or guardian should be fully informed of the purpose, background, and methods of the study, as well as the potential mental and physical risks during research, and provide their signed informed consent.Identifying information, including names, hospital numbers, and photographs, should not be disclosed. In the case of animal experiments, the author should describe the experimental procedures, such as raising and using experimental animals. The author should also state that they obtained approval from the research ethics committee of the institution where the experiment was performed and that they had not violated the regulations of the Research Ethics Committee or National Institutes ofHealth Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (1996, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Committee on National Research Council, National Academic Press, http://www.nap.edu/).
The author should keep the original experimental data used for the manuscript for at least one year from the time of publication and present them at the request of the Editorial Committee. Research publication ethics not specified in this guideline adhere to the Publication Ethics Guidelines of the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors.
MISCONDUCT IN RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION
Research misconduct occurs when, in designing, conducting, reporting, and presenting research, a researcher fabricates or falsifies data, plagiarizes, violates authorship rules,or simultaneously submits a manuscript.
(2) Manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results so that the research is not accurately represented (falsification)
(3) Appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without proper authorization or citation(plagiarism)
(4) Not grantingauthorship to a person who has contributed to research without a justifiable reason or granting authorship to those who have not contributed to research for reasons such as appreciation and honor (inappropriate authorship)
(5) Publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published in print or electronic media (redundant publication)
RESEARCH PUBLICATION ETHICS
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
(2) Astatement on the cautions and restrictions regarding research misconduct and a research ethics compliance letter should beincludedin thesubmission of the manuscript for publication in the Laboratory Medicine and Quality Assurance.
(3) The Association should organize and manage a Research Publication Ethics Committee (hereinafter referred to as the “Ethics Committee”) that can recognize, report, and investigate violations of research publication ethics and regulations.
PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Section headings should not be used in the body of Brief Communications and Evaluation Briefs, and the methods, www.jlmqa.org Vol. 40, No. 4, Dec 2018 results, and discussion should be combined in a single section. Methods should be described in detail in the text, and not in the table footnotes nor in the figure legends in the case of Brief Communications and Evaluation Briefs. Acknowledgments should be presented similar to that in full-length papers, but the title should not be included. The number of tables and figures should also be kept to a minimum.
2. The manuscript file should include the following in the given order.
2) Abstract: An abstract is not required for Letters to the Editor. In the case of all the other types of manuscripts, the abstract should be written in English. The English abstract should be written in 250 words or less and include the following subheadings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Each subheading should be summarized in 1 paragraph (Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. N Engl J Med 1997;336:309-15). For Case Reports, Brief Communications, Evaluation Briefs, Reviews, and Reports, the abstract is limited to 250 words in a single paragraph without the subheadings. Select 3 to 10 keywords in English and insert them below the abstract. Where possible,the keywords should match those in the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) of Index Medicus(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). When a reagent or instrument is described in the abstract, the author should only mention the manufacturer and country, and not the manufacturing city.
3) Introduction: The research background and objectives should be described briefly.
4) Materials and Methods: Research procedures, such asselection of research subjects, research methods, devices or apparatuses, experimental methods, statistical analysis methods, and IRB approval, should be described in detail. Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors) for the description of participants, and, unless inappropriate, report the sex or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex or gender (https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6).
5) Results: Important observational findings should be described using tables and figures. If possible, present the absolute and relative values (percentage) of the data. Nos. 3 to 5 can be combined in Case Reports.
6) Discussion:Describe the novelty and significance of the study and conclusions from the results. However, the content in either the introduction or the results should not be repeated.Summarize the mainresults, describe the meanings, and compare them with similar research results. The limitations of the study are also explained.
*In Reports on Proficiency Testing, the Results and Discussion sections may be combined.
7) Disclosure of conflict of interest: Disclose any conflict of interest, including research funding, consulting fee, stocks, and concurrent jobs, etc.
8) Acknowledgements: General acknowledgments are described.
9) ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID): All authors are recommended to provide an ORCID. To obtain an ORCID, authors should register in the ORCID web site: https://orcid.org. Registration is free to every researcher in the world.
10) References: Serially number the references in the order of citation in the text with numbers in brackets. Refer to all necessary literature, but indicate 30 references at the most. Not more than 20 references should be inserted for Case Reports, Brief Communications, and Evaluation Briefs.
11) Tables and Figures: Each table and figure should be written concisely, and the content of the tables and figures should not overlap. Photographs should be clear. Submit colored and black-and-white photographs to print colored and black-and-white photographs, respectively. The image files can be in Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) or Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) file format. However, files containing the figures should be uploaded in JPEG or Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file formats for the first online manuscript submission. TIFF or bitmap (BMP) files can be uploaded for the accepted manuscript.The print resolution should be 300 dots per inch (dpi) or higher. If necessary, figures can be mailed. If the figures are delivered by mail, the photographs should have a separate label on the reverse side, indicating the Fig. numbers, name of the author, an arrow indicating the top, and whether it should be printed in color or not. After attaching the photographs on blank paper, write the photograph description at the bottom and specify whether the photographs should be printed in color. For the citation of the contents of tables or figures, indicate them with Table 1 or Fig. 1.If there are more than one insets in the figure, each one of them should be identified alphabetically, i.e., (A), (B), (C), etc., with a corresponding legend. See Section 5 for details.
12) Insert the page number in series at the bottom of each page in the manuscript file.
2) The name of a person or a place and other proper nouns should be given in the original language, and Arabic numerals should be used. For weights and measures, the metric system should be used; International Standard (SI) units should be used. Indicate liters with a capital L. 3) The name of a microorganism should be spelled out at the first mention in the English and Korean abstracts and original text (example: Escherichia coli), and the names of the genus can be abbreviated subsequently(example: E. coli). However, do not abbreviate the name of the genus if twoor more genera starting with the same letter are being referred to. Scientific names should always be italicized. However, unscientific names are not italicized.
(Example 2) Not beitalicized: streptococci, coagulasenegative staphylococci, Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus
The names of genes should be italicized.
5) When using English abbreviations, spell out the abbreviation at first mention along with the abbreviation in the English and Korean abstracts and original text. Do not use an abbreviation in the title. The terms listed in “Abbreviations” at the end of the website of Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine (http://www.kslm.org/)need not be spelled out.
6) In the case of spacing between words and parentheses or brackets, a space should be inserted when English text or a number is placed before the parentheses. However, a space is not needed before Korean text. Brackets[ ] that indicate citations should be always written without spaces.
9) In the case of numbers greater than threedigits, a comma should be inserted after every third digit from right to left (e.g., 5,431), but a comma should not be inserted when indicating years (e.g., 2013).
2) Articles: Names of the authors. Title. Name of the journalyear published; volume number: and the first and last page numbers.
List all the authors if the number of authors is less than seven, and list the first six authors followed by “et al.” if there are more than seven. Journal names are to be abbreviated in accordance with the style of Index Medicus, which can be found in the journal database of PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed). In the case of a supplementary volume of a journal, record it in parentheses, such as 15(S). All references in languages other than English should be translated to English.
(Example) Kwon SW. Automation of blood bank tests: anoverview. J Lab Med Qual Assur 2008;30(S1): S127-9.
(Example) Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Defining, establishing, and verifying reference intervals in the clinical laboratory: approved guideline. 3rd ed. C28-A3C. Wayne (PA): Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, 2010.
6) An abstract is not permitted to be cited as a reference. If a paper is accepted but not published yet, it should be cited and described as “in press.”In this case, the author should have a letter permitting the citation from the author(s) of the cited paper. If an author would like to cite a paper that has been submitted but has not been accepted yet, this papershould be described as unpublished observation in the text, and the author should obtainpermission from the author(s) of the cited paper. We do not recommend citing personal communications;however, if cited, cite the name of the information provider and date of communications in parentheses in the text. The author should confirm the accuracy of the personal communication from the author(s) and obtain a letter from the author(s) authorizing the citation. If the editorial board cannot find the reference paper, this reference can be requested to be deleted from the reference list even after acceptance of the paper.
2) Only the first letter and proper nouns of the headings and legends of tables and figures should be in capital letters.
3) Vertical and horizontal lines should be omitted as much as possible. Text in the first column of a table should be aligned to the left. Single letters should be aligned centrally from the second column. If numbers are of the same unit, the decimal point should be the datum point. If there are symbols such as “-” indicating ranges, ± and × symbols should be the datum point. Numbers with different units should be aligned to the right in all columns. If there are parentheses, the start of the parentheses and the last letter before it should be the datum point.
4) Only numbers can be used without parentheses or a period if it represents a case in a table.
5) Explanations below should be in the order of superscripts and abbreviations. There should be a line break between the explanations of each superscript and/or abbreviations.
6) Superscripts should be placed on the right side of a word and should be used in the following order: *, †, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, etc. Numbers or alphabets are not used in this case. The description of the various superscripts follows the format of the following example.
ex. *Not tested. †P<0.05.
7) All non-standard abbreviations should be explained below the table/figure. Define them as indicated in the following examples (Abbreviations: abbreviation, description; abbreviation, description).
9) If a figure comprises two or more pictures, each should be explained either separately as “(A), explanation and (B), explanation” or together in parentheses
Table 1. Precision of the erythropoietin with Access EPO assay
| Level | Mean (IU / L) | SD | Within-run CV (%) | Total CV (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low (n=80) | 11.5 | 0.8 | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Medium (n=80) | 37.7 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 3.7 |
| High (n=80) | 112.4 | 5.3 | 2.2 | 2.6 |
Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; CV, coefficient of variation.
SUBMISSION, PEER-REVIEW, EDITING, AND
PUBLICATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
2. A manuscript copyeditor first reviews the format of the submitted manuscript.If there is an issue with the format, the manuscriptcopyeditormay requestthe author to revise and resubmit the manuscript via e-mail within one week after receipt. After the format review process is completed, the manuscript is delivered to the executive editor, and the author is notified of the receipt of the manuscript. If the submitted manuscript is not appropriate for review or the scope of the journal, the executive editor can determine that the manuscript is not acceptable before delivering the manuscript to peer reviewers.The executive editor sends the manuscript to two or more peer reviewers with expertise in the field or area indicated.
3. All manuscripts submitted to this journal are subject to independent and professional review by peers. The reviewer must examine the manuscript fairly and accurately and should not disclose the contents of the manuscript before publication nor contact the author directly. If there is any conflict of interest with the contents of the manuscript, the reviewer should immediately notify the executive editor of theirinability to review the manuscript. The review letter should be submitted within 14 days and contain comments to help improve the quality of the manuscript.
The following aspects should be reviewed:
- Significance and originality of the research
- Appropriateness of research plans and methods
- Appropriateness of statistical analysis
- Validity of the derived conclusions and interpretations
- Validity of discussion
- Usage of correct academic terms
- Appropriateness of reference
- Compliance with submission guidelines
- Appropriateness of title and abstract
- Appropriateness of tables and figures
- Compliance with manuscript volume
4. In principle, the editorial board should notify the concerned author of the acceptance, rejection, or revision of the manuscript by e-mail and online system within 21 days after receipt of the manuscript. The revised manuscript should be reviewedwithin 14 days.
5. Every author can check the status and results of the review on the journal’s website.If revision of the manuscript has been requested, the concerned author should resubmit the revised manuscript through the online system or withdraw submission within 60 days from the date of notification. All requests, (revised) manuscripts, and response letters are delivered through the website.
6. The executive editor or editor-in-chiefcan send manuscripts that require statistical editing to a biostatistics expert before acceptance.If necessary, the executive editor returns the manuscript and requests the author to revise the manuscript.
7. The executive editor notifies the author of theacceptance of the manuscript, and the manuscript undergoes reference, Korean, and English editing. After the editing process is completed, the publisher asks the concerned author to check the edited manuscript before publication. The edited manuscript is sent to the author in PDF formatby e-mail, and the concerned author should perform final proofreading and reply within 48 hours.
8. Manuscripts like the following are rejected. The author is notified of the rejection
2) The author does not respond to the executive editor within threemonths after the request for revision without any specific reason.
3) The originality or scientific contribution of the research is significantly low.
4) The research seriously violatespublication ethics.
9. Publication of anarticle is mainly decided by the executive editor after considering the comments of the reviewers. The final decision of publication is the duty of the editor-in-chief. Any manuscript that does not observe these policies and instructions will have to be revised and supplemented, and can be withheld from publication.
10. Addition or exclusion of any author will have to be approved by the editor-in-chief after the submission of a written request signed duly by allauthors.
11. Any errors discovered in the articles after publication should be sent to editor-in-chief in printed version and be inserted in erratum in a future issue.
OTHERS
2. The Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service has the copyright of every submitted manuscript, and the author should submit a Copyright Transfer Agreement.
3. These instructions are based on the Vancouver Form, 5th edition. For any issues not addressed in these instructions, refer to the following materials
(http://www.icmje.org/newsand-editorials/updated_recommendations_dec2018.html).
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