General instructions for submissions

These guidelines offer details on how to format and style a submission for the BioSocial Health Journal. Authors should first refer to the specific Submission Guidelines of the journal for the requirements related to the type of submission they are preparing. Submissions that do not adhere to these instructions may be sent back to the authors.

•  Preparing the manuscript
•  Preparing references
•  Preparing formulas or equations
•  Preparing figures
•  Preparing tables
•  Preparing additional files

• When preparing your manuscript, please adhere to the following formatting and style guidelines: The manuscript must be submitted in an acceptable word processor format, specifically Microsoft Word versions 97, 2003, 2007, 2010, or 2013 (DOC, DOCX).
• Write the manuscript in clear and concise American English.
• Set the paper size to A4, as some reviewers may prefer to print the manuscript for easier reading.
• Use an appropriate font, such as Times New Roman at size 12.
• Ensure the text is double-spaced.
• Incorporate headings as needed.
• Do not include line or page numbers, as these will be added automatically during the PDF conversion process.
• Use SI units and ensure that all special characters are embedded in the text to prevent any loss during PDF conversion.
• Avoid using page breaks in your manuscript.

For guidance on proper citation practices, please refer to our Editorial policies. Any in-press articles that are cited in the references and are essential for the reviewers' evaluation of the manuscript should be made available upon request by the editorial office. All web links and URLs must be assigned a reference number and included in the reference list instead of being placed within the manuscript text. Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, and preprints from recognized servers can be included in the reference list, but text, grant information, and acknowledgments cannot. Authors must obtain permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the colleagues they cite. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the cited references, which should be verified before submission.

When including references in the submission, authors must adhere to the formatting and style guidelines provided below.

• To cite references within the text using Vancouver style, references should be numbered sequentially with superscript numbers placed directly after the nearest punctuation mark, without any space between the punctuation and the number.
• Reference numbers must not be enclosed in parentheses or brackets.
• When citing two references, separate them with a comma and no space, while three or more consecutive references are shown as a range with a dash.
• If you mention the author of a previous work in the text, include their surname followed by the superscripted reference number. For works with two authors, list both surnames using “&”, and for three or more authors, use the first author's surname followed by “et al.”
• In tables and figures, references should be numbered according to the order in which they first appear in the text.
• Here’s an example of proper citation: “… Optimal treatment results are achieved in the primary,^1-3 and early mixed dentition.^2,4-6 hellip; In contrast to Hurtado & Gardea-Torresday,⁷ Smith et al.⁸ demonstrated…”

• References should be organized as a numbered list at the end of the manuscript.
• Each number can correspond to only one publication.
• You may utilize EndNote software to format the references in a numbered list according to our specified EndNote style. To do this, first download our EndNote style (ZIP file), then unzip it and place the EndNote style (ENS) file into the "Styles" folder within your EndNote installation directory, typically found at Program Files [folder] > EndNote [folder] > Styles [folder].
• Avoid using linked fields generated by EndNote or similar programs. Instead, use the one-click button provided by EndNote to eliminate EndNote codes before saving your submission file.
• For author names in the references, include the surnames and initials of all authors if there are six or fewer; if there are more than six, list the first six followed by ‘et al.’
• Use a single space between words up to the year, and then eliminate spaces thereafter.
• The journal title should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus/MEDLINE journal abbreviations; you can verify these abbreviations using PubMed. If the journal is not found in PubMed, write its name in full.
• Whenever available, include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) at the end of the reference.

When the submission contains formulas or equations, please follow the instructions below.

• Equations should be typed in MathType (Download the software from http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/).
• Graphical objects should not be used as formulas.
• Make sure that your equations are editable.
• If you have already composed your paper in Microsoft Word and used its built-in equation editing tool, the equations will become unusable during the layout and galley production. The production editor may ask you to re-key your equations using MathType after the editorial acceptance.
• Long equations should be set off from the text and numbered sequentially. You may refer to the equations in next references in the text by their number (e.g., "Equation 1" or "Equations 2 and 3").
• If using many equations or schemes is unavoidable, they can be collected in a table of equations and be shot as a framed figure to avoid typesetting errors.

When the submission includes figures, please adhere to the following guidelines:

• Ensure figures are cited in the main text in numerical order (e.g., "Figure 1" or "Figures 2 and 3").
• Figures should be uploaded as separate files and not embedded in the main manuscript.
• For each figure, a legend must be provided during submission, and both figures and legends will be appended to the automatically generated PDF proof at the end of the submission process.
• If figures consist of multiple panels labeled as a, b, c, etc., they should be combined into a single file. Any text within figures (such as axis labels) should use lower-case letters with the first letter capitalized, without a period, and should be set in a sans-serif font like Arial, ensuring legibility.
• Histograms must be simple and two-dimensional, without background grids. Ensure all identifying details of patients or hospitals are removed or obscured (for example, from X-rays or MRI scans), and patient photographs should not be identifiable.
• Original data used to create the images should be accessible, as editors may request them (such as Office, SPSS, or other line art images). Avoid using touch-up tools (like cloning or healing in Photoshop) or any features that obscure manipulations.
• For figures to be published under open access, authors need to obtain permission from the rights holder if including images published elsewhere in non-open-access journals. Graphics downloaded from the web should not be used unless the author has the right to republish them as open access. The figure legend must indicate the original source and permission, and a citation should be provided in the reference list.

All submitted figures must meet high-quality standards, with resolutions of at least 300 dpi for color images, 600 dpi for greyscale images, and1200 dpi for line art. Acceptable file formats for figures include:

• EPS (best for diagrams or images)
• TIFF (ideal for images)
• JPEG (suitable for photographs but less appropriate for graphical images)

To ensure optimal figure quality during the production and publication process, please follow these guidelines:

• When exporting graphs, diagrams, or line art, EPS and PDF formats are preferred over TIFF. PDF files are especially recommended as they tend to be more compact than EPS files.
• Keep in mind that vector drawing data is not preserved in JPEG, PNG, TIFF, or BMP formats, so resaving them as PDFs or EPS will not convert them into vector files. Always submit the original EPS or PDF versions of artwork when available.
• Figures created in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, such as graphs or diagrams, may be submitted, but they should consist of a single page or slide with the dimensions set to the intended figure size and without any surrounding blank space.
• Photographs, histological slides, and radiographs should be submitted in JPEG or TIFF format. Microsoft Word or PowerPoint should not be used to add labels, arrows, or marks to these types of images, as this may reduce the figure's quality. Instead, use image editing software like Adobe Photoshop to create high-quality JPEG or TIFF files.
• For TIFF files, use LZW compression, which reduces file size without compromising quality. JPEG files should be saved at the highest quality setting to ensure clarity.

When submitting tables, please follow these formatting guidelines:

• Tables must be cited in the main text in numerical order (e.g., "Table 1" or "Tables 2 and 3"). Tables should be created using Microsoft Word’s Table tool, utilizing real rows and columns, not aligned using tabs, returns, or spaces. Non-editable tables exported as images are not acceptable.
• Ensure the table direction is set from "left-to-right." Tables with a right-to-left orientation, often caused by using languages like Persian or Arabic in Microsoft Word, should be re-drawn. Tables should be in a vertical orientation and positioned upright on the page.
• Each table must include a concise title, placed before the table, and all columns should have clear headings that describe the data they contain. Tables should be simple, with no colors, shading, or graphics, and must not include text boxes, nested tables, or merged cells.
• If the table has multiple parts with different numbers of columns or multiple footnotes, it should be split into separate tables. Do not use commas for numerical values. Symbols and abbreviations should be defined directly below the table, followed by any brief necessary descriptions.
• If the table or its data have been previously published, include a footnote giving full credit to the original source. For larger datasets or tables too wide for a standard page, additional files can be uploaded in Excel (XLS) or comma-separated values (CSV) format, using the appropriate file extensions.

When including additional files with your submission, please adhere to the following guidelines:

• Additional files should be cited in the main text in numerical order (e.g., "Additional file 1" or "Additional files 2 and 3"). You can submit datasets, large tables, videos, or other relevant information as additional files, including data that would otherwise be labeled as "data not shown." Ensure that no individual participant details are included.
• Each additional file must be submitted separately, and a brief title should be provided for each during submission. Keep in mind that additional files are not formatted or edited for style during the production process. If you need guidance on how to present certain types of data or information, contact the journal's editorial office.
• Files intended only for evaluation (e.g., certificates of language editing or patient consent forms) should not be submitted as additional files. These should be sent to the journal’s editorial email address, quoting the submission ID, only if requested by the editor.