Original Articles
Clinical Trials
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
Reporting Guidelines and Protocol Registration
Data Sharing
Literature Reviews
Case Reports
Abstract Books and Conference Proceedings
Brief Communications
Editorials
Letters to the Editor
Reporting Standards
Original Articles
Original Articles should present novel work that makes a significant impact within the aims and scope of the journal, and which provides an important advancement in the reader’s knowledge or understanding. Supporting data or additional experimental details can be submitted as Supplementary Information. Original Articles may be recommended to be resubmitted as Short Communications at the discretion of the Editors.
Please, check our guidelines before submitting your manuscript. Detailed information can be also find at AUTHORS’ GUIDELINES
Clinical Trials
All clinical trials submitted to European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences for consideration of publication must be registered in accordance with the ICMJE recommendation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) defines a clinical trial as “any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions are those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-care changes.”
When submitting your manuscript, please include the unique trial number and the name of the registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov or ISRCTN) at the end of the abstract and in your cover letter.
Secondary analyses of primary clinical trials should be referenced by the trial registration number of the primary trial rather than being registered as distinct clinical trials. Additionally, acknowledgment of the authors of the previous trials should be included.
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
A systematic review is a thorough examination of a clearly defined question, using structured and transparent methods to locate, select, and critically evaluate relevant original research, as well as to gather and analyze data from the studies included in the review. Meta-analyses use statistical methods to combine data from multiple and systematically selected studies. These manuscripts should be based on a rigorous methodological and statistical approach described in detail in the methods section applied to a relevant basic or clinical issue.
Authors should follow the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions as methodology guidance for conducting and reporting.
To perform a high-quality analysis, the Authors are requested to follow some specific guidelines:
- Authors have to conduct an initial search to assess the available literature and verify the importance of the review.
- Authors have to clearly define the objectives and the research question (check the PICO format as a guide).
- Authors have to establish pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies (e.g., inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc.).
- Authors have to clearly describe the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data.
- The methodology should be accurate and reproducible and must indicate which databases were searched.
- Authors have to conduct a systematic search that aims at identifying all relevant studies on the topic analyzed. The study selection process, including how disagreements about study inclusion was handled, should be accurately described.
- Authors have to assess the validity of the findings of the included studies (e.g., risk of bias).
- The extracted data should be synthesized using qualitative approaches (narrative synthesis) or quantitative techniques (meta-analysis).
- Authors have to comprehensively summarize the results and answer the research question.
Reporting Guidelines and Protocol Registration
According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), to conduct and present details of the methodology of a systematic review or meta-analysis, the Authors must follow the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). For transparency, authors must include a completed PRISMA checklist (or a similar reporting checklist, if applicable) in the text or as supplementary material at time of submission.
Authors are strongly encouraged to register the systematic reviews in a relevant repository (i.e, PROSPERO or INPLASY) to reduce bias in the conduct of research and to increase transparency. The registration number must be inserted in the text when submitting the manuscript.
To enhance transparency and enable the reuse of search strategies, authors are strongly encouraged to share their search methods, template data collection forms, extracted data from included studies, risk of bias assessments for those studies, and evaluations of the certainty of the evidence in supplementary materials or in the Data Availability section. Besides providing search strategies, researchers are also encouraged to submit them to searchRxiv. This archive supports the consistent reporting, storage, and sharing of searches while also enabling the review and reuse of existing searches.
Literature Reviews
A literature review is an examination of academic sources that offers a summary of a specific subject. It encompasses the most relevant and influential research related to the subject and aims to present an exhaustive overview of the existing literature and its contributors. European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences considers literature reviews for publication when they specifically align with the journal’s aims and scope. The key elements of a literature review include the following points:
- Define and clearly state the scope and purpose of your review: clearly identify the topic and the research question you aim to address.
- Search for relevant literature and document your strategy research: use academic databases and journals to find sources suitable for your topic. Review a number of texts that specifically address your topic and critically assess the quality and relevance of the sources.
- Organize the literature and structure your review: provide an Abstract* and draft the main text for presenting your research as follows: INTRODUCTION, MAIN TEXT with subheadings, and CONCLUSIONS. *Abstracts should not be structured for literature reviews.
- Summarize the main findings and write conclusions: discuss the significance of the findings and, eventually, the strengths and limitations of your review.
Case Reports
Case Reports will be considered for publication only if of particular interest and if accompanied by a review of the literature on the specific topic covered in the manuscript. In particular, we consider for publication Case Reports reporting unusual clinical conditions, unreported diseases, rare side effects of therapy, and so on. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words and should highlight all your key points concisely. It should be structured as follows: BACKGROUND; CASE REPORT or CASE PRESENTATION; CONCLUSIONS. Case Reports have to include the informed consent statement. Permission or written consent should be obtained to draft the manuscript. The consent can be obtained by the patient or parents in case the patient is a minor. For more information on Ethics policies please, visit Journal Policies, COI and Licensing.
Short Reports and Case Reports will be considered for publication only if of particular interest and accompanied by a short review. The structured abstract must not exceed 300 words.
Abstract Books and Conference Proceedings
Conference proceedings consist of a collection of abstracts and/or posters that were presented at an association’s conference. These articles provide opportunities for researchers to present their research and gain insights from other researchers and colleagues in their field.
The journal does not accept abstracts for work that has already been fully published elsewhere. Abstracts submitted must fully comply with the journal’s policies and guidelines.
European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences considers the publication of Abstract books and/or Conference Proceedings only if of particular interest. Conference proceedings should comprehend abstracts and/or written records of an academic meeting, such as a conference, workshop, congress, symposium, or other professional meeting hosted by an academic or research organization.
Conference abstract books and/or proceedings are published online with an associated DOI. Reprints will be evaluated on request.
All contents of the abstract book will be published in English and must contain:
- The title, authors’ names and affiliations, and a list of keywords.
The abstract should not exceed 250 words and should be organized as follows: Objectives, Materials or Patients and Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The study registration numbers (i.e., for clinical trials registration, PROSPERO for systematic reviews, etc.) must be included at the end of the abstract. - Final statements, including conflict of interest, acknowledgments, informed consent, authors’ contribution, funding, ethics statement, ORCID ID, should be included – when applicable.
- The authors’ index is also mandatory at the end of the text.
Books of Abstracts are eligible for submission in the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences if they undergo scrutiny and peer-review by a scientific committee to assess their relevance and appeal to the audience before being accepted for the conference. Nevertheless, the final decision about publication in this journal rests with the Editor in Chief, who reserves the right to reassess the abstracts and make the ultimate decision. Conference scenes and/or proceedings are subject to standard peer-review.
Brief Communications
Brief Communications are short manuscripts that have important and generally preliminary data on a specific issue. They are considered for publication only if of particular interest.
Editorials
Editorials are short articles that provide an insight into issues of topical importance to the journal’s target audience or researchers. The articles should provide an expert perspective on a topic of recent interest. This contribution is usually solicited by the Editors. If unsolicited, the authors are advised to contact the Editor-in-Chief (submission.europeanreview@verduci.it) with an outline of the proposed review and CV of the authors.
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor consist of comments on an article previously published on European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences. The inclusion of Letters to the Editor in the journal is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, and they undergo peer-review. All Letters to the Editor will be subsequently sent to the author of the original article, who will have 60 days to provide a Reply to be published alongside the Letter.
Reporting Standards
European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences promotes transparent reporting of biomedical and biological research. Authors are, therefore, encouraged to follow the reporting guidelines provided by the EQUATOR Network when preparing their manuscripts.
Guidelines have been developed and should be followed for different study designs:
- CONSORT and SPIRIT 2013 for clinical trials;
- STROBE for observational studies;
- STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy;
- STROBE-MR for Mendelian randomization (MR) studies;
- CARE for case reports;
- ARRIVE for animal studies;
- PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.