• Aim and Scope
• Submission Process
• Assignment of Copyright and Authorship Responsibilities
• Article Processing and Publication Charges
• Scientific and Initial Screening
• Peer Review Process
• Editorial Independence
• Ethical Consideration
• Copyright
• Open Access Policy
• Language and Style
• Manuscript Submission (Required Files)
• Requirements for Different Types of Articles
• Preparation of Manuscript
• Title page
• Main Manuscript
• References
• Correction of Errata
• Contact the Editorial Office

Aim and Scope

Middle East Journal of Cancer (MEJC) is an international peer-reviewed journal which aims to publish high-quality basic science and clinical research in the field of cancer. This journal will also reflect the current status of research as well as diagnostic and treatment practices in the field of cancer in the Middle East, where cancer is becoming a growing health problem. Lastly, MEJC would like to become a model for regional journals with an international outlook. Accordingly, manuscripts from authors anywhere in the world will be considered for publication.

Submission Process

Manuscripts should be sent through the online submission system: https://mejc.sums.ac.ir/contacts

Assignment of Copyright and Authorship Responsibilities

Your Article will not be published unless a Copyright Assignment Form has been signed and received by MEJC

To download the Copyright form please click on: Forms

You hereby warrant that "This article is an original work, has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form".

*This form should be signed and dated by all authors and sent along with the manuscript. Authors can attach the filled version of this form as a supplemantary file during the submission process or send it via attachment to these email addresses: middle.east.journal@gmail.com or mejc.sums.ac.ir

Article Processing and Publication Charges

From June 1, 2020, Middle East Journal of Cancer (MEJC) does not request Iranian authors to transfer the copyright of accepted manuscripts to the journal. From that date, the payment of a processing fee is mandatory (for Iranian authors) for all types of manuscripts sent to the journal. Please note that the review process will not be initiated until the payment is received. After the peer review process and if the manuscript is accepted for publication, a publication charge is also requested by the journal, depending on the type of article. Please see below for the payment charges:

• To follow the instructions for the above payments please click on this link. 

Our qualified reviewers do not need to pay the processing fee on the submission and will receive a discount depending on the number of articles reviewed for the journal in a one-year period. Please check the last item of the checklist (at the submission step), if any of the co-authors has ever contributed as a reviewer to the journal.

Please make sure that a copy of your payment receipt is attached to your submission as an image file (either email it or upload it on the journal site). It should be noted that all deposits are non-refundable.

In addition, please note that processing fee and publication charges will also be mandatory for international authors in the near future.

Scientific and Initial Screening

MEJC staff would check the structure and content of manuscripts to ensure compliance with standard structures (based on the type of study), the Journal’s scope, standard guidelines, quality, novelty, and adherence to ethical issues. In this step, articles would be screened and triaged in the shortest possible time. As a result, such screening would assist the editor in making fair final decisions on articles and ultimately improve the final quality of published articles.

Peer Review Process

All peer review processes is transparently described and well managed. MEJC provide training for editors and reviewers and have policies on diverse aspects of peer review, especially with respect to adoption of appropriate models of review and processes for handling conflicts of interest, appeals and disputes that may arise in peer review which are all based on COPE's guidelines.

The articles are primarily evaluated by our statisticians and internal screeners who check the articles for any methodological flaw, format, and their compliance with journal's instructions. Then a submission code will be allocated and all the future contacts should be based on this code. The articles will then be reviewed by at least three external (peer) reviewers through a double-anonymized review. Their comments will be passed to the authors and their responses to the comments with the reviewers' comments will then be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editor, and a final reviewer who can be a member of the Editorial Board. The final review process will be discussed in regular Editorial Board sessions and on the basis of their comments and the journal's scope, the Editor-in-Chief will decide which articles should be published.

It should be noted that articles submitted by the staff and editors of the MEJC will also be subjected to peer review and the authors will be completely anonymized to the evaluation process of their article until a final decision has been made.

Editorial Independence

Although the MEJC is sponsored financially by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, it benefits from editorial freedom. The editors evaluate and accept articles based only on significance, originality, validity, and adherence to the aims and scope of the Journal.

Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Ethical Consideration

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): MEJC follows the COPE Code of Conduct
• MEJC follows COPE's guidelines and flowcharts in case of any allegations of misconduct pre-publication and post-publication, handling complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board or publisher, data and reprductibility including policies on data availability and encourage the use of reporting guidelines and registration of clinical trials and other study designs; all policies on intellectual property, including copyright and publishing licenses, Post-publication discussions and corrections. 

•     Human & Animal Rights Statement:

Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board). Authors should be prepared to provide documentation when requested by editors and the received ethics code should be included in the method section of the manuscript.

Manuscripts describing any experimental research on animals should include a statement of approval by the Ethical Committee of the institute where the work was done, mentioning that the study was carried out according to the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority. Before papers describing animal studies are accepted for publication in the Middle East Journal of Cancer, the authors must convince the editors that the work conformed to appropriate ethical standards. The care and use of experimental animals should comply with acceptable international animal welfare guidelines and policies. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the Guideline for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals in Iran. For reports of such studies, authors should refer to the ARRIVE guidelines checklist

For reports of randomized controlled trials, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/).

• Informed Consent:

All patients and participants in a research project should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects of the drugs and interventions. Written informed consent from the participants or their legal guardians is necessary for any such studies. The Journal reserves the right to request the related documents. Articles that require informed consent should contain related statements in the “Methods” section.

Ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to, policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and of business/marketing practices.

• Authorship:

Based on the newly released Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, by the ICMJE, “an Author” is generally considered to be someone who meets the following conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4.

1-Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the data acquisition or analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2-Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND

3-Final approval of the version to be published; AND

4-Agreement 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.

 Authors should clearly define who contributed to the work and in what capacity: Clear policies should be in place for requirements for authorship and contributorship as well as processes for managing potential disputes.

After the initial submission of a manuscript, any changes whatsoever in authorship (adding author(s), deleting author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) must be explained by a letter to the editor from the authors concerned. This letter must be signed by all authors of the paper. Copyright assignments must also be completed by every author.

•  Manuscripts submitted to MEJC with co-first authors will be processed only when the following conditions are met:
  a) The manuscript should be original.
  b) All contributing authors should qualify for authorship and should have sufficient participation in the work. (Authorship credit should be met.)
  c) The dimensions of work require several authors with different specialties, who provide the same or equal contribution(s) to the research work.
• With regard to the corresponding Author, MEJC accepts only one corresponding author, who is responsible for all the correspondence with the journal, both before and after the publication of the manuscript.
• Correction of authorship after publication: MEJC does not correct authorship after publication unless a mistake has been made by the editorial staff. Authorship may be changed before publication but after submission when an authorship correction is requested by all of the authors involved with the manuscript.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)–Assisted Technology

At submission, MEJC require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. For more information, please follow ICMJE recommendations.

Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work in the appropriate section if applicable, how they used it. For example, if AI was used for writing assistance, describe this in the acknowledgment section. If AI was used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation, authors should describe this use in the methods.

• Conflict of Interest:

There are clear definitions of conflicts of interest and processes for handling conflicts of interest of authors, reviewers, editors, journals and publishers, whether identified before or after publication.

We request all the authors to inform us about any kinds of “Conflict of Interest” (such as financial, personal, political, or academic) that would potentially affect their judgment. Authors are preferably asked to fill the uniform disclosure form available through:

(https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf)

General institutional support for an author's time on the work should be distinguished from direct overall funding of the work. An appropriate funding statement might be: “This study was funded by A; Dr. F's time on the work was supported by B.”

• Plagiarism:

The authors are not allowed to utilize verbatim text of previously published papers or manuscripts submitted elsewhere.

Language and Style

Contributions should be in either American or British English language. The text must be clear and concise, conforming to accepted standards of English style and usage. Non-native English speakers may be advised to seek professional help with the language.

All materials should be typed in double line spacing numbered pages. Abbreviations should be standard and used just in necessary cases, after complete explanations in the first usage.

Manuscript Submission

     - Submit via our website: mejc.sums.ac.ir

Required files

The following electronic files are required: (all files must be supported by MS Word 2003)

• Title page (Including manuscript title- a running title- all authors' names, full affiliation, email addresses- corresponding author's name, degree, affiliation and address, email, contact number) To download the title page form please click here.
  
• Body of manuscript including references and acknowledgments
• A Microsoft Word file containing tables (If any)
• Photos and Figures in JPEG format (If any)
• A signed Copyright Form (to download this form please click here)
• A copy of your payment receipt (For Iranian authors)

* We will acknowledge receipt of the manuscripts by email

Requirements for Different Types of Articles

Original articles: Should contain a structured abstract (350 words maximum), 3-5 keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgment (if applicable), and references sections, and tables and figures. The length should not exceed 3000-3500 words excluding the references, abstract, figures, and tables. 15-40 references should be stated for original articles.

Clinical trials: The format is similar to original articles. It should also include a CONSORT flow diagram. RCTs should be registered at any RCT Registry approved by the WHO and their registration number should be mentioned on the title page. RCTs done in Iran must be registered at www.irct.ir.

Please consider the following points in clinical trials:

• 3000-​3500 words
• ≤5 tables and/ or figures, including CONSORT flow diagram
• 50-​75 references
• Structured abstract
• “A Randomized Clinical Trial” should be mentioned in the title.
• Trial registration and ID
• Trial protocol
• CONSORT checklist
• Data Sharing Statement
• Follow CONSORT Reporting Guidelines

Brief communications: Brief/Short Communications are limited to 3000 words. The paper should contain an abstract (structured or non-structured), main body (including introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion, Conclusion), and references, and contain no more than 6 figures or tables, combined. The abstract is limited to 100 words.references sections, and tables and figures. 10-15 references should be stated.

Case reports/series: Should contain a non-structured abstract, 3-5 keywords, introduction, case presentation, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement (if applicable), and references sections, and table and figures (if applicable). 5-10 references should be stated. Case reports should optimally be accompanied by relevant figures to document findings. Informed consent should be obtained from the patients to report their cases.

Review articles:

-Narrative reviews- Should contain at least 60 references. Abstract should be non-structured. The word count should not exceed 4500 words. Narrative reviews should critically assess the current knowledge of the field.

-Systematic reviews- Systematic reviews of RCTs or Observational Studies will be accepted by the Journal. The protocol of the study should adhere to PRISMA or MOOSE guidelines for systematic reviews of RCTs or Observational studies, respectively. Up to 40 references can be stated. Abstracts should be structured.

Photo clinics (Images in Clinical Oncology): Figures that contain a significant medical point can also be accepted. Photo clinics should contain one or two high quality figures and a description of the figures no more than 500 words. Up to 5 references should be stated.

Letters to the Editor: The MEJC welcomes Letters to the Editor pointing out alternative interpretations of published results, or commenting briefly on topics of relevance to the journal's readers. 

Paper Preparations

Cover letter: Please confirm that you will not resubmit your article to another journal until the reviewing process is completed. Also please indicate whether the authors have published or submitted any related papers from the same study.

According to ICMJE recommendations, at submission, the authors should disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.

Available Resources to Improve Article Quality

• 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

For a more comprehensive list see the Research and Reporting Guidelines list maintained by NLM and the EQUATOR Network Resource Centre.

Organization of the paper and style of presentation

Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are recommended to seek the advice of a native English speaker, if possible, before submitting their manuscripts.

You can also visit http://www.internationalscienceediting.com/. International Science Editing offers a language and copyediting service to all scientists who want to publish their manuscript in scientific peer-reviewed periodicals and books.

Manuscripts should be prepared with wide margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Try to avoid the excessive use of italics and bold face.

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

- Title page
- Body of text (divided by subheadings)
- Acknowledgements
- References

Important note: all tables must be in a separate MS Word file with correct reference to the text. Also, all Figures and photos must be in JPEG format and as a single file. Figures are only accepted as JPEG files at 300 dpi (dots per inch) or greater. Besides, the figures' backgrounds should be white (colored backgrounds are not acceptable for figures).

 Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation.·

SI units should be used, i.e., those based on meters, kilograms, seconds, etc.

Title page

The title page should provide the following information:

-Type of Article

Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
- Name(s) of author(s); please indicate who is the corresponding author
- Full affiliation(s)
- Complete address of corresponding author, including telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address
- Abstract; should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory and not longer than 300 words, it should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services
- Keywords (three to five keywords selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)).

-Running title: A shorter version of the title (40 characters at most) is needed for the page footer.

Highlights

Highlights are optional yet highly encouraged for this journal, as they increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the example Highlights.

Main Manuscript

File Format

The acceptable manuscripts' file format is Microsoft Word. Please do not submit your manuscripts in PDF or other formats.

Abstract should be structured for original articles providing the background/objective for the study, methods, results and conclusion altogether not exceeding 300 words. Number this as page 1.

Abstracts of the other types of contributions should be non-structured providing the essential information.

When abstracting a review article, a concise summary of the salient points should be addressed.

The abbreviations should preferably not be mentioned in the abstract.

Keywords are used for indexing purposes; each article should provide three to five keywords selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

Introduction should provide a context or background and specify the purpose or research objective of the study or observation.

Materials and Methods

Must indicate clearly the steps taken to acquire the information. Be sure that it includes only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was written. It should be detailed (including controls, inclusion and exclusion criteria, etc.) so that the experiment can be reproduced and may be separated into subsections (Selection and Description of Participants, Data Collection and Measurements, Statistics). Repeating the details of standard techniques is best avoided.

Reporting guidelines such as STROBE, STARD, and PRISMA would help you report high-quality research and to provide all required information and evidence for related methodology. Authors are encouraged to refer to the SAGER guidelines for reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results, and interpretation of findings: www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/sager-guidelines/.

EQUATOR Network website would help you in using these guidelines.

The software used for statistical analysis and a description of the actual method should be mentioned.

Authors who used AI technology to conduct the study should describe its use in the methods section in sufficient detail to enable replication of the approach, including the tool used, version, and prompts, where applicable.

Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent

All studies using human or animal subjects should include an explicit statement in the Materials and Methods section identifying the review and approval committee for each study. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures have been used.

Results should be presented in a chronological sequence in the text, table, and illustration. Organize the results according to their importance. They should result from your own study.

 
Tables

• Number as Table 1, Table 2, etc, and refer to all of them in the text.
• Each table should be provided on a separate page.
• Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
• Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in the footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Figures

• Number figures as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc and refer to all of them in the text.
• Each figure should be provided on a separate sheet. They should be as single JPEG files at 300 dpi or greater resolution.
• Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption. The captions to all figures should be typed on a separate sheet of the manuscript.
• Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and brightness. Besides, please prepare all the figures with white backgrounds (colored backgrounds are not acceptable).

Discussion should emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings should be explored. The limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for future research or clinical practice should be explored.

 Conclusion should state the final result and recommendation that the author(s) has (have) reached. Such results and recommendations should be derived from the researcher’s own study and the results of other studies should not be stated in this section.

Supplementary Materials such as movie clips, questionnaires, etc may be published on the online version of the journal.

Acknowledgments

Any technical help, general, financial, and material support or contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, can be cited at the end of the text as acknowledgments.

The use of AI for writing assistance should be reported in the acknowledgment section.

References

For citations in the text, references should be in superscript format. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. Using old references is discouraged (85% of the references should belong to the last 10 years).  References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter, and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. If there are more than 6 authors in any of the references, please add et al. after writing the name of the first 6 authors. References should be made to published articles rather than to abstracts whenever possible.
References should be listed in the order in which they appear in the text in the following style:

For various types of references please refer to “the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers”.

 Authors can find MEJC's EndNote style to prepare the references list based on this style. To receive the EndNote file you can click on this link.

Journal Article:

Ray A, Ho M, Ma J, Parkes RK, Mainprize TG, Ueda S, et al. A clinicobiological model predicting survival in medulloblastoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2004;10(22):7613-20. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-04-0499

Complete Book:

Jenkins PF. Making sense of the chest x-ray: a hands-on guide. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005. 194 p.

Example for a section in a book:

Anderson, Robert J.; Schrier, Robert W. Acute renal failure. In: Braunswald, Eugene; Isselbacher, Kurt J.; Petersdorf, Robert G., et al., editors. Harrison's principles of internal medicine. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1987. p. 1149-1155.

Not: Referencing AI-generated material as the primary source is not acceptable.

Correction of Errata

The journal will publish an erratum when a factual error in a published item has been documented.

For further information please contact the Editorial Office:

Tel: +98 71-32303715

Fax: +98 71-32303715

Email: mejc@sums.ac.ir; middle.east.journal@gmail.com

Web: http://mejc.sums.ac.ir