Table 1.

Outline of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts for Submission to Biomedical Journals

Detailed advice related to:
Manuscript preparation and submission
The manuscript's title page, notification of conflict of interest, abstract format and key words, the manuscript construct [introduction, methods, results and discussion], references style and guidelines for tables, illustrations and their legends, measurement units, abbreviations and symbols and final procedures to be followed in submitting the manuscript.
Ethical Considerations in the conduct and reporting of research
Authorship and contributorship, the role of the editor and editorial freedom, methods of peer review and obligations of peer reviewers, conflict of interest as applicable to authors, editors, journal staff and peer reviewers and conflict of interest arising from research support, privacy and confidentiality requirements covering patient and study participants, authors and peer reviewers and provision for the protection of human subjects and animals in research.
Publication and editorial issues
Obligation to publish negative studies, processes to follow for corrections, retractions and expression of concerns, copyright, overlapping publications, duplicate submission, redundant publication, secondary publication, competing manuscripts based on the same study but with differing analysis or interpretation and or difference in reported methods, advice on journal correspondence columns, guidelines covering supplements, theme issues and special services, electronic publication, advertising, interrelationship between medical journal and the general media and finally the obligation to register clinical trials.