skip navigation

21st Century Pathology

Author Guidelines

Introduction

21st Century Pathology is a multidisciplinary journal that focuses on applications in medicine, particularly in pathology, immunology, rheumatology, virology, allergology (dermatology), bacteriology, oncology, molecular, and further transplantation medicine. 21st Century Pathology aims to focus on technological and scientific advances that may contribute to the resolution of the numerous open problems in the sectors listed above, for the sake of humanity's survival and growth.

Registration with 21st Century Pathology

Before submitting an article, the corresponding author must register with the 21st Century Pathology electronic manuscript tracking system. All articles should be organised in accordance with the instructions below and submitted with the following files: Cover letter indicating preferred section, manuscript, figures and tables, legends, and supplementary files (if any).

The cover letter should be addressed to the journal's Editor-in-Chief and clearly state the type of article, the title of the manuscript, and a summary of why it should be published and its contribution to the scientific literature.

Manuscript Structure and Specifications

21st Century Pathology accepts manuscripts of any length and acknowledges manuscripts with no restrictions on the number of words, figures, or length of the supporting information. Original research articles, reviews, letters to the editor, and technical notes will all be accepted by 21st Century Pathology. These papers must be of strong scientific quality and understandable to a wide range of scientists.

To facilitate the review process, all manuscripts should be typed in a single column, double-spaced, and include line and page numbers. The format must be the same as that used by PNAS-USA.

In general, the following sections should be included in the manuscript file for original research articles, in the following order: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results & Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Figure Legends, Table Legends, and Supplementary files, if any. When submitting online through the editorial manager, figures and tables must be submitted as separate files.

Manuscripts may be submitted in Word (.doc or.docx), LaTeX (.pdf), or RTF format.

The manuscript's units must be in accordance with the International System of Units, and standardised recommended nomenclature should be used as needed. Authors should use systematic nomenclature to refer to chemical compounds and biomolecules, preferably the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry nomenclature (IUPAC).

The public culture collections (ATCC, ECACC, NCTC, NCIMB, MTCC, etc.) deposition number should be furnished for manuscripts dealing with microbial strains and cultures. If chemical compounds are used in the research, the PubChem compound identifier (CID) number from the NCBI PubChem Compound database should be provided. Below the keywords section, list the chemical compounds (with PubChem CID) and microbial strains (deposition number).

Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided unless they appear at least four times in the text. Standard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and defined upon first use in the text. The list of non-standard abbreviations must be included at the end of the manuscript, immediately before the acknowledgment section. Equations should be entered into the equation editor in editable format (MathType is highly recommended).

Title

The full article title and a brief running title should be included in the manuscript file. The full title (no more than 25 words) should be specific, concise, and a statement of the main finding or conclusion presented in the manuscript that can help the reader decide whether or not to read the text. Within the title, abbreviations should be avoided. The running title should be no more than 6 words long and state the topic of the paper.

Authors and Affiliations

All authors' full names should be listed, along with their affiliations, which should include the associated lab and/or department, university, or organization, city (pin, zip, or post code), state, country, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Abstract

The abstract should include:

  • Render the concept and significance of the work.
  • Describe the study's main/primary objective.
  • Briefly outline how the study was carried out.
  • Notify me of any significant findings or results.
  • It should not be longer than 250 words.

Graphical Abstract (Optional)

Authors should create a pictorial summary of the article's contents that clearly represents the work described in the article. The online submission method requires graphic abstracts (Illustration/Figure) to be entered as a separate file.

Keywords

Five to ten keywords that reflect the primary content of the article should be provided.

Introduction

The introduction should depict the research objective as addressing the problem and assist readers in understanding the purpose and importance of the investigation. This section ought to include a brief review of the literature search to justify the study's significance. In addition, the section should conclude with a brief summary of what is mentioned in the article.

Material and Methods

The methods section should contain the study's design, methods and protocols, and materials used (such as participant types, if any)., analytical procedures used, and other information that will allow other researchers to replicate your study.

A statement detailing IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee)/IRB (Institutional Review Board) and/or related ethical approval and consent should be included in the methods section for studies involving human or animal subjects. Please see Editorial Policies for more information on the journal's editorial policies and ethical guidelines.

Results and Discussion

The results and discussion can be presented as a single section or separately. The interpretations and/or extrapolations of the readings/results of the analytical procedures with a statistical approach, where appropriate, should be included in the results section. Discussion should aid in understanding the problem and how the findings of this study will advance the current system.

Together, this section should describe the results of the experiments and their interpretation in relation to previous related studies, as well as provide a succinct explanation of the implications of the findings.

Citation

Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. For e.g.,

Subject area covers many disciplines (Victor, 2021).

This assumption of theory was approved by John and Daniel (2021).

This technique was effectively proved and has been widely reported (Peter, 2023; Goodmann et al., 2023; Black and Smith, 2023; Mandal et al., 2023).

Conclusion

This section should clearly summarize the major findings of the research, explain their significance, and emphasize potential future directions.

List of Abbreviations

Authors should provide a list of abbreviations used in the text, and they should be defined in the text on the first occasion they are used.

Conflict of Interest Statement

21st Century Pathology adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' recommendation that all financial, commercial, or other relationships that the academic community may perceive as a potential conflict of interest be disclosed. If no such relationship is established, authors will be asked to declare that the research was carried out with no conflicts of interest. See Editorial Policies for more information.

Acknowledgments

This section recognizes individuals (such as particular colleagues, institutions, or agencies) who made significant contributions to the design, implementation, data acquisition, analysis, and result interpretation; and/or who were involved in drafting or revising the manuscript but did not meet the criteria for inclusion as an author.

Funding Source Statement

Please mention the financial support(s) provided for the scientific investigation and/or in the study design, for data assembly, execution, analysis, interpretation, and reporting, as well as a brief description of the sponsor's role(s) in article preparation, including the funding agency's grant number if applicable. The statement "The author(s) received no funding support for this research work" should be used if no funding support was received for the work.

References

The reference list must contain all sources that are found in the text, figures, or tables, and vice versa. References must be numbered in the order they occur in the text and listed at the end of the manuscript. Citations should be marked in the text with the reference number enclosed in square braces. Index Medicus/MEDLINE is followed by journal abbreviations. The reference list should only contain manuscripts that have been published or approved. Page numbers should be substituted with "in press" for approved but unpublished works. Any direct quotation from another source must be enclosed in quotation marks, and the author must be acknowledged.

Examples of the 21st Century Pathology reference style (Vancouver style)

Each entry starts with the author’s last name and initials.

When a source has more than one author, their names are separated by commas. If a source has more than six authors, list the first six followed by ‘et al.’

1 author              Adrain G.

2–6 authors        Adrain G, Singh J.

7+ authors          Adrain G, Pieters J, Deptford G, Harrison R, Bregman E, Empson A, et al.

Journal Article 

Format: x. Author(s). Article title. Journal Name (abbreviated). Year Month Day; Volume(Issue):page range. Available from: URL DOI

Example: Bute M. A backstage pathologist: Immunopathology and a populist vision. Am Soc. 2013 Mar 23; 4(4):439–505. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12012-012-9012-z https://doi:10.1007/s12012-012-9012-z

In press article

Bute M. A backstage pathologist: Immunopathology and a populist vision. Am Soc. 2013 Mar 23; 4(4):439–505. (In Press) https://doi:10.1007/s12012-012-9012-z

Complete book

Format: x. Author(s). Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Year.

Example: Wilki IB, Rine T, Wills K, Ghart A, Ham C, O’Neill B. Handbook of clinical pathology. 10th ed.: University Press; 2023.

Notes: Editions are given (in abbreviated form) only when referring to an edition other than the first.

Article or Book chapter within a book

Format: x. Author(s). Title of chapter. In: Editor(s), editors. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year. Page range.

Example: Darden L. Mechanisms and models. In: Hull DL, Ruse M, editors. The Cambridge companion to the philosophy of biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2008. p. 139–159.

Notes: The first name given is that of the author, while the editor’s name appears later, followed by ‘editors’.

The page range indicates the location of the chapter in the book, and is preceded by ‘p.’

Link / URL

URL's should be entered as they appear on the website.

Do not put a full stop after a URL unless it ends on a forward slash - /,  or it is followed by the DOI number.

In EndNote add the full stop after the URL in the URL field only if it ends in a forward slash.

Clinical trial registration record

Adrian, AD. Title. 21st Century Pathol, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/12453

Report of International Science Meets / Initiatives

Elements of the citation: Editor(s) - family name and initials. Title of book. Title of conference proceedings; Date of conference - year month day(s); Place of conference. Place of publication: Publisher; Publication year.

Example: Adrian J, Tamora H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Pathology; 2023 Jan 15‐19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam (NL): 21st Century Publisher; 2023.

Figure and Table Legends

Figures and table files, along with their legends, must be uploaded separately as files. Legends must be placed at the end of the manuscript and be included in the manuscript file. Legends must have a brief title of 18 words or less that expresses the meaning of the figure or table. The proper title, like "Figure 1" or "Table 1," should come before legends. Figure panels are marked by the bold uppercase characters (A), (B), (C), (D), etc., between brackets.

Tables: Whether created in Word, Excel, or LaTeX, tables should have a brief title. They should be mostly cell-based and editable. Graphics or colored fonts are not permitted; instead, use bold or italic to emphasize. Tables should be self-explanatory, with units included in column/row headings.

Figures: Figures should be high-resolution TIFF (or JPEG) or EPS files (or PDF). Photos (both black and white and color) should be at least 300 dpi, and line drawings should be at least 600 dpi. In some cases, such as when printing high-quality graphics, authors may be asked to submit higher resolution graphics.

Color Image Mode

Images must be submitted in the RGB colour space.

Drugs, Devices and Names

The generic names for drugs and devices should be used. If necessary, the brand name or proprietary name (along with the manufacturer's name and address) must be enclosed in parentheses and defined in the manuscript at the time of first use. Following that, the generic name should be used.

Direct Links

Authors can provide direct links to the following databases in their manuscripts: GenBank at the NCBI (GenBank), EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database (EMBL), Protein Data Bank (PDB), Protein Information Resource (PIR), Swiss-Prot Protein Database (Swiss-Prot), and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ).

Any nucleic acid and protein sequences or atomic coordinates cited in the manuscript must be surrounded by square brackets and include the database name (for example, [GenBank: JN872327]).

Mark Image

It is recommended that authors submit a’mark image' that will be used to represent their online article on the journal homepage, table of contents, and so on. Mark images should be a single, high-resolution, eye-catching image, preferably a cropped/full-size portion of an image taken from the figures or raw images submitted as supplemental information for the article. If no image is submitted, the mark image will be a figure from the paper. Please do not submit any previously copyrighted figures or photos unless you have explicit written permission from the person who owns the copyright to publish them.

Synopsis

A synopsis is required for original full-length research articles and review articles to be represented online on the journal homepage, table of contents, and so on. The content should specify the importance of the research's findings and highlight the key findings in comparison to previously published studies or reports.

Supplementary Material

Data that is not essential or cannot be included in the article due to its large size (array data, excel files, large raw images, etc.) or the existing format (such as movies, raw data traces, power point presentations, etc.) can be attached as supplementary material during the submission procedure. Figures (.FIG) and 3D imaging data (NIfTI), Data Sheet (word, excel, csv, fasta, pdf or zip files), Presentation (power point, pdf or zip files), Audio (mp3, wav or wma), or Movie can be uploaded as Supplementary Material (avi, divx, flv, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg or wmv).

All required ethical guidelines and other guidelines for particular research areas should be included in the manuscript by the authors.

Manuscript Publication Process: Overview

Initial Screening

  • All manuscripts are screened upon submission to determine their potential suitability for journal/peer review, both in regard to subject matter and quality. It includes plagiarism detection as well as other ethical, legal, and quality evaluations.

Peer Review Process

  • If a manuscript passes this preliminary screening, the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) assigns it to one of the editorial board members based on their expertise and overall workload. Manuscripts that are appropriate for peer review are then reviewed by at least two external peer reviewers (suggested by the EIC or handling editor).
  • When both reviews are returned, the journal editorial team goes over the reviewers' data and the manuscript again and sends a note to the EIC/Handling Editor. The EIC/Handling Editor examines the reviews, the reviewers' scorecard information, and the manuscript before making a final decision.
  • The EIC/Handling Editor makes the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript based on the reviewers' comments and specific revision recommendations.
  • For papers approved with changes, the revised submission (which includes a revised manuscript with all changes indicated and a point-by-point response to the peer review report/rebuttal to review) is evaluated by the EIC/Handling Editor and either accepted for publication or returned to the author for additional changes.

Post-Acceptance

  • Our manuscript editors review each manuscript for spelling, grammar, page layout, text formatting, headings, image placement, and reference citations before typesetting begins. They do this in accordance with the journal style standards listed in the manuscript structure and specification’s part.
  • Before and after typesetting, the paper is subjected to several stages of editing, proofreading, and quality control by journal staff.
  • The uncorrected proofs (typeset) are to be revised by all authors until the paper is ready for publication. All authors are required to provide a signed declaration and a copyright transfer form for their paper prior to publication.
  • Following publication, each paper is distributed via social media channels, the Journal's email newsletter, and TOC alerts.

Guidelines for Other article types

Review articles

Review articles provide systematic, critical, and constructive analyses of previously published work in a specific field; aid in identifying research gaps; and summarize current understanding in the specific research field. The manuscript structure is the same as for original full-length research articles, with the exception of a "review"/"body" section instead of the "results and discussion" section. The materials and methods section should include information such as study selection criteria, sources of data/databases, search techniques, the number of studies screened that are also included, statistical methods, software used, and so on. The review article's main content should focus on analyses of previously published methodological approaches, models tested, research methodologies that agree or disagree with each other, and so on. If applicable, write each thought or subject from a different geographic location in a separate paragraph and arrange the text in chronological order. It is crucial that the authors arrange the various informational pieces in a way that clearly supports the review's goal. The conclusions should provide a response to the research questions posed in the introduction as well as a message integrating the themes explored in the review and suggesting new research areas.

Case reports

Case reports are descriptions of clinical presentations that describe a diagnostic or therapeutic quandary and are followed by evaluation studies.

Editorial comments

Introduce current research and comment on important advancements and trends in the field in the editorial comments.

Methodology

Demonstrate a novel experimental technique, test, or procedure. The methods mentioned could be wholly new or an improved version of one that already exists. All conceivable tests and outcomes should be demonstrated in the technique.

Rapid communications

Short papers presenting highly significant and original material.

Clinical Trial Registration

To be considered for publication in our journal (which adheres to ICMJE standards), all clinical trials that begin recruiting patients or volunteers must be registered with a public registry before the first subject is enrolled. This ensures that everyone has access to critical information about every clinical trial whose main objective is to influence medical decision-making.

The ICMJE accepts clinical trial registration in the following registries:

Starting in June 2007, the ICMJE will also accept enrolment in any primary registries that take part in the WHO International Clinical Trials Portal in addition to the aforementioned registries (see http://www.who.int/ictrp/network/primary/en/index.html).

Letters to Editors

In general, letters to editors are essays written in response to an essay or essays that have already been published in the journal. The article should respond to earlier works that have been published and offer comments or suggestions in order to advance knowledge and pave the way for upcoming research needs.

The magazine also prints case studies, monographs, invited editorials, short communications, etc.

Manuscript Rejection

In accordance with editorial policies, 21st Century Pathology retains the right to reject manuscripts that do not adhere to technical or ethical standards (COPE) and to retract publications if an ethical violation or conflict of interest is discovered during the post-publication peer review process.

The publishers are not liable for any such scientific misconduct; it is the authors' sole duty to ensure that their research paper does not contain any copied material and/or violates ethical standards. If any misconduct is found at any point during the publication process, 21st Century Pathology has the right to retract an article or publish an erratum on the advice of the Editor-in-Chief. 21st Century Pathology promises to strictly abide by all the policies and guidelines concerning scientific publishing (as mentioned in the Publishing Policies and Guidelines section).