Polymers in Medicine

Polim. Med.
Scopus CiteScore: 3.3 (CiteScore Tracker 3.5)
Index Copernicus (ICV 2023) – 121.14
MEiN – 70
ISSN 0370-0747 (print)
ISSN 2451-2699 (online) 
Periodicity – biannual

Instructions for Authors

General rules

The Editorial Board accepts for publication only manuscripts written in US English. Authors not entirely familiar with English usage are advised to seek assistance of an English speaker; correct style is the responsibility of the authors. The journal does not offer translation services.

Please note that your paper – if accepted for publication – will initially be published online as an ahead of print article (with active DOI, registered in PubMed, but without page numbers) as soon as possible. Later the same paper will appear in an issue (DOI does not change) with numbered pages (the contents of our issues are planned in advance).

We offer neither fast-track nor priority publication in any form. We perform no pre-assessment of papers sent by e-mail regarding their scope or publication possibility.

Please note that papers not conforming to the rules listed below will not be peer-reviewed until the authors adjust them appropriately. Conformity to the instructions for authors is authors’ responsibility, not editors’.

Types of manuscripts

Manuscripts may be considered for publication in the following sections:

  • Original papers – including experimental research;

  • Research letters;

  • Reviews;

  • Meta-Analyses.

A research letter is a brief, but scientifically important study which is basically a shorter form of Original paper. The text structure (Background – Objectives – Material and methods – Discussion – Limitations – Conclusions) remains the same. Research letters are peer reviewed and subject to stringent editorial review as well. They are also indexed in all databases, including PubMed and Scopus, and the number of points assigned for such publication is identical as for original papers. However, a research letter contains a maximum of 1500 words, as opposed to 3500 words in an original article, and at most 2 tables or figures (2 tables and 2 figures at most in one paper). The number of authors and the number of references are not limited. It is important to note that research letters are priority papers in our journal and the waiting time for publication is shorter. 

Authors of Original papers considered by the editors too brief to be published as such will be asked to change the category of the manuscript into a Research letter. The Editorial Office reserves the right to change the category of the manuscripts if its contents require it – e.g., from Original paper into Meta-analysis or Research letter.

The submitted manuscripts should meet the general standards and requirements agreed upon by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, known as “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals”. They should also conform to the high-quality editorial procedures and practice (formulated by the Index Copernicus International Scientific Committee as Consensus Statement on Good Editorial Practice 2004).

All research presented in papers accepted for publication in our journal should be conducted in strict adherence to rules, guidelines, international conventions/declarations and other regulations pertaining research on humans, animals and cell lines.

If your submission relates to a clinical trial, include the number and registration date.

Submission of manuscripts

All manuscripts should be submitted to Editorial Office via electronic Editorial System. We do not accept manuscripts sent by post or e-mail. 

The manuscript should be anonymized – please remove all names and affiliations of the authors from the main text. Please make sure that all names of the authors and their affiliations are registered in the Editorial System during the submission.

There should be no title page – either as the first page of the paper or as a separate file. All authors should be registered in the Editorial System during the submission of the paper and the Editorial System will generate a title page. An “Authors' contributions” section should not appear at the end of the paper.

The Author(s) should provide a short title that does not exceed 45 characters and spaces.

The Author(s) should disclose all financial and material support when registering the paper in the Editorial System. Should any conflict of interest arise, it should be reported while submitting the manuscript in a dedicated section of the submission procedure in our Editorial System. Information about funding sources should be reported while submitting the manuscript in a dedicated section of the submission procedure, not in the Acknowledgements section of this procedure. Both acknowledgements and the information on funding sources and conflict of interest should be registered in the Editorial System during the submission process and removed from the main body of the paper.

How to create an account in Editorial System

The editorial staff of Polim Med is aware that creating an account in the Editorial System [https://www.editorialsystem.com/pim/], which we use, i.a., for manuscript and review submission, is not always easy from the perspective of authors and peer reviewers. Therefore, we offer a guideline in PDF linked below, which presents the whole process using screenshots and comments.

Guideline – how to create an account in Editorial System

Should any problems arise, do not hesitate to contact the Managing Editor – Marek Misiak: marek.misiak@umw.edu.pl [alternative e-mail for Chinese authors: marek.misiak@friend.pl]. He will establish an account for you and you will only need to log in.

Preprints

Polim Med endorses and encourages posting of preprints of manuscripts on non-profit preprint servers such as BioRxiv, MedRxiv, ResearchSquare or Authorea, as well as on authors’ or institutional websites. Posting of preprints is not considered as a prior publication and the manuscript can enter peer review at Polim Med following the regular procedure.

Preprints may be posted at any time before or during the peer review process (the deposited version must, however, be a version existing before submission and cannot be altered as a result of peer reviewers's comments), but not after acceptance in the journal. When the preprint has been posted after the manuscript had been submitted to Polim Med, the authors should inform the editorial office about this fact by e-mail.

Preprints are defined as an author’s version of a research manuscript prior to formal peer review at a journal, which is deposited on a public server. If the article is already accessible online as registered preprint on any website or in any database, and has been already assigned with a DOI, such information, together with an URL of the registered preprint, has to be provided during submission of the paper as well as appear in the cover letter.

Once the preprint is published in Polim Med, it is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the preprint record is updated with a publication reference, including the DOI and a URL link to the published version of the article on the journal website. The editors of Polim Med periodically screen the preprints of papers already published in this journal for such amendments.

A paper summarizing up-to-date knowledge on preprints and our preprint policy has been published in Adv Clin Exp Med:

Supporting open science: Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine and preprints

Financial disclosure

This information should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. It is important to gather these details prior to submission because your financial disclosure statement cannot be changed after initial submission without journal approval. If your manuscript is published, your statement will appear in the Funding sources section of the article.

All affiliations or financial involvement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in, or in financial competition with, the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript must be completely disclosed in the submitted manuscript. All financial and material support for the research and work must be clearly identified, including listing of support that might constitute or give the appearance of influencing the findings. Report all support for the work reported in your manuscript without time limit.

The statement should include:

  • Specific grant numbers
  • Initials of authors who received each award
  • Full names of commercial companies that funded the study or authors
  • Initials of authors who received salary or other funding from commercial companies

Also state whether any sponsors or funders (other than the named authors) played any role in:

  • Study design
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Decision to publish
  • Preparation of the manuscript

If they had no role in the research, include this sentence: “The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.”

Information about funding sources should be reported while submitting the manuscript in a dedicated section of the submission procedure, not in the Acknowledgements section or in the paper itself.

Conflict of interest

All authors are expected to provide disclosures before submission for inclusion in the “Conflict of Interest” statement. Items included in the disclosure statement should cover: consulting fees or paid advisory boards (for the past 3 years or the known future), equity ownership/stock options (publicly or privately traded firms, excluding mutual funds), lecture fees when speaking at the invitation of a commercial sponsor (for the past 3 years or the known future), employment by the commercial entity that sponsored the study, grant support from industry, patents and/or royalties, expert witness, and other activities performed for a commercial sponsor.

Should any conflict of interest arise, it should be reported while submitting the manuscript in a dedicated section of the submission procedure in our Editorial System, not in the Acknowledgements section or in the paper itself.

More about conflict of interest here.

Declarations

All manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading 'Declarations':

  • Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

  • Consent for publication

We often find that authors have confused consent for publication with consent for participation in their study. For the purpose of this document, "consent" refers to consent to publish personal information about an individual, and not informed consent for participation in a study.

  • Use of AI and AI-assisted technology

See the Data sharing section below and our AI policy.

If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section.

Copyright declaration

The Author/Author(s) declare that:

a) they are copyright holders to the scientific work/publication;

b) they are entitled to dispose of copyright for the purposes of the concluded license/publishing agreement with the Wroclaw Medical University;

c) they created the work/publication on their own;

d) the work/publication does not violate the rights of third parties.

In the event that a third party files a claim against Wroclaw Medical University as a result of the inconsistency of the Author's statements or assurances, the Author is obliged to immediately cover the full amount of all damages, costs, and expenses incurred by Wroclaw Medical University in connection with such claims. This includes damages and costs awarded by a competent court or resulting from the content of the settlement concluded with the aggrieved party, as well as costs of legal services.

Authorship

The authorship should be based on the following criteria:

  • substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;

  • drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

  • final approval of the version to be published.

Authors should meet all 3 above criteria. If a large, multi-center group conducted the research, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. The Author submitting a collectively authored manuscript should establish the order of authorship, provide all individual authors of the particular group, as well as provide the group's name. All those designated as Authors should meet all criteria for authorship, and all who meet the criteria should be identified as Authors. The contribution of each Author must be documented to the extent to take the public responsibility for appropriate portions, the content and the conflict of interests. 

Other individuals who have participated in generation of the research paper but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgments section with a brief indication of the nature of their contribution. Any editing services used in preparation of the manuscript should be disclosed in the acknowledgments.

All Authors who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors and their authorship should be disclosed in the Editorial System in accordance with the following list:

A – research concept and design; B – collection and/or assembly of data; C – data analysis and interpretation; D – writing the article; E – critical revision of the article; F – final approval of the article.

Do not provide a list of Authors' contributions in the main text of the manuscript – neither with full names nor with initials.

The submitting author is NOT automatically designated as the corresponding author in the submission system. The corresponding author is the primary contact for the journal office and the only Author able to view or change the manuscript while it is under editorial consideration. The corresponding author role may be transferred to another co-author. However, note that transferring the corresponding author role also transfers access to the manuscript. The corresponding author cannot be changed following the acceptance of the paper – there cannot be one corresponding author for contacts with editors and another one for contacts with readers following publication since it is not a honorary but a practical role.

The order of Authors in the Editorial System is also the order in which the Authors will appear on the title page of the published paper. Therefore, the first author in the Editorial System will be also considered the first author of the paper. Before submitting the paper, please check whether the order of the Authors in your manuscript as registered in the Editorial System reflects the order you intend. Changes of authorship following the acceptance of the manuscript for publication are not permitted.

Ghostwriting and guest authorship are manifestations of scientific misconduct, and any detected cases will be investigated, including notification of the relevant entities (institutions employing the authors, scientific societies, associations, scientific editors, etc.). Editors require the identification of funding sources of publications, information about contribution to research from institutions, associations and other entities (the rule: financial disclosure). Editors continuously monitor and document any signs of scientific misconduct, especially violations and breaches of ethics applicable in the study.

Author names will be published exactly as they appear in the manuscript file. Please double-check the information carefully to make sure it is correct, especially regarding the sequence of name and surname – in English, given name always goes first and surname goes second. Please provide always full names, never initials. Patronimic names (e.g., Ukrainian or Russian) should not be used. Both names and surnames should be capitalized at the beginning (including Chinese names).

Please note that there can be only 1 first author and 1 corresponding author for each manuscript (both functions can be also held by a single person). Polim Med does not permit co-first authorship and co-corresponding Authors for any reasons. However, we offer to mark the names of 2 chosen Authors on the first page of the paper with asterisks [*] and to place a disclaimer [X and Y contributed equally to this work] on the same page. 

All authors who have an ORCID should provide it during submission.

No information allowing for authors' identification, in particular authors' names, should appear anywhere in the main body of the paper. 

Affiliations

Each Author on the list must have an affiliation. The affiliation should include department, university, or organizational affiliation and its location, including city and country (please, do not provide: 1) names of states/provinces; 2) postal addresses and postal codes). Affiliations consisting of only the whole institution name (e.g., university or hospital) are considered too general (this does not apply to employees of private companies). If an author is a student, it should be stated in their affiliation. In the submission system, enter only the preferred or primary affiliation. Do not mix 2 or 3 affiliation into one.

ORCID

Authors submitting their manuscripts to Wroclaw University Press journals are advised to use a unique ORCID number (Open Researcher and Contributor ID). It is a popular digital tool allowing for the identification of the author and their research work in scientific communication.

You can register for an ORCID number for free at: https://orcid.org.

Changes to authorship

Before manuscript submission, provide the final and definite list of all authors. If you want to add, remove or change the order of the authors, you can do it only before the manuscript acceptance. Changes of authorship following the acceptance of the manuscript for publication are not permitted. Each change, however, should be always approved by the journal Editor.

To make authorship changes, send to the Editorial Office a document containing the following information:

1) list of original authors;
2) list of current authors;
3) the reason for the change in the author list; and
4) identification of current corresponding author (if the modification includes changing the person fulfilling this role).

The document must also include signed consent from all authors stating that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement in the list. In other words, all the original and the current authors must sign it. We require such signatures from all authors, even those who have been added or removed. The document should be sent to the Managing Editor: marek.misiak@umw.edu.pl.

Acknowledgements

Include individuals or companies which have assisted with your study, including advisors, administrative support and suppliers who may have donated or given materials used in the study. Funding of the research should be disclosed in Funding sources section, not in Acknowledgements. Conflict of interest should be disclosed in the Conflict of interest section, not in Acknowledgements.

Names of countries, cities and institutions

We use the following names of countries:

  • China [not: People’s Republic of China]

  • South Korea [not: Korea, and not: Republic of Korea]

  • Turkey [not: Türkiye]

  • Czech Republic [not: Czechia]

  • Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) [not: Cyprus, if the institution in question is in TRNC and not the Republic of Cyprus]

We use English names of cities, not their original versions [e.g., Mexico City (not: Ciudad de México), Naples (not: Napoli)]. 

We use English names of universities, hospitals, clinics, scientific institutes, and other entities, not their original versions [e.g., National Autonomous University of Mexico (not: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)].

We do not use the names of states nor provinces, neither in affiliations nor in the main body of the text [e.g., Xi'an, China (not: Xi'an, Shaanxi, China); Los Angeles, USA (not: Los Angeles, California)]. When providing the location of the manufacturer of equipment, please give the name of the city and the country, not of the state/province [e.g., GraphPad Software, San Diego, USA (not: GraphPad Software, California, USA; not: GraphPad Software, California, USA)].

Title of the manuscript

Titles should be written in sentence case (only the first word of the text, proper nouns and genus names are capitalized). Avoid specialist abbreviations in titles if possible. 

Abstract

Abstract of ORIGINAL PAPERS, RESEARCH LETTERS and META-ANALYSES should contain 200–300 words and consist of 5 separate parts introduced by separate subheadings in the following order:

  • Background;

  • Objectives;

  • Materials and methods;

  • Results;

  • Conclusions.

An unstructured abstract 150–250 words is required for REVIEWS.

Abstract should be only registered in the system – please do not paste it into the main body of the paper.

Graphical abstract

Polim Med requires graphical abstracts (GAs) for papers accepted for publication. The editorial office does not offer graphic designing or DTP services – the authors have to provide graphical abstracts in a finished form. The GAs should be submitted as a separate file in the submission system.

Requirements regarding graphical abstracts

An extensive paper on GAs was published in Adv Clin Exp Med:

In a blink of an eye: Graphical abstracts in Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Key words

Abstract should be followed by 3–5 key words written in the language of the manuscript and recommended by the Index Medicus Subject Headings (MeSH).

Main text

Manuscripts should be submitted in the following formats: DOCX, DOC and RTF. 

The manuscripts – main text and reference list – should be formatted as follows: Times New Roman 12, spacing 1.5. The main body of the text should not contain names and affiliations of the authors or the abstract. Tables, figures and reference list should be submitted only as separate files and are not to be pasted into the main text. All numbers of the references in the text should be in superscript and without parentheses. Do not number headings or subheadings.

The Author(s) should not use italics (apart from names of the genes and taxonomy), bold or underlined words in the text. Please use only generic names of drugs.

The total number of words in REVIEWS and META-ANALYSES should not exceed 7000 words (including main text, tables and figure legends, and excluding reference list), while there should be up to 3000 words in ORIGINAL PAPERS (including main text and figure legends, but excluding title page, abstract and references) and up to 1500 words in RESEARCH LETTERS (including main text and figure legends, but excluding title page, abstract and references).

We accept up to 10 tables and 10 figures.

The main body of the text (regardless of its type) should consist of the following sections introduced by separate subheadings in the following order:

  • Background/Introduction (at least 1 page long);

  • Objectives;

  • Limitations of the study;

  • Conclusions.

For Original papers and Research letters, the main body of the text should consist of the following sections introduced by separate subheadings in the following order:

  • Background (at least 1 page long);

  • Objectives;

  • Materials and methods;

  • Results;

  • Discussion;

  • Limitations of the study;

  • Conclusions.

References to literature, figures and tables should be placed in the order of their citation in the text. The Author(s) should not use italics (apart from names of the genes and taxonomy), bold or underlined words in the texts. Please use only generic names of drugs. Laboratory values should be expressed using the International System of Units (SI).

When the study involves humans or animals, please include the disclaimer about the approval of the bioethical committee or about the reason why such consent was waived. When the study involves humans, please include a disclaimer about compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki or about the reason why the Declaration is not applicable, as well as information of informed consent provided by the subjects or lack thereof.

Statistical analysis

Please read thoroughly and familiarize yourself with our new statistical guidelines. These requirements are to be followed closely. Each paper which includes statistical analysis results in any form undergoes statistical review by a statistical editor, separately from the peer review. Papers which do not pass this review are not accepted for publication.

Units of measure

Laboratory values should be expressed using the International System of Units (Le Système International d’Unités, SI). Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius. If conventional units are used, their SI equivalents should be provided in parentheses only at first mention in the text.

Units should be placed after numerical values with a space between – e.g. 20 mL, not 20mL. All numbers (including those lower than 10) should be written using figures, not spelled out (e.g., 4, not four). 

Laboratory equipment, reagents and software

If any equipment, software, reagents, antibodies or anything else obtained from external entities was used, the following information should be provided:

  • exact model of equipment, full name of assay or reagent, catalog number of antibody, etc.;

  • name of the manufacturer;

  • location of the manufacturer (country and city (not state/province - e.g., Los Angeles, not California);

  • in case of software – exact version of the software (e.g., IBM SPSS v. 24.0);

  • in case of freeware software or databases (like KEGG or Gene Ontology) a direct URL from which the used version of the software can be downloaded is sufficient.

Abbreviations

If an abbreviation is introduced in the text, it should be explained when a given term or name of the institution appears in the text for the first time; then, only abbreviation should be used, not the full expression (unless the expression appears at the beginning of the sentence). Do not begin a sentence with an abbreviation. 

All abbreviations in the abstract should be explained in the abstract and then again in the main text (the abstract and the main text are treated as separate texts). All abbreviations appearing in a table/figure or its caption must be explained in the legend of a given table/figure, even if they appear also in the main text or in other tables/figures – each table/figure has to be fully comprehensible when viewed outside the context of the whole paper. 

Nonstandard abbreviations should be avoided. Do not use abbreviations in manuscript titles (except when space considerations require otherwise) or figure legends and table titles. In rare cases, when the abbreviation is more familiar than the expansion, the abbreviation alone can be used (in our journal, this applies to DNA, USA and SPSS, but not to, e.g., DMSO, DMEM or PBS). Be careful not to introduce abbreviations which are already widely used with other meaning (e.g., SD is usually understood as ‘standard deviation’, OS as ‘overall survival’ and OD as ‘optical density’).

All abbreviations used in the text should be explained in the article, not on a separate list.

Tables

We accept up to 10 tables (2 tables in Research letters). Tables should be placed in separate files, not pasted into the main body of the text. They should be in an editable format (not inserted as pictures). References to Tables should be placed according to the sequence of citing them in the manuscript. The text should include references to all tables. 

Do not place captions for tables and figures within the text, but only in the file(s) containing tables. Please do not attempt to point out where exactly a given table or figure is to appear. We cannot guarantee that they will be placed exactly in the places in the paper you planned them – they will appear on the same page they are first referred to (or on the same fold-out), but not necessarily below a given sentence.

Allowed formats: DOC and DOCX [not XLS or XLSX]. The same data should not be provided twice – both in the text and in the table, but only in the table, while the text should include only a reference to a given table. Include a brief and self-explanatory title with any explanations essential to the understanding of the table given in footnotes at the bottom of the table. There cannot be empty cells in the table – if no information is given, fill in a cell with a hyphen (–).

All abbreviations used in a given table/figure should be explained below it or in the caption, even if a given abbreviation has already been explained in the text.

Citations in the tables should be numbered and included in the Reference list. When you cite references in the tables, you have to provide the numbers of the references also in the table. The references in the tables should be in the order they appear on the reference list. If there are 2 authors, both surnames should be provided. If there are more than 2 authors, surname of the first author and et al. should be provided. References in tables should fit into the consecutive numeration of the references in place where a given table is first mentioned. Do not provide a separate reference list for a table or tables – a manuscript can have only one reference list.

Figures

We accept up to 10 figures (2 figures in Research letters). Overtly complex figures will be divided into smaller ones and the number of figures will be counted again. A single figure can have no more than 6 panels (A–F). One panel means one chart – multiple small charts cannot form one panel. 

Do not compile several already complex charts into one figure. All elements of each figure must be legible when viewed on an A4 page in a PDF file in full-screen mode, without zooming. Overtly complex figures with multiple charts/graphs combined into one panel cannot fulfill this requirement. Do not combine several graphs or charts into one figure – it’s simply unpublishable and we will not be able to include such figures into the published manuscript. Papers with such figures will not be published, even if accepted by peer reviewers. Figures deemed too complicated by our editors will have to be divided into smaller ones – preferably following the rule one chart = one figure.

Figures should be placed in separate files, not pasted into the main body of the text. All figures must be consecutively numbered. Separate figures must have separate numbers (i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, not Fig. 3A and 3B when 2 separate figures are considered).

References to Figures should be placed according to the sequence of citing them in the manuscript. The text should include references to all figures.

Please refer to tables and figures in the text; do not place captions for tables and figures within the text. Please do not attempt to point out where exactly a given table or figure is to appear. We cannot guarantee that they will be placed exactly in the places in the paper you planned them – they will appear on the same page they are first referred to (or on the same fold-out), but not necessarily below a given sentence.

Each figure should have a concise, self-explanatory caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Captions for the figures should be placed at the end of the main body of the text. Do not embed the legend in the figure file. When applicable, be sure that both the figure captions and the figures themselves contain corresponding labels for multiple parts. Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs. If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves. All abbreviations used in a given table/figure should be explained below it or in the caption, even if a given abbreviation has already been explained in the text.

If Authors used in the work any figures, photographs, charts, tables, etc. which are not their work, and are protected by the copyright law, they shall be obliged to provide the Publisher with a written authorization to use such materials issued by the author’s economic rights holders. Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Please read our technical requirements for figures.

References

The references should be consecutively numbered, not prepared in Harvard style and not marked in the text using solely links to the reference list (without numbers) or DOIs pasted into the text. The reference list should be in the order of works being cited in the text, not in alphabetical order. 

Do not include references in the abstract or in headings/subheadings.

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the accuracy of all references according to AMA citation style.

If you use EndNote software to manage your references, CLICK HERE.

References should be limited only to the most recent positions and directly connected to the presented topic. References should be identified by Arabic numerals (without parentheses) in superscript and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the manuscript. This also includes references in tables – they should fit into the consecutive numeration of the references in place where a given table is first mentioned. All references from the reference list should be mentioned in the text, consecutively and with no gaps (e.g., Reference 16 cannot appear until reference 15 is mentioned at least once). If references are mentioned in a table, they should also appear in ascending order.

When you cite references in the tables, you have to provide the numbers of the references also in the table. The references in the tables should be in the order they appear on the reference list. If there are 2 authors, both surnames should be provided. If there are more than 2 authors, surname of the first author and et al. should be provided. References in tables should fit into the consecutive numeration of the references in place where a given table is first mentioned.

Do not cite the following sources in the reference list:

  • Unavailable and unpublished work, including manuscripts that have been submitted but not yet accepted (e.g., “unpublished work” or “data not shown”). Instead, deposit such data in a publicly available database (e.g., as a preprint if it is a complete but yet unpublished manuscript). Articles that are accepted for publication but not yet published should be cited as in press.
  • Personal communications (these should be supported by a letter from the relevant authors but not included in the reference list).
  • Submitted research should not rely upon retracted research. You should avoid citing retracted articles unless you need to discuss retracted work to provide historical context for your submitted research. If it is necessary to discuss retracted work, state the article’s retracted status in your article’s text and reference list.

Ensure that your reference list includes full and current bibliography details for every cited work at the time of your article’s submission (and publication, if accepted). If cited work is corrected, retracted or marked with an expression of concern before your article is published, and if you feel it is appropriate to cite the work even in light of the post-publication notice, include in your manuscript citations and full references for both the affected article and the post-publication notice. Email the journal office if you have questions.

Abbreviations for journal names should be cited according to Index Medicus. If a journal is not listed in Index Medicus, its full name should be given. The abbreviation et al. should be applied when there are more than 6 authors, but only the first 3 authors should be listed in such situations (e.g., Hu X, Chang J, Mao M, et al.).

Please provide DOIs to all positions on the Reference list. If a cited position lacks DOI, please provide PMID. If there is also no PMID, please provide direct URL to the published paper (not to a database), if possible.

Please do not paste the reference list into the main text – it should be submitted only as a separate file.

This journal should be cited in lists as Polim Med.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusion of a paper that cannot be included in the printed version for reasons of space or medium (for example, movie clips or sound files). Supplementary tables and figures must have a separate numbering system from that used for tables and figures that appear in the paper (the first figure displayed should be labeled “Supplementary Figure 1”, the first table  “Supplementary Table 1”, and so on).

The Statistical Editors of our journal require that the supplementary files are always available to the readers. Please deposit them in this free of charge repository:

https://zenodo.org/

and obtain a single DOI number for the whole package. Then, provide us this DOI together with a short description of the contents of the package. Each file should be numbered (Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Figure 1, etc.) and a one-sentence description of its contents should be provided. We will publish both the description and DOI at the end of the manuscript, as a “Data availability statement” subsection:

Supplementary Table 1. CAPTION.

Supplementary Table 2. CAPTION.

Supplementary Figure 1. CAPTION.

Supplementary Figure 2. CAPTION.

Neither Polim Med nor the publisher of this journal (Wroclaw Medical University) are in any way associated with the Zenodo repository – neither financially nor organizationally. We are simply recommending this entity as a reliable and cost-free third-party data storage opportunity.

Originality check

As a part of the initial verification of the manuscript, each text is checked using anti-plagiarism software (iThenticate). Only manuscript with a Similarity Index (SI) lower than 30% will be accepted for further verification – those with SI od 30% or higher will be sent back to authors for rewrite. This applies also to papers being continuations or expansions of previous publications – re-using previously published text, e.g. in the Materials and methods section, is not an accepted solution. Please note that re-using fragments of one or more publications of one or more authors of the paper is also considered plagiarism (and is called self-plagiarism).

Usage of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

These guidelines only refer to the writing process (i.e., generating text using an AI tool), and not to the use of AI tools to analyze and draw insights from data as part of the research process. They do not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc.

Authors are allowed to use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process before submission, but only to improve the language and readability of their paper and with the appropriate disclosure. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Detailed information should be provided in the cover letter and in a statement at the end of the manuscript (following Conclusions). Such statement will appear in the published work. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled “AI usage in the writing process” and follow this pattern: 

During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

The full prompt used in the production of the work, as well as the AI tool and its version, should also be disclosed. 

If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

 Authors are accountable for the accuracy of the work and for ensuring that there is no plagiarism. They must also ensure that all sources are appropriately cited and should carefully review the work to guard against bias that may be introduced by AI. Editors may decline to move forward with manuscripts if AI is used inappropriately.

Polim Med does not permit the use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts. This may include enhancing, obscuring, moving, removing, or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure. There are 2 exceptions to this rule. Adjustments of brightness, contrast or color balance are acceptable if they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Another allowed exception is when the use of AI or AI-assisted tools is part of the research design or research methods (such as in AI-assisted imaging approaches to generate or interpret the underlying research data, for example in the field of biomedical imaging). If this is done, such use must be described in a reproducible manner in the methods section. This should include an explanation of how the AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the image creation or alteration process, and the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer. Authors should adhere to the AI software’s specific usage policies and ensure correct content attribution. Where applicable, authors could be asked to provide pre-AI-adjusted versions of images and/or the composite raw images used to create the final submitted versions, for editorial assessment.

Anonymous review

All manuscripts will be subject to a process of anonymous editorial review (the name of authors and their affiliations will be disclosed to the reviewers only when the review process is complete). In order to achieve this, the first page and the acknowledgements page will be removed from the manuscripts sent to reviewers. Manuscripts will be sent to at least 2 independent reviewers. The final decision on accepting the manuscript is made by the Editorial Board; reviews are only supporting this decision. The Editorial Board’s final evaluation of each article is based on criteria developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

In their response to peer reviewers and statistical reviewers, the authors should provide a point-by-point response to reviewers' comments and a version of your paper with all changes marked with red color of the modified text or red highlighting of such passages. Moreover, the  “track changes” function in the Word software should be used.

Suggested peer reviewers

Authors of each submitted manuscript are required to suggest 3 potential peer reviewers. Fulfilling this requirement is paramount to alleviating the peer-review crisis is scientific publishing and is mandatory.

Suggested reviewer has to be:

  • from a different country than any of the authors;
  • a specialist in a relevant field of medicine (There have been instances where the recommended reviewers were from completely unrelated scientific fields, sometimes not even within medicine.).

Please provide the following information concerning the suggested reviewers:

  • name;
  • institutional e-mail;
  • link to the institutional personal page of the reviewer (if possible).

This would facilitate proper identification and traceability to their professional profile and respective institutions.

The suggested reviewers cannot have a conflict of interest as described here:
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-systems-and-software/policies/conflict-of-interest-guidelines-for-reviewers

Proofs

Authors should keep a copy of their article, as proofs will be sent to them without the manuscript. Corrections to the proofs should be restricted to printer’s errors only. Please read, correct and return the proof to the Editorial Office within 3 working days. Delay in the return of proof may result in publication of the paper without your corrections or may postpone the publication. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that there are no errors in the proof.

Please mark the corrections in the pdf file using the “comment” option. Please mark the passages that need to be modified. Either changing the contents of the PDF file itself or providing the corrections as a separate list is not considered appropriate. All corrections have to be made using ONLY the “comment” function. Changing anything in the PDF itself renders it unusable for us [this includes both changes to the text and tables/figures, as well as adding watermarks]. It is also unethical because the editors need to be able to track each correction you make.  Do not lock the comments on the proof – we need to be able to remove them.

Please note that since October 1, 2021 after the article is published as ahead of print, it cannot be changed (which encompasses also affiliations and authors’ order). Such stipulation stems from requirements set by scientific databases in which the papers published Polimery w Medycynie – Polymers in Medicine are stored.

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