The Journal of Turkish Family Physician accepts the following types of articles:

• Original research articles, including full original research papers and short research reports (research letters)
• Review articles, including systematic reviews of literature, methodological reviews
• Clinical case discussions
• Executive summaries of recent clinical guidelines, National and International position papers
• Letters to the editor and short opinion papers.
• Editorial

Manuscript Formatting
Manuscripts must be prepared as a Word document using font size 12 Times New Roman characters, double-spaced and with 2.5 cm margins on each side, top and bottom.
Only standard abbreviations should be used; other shortened phrases should be indicated in parentheses as used in the text. Using foreign words in Turkish manuscripts should be avoided if the Turkish equivalent is present. Generic or chemical names of drugs should be used instead of trade names. No trade names is allowed. All quotations must be cited as indicated in the original article. In case of original quotation, the expressions must be indicated by using italics and between “” and adding the number reference number of the cited article.

Word numbers

Original articles excluding case reports and systematic reviews should not exceed 3000 words excluding the abstract, references and tables. Case reports should not exceed 1000 words excluding the abstract, references and tables. There are no restrictions for systematic reviews.

Formatting According To Manuscript Types

Original Articles

Original articles should be structured under the heading “Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion”.

• Abstract: Abstracts in English and Turkish should be present. Both abstract must be structured under the headings ıntroduction-aim-methods-results-discussion and conclusion; and be exacly the same and do not exceed 300 words.
• Key words: Key words must be appropriate to international standards, may be selected from MeSH (Medical Subject Headings’e (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html) and for Turkish key words, the author(s) may apply to Turkish Scientific expressions (www.bilimterimleri.com). Minimum three maximum five key words are necessary.

The main text

• Introduction section of the manuscript should clearly state the purpose of the manuscript and include a brief summary of the most relevant national and international literature stating the main purposes and research question of the study. Contradictory aspects of the research, if present, should be mentioned. The expected contribution of this study to family medicine and practice should be highlighted.
• Aim: Should be formulated clearly.
• Materials and Methods: Methods section must be structured under the headings to define the design-location-timeframe of the study, the study population, sample size, power analysis and sampling techniques, data collection methods and materials. Validity and reliability of scales and questionnaires used also should be referred to. A clear description of the statistical analysis methods should also be explained. Ethic approval also be mentioned inside this section including the ethic committee name and the date and the number of the study.
• Results section should include a detailed report on the findings of the study. All figures, tables and illustrations should take place in this section. Results should be presented either as text or figures and/or tables and repetition inside the text must be avoided.
• Discussion section of the study should emphasize the importance of the results and compare them with the results of other authors with relevant citations from the most recent literature. Study limitations and strengths should be specified. Suggestions for further studies in this are, strengths and limitations of the study a should be added.
• Conclusion should include the main conclusions based on the results of the research, emphasize the contributions of the study to family practice and propose original suggestions.
• Acknowledgements (if any), potential conflict of interest or no conflict of interest, in original researches the ethics committee approval (institution, date and protocol number), in case presentations, the information about the consent form was signed and participation rate of the authors/researchers must be added at the end of the text.
• Tables, graphics, figures and photos: Maximum five tables and/or graphics or figures are acceptable. They must be added at the end of the text and/or submitted as a separate file. The number, the title should take place at the top of the table. The statistical method and some explanations if needed about the content should be placed under the table.
• Tables, graphics, figures and photos taken from other articles should be used only by taking permission from the copyright owner author(s) or the publisher and must be cited appropriately as indicated in its original article. The cited article should take place at the bottom of the table as well as in the references. And the permission should be submitted with the other necessary files. Tables quoted by changing the content should be cited appropriately as indicated in its original article and explanation should be placed at the bottom of the table. Authors should obtain permission from the copyright holder when using previously published contents, including pictures, tables, or like in printed or electronic format. The legal, financial and criminal responsibility in this regard belongs to the authors.
• Figures and Photos resolution must be high and they must be originally taken by the author(s). Behind the photos the author(s) name should be noted and the upper part should be marked. All the explanation should take place under the table.

Clinical case discussion: Title, summary and key words in English and Turkish must be prepared as defined for original articles. Case discussion should noy exceed five pages. Informed consent should be mentioned inside the text and be submitted to the system during application.

Short Reports

Short reports are short and peer-reviewed articles including small case series, negative trials, the preliminary results and others that are not to be published as a full text, small-scale clinical studies/papers. The main text should be less than 2000 words with a maximum 20 references and have no more than 3 display items (Tables or figures). Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and should be structured with the following subheadings: Aims, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. All papers require ethical approval.

Reviews and systematic reviews

Reviews are evidence-based articles about a specific topic using relevant citations from the most recent literature with the authors’ conclusions on this subject. The author is expected to be experienced in this area to discuss the topic. The systematic reviews are expected to explain in detail the methodology, for non-systematic reviews there is no obligation to follow a particular format. and may contain subtitles depending on the subject. The text should not exceed 3000 words excluding the title, abstracts, references and tables. All the reviews are included in the double-blind peer-review process. Titles, abstracts, key words in English and in Turkish will be added.

Letter to the editor:

Should not exceed 2000 words. Only one figure/table/graphic and maximum six words are acceptable. Letters to the editor or comments can be sent to provide commentary and analysis concerning an article published in the journal, to give information about an ongoing research, to provide information for primary care physicians about recent advances in medicine or the development of family medicine in Turkey or to draw attention to a particular subject.

National and International Reports

Translations of important documents, such as position papers, declarations and guidelines prepared by national and international organizations in the field of family medicine, may be published in the journal. The permission for the translation and publication is requested and also the editorial board must be informed before the submission process These articles should usually not exceed 1000 words, with some exceptions.

Editorial

Editorial usually provide information about the editorial policy of the The Journal of Turkish Family Physician, give commentary and feedback on articles published in the journal, draw attention to topics of current interest and give information related to and discuss the development of family medicine in Turkey. They are mainly written by the Editor-in-chief and members of the Editorial Board. Editorials are limited to 1000 words with some exceptions and may include a title and references when necessary.

References

The references should be listed according to appearing rank inside the text and indicated with upper symbol at the end of the sentence, such as. (1) Autho(s) names must be written for the first six authors. More number of authors are marked as et al. Recommended writing rules according to the reference types are as in the following:

1. Article published in a scientific Journal: Surname and initials of the first name of the author(s). The title of the study (only the first letter is capital, all the others are minuscule) The abbreviation of the Journal name as indicated in Index Medicus, or other international indexes or in the original web site of the Journal. The year (month if any); volume (number): page numbers.
   Example: Dişcigil G, Tekin N, Söylemez A. Obesity in Turkish children and adolescents: prevalence and non-nutritional correlates in an urban sample. Child Care Health Dev 2009 Oct;35(2):153-8.
2. In supplement or in special issue.Gimble JM, Bray MS, Young A. Circadian biology and sleep: missing links in obesity and metabolism? Obes Rev 2009 Nov;10 Suppl 2:1-5.
3. Book:
   a. Book chapter: Uzuner A, Kaya ÇA. Hypertension in the elderly. In “Chronic Illnesses in The Elderly” içinde. (eds) Dişcigil G, Kaya ÇA. Vol 2. 2. ed. City, Publisher. 2009;53-76.
   b. One author/multi author book: Topsever P. “Diagnosis and Treatment in Diabetes”. Vol 1. 2nd ed. City, Publisher. 2009; 3-9.
   c. Translation book: American Psychiatry Association “DSM-IV Mental Disorder Diagnostic Handbook”. (translation ed) Köroğlu E. vol 1. 4. ed. City, Publisher. 1994; 3-9.
   d. Chapter in Translation book: Uzuner A. Roots of the Family: Family Center Primary Care. In “Primary Health Care” (translation ed.) Apaydın Ç. 1. ed. İstanbul, Bilgi. 2010;142-61.
   e. Abstract in abstract book: Uzuner A. IUD use in the World. 6.Reproductive Health and Family Planning Congress, 3-5 April 2009. Ankara, Abstract Book. 2009;21-4.
4. Institutional reports/docements with references: Cite as indicated inside the report. If not indicated: World Health Organization: World Health Report 2008. Primary Health Care. Now More Than Ever. Geneva, Switzerland, 2008.If the report is downloaded electronically from the internet web address and download date should be mentioned. From www.who.int….. address on ../../…
5. Thesis: Çalışkan ARG. COOP-WONCA Functional questionnaire. Family Medicine Thesis. Marmara University School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, 2007.6.
6. Internet based articles: WHO Call for research proposals/concept papers on Medical Abortion. Accessed from http://www.medicalabortionconsortium.org/events/call-for-research-proposals-concept-papers-on-medical-abortion-114.html, on 11/10/2010.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors

• The author(s) may not submit their manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously which must be stated and signed in their application form during submission process.
• Original studies originally performed by the author(s) are accepted for publication.
• Substantial intellectual contribution to the content of the work allows to be cited as an author of the manuscript. Other contributors are cited in the acknowledgements part of the article.
• The details of ethical approval and all the permissions should be explained inside the Methods section of the manuscript.
• Conflict of interest must be declared and explained inside the manuscript.
• Numeric and nominal data and other material used in the study should be stored by the author(s) ready to be provided upon request in-order-to verify the reliability of the study.
• If an error is noticed during the publication process or even after publication the author(s) have the responsibility to inform the journal.
• Previously published articles are not accepted.
• Translations are not accepted unless the appropriate acknowledgement of the original author is provided.
• Changes in authorship designation (adding or removing author(s), changing the order of author names) will not be accepted once the manuscript has been accepted for publication; in such case all the authors approval and the editor’s consent are requested.
• Acknowledgements (if any), potential conflict of interest or no conflict of interest, in original researches the ethics committee approval (institution, date and protocol number); in case presentations, the information about the consent form was signed and participation rate of the authors/researchers must be added at the end of the text.