General guidelines
After having submitted the manuscript, the author signs a cover letter which confirms that all the authors' rights will be vested in the publisher in the case of publication. Also, the author has to confirm that the article is original and does not violate other person's authorial rights and has not been submitted to or published in other periodicals (except for theses and conference material). What is more, the author has to inform about a possibility of conflict of interests, e.g. whether directly or indirectly they have been sponsored by the firm whose products or equipment are discussed in the article or related to a firm competing in this area.
Scientific articles have to be written in clear and correct Lithuanian and meet some structural and content requirements.
In order to submit an article, two printed copies on A4 paper as well as a digital version (Microsoft Word *.doc format, Times New Roman font, size 12 , 1,5 spacing and 2,5 cm margins) have to be handed in. All pages have to be numbered.
As for the digital version of the article, it has to be submitted in the form of a CD with the author's surname, the names of the article and the piece of computer software.
The digital version has to be sent to the following email:
The manuscripts that have been approved or rejected for printing are not returned to the author.
The structure of the manuscript
1. Title page on which must be given:
• the name of the article in English and Lithuanian;
• non-abbreviated author's name and surname ;
• the name of the institution. If authors belong to several institutions, a numeric footnote is inserted that carries the the names of the institution (both in English and Lithuanian);
• the name, work address, phone number and e-mail of the author with whom the editors will keep in touch.
2. The first page. The following information must be provided:
• the name of the article in English and Lithuanian;
• names of authors and institutions must not be included (starting form this page the article is given to reviewers);
• the summary of the article (200–250 words) and 5–6 key words (the ones that are not found in the name of the article ) in Lithuanian . The structure of the summary has to be equivalent to the structure of the article: the aim of the research, data and methods, results and conclusions. There should be no abbreviations in the summary.
• summary (200–250 words) and 5–6 keywords (the ones that are not found in the name of the article) in English. The structure of the summary in English: background, material and methods, results and conclusions.
3. Sections of the article (starts from the third page):
• Introduction, the aim of the research. The relevance, novelty, the scope of the research and notable works by other authors have to be given.
• Data and methods. Data, animals and patients that were experimented on as well as methods are described (a research on humans has to obey the principles of the 1975 Helsinki declaration which were revised in 2000; a research on animals has to obey the laws of the Republic of Lithuania that regulate the care and use of animals for testing ). Also, statistical methods used for data analysis must be included.
• Results. Results sported by statistical analysis must be given. The data given in the text must not duplicate the data in pictures and charts.
• Discussion. The results obtained during the research have to be discussed, mechanisms have to be explained, the connection between data analyzed and other related factors has to be dressed, data has to be compared to the results of other researchers' works, further studies and recommendations have to be put forward etc.
• Conclusions. Short overview of the results of only one's research has to be given.
NB: The structure of literary reviews, clinical cases and other articles may differ; However, the article must contain the main sections mentioned in bullet points 1 and 2, only the structure of the main section of the work, which is given in bullet point 3, may differ.
4. Referencing must fallow the requirements given by In-ternational Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ bsd/uniform_requirements.html. References must be numerated according to the appearance of quotes in the text. Links to the source from this list are given in brackets. If multiple sources are given, the have to be separated by a comma (e.g. [5, 6]), if they follow one another a dash must be used (e.g. [6–8]). If the author is mentioned in the article itself, first name and then surname has to be given and vice versa in the list of references: first surname and then name. If there are more than one author in the source, only the first six are mentioned and et al is added. Abbreviations of journals must be given according to Medline abbreviations. It is recommended to use publications issued within the previous 5 years unless the older ones are necessary in order to review the history of the research or when publications on the research area in question are not abundant. The list of references should not be longer than sixty entries.
Words in Latin and other languages must be given in italics.
Charts and graphic illustrations
Charts have to be enclosed in the text or given on separate pages. The number and the name of the chart must be given in English and Lithuanian before the chart (e.g. 1 lentelė. Ligonių, sergančių išemine širdies liga, kraujo serumo lipoproteinų spektras. Table 1. Blood serum lipoprotein spectrum in ischaemic heart disease). Explanations and abbreviations have to be given at the bottom of the chart.
Graphic illustrations have to be in CorelDRAW or Microsoft Word formats (also Microsoft Excel or Microsoft PowerPoint formats can be used) and must be given in separate files (not in the article itself but one illustration per file). The number and name has to be given in English and Lithuanian (e.g.1 pav. Operuotų ligonių amžius. Fig. 1. The age of operated patients) at the bottom of a graph or illustration. The number of the graph or illustration in the article must be given in parentheses or included in the sentence. If the article is published in English, the names of illustrations and charts have to be given only in English.
Graphics, photos etc. have to be submitted in a graphic format (e.g. *.bmp; *.tif; *.jpg) in no less than 200 resolution ( 300 dpi is considered to be optimal). Photos themselves can be submitted. Illustrations in the journal will be black and white; however color illustrations can be printed but at the expense of the author.
Mathematical formulae have to be incorporated in the text in the format of Microsoft Equation or given on a separate sheet of paper with their location in the text indicated.
In an article in Lithuanian the whole of a decimal fraction is separated form the remainder by a comma, in an article in English – by a dot.
Norms and units should be given according to The International System of Units (SI).
Reviewing
All the received manuscripts are reviewed by several (no less than two) members of the editors board or the specialist of the science area in question. Authors must take the remarks of the reviewer into consideration and submit a reviewed version and, if the author has enough of relevant arguments, leave the first version unchanged. Articles are rejected if they do not meet the requirements whatsoever . Thoroughly corrected article can be submitted to the journal again.
On the website of the journal http://zurnalas.llmd.lt summaries in English and Lithuanian are placed.
It is desired that the author should be subscribed to the journal.
