Instruction for Authors
Medicus publishes high-quality peer-reviewed original articles that are not under review in any other academic outlet. Please be advised that Medicus relies on anti-plagiarism programs and submission for publication implies permission for the editors to put the article through such program. Before submitting your paper for review make sure that it follows the Journal’s established guidelines.
Articles should be between 7000 – 10,000 words long including footnotes and references.
All articles should be written in English;
Articles should be typed in Times New Roman, 12 pdf, and be double spaced throughout including footnotes and references;
Review Articles should not exceed 3,000 words, and Book Reviews should not exceed 1,000 words.
A word count must be provided in all cases.
Articles should have an abstract of 200-250 words long
Articles should have 4-6 keywords at the end of the abstract;
The cover page of the article should include the name of the author(s), academic title, institution affiliation, the email of the corresponding author, and the author(s) ORCID ID.
The ‘APA’ references system should be used for bibliographical references in the text and notes. For more information, please consult reputable citation guidelines.
The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency of health Research) Network is “an international initiative that seeks to improve the reliability and value of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting and wider use of robust reporting guidelines”. The main goals of EQUATOR Network are the development, dissemination, and implementation of robust reporting guidelines and to actively promote the use of high-quality reporting guidelines and good research reporting practices. Medicus journal, in its publishing philosophy and editorial policy, adheres to transparent, complete, and accurate reporting and the use of reporting guidelines developed by EQUATOR Network.
For original research articles, clinical case studies and short research reports, Medicus Journal strongly recommends the authors to adhere to and implement the appropriate reporting guideline of Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research. Editable checklists for reporting guidelines can be found on the EQUATOR Network site www.equator-network.org , which also gives general information on how to choose the correct guideline and why guidelines are important. Using a checklist helps to ensure that the guideline has been used correctly.
We strongly recommend that authors te include a checklist, which you can download using the links below, within their submitted materials, to indicate if it describes a randomized trial (CONSORT), an observational study (STROBE), Systematic reviews (PRISMA), diagnostic/prognostic study (STARD), Case reports (CARE), or Clinical practice guidelines (AGREE). On the EQUATOR Network website, you can find guidelines for all the major study types:
- Randomised trials – CONSORT
- Observational studies – STROBE
- Systematic reviews – PRISMA
- Diagnostic/prognostic studies – STARD
- Case reports – CARE
- Clinical practice guidelines – AGREE
Authors are strongly encouraged to read carefully and follow these guidelines, and to use checklists included in these guidelines as they may be requested during manuscript review to ensure completeness. Meeting these basic reporting requirements will greatly improve the value of the manuscript, may facilitate/enhance the peer review process, and may enhance its chances for eventual publication.
For more information regarding the EQUATOR Network, you can consult the following links:
Medicus publishes original articles by authors which have not previously been published and which are not under consideration for publication in other journals. The submission of a manuscript implies its publication has been approved by all co-authors. Authors who submit articles to our journal read and approve the following copyright agreement while uploading their manuscript to our journal’s online system.
The manuscripts published in Medicus are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). If and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) still hold the copyright and the moral rights, but under the licence Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which Medicus use, author(s) transfer the commercial rights to the publisher of the journal. In this respect, author(s) and others are allowed to download, share, print, multiply, and re-use the article for any non-commercial purpose. The authors are deemed to have accepted the following terms by submitting their manuscript to the journal under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. However, the publisher will not refuse any reasonable request from authors for permission to reproduce their contributions.
All articles published in Medicus journal are available under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 which formalises the relation between authors, publisher and third parties. The license type is (CC BY-NC 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
After the article is accepted, it is published online for early view so that accepted articles do not have to wait for the scheduled print issue to become public.
The initial appraisal of each manuscript is made by the Editors. In case the topic, treatment and geographical focus fit to journal’s aims and objectives, the anonymized manuscript is assigned to peer-reviewers.
Once the reviewers have made a determination, i.e. acceptance, revision, or rejection of your manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision.
We apply a double-blind peer review, meaning that the author’s name and affiliation are not made public to the referee. The referee’s name and affiliation are also not revealed to the author.
Review requests are sent to peers that are qualified to assess the works in terms of the relevance of their thematic, theoretical, methodological, and/or geographic expertise. In cases of desk-rejections, the argumentation will be motivated, but cannot unfortunately be extended and detailed. A rejection based on the outcome of a review process will be backed up by the actual reviews, and a motivation by the editor.
A decision on the manuscript generally may be expected within 5 weeks of submission, although delays in obtaining reviews may prolong this process. Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically, and all correspondence takes place via e-mail. If reviewers recommend revision of the manuscript, authors are requested to resubmit their revisions after receiving the notification. They are asked also to submit a letter (as an attachment to the editor’s e-mail) with a detailed description of how they have responded to the separate issues raised by the reviewers.
Occasionally, Medicus invites guest-editors who wish to organize a special issue. In such cases, the guest-editors are responsible for setting up and carrying out the review process. After completion of the review process, they will issue an editorial advice. Also in this case, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision.
All accepted manuscripts will also be checked for plagiarism using the Turnitin platform. Authors of finally accepted manuscripts will be asked to make the revision of proofs before printing.
Medicus journal does not charge any fees (or any APCs) for the publication of articles in the journal. Medicus also do not charge any other fees for authors such as editorial processing or their articles, language editing fees, color charges, submissions fees or any other supplementary charges.
Medicus allows all authors to deposit all versions of their article or publisher’s version/pdf for self-archiving (author’s personal website) or archive in any institutional or other non-commercial websites and repositories without embargo. When distributing, posting, or archiving articles, published sources must be acknowledged with citation. These practices benefit authors with productive exchanges as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Open Access pathways allowed by the repository policy of Medicus are as follows by article version:
Submitted Version / Accepted Version / Published Version:
Embargo: No embargo
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Location: Any repository of authors choice or a non-commercial website, including author’s homepage and the journal’s website.
Published sources must be acknowledged with citation.
Author Self-Archiving Policy
As Medicus is an Open Access journal, authors have the right to make their articles publicly available under the terms of the CC BY-NC license. Publishing under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, authors may share and distribute their articles on any website and repository for non-commercial purposes. Recommending it be deposited in an institutional or another repository of the author’s choice without embargo, such as:
* Institutional repository of their University and public ones: Sherpa/Romeo, PubMed, Mendeley etc.
* Google Scholar, ORCID, ResearchID, ScopusID, Dimensions…
* Scientific social networks: ResearchGate, Academia.edu.
* Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…
* On the personal website of the author(s)
Upload your work
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Published by: European University of Tirana