Preventive Medicine Research

The Official Journal of the Japanese Society of Preventive Medicine

INSTRUCTION TO AUTHORS

AIMS & SCOPE

Japan has a world-class universal health insurance system. Furthermore, companies and local governments have a long history of health checkup (medical checkup) systems for the early detection of diseases. Since Japan has the most advanced gastrointestinal endoscopy research in the world and also has a very large number of CT machines, the early detection of diseases through the health checkup and physical examination system is considered important. The purpose of this journal is to disseminate the latest findings on preventive medicine and preventive healthcare from Japan, where preventive medicine and preventive healthcare are thus advanced, and to promote preventive medicine with distinctive features from Japan to the rest of the world. The target audience for this journal is researchers, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, private healthcare professionals, and those involved in the health food industry. The journal covers research and activities aimed at promoting health and disease prevention by examining the relationship between lifestyle, living environment, natural environment, and disease onset, and the effects of lifestyle improvement and medicine on disease prevention, and by scientifically pursuing the effects of health foods, oriental medicine, folk medicine, and other preventive medicine on disease prevention. Also, clinical research on preventive methods in clinical settings, biomarkers for early detection of diseases, preventive methods in the field of dentistry, and clinical research on health foods are also included in this category.

PUBLICATIONS

Reviews: Papers summarized and systematized or expounded about previous knowledge and research achievement in specific topic. Editorial Board requests author to make review in principle, but submission of review by author is also accepted. Please ask to Editorial Board.

Original Articles: Original papers about preventive medicine and containing scientific significant information or conclusion. See THE MANUSCRIPT section for manuscript formatting.

Short Communications: Rapid and concise reports (less than 1,200 words including less than 100 words Abstract with 1 or 2 figures/tables) of new and significant research findings or confirmatory studies (including those with negative results) of previously published research findings. The structure of the Short Communication should be Abstract, Methods, and Results and Discussion (do not separate Results and Discussion). References should be listed in the following order: First Author (co-authors should use "et al."), Journal Name, Year of Publication, Volume, Page, DOI (do not include the title of the article).

Reports: Papers which are free from formality and containing significant data in preventive medicine.

Letters to the Editor: Researchers interested in preventive medicine are encouraged to submit letters addressing recently published publications or other topics. They must be concise (no longer than 400 words), typed double-spaced, and contain references as needed. The original author(s) of any article that is being discussed will be asked to respond.

Announcements and Calendar: Announcing upcoming conferences, training sessions, and other activities that preventive medicine researchers may find interesting. The journal issues prior to the event will list all such items (at no cost to the reader) and will provide updates upon request.

REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE

The quality and originality of the research, as well as its relevance to our readership, serve as the approval criterion for all papers. Manuscripts are single-blind peer evaluated by two anonymous reviewers chosen by the Executive Editor, unless otherwise noted. The Editor-in-Chief, who has the right to reject any submission for publication, has the last say over acceptance or rejection. The names of possible reviewers and reviewers that the authors would prefer not to have read the work are presented by the authors. The Editor retains the right to select the reviewers. A manuscript that needs editing will be sent back to the author via email along with detailed revision recommendations. The guidelines below should be followed by authors when sending in amended manuscripts:

• In the "Author's Response" section, the author should clearly respond to the ideas by noting where changes have been made and/or providing justifications for ignoring others that are deemed inappropriate.
• Modified text should be underlined or colored to draw attention to it.

Manuscripts should be written in a way that makes sense to a professional reader who isn't an expert in the subject matter. They ought to be written in an easy-to-read, direct manner. The Editor and Publisher reserve the right to edit typescripts where contributions are deemed suitable for publication based on their scientific substance to remove ambiguity, avoid duplication, and enhance author-reader communication. The author will receive the manuscript back for editing if significant changes are required.

SCIENTIFIC FRAUD AND DUPLICATE PUBLICATION

The journal will carry out a preliminary investigation in cases of suspected scientific misconduct (data fabrication or falsification, double publication, or plagiarism). The journal will get in touch with the corresponding author's institution and funding bodies if evidence of scientific misconduct is discovered. Depending on the specifics of each case, Preventive Medicine Research may decide not to publish any articles by the offending authors for a year or longer.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

All articles that are submitted to the Journal must follow these guidelines. If you don't, the manuscript will be returned, and publication could be delayed. Original articles and review articles should be submitted electronically as an email attachment including figures and tables. The email should attach Cover letter (PDF file), Submission Confirmation Formfile_download (PDF file), and the Manuscript filefile_download (Microsoft Word file. If you need help, please get in touch with the Preventive Medicine Research Editorial Office listed below:

Editorial Secretariat
Nakanishi Printing Company
E-mail: jspm-editorial@nacos.com
HP: https://jspm.jpn.com/pablication/pmr/

Letters to the Editors and items for the Announcements and Calendar section may be sent by email to the Editorial Secretariat (address above).

Beginning with the title page, each subsequent page should be numbered.

COVER LETTER

The following details should be included in a cover letter that is attached:

A statement stating that the article has been submitted for review by Preventive Medicine Research. Except for a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium, the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

Acknowledging that each author has made a major contribution and that all authors concur with the manuscript's main points. Each author's contribution to the publication should be measured in accordance with the most recent recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Information about how to get in touch with the corresponding author, including mailing address, phone number, fax number, and email address.

A letter from the copyright holder (often the Publisher), confirming permission to reprint the material, must be attached to the covering letter if tables or figures have been copied from another source.

SUBMISSION CONFIRMATION FORM

The Submission Confirmation Form must be filled with the following information.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors should disclose any financial ties or relationships that could create a conflict of interest.

CONSIDERATIONS OF ETHIC

Authors must certify that the research project's protocol has been accepted by an institution's appropriately established ethics committee and that, as a result, it was carried out in compliance with the moral guidelines outlined in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

A statement that the individual gave informed consent is required for all studies involving human subjects. The privacy of the patient should be protected. To prevent identifying human subjects, photos must be properly cropped (or an eye bar should be used).

Any animal experiment must be shown to be ethically sound and, when applicable, conform to national guidelines for the use of animals in research.

Diethyl ether should not typically be used for anesthesia in animals. Diethyl ether must always be used for anesthesia, but the authors must be sure to explain the reason in the manuscript.

CLINICAL TRIALS

All clinical trials submitted to Preventive Medicine Research for review must be registered in a database that is open to the public. At the conclusion of their summary, authors should state the name of the trial register and their clinical trial registration number. Please provide a brief justification for why the trial hasn't been registered if you want the editor(s) to take it into consideration.

COPYRIGHT

The authors of accepted articles will be contacted to transfer copyright. The greatest amount of information will be distributed thanks to this transfer. The corresponding author will receive an email confirming receipt of the manuscript. After acceptance, a form for copyright transfer will be made available.

THE MANUSCRIPT'S STYLE

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' revised "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication" specifies the Vancouver agreement's style requirements for manuscripts.

General guidelines: Please abide by the following directives:

• Double-space your lines (If you do not use the designated template file).
• Avoid using the carriage return (Enter) at the end of a paragraph's lines.
• Disable hyphenation; only use hyphens that are absolutely necessary for the meaning.
• List any special characters that are used to represent characters not found on a keyboard.
• Be careful not to substitute l for one, O for zero, or ß for ßzett in German (Greek beta).
• When separating data points in tables, use tabs rather than spaces. A unique cell must contain each data point if you utilize the table editor function (i.e., do not use carriage returns within cells).

Spelling: Because the Journal employs American spelling, contributors should use the most recent Merriam-Collegiate Webster's Dictionary.

Units: SI or SI-derived units must be used for all measurements. For additional information on SI units, please visit the website of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The unit of measurement for temperatures expressed by an unqualified degree symbol is Celsius. To avoid confusion, percentages for solution strengths should be written as sign%, followed by w/w, w/v, or v/v [for example, 5% (w/v) indicates 5 g/100 ml].

THE MANUSCRIPT

The Society's website offers a template file (Prev Med Res template.docx) that is used when creating a manuscript.

The accuracy of the information in the manuscript, including bibliographic citations, is completely the authors' responsibility.

Manuscripts should be made in the following order: (1) The title page, (2) the abstract, the abbreviations, the clinical trial register, and their clinical registration number at the end of the abstract, (3) the text (which includes the Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions); (4) any acknowledgments; (5) references; (6) any appendices. Tables (each table having a title and footnotes); and (8) figures should be inserted at the end of each section. The text should not contain any footnotes; instead, any such information should be included in parentheses.

File Format

A single Microsoft Word file including the whole manuscript, including the main text, tables, and figures should be submitted.

Tables should be inserted using the table function of Microsoft Word, and figures should be inserted as image files. If inserting figures and tables into the manuscript file is problematic, it is acceptable to submit separate files for figures and tables along with the manuscript. The file name should be the figure/table number.

Title page

The title page should include the following information: (1) the title of the paper; (2) the full names of the authors; (3) the addresses of the institutions where the research was conducted; and (4) the author's complete postal and email addresses, along with facsimile and phone numbers, to which correspondence regarding the manuscript should be sent. The current address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be provided in a footnote. The title should be succinct (ideally under 120 letters), informative, and include the main search terms. Avoid filler terms in the title, such as "Study of" or "Results on," or abbreviations.

Abstract

Each paper must have an abstract that summarizes the major points, methods, findings, and conclusions of the research in no more than 250 words. Include information on the number of test subjects and controls, animal or viral strains, drug dosages and modes of administration, tumor yields and latent periods, observation period length, and level of activity. There shouldn't be any references or abbreviations in the abstract.

Keywords

Authors are asked to choose roughly five keywords (no capitalization is necessary for any of the keywords) and place them in a new line immediately beneath the summary for indexing. These keywords should accurately describe the subject matter of the submitted paper and provide readers with enough context to determine the work's applicability to their own discipline.

Text

The manuscript should be divided into these subheadings (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion) by the authors.

Introduction

The investigation's aim, its significance in relation to earlier work in the field, and the motivations behind its conduct should all be mentioned in the introduction. References to the most pertinent works just need to be briefly made.

Materials and Methods

The methods should be briefly described with enough specificity to allow others to replicate the tests. When using published processes, the proper references must be given. Only procedures that are entirely new or significantly modified from previously published ones call for a detailed description. Sources of animals and tumors should always be mentioned, along with the names of the items and manufacturers and their locations (city, state, and country).

Results

The findings should be succinctly explained. Only use tables and figures if they are necessary for understanding the data.

Discussion

The findings should be analyzed and compared to prior scientific understanding. There shouldn't be any duplication of information from the introduction or results.

Acknowledgments

Financial grants and other sources of financing must be acknowledged, and the writers' connections to and affiliations with industry must be openly disclosed. It's important to thank the support from institutions or other coworkers. It is inappropriate to thank reviewers personally or anonymously.

Author Contributions

A brief statement describing the contributions made by each co-author (e.g., study concept and design; acquisition of data; analysis and interpretation of data; drafting of the manuscript; critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; statistical analysis; obtained funding; administrative, technical, or material support; study supervision).

Conflict of Interest

Within three years of starting the submitted work, all authors are asked to disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest, including any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organizations that could unreasonably influence or be perceived to influence their work.

References

Some instances of reference style are as follows

Journal article:

1. Wang DH, Kogashiwa M, Ohta S, et al. Validity and reliability of a dietary assessment method: the application of a digital camera with a mobile phone card attachment. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 48; 498-504: 2002. DOI: 10.3177/jnsv.48.498.

Book:
2. Ogata M. Biochemical monitoring of exposure to industrial chemicals. Cincinnati, ACGIH,1990.

Chapter in a Book:
3. Takahara S, Ogata M. Metabolism in Japanese acatalasemia with special reference to superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. In: Hayashi O and Asada K ed. Biochemical and medical aspects of active oxygen. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press,275-292: 1977.

Internet publication: Online journals with DOI number can only be cited.
4. Yamada Y, Nakamura H, Tsujiguchi H, et al. Relationships among the β3-adrenargic receptor gene Trp64Arg polymorphism, hypertension, and insulin resistance in a Japanese population. PLoS One. 2021; 16; e0255444. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255444.

Online resource:
5. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1. (accessed on 6th Jan, 2023)

Citation in text

When citing the single articles, provide the citation number in parentheses with superscript 1).
When citing two articles, provide the citation numbers in parentheses with superscripts 1,2).
When citing three or more articles with consecutive citation numbers, provide the citation numbers in parentheses with superscripts 1-3).
When citing three or more articles with intermittent citation numbers, provide the citation numbers in parentheses with superscripts 1-3,5).

Appendices

These ought to be included at the end of the manuscript, given Roman numbers, and cited in the manuscript. The writer's name should appear beneath the title if the piece was authored by someone other than the main text's author.

Tables

The information in tables should be self-contained, complementing the text but not repeating it. Arabic numerals are used to sequentially number tables within the text. Tables should be typed with the above legend on a separate sheet. The table, legend, and footnotes must all be understandable without referring to the text. Legends should be succinct but thorough. Columns shouldn't be divided by vertical lines. All abbreviations must have definitions in the footnotes. Column titles should be succinct and include the units of measurement in parenthesis. *, †, § should be used (in that order) as footnote symbols, and *, #, † should be saved for p values. In the headers, statistical measurements like SD or SEM should be mentioned. Avoid using image files and collections of text boxes.

Figures

Figures are the general term for any illustrations (including line drawings and pictures). Figures should be referenced in the text in a sequential order. To clearly illustrate experimental results, figures should be employed. Illustrations intended for reproduction should typically be about twice as large as what is needed because figures are frequently shrunk to fit within a single column. Symbols, writing, and lines need to be big enough and distinct enough to be readable after reduction. Only when they are necessary, photographs of tissues, cells, or subcellular components should be presented.

Arial and Symbol should be used for text in the figures. Please refrain from covering photographs with panel labels. Please see the Instructions to Authors section at the end for standards on image quality.

PUBLICATION

Please get in touch with the Preventive Medicine Research Editorial Office for details on your accepted manuscript, proofs, etc. Always cite Preventive Medicine Research as well as the production number of the article.

PUBLICATION FEES

There is no publication fee for articles submitted by the end of December 2025.