Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• Please make sure the submission is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF format. Designate a corresponding author with contact details (email, postal address), and ensure all required files are uploaded.
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
• The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• The manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal (Vancouver style). All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa. The minimum number of references is 20 to 25.
• Every section of the manuscript is written according to the guidelines; the title page is separately written and the authors' names are not mentioned anywhere in the manuscript. All the authors are eligible according to the Author contribution criteria by ICMJE guidelines.
• The Similarity Index is below 19%, and any single source has a similarity index of not more than 5%.