Legal Medicine provides an international forum for the publication of original articles, reviews and correspondence on subjects
that cover practical and theoretical areas of interest relating to the wide range of legal medicine. Subjects covered include forensic
pathology, toxicology, odontology, anthropology, criminalistics, immunochemistry, hemogenetics and forensic aspects of biological science
with emphasis on DNA analysis and molecular biology. Submissions dealing with medico-legal problems such as malpractice, insurance, child
abuse or ethics in medical practice are also acceptable. Letters to the Editor that relate to material published recently in the journal
or comment on any aspects of the Journal are welcomed. All submissions are subject to peer review.
Legal Medicine is an
international journal sponsored by the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine as its official journal.
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Submission to Legal Medicine proceeds online via Elsevier Editorial System - http://ees.elsevier.com/legmed. Authors will
be guided step-by-step through uploading files directly from their computers. Electronic PDF proofs will be automatically generated from
uploaded files, and used for subsequent reviewing.
Authors should send queries concerning the submission process or journal procedures
to AuthorSupport@elsevier.com. Authors can check the status of their manuscript within the review procedure using Elsevier Editorial
System.
Authors submitting hard copy papers will be asked to resubmit using Elsevier Editorial System.
Submission of an article
is understood to imply that the article is original and is not being considered for publication elsewhere; multiple submissions is not
acceptable to the Editor, and any such papers, together with future submissions from the authors, will be rejected outright. Submission
also implies that all Authors have approved the paper for release and are in agreement with its content.
Upon acceptance of an article,
Authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authors). This
transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding Author confirming receipt
of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.
All authors should have made substantial contributions
to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data,
(2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.
Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements
section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department
chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that
paid for this assistance.
Conflict of interest
At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement"
all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence
(bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert
testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.
Role of the funding source
All sources of funding
should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study
design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript
for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.
The Journal publishes original material
in the following categories:
Original Article (full-paper): full-length research report.
Brief Communication: description
of a technical aspect of a field or issue, report on a procedure or method, or work on validation of techniques or methods. Usually a
brief description or analysis of an unusual case or a small series of cases. Case reports are acceptable only if the contribution to
the better understanding in forensic pathology, forensic toxicology, or medical law is clearly described.
Review: full-length
paper reviewing the state of the art or the published literature in a particular area of general interest to the readership.
Announcement
of population data: Authors are invited to submit population data to the journal in table format: as an example, please refer to Legal Medicine volume 5 (2003), pages 112-113.
Letter to the Editor: usually a discussion of a previously published
item or commentary on the Journal. Publication of letters is solely at the discretion of the Editor. Letters commenting on previously
published items are ordinarily shared with the original authors to afford them an opportunity to respond to the commentary.
Papers
submitted are subject to peer review. Papers will be evaluated by at least two anonymous persons, either members of the Editorial Board
or qualified invited referees. Authors may expect to hear a decision -- acceptance, revision, or rejection -- from the Editor-in-Chief
within 6 to 8 weeks after the paper has been received. Papers requiring revision and/or shortening will be returned to the authors by
the Editor-in-Chief specifying the requested alterations and including the (anonymous) referee reports. Authors are requested to submit
the revised paper within 3 months to the Editor-in-Chief; if submitted at a later date, it will be treated as a new paper and the date
of receipt will be altered to the date of submission of the revised paper.
Manuscripts should be written in clear and grammatical
English and should conform to the general style of the journal and the specific instructions listed below. Manuscripts that are not properly
prepared will be returned to the authors without review, since it is not feasible for the Editors to undertake extensive revision or
rewriting of manuscripts submitted.
Http://www.elsevier.com/authors provides both the new and seasoned journal author
with helpful information, services and tools about submission, support, and efficient and timely production and distribution. Http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing
provides details of some companies who can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who need assistance before
they submit their article or before it is accepted for publication. Authors should contact these services directly.
Please
note that Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our
services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our terms & conditions http://authors.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.
Papers should be concise, but with sufficient experimental detail to permit a critical appraisal of the work. Unnecessary repetition
should be avoided. Responsibility for the accuracy of materials in the manuscripts, including appropriate references to related work,
lies entirely with the authors.
Ethics
The authors should keep in mind possible ethical issues involved in their manuscripts
(text and photographs).
Where relevant, manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a statement (e.g. in the Materials and
Methods section) to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been
performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, and revised in 1983. It should also
be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might
disclose the identity of the subjects under study should be omitted.
Reports of animal experiments must state that the investigation
conforms with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH Publication
No. 85-23, revised 1996), or with any specified national law on the care and use of laboratory animals.
2. FORM AND STYLE OF MANUSCRIPT
Manuscripts should conform to the style and usage of the Journal as exemplified in current issues. They should be typed with double-spacing
throughout and wide margins (at least 2.5cm). Separate sheets should be started for each of the following: (1) title page, (2) abstract and keywords, (3) text, (4) references, (5) table(s), (6) legend(s) to figure(s), (7) figures
or other supplementary material. Manuscripts should be arranged in the order indicated above and all sheets, except the figure(s),
should be numbered consecutively with the title page being page 1. Indicate the appropriate location in the text of the tables, figures,
and other supplementary material by encircled marginal notes. Latin words or abbreviations, such as in vitro, i.e., per se, should not
be italicised. Footnote(s) to the title, author's name(s), and affiliation(s) should appear on the title page. Footnotes in the main
text should be numbered consecutively with superscript Arabic numerals, starting with the title page footnote(s). Footnotes to tables
should be identified with superscript lower case (a, b, etc.), and placed at the bottom of the table.
3. ORGANIZATION OF MANUSCRIPT
Original Articles and Brief Communications should be organized as follows: Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Materials and
Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Legends to Figures, Figures. Sections should be numbered from the
Introduction onward, e.g. 1. Introduction, 2. Materials and Methods etc. In some cases, presentation will be more clear and effective
if the author combines some of these sections, such as Results and Discussion.
3.1. Title Page(s)
Provide a title page(s)
containing the following items:
(1) The form of the paper (Original Article, Brief Communication, and so on)
(2) Title. The title
should be informative and as short as is consistent with clarity. The title should not include chemical formulae or arbitrary abbreviations.
The numbering of parts in a series of papers is not permitted, but titles and subtitles may be used if necessary.
(3) Authors' names
and affiliations. All authors' names should follow the title, with the first or middle names written out in full, as illustrated below.
The name(s) of the department(s) where the work was carried out should be given below the authors names. If the work was carried out
at more than one department, this should be indicated as follows:
Detection of the two short tandem repeat loci (HumTPO and HumLPL)
in Japanese populations using discontinuous polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
Haruo Takeshitaa, Toshihiro Yasudaa,
Reiko Iidab, and Koichiro Kishia aDepartment of Legal Medicine, Gunma University School of
Medicine, Gunma 371-8511, Japan bDepartment of Legal Medicine, Fukui Medical School, Fukui 910-1193, Japan
If
the address of the author has changed before the expected date of publication, a new address should be given on the title page.
(4)
Corresponding Author's address. The name, complete mailing address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address of the person to
whom correspondence and proofs should be sent should be provided. In view of efficiency of handling proofs, the Publisher will send proofs
by e-mail in PDF format, together with instructions. Authors who cannot handle proofs by e-mail should indicate this on the title page.
(5) Abbreviations. Non-standard abbreviations should be defined the first time they occur, even if they are known to those familiar with
the field.
3.2. Abstract and key words
Every paper should have an abstract and key words.
(1) The second page of the
manuscript should be reserved for the Abstract. The Abstract should concisely and clearly describe the major findings reported in the
manuscript. It must not exceed 200 words. The Abstract should be intelligible to the non-specialist in the field, and hence should avoid
specialized terms and abbreviations or symbols that require definition. It should be understandable in itself, without reference to the
main body of the text, since it will frequently be used independently. If it is essential to cite a reference, then complete publication
data must be provided.
(2) Authors are requested to provide a maximum of six key words following the Abstract. They should cover
the content of the submitted paper precisely and should give readers sufficient information as to the relevance of the paper to their
particular field.
3.3. Introduction
The Introduction should present the purpose of the studies reported and their
relationship to earlier work in the field. It should not be an extensive review of the literature and should not, in general, exceed
two typed pages.
3.4. Materials and Methods
The Materials and Methods section should be as brief as possible, but
sufficiently descriptive to permit a qualified reader to repeat the experiments reported. Only truly new procedures should be described
in detail; previously published procedures should be cited as references. Modifications of previously published procedures need be given
in detail only when this is necessary to repeat the work. In a case report, the case history should be presented in this section. Describe
statistical methods in sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results.
When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence
intervals).
3.5. Results
The Results of experiments should be presented in figures and tables, although some results
that do not require documentation may be given solely in the text. Discussion in this section should not be extensive.
3.6. Discussion
The Discussion should be concise (usually less than four typed pages) and should focus on the interpretation of the results, rather
than a repetition of the Results section. In some shorter papers, combining the Results and Discussion into one section entitled Results
and Discussion may provide a clearer presentation.
3.7. Acknowledgments Acknowledgments should be presented
at the end of the main text, in a separate section. One or more statements should specify (a) contributors that need acknowledgment but
do not justify authorship, such as general support by a department chair; (b) acknowledgments of technical help and cooperation; (c)
acknowledgments of financial and material support, specifying the nature of the support.
3.8. References References
should be cited in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in square brackets and listed at the end of the paper in numerical
order, typed double-spaced on a separate sheet, under the heading References. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according
to the style used in Index Medicus.
References to "unpublished experiments" and "personal communications" should appear parenthetically
in the text following the name(s) of the source of information [(Yamada T, personal communication), (Suzuki M and Yoshida M, unpublished
observations) etc.]. Be sure to verify the wording of any personal communication with the person who supplied the information and obtain
approval for the use of his or her name in connection with the quoted information.
Please note the following examples according to
the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (New Engl J Med 1997; 336: 309-315).
(1) For a journal
article:
[7] Ishida K, Zhu BL, Maeda H. A quantitative RT-PCR assay of surfactant-associated protein A1 and A2 mRNA transcripts as
a diagnostic tool for acute asphyxial death. Legal Med 2002; 1: 7-12.
(2) For a chapter in an edited book:
[12] Eisenmenger W,
Gilg T. Asphyxia. In: Payne-James J, Busuttil A, Smock W, editors. Forensic Medicine: Clinical and Pathological Aspects; First publication,
London: Greenwich Medical Media, 2003, pp. 259-273.
(3) For a book by one or more authors:
[15] Rudin N, Inman K. An introduction
to forensic DNA analysis. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2002. pp.139-156.
Articles or books written by more than two authors should be cited
in the text as follows: Smith et al. In the reference list, however, the names of all authors (with initials) must be given. If an article
has been accepted for publication by a journal but has not yet appeared in print, the reference should be styled as follows:
[29].
Tanahashi H, Ito T. Molecular characterization of a novel factor recognizing the interleukin-6 responsive element. J Biochem (in press).
The use of "in preparation" or "submitted for publication" is not permitted in the reference list, but may be included in the text. Citation
of the references written in a language which is usually unreadable for general readers, and those published in a journal (or book) which
general readers cannot easily access, should be avoided.
4. PREPARATION OF TABLES
Only essential data or data needed to
illustrate or prove a point should be included as Tables.
(1) Tables should be prepared on separate sheets, numbered consecutively
with Arabic numerals according to their sequence in the text, and collected at the end of the manuscript.
(2) Each Table should have
above it an explanatory title and sufficient experimental detail, usually in a paragraph immediately following the title, to be intelligible
without reference to the text.
(3) Indicate units of measurement clearly.
(4) Footnotes to Tables should be kept to a minimum
and should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters at the bottom of the Table.
5. PREPARATION OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• The number of figures used to present data essential to illustrate or prove a point should be kept to a minimum • Reference
should be made in the text to each illustration. Figures will be reduced to fit to the size of one column (7.5 cm) or two columns (16
cm), and any lettering should be large enough to allow this reduction without becoming illegible • Each figure should be accompanied
by a title and an explanatory legend on a separate page called Legends to Figures. There should be sufficient experimental details in
the legend to make the figure intelligible without reference to the text • Legends to Figures should be typed double-spaced,
in numerical order, on a separate page • Photographs should be as high in contrast as possible • Indicate the magnification
of photomicrographs in bar scales on the illustration itself instead of numerical magnification factors • Make sure you use
uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork • Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font •
Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol • Number the illustrations according
to their sequence in the text • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files • Provide all illustrations
as separate files and as hardcopy printouts on separate sheets • Provide captions to illustrations separately • Produce
images near to the desired size of the printed version
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless
of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats
(Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.): EPS: Vector
drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics". TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum
of 300 dpi. TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi. TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone
(colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required. DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created
in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".
Please do not: • Supply embedded graphics in
your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document • Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT,
WPG); the resolution is too low • Supply files that are too low in resolution • Submit graphics that are disproportionately
large for the content
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures, Elsevier will ensure that these
figures will appear in colour completely free-of-charge in the electronic version of your paper, regardless of whether or not these illustrations
are reproduced in colour in the printed version. Colour illustrations can only be included in print if the additional cost of reproduction
(EUR 272 for the first page, and EUR 182 for the second and subsequent pages) is contributed by the author: you will receive information
regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please note that because of technical complications which may
arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version, should you not opt for colour in print), you should submit
in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.
6. PREPARATION OF SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Supplementary files supplied will be published online at no cost alongside the electronic version of your article. Supplementary files
include, but are not limited to, supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, and
sound clips. Please ensure that data are provided in one of our recommended file formats to ensure that your submitted material is directly
usable. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption
for each file. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
7. COPYRIGHT
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the
copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's
Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+1) 215 239 3804 or +44(0)1865 843830, fax +44(0)1865 853333, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com.
Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions ).
Material
in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained.
8. AUTHORS
RIGHTS
As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following: • make copies (print or electronic)
of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use • make copies and distribute such copies
(including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically,
e.g., via an e-mail list or list server) • post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including electronic
pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers or sites • post a revised personal version of the
final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website
or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on elsevier.com) • present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute
copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting • for your employer, if the article is a 'work for hire', made
within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use
(e.g., training) • retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article •
include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially) •
use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to
publication of your article in the journal) • prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or
to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal
9.
FUNDING BODY AGREEMENTS AND POLICIES
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish
in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To
learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies
10. PROOFS
AND OFFPRINTS
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author together with the offeprint order form. If an e-mail address is
supplied, proofs will be sent as e-mail attachment in PDF format, together with instructions. Authors are requested to return corrections
by e-mail or fax within 48 hours. Authors will be charged for extensive alterations in the proofs. Fifty free offprints of each article
will be supplied. Additional offprints can be ordered at the price shown on the offprint order form.
