Style Guidelines

Manuscripts might be submitted in either English or German and are expected to be in standard Microsoft Word format (*.doc/*.docx). Abstracts have to be provided in in both languages.


1. General rules for writing:

  • Use simple and declarative sentences, avoid long sentences, in which the meaning may be lost by complicated construction.
  • Be concise, avoid idle words.
  • Make your argumentation complete; use commonly understood terms; define all non-standard symbols and abbreviations when you introduce them.
  • Words in other languages should be put in italics.
  • Explain all acronyms and abbreviations when they first appear in the text.
  • Units of measurement should be presented simply and concisely using System International (SI) units.

 

2. Types of contributions

·         Research papers

·         Reprints of previously published, outstanding research articles (these are labelled as such and include proper citation)

 

3. Manuscript elements:

  1. Title (and short title)
  2. Abstract
  3. Keywords
  4. Main text body
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Conflicts of interest statement
  7. References
  8. Tables (each on a separate page)
  9. Figures (each on a separate page)


3.1. Title (and short title)

The title should be concise and informative. Please provide also an abbreviated form of the title.

 

3.2. Abstract

Every article must be accompanied by an abstract. It ought to be a brief summary of the significant items of the main text body. The abstract should provide concise information about background and aims, as well as convey the main results and conclusions. It should not exceed 250 words. Furthermore, it must not contain any literature citations or refer to tables or illustrations. All non-standard symbols and abbreviations must be defined. Authors should bear in mind that online systems strongly rely on the content of titles and abstracts to identify articles in electronic bibliographic databases and search engines. It is therefore advisable to take great care in preparing these text elements.

 

3.3. Keywords

Please provide a list of up to 5 keywords, separated by commas. We would suggest to avoid repetition of the title.

 

3.4. Main text body

The main text body should not exceed 7.000 words. It typically includes an introduction, an explanation of methodology, the results and the conclusions.

 

3.5. Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments are to be integrated in the first footnote. Include in this section the names of others contributing to the work who are not identified as authors. The corresponding author is asked to obtain permission to refer to those mentioned in the Acknowledgments section.

 

3.6. Conflicts of interest statement

A competing interest exists when professional judgement concerning the validity of research is influenced by secondary interests, such as financial gain. We require that our authors reveal any possible conflict of interests in their submitted manuscripts.

If there is no conflict of interests, authors should state that “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.”

 

3.7. References

The list of citations in the end-of-paper references list should provide enough information for readers to trace cited articles. Please pay particular attention to spelling, capitalization and punctuation. The authors are responsible for completeness of the references. Please avoid references to unpublished material, private communication and web pages.

Numbers enclosed in square brackets, e.g. [1], indicate the relevant reference. Citations are numbered in the order in which they first appear in the text and all citations must correspond to the respective numbered references containing publication information about the sources cited in the references list at the end of the contribution. Once a source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent references. No distinction is made between print and electronic references when citing within the text. Each reference number should be enclosed in square brackets on the same line as the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket.

Example:
“Tear film osmolarity (TFO) testing is indicated for use in conjunction with other signs and symptoms. Combination of TFO with at least one other clinical and experimental test for diagnosing Keratoconjunctivitis sicca will enhance the sensitivity and specificity [7, 11, 26].”

 

3.8. Tables

Tables ought to be prepared with the aid of Microsoft Word’s table function. The minimum size of the font in the tables should be 10 pt. Styles and fonts should match those in the main text body. Each table should have an explanatory caption which should be as concise as possible.

 

3.9. Figures

The figures should be clear, easy to read and of good quality. Styles and fonts should match those in the main text body. Figures are to be numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers.

Mathematical equations are to be embedded in the text. Complex equations should be prepared with the aid of the Microsoft Word equations editor.

All equations must be numbered (Arabic numbers), consecutively in parentheses at the end of the line, as presented:

E = mc2 (1)