Contribution Regulations for Asian Journal of Traditional Medicines

Editorial Policy
Asian Journal of Traditional Medicines is an international journal devoted to the advancement of research on traditional medicines. The followed areas are covered:
- Pharmacology and clinical studies
- Natural products chemistry 
- Pharmacognosy
- Resources and medicinal material processing
- Methodology for quality control
- Traditional oriental drugs pharmaceutics
Submission of Manuscripts
All contributions are peer reviewed by independent referees. Only papers that are of highest scientific quality, that are concisely written and that comply with these guidelines for Authors can be accepted. It is better to sign line number in normal text. All manuscripts (one original and two copies) together with a cover letter from the author of correspondence should be submitted to:

Editorial Office of Asian Journal of Traditional Medicines
20#, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University，
No.103, Wenhua Road,
Shenyang 110016, China
Tel & Fax:  (86) 024-23986079
E-mail:  michealc2008@yahoo.com.cn
             qkgjb2006@126.com
Language of publication is English. Manuscripts written by authors whose mother language is not English should be checked by a native speaker before submission.

Submissions must be accompanied by a covering letter stating that the paper has not been published previously elsewhere nor is being considered by another journal, in any language, and that all authors have seen and agreed to the version submitted. Copyright belongs to the publisher upon acceptance of the manuscript. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned to the authors except for original illustrations on request.

Format of Manuscripts
Reviews will generally be invited by the Editor. They should be as concise as possible and do not need to include experimental details. The main purpose of reviews is to provide a concise, accurate introduction to the subject matter and inform the reader critically of the latest developments in this area. 4--6 Key words should be listed.

Papers are research articles describing original experimental results. The material should be arranged in the order: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion sections. The Experimental Section should contain sufficient detail so that others are able to reproduce the experiment(s). Previously reported methods should be referenced only. 4 - 6 Key words should be listed.

Letters should be concise reports on new specific results of general interest. The Letter format contains a short Abstract; no key words; introductory remarks and results and discussion without headlines; Material and Methods (headline) with brief experimental details without subhead lines; references.
Preparation of Manuscripts
Manuscripts must be typed double-spaced throughout -- text and references -- on A4-size paper. Manuscripts should be submitted with one original and two copies.The editor encourages authors to submit their papers by email.
 
For all manuscripts, provide a separate title page (title, full names referenced by Arabic superscripts with affiliation and addresses of all authors), and on separate pages also, a list of references, footnotes, figure legends, and tables.
 
The name and address of the author responsible for all correspondence including fax and e-mail number should be provided after the references.

The main text, acknowledgement, and references should be presented in this order. Short title should be made for header composing. Figures, tables and charts showing chemical structures should be collected at the end, each on a separate sheet. All pages should be numbered consecutively.

References should be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text [1], [2], [3] ... and the list of references should be arranged consecutively according to the numbers in text. Use Index Medicus abbreviations for journal titles. List the first six authors followed by et al. Authors bear complete responsibility for the accuracy of the references. The following examples illustrate the format for references:

[1]  Nadkarm MA, Nair CKK, Pandey VN, et al. Characterization of alph-agalactosidase from corynebacterium murisepticum and mechanism of its induction. J Gen App Microbiol, 1992, 38: 23-24
[2]  Conn EE. The metabolism of a natural product: Lessions learned from cyanogenic glycosides. Planta Med, 1991: 57 Suppl 1: S1-S9
[3]  Timoshenko SP. Theory of plate and shells. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959, 17-36

If reference is made to papers submitted or in press, authors are requested to enclose a copy of the manuscript or galley proof. Avoid references to unpublished personal communications.  Recent review articles can substitute for all but the most pertinent original articles.

Tables and Figures must be referred to in the text by Arabic numerals. Provide each with a descriptive legend on separate pages for figures. Indicate footnote within tables by superscript small letters, and type footnotes below the table. Submit illustrations (apparatus, spectra, chromatograms, x-ray crystal structures, etc.) as high quality photographic prints or as camera-ready, original drawings.

IR, NMR, mass, and UV spectra should be given as figures only if new relationships between molecular structures and spectroscopic properties are demonstrated or if new compounds are described where the listing of characteristic signals is not sufficient. Figures of chromatograms will only be accepted if they are essential for understanding the methods or the results described. Number illustrations on the back with a soft pencil; include author's names and indicate the top of the figure. Do not mount prints.

Structural formulas should be prepared using ChemDraw or similar programs. Structure drawing preferences (present in the ACS style sheet in ChemDraw) are as follows:

- As drawing settings select:

Chain angle
Bond spacing
Fixed length
Bold width
Line width
Margin width
Hash spacing
 120°
18% of width
14.4pt (0.508 cm, 0.2 in.)
2.0 pt (0.071 cm, 0.0278 in.)
0.6 pt (0.021 cm, 0.0084 in.)
1.6 pt (0.056 cm, 0.0222 in.)
2.5 pt (0.088 cm, 0.0347 in.)
- As text setting select:

Font
Size Arial/Helvetica
10 pt

- Under the preferences choose:
Units
Tolerances points
3 pixels

- Under page setup choose:
Paper
Scale US letter
100 %

- Using the ChemDraw ruler or appropriate margin settings, create structure blocks, schemes, and equations having maximum widths of 11.3 cm (one-column format) or 23.6 cm (two-column format). Note: if the foregoing preferences are selected as cm values, the ChemDraw ruler is calibrated in cm. Also note that a standard sheet of paper is only 21.6 cm wide, so all graphics submitted in two-column format must be prepared and printed in landscape mode.

- Embolden compound numbers, but not atom labels or captions.

- Authors are urged to use only a single configurationally descriptor (heavy line or dashed line, but not both) when defining a stereo center in a chemical structure. Atoms should be kept outside of rings wherever possible. It is recommended that authors use rectangular solid and dashed lines to indicate configurations, rather than solid and dashed wedges for this purpose. Structures should be drawn in a neat manner ready for direct reproduction, and should not be cluttered or overlapping.

Authors using other drawing packages should, in as far as possible, modify their program’s parameters so that they reflect the above guidelines.

Abbreviation must be spelled out in full at their initial appearance, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be employed, except for the used standard abbreviations. All nonstandard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. In most cases it is appropriate to use the full INN drug name. Use the metric system for all measurements, if possible. Metric abbreviations should be expressed in lower case without period (cm, mL, s). Define all symbols used in equations and formulas. If symbols are used extensively, provide a list of all symbols together with the list of abbreviations.

Normal text is printed in times new roman font. Italic is used for variables, Latin words and expressions, including the names of plants and animals.
Documentation of Plants and Plant Materials
Use the correct botanical nomenclature. Give the plant name (Latin systematic name below genus should be given in italic), the author of this name and the plant family. Indicate who identified the plant material. The manuscript must include references to voucher specimens of the plants or the material examined including their registration number(s). Such specimens should be deposited in a major regional herbarium which permits loan of such material.

Nomenclature used should be based on the systematic rules adopted by Chemical Abstracts (Index Guide Vol. 76), Ring Index and Supplements (American Chemical Society, 1959a--1965), IUPAC (Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, Parts A, B & C, Pergamon Press, 1979) etc. Trivial names should be avoided unless they are definitely advantageous over the corresponding systematic names.

Description of the Isolation and Purification of Compounds: The kind and amount of material, solvents and extraction methods must be indicated. The description of chromatographic systems should contain the information that allows the reader to repeat the work. Similar information is necessary for HPLC, GLC, DCCC, MLCC and all other methods of purification.

GC identifications of constituents of essential oils must be supported by retention indices on a polar and an a polar column.
General Information
Pharmacological Investigations
《Asian Journal of Traditional Medicines》will only consider manuscripts in which conclusions are based on adequate statistics which account for the type of data distribution, on the number of experimental observations required for the application of the respective statistical method, and which incorporate the appropriate tests of significance. In each case positive controls (reference compounds) should be used and the dose/dependence should be shown.

In case of pharmacological investigations with extracts the latter must be carefully characterized. This includes botanical determination of plant material, solvent (s), time of extraction, temperature and other method (s), used for preparation. The drug to extract ratio must be given. A chromatographic (e.g. HPLC profile) or chemical characterization (quantitative content of typical compounds) has to be presented; thus a paragraph on standardization of the extract or fraction must be presented. The investigation must clearly indicate a dose/activity dependence in comparison to a reference compound together with the appropriate statistics.
Clinical Studies
Studies reporting on plant preparation tested in humans will be accepted for review and publication. Clinical studies must be designed, implemented and analyzed in a manner to meet current standards of randomized controlled trials. For guidelines see the following reviews: Begg C et al. JAMA 1996; 276: 637-9 and Altmann DG: BMJ 1996; 313: 570-1. All methods and variables used in a trial should be described; the data must be based on adequate statistics. The herbal medicinal products used must be characterized as described above under "pharmacological investigations with extracts".
Paper charge
There is no page charge. However, for those who could not provide the manuscript written with perfect English, the author will be asked to pay in due expense for English checking by the Editorial office.
Proofs and Reprint
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail as PDF files for checking and correcting of typographical errors. To avoid delay in publication, corrected proofs should be returned in 72 hours.

After publication of the journal issue, 25 reprints and 2 copies of journal will be supplied to authors free of charge. Additional reprints may be purchased by order when sending back the proofs by e-mail.