The Open Forensic Science Journal is an Open Access
online journal, which publishes Research articles, Reviews
and Letters in the field of forensic medicine, aiming at
providing the most complete and reliable source of information
on current developments in the field.
Manuscripts may be submitted directly to toforsj@benthamopen.org.
Each peer-reviewed article that is published in a Bentham
OPEN Journal is universally and freely accessible via
the Internet in an easily readable and printable PDF format.
Online Manuscript Submission: An online
submission and tracking service via Internet facilitates
a speedy and cost-effective submission of manuscripts.1
The full manuscript has to be submitted online via Bentham's
Content Management System (CMS) at http://www.bentham-editorial.org/
View
Instructions
Alternatively, you may also submit your full manuscript
by e-mail to toforsj@benthamopen.org.
Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the
manuscript and should not be submitted by anyone on their
behalf. The principal/corresponding author will be required
to submit a Covering Letter along with the manuscript, on
behalf of all the co-authors (if any). The author(s) will
confirm that the manuscript (or any part of it) has not
been published previously or is not under consideration
for publication elsewhere. Furthermore, any illustration,
structure or table that has been published elsewhere must
be reported, and copyright permission for reproduction must
be obtained.
For all online submissions, please provide your complete
manuscript in the form of a single zipped folder containing
soft copies of all the materials (main text in MS Word or
Tex/LaTeX), figures / illustrations in TIFF, PDF or JPEG,
and chemical structures drawn in ChemDraw (CDX) / ISISDraw
(TGF) as separate files, while a PDF version of the entire
manuscript must also be included, embedded with all the
figures / illustrations / tables / chemical structures etc.
A successful electronic submission of a manuscript will
be followed by a system-generated acknowledgement to the
principal/corresponding author within 72 hours of the dispatch
of the manuscript. Any questions with regards to the preparation
of and submission of your manuscript to the journal should
be addressed to toforsj@benthamopen.org
and copied to managingeditor@benthamopen.org
NOTE: Any queries therein should be addressed
to oa@benthamscience.org
and copied to Jalil@benthamscience.org
Manuscript Preparation:
The manuscript should be written in English in a clear,
direct and active style. All pages must be numbered sequentially,
facilitating in the reviewing and editing of the manuscript.
For further convenience, the customer support team available
at Bentham Publishing Services (www.benthampublishingservices.com)
can provide assistance to authors for the preparation of
manuscripts.
Manuscript Length:
Research Articles: The total
number of words for a published research article is from
4000 to 8000 words.
Review Articles: The total number of words
for a published comprehensive review article article is
from 8000 to 40000 words, and for mini-review articles from
3000 to 6000 words.
Letter Articles: The total number of words
for a published letter/short communication article is from
3000 to 6000 words.
There is no restriction on the number of figures, tables
or additional files e.g. video clips, animation and datasets,
that can be included with each article online. Authors should
include all relevant supporting data with each article.
Manuscripts Published: The Journal accepts letters/
short communications, original research articles, and mini-
and full-length review articles written in English. Supplements,
proceedings of conferences and book reviews may also be
considered for publication.
Supplements/Single Topic Issues:The
journal also considers Supplements/Single topic issues for
publication. A Supplements/Single topic will be a
collection of review articles (minimum of 6, maximum of
20 articles) based on a contemporary theme or topic of great
importance to the field. Mini-supplements consisting of
between 3 to 5 articles are also welcome. The Guest Editors'
main editorial task is to invite the contributors to the
Supplement and to manage the peer review of submitted manuscripts.
A short summary or proposal for editing a supplement should
be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief at e-mail to toforsj@benthamopen.org
with a copy to specialissue@benthamopen.org
Conference Proceedings: For proposals to
publish conference proceedings in this journal, please contact
us at email: proceedings@benthamscience.org
Open Access Book Reviews: This journal
publishes open access reviews on recently published books
(both print and electronic) relevant to the journal. Publishers
and authors of books are invited to contact our book reviews
editor at toforsj@benthamopen.org
with book review requests. All submitted books will be reviewed
by an independent expert in the field.
MANUSCRIPT SECTIONS FOR PAPERS: Manuscripts for
research articles and letters submitted to the respective
journals should be divided into the following sections;
however, there can be an extension in the number of sections
in review articles in accordance with the requirements of
the topic.
Covering letter
Title page
Abstract
Text organization
List of abbreviations (if any)
Conflict of interest (if any)
Acknowledgements (if any)
References
Appendixes
Figures/illustrations (if any)
Chemical structures (if any)
Tables and captions (if any)
Supportive/supplementary material (if any)
COVERING LETTER: It is a mandatory requirement
that a signed covering letter also be submitted along with
the manuscript by the author to whom correspondence is to
be addressed, delineating the scope of the submitted article
declaring the potential competing interests, acknowledging
contributions from authors and funding agencies, and certifying
that the paper is prepared according to the 'Instructions
for Authors'. All inconsistencies in the text
and in the reference section, and any typographical errors
must be carefully checked and corrected before the submission
of the manuscript. The article contains no such material
or information that may be unlawful, defamatory, fabricated,
plagiarized, or which would, if published, in any way whatsoever,
violate the terms and conditions as laid down in the agreement.
The authors acknowledge that the publishers have the legal
right to take appropriate action against the authors for
any such violation of the terms and conditions as laid down
in the agreement. Download
the Covering letter
TITLE: The title should be precise and
brief and must not be more than 120 characters. Authors
should avoid the use of non-standard abbreviations. The
title must be written in title case except for articles,
conjunctions and prepositions.
Authors should also provide a short ‘running title’.
ABSTRACT: The abstract should not exceed
250 words for review and research papers and should be limited
to only 150 words for letters, summarizing the essential
features of the article. The use of abbreviations should
be reduced to a minimum and the references should not be
cited in the abstract.
TEXT ORGANIZATION: The main text should
begin on a separate page and should be divided into separate
sections. For Research articles, the preparation of the
main text must be structured into separate sections as Introduction,
Materials and Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion
and Trial Registration. For Review and Letter articles,
the manuscript should be divided into title page, abstract
and the main text. The text may be subdivided further according
to the areas to be discussed, which should be followed by
the Acknowledgement (if any) and Reference sections. The
review article should mention any previous important reviews
in the field and contain a comprehensive discussion starting
with the general background of the field. It should then
go on to discuss the salient features of recent developments.
The authors should avoid presenting material which has already
been published in a previous review. Trial Registration.
If your research article reports the results of a controlled
health care intervention, list your trial registry, along
with the unique identifying number, e.g. Trial registration:
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN73824458. Note that there
should be no space between the letters and numbers of your
trial registration number. For this purpose, a clinical
trial is any study that prospectively assigns human subjects
to intervention or comparison groups to evaluate the cause-and-effect
relationship between a medical intervention and a health
outcome. All clinical trials, regardless of when they were
completed, and secondary analyses of original clinical trials
must be registered before submission of a manuscript based
on the trial. Studies designed for other purposes, such
as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase
1 trials), are exempt. Trial registry name, registration
identification number, and the URL for the registry should
be included at the end of abstract and also in the space
provided on the online manuscript submission form. If your
research article reports the results of a controlled health
care intervention, list your trial registry, along with
the unique identifying number. Note that there should be
no space between the letters and numbers of your trial registration
number.
Authors will submit the Trial Protocols
along with their manuscript. The CONSORT (Consolidated
Standards of Reporting Trials) Checklist
and Flowchart is also required when submitting
the results of randomized control trials (RCTs).
Ethical Approval of Studies and Informed Consent:
For human or animal experimental investigations, it is a
prerequisite to provide a formal review and approval, or
review and waiver, by an appropriate institutional review
board or ethics committee and should be documented in your
paper. For investigations undertaken on human subjects,
state in the Methods section the manner in which the informed
consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e, oral
or written), where there is an unavoidable risk of breach
of privacy- e.g., in a clinical photograph or in case details-
the patient’s written consent or that of the next
of kin, to publication must be obtained. We will ask you
to send a signed consent form before publication. Consent
must be obtained for all Case Reports and Clinical Pictures.
The authors are advised to present and discuss their observations
in brief. The manuscript style must be uniform throughout
the text and 10 pt Times New Roman fonts should be used.
The full term for an abbreviation should precede its first
appearance in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
The reference numbers should be given in square brackets
in the text. Italics should be used for Binomial names of
organisms (Genus and Species), for emphasis and for unfamiliar
words or phrases. Non-assimilated words from Latin or other
languages should also be italicized e.g. in vivo, in
vitro, per se, et al. etc.
Greek Symbols and Special Characters: Greek
symbols and special characters often undergo formatting
changes and get corrupted or lost during preparation of
manuscript for publication. To ensure that all special characters
used are embedded in the text, these special characters
should be inserted as a symbol but should not be a result
of any format styling (Symbol font face) otherwise
they will be lost during conversion to PDF/XML2.
Authors are encouraged to consult reporting guidelines.
These guidelines provide a set of recommendations comprising
a list of items relevant to their specific research design.
All kinds of measurements should be reported only in International
System of Units (SI). Chemical equations, chemical names,
mathematical usage, unit of measurements, chemical and physical
quantity & units must conform to SI and Chemical Abstracts
or IUPAC.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS: If abbreviations
are used in the text either they should be defined in the
text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be
provided.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Financial contributions
to the work being reported should be clearly acknowledged,
as should any potential conflict of interest.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Please acknowledge anyone
(individual/company/institution) who has contributed to
the study by making substantial contributions to conception,
design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation
of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript
or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
Please list the source(s) of funding for the study, for
each author, and for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements
section.
REFERENCES: References must be listed
in the ACS Style only. All references should be numbered
sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and listed
in the same numerical order in the reference section. The
reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography
must be fully formatted before submission. Titles of journals
are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstract Service Source
Index.
See below few examples of references listed in the ACS Style:
Examples:
Journal Reference:
[1] Banner, D.W.; Harvary, P. Crystallographic analysis
at 3.0-A resolution of the binding to human thrombin of
four active site-directed inhibitors. J. Biol. Chem.,
1991, 266, 20085-20093
Book Reference:
[2] Crabtree, R.H. The Organometallic Chemistry of the
Transition Metals, 3rd Ed.; Wiley & Sons: New York,
2001.
Book Chapter Reference:
[3] Wheeler, D.M.S.; Wheeler, M.M. In Studies in Natural
Products Chemistry; Atta-ur-Rahman, Ed.; Elsevier Science
B. V: Amsterdam, 1994; Vol. 14,
pp. 3-46.
Conference Proceedings:
[4] Jakeman, D.L.; Withers, S.G. E. In Carbohydrate
Bioengineering: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Proceedings
of the 4th Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting, Stockholm,
Sweden, June 10-13, 2001; Teeri, T.T.; Svensson, B.; Gilbert,
H.J.; Feizi, T., Eds.; Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge,
UK, 2002; pp. 3-8.
URL (Web Page):
[5] National Library of Medicine. Specialized Information
Services: Toxicology and Environmental Health. http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ToxMain.html
(accessed May 23, 2004).
Patent:
[6] Hoch, J.A.; Huang, S. Screening methods for the identification
of novel antibiotics. U.S. Patent 6,043,045, March 28, 2000.
Thesis:
[7] Kirby, C.W. Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2000.
E-citations:
[8] Citations for articles/material published exclusively
online or in open access (free-to-view) , must contain the
exact Web addresses (URLs) at the end of the reference(s),
except those posted on an author’s Web site unless
editorially essential, e.g. ‘Reference: Available
from: URL’.
Some important points to remember:
*All references must be complete and accurate.
*All authors must be cited and there should be no use of the
phrase et al (the term “et al.”
should be in italics).
*Online citations should include the date of access.
*Journal abbreviations should follow the Index Medicus/MEDLINE.
*Take special care of the punctuation convention as described
in the above-mentioned examples.
*Avoid using superscript in the in-text citations and reference
section.
*Abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications (which
can only be included if prior permission has been obtained)
should not be given in the reference section but they may
be mentioned in the text and details provided as footnotes.
*The authors are encouraged to use a recent version of EndNote
(version 5 and above) or Reference Manager (version 10) when
formatting their reference list, as this allows references
to be automatically extracted.
APPENDIXES: In case there is a need to present lengthy,
but essential methodological details, use appendixes, which
can be a part of the article. An appendix must not exceed
three pages (Times New Roman, 12 point fonts, 900 max. words
per page).The information should be provided in a condensed
form, ruling out the need of full sentences. A single appendix
should be titled APPENDIX, while more than one can be titled
APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, and so on.
FIGURES/ILLUSTRATIONS: The authors should
provide the illustrations as separate files, as well as embedded
in the text file, numbered consecutively in the order of their
appearance. Each figure should include a single illustration.
No charges will be levied on the use of color figures except
in the reprints. Each figure should be closely cropped to
minimize the amount of white space surrounding the illustration.
If a figure consists of separate parts, it is important that
a single composite illustration file be submitted, containing
all parts of the figure.
Photographs should be provided with a scale bar if appropriate,
as well as high-resolution component files.
Scaling/Resolution:
For Line Art image type, which is generally an image
based on lines and text and does not contain tonal or shaded
areas, the preferred file format is TIFF or EPS, with colour
mode being Monochrome 1-bit or RGB, in a resolution of 900-1200
dpi.
For Halftone image type, which is generally a continuous tone
photograph and contains no text, the preferred file format
is TIFF, with colour mode being or RGB or Grayscale, with
a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
For Combination image type, which is generally an image containing
halftone in addition to text or line art elements, the preferred
file format is TIFF, with colour mode being or RGB or Grayscale,
in a resolution of 500-900 dpi.
Formats:
For illustrations, the following file formats are
acceptable:
• Illustrator
• EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
• PDF (also especially suitable for
diagrams)
• PNG (preferred format for photos
or images)
• Microsoft Word (version 5 and above;
figures must be a single page)
• PowerPoint (figures must be a single
page)
• TIFF
• JPEG (conversion should be done using
the original file)
• BMP
• CDX (ChemDraw)
• TGF (ISISDraw)
Bentham OPEN does not process figures submitted
in GIF format.
If the large size of TIFF or EPS figures acts as an obstacle
to online submission, authors may find that conversion to
JPEG format before submission results in significantly reduced
file size and upload time, while retaining acceptable quality.
JPEG is a 'lossy' format, however. In order to maintain acceptable
image quality, it is recommended that JPEG files are saved
at High or Maximum quality.
Files should not be compressed with tools such as Zipit or
Stuffit prior to submission as these tools will in any case
produce negligible file-size savings for JPEGs and TIFFs,
which are already compressed.
Please do not:
1. Supply embedded graphics in your word processor (spreadsheet,
presentation) document.
2. Supply files that are optimized for screen use (like GIF,
BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low.
3. Supply files that are too low in resolution.
4. Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the
content.
Image Conversion Tools:
There are many software packages, many of them freeware or
shareware, capable of converting to and from different graphics
formats, including PNG.
Good general tools for image conversion include GraphicConverter
on the Macintosh, PaintShop Pro, for Windows, and ImageMagick,
which is available on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX platforms.
Note that bitmap images (e.g. screenshots) should not be converted
to EPS, since this will result in a much larger file size
than the equivalent JPEG, TIFF, PNG or BMP, with no increase
in quality. EPS should only be used for images produced by
vector-drawing applications such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw.
Most vector-drawing applications can be saved in, or exported
as, EPS format. In case the images have been originally prepared
in an Office application, such as Word or PowerPoint, then
the original Office files should be directly uploaded to the
site, instead of being converted to JPEG or another format
that may be of low quality.
TABLES:
*Data tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word table format.
*Each table should include a title/caption being explanatory
in itself with respect to the details discussed in the table.
Detailed legends may then follow.
*Table number in bold font i.e. Table 1,
should follow a title. The title should be in small case with
the first letter in caps. A full stop should be placed at
the end of the title.
*Tables should be embedded in the text exactly according to
their appropriate placement in the submitted manuscript.
*Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct
by ensuring that the borders of each cell are displayed as
black lines.
*Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals sequentially
in order of their citation in the body of the text.
*If a reference is cited in both the table and text, please
insert a lettered footnote in the table to refer to the numbered
reference in the text.
*Tabular data provided as additional files can be submitted
as an Excel spreadsheet.
SUPPORTIVE/SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: We do
encourage to append supportive material, for example a PowerPoint
file containing a talk about the study, a PowerPoint file
containing additional screenshots, a Word, RTF, or PDF document
showing the original instrument(s) used, a video, or the original
data (SAS/SPSS files, Excel files, Access Db files etc.) provided
it is inevitable or endorsed by the journal's Editor.
Published/reproduced material should not be included unless
you have obtained written permission from the copyright holder,
which must be forwarded to the Editorial Office in case of
acceptance of your article for publication.
Supportive/Supplementary material intended for publication
must be numbered and referred to in the manuscript but should
not be a part of the submitted paper. In-text citations as
well as a section with the heading "Supportive/Supplementary
Material" before the "References" section should
be provided. Here, list all Supportive/Supplementary Material
and include a brief caption line for each file describing
its contents.
Any additional files will be linked into the final published
article in the form supplied by the author, but will not be
displayed within the paper. They will be made available in
exactly the same form as originally provided only on our Web
site. Please also make sure that each additional file is a
single table, figure or movie (please do not upload linked
worksheets or PDF files larger than one sheet). Supportive/
Supplementary material must be provided in a single zipped
file not larger than 4 MB.
Authors must clearly indicate if these files are not for publication
but meant for the reviewers'/editors' perusal only.
PERMISSION FOR REPRODUCTION: Published/reproduced
material should not be included unless you have obtained written
permission from the copyright holder, which should be forwarded
to the Editorial Office in case of acceptance of your article
for publication.
For obtaining permission for reproducing any material published
in an article by Bentham Science Publishers, please fill in
the request FORM
and send to toforsj@benthamopen.org
for consideration.
AUTHORS AND INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS: The
author will be required to provide their full names, the institutional
affiliations and the location, with an asterisk in front of
the name of the principal/corresponding author. The corresponding
author(s) should be designated and their complete address,
business telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address must
be stated to receive correspondence and galley proofs.
REVIEWING AND PROMPTNESS OF PUBLICATION:
All manuscripts submitted for publication will be immediately
subjected to peer-reviewing, usually in consultation with
the members of the Editorial Advisory Board and a number of
external referees. Authors may, however, provide in their
Covering Letter the contact details (including e-mail addresses)
of four potential peer reviewers for their paper. Any peer
reviewers suggested should not have recently published with
any of the authors of the submitted manuscript and should
not be members of the same research institution.
All peer-reviewing will be conducted via the Internet
to facilitate rapid reviewing of the submitted manuscripts.
Every possible effort will be made to assess the manuscripts
quickly with the decision being conveyed to the authors in
due course. Papers which are delayed by authors in revision
for more than 30 days will have to be re-submitted as a new
submission.
LANGUAGE AND EDITING: Manuscripts submitted
containing many English typographical errors will not be published.
Manuscripts which are accepted for publication on condition
that the written English submitted is corrected, will be sent
a quote by Eureka
Science, a professional language editing company. Authors
from non-English language countries who have poor English
language written skills, are advised to contact the language
editing company prior to submitting their manuscript to the
journal. Please contact Eureka
Science for a language editing quote at e-mail: info@eureka-science.com
stating the total number of words of the article to be edited.
언어 및 편집: 영문 오타가 많은 원고는 출판되지 않을 것입니다. 영문 오타를 없애겠다는 조건으로 받은 원고는 영어 편집 전문회사인 유럽 공동 기술개발 기구로부터 가격 견적서가 보내 질 것입니다. 영어 작문에 어려움이 있는 비영어권 국가의 저자들은 원고를 학술지에 제출하기 전에 영어 편집회사와 접촉할 것을 권합니다. 영어 편집 견적서를 받기 위해서 교정될 원고의 단어수를 적은 메일을 유럽 공동 기술개발 기구 메일인 info@eureka-science.com로 보내시기 바랍니다.
语言和编辑: 含有很多英文印刷错误的提交稿将不予发表。接受发表的稿件其英文写作应是正确的；专业的语言编辑公司（尤里卡科学），可对稿件的英文润色提供报价。建议非英语国家、且英文写作欠佳的作者在投稿前先与语言编辑公司联系。请与尤里卡科学联系 info@eureka-science.com
EDITION ET LANGUE: Les manuscrits soumis avec plusieurs erreurs typographiques en Anglais ne seront pas publiés en l’état. Les manuscrits sont acceptés pour publication à la condition que l'anglais utilisé soit corrigé après la soumission et seront envoyés pour examen à Eureka Science, une société d'édition de langue professionnelle. Les auteurs en provenance de pays où la langue est différente de l'anglais et qui ont de médiocres compétences en anglais écrit, sont priés de contacter la société d'édition de langue avant de soumettre leur manuscrit à la revue. Merci de contacter Eureka Science à info@eureka-science.com pour un devis en indiquant le nombre total de mot de l’article à éditer.
PROOF CORRECTIONS: Authors are required to
proofread the PDF versions of their manuscripts before submission.
To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately
for typographical errors and returned within 48
hours. Major changes are not acceptable at the proof stage.
If unable to send corrections within 48 hours
due to some reason, the author(s) must at least send an acknowledgement
on receiving the galley proofs or the article will be published
exactly as received and the publishers will not be responsible
for any error occurring in the manuscript in this regard.
The corresponding author will be solely responsible for ensuring
that the revised version of the manuscript incorporating all
the submitted corrections receives the approval of all the
authors of the manuscript.
COPYRIGHT: Authors who publish in Bentham
OPEN Journals retain copyright to their work. Submission of
a manuscript to the respective journals implies that all authors
have read and agreed to the content of the Covering Letter
or the Terms and Conditions. It is a condition of publication
that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published
and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere.
Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting the article
for publication the authors agree that the publishers have
the legal right to take appropriate action against the authors,
if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered. Once
submitted to the journal, the author will not withdraw their
manuscript at any stage prior to publication.
Articles are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution non-commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)
which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution
and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is
properly cited.
PUBLICATION FEES: The publication fee details
for each article published in the journal are given below:
Letters: The publication fee for each published
Letter article submitted is US $600.
Research Articles: The publication fee for
each published Research article is US $800.
Mini-Review Articles: The publication fee
for each published Mini-Review article is US $600.
Review Articles: The publication fee for
each published Review article is US $900.
Book Review: The open access fee for a published
book review is US $450.
Once the paper is accepted for publication, the author will
receive by email an electronic invoice. The fee form is also
available on the Web site at www.benthamscience.com/open/feeform
MEMBERSHIP: Join as a member of Bentham Open
today to obtain great discounts on your article publication
fees! For details click
here.
REPRINTS: High quality printed reprints
of published articles are available for purchase, if ordered,
with a minimum number of 100 reprints.
1 The submission process is compatible with version
3.0 or later of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator,
and with most other modern Web browsers. It can be used from
PC, Mac, or Unix platforms.
2 In this connection, we recommend the use of Microsoft
Word version 2000 and above.
