• Before sending
All financial support received, including the organization/institution concerned and project code, should be described in the financial support section.
Ethics committee approval as well as obtaining informed consent is essential for all research conducted on human subjects, both patients and volunteers. Where the author intends to provide details or other personal information or images of individuals, appropriate consents, permissions and releases are necessary. The author must keep his written consent, but a copy must be provided to the journal. Providing consent or evidence that such permissions have been obtained is necessary in certain circumstances (eg, a legal matter).
All manuscripts should respect diversity, inclusion, and differences and promote equal opportunities. Manuscripts should respect these issues:
Following Circular No. 700/789 dated 2023/11/01 regarding the necessity of adhering to ethical-scientific considerations in the use of artificial intelligence for writing research works until the comprehensive guide "Ethical Considerations for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Preparation of Research Works" is developed and issued, the following points are presented for your attention:
Artificial intelligence technology includes systems built on advanced programming languages and can be used to organize and summarize research sources, produce charts and research graphics, analyze data, generate text, images, synthetic data, simulations, coding, and other purposes.
The use of artificial intelligence in preparing research works does not present any inherent ethical issues, provided it is used appropriately and ethically, and the authors clarify the nature of any interaction and how it is used by accurately citing the source in the proposal, article, etc. Specifically:
AI tools should not be regarded as authors because:
AI-based tools can only serve as an assisting tool at various stages of the research proposal/thesis and can never replace individual knowledge and insight. Thus, all authors are responsible for content generated by AI in the research work (including: the accuracy of the presented materials, avoidance of plagiarism, citation of sources, credibility of sources, etc.). In other words, the responsibility for ensuring the correctness and conformity of a research work with ethical standards (even parts written by AI) lies with the authors.
Reporting Guidelines for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools in Medical Research: The GAMER Statement published on May 13, 2025, in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine: https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2025/05/13/bmjebm-2025-113825
Methodology for Development
1. Did you use any GAI tools (such as large language models or large visual models) in any section or step of this manuscript or study?
2. Specify the GAI tool(s) used, their versions and/or release dates and the date(s)/period the tools were used.
3. Describe whether a specific prompting technique was used to generate any content of the manuscript or to perform analyses during the study. Please also provide the unedited responses to the prompts.
4. If a new GAI tool was developed or fine-tuned based on an existing AI model, report the name and version of the original model.
5. Describe the role of GAI tools in all phases of this study where they were used (including manuscript writing).
6. Report the specific section or paragraphs of the manuscript that GAI tools contributed to.
7. Describe how the content generated by GAI tools was verified and (when necessary) modified.
8. Describe how data privacy and confidentiality were ensured during the use of GAI tools.
9. Describe whether and how the use of GAI tools may have influenced the interpretation of results, the study’s overall accuracy, or conclusions.
The final version of the manuscript should be submitted in Word file format and the content should follow a single column layout. The layout of the manuscript should be as simple as possible. You should note that most formatting codes are removed or replaced during the review process. It is important to avoid using word processor options to justify text or underline words. Each individual table should have only one grid. Columns must be aligned. Source files for figures, tables, and text graphics are essential. Also, to avoid avoidable errors, we strongly recommend using the word processor's "spell check" and "grammar check" functions.The structure of the article should be as follows: title page; Persian and English structured abstract; keywords; Introduction; method; findings; Conclusion; thanking; Conflict of interest; ethical considerations; Funds; Contribution of authors; References. The maximum number of words (including text, references and tables) should be according to the following table:
| Type of article
|
abstract
|
Suggested number of resources |
Suggested number of resources |
keywords
|
tables and images
|
| Research/Review article
|
Structured(150-300) |
4000-5000 |
50-15 |
3-5 |
Maximum 4 tables and 4 figures
|
| short communication
|
Structured(150-300) |
1000-1500 |
10-15 |
3-5 |
Maximum 2 tables or 2 images
|
| Letter to the editor
|
Structured(150-300) |
500-1000 |
10-15 |
3-5 |
No table or picture
|
| Short communication |
Structured(150-300) |
1000-1500 |
10-15 |
3-5 |
Maximum of 2 tables or graphs or figures |
Information retrieval systems use
Titles: It is better not to use abbreviations and formulas in the title.
Author Name and Affiliation: The name and surname and Academic degree of all authors must be provided clearly in Farsi and English, and please check that their spelling is accurate. And they all have an orchid code and email. Affiliations (group or center..., faculty..., university..., city..., country...) should be written immediately after the authors' names. Also, you must provide the full mailing address of the corresponding author.
Corresponding author: It should be clear who is responsible for correspondence throughout the review and publication stages, after publication and for answering follow-up questions. The corresponding author should ensure that all authors have up-to-date details, including email.
Abstract: Each manuscript must contain a structured abstract. Original articles, review articles and short articles should have a structured abstract including introduction, methodology, findings, and conclusion.
Keywords: Three to five keywords should be selected, which will help databases in cross-indexing the article when publishing the abstract. Keywords can be selected using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) index in PubMed.
The text of the article should include the following parts:
1. Introduction: This section should show the purpose and logic of the research. Refrain from presenting any data or conclusions about the study. Also, you should not present an extended discussion of the topic. "Presenting the knowledge gap and the reason and necessity of studying" existential philosophy is the introduction.
2.Work method: It should describe the implemented method. In cases where the device is used, the name of the manufacturer and its address should be mentioned in parentheses. In case of designing a tool/questionnaire, sufficient explanations regarding psychometric approval should be mentioned. In case of using previous standard tools/questionnaires, it is necessary to provide necessary references. You should provide enough information to conduct a similar study for new methods. Otherwise, just refer to previous studies. The statistical method used should be carefully described and the computer program should also be mentioned.
3. Findings: This section may contain text, tables and figures. Avoid repeating the contents of the tables in the text. You can refer to the table number. We recommend providing subheadings if the manuscript is long. "Answers to all study questions" is the existential philosophy of results.
4. Discussion: should focus on presenting findings, including differences/similarities with other published literature. You should refrain from re-submitting detailed information in the discussion section. You can focus on new and fundamental aspects of your research and their results. The discussion section ends by mentioning the strengths and weaknesses and limitations of the study.
5. Conclusion: including stating the importance of the obtained findings and their limitations, comparing the research results with similar studies, stating and justifying the similarities and differences, explaining the practical applications and generalizability of the obtained results, and suggestions for conducting new research on the subject be the subject of research.
6. Acknowledgments: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in the Acknowledgments section, including those who helped with technical and writing issues and department chairs who provided only general support. The acknowledgment section should cover those who have provided financial and material support as well.
7. Conflict of interest: It is necessary to declare any sources of funding and possible conflicting interests, such as receiving funds or fees, holding shares in an institution that may profit or lose from the publication of the article. It should be noted that declaring a conflict of interest does not lead to automatic rejection of the manuscript, but we would like to know about it.
8. Ethical considerations: Ethical issues considered in the study, including compliance with the principles contained in the Declaration of Helsinki, obtaining informed consent, and the code of ethics should be mentioned.
9. Financial sources: Any sources or financial support, including the relevant organization/institution and project code that the study benefited from, should be mentioned.
10. Contribution of authors Complete and upload the file related to the contribution of authors.
11. References: Your manuscript should contain relevant references. The authors are solely responsible for the correctness of the sources. Verification of sources against original documents helps to avoid such errors. References should be written based on Vancouver style and only in English. References should be mentioned at the end of the article and their numbering should be consecutive. An example of reference style is as follows:
Book:
Author, Title, Place Published, Publisher, Year.
Example:Collen M, Portney LG, Hovenga E, Shortliffe E, James JC, Neilson J, et al. Computer applications in health care and biomedicine. New York: Springer; 2015.
Edited book:Author, Title Edition, Place Published, Publishe,r Year.
Example:Murtagh J. John Murtagh's general practice. 4th ed. Sydney: McGraw Hill Australia; 2007
Multi-volume book:Author, Title, Editor, Series Title, Volume, Edition, Place Published, Publisher, Year, Pages.
Example:Bennett GL, Horuk R. Iodination of chemokines for use in receptor binding analysis. In: Horuk R, editor. Methods in Enzymology. vol 288. New York (NY): Academic Press; 1997. p. 134-48.
Book translating:Author, Title, Place Published, Publisher, Year.
Example:Shortliffe E. Biomedical informatics [Embi P, trans]. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons; 2010.
Electronic book:Author, Title, Type of Medium, Place Published, Publisher, Year, Year Cited, Date Cited, URL.
Example:Shortliffe E. Biomedical informatics [Internet]. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons; 2010 [cited 2015 Nov 12]. Available from: http://www.springer.com/science/article/pii/S1067502.
A chapter from the book:Author, Title, Editor, Book Title, Edition, Place Published, Publisher, Year, Pages.
Example:Shortliffe E, Embi P. Clinical trials. In: Shortliffe E, Embi P, editors. Clinical research informatics. 2nd ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons; 2010; P. 40-65.
Article:Title, Journal, Year, Volume, Issue, Pages.
Example:Richesson B, Horvath M, Embi P, Greenes R, Bern T, Harison E. Clinical research informatics and electronic health record data. Yearb Med Inform. 2014;9(1):215-25.
Electronic article:Author, Title, Periodical Title, Type of work, Year, Date Accessed, Year cited, Date cited, Volume, Issue, Pages, URL.
Example:Cowie MR, Blomster JI, Curtis LH, Duclaux S, Ford I, Fritz F, et al. Electronic health records to facilitate clinical research. Clin Res Cardiol [serial online]. 2009 [cited 2017 Jan 05]; 106(1):1-9. Available from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00392-0161025-6.
Collection of published articles of the conference:Editor, Title, Conference Name, Date, Conference Location, Place Published, Publisher,Year, Published.
Example:Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumors V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumor Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002
Magazine article:Author, Title, Magazine, Date, Volume, Pages.
Example:Akbari A. Foundations of clinical trials. Medical and Health Magazine. 2017 Jan 09:15-6. [In Persian]
Thesis:Author, Title, Thesis Type, Place Published, University, Year.
Example:Akbari A. The use of mobile laptops among health care professionals in the clinical setting [PhD thesis]. Tehran: Iran university of medical science; 2017. [In Persian]
Web page with author:Author, Title, Type of Medium, Year, Last Update Date, Access Year, Access Date, URL.
Example:Jackson H. Publication bias in clinical research [Internet]. 2014 [Updated 2016 Mar 22; cited 2017 Jan 12]; Available from: www.mohme.com.
Web page without author:Title, Type of medium, Year, Last Update Date, Access Year, Access Date, URL.
Example:Publication bias in clinical research [Internet]. 2014 [Updated 2016 Mar 22; cited 2017 Jan 12]; Available from: www.mohme.com
12.Tables, graphs and pictures: Avoid sending tables as pictures. Descriptions should be placed above the tables and explanatory items in the footnotes. The quality of all images must be high. The description of the figures should be placed below them. Avoid presenting data in tables, figures and text at the same time. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively.
13.Persian audio summary file is mandatory (English is optional) and uploaded. https://hmed.mums.ac.ir/page_6.html
Before publishing, to avoid any mistakes, the final electronic paged version of the article will be sent to you for approval or correction. You must clearly mention the corrections and submit them to the journal office within 72 hours at the latest.
While you can only use standard abbreviations, you should not use them in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation is used must be cited in full on its first use in the text (abstract and main text included separately), unless it is a standard unit of measurement.Mathematical Formulas: Mathematical equations should be presented as editable text (not images). If possible, you should present simple formulas in plain text. Also, you should use solidus (/), instead of horizontal lines, for small fractional expressions, for example, X/Y. Additionally, variables should be presented in italics. In most cases, the exponents of e are presented using exp. It is more convenient that all equations should be numbered in order and should be separated from the text.
All the numbers in the English part must be in English and punctuation marks (.), but in the Farsi part all Persian numbers and punctuation marks must be (/).
Before submitting the article, the following must be observed:
• When sending
The Horizon of Medical Education Development has an online submission system that helps you enter article details and upload your files. The manuscript should be typed with Microsoft Word 2007-2023 in a single space with clear margins on both sides. All figures must be in JPEG or PNG format. You must submit a letter signed by all authors. The journal system will email you about all correspondence, including review requests.
Please send your article through http://HMED.mums.ac.ir. It should be noted that when registering an article, accepting or rejecting the article, an email will be sent to all the authors of the article.
You can suggest a number of potential referees by providing their name and organizational email address. However, the journal reserves the right to select referees.
The submitted article must not be published or considered for publication in other journals and you must mention this in the request letter. Any violation of the above terms will result in the automatic removal of your article.
There is no cost to print in our magazine.
The Horizon of Medical Education Development's experts review the structure and content of manuscripts to ensure compliance with standard structures (based on study type), journal subject scope, standard guidelines, quality of innovation, and compliance with ethical issues. Therefore, there is a screening and triage stage that helps the editor to make a fair final decision and leads to improving the quality of published articles.
All manuscripts are confidential to us. A biostatistical epidemiologist evaluates all submitted manuscripts with an emphasis on methodology. At least 2 anonymous reviewers will review each article, selected by the editorial board. We will inform the corresponding author as soon as possible. The referees' comments will be sent to the responsible author. The corresponding author's responses along with the reviewers' comments are evaluated by the final reviewer and finally the editor who decides which article should be published.
Both authors and reviewers must disclose any "conflicts of interest" (eg, financial, personal, political, or academic) that may influence their judgment.
The manuscript should not contain the verbatim text of previously published articles or manuscripts submitted elsewhere. Therefore, we evaluate all submitted manuscripts by an online plagiarism reviewer, who asks authors to rewrite the manuscript based on plagiarism of submitted manuscripts. COPE flowcharts and guidelines are used to address plagiarism. Plagiarism will be reported to the Research and Technology Vice-Chancellor of universities and relevant organizations through official correspondence.
It is defined as the removal or alteration of research materials, data, or processes that lead to inaccurate findings. Data generation includes inventive data or conclusions. Hence, manuscripts must be based on authentic data, i.e. forgery is strictly prohibited. COPE flowcharts and instructions are used to handle fictitious or spurious data. If reviewers find fraud or scientific misconduct, plagiarism, or other unethical behavior in a manuscript, they are asked to notify the editor immediately.
We encourage all authors to submit original images. We check all digital images for inappropriate manipulation. No specific feature in an image can be enhanced, moved, removed or highlighted. Changes (for example, brightness, contrast, or color balance) are accepted only when applied to the entire image. Avoid misrepresenting information provided in the original, including background. In cases where improper manipulation is suspected, we may request the original data to compare the manipulated chart.
All contents of the journal are open access, as such principles encourage global knowledge exchange. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
Decisions on retracting manuscripts are based on the COPE guidelines for retracting published articles.
The Journal of "Horizon of Medical Education Development"responds promptly to complaints and at the same time ensures that there is a way for the dissatisfied person to complain to continue the complaints process by sending an email to the editor of the journal. All complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board or publisher are handled using COPE guidelines.
Considering that the review of all original research articles including interventional articles in this journal depends on having a code of ethics and interventional articles that do not have a code of ethics will not be reviewed and judged, therefore respected authors should submit interventional articles. Also send the code of ethics.
• After submission
A link is provided to the corresponding author to assist authors in obtaining the files in PDF format. Please submit corrections within 72 hours to ensure a speedy release process and reference your corrections using line numbers. Additionally, you can highlight changes (including responses to the inquiry form) on a hard copy of the file and return it via email. At this stage, major changes will be accepted only after approval by the editor. We make every effort to publish manuscripts quickly and accurately. It is very important to ensure that your corrections are received in a communication: be careful in replying as subsequent corrections are not guaranteed. Proofreading is your sole responsibility.