INTRODUCTION

Annals of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (APALM) is an international, peer-reviewed, indexed, open access, online journal with a short post-acceptance online publication time. APALM publishes original, peer-reviewed articles for Pathologists and Clinical Laboratory Scientists. APALM accepts only electronic submission of manuscripts. APALM assures a quick peer-review process, spanning to a maximum of two months, followed by a period for the process of proof-corrections.

SCOPE

APALM is a specific journal for publication of the articles in all fields of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, including Histopathology, Cytology, Hematology, Clinical Pathology, Forensic Pathology, Blood Banking, Clinical Bio-Chemistry and Medical Microbiology (Bacteriology, Virology, Mycology, Parasitology), etc.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article.

APALM follows the Authorship Criteria as set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org) as part of their Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Authorship credit should be based only on:

1. Substantial contributions to conception and design, 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 published.

Acquisition of funding, the collection of data or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship. All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the acknowledgements section.

TYPES OF ARTICLES

a. Original Articles: Submissions to the Original Article section should consist of original research. The research discussed in Original Articles must receive institutional review board approval and this approval must be stated in the Materials and Methods section. The body text should have the following subheadings: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion.

b. Review articles: Anyone wishing to write a review for the journal should first contact the Editors. Review articles, solicited and unsolicited, are actively encouraged and should be composed of systematic, critical assessments of literature and data sources pertaining to diagnostic topics. All articles and data sources reviewed should include information about the specific type of study or analysis.

c. Case Reports: Report of a single case or a small series (up to 6 cases) with unique content and exceptional clarity. Case reports must meet all of the following criteria:

• The case should be one that is highly unusual, very unique, underreported in the literature and.
• The case report must present as a challenging diagnostic and therapeutic problem and.
• The case report must have significant educational value including the ability to perhaps change a clinician's traditional method of handling such a case and.
• The case report's interest to the reader should be significant. The body text should have the following subheadings: Introduction, Case Report(s), Discussion/Conclusion. Materials and Methods and Results/Findings may be included as necessary.

d. Editorial: Recognized leaders in the field of pathology and laboratory medicine may offer their opinions regarding an article or a group of related papers appearing in the same issue of the journal. Editorials are usually by invitation of the Editor or the members of editorial board but may also include the unsolicited analysis of new trends in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine or the author's perspective on articles recently published in APALM or in another journal.

e. Letters to the Editor: Commentaries in response to a recently published article, or focused, timely communications of immediate interest to the readership. Letters should be limited to 500 words or fewer and to no more than 5 pertinent references. An abstract is not required. Letters must be prepared in the same manner as a manuscript as described above.

f. Images in pathology, hematology, cytopathology, histopathology or medical microbiology: a short history, photograph, differential diagnosis, and short discussion of classic and/or rare case. Abstract and key words are not required. Text should be a running text with brief report and short discussion. Words limit is up to 500 words. Only 5 latest references are permitted.

g. Students' corner and residents' corner: Short narrative of a real life experience in medical field during student life or residency with a clear informative, educative, or enlightening message. Words limit is up to 500 words.

SUBMISSION

Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone else on their behalf. The submitting author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review. It is also the author’s responsibility to ensure that article emanatory from a particular institution and is submitted with approval of necessary institution. Prior to submitting a manuscript, submitting authors should collect electronic files for the manuscript file (including title page and figures), and cover letter.

i. Cover Letter

• All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter. The information in the cover letter will not be supplied to reviewers. The letter should include the following statement signed by corresponding author:
  
  

  1. The submitted paper is an original and unpublished work in which the listed authors have all made important contributions.

  2. The authors have not submitted the same material or portions therefore for consideration of publication in any other journal for which a decision regarding publication is pending, and no such additional submission will be made before completion of the review process by this journal.

  3. The editors do not consider the submission of abstracts of oral or poster presentations for publication in other journals to prohibit publication in the journal.

  4. The authors must further guarantee that, once their material has been accepted for publication by the journal, they will not make submission of the same material or portions thereof to another journal before/after publication in APALM.

• Authors are encouraged to describe how the article is rare or unusual as well as its educational and/or scientific merits in the covering letter that will accompany the submission of the manuscript.

• Authors are welcomed to suggest two to four reviewers for their paper; however, the editors cannot guarantee assignment of a particular review to a paper. These should be experts in their field, who will be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Any suggested peer reviewers should not be current collaborators, and should not be members of the same research institution. Suggested reviewers will be considered alongside potential reviewers recommended by the Editorial board.
  To download the template for cover letter, click here.

ii. Manuscript preparation

Manuscripts must be submitted in Word (.doc or .docx) file format. Articles should be typed in 12 pt (Times New Roman), double spaced throughout with margins of 2.5 cm, and pages must be numbered. The right margin should be unjustified (ragged). Define abbreviations at first mention in the text and in each table and figure. When using acronyms, make certain the full name is spelled out on first use. Manuscripts must be in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/). The editorial board reserves the right to edit the submitted manuscripts in order to comply with the journal’s style. In any case, the authors are responsible for the published material.

Click here to download template of Manuscript for Case Report
Click here to download template of Manuscript for Letter to Editor
Click here to download template of Manuscript for Original Article
Click here to download template of Manuscript for Review Article

The constituents of a manuscript file should be presented in the following order:
1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Key words
4. Main text
5. Abbreviations and Symbols
6. Acknowledgment
7. Declarations
8. References
9. Tables
10. Figure with Figure Legends

1. Title page
The title page should be paginated as page 1 of the manuscript. It should have the information in the following format:
• Type of article: (Original article, case report, letter to editor, etc.)
• Title of article: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Running (short) title (< 50 characters )
• Author names and affiliations: The title page should include the names, highest academic degree and email addresses of author(s). Generally for uniformity author names should be written as first name, middle name initial followed by surname, e.g. Edward F. Goljan. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name.
• Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.

2. Abstract
Abstract must be typed on a separate page following the title page. Abstracts are required for all papers except Letters to the Editor and editorials and images. Abstracts must be no longer than 250 words. Do not cite references in the abstract. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided in the abstract, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself. Do not list anything in the abstract that is not there in the manuscript. Abstract for Original articles should be structured in four sections: background, methods, result and conclusion. Abstract for review article, case series, and case report, may be structured or unstructured as appropriate for the sections of the paper.

3. Key words
The authors should list 4 to 6 key words or phrases taken from Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). These key words should be representative of your article and are used for indexing services and other search facilities for published material.

4. Main text
Separate pages should be used for the remaining sections of the text. APALM can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture.
There is no explicit limit on the length of articles (original article, case reports, review article and editorial) submitted, but authors are encouraged to be concise.
Original articles should be organized in four main headings: introduction, material and method, results, and discussion/conclusion.
Case report(s) should include the following identifiable sections: introduction, case report(s), and discussion/conclusion.
Subheadings or subdivisions of the main headings may be used for clarification in larger and more detailed articles, but should be limited to key aspects.
If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country). Use generic names of drugs, unless the specific trade name of a drug used is directly relevant to the discussion. Give sources (name of company and location) for all special reagents (e.g. antibodies, enzymes, probes).

5. Abbreviations and Symbols
Use only standard abbreviations. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text.

6. Acknowledgment
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and departmental head that only provided general support. Financial and material support and conflict of interests must be written in this section. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.

7. Declarations
This information must also be inserted into your manuscript under the acknowledgements section with the headings below. If you have no declaration to make please insert the following statements into your manuscript:
• Funding: None
• Competing interests: None declared

8. References
The author(s) are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Each reference should be numbered and listed according to their order in the text (do not alphabetize). They should be referred to Arabic numerals in superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks (e.g. Singh et al [5]). References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Please avoid excessive referencing. Only articles that have been published or are in press may be included in the Reference section. References should be arranged according to the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" rules developed by "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)". Some examples have been provided for frequently used reference types. The www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html site should be used for guidance on other types of references not provided here. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus. Refer to the "List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus" for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list at www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html . Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Abbreviations are not used for journals not in the Index Medicus. All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six should be quoted followed by et al. Sample references are given below:
a. Article in journal: Author(s) name (more than 6 names use et al). Title of article. Abbreviation of title of journal Year; Volume: Page.
Example: Goyal P, Sehgal S, Agarwal R, Singh S, Gupta R, Kumar A. Ossifying fibromyxoid tumor - Diagnostic challenge for a cytopathologist. Cytojournal. 2012;9:17.
b. In press article: Author(s) name (more than 6 names use et al). Title of article. Abbreviation of title of journal, in press.
Example: Kumar A, Goyal P, Seghal S, Agrawal D, Kumar V, Singh S. Giant immature teratoma of ovary with gliomatosis peritonei in 15 year-old girl: a case report and literature review. J Gynecol Surg. in press.
c. Chapter of book: Author(s) name. Chapter. In: Editor(s) name. Book. Edition. Place: Publisher; Year: Page.
Example: Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. 93-113.
d. Book: Author(s) name. Book. Edition. Place: Publisher; Year.
Example: Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

9. Tables
Each table must be typed double-spaced on a separate page following the references. Smaller spacing and font may be used within tables, but the font style should match that of the text. Do not justify the text. Tables should be kept to a necessary minimum, and their information should not duplicated in the text. Each table should be numbered and cited in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Each table must include appropriate headings and Footnotes. Abbreviations/acronyms used in a table must be defined in a footnote below the table. Units of measurement must be clearly indicated.

10. Figure with Figure Legends
All figures (illustrations, images, or photographs) should be numbered sequentially in the text with Arabic numbers (i.e., Fig 2, Figs 2, 4–6) and should be referred to in parentheses within the text. During submission of an article, authors should include all figures in the main body of the manuscript in word file format. Figures should not be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, authors will be asked to provide the figures in TIFF or JPEG formats. The resolution must be set to at least 300 DPI (dots per inch). Writing any text on the figures should be avoided as much as possible.

a. Figure legends
A short detailed legend should be provided for each figure. Legends for the illustrations should be typed double spaced with each figure. Stains and magnifications should be specified for all photomicrographs. Abbreviations and symbols used in the figures must be denoted in the legend.
b. Patient anonymity and informed consent
Authors should avoid descriptive information such as patient names, initials, reference numbers or photographs in their article. Authors should mask patients' eyes and remove patients' names from figures. Such information can be published if absolutely necessary for scientific reasons and only after obtaining written "informed consent" from the patient (or parents, or guardian). The article must also state that "informed consent" was obtained.
c. Permissions
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Before submitting a manuscript, user should ensure compliance with the points mentioned in the check list.

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES (APC)

Pacific Group of e-Journals, the parent organization of Annals of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (APALM), is a self-supporting organization and does not receive funding from any institution/government. Hence, the operation of the APALM journal is solely financed by the processing fees received from authors. To know more about APC, click here.

DISPOSAL OF MATERIAL

Once published, all copies of the manuscript, correspondence and artwork will be held for one year before disposal. Rejected manuscripts will be held for one month before being disposed of.

RELATIONS WITH EDITOR(S), AUTHOR(S) AND REVIEWER(S)

Editors do not share information regarding articles (article receipt, review process, referee opinions or final results) with anyone except authors and reviewers. Reviewers and editorial board members cannot discuss articles in a public manner. Reviewers’ reviews cannot be printed or disclosed. Care is taken to keep the identities of the reviewers undisclosed. All articles submitted will be subjected to peer review by the editorial board, and the authors will be informed within four weeks about the editorial decision. Editorial board reserves the right to make some revisions in the article. Revised articles should also be accompanied by a unique letter with responses to reviewers' comments. Articles that do not comply with the journal requirements listed below may be returned without review at the discretion of the editors.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

Peer review process is single-blinded i.e. the reviewers know who the authors are, but authors do not. All submissions to APALM are assessed by an Editor, who will decide whether they are suitable for peer review. Submissions felt to be suitable for consideration will be sent for peer review with appropriate independent experts. Reviewers’ name will not be revealed to the authors. Editors will make a decision based on the reviewers’ reports and authors are sent these reports along with the editorial decision on their manuscript.

ETHICS

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution's or a national research council's guide for, or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

COPYRIGHT

PaGe has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all manuscripts to be published.

An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:

1. The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
2. A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

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