Submissions

Author Guidelines

BLOOD TRANSFUSION – Author Guidelines

Open Journal Systems (OJS) - (rev. 2 – December 5, 2024)

SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

Blood Transfusion (BT) is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed journal published in English founded in 1956 by the Italian Society of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology (Società Italiana di Medicina Trasfusionale e Immunoematologia, SIMTI). It is the official journal of SIMTI and the Spanish Society of Blood Transfusion and Cellular Therapy (Sociedad Española de Transfusión Sanguínea y Terapia Celular, SETS).

The journal publishes original articles, reviews, editorials, commentaries, guidelines/recommendations, position papers, brief reports, case reports, and letters on topics related to transfusion medicine, immunohematology, immunogenetics, transplantation, hemostasis and thrombosis.

Our main areas of interest are as follows:

• Blood donation and donor recruitment
• Immunohematology
• Transfusion medicine
• Patient Blood Management
• Collection, production and storage of blood components
• Transfusion transmitted diseases
• Hemovigilance
• Therapeutic apheresis
• Cellular therapy and regenerative medicine
• Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cord blood banking
• Immunogenetics
• Hemostasis and thrombosis
• Hematology
• Organization and quality systems in transfusion medicine
• Legal and ethical aspects of transfusion medicine
• Therapies based on substances of human origin (SoHO)
• Other topics related to blood transfusion

 BT follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

The Authors' opinions do not necessarily reflect those of SIMTI, SETS, or of BT’s Editorial Board.

BT is a free online-access journal, as the Editorial Board and affiliated societies believe that scientific research should be openly and freely accessible to the entire scientific community.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Authors are encouraged to read the following Guidelines and to download the “Cover letter template”.

All submissions must be made via BT’s online platform (Open Journal Systems [OJS]).

Authors need to register or log in to begin the submission process.

Before making their submission, Authors must ensure that the following requirements have been met:

• the manuscript has not been previously published, nor is it under consideration elsewhere;
• the BT “Cover letter template” has been used to prepare the cover letter;
• any conflicts of interest have been disclosed;
• the authorship statement form has been completed online by the corresponding Author (who has direct responsibility for the manuscript in agreement with all Authors): it is not the Editors’ role to make authorship/contributorship decisions or to arbitrate conflicts related to authorship;
• all Authors have been made aware of the publication fee for accepted papers.

A detailed explanation of the submission process is provided below.

Cover letter template

Authors are encouraged to download and use the BT “Cover letter template”.

Addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, the cover letter should explain how the paper fulfills the requirements of novelty (i.e., how the findings enable the advancement of knowledge in the field), of impactfulness (i.e., how the findings may be applied to the clinical setting) and of originality (the findings have not been previously published). Authors may suggest preferred (with no conflicts of interest regarding the submission) or unpreferred Reviewers. Moreover, in accordance with ICMJE Recommendations (updated January 2024, Section II §A.4), Authors should disclose any use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of the manuscript. On behalf of all the Authors, the corresponding Author declares that the manuscript and its submission to Blood Transfusion have been approved by all contributors.

Authorship Statement Form

The corresponding Author must complete the Authorship Statement Form during submission. The Author who submits a paper for publication is responsible for all other Authors agreeing to its submission and to its content.

Communication

Communication between the journal and the corresponding Author is managed via the OJS platform. Authors will receive confirmation of manuscript receipt and can track the status of their submission on the website. Notifications regarding editorial decisions are also sent via OJS.

Publication Fees

BT is a free-access journal with no submission fees.

Accepted papers are subject to the following publication fees:

• Invited articles (Editorials, Commentaries, Reviews): Free of charge
• Original articles, uninvited articles (Guidelines, Reviews, Brief Reports, etc.): €820 (plus VAT, if applicable)
• Case reports: €625 (plus VAT, if applicable)
• New allele or antigen report: €123 (plus VAT, if applicable)
• Letters to the Editor: €82 (plus VAT, if applicable)
• For SIMTI members, publication is free if the corresponding Author is a regular SIMTI member.
• The Editorial Office will contact the corresponding Author before the acceptance phase to arrange payment and proceed with copyediting.

Peer Review Process

The peer review process consists of two stages:

• First stage: The Editor-in-Chief or Section Editor evaluates the manuscript based on its novelty, originality, and relevance to BT's scope. Articles that do not meet these criteria or do not have sufficient priority are desk-rejected.
• Second stage: Articles that pass the initial evaluation are sent to external Reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief or Section Editor is responsible for the first editorial decision, which may result in acceptance, rejection, or a request for revisions.

The first editorial decision is generally reached in 8 weeks, and most manuscripts require revision before final acceptance. Authors must submit the revised manuscript with highlighted changes and with a point-by-point response to Reviewers' comments. The final decision on acceptability is made by the Editor-in-Chief, based on input from the Section Editor and Reviewers. Once accepted, the manuscript is sent for copy editing.

Copy Editing

At the Editor's discretion, the accepted paper may be reviewed by a native English-speaking editor. Galley proofs will be sent via OJS to the corresponding Author for corrections and final approval. Authors are required to carefully review the proofs and return them within 7 days.  Substantial changes in the title, authorship, affiliations, content, corrected values, and references are not allowed without the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. If the proofs are not returned on time, the Editor's corrections will be final. Authors are responsible for any overlooked errors. The dates of submission and acceptance by the Section Editor and Editor-in-Chief will be noted on each publication.

A PDF copy of all published articles is available for free access in the AHEAD-OF-PRINT section in BT website. Paper reprints will be provided upon request by the Authors, and will incur additional charges.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

General instructions

BT publishes the types of articles defined below. When submitting your manuscript, follow the instructions relevant to the applicable article category.

Prepare a complete manuscript in Word and save it as .doc(x). Do not format the text with styles, borders, or shading; only use character styles such as italics, bold, underline, superscript, and subscript. Do not send the text in PDF format.

Text should be arranged as follows:

• First page
  • Title: the title (max 120 characters spaces included) should be specific to the study yet concise and should allow easy electronic retrieval of the article. It should be comprehensible to readers outside your field. Avoid specialist abbreviations if possible.
  • Running title: this should not exceed 60 characters including spaces.
  • Authors: please list all the Authors, providing first names, surnames and affiliations (use numbers in superscript when more departments have been involved). List ORCID ID alongside respective Authors, when available. Do not add any degrees or titles (e.g. MD, PhD, Dr, Prof).
    g.: Marco Rossi¹, Giulio Bianchi¹, Fabrizio Verdi²
  • Affiliation(s): department, university or organization, city, state/province (if applicable), and country - for all Authors.
  • Type of Article: categorize your article as one of the following types: Original article/Review article (meta-analysis)/Brief report/Commentary/Editorial/Letter to the Editor/Case report/Guideline-Recommendation.
  • Keywords: provide up to 5 key words. Use terms from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) from Index Medicus (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search); avoid commercial names.
  • Corresponding Author: please enter information regarding the Corresponding Author to whom the galley proofs will be sent: name and surname, complete mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address.
• The Abstract of original articles and reviews should be clear, concise, and not exceed 300 words. For other manuscripts, a short description is necessary during the submission phase.
• The main body of the manuscript should be written with line spacing of 1.5: see specific instructions for the article categories in section 4 of the present guidelines.
  • Units of measurement should be in the International System of Units (SI).
  • Mathematical terms, formulae, and abbreviations should conform to ICMJE standards (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). Use standard abbreviations only, spelling out the term followed by the abbreviation in parentheses on first mention, except for standard units of measurement. Drugs should be referred to by their chemical names; commercial names should only be used when necessary, capitalized, and followed by the manufacturer’s name, city, and country.
• Acknowledgements, conflict of interest disclosures, and sources of funding (e.g., grants) should appear at the end of the manuscript before the references. If no conflict or funding exists, please specify.
• Authors’ contributions: the individual contributions of Authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.
• Tables and figures:
  • Tables should be typewritten, numbered consecutively with Roman numerals, and not duplicate data presented in the text. Each table should have a brief title and be self-explanatory. Tables should supplement rather than repeat text information and be cited as (Table I, Table II, etc.). Include explanatory notes below the table and explain abbreviations in the table’s footer. Tables should be placed at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be uploaded as separate files and not included in the text file. Cite figures in the text, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Figure legends should be at the end of the text file, providing enough detail for the reader to understand without referring to the text. All symbols/acronyms in the figures must be explained. Remove any patient-identifying information. Preferably, send images in .TIFF or .JPEG formats, with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. You may also send high-resolution PDFs.
• References: each reference should include a digital object identifier (DOI), if available. If a DOI is not available, use the PMID number. Only strictly relevant references should be cited in the reference list, placed at the end of the manuscript. References should be numbered in the order they appear in the text and cited as superscripted numbers without parentheses (e.g., transfusion¹). When citing multiple references, separate numbers with commas, without spaces (e.g., transfusion^1,3,7). For consecutive numbers, use a hyphen (e.g., transfusion^1-4).

Journal names should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus or PubMedCentral. Abbreviations can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.

List up to six authors. For references with more than six authors, list the first six followed by "et al."

Personal communications, unpublished data, and manuscripts “submitted” or “in preparation” must be cited in the text, not in the reference list. Papers accepted for publication but not yet published can be included in the reference list with their DOI.

Examples are provided below:

• Citation from a Journal article (with 6 or fewer than 6 authors: list all authors. If more, list the first 6 authors followed by et al.)

Lazarski CA [without punctuation marks after the initial(s) of the first name], Toner k, Keller MD, Luban N, Young PP, Bollard CM, et al. Flow-based analysis of cell division identifies highly active populations within plasma products during mixed lymphocyte cultures. Blood Transfus. 2021; 19(6): 456-466. doi: 10.2450/2021.0096-21.

• Citation from a Journal article published online ahead of print. (with 6 or fewer than 6 authors: list all authors. If more, list the first 6 authors followed by et al.)

Bou-Fakhredin R [without punctuation marks after the initial(s) of the first name], Motta I, Cappellini MD. Advancing the care of ß-thalassaemia patients with novel therapies. Blood Transfus. 2021; doi: 10.2450/2021.0265-21. [Ahead of print]

• Citation from a Book

Issitt PD, Anstee DJ. (punctuation mark between authors and title) Applied Blood Group Serology. [title of the book in italics with the first letter of all words in capitals, except prepositions such as 'the', 'of', 'about' etc.) in capitals] 4^th ed. Durham, NC: Montgomery Scientific Publications; 1998.

• Citation of a Chapter in a book

Beatty PG. The molecular revolution in histocompatibility testing: relevance to blood and marrow transplantation. In: Garratty G, editor. Application of Molecular Biology to Blood Transfusion. Bethesda, MD: American Association of Blood Banks (or AABB); 1997. p. 51-72. [If there are six or more Editors, list only the first six and add "et al."].

• Citation of an Editorial

Brando B. Viable lymphocytes in fresh frozen plasma as a potential source of graft-versus-host disease: risks and solutions [editorial]. Blood Transfus. 2021; 19(6): 445-447. doi: 10.2450/2021.0186-21.

• Citation of an Abstract

Sevilla Navarro J. Aféresis en niños [abstract]. Blood Transfus. 2021; 19 (Suppl 2): PE-1.

• Citation of a Paper Conference

Anderson JC. Current status of chorion villus biopsy. In: Tudenhope D, Chenoweth J, editors. Proceedings of the 4^th Congress of the Australian Perinatal Society; 1986: Brisbane, Queensland: Australian Perinatal Society; 1987. p. 190-196.

• Citation of a Letter (with 6 or less than 6 authors: list all authors. If more, list the first 6 authors followed by et al.)

Trentino KM, Mace HS, Leahy MF, Sanfilippo FM, Farmer SL, Murray K. Appropriate red cell transfusions are often avoidable through Patient Blood Management [letter]. Blood Transfus. 2021; 19 (2): 177-178. doi: 10.2450/2020.0434-20.

• Citation of Electronic material

A concept paper on pre-storage leukocyte reduction of transfusion blood components. Food and Drug Administration. Available at: http//www.fda-gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/00/backgrd/3620b2,doc, followed by "Accessed on dd/mm/yyyy" (the date when the paper was downloaded from the website).

• Homepage/Web site

eatright.org [Internet]. Chicago: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Available from: https://www.eatright.org/. Followed by "Accessed on dd/mm/yyyy".

• Part of a homepage/Web site

American Medical Association [Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2016 [cited 2016 Dec 27]. Office of International Medicine; [about 2 screens]. Available from: https://www.ama-assn.org/about/office-international-medicine. Followed by "Accessed on dd/mm/yyyy".

• Database on the Internet

Who's Certified [Internet]. Evanston (IL): The American Board of Medical Specialists. c2000. Available from: https://www.abms.org/verify-certification/. Followed by "Accessed on dd/mm/yyyy".

• Part of a database on the Internet

MeSH Browser [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2002 -   . Meta-analysis; [about 1 p.]. Available from: https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D017418 MeSH Unique ID: D017418. Followed by "Accessed on dd/mm/yyyy".

TYPES OF ARTICLES - SUMMARY OF THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

This table captures the key manuscript requirements for each article type, adhering to the journal's guidelines for format, word count, and structure.

Here is a structured summary of manuscript requirements for each type of article:

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Word Limit: 3,500 words (excluding abstract, references, tables, and illustrations).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Abstract (max 300 words): Structured into Background, Material and methods, Results, and Discussion.
  • Introduction
  • Materials and methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements (if any)
  • Funding and resources (if any)
  • Authorship contributions
  • Disclosure of conflicts of interest
  • References (max 50)
  • Tables
  • Figure legends
• Max Tables/Figures: 6.
• Supplementary Material: Up to 2 tables/figures, cited as "Online Supplementary Content Table S#/Figure S#."

REVIEW

Word Limit: 4,500 words (excluding abstract, references, tables, and illustrations).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Abstract (max 300 words): Should summarize the entire manuscript without citations.
  • Main body (focus on scientific/clinical advances, critical discussion of data, influence on diagnostics/treatments).
  • References (max 100)
• Max Tables/Figures: 8.
• Supplementary Material: Up to 2 tables/figures, cited as "Online Supplementary Content Table S#/Figure S#."

COMMENTARY

Word Limit: 1,500 words (excluding references).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Free, opinion-based on recent papers or developments in the field.
• References: Max 20.
• Max Tables/Figures: 3.
• Abstract: Short description required during submission.

EDITORIAL

Word Limit: 1,500 words (excluding references).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Free, commentary on specific articles published in the same issue.
• References: Max 20.
• Max Tables/Figures: 1.
• Abstract: Short description required during submission.

BRIEF REPORT

Word Limit: 1,800 words (excluding references).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Introduction
  • Materials and methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements (if any)
  • Authorship contributions
  • Disclosure of conflicts of interest
  • References (max 20)
  • Tables
  • Figure legends
• Max Tables/Figures: 3.
• Abstract: Short description required during submission.

CASE REPORT

Word Limit: 1,000 words (excluding references).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Introduction
  • Case report with results
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgements (if any)
  • Authorship contributions
  • Disclosure of conflicts of interest
  • References (max 12)
  • Tables
  • Figure legends
• Max Tables/Figures: 2.
• Abstract: Short description required during submission.

GUIDELINE/RECOMMENDATION/POSITION PAPER

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Authors must explain the methodology used for creating the guideline/recommendation.
• References: Max 100.

NEW ALLELE OR ANTIGEN REPORT

Word Limit: 600 words (excluding references).

• Authors: No more than five Authors.
• Abstract: Short description required during submission.
• Structure:
  • First page
  • Free text (including Introduction - Methods - Results - Ethnicity; prevalence or allele frequency – Conclusions)
  • Disclosure of conflicts of interest
  • References (max 5)
  • Table or Figure: 1

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Word Limit: 500 words (excluding references).

• Structure:
  • First page
  • Free text
• Max Tables/Figures: 1.
• References: Max 5.
• Authors: No more than five Authors.
• Abstract: Short description required during submission.