Submissions

Author Guidelines

BLOOD TRANSFUSION – Author Guidelines

Open Journal Systems (OJS) - (rev. 0 – January 16, 2023)

1. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS (including editorial standards for the preparation of manuscripts)

Blood Transfusion (BT) is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed Journal 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 Spanish Society of Blood Transfusion and Cellular Therapy (Sociedad Española de Transfusión Sanguinea y Terapia Celular, SETS).

It publishes Original Articles, Reviews, Editorials, Commentaries, Guidelines/Recommendations, Position papers, Case reports and Letters on all topics related to Transfusion Medicine, Immunohematology, Hemostasis and Thrombosis.

The main fields of interest are:

• 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
• Other

BT follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations. It is published in English, though proceedings of Congresses and Meetings may be published in the original language.

Authors' opinions may not necessarily reflect those of SIMTI and the other Affiliated Societies or Editorial Board of Blood Transfusion.

Blood Transfusion is a Free On-Line Access Publication, as the Editorial Board and all the Affiliated Scientific Societies believe that papers reporting the results of scientific research should be openly and freely accessible by the entire scientific community.

Authors are also strongly recommended to read the following Guidelines and the to download the “Template”.

Authors need to register with the journal (https://www.bloodtransfusion.it) prior to submitting their article via the online submission platform (Open Journal Systems [OJS]) or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the submission process which is guided by OJS. Authors will be required to fill in a checklist as a first step of the submission process.

• The official language of the journal is English.
• Texts must be original and should not be presented simultaneously to more than one journal.
• All scientific papers are published in English with title, abstract and key words. When needed the text of accepted articles will be submitted to English language review by the publisher at no costs to the Authors. The Editor reserves the right to refuse any article not written in an appropriate English style. Only papers strictly adhering to the editorial instructions outlined herein will be considered for publication. Acceptance is upon the critical assessment by experts in the field (Reviewers), the introduction of any changes requested and the final decision of the Editor-in-Chief.
• Submission implies that publication has been approved by all co-Authors, as well as by the Director of the Institute or Department where the work has been carried out.

TEMPLATE TO PREPARE THE MANUSCRIPT

Before you prepare your manuscript, download the “Template” and use it as a starting point for your manuscript. If you already have prepared your paper, please use “copy - paste special - unformatted text” to enter your text in the Template. Please prepare a complete manuscript in the Word Template and save it in .doc(x). Upload all figures and Online Supplementary content in separate files. Further instructions are available on the “template” and are also indicated below.

2. AUTHORSHIP STATEMENT FORM

The corresponding Author must fill in the Authorship Statement form during the submission process.

3. COMMUNICATION

Communication between the Journal and the corresponding Author is managed by the OJS system.

Corresponding Author should use only the discussion boxes to communicate with the Journal.

After submission, you will receive a confirmation of receipt of your manuscript via OJS. You can also check the status of your manuscript on the website. The Editorial Office will inform you via OJS once a decision has been reached.

4. PUBLICATION FEE

Blood Transfusion is a free access Journal with no manuscript submission fee.

For accepted manuscripts the publication fees are as follows:

• Invited articles (Editorials, Commentaries, Reviews): Free of charge.
• Original articles, uninvited articles (Guidelines, Reviews, Editorials, Brief report, Commentaries etc.): € 820 (plus VAT when applicable).
• Case reports: € 625 (plus VAT when applicable).
• Letters to the Editor: € 82 (plus VAT when applicable).

Publications from SIMTI members are free of charge: the corresponding Author must be a regular SIMTI member.

The Editorial Office will contact the corresponding Author before the stage of production to settle the payment.

Galley proofs will be sent via OJS to the corresponding Author for final approval. The Authors are required to carefully check the proofs and return them within 7 days of receipt. Substantial changes in title, authorship, affiliations, content, corrected values and references are not allowed without the approval of the Editor-in Chief. If the proofs are not received in time, the Authors will have to rely on the Editor's corrections only. The Authors are responsible for mistakes that have been overlooked. The date of receipt and the date of acceptance by the Section Editor – Editor-in-Chief will appear on each publication. The article is usually published online first after receipt of the corrected proof. A pdf of all articles published are available in free access at https://www.bloodtransfusion.it/bt/issue/view/ahead-of-print. Paper reprints will be provided only if requested by the Authors and will be charged at extra cost.

5.  MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

5.1 General instructions

Blood Transfusion publishes the types of articles defined below. When submitting your manuscript, please follow the instructions relevant to the applicable article category. Your manuscript will be returned to you if it does not meet these criteria.

Please prepare a complete manuscript in the Word “Template” and save it in .doc(x). Do not format the text in any way (avoid styles, borders, shading...); use only character styles such as italics, bold, underlined, super and subscript. Do not send the text in PDF.

Text should be arranged as follows:

• A concise and informative title not exceeding 120 characters including spaces.
• Running title not exceeding 60 characters including spaces.
• The Authors’ full first names and surnames.
• Name and address of the Institute or Institutes where the work was carried out; if the Authors are affiliated with different Institutes, the first Author and any others from the same Institute should be indicated with 1 (in superscript), the names of the Authors from another Institute with 2, and so on.
• Name (written in full), surname and address of the corresponding Author, including telephone and e-mail address, to whom galley proofs are to be addressed.
• Type of article: categorize the article in one of the following types: Original Article/Review article (meta-analysis)/Commentary/Editorial/Brief Report/Case Report/Guideline-Recommendation/Letter to the Editor.
• The abstract of original articles and reviews should be clear and concise and should not exceed 300 For all other manuscripts, a short description of the paper is necessary.
• Key words max 5. Please use terms listed in the Medical Subject Headings from Index Medicus (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search);
• Main body of manuscript: see specific instructions for article categories, below.
• Units of measurement should be expressed in the International System of Units.
• Mathematical terms and formulae and abbreviations should conform to the standards set out in https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf. Use only standard abbreviations. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement. Drugs should be referred to by their chemical name; the commercial name should be used only when absolutely unavoidable (capitalizing the first letter of the product name and giving the name of the pharmaceutical firm manufacturing the drug, town and country).
• Acknowledgements and mention of any financial/conflict of interest and/or source of funding (grants or other forms of support) should appear at the end of the paper, before the list of references. Even in case of no financial/conflict of interest or source of funding, please specify it in this section.

5.2 Tables and figures

• Tables should be typewritten and numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. The same data should not be presented twice, both in the text and tables. Each table should have above a brief title and be self-explanatory and be cited in the text (Table I, Table II, etc.). The table should supplement the information in the text rather than duplicate it. Insert any notes below. Explain all the abbreviations at the footer of the table.
• Figures should be uploaded in separate files. Do not include the figures in the text file but only cite them, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) in the text file. Figure legends should be indicated at the end of the text file and allow the reader to understand the figures without reference to the text. All symbols used in figures should be explained. Remove any information that can identify a patient. Software and format: preferably send images in .TIFF or .JPEG format, resolution at least 300 dpi (IMPORTANT: maximum dimension for each single file/image is 2 Mb). Insert an extension that identifies the file format (example: .TIFF; .JPEG).

5.3 References

DOI number must be included with each reference (when available). If DOI is not available, use PMID number.

Only strictly relevant references should be cited in the reference list, which should be placed at the end of the manuscript. The references should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. A reference in the text is identified as a superscripted number (without parentheses) after the text that quotes the corresponding paper listed in the reference list (e.g., transfusion¹). Please do not use Zotero while compiling your list.

If more than one citation is required, the reference numbers in the text are separated by a comma with no space in between (e.g., transfusion^1,3,7).

If there are more than two consecutive reference numbers in the text, only the first and the last numbers, separated by a hyphen, should be cited (e.g., transfusion^1-4). In the reference list, Journal names should be abbreviated as described in Index Medicus and PubMedCentral. Abbreviations can also be obtained from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals website.

The names of up to six authors should be listed. If a reference has six or more authors, only the first six should be listed, followed by "et al".

Personal communications, unpublished observations, and manuscripts that have been "submitted" or are "in preparation" must be cited in the text, but not included in the reference list.

Only papers accepted for publication can be included in the reference list, even if they have not been published by the time of manuscript submission. In this case, add the DOI number.

Some examples are given 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: 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: 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: 177-178. doi: 10.2450/2020.0434-20.

Citation of Electronic material

A concept paper on prestorage 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".

 6. TYPES OF ARTICLES - SUMMARY OF THEIR CHARACTERISTICS