Information For Authors

Context

Novel Forensic Research (NOFOR) is a scientific, open access periodical published with the principles of independent, impartial and double-blind refereeing. The journal publishes articles in English language and is issued three times a year in January, May, and September. Articles must be written in English and meet the requirements of the journal. All articles to be published in the journal must comply with research and publication ethics.

The Novel Forensic Research (NOFOR) journal aims to contribute to the scientific world with the most innovative, cutting-edge, and influential publications in the field of general forensic science.

The journal strives for an international authorship and publishes a broad scope of forensic sciences including:

Forensic pathology
Clinical forensic medicine
Forensic psychiatry
Forensic toxicology and chemistry (including drugs, alcohol, etc.)
Forensic biology (including the identification of hairs and fibers)
Forensic genetics
Anthropology
Criminalistics
Document examination
Accident investigation
Crime scene investigation
Explosive
Quality assurance
Forensic entomology
Forensic odontology
Digital evidence
Gunshot injury, etc.

The magazine publishes:

1. Original Research Articles (Regular Papers)
2. Review Articles
3. Case Report
4. Rapid Communications
5. Technical Notes
6. Preliminary Communications
7. Letters to the Editor
8. Commentaries

Manuscript Preparation

• For comprehensive information regarding the journal’s policies on submission, peer-review, publication, and ethical standards, kindly visit the Policies page. Similarly, for detailed information about the journal, please visit the Journal page.

It is strongly advised to review the journal’s policies before submitting any manuscripts to ensure compliance with the journal’s guidelines.

Manuscripts submitted for evaluation should be original and not previously presented or published in any electronic or print medium. If a manuscript was previously presented at a conference or meeting, authors should provide detailed information about the event, including the name, date, and location of the organization.

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with ICMJE-Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated in May 2023). 

Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the relevant guideline listed below:

•    Randomized research studies and clinical trials: CONSORT guidelines (for protocols, please see the SPIRIT guidance)
•    Observational original research studies: STROBE guidelines 
•    Studies on diagnostic accuracy: STARD guidelines
•    Systematic reviews and meta-analysis: PRISMA guidelines (for protocols, please see the PRISMA-P guidelines)
•    Experimental animal studies: ARRIVE guidelines and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, 8th edition
•    Nonrandomized evaluations of behavioral and public health interventions: TREND guidelines
•    Case report: the CARE case report guidelines
•    Genetic association studies: STREGA
•    Qualitative research: SRQR guidelines

To find the right guideline for your research, please complete the questionnaire by Equator Network here.

Novel Forensic Science encourages authors to follow the ‘Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER – guidelines’ when preparing their manuscripts to promote the inclusion of sex and gender considerations in research. Before submission, authors can consult EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators to produce clear, concise and accurate manuscripts that are easy to understand and free of common errors and pitfalls.

The style of manuscripts should follow the AMA Manual of Style, 11th Edition.

Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system. Manuscripts submitted via any other medium and submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be evaluated.

In addition to the manuscript files, authors are required to submit the following during the initial submission:

Authors are required to submit the following:

• Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship Formand
• ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (should be filled in by all contributing authors) during the initial submission. These forms are available for download at https://www.nofor.org 

Preparation of the Manuscript

Title page: A separate title page should be submitted with all submissions and this page should include:

· The full title of the manuscript as well as a short title (running head) of no more than 50 characters,
· Name(s), affiliations, highest academic degree(s), and ORCID IDs of the author(s),
· Grant information and detailed information on the other sources of support,
· Name, address, telephone (including the mobile phone number), and email address of the corresponding author,
· Acknowledgment of the individuals who contributed to the preparation of the manuscript but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria.

· If the author(s) is a member of the journal’s Editorial Board, this should be specified in the title page.

ORCID ID
The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) number of each author must be submitted when creating an account for correspondence. To obtain an ORCID number, please visit  https://orcid.org/

Abstract: An abstract should be submitted with all submissions except for Letters to the Editor. The abstract of Research Articles should be structured with subheadings (Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion). Please check Table 1 below for word count specifications.

Keywords: Each submission must be accompanied by a minimum of three to a maximum of five keywords for subject indexing at the end of the abstract. The keywords should be listed in full without abbreviations. The keywords should be selected from the National Library of Medicine, Medical Subject Headings database (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).

Main Points: All submissions except letters to the editor should be accompanied by 3 to 5 “main points.” These main points should highlight the most important results of the study and emphasize the main message of the manuscript. The main points should be structured as a list and should be written in a clear and straightforward manner. Since the main points are intended for experts and specialists in the field, they should be written in plain language that is easy to understand. By including main points with the manuscript, authors can help ensure that the most important findings and messages of their study are conveyed clearly to the reader.

Manuscript Types

Original Articles
Research articles provide new information based on original research. The acceptance of research articles is typically based on the originality and importance of the research. The main text of a Research Article should be structured with subheadings, including Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Limitations, drawbacks, and the shortcomings of original articles should be mentioned in the Discussion section before the conclusion paragraph. All research involving human subjects, medical records, or human tissues must be reviewed and approved by a reviewer board, such as an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee, before it is conducted. For detailed information, please see details under the “Publication Ethics” section. 

Please check Table 1 for the limitations for Original Articles.

Clinical Trials 

Novel Forensic Research adopts the ICMJE‘s clinical trial registration policy, which requires that clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov. By registering clinical trials in a publicly accessible registry, authors can help to promote transparency and accountability in their research.

Instructions for the clinical trials are listed below.

• Clinical trial registry is only required for the prospective research projects that study the relationship between a health-related intervention and an outcome by assigning people to different groups. 
• To have their manuscript evaluated in the journal, author should register their research to a public registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment.
• Based on most up to date ICMJE recommendations, Novel Forensic Research accepts public registries that include minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration dataset.
• Authors are required to state a data sharing plan for the clinical trial registration. Please see details under “Data Sharing” section.
•For further details, please check ICMJE Clinical Trial Policy and COPE Data and Reproducibility guidelines.

For Journal Articles

Lamy A, Tong W, Devereaux PJ, Gao P, Gafni A, Singh K, et al. The cost implications of off-pump versus on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery at one year. Ann Thorac Surg 2014;98:1620-5.

For Book References

DiMaio WJ, DiMaio D. Time of death. In: Forensic Pathology. 2nd edition. CRC Press, London, 2001;21-42.

Madea B, Henssge C. Timing of death. In: Payne-James J, Busuttil A, Smock W, eds, Forensic Medicine: Clinical Pathological Aspects. London: Greenwich Medical Media Ltd. 2003;91-114.

For Internet References

Beware: Toy Noise may be too loud for kids. http://hearingaiddocs. wordpress.com/tag/loud-toys access date 22.04.2013

For Congress Presentations

Brandes U, Wagner D. A Bayesian paradigm for dynamic graph layout. 11th International Symposium on Graph Drawing, 12-15 November 2003. New York, USA, 236-47.

For Newspaper References

Susan S. How to prevent breast cancer. Australian 23 October 2003.

For CD-ROM References

The Oxford English Dictionary [CD-ROM]. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 1992.

For Accepted Articles

Kaya A, Aktas EO. Perception differences between in violence against child. Med-Science. Published Online: Nov 19, 2013.

For Thesis

Karakoc Y. Biological effect of direct electrical current in essential (idiopathic) hyperhidrosis. Ph.D. thesis, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 1996.

In case of use of a previously published table, figure or illustration, reference of the material must be cited in reference list.

In case of use of a previously published table, figure or illustration, reference of the material must be cited in reference list.

Tables
Tables should be included in the main document, presented after the reference list, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text. A descriptive title must be placed above the tables. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the tables by footnotes (even if they are defined within the main text). Tables should be created using the “insert table” command of the word processing software and they should be arranged clearly to provide easy reading. Data presented in the tables should not be a repetition of the data presented within the main text but should be supporting the main text. Include written permission from both the author and the publisher to reproduce any previously published table(s) in both print and electronic media.

Figures and Figure Legends

Figures, graphics, and photographs should be submitted as separate files (in TIFF or JPEG format) through the submission system. The files should not be embedded in a Word document or the main document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should not be merged to form a single image. Each subunit should be submitted separately through the submission system. Images should not be labeled (a, b, c, etc.) to indicate figure subunits. Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks, and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legends. Like the rest of the submission, the figures too should be blind. Any information within the images that may indicate an individual or institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process, all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions: 100 × 100 mm). Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document.

All acronyms and abbreviations used in the manuscript should be defined at first use, both in the abstract and in the main text. The abbreviation should be provided in parentheses following the definition.

When a drug, product, hardware, or software program is mentioned within the main text, product information, including the name of the product, the producer of the product, and city and the country of the company (including the state if in USA), should be provided in parentheses in the following format: “Discovery St PET/CT scanner (General Electric, Milwaukee, WI, USA)”

All references, tables, and figures should be referred to within the main text, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text.
Limitations, drawbacks, and the shortcomings of original articles should be mentioned in the Discussion section before the conclusion paragraph.

Revisions

Authors must indicate the changes on the main text while resubmitting revised files, and also answers to each reviewer suggestions separately must be included in the letter. Page and line number of corrections must be included as well. Revised form of manuscripts must be sent to journal within 30 days, otherwise revision option may be canceled. Warning letter will be sent and then after 15 days, manuscript will be rejected. If authors need extension of time for revisions anyhow, the journal must be informed before the deadline of revision.

Proofs and Publication DOI Number

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, it goes through a copy-editing process by professional language editors to ensure that it is clear and well-written. This process may involve correcting grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors, as well as making changes to improve the overall clarity and readability of the manuscript.

After the copy-editing process is complete, the manuscript is published online as an “ahead-of-print” publication, which means that it is available to readers before it is included in a scheduled issue of the journal. This allows readers to access the latest research as soon as it becomes available.

Before the manuscript is officially published, the corresponding author is sent a PDF proof of the accepted manuscript for review. The corresponding author is asked to review the proof and approve it for publication within a specified time period, typically 2 days. This is an important step in the publication process, as it allows the author to catch any errors or make any final changes before the manuscript is published.

Acceptance

The submitted papers will be published upon the editorial board’s approval. Rejected manuscripts and their attachments (photographs, tables, graphics, and diskettes) will not be returned unless otherwise requested by the authors.

Prof. Dr. Osman CELBİŞ

Editor in Chief of Novel Forensic Research (NOFOR)

Department of Forensic Medicine,
Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University,
Faculty of Medicine, Alanya, Türkiye
Tel: +90 532 364 26 66
noforjournal@gmail.com

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