Original Article

Original articles must have a maximum of 300 words for structured abstracts and 3,500 words for the article, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. The number of references should be no more than 50 and the number of figures, tables, and graphs should not exceed 8 in total.

Clinical Trial: an experimental study assessing the effect of 2 or more interventions. Reporting should follow the CONSORT flowchart matching the study design. For non-randomized trials involving habit or behavioral interventions, follow the TREND guidelines. 

Decision Analysis or Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: a study analyzing the optimal choice of clinical care by projecting the consequences of different medical care options. The report should follow the Second Panel on Cost-Effectiveness in Health and Medicine (Sanders et al. JAMA. 2016;316[10]: 1093-1103) to report economic evaluations of health interventions.

Diagnostic Study: A study that compares the performance of 2 or more diagnostic tests or strategies. Authors should follow the STARD guidelines.

Observational Study: Studies that observe patients who are exposed to certain potential risk factors or interventions, where researchers do not assign the interventions to the study’s subjects. This includes cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies. Authors should follow the STROBE guidelines with respect to their study designs.

Prognostic Study: A study that estimates the risk of a certain clinical endpoint associated with potential risk factors or predictors in a defined period of time. Authors should follow the TRIPOD guidelines.

Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis: A systematic review is an appraisal of current evidence in a certain field, using an explicit protocol to identify, appraise, and synthesize the studies of a similar question. Meta-analysis further quantifies the result of a systematic review. Authors should use the PRISMA flow diagram to report the study yield and selection.

Case Report

A case report presents an interesting, rare, and/or novel clinical case regarding newly described clinical presentation, diagnostic dilemma, or treatment responses that need further insight into the underlying mechanism. Limited to 1,500 words and requiring an unstructured abstract (150-200 words). The reference list should be no more of 20 in total and tables/figures should be a maximum of 2 in total. Authors should follow the CARE guidelines when applicable.

Evidence-Based Case Report: An evidence-based case report (EBCR) is a case report from which the author formulates a structured clinical question. This question generates key terms that can be used for yielding articles from an evidence database. After the relevant evidence has been identified and appraised, clinician informs a management plan for the patient based on the result and the clinician’s clinical experiential knowledge.

Review Article

Also known as a narrative review, this article explores clinical, translational, or basic science topic of interests. The article should be comprehensive, clinically relevant, and balanced. Basic science articles should discuss the relevance of cellular or biomolecular aspects to clinical diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment. The article should consist of up to 4000 words, including 150-200 words of unstructured abstract. The reference list should be no more than 100. Authors are encouraged to use figures, tables, and boxes up to 8 in total.