Revised on March 29, 2024

▣ General guidelines ▣

The Korean Journal of Medical Ethics is the official journal of The Korean Society for Medical Ethics. The journal follows the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, except as otherwise indicated in the instructions below.

1. Types of articles

The Korean Journal of Medical Ethics publishes articles in the areas of medical ethics and medical ethics education, as well as articles that involve interdisciplinary research on the ethical, legal, or social aspects of biomedicine. In general, the journal accepts articles only from members of The Korean Society for Medical Ethics; however, exceptions can be made in certain cases with the approval of the editorial board. The types of manuscripts acceptable for publication are limited to original articles, commentaries, replies, editorials, and solicited manuscripts. In addition to the existing manuscript format, brief communications and reports are also possible in the case of solicited manuscripts. Original articles should present new facts, theories, or methodologies.

2. Overlapping publications

Manuscripts submitted for publication must not duplicate previously published work, including published work of the submitting author(s), and may not be submitted to any other journal while under review at the Korean Journal of Medical Ethics. Duplicate publications may be approved in the case of articles translated from one language to another, but such articles must conform to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

3. IRB deliberation

Authors must submit IRB certification or confirmation of exemption from deliberation when submitting manuscripts that present experimental research.

4. Authorship

To be an author of a submitted manuscript, one must (a) contribute in a substantial way either to the conception or design of the relevant study or to the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data; (b) either write the manuscript or critically revise important parts of it; (c) approve the final version of the manuscript before publication; and (d) appropriately investigate and resolve issues related to the accuracy or truthfulness of the research. This definition of authorship is based on the guidelines of the ICMJE (https://www.icmje.org/).

5. Research ethics violations

If academic misconduct is suspected or questions are raised about the truthfulness of the content of a manuscript submitted to this journal, the editorial committee will conduct a thorough investigation. If research misconduct is detected, the editor-in-chief may call for the contributor in question to be disciplined in accordance with research ethics regulations.

6. Conflicts of interest

Authors must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest associated with the research presented in their submissions.

7. Submission procedure

Authors should upload their manuscripts at the homepage of the Korean Society for Medical Ethics (https://submission.e-kjme.org). Manuscripts cannot be further modified once they have been uploaded.

8. Publication

While the journal is published quarterly (at the end of March, June, September, and December), manuscripts may be submitted at any time of the year through the journal’s online manuscript submission system. Manuscripts should conform to the journal’s requirements, and corresponding authors should complete the author’s checklist and copyright transfer forms. Once all required documents have been received, an email message will be sent to the corresponding author confirming that their submission is complete.

9. Manuscript review process

Submitted manuscripts will undergo a peer review process involving at least two reviewers chosen by the editorial board. Reviewers will not be informed of the authors’ identities, affiliations, or research funding sources.

10. Article-processing charges

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication will be charged an article-processing fee of 200,000 KRW (or 400,000 KRW for manuscripts that are supported by research funding. Solicited manuscripts will not be subject to any fees unless they are supported by research funding.

Account number: 100-021-780130; Shinhan Bank

11. The role of the editors

Authors may contact the editorial board for further information concerning the submission and editing of manuscripts. The editorial board may request that manuscripts be revised in light of reviewers’ comments, and submitted manuscripts will not be returned to the author.

Editorial board of the Korean Journal of Medical Ethics

Dong-A University Medical School, 32, Daesingongwon-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 49201, KOREA

E-mail: kjmedicalethics@gmail.com

10. Copyright

The Korean Society for Medical Ethics maintains copyright on all articles (including all text, tables, and figures) that are published in its journal.

▣ Detailed instructions ▣

1. Manuscript formatting

Manuscripts should be double-spaced using either Hangul or MS-Word, with 25 mm margins on all sides of A4 paper. Manuscripts should be written either in Korean or English and should contain both page numbers and line numbers.

2. Nomenclature

With respect to medical terminology, the journal follows the latest edition of the medical terminology guidelines published by the Korean Medical Association.

3. Title page

Title pages should include the title of the article, the full names of all authors, their institutional affiliations (written in both Korean and English), and the authors’ ORCID IDs. If there are more than two authors, the names of all authors, except for the corresponding author, should be arranged according to their contributions to the relevant research and writing of the article. The corresponding author’s name should be listed last. The lower part of the page should contain the name, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author. Authors should also clearly indicate on the title page whether the work was supported by research funding and include any acknowledgments and/or information concerning presentations related to the manuscript. The title page should be uploaded as an attached file, separate from the manuscript.

4. Manuscript organization

Research articles written in Korean should be arranged in the following order: a) title, b) abstract (in Korean), c) keywords (in Korean: no more than six words), d) text, e) references, f) abstract (in English), and g) keywords (in English; no more than six words). Commentaries and replies should be arranged as follows: a) title, b) text, and c) references. Keywords should be selected from among the terms in

the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus (available at, https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search). When using a term that is not contained in Index Medicus, terms commonly used in academia are used. The first letter of each keyword should be capitalized.

5. Title and abstract

The title of the article should be centered on the first page and should be as brief but informative as possible, avoiding the use of abbreviations or redundant phrases such as ‘study’ or ‘observation.’ Each abstract (Korean and English) should be structured in a single paragraph of 100-200 words.

6. Text

(1) The text should be structured in one of the following two formats: (a) introduction, body, and conclusion; or (b) introduction, research methods, research results, discussion, and conclusion. Sections should be numbered as follows:

• Ⅰ., Ⅱ., Ⅲ., Ⅳ., ……
• 1., 2., 3., 4., ……
• 1), 2), 3), 4), ……
• a., b., c., d., ……
• ⅰ), ⅱ), ⅲ), ⅳ), ……

(2) Authors should ensure that the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are used correctly when they are used to classify research subjects. The methods used to determine the sex or gender of subjects should also be explained. Studies that exclude members of one sex within a population should contain a justification for the exclusion. Authors should also explain how they determined the ‘race’ or ‘ethnicity' of research subjects and justify their use of those categories.

(3) The text shall be prepared in accordance with the Vancouver reference style. For works written by two authors, both last names should be cited; for works by three or more authors, the citation should include only the first author’s last name, followed by ‘et al.’ Reference numbers are given in square brackets, as in the following examples.

• One author: Kamm [19] uses the concept of ‘replacement by the same thing’ to explain the fairness of the principle of rescuing more people.
• Two authors: Beauchamp & Childress [16] interpreted it as ‘delegating the decision to the family’ by saying, ‘Even if a patient delegates that right to someone, the choice to delegate it is autonomous in itself.’
• More than three authors: In addition, Emanuel et al. describe the benefits to be given not only to the individual under study but also to the general population of the subject [14].

(4) For articles written in Korean, any person, name, institution, organization, or other proper noun shall be used in Korean as much as possible, with the original name in the Latin alphabet stated in parentheses only once. In the case of an abbreviation, the entire proper noun and abbreviation shall be indicated in parentheses only for the first occurrence of the proper noun.

(5) When indicating the date of birth and death of an individual, do so in parentheses. All numbers should be Arabic, and units should be those in the International System of Units (SI units).

7. References

(1) References should be listed in English in the order cited in the text according to the Vancouver style, which uses a unique acronym set by the National Library of Medicine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals) . For journals with no

standard abbreviations, the full journal name should be used.

(2) For works by three or fewer authors, the names of all authors should be included; works by four or more authors should include the names of only three authors, followed by ‘et al.’

(3) References to journal articles should be arranged as follows: author’s name, title of the article, title of the journal, date of publication, volume number, and page numbers. References to books should be arranged as follows: author’s name, title of the book, edition used, place of publication, name of the publisher, and date of publication.

Examples:

[Journal article without doi]

Teno J, Lynn J, Phillips RS, et al. Do formal advance directives affect resuscitation decisions and the use of resources for seriously ill patients? J Clin Ethics 1994; 5(1): 23-61.

[Journal article with doi]

Choi EK, Shin SJ, Yoo SH. Covid-19 and research ethics. Korean J Med Ethics 2021; 24(1): 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.35301/ksme.2021.24.1.1

[Book]

Pellegrino ED, Thomasma DC. The virtues in medical practice. New York: Oxford University Press; 1993.

[Article in a book]

Stufflebeam DL. Foundational models for 21st century programme evaluation. In: Stufflebeam DL, Madaus GF, Kellaghan T, editors. Evaluation models: viewpoints on educational and human services evaluation. 2nd ed. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 2000. pp.33-84.

[Dissertation]

Won JS. An ethnographic study of caring for dying patient with cancer [Doctorate]. [Seoul (Korea)]: Ewha Womans University; 1993. p.33.

[Material on the Internet]

World Health Organization [WHO]. Mortality country fact sheet 2006 [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2006 [cited 2007 Feb 22]. Available from: http://www.who.int/whosis/mort_emro_pak_pakistan.pdf

[Newspaper article]

Gaul G. When geography influences treatment options. Washington Post (Maryland Ed.). 2005 Jun 24: Sect. A:12(col.1.).

8. Figures and tables

(1) Figures and tables must be written in English. When Korean text is necessary, it should be placed in the Appendix.

(2) Figures must be clear and concise and inserted in the text of the article. All abbreviations should be explained at the bottom of the figures or tables, and explanatory statements should be included to enable readers to understand them without referring to the text. Phrases such as ‘the same as above’ should be avoided.

(3) A brief title in a phrase or clause should be provided for each figure and table. Vertical lines should not be used in tables. Symbols such as *, †, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, ** may be used in sequence and explained in foot notes.

(4) Permission must be obtained when using copyrighted tables and pictures.

9. Attached files

When submitting a manuscript using the online submission system, any images or tables presented in the text should be included in separate files and uploaded using the ‘image file’ and ‘table file’ options. The title page, a copyright transfer agreement, ICMJE’s conflict of interest form (http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf), and a manuscript similarity test should also be uploaded in the appropriate submission boxes.

10. Others

Details not stated in these instructions will be decided by the editorial board.