Survey (Review) or Meta-analysis Article Template 1
INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
Survey (Review) or Meta-analysis Article
Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis (Fewer than 5000 words)

Must organize as a QUESTION-DRIVEN Text: authors should pose 2-4 specific
questions or purposes in the Introduction and then have 2-4 corresponding paragraphs
in Discussion. Questions or purposes must be posed in terms of study variables to be
addressable. Perhaps the best questions are those that can be unequivocally
answered, “yes” or “no” by the parameters collected from the literature review.
These are meant to focus the reader on the messages you think are most important.
Purposes or questions such as “what are the results…” are vague, are not posed in
terms of the study variables, and do not define which findings you think are most
important. Rather ask: does technique x alter outcome y, does factor x improve
expression of y…, etc. While all data relevant to the questions should appear in tables
or figures, not all data need be repeated in the text.
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Must use TEMPLATE for guide: (see below)
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Survey articles must have Introduction and Discussion sections, but the intervening
sections may vary depending upon the particulars of the topic.

Systematic reviews follow the Cochrane guidelines:
The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
Meta-analyses follow the QUORUM (Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses)
guidelines and should include a flow chart as shown in the article. Click for
article.
Moher D, Cook DJ, Eastwood S, Olkin I, Rennie D, Stroup DF. Improving the quality of
reports of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials: the QUOROM statement.
QUOROM Group. Br J Surg. 2000;87:1448-1454.
Authorship
We believe it important to document the adequate participation of all authors in at least
three major elements of a study and report; the number of authors will generally relate to
the scope of the project. While we have no strict limits, Survey Articles generally require
no more than 5 authors.
TITLE PAGE
This page must include the following:
 Title (containing fewer than 80 characters including spaces)
 Running title (containing fewer than 40 characters including spaces)
 Author name(s) and final degree(s)
 The affiliation(s), and address(es), and e-mail addresses of all author(s)
Survey (Review) or Meta-analysis Article Template 2
 Conflict of interest statement
 A statement of the location where the work was performed (only if authors from
multiple institutions)
 Word Count (Introduction through Discussion): Generally limit manuscripts to
fewer than 5000 words.
 The Corresponding Author name and e-mail address (must be same as
Corresponding Author in Editorial Manager).
Survey (Review) or Meta-analysis Article Template 3
Abstract: Your Abstract must be structured with the following five sections and contain
fewer than 250 words.

Background

Questions/purposes

Methods

Results

Conclusions
Note: Authors of meta-analyses must follow QUORUM guidelines. These guidelines
have been established to tell authors what information is required to ensure readers can
properly evaluate a study.
Introduction (maximum of 500 words)

All manuscripts must contain an Introduction, typically three to four paragraphs.

Generally include one paragraph of background, one or two of rationale, and a final
paragraph stating the questions or purposes.
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Generally formulate no more than two to four questions or purposes; each should be
sufficiently important that their answers would appear in an Abstract.
Search Strategy and Criteria
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Specify all search engines (eg, MedLine, EMBASE, Google Scholar).

Note all search criteria including Boolean operators and Medline Field Tags (if any).
Note the number of initial articles you identified, then the numbers reduced by
exclusion criteria.

Create a flow chart noting the numbers of articles identified initially, then the
exclusion steps with the numbers left after each exclusion. As with any experimental
study, the descriptions should be sufficiently complete than another investigator would
essentially be able to reproduce your findings from your descriptions (realizing later
dates of search will yield somewhat differing results).
In studies reporting clinical results, describe how you judged study quality. Note the number
of individuals who reviewed all studies, whether they reviewed them independently, and the
parenthetically note (after the number of individuals) the initials of those persons evaluating the
studies. For an example see Whiting et al., The development of QUADAS: a tool for the quality
assessment of studies of diagnostic accuracy included in systematic reviews. BMC Med Res Methodol.
2003 Nov 10;3:25We suggest you follow the Cochrane study guidelines

Any summary of individual articles should appear in this section (if brief) or in an
Appendix (if more than 500 words), with Results limited to that summary information
required to address the questions.
Survey (Review) or Meta-analysis Article Template 4
Results (maximum of 500 words)

Ensure a one-to-one correspondence of questions raised in the Introduction and
answers provided in Results. Provide one paragraph for each explicit question.
Discussion (maximum of 1000 words)
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Begin with a restatement of rationale and the questions.

Briefly describe the literature limitations and those specific to your review. Readers
should generally understand from this review what sorts of questions might be
answered and which could not be.
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Highlight major controversies and unresolved issues. That is, what studies would be
needed to address the major issues.
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End with a synthesis addressing the key questions.
Acknowledgments
Note any nonfinancial acknowledgments. Begin with, “We thank…” and note the nature
of the contribution.
References

Ensure your references are complete and in alphabetical order and proper format
(please see our published instructions on our Website).
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Please limit the number of figures to 15 or less.

In-text citations should appear before commas and periods and located in a sentence
immediately after the point they are documenting.
Legends
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Provide brief legends to include the major point.

Figure legends should be written in complete sentences.
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Please limit the number of relevant references to 50 or less.
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Illustrations with multiple figures (eg, 1A, 1B, 1C) must be labeled "A," "B," and "C"
in the lower left hand corner. Each illustration requires a separate legend.
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Figures should be uploaded and separately labeled in Editorial Manager.

Color illustrations should be used for anatomical photographs, photomicrographs,
complex graphics; black and white should be used for other illustrations including
most histograms.