Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
• Authors agree to Transfer all copyrights and any other necessary material required to journal upon acceptance of manuscript.
• Ensure that the following obligatory documents are present: cover letter, ethical approval of research, authorship & conflicts of interest statement.
• The complete details of the Title Page including authors' full name, degrees, department, affiliation, and e-mail addresses have been provided.
• The e-mail address and full postal address of the corresponding author have been provided.
• The manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'.
• A conflict of interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare.
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided.
• All references must be cited sequentially in the Vancouver Style.
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet) or include a photograph of a patient.