version 2024.01

The Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AOEM) is an international, Open Access, peer-reviewed journal published online only in English. The Journal's publisher is the Korean Society of Occupational & Environmental Medicine (KSOEM). AOEM aims to publish evidence-based, scientific research articles from occupational and environmental medicine and related fields. AOEM is aimed at clinicians and researchers working in the wide-ranging discipline of occupational and environmental medicine. Topic areas focus on, but are not limited to, interactions between work and health, covering occupational and environmental epidemiology, toxicology, hygiene, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, management, organization and policy.

Table of Contents

• I. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
• II. CATEGORIES OF PUBLICATIONS
• III. EDITORIAL AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS
• IV. EDITORIAL POLICY
• Ⅴ. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMAT
• Ⅵ. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPTS
• Ⅶ. FIGURES AND TABLES FOR ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS
• Ⅷ. GALLEY PROOF

I. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Authors should submit manuscripts via the electronic manuscript management system for AOEM, https://www.editorialmanager.com/aoemj. Please log in first as a member of the system and follow the directions. Manuscripts should be submitted by the corresponding author, who should indicate the address, e-mail address, and phone number for correspondence in the title page of the manuscript. If available, a fax number would be helpful. The revised manuscript should be submitted through the same web system under the same identification numbers. Items pertaining to manuscripts submitted for publication, as well as letters or other forms of communication regarding the editorial management of AOEM should be sent to:

Editor-in-Chief
Professor Kyunghee Jung-Choi, MD, PhD

Administrative Assistant
Ji-Hyun Kim

E-Mail: [email protected]

II. CATEGORIES OF PUBLICATIONS

AOEM publishes editorials, invited review articles, special articles, original articles, case reports, cohort profiles, data profiles, brief communications, opinions, and correspondences.
Editorials are invited perspectives on an area of occupational and environmental health, dealing with very active fields of research, current medical interests, fresh insights and debates.
Opinions suggest creative perspectives for occupational and environmental health issues.
Review articles present a comprehensive search and appraisal of accumulating evidence of important occupational and environmental health topics, using a systematic approach. A systematic review may, or may not, include a meta-analysis.
Special articles are the articles on important topics related to research methods, or hypothesis which is a forum for ideas in medicine and public health.
Original articles are papers reporting the results of basic and clinical investigations that are sufficiently well documented to be acceptable to critical readers.
Case reports deal with clinical cases of medical interest or innovation.
Cohort Profiles (includes Data Profiles) describe the rationale for a cohort’s (data’s) creation, its methods, baseline data and its future plans.
Brief communications are short original research articles on issues important to researchers.
Correspondence includes a reader's comment on an article published in AOEM and a reply from the authors.

III. EDITORIAL AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Manuscripts should be submitted by online system. If the manuscript does not adhere to the Instructions for Authors, it may be returned to the author immediately after receipt and without a review. Failure to resubmit the manuscript within 2 months without any notice from the corresponding author is regarded as a withdrawal. The authors’ names and affiliations are removed during peer review (double-blind peer review).

AOEM reviews all manuscripts that have passed the technical check. A manuscript is previewed for its format and academic relevancy, and then rejected or sent to the 2 or more most relevant investigators available for review of the contents. The editor selects peer referees by recommendation of the Editorial Board members or from the Board's specialist database. In addition, if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be requested.

Acceptance of the manuscript is decided based on the critiques and recommended decisions of the referees. A referee may recommend “accept”, “minor revision”, “major revision,” or “reject”. If there is a marked discrepancy in the decisions between referees or between the opinions of the author and referee(s), the Editor may send the manuscript to another referee for additional comments and a recommended decision. The reviewed manuscripts are returned back to the corresponding author with comments and recommended revisions. Names and decisions of the referees are masked. A final editor's decision on acceptance or rejection for publication is forwarded to the corresponding author from the Editorial Office. The peer review process takes usually four to eight weeks after the manuscript submission.

Three repeated decisions of “major revision” are regarded as a “reject.” If the decision of two or more of the three referees is "reject", the final decision will be made as "reject". If the decision of one of the three referees is "major revision" and that of the other one is "reject", the final decision may be made as "reject", and the editor makes the final decision. The usual reasons for rejection are topics that are too specific and target audience that is too limited, insufficient originality, serious scientific flaws, poor quality of illustrations, or absence of a message that might be important to readers. Rarity of a disease condition is itself not an acceptable justification for a case report. If authors raise an objection in writing to the decision of "reject", the editor-in-chief informs the Editorial Board and the Editorial Board deliberates and decides whether to publish it.

Revisions are usually requested to take account of criticisms and comments made by referees. The revised manuscript should be resubmitted via the web system. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 2 months without any notice from the corresponding author is regarded as a withdrawal. The corresponding author must indicate clearly what alterations have been made in response to the referee's comments point by point. Acceptable reasons should be given for noncompliance with any recommendation of the referees.

IV. EDITORIAL POLICY

The Editor assumes that all authors listed in a manuscript have agreed with the following policy of AOEM on submission of manuscripts. Except for the negotiated secondary publication, manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be previously unpublished and not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Under any circumstances, the identities of the referees will not be revealed.

The addition of an author to a manuscript under review is possible only with the editor’s approval. Changes in authorship cannot be made after the manuscript is accepted for publication.

AOEM strictly follows research and publication ethics. See the Research and Publication Ethics page (https://aoemj.org/index.php?body=ethics).

Minimum article processing charges are due for every accepted manuscript. All published manuscripts become the permanent property of the KSOEM and may not be published elsewhere without written permission.

Ⅴ. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND FORMAT

Authorship
AOEM accepts authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). See the Authorship Policy page (https://aoemj.org/index.php?body=authorship).

Reporting Guidelines
The manuscript should be prepared according to the "ICMJE Recommendations for the Conducts, Reporting, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals" (2019) (https://www.icmje.org). In addition to the ICMJE recommendation, a number of reporting guidelines have been developed by groups of experts to facilitate reporting of research studies or clinical trials (https://www.equator-network.org/library/). For reporting of randomized controlled trials, AOEM requires compliance with the statement of CONSORT (http://www.consort-statement.org/) and the ICMJE Statement on Data Sharing (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html).

Table 1. Reporting guidelines for specific study designs

Initiative	Type of study	Source
CONSORT	Randomized controlled trials	http://www.consort-statement.org/
STARD	Studies of diagnostic accuracy	https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/
PRISMA	Preferred reporting items of systematic reviews and meta-analyses	http://www.prisma-statement.org/
STROBE	Observational studies in epidemiology	http://www.strobe-statement.org/
MOOSE	Meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology	https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.283.15.2008
CARE	Case reports	http://www.care-statement.org/

Key features of articles of AOEM publishes are as shown in the below Table 2.

Table 2. Recommended maximums for articles submitted to Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Type of article	Abstract (word)	Main body (word)	References	Tables & figures
Editorials	Not required	1,000	30	3
Opinions	300	3,500	30	5
Review articles	300	5,000	100	10
Special articles (including methods, hypothesis, and lecture)	300	3,500	50	7
Original articles*	300	3,500	50	7
Case reports	300	3,500	30	7
Cohort profiles (including data profiles)	300	3,500	50	7
Brief communications	150	1,500	30	3
Correspondence	Not required	1,000	30	3

*Structured abstract and main body.

Editorials and Correspondences do not require an abstract. The maximum word count of the text is 1,000.

In Opinions, an unstructured abstract is required, and text is limited to 3,500 words with references.

Review Articles should have an unstructured abstract of no more than 300 words. The text should not exceed 5,000 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures, references, and online-only material) with up to 100 references, and no more than a total of 10 tables and figures.

Special Articles’ text is limited to 3,500 words, with up to 50 references and no more than seven tables and figures. Authors seeking to submit articles for lectures on a special topic should first contact the editor.

In Case Reports, the manuscript should be in the following sequence: title page, abstract and keywords, background, case presentation, discussion and conclusion, acknowledgments, references, figures, and figure legends. Maximums: word count from Background through Discussion and Conclusion, 3,500 words; the number of figure parts, 7. For case reports of humans, the state in the case presentation section whether informed consents for publication of clinical data were obtained from the study participants.

Cohort profiles (including Data Profiles) have a main text word limit of 3,500 words and include an unstructured abstract, a maximum of seven tables and figures, and up to 50 references.

A Brief Communication manuscript should be prepared in the following sequence: title page, abstract and keywords, text without section titles, acknowledgments, references, and figures or tables. Maximums: one-paragraph unstructured abstract, 150 words; word counts of the text, 1,500 words; the number of figure parts, 3.

• 1. All materials must be written in proper and clear English.
• 2. The manuscripts should be created using Microsoft Office Word (DOC). For submission of drawings, photos, graphs, or combined figures, PPT and PDF formats are acceptable. We cannot accept graphic files other than the two programs. It is permissible to send low-resolution images for peer review, but we will ask for high-resolution files later. Acceptable file formats for video are .mov, .wmv, .mpg, .mpeg, or .mp4. The file size and running time of each video should be no more than 25 MB and 5 minutes, respectively.
• 3. Double-spaced typing with 11-point font
• 4. Title page with article title, running title (less than 8 words), authors' full name(s) and affiliation, address for correspondence (including e-mail address), footnotes or funding acknowledgments, Author Contributions, and ORCID IDs, if any.
• 5. Blinded Manuscript: Sequence of title, abstract and keywords, background, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, disclosure, references, and figure and table legends.
• 6. Blinded Manuscript: All pages should be numbered consecutively starting from the first page. All pages should be given serial line numbers from the beginning.
• 7. Abstract in structured format for original articles and in unstructured format for others.
• 8. The main text begins on a separate page including Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions.
• 9. All tables and figures should be cited in the text.
• 10. Figures should not be inserted in the main text. A combined figure file or individual figure files can be uploaded figures separately from the main text file.
• 11. Include a title for each table and figure (a brief phrase no longer than 15 words) and self-explanatory legend as needed.
• 12. References listed in a proper format. Check that all references listed in the references section are cited in the text and vice versa.
• 13. A cover letter stating its scientific significance, the material has not been published previously, and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere, and stating conflicts of interest of all listed authors, if any.
• 14. Have each author read the manuscript and agree with this submission.

See the Style Guide for AOEM Cover Letter (https://aoemj.org/src/Style%20Guide%20for%20AOEM%20cover%20letter_2022.docx).

The title page should contain the title of an article, running title (less than 8 words), authors' full name(s) and affiliation, address for correspondence (including e-mail address), footnotes or funding acknowledgments, Author Contributions, and ORCID IDs. If several authors and institutions are listed, it should be clearly indicated with which department and institution each author is affiliated by using superscript numbers in sequence. Information on corresponding author, including full name, academic degree, address (institutional affiliation, city, zip code, and country), and email address, should be given in a separate paragraph. Funding sources should be informed in the title page. The running title should consist of no more than 8 words.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
The authors can list the names of persons, who helped the study but are not eligible as authors, in this section. Funding sources, which are informed in the title page, should not be written in this section.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS:
What authors have done for the study should be described in this section. To qualify for authorship, all contributors must meet at least one of the seven core contributions by CRediT (conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation), as well as at least one of the writing contributions (original draft preparation, review and editing). Authors may also satisfy the other remaining contributions; however, these alone will not qualify them for authorship.
Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work. The submitting author is responsible for completing this information at submission, and it is expected that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time.

An example:
Conceptualization: Hong GD. Data curation: Jang YS, Choi Y. Formal analysis: Kim CS. Investigation: Kim CS. Methodology: Kim Y, Kim GD. Software: Kim Y, Jang YS. Validation:….. Writing - original draft: Hong GD, Jang YS. Writing - review & editing: Choi Y, Kim Y, Kim CS.

The blinded manuscript should contain the title, abstract and keywords, background, methods, results, discussion, conclusions, disclosure, references, and figure and table legends. See the Style Guide for AOEM Text (https://aoemj.org/src/Style%20Guide%20for%20AOEM%20Text_202303.docx).

Abstract:
The abstract should briefly describe the content of the manuscript in a structured format with less than 300 words. The abstract should be structured as follows; Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. In principle, acronym and informal abbreviation should be avoided, but they, if needed, can be kept to an absolute minimum with proper identifications.

Keywords:
Three to six keywords should be listed at the end on the Abstract page. For the selection of keywords, refer to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in PubMed, or at the internet site, http://www.nlm.nih. gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.

BACKGROUND:
A brief background, references to the most pertinent papers general enough to inform readers, and the relevant findings of others should be included. It is recommended that the background includes ‘general and specific background’, ‘debating issue’, and ‘specific purpose of this study’.

METHODS:
The explanation of the experimental methods should be concise and sufficient for repetition by other qualified investigators. Procedures that have been published previously should not be described in detail. However, new or significant modifications of previously published procedures need full descriptions. Clinical studies or experiments using laboratory animals or pathogens should mention approval of the studies by relevant committees in this section. The sources of special chemicals or preparations should be given along with their location (name of company, city and state, and country). Method of statistical analyses and the criteria for determining significance levels should be described. An ethics statement should be placed here when the studies are performed using clinical samples or data, and animals. An exemplary is shown below.

(Example for clinical study)
The present study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of #### (approval No. #######). Informed consent was submitted by all subjects when they were enrolled.

(Example for animal study)
The procedures used and the care of animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee in #### (approval No. #######).

(Example for clinical trials)
This is a randomized clinical trial on the second phase, registered at the Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS, http://cris.nih.go.kr), number ##########. Or other international registration is acceptable. Manuscripts reporting interventional clinical trial should include data sharing plan following the ICMJE statement by referring to the ICMJE Statement on Data Sharing (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration).
(Description of participants)
Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex or gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.

RESULTS:
This section should be presented logically using text, tables and illustrations. Excessive repetition of table or figure contents should be avoided. Results should not be presented in duplicate as table and figure.

DISCUSSION:
The data should be interpreted concisely without repeating materials already presented in the results section. Summary or conclusion should be included at the end of this section. We recommend authors to describe clinical or biomedical significance of the study. Speculation is permitted, but it must be clearly supported by results presented in the study or literature published.

CONCLUSIONS:
This section should provide readers with a brief summary of the main conclusions.

DISCLOSURE:
All authors should disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately affect the study. Even in case the authors have no conflicts of interest, the authors should declare it: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

REFERENCES:
References should be numbered in the order they appear in the text. Citation of references in the text should be identified with superscript Arabic numerals (for example, ….. the leading cause of death in Korea.1,2). References should be listed in the order of citation in the text with consecutive numbers in this section. The style for citing papers in periodicals is: name and initials of all authors, full title of article, journal name abbreviated in accordance with the PubMed style, year, volume, issue number and first and last page numbers. The style for a chapter of a book is: author and title of the chapter, editor of the book, title of the book, edition, volume, place (city), publisher, year, and first and last page numbers. All authors up to 6 can be listed. If author number is more than 6, the names of all authors after first 6 authors should be abbreviated to "et al". Using a software for reference management such as EndNote is encouraged.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and correct text citations. Papers in press may be listed among the references with the journal name and tentative year of publication. Grey materials are not allowed for references. Internet materials are acceptable with records of correct URL and accessed date.

Examples of reference style:
1. Journal
Park MS, Chung SY, Chang Y, Kim K. Physical activity and physical fitness as predictors of all-cause mortality in Korean workers. Ann Occup Environ Med 2009;24(1):13-9.

2. Book
Hong GD, Kim C, Park J. AOEM Reference Style: a Guide for Authors. 5th ed. Seoul, Korea: Daehakro Press; 2017.

3. Chapter in a book
Floch MH. Probiotics, probiotics and dietary fiber. In: Buchman A, editor. Clinical Nutrition: a Guide for Gastroenterologists. Thorofare, NJ: SLAK Incorporated; 2005, 18-24.

4. Internet source
WHO statistical information system. http://www.who.int/whosis/en/menu.cfm. Updated 2015. Accessed April 15, 2017.

Tables and Figures:

Tables are prepared at the end of text file but figures should be submitted separately from the text. Figure legends should be typed at the end of text with Tables on separate sheets. Tables should be simple and should not duplicate information in figures. Title all tables and number them with Arabic numerals in the order of their citation. Type each table on a separate sheet. Explain all abbreviations. Each column should have an appropriate heading, and if numerical measurements are given, the unit should be added to column headings. The significance of results should be indicated by appropriate statistical analysis. Table footnotes should be indicated with superscripted lower-case letters in sequence: a, b, c, d... All units of measurements and concentrations should be designated. Exponential terminology is discouraged. Flow diagram and complex biochemical structures should be prepared professionally. Graphics should be used only when a relevant point needs illustration. X-ray films or Polaroid photographs are not acceptable. Except for especially complicated drawings, which show a large amount of data, all figures are published in one-page or one column width. When the figures are reduced to the size of a single-column or of a single-page width, the smallest parts of the figure must be legible.

Points of observation should be noted with different symbols rather than with different types of lines and their significance can be directly shown in the body of the figure or in the legend. If a figure contains a left- or right-hand ordinate, explanation of the left ordinate should read in the upward direction and that of the latter should read downward.

All photographs should be of the highest quality. The preferred size of photograph is 8 × 8 cm, but one-page width (16.5 cm in width × 8 cm in length) is also acceptable. The author is responsible for submitting figure files that are of sufficient quality to permit accurate reproduction, and for approving the final color galley proof. All photographs should be correctly exposed, sharply focused, and prepared in files of 300 dpi or more. The AOEM assumes no responsibility for the quality of the photographs as they appear in the Journal. Current estimates for color reproduction can be obtained from the Editorial Office. The figure numbers, in Arabic numerals, should appear in figure legends. Multiple panels within one figure should be marked at the left upper corner using capital alphabet letters (A, B, C, D ……). Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photographs should contrast well with background. The legend for each light microscopic photographs should include names of stain and magnification. Electron microscopic photographs should have an internal scale marker. All kinds of figures may be reduced, enlarged or trimmed for publication by the Editor.

Figure legends: All the legends for figures should be typewritten in double space. Do not use separate sheets for each legend. Figure legends should describe briefly the data shown, explain any abbreviations or reference points in the photographs, and identify all units, mathematical expressions, abscissas, ordinates, and symbols. Description of informed consent for publication is required for figures which include potential privacy images.

Abbreviations: Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are strongly discouraged. Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Expand all abbreviations at first mention in the text.

Units of Measurement: Laboratory values are expressed using conventional units of measure, with relevant Systeme International (SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in parentheses) only at first mention. Figures and tables should use conventional units, with conversion factors given in legends or footnotes. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume.

Names of Drugs, Devices, and Other Products: Generic names should be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses after the first mention of the generic name in the Methods section.

Gene Names, Symbols, and Accession Numbers: Authors describing genes or related structures in a manuscript should include the names and official symbols provided by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee.

Authors can submit supplementary materials for online-only publication when there is insufficient space to include the materials in the main article. Supplementary materials should be original and important to the understanding and interpretation of the report. As supplementary materials will not be edited or formatted after publication, authors are responsible for the accuracy and presentation of this material.

Supplementary materials should be submitted in a single Word document or a single PDF file which should include all materials (information, tables, figures, and references). Each element included in supplementary material should be cited in the text of the main manuscript (eg, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Fig. 1, Supplementary Methods). The first page of the online-only document should list the number and title of each element included in the document.

For the Supplementary, in order to promote better understanding for Korean readers, we allow that Korean authors submit the manuscript written in Korean language.

The Abstract in Korean is requested only for Korean authors and for original articles, review articles, special articles, case reports, cohort profiles, data profiles, opinions, brief communications, and images in this issue. The abstract should be structured as follows; Title, Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. In principle, acronym and informal abbreviation should be avoided, but they, if needed, can be kept to an absolute minimum with proper identifications. The files of published articles are supplied through an icon “Abstract in Korean” on the website of AOEM (https://aoemj.org/index.php).

Authors can provide the Author Summary in Korean below the Abstract in Korean. In the first sentence, state what is already known that led to the present work. At the last sentence, state as concisely as possible the importance of the results for health and/or disease. Avoid listing statistical numbers unless it is compulsory for the proper understanding.

Ⅵ. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPTS

When you prepare a revised version of your manuscript, you should carefully follow the instructions given in the editor's letter. Please submit an annotated copy describing the changes you have made. Failure to do so will cause a delay in the decision of your revision. If references, tables, or figures are moved, added, or deleted during the revision process, renumber them to reflect such changes so that all tables, references and figures are cited in numeric order.

Revised manuscript submissions should include a point by point response to the reviewer comments. Authors should describe how each reviewer comment was addressed or why it was not be addressed, and clearly notice which paragraph in the manuscript was revised according to each comment. The response to reviewers will be shared with all reviewers. If they do not want to include data in the manuscript, authors may include the data supporting their argument in the response to reviewers file.

The annotated copy should have changes highlighted (not by using the Track Changes function in MS Word but by yellow highlighting) with notes in the text referring to the editor or reviewer query.

Ⅶ. FIGURES AND TABLES FOR ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS

Graphs and illustrations: For publication of drawings, photos, graphs, or combined figures, we prefer the PPT format with a resolution of 300 or more dpi. Alternatively, the PDF format (≥ 300 dpi) is also acceptable. Layers should be retained (ie, do not “flatten” the image). If the graph or illustration was created in MS Excel or Word, we recommend that you submit the original file in the native format (.XLS for Excel, .DOC for MS Word). Files created by vector programs are best for accurately plotting and maintaining data points. Graphs, charts, and diagrams may be imported or copy/pasted into applications such as MS Word or PowerPoint for labeling and formatting, but must be accompanied by vector files created by the statistical software application. Electronic photographs-photomicrographs, electron micrographs, Western blots, radiographic images, ECG and EEG tracings, and so on-and scanned images must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

If fonts are used in the artwork, they must be converted to paths or outlines or they must be embedded in the files. Color images must be created/scanned and saved, and submitted. Send the electronic original with appropriate labeling and arrows. Color is acceptable for charts and graphs. Do not use patterns or textures; use of three-dimensional graphs is discouraged unless all three axes are needed to depict data.

Symbols (e.g., circles, triangles, squares), letters (e.g., words, abbreviations), and numbers should be large enough to be legible on reduction to the journal's column widths. All symbols must be defined in the figure caption. If the symbols are too complex to appear in the caption, they should appear on the illustration itself, within the area of the graph or diagram, not to the side.

Ⅷ. GALLEY PROOF

AOEM provides the corresponding author with galley proofs for their correction after accepting the manuscript. Corresponding authors will receive an edited document file, a license agreement form file, and an ICMJE conflicts of interest form file by e-mail.

Corrections should be kept to minimum. The Editor retains the prerogative to question minor stylistic alterations and major alterations that might affect the scientific content of the paper. Authors may be charged for alterations to the proofs beyond those required to correct errors or to answer queries. Any fault found after the publication is the responsibility of the authors. We urge our contributors to proofread their accepted manuscripts very carefully. The corresponding author may be contacted by the Editorial Office, depending on the nature of the correction in the proof. If the proof is not returned to the Editorial Office within 48 hours, it may be necessary to reschedule the paper for a subsequent issue.