9. Section headers¶
Section headers should comply to below mentioned requirements in respect of order, letter case, colour and spelling. Also, no variations (except for alternatives explicitly mentioned in these standards) are allowed. For example, standards have “Author contributions” section with no alternatives specified, which means that all other variations (like “Authors’ contributions, Author contribution, Contribution of author, etc”) are not allowed.
If you see any deviations of section naming in articles, please contact authors and check whether they agree to change section header in question in accordance with these standards.
9.1. Check that article has the following sections in the following order:
Research papers (as well as Special Section Research papers)
ABSTRACT - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
INTRODUCTION - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
RESULTS - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
DISCUSSION - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
METHODS - mandatory (alternatively can be MATERIALS AND METHODS, PATIENTS AND METHODS, EXPERIMENTAL METHODS - all other alternatives not allowed) - [all caps, in red]
CONCLUSIONS - optional - [all caps, in red]
Abbreviations - optional - [sentence case, in red]
Author contributions - optional - [sentence case, in red]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - optional (alternatively can be ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING - in this case there should be no FUNDING section) - [all caps, in red]
Ethics statement - optional - [sentence case, in red] - (can be present as Subheader in METHODS section, as a Subheader it should be bold, in sentence case and in black)
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
FUNDING - optional (alternatively FUNDING SUPPORT, GRANT SUPPORT - if article contains ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING section, then FUNDING section should be removed) - [all caps, in red]
Editorial note - optional - [sentence case, in red]
REFERENCES - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Clinical Research papers and Meta-Analysis
ABSTRACT - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
INTRODUCTION - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
METHODS - mandatory - either before RESULTS section or after DISCUSSION - alternatively can be MATERIALS AND METHODS, PATIENTS AND METHODS, EXPERIMENTAL METHODS - all other alternatives not allowed) - [all caps, in red]
RESULTS - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
DISCUSSION - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
METHODS - mandatory - either before RESULTS section or after DISCUSSION - (alternatively can be MATERIALS AND METHODS, PATIENTS AND METHODS, EXPERIMENTAL METHODS - all other alternatives not allowed) - [all caps, in red]
CONCLUSIONS - optional - [all caps, in red]
Abbreviations - optional - [sentence case, in red]
Author contributions - optional - [sentence case, in red]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - optional (alternatively can be ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING - in this case there should be no FUNDING section) - [all caps, in red]
Ethics statement - optional - [sentence case, in red] - (can be present as Subheader in METHODS section, as a Subheader it should be bold, in sentence case and in black)
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
FUNDING - optional (alternatively FUNDING SUPPORT, GRANT SUPPORT - if article contains ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING section, then FUNDING section should be removed) - [all caps, in red]
Editorial note - optional - [sentence case, in red]
REFERENCES - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Reviews
ABSTRACT - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
INTRODUCTION - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Reviews usually have free-style (research related) section headers. These headers can be formatted in all caps and coloured in red.
Abbreviations - optional - [sentence case, in red]
Author contributions - optional - [sentence case, in red]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - optional (alternatively can be ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING - in this case there should be no FUNDING section) - [all caps, in red]
Ethics statement - optional - [sentence case, in red] - (can be present as Subheader in METHODS section, as a Subheader it should be bold, in sentence case and in black)
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
FUNDING - optional (alternatively FUNDING SUPPORT, GRANT SUPPORT - if article contains ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING section, then FUNDING section should be removed) - [all caps, in red]
Editorial note - optional - [sentence case, in red]
REFERENCES - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Editorials and News
Editorials and News usually do not have any sections except:
REFERENCES - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Case reports
ABSTRACT - mandatory - [all caps, in red
INTRODUCTION - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Case reports usually have free-style (research related) section headers. Occasionally case reports can be formatted as regular research papers.
CASE REPORT - optional - (alternatively CASE PRESENTATION) - [all caps, in red]
DISCUSSION - optional - [all caps, in red]
Abbreviations - optional - [sentence case, in red]
Author contributions - optional - [sentence case, in red]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - optional (alternatively can be ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING - in this case there should be no FUNDING section) - [all caps, in red]
Ethics statement - optional - [sentence case, in red] - (can be present as Subheader in METHODS section, as a Subheader it should be bold, in sentence case and in black)
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
FUNDING - optional (alternatively FUNDING SUPPORT, GRANT SUPPORT - if article contains ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING section, then FUNDING section should be removed) - [all caps, in red]
Editorial note - optional - [sentence case, in red]
REFERENCES - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Research perspectives and Meeting reports
ABSTRACT - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
Research perspectives and Meeting reports usually have free-style (research related) section headers.
Abbreviations - optional - [sentence case, in red]
Author contributions - optional - [sentence case, in red]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - optional (alternatively can be ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING - in this case there should be no FUNDING section) - [all caps, in red]
Ethics statement - optional - [sentence case, in red] - (can be present as Subheader in METHODS section, as a Subheader it should be bold, in sentence case and in black)
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
FUNDING - optional (alternatively FUNDING SUPPORT, GRANT SUPPORT - if article contains ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING section, then FUNDING section should be removed) - [all caps, in red]
Editorial note - optional - [sentence case, in red]
REFERENCES - mandatory - [all caps, in red]
9.2. Check the format of all subsection headers in the article:
- Check that all subsection headers in the article are written in sentence case.
- Check that subsection headers are formatted in bold and coloured in black.
- Check that there are no underlining or italics (except for Latin terms and gene names) in the headers.
- Check that there is no period (.) at the end of the subsection header.
