Publication
All papers are published online. The official publication date of these papers is the date that they are posted online. Papers published online and ahead of print are available on the journal website at https://journals.viamedica.pl/medical_research_journal/. Requests for accelerated publication should be explained to the editors in the cover letter.

Journal policies
Journal follows editorial recommendations of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (available at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Via Medica strongly recommends journal editors to adhere to the principles of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), particularly to deal with acts of ethical misconduct. For more information Authors, Readers and Editors may visit the COPE website: http://publicationethics.org/.

1. Prior publication. By sending the manuscript with figures and charts the authors declare it has been neither published nor submitted for publication elsewhere (excluding the abstracts 250 words or less). Figures or tables that have been published elsewhere must be identified, and written permission of the original copyright owner must be provided. Such responsibility lies entirely with the authors and the Publisher will not be liable for violation of anyones copyright or other rights by the authors. If the data presented in the article enable identification of the persons, their written consent to the publication must be enclosed.
2. Authorship. All collaborators who have made significant and substantial contributions to a study are considered coauthors. The nature and level of contribution of all authors of accepted manuscripts must be indicated, i.e. conception, design, execution and interpretation of the data being published, wrote the paper. An author may list more than one contribution, and more than one author may have contributed to the same aspect of the work. Other contributions to the work, such as providing of reagents or analytic tools, should be listed in the Acknowledgements. Ghostwriting and guest- authorship are forbidden. In case of detecting ghost written manuscripts, their actions will be taking involving both the submitting authors and the participants involved. The corresponding author must have obtained permission from all authors for the submission of each version of the paper and for any change in authorship. Submission of a paper that has not been approved by all authors may result in immediate rejection. Due to release form the responsibilities to the third parties, corresponding author is required to submit to the Publisher a singed copy of the 'Author(s) Statement' together with the manuscript (please, check blue button below this text). All authors must agree to the conditions of publication, however the final responsibility for this information lay on the author submitting the manuscript.
3. Conflict of interest. To meet the responsibility to the public to provide clear and unbiased scientific information, all authors must disclose any association that poses a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript. Authors must indicate any affiliations, funding sources, or financial holdings that might raise questions about possible causes of bias. This information will not be revealed to the reviewers and will not influence the decision concerning the acceptance of the manuscript. After the article is accepted for publication the Editor will discuss with the authors the manner in which the information concerning the financial sources should be provided to the readers. Reviewers and editors are also required to report any conflict of interest in case of recent collaborations with the author (coauthored a paper or worked together on a grant with the author within the past 24 months). Other examples of possible conflicts include a close personal friendship, past or present association as thesis advisor or thesis student, or a family relationship. Additionally, in case of articles presenting drugs or medical equipment, reviewers and editors should disclose to the Editor-in-Chief any financial relations with the corporations manufacturing described drugs and/or equipment.
4. The article should be free of fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism (more information at https://ori.hhs.gov/definition-misconduct).
5. Copyright. Completion of the online submission form electronically is tantamount to automatically and free-of-charge transferring of the copyright for publishing and distribution of the submitted material (in all known now and developed in the future forms and fields of exploitation) to the Copyright Holder, under condition that those materials are accepted for publication. The authors agree not to publish any data or figures presented in their work anywhere and in any language without the prior written consent of the owner of the copyrights, i.e. the Copyright Holder.
6. Legal relations between the Publisher and the author(s) are in accordance with Polish law and with international conventions binding to Poland. The legal bases to acquiring the copyright are article 921 section copyright law and related law as well as the international conventions binding to Poland.
7. Human and animal participants and clinical trials. All research involving 'human and animal participants and clinical trials' must have the authors institutional review board/local ethical committee approval. Authors are required to include in the Methods section a brief statement identifying the committee approving the experiments. All experiments involving humans must have been conducted according to the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors are obliged to include a declaration confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants. For animal experimentation reported in the Journal, it is expected that investigators will have observed the Interdisciplinary Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, Testing and Education issued by the New York Academy of Sciences Ad Hoc Committee on Animal Research. Adherence to these principles should be indicated in the text of manuscript.
8. Publication ethics and malpractice statement. The Editor is responsible for everything published in the journal. The Editor takes all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material published. The Editor’s decision to accept or reject a paper for publication is based only on the paper’s importance, originality, clarity and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal. The description of peer review process is published and clarified and the Editor is able and ready to justify any important deviation from the described process. The authors and peer reviewers’ identities are protected. The Editor provides guidance to authors and reviewers on everything that is expected of them. The Editor does not reverse a decision to accept a submission unless serious problems are identified. The relationship of the Editor to the publisher and owner is based firmly on the principle of editorial independence. The Editor makes decisions on which articles to publish based on quality and suitability for the journal and without interference from the journal owner/publisher. The Editor can ensure that research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines. The Editor is able to protect the confidentiality of individual information. The Editor has a duty to act if they suspect misconduct. The duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. The Editor should seek a response from those accused. If not satisfied with the response, the Editor should ask the relevant employers or some appropriate body to investigate. Editors should have systems for managing their own conflicts of interest as well as those of their staff, authors, reviewers and Editorial board members.

Disclaimer
Every effort is made by the Publisher and Editorial Board to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement appears in MRJ. However, responsibility for the accuracy of statements of fact, the authenticity of scientific findings or observations, expressions of scientific or other opinion and any other material published in the journal rests solely with the author, the respective contributor, sponsor or advertiser. Accordingly, the Publisher and the Editorial Board accept no liability whatsoever for the consequences of any such inaccurate of misleading data, opinion or statement. Every effort is made to ensure that drug doses and other quantities are presented accurately. Nevertheless, readers are advised that methods and techniques involving drug usage and other treatments described in the Journal should only be followed in conjunction with the drug or treatment manufacturer own documentation as published in the country of the reader.

Preparation of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be written in simple, concise and grammatical American English, within the size limits specified for each type of article, prepared according to the guidelines below. The main text of the manuscript should be written in a standard PC-compatible word processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word) using Times New Roman font size 12, double-spaced throughout and submit as .doc/.docx or .rtf file. The text must be provided unjustified and auto-hyphenation must be inactivated. Greek and other special characters may be used only by inserting in the text as "Symbol" (and not by using "symbol" font which may be lost during subsequent file processing. It is advised not to underline in the text and avoid footnotes. When essential, footnotes are numbered consecutively and typed at the foot of the appropriate page. All dimensions and measurements must be specified in the metric system. Particular attention needs to be paid to the selection of appropriate analysis of data and the results of statistical test should be incorporated in the results section. Abbreviations, if used, should be defined in brackets on their first appearance in the text. The abbreviations that are not accepted by the international groups of experts, should be avoided. The articles should be prepared within the following limits:

Section - Words - References - Figures/tables* 
Original articles - 3000 - 30 - 8
Review articles - 6000 - 50 - 6
Case reports - 3000 - 30 - 8
Technology notes / images in medicine - 800 - 10 - 2
Editorials - 1500 - 15 - 1
Letters to the editor - 500
History notes - Short articles by invitation only
*Excluding title page, figure legends and references; **Including any supplementary data

Articles should be organized into the following sections:
Reviews
Title page
Abstract and key words
Introduction
Main text, divided into subheadings
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Statement of competing interests
List of abbreviations
References
Figure legends
Figures Tables

Research/original articles (full and short)
Title page
Abstract and key words
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Statement of competing interests
List of abbreviations
References
Figure legends
Figures Tables

New methods/technologies articles should also be arranged as above. However, considerably greater detail of the experimental procedures should be provided than would normally be given for a research article. Technologies reports, describing laboratory applications of commercial products supported by exogenous data, should also be arranged as above. Opinions, letters, technology notes, meeting reports and news should not be divided into subheadings. Full contact details of all authors, including mailing address, telephone number, fax and email should be provided.

Sections of manuscript:
Title page: The title page should provide manuscript title and running title of no more than 60 characters, excluding spaces; full names of all authors and their institutional addresses; name, address, telephone, fax and email of the corresponding author.
Abstract and key words: The abstract should be comprehensive but concise consisting of no more than 250 words and should be structured to give a brief background to the study, main methods, results of the study, and conclusions. The abstract should be followed by a list of 5-7 carefully chosen keywords, which should be in accordance with MeSH system. Only common abbreviations should be used in the abstract.
Introduction should present state of knowledge up-to-date, the aim and the background of the studies and explain how original is the aim.
Methods should describe the investigated group, applied methods and the statistical analysis. Experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail to allow these to be replicated by other researchers. The source of the various materials used in the study should be given, where possible.
Results should be presented very in a logical fashion, with no need for the reader to solve. One should remember that curves and columns are more readable than tables or results presented in plain text.
Discussion: The obtained results should be discussed in the light of any previous research and available literature. In discussion one should not repeat the results presented in the results section.
Conclusions should refer to the aims of study and be presented in precise form, preferably in a bulleted form.
Acknowledgements: The authors should first acknowledge the sources of any support for the work in the form of grants, equipment, or drugs presented in their article followed by any personal credits. Statement of competing interests: Include an detailed disclosure of any competing interests (financial or others) that may have affected the research or the conclusions drawn from the study. If none, state the authors report no competing interests'.
List of abbreviations: Authors should define all non-standard abbreviations on their first appearance in the text as well as provide a list. Standard abbreviations need not to be included in the list.
References: Authors must ensure that all references are cited accurately and those in the main text body are also included in the list of references and vice versa. Standard abbreviations should be used for journal names. References older than ten years should only be cited if absolutely necessary. The style of references is that of Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/policy/cit_format.html):
Journals. List consecutive reference number, list all authors when there are 6 or fewer; when there are 7 or more, list the first 3, then "et al". list title, journal title (abbreviated according to Index Medicus), year, volume (Arabic numerals), first and last page. Numbered references to personal communication, unpublished data, and manuscripts either "in preparation" or "submitted for publication" are unacceptable. If essential, such material may be incorporated in the appropriate place in the text.
The following is a sample reference: Eliasson M, Jansson J, Nilsson P, Asplund K. Increased levels of tissue plasminogen activator antigen in essential hypertension. A population-based study in Sweden. J Hypertens, 1997; 15: 349–356.
Books. List consecutive reference number, last name and initial(s) of the author(s)/ editor(s), title, the editor, place and year of publication. Reference to a specific chapter should include: last name and initials of its author(s), chapter title, last name and initials of the book author(s)/editor(s), title, the editor, place and year of publication and pages.
Book reference with different author and editor: Rosen MR. Principles of cardiac electrophysiology. In: Kelley WN ed. Internal medicine. J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia 1992: 90-95.
Book reference with identical author and editor: Braunwald E. Heart disease. W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia 1992: 393-418.
More detailed examples can be found at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
Figure preparation: Figures legends should be comprehensive but concise and should not duplicate information provided in the text of the article. The figure title should be given as the first line of the legend. Figures and photos should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals. No specific feature within an image may be modified. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and if they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. The editors may request the original data from the authors for comparison with the prepared figures.The authors should submit an electronic version of the figures included as at the end of the manuscript text or separate files. Every figure and photo should be titled and pointed where it should appear in a main text. Figures should be submitted in following formats: TIF at the standard resolutions (i.e. 300 dpi for photos, 600 dpi for line art), JPG, EPS, CDR, AI sized at the final print size. Other figure formats may be supported, but DO NOT USE PDF, PPT, or PS files for either text or figures, as they cannot be used for typesetting purposes.
Tables: Tables should be prepared with the same skill, thought, and care as the text. They are best prepared in text editor as they will be copyedited in Word and consecutively numbered (Table 4, Table 5, etc.). They must not be larger than a single page and be prepared in potrait orientation. Tables should complement and not repeat information provided in the main text body. Each table should be given on a separate page with a brief title; the table number and title appear above the table text. All table columns must have a heading and any abbreviations should be explained in footnotes. DO NOT embed figures, tables or any other non-textual features in the main text. Figures and tables may be added at the end of the manuscript text or as separate, supplementary files.
Supplementary data: Authors are encouraged to provide supplementary data enhancing their paper, however the print version of the article must stand on its own merits. Supplementary data may take the form of supplemental figures, tables, datasets, derivations, and videos. Supplementary data are reviewed along with the paper and must be approved by the editors and reviewers. The data are posted on the journal website at the time of article publication and referred to in the main text. Upon acceptance supplementary data cannot be altered by authors.

INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBMIT A REVISED MANUSCRIPT
Before you begin submitting your revision, please ensure you have all the revised files ready. Please provide a separate covering letter outlining the changes that have been made to the submission in response to the reviewers’ comments and any other changes. All changes to the manuscript text should be tracked in the revised manuscript file ('Track Changes' mode if using Microsoft word).

Fees
There are no submission or processing charges.

Author statement

Article Information and Declarations

These specific elements should be provided in dedicated sections of the submission panel; they are available according to the type of article. Please, do not include these elements in the main text. More information on particular items is provided in the Author Guidelines panel.

Acknowledgments

If applicable, please provide any acknowledgments for the conduct of the study and/or support for manuscript preparation. 

Author contributions

Please, describe the contribution of all co-authors to the final manuscript.

Funding

Please, highlight any funding that you may have received for the reported research or state that no funding, grants, or other support was received.

Availability of data and materials

Please, indicate that original contributions presented in the study are included in the article (and as Supplementary Material, if applicable) and that further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Please, if applicable state that the study was reviewed and approved by an Ethics Committee and that patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. If not applicable, please explain why ethical approval and/or consent were not required.

Competing interests

Any possible conflicts of interest regarding the submitted article should be described for each author, or authors should declare they have no conflict of interest related to the submitted manuscript.

Supplementary Material

If applicable: the Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: (link will be provided by an Editor).

Table I. Elements of <Article Information and Declarations> according to submission type

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Completion of the online submission form electronically is tantamount to automatically and free-of-charge transferring of the copyright for publishing and distribution of the submitted material (in all known now and developed in the future forms and fields of exploitation) to the Publisher, under condition that those materials are accepted for publication. The authors agree not to publish any data or figures presented in their work anywhere and in any language without the prior written consent of the owner of the copyrights, i.e. the Publisher.

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