The Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine is sponsored by Institute of Tropical Disease, Hainan Medical University (China), and Hainan Medical University Journal Publisher and is aimed to set up an academic communication platform for Chinese and the rest of the world on tropical medicine and other related fields. We hope that the publication of our new journal will bring us a great opportunity for international academic communication and research. Furthermore, we wish to enhance the competency of preventing and curing tropical and related diseases in our region and in China. 
The Journal invites concise reports of original research in all areas of tropical medicine and related fields, both experimental and clinical, including: modern, traditional and epidemiological studies from any part of the world. Review articles and mini-reviews (no more than 4 printed pages), based primarily on the author(s) own research on internationally important topics are welcome. Short communications and letters to the editor are also welcome. Authors are requested to submit a covering letter indicating that their manuscript represents original unpublished material and will not be published elsewhere (if accepted). This restriction does not apply to results published as abstracts of communications, letters to the editor or as preliminary reports. By submitting a manuscript, the authors warrant that they have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material.

Conflict of interest 
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Copyright 
The submission of a manuscript by authors implies that they automatically agree to assign an exclusive copyright to the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine if the manuscript is accepted for publication. The work should not be published elsewhere in any form without the written permission of the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine. All rights of the articles published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical or otherwise) without permission from the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine.

Ethics 
Human experiments should be performed only in accordance with the ethical standards provided by the responsible committee of the institution and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000), available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm. Animal experiments should be in accordance with the instructions for the care and use provided by the institution at which the research was carried out.

Informed consent
All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave an informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized (or an eye bar should be used). 

Short communications 
Short communications not exceeding two printed pages, including title, author affiliations, references, and one figure or table, are acceptable for rapid publication if requested by the authors. 

Letters to the editor 
Criticisms or comments of less than 500 words and five references are welcome. Preference is given to letters related to articles published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine. 

MANUSCRIPT CONTENTS 

Authors 
All authors should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Written approval signed by all authors should be presented with the manuscript. 

Manuscript 
The manuscript should be submitted online through our e-mail system and later on through our website (under construction). The text should be double spaced and have wide margins. The manuscript should be arranged in the following order: (1) Title page, (2) Keywords, (3) Abstract, (4) Corresponding author, (5) Acknowledgments, (6) Introduction, (7) Materials and methods, (8) Results, (9) Discussion, (10) References, (11) Tables, (12) Figure legends, (13) Figures. Number the headings should be in a decimal pattern: 1, 1.1, 1.1.1…etc. Please indicate both the page and line numbers in your manuscript to facilitate reviewing.

Title page 
The title page should contain, on separate lines, the title of the manuscript, a running title of no more than 40 letters, the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), and the mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author. The title must be informative, specific, and concise. Serialization of articles into parts is not permitted. Such articles may be submitted independently with self-sufficient titles. 

Keywords and Abstract 
Please provide 3-10 keywords or phrases for indexing purposes, using terms from the latest US National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list are found at: (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html). If MeSH terms are not available, other appropriate terms may be used. Full-length manuscript submission should include an abstract of up to 250 words in a structured form, consisting of: Aim, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. 

Main text 
The text should include the following sections: The Introduction, which summarizes the rationale, provides a concise research background (not an exhaustive review) and states in one sentence the objective of the study. Please do not include any results or the conclusions of the study. The 

Materials and Methods, should provide technical information about the study. There is no need to describe methodological details that have been published previously. Specifications (including the manufacturer, city, and the country) should be given for the main drugs, chemicals, and instruments. Indicate the statistical methods used and identify statistical significance using superscripts (a, b, and c) following the data (a P > 0.05, b P < 0.05, c P < 0.01). The Results are the findings, using SI units. In a sample, the number of effective digits is determined by the variation within the sample, that is, one-third of the standard deviation. Digits may be separated into groups of three by a small space. The Discussion deals with the interpretation of the results and their comparison with those of other studies. There is no need to: repeat the results, the review the literature, textbook knowledge or cite references that do not have a close relationship with the present result. End with a brief conclusion linking back to the aim of the study. 

Abbreviations 
The use of abbreviations, except for units of measure, is discouraged. At the first appearance in the abstract and the text, abbreviations should be preceded by words for which they stand. 

Tables 
Tables must be concise and cited consecutively using Arabic numerals in the text (Table 1, Table 2…etc.). Each table should be typed on a separate sheet. The title of the table should clearly indicate the nature of the contents and sufficient detail should be included in the footnote to facilitate interpretation without reference to the text. Use horizontal rules only. 

Figures 
Figures (photographs, drawings, diagrams and charts) should be clear, easily legible and cited consecutively using Arabic numerals in the text
(Figure 1, Figure 2…etc.). Please supply figures 1.5 to 2 times the size at which they will be finally reproduced. For line work, submit black-ink drawings of professional quality. Micrographs or other glossy photographs must be of the highest quality. Use standard symbols: ○, ●, ×, □, ■, △, ▲. Freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. If a figure comprises more than one glossy photograph, these should be marked A, B, C…etc. Figure legends should be marked clearly with their correspond letters. Legends should contain sufficient detail to permit figure interpretation without reference to the text. Scale markers should be indicated in the photographs. Color plates are also welcome. The choice of cover art illustration will be made by the Editor. 

References 
The Journal advocates the citation of new papers; old references are better replaced with updated ones. The authors are responsible for the correctness of references. References are numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. Citations should be labeled with square bracket and should appear in front of the period or comma at the end of the sentence/clause. All references should be cited. 
Unpublished data, personal communications, abstracts at meetings and manuscripts submitted for publication are not acceptable as references. Information from such sources may be cited in the text with the sources given in parentheses. References should be listed in a numerical order in the Reference section. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the list of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus or MEDLINE (www.nlm.nih.gov). Please note that there are no periods used after the authors’ initials or journal abbreviations. A period is used at the end of each reference. The type and punctuation of references should be consistent with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.ICMJE.org/). Some examples follow. 

Journal article up to six authors (list all authors): 
Smithline HA, Mader TJ, Ali FM, Cocchi MN. Determining pretest probability of DVT: clinical intuition vs. validated scoring systems. N Engl J Med. 2003 Apr 4;21(2):161-2.

Journal article more than six authors (list first six and add et al.): 
Gao SR, McGarry M, Ferrier TL, Pallante B, Gasparrini B, Fletcher JR, et al. Effect of cell confluence on production of cloned mice using an inbred embryonic stem cell line. Biol Reprod. 2003;68(2):595-603.

Book: 
Carlson BM. Human embryology and developmental biology. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2004.

Chapter in a book: 
Laxter PS, Farnsworth TP. Social health and class inequalities. In: Carter C, Peel JR, editors. Equalities and inequalities in health. 2nd ed. London: Academic Press; 1976: 165-78.

Acknowledgments 
Authors should obtain written permission for everyone acknowledged by name, since readers may infer their endorsement of the paper and its conclusions.
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