Submissions to Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin (APB) are accepted through our online submission system. To streamline the process, the online submission system is designed to perform a series of automatic controls, promptly informing the user of any technical insufficiencies, and directing to the relevant instructions.

To start submission, please create an account and log in. The submitting author will take responsibility on behalf of all co-authors as the corresponding author of the submission, and is required to enter full details including a working e-mail address, phone number and address, in their online profile. All correspondence, including, but not limited to, the results of initial evaluation, Editor’s decision, and request for revisions or proofreading will be sent to the e-mail address of the corresponding author, which will be published with the article.

The submission or any subsequent revision is evaluated at the editorial office, and if corrections are necessary, it may be temporarily unsubmitted and returned to the authors, who are responsible for formatting their submission and providing the required information. Please see our editorial workflow for more information. For further help regarding submission, you may contact the editorial office.

We use iThenticate software in the processing of the submissions.

1. The conditions of submission

Open access license, copyright, and charges

Upon submission, the authors are required to sign an exclusive license form for open access publication of their work in the journal under the Creative Commons license 4.0 (CC-BY). The authors retain the copyright to their work. Please see our open access and copyright policy and license agreement for more information.

Currently, there are no submission or page or processing charges applicable to the articles submitted to or published in Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin , the open access publication of which is supported by Tabriz University of Medical Sciences Department of Vice Chancellor for Research. Please see our open access and copyright policy for more information.

Cover letter

A cover letter is required for every submission. The authors will need to confirm the following conditions in the submission cover letter:

• That the submission is original, submitted solely to this journal, and not currently under consideration for publication or already published elsewhere, unless explained in the submission cover letter. See our editorial policies on duplicate publication.
• That no any sentence is copied from other sources. See our editorial policies on plagiarism and text recycling.
• That the submitting author takes responsibility for the submission on behalf of all authors as the corresponding author.
• That all authors have reviewed, approved, and consented to the submission, and they are accountable for all aspects of its accuracy and integrity in accordance with ICMJE criteria.

The submission cover letter should also include the following information, as well as any additional information requested in the instructions for the specific article type that the authors are submitting:

• A clear explanation of why the submitted work should be published in the journal (the novelty of the work).
• An explanation of any issues relating to journal policies.
• A declaration of any potential competing interests.
• The name of particular special issue that the submission should be published in.

The authors may also suggest potential peer reviewers for their submission by providing name, institutional email addresses, and an ORCID or Scopus ID. Please see our editorial policies for more information on suggesting peer reviewers. Please also see our editorial policies regarding the use of unique identifiers.

The authors may also provide the details of anyone who they would prefer not to review their work.

Intentionally providing falsifying information, such as false names or email addresses, will result in rejection of the submission and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.

2. Preparing the submission

Preparing the manuscript

Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin publishes these article types:

• Research article: Original work resulting from research, constituting complete studies that contain all relevant information. Including systematic review and meta-analysis. Prepare the manuscript as follows: A Title, a Structured Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Legend for figures, List of additional files (up to ~8000 words, including tables, figures and references).
• Short communication: Original work, but less substantial than the regular research article, presenting preliminary results, or results of immediate relevance. Prepare the manuscript as follows: A Title, a Structured Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Legend for figures, List of additional files (up to ~2000 words, including tables, figures and references).
• Review: A full length critical Review. Prepare the manuscript as follows: A Title, an Unstructured Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Subheadings in the manuscript as necessary, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables, Legend for figures, List of additional files. (up to ~8000 words, including tables, figures and references)
• Mini Review: sharply focused well-focused, well-documented examinations of timely related issues (up to ~4000 words, including tables, figures and references (50-80)). The issues may be of a controversial nature, or may address a more narrowly focused area than those typically covered in a Review.
• Letter: Comments or concerns on specific subjects; overall or pertaining to items published in the journal. Also, new or additional findings of original nature. Prepare the letter as follows: A Title, Text, References.
• Commentaries: Commentaries present the author’s considered opinion (up to ~1000 words limited to one figure/table with four key references) on a scientific or technical subject within the scope of the Journal. If such a Commentary article criticizes an article already published in the Journal, then the authors of the original article will be given a chance to response in the same issue in which the Commentary is published.
• Editorial: An opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher. Editorials may be supposed to reflect the opinion of the journal.

Title Page
Title - A concise and informative title directed at the general reader. Lengthy systematic names and complicated/numerous chemical formulae should therefore be avoided where possible. Do not capitalize all words; only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalized.
Authors’ names - Full names (First, Middle and Last) for all the authors of an article should be given and specified with superscript number(s) for the affiliation(s) (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths¹). The name of the corresponding author(s) should be specified with an asterisk after name (e.g., Mark Junior Smiths*). Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly.
Affiliation - Affiliation of all the authors should be given and specified with superscripted number before address (e.g., ¹Faculty of …..).
Running title - A very short running title should be given (with maximum 50 characters including spaces).
Corresponding author - Full address, telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) and email of the corresponding author(s) should be given.
 

Abstract

The structured  abstract (maximum 250 words) is to contain the following major subheadings: Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The Purpose subheading reflects the background as well as the purpose of the study, that is, the hypothesis being tested. The Methods should include the setting for the study, the subjects (number and type), the treatment or intervention, and the type of statistical analysis. The Results include the outcome of the study and statistical significance if appropriate. The Conclusion states the significance of the results. Clinical trials should include the trial registration number on the last line of the abstract.

Key words

Four to 8 key words for each submission should be selected from the list of MESH words. List key words in alphabetic order, all lower case, except where necessary.

Introduction

The introduction section should clearly and briefly (up to 600 words) provide an adequate background with relevant references, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. The last paragraph should address the main objectives of the work.

Materials and Methods

This section should provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced, with details of supplier (i.e., company’s name, city, country) and catalogue number when appropriate. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. The company’s name, city and country of manufacturer of the major equipment should be given. Unexpected hazards encountered during the experimental work should be noted. Any unusual hazards inherent in the use of chemicals, procedures or equipments in the investigation should be clearly identified. In cases where a study involves the use of live animals or human subjects, the author should include a statement that all experiments were performed in compliance with the relevant laws and institutional guidelines, and also state the institutional committee(s) that have approved the experiments. They should also include a statement that informed consent was obtained for any experimentation with human subjects.

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. The methods section must indicate that the protocol was reviewed by the appropriate institutional review body and that each subject in the project signed a detailed informed consent form.

Theory/calculation
A theory section should extend (but not repeat) the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work.
A calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Results and discussion

Results should be presented in a logical sequence with reference to tables, figures, and illustrations as appropriate. Results should be clear, descriptive and concise. Attention should be paid to the matter of significant figures. The same data should not be presented in more than one figure or in both a figure and a table.

Results and discussion are recommended to be combined in a single section.

New and possible findings of the study should be emphasized, as well as any conclusions that can be drawn. The discussion should compare the present data to previous findings. Limitations of the experimental methods should be indicated, as should implications for future research. New hypotheses and clinical recommendations are appropriate and should be clearly identified. Recommendations, particularly clinical ones, may be included when appropriate.

Conclusions
The main question of the work should be very concisely stated and the final conclusions of the study may be presented in a short “Conclusions” section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section(s).  

Acknowledgements

Contributors other than coauthors may be very briefly acknowledged in a separate paragraph at the end of the paper. All sources of funding should be declared.  

Preparing references

Please see our Editorial policies for guidance on good citation practice. Any in press articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office. All web links and URLs should be given a reference number and included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. Published conference abstracts, numbered patents and preprints on recognized servers may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details and acknowledgements may not. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited colleagues. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of cited references and these should be checked before submitting.

When citing references in the submission, the authors are required to follow the formatting and style instructions below.  

Citing references in the text

• .Cite references in the text in the Vancouver style, with sequential superscript numbering after nearest punctuation mark (with no space between the punctuation and the reference number).
• .Reference numbers should not be cited in parentheses or brackets.
• .Two references are cited with a comma and no space. Three or more consecutive references are cited in a range with dashes,  e.g. 1,5-8
• .If referring to the author of a previous work in text, write the surname followed by the superscripted citation number. For a citation with two authors, list surnames of both using “&” and for those with three or more authors, write the first author’s surname followed by “et al”.
• .References in tables and figures should be in numerical order according to where the item is first cited in the text.
• .Sample text with correct citation style: “... The best treatment results can be obtained in the primary,1-3 and early mixed dentition.2,4-6 ... Contrary to the findings of Hurtado & Gardea-Torresday,7 Smith et al8 showed...”

Formatting the references list

• .Arrange references as a numbered list at the end of the manuscript.
• .Only one publication can be listed for each number.
• .EndNote software can be used to arrange references as a numbered list at the end of the manuscript, using our Endnote style. To do so, please first download our EndNote style (ZIP file) here, and then unzip and copy the EndNote style (ENS) file into EndNote "Styles" folder on your computer, which should be accessible at Program Files [folder] > Endnote [folder] > Styles [folder]. Please use the following link to download the styles for Reference Manager and EndNote: Styles for EndNote (To add Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin reference style in EndNote, please download the zip file). 
• .Do not use linked fields (produced by EndNote and similar programs). Please use the one-click button provided by EndNote to remove EndNote codes before saving your submission file.
• .For the author names in the references, list the surnames and initials of all authors if there are 6 or fewer; otherwise list the first 6 and add ‘, et al.’
• .Use one space only between words up to the year and then no spaces.
• .The journal title should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus/MEDLINE journal abbreviations. Check journal abbreviations using PubMed. If the journal is not listed in PubMed, then it should be written out in full.
• .Add Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the reference at the end whenever available.

Examples:

Journal article:  
1. Zakeri-Milani P, Barzegar-Jalali M, Azimi M, Valizadeh H. Biopharmaceutical classification of drugs using intrinsic dissolution rate (IDR) and rat intestinal permeability. Eur J Pharm Biopharm 2009;73(1):102-106. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2009.04.015  

2. Mohammadi S, Shahbazi-Mojarrad J, Zakeri-Milani P, Shirani A, Farkhani SM, Samadi N, et al. Synthesis and in vitro evaluation of amphiphilic peptides and their nanostructured conjugates. Adv Pharm Bull 2015;5(1):41-49. doi: 10.5681/apb.2015.006
Online database:

 3.  Note for Guidance on the Investigation of Bioavailability and Bioequivalence. European Agency for Evaluation of Medicinal Products, Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products, https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/scientific-guideline/draft-note-guidance-investigation-bioavailability-bioequivalence_en.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2020.
Book:
4. Goodman LS, Gilman A, Brunton LL. Goodman & Gilman's manual of pharmacology and therapeutics. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008.
5. Miller JC, Miller JN. Statistics for Analytical Chemistery. 3rd ed. Chichester, UK: Ellis Horwood Ltd; 1993.
6. Rowe RC, Sheskey PJ, Owen SC. Handbook of pharmaceutical excipients. 5th ed. London: Pharmaceutical Press; 2006.

Book section:
7. De Jaeghere F, Doelker E, Gurny R. Nanoparticles. In: Mathiowitz E, editor. The Encyclopedia of Controlled Drug Delivery. New York: Wiley and Sons Inc; 1999. P. 641-664.

Conference Proceeding:
8. Dermentzoglou LC, Fleisher D, J.B. D. Dissolution and transit effects on absorption of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: a mixing tank approach. Paper presented at: AAPS 1st National Meeting1986 Nov; Washington, D.C.

Other types of references: For further reference styles not covered here, please consult the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, for which the Sample References page can be accessed at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. 
Software can be cited in text; for an in-text citation, include the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses.
Unpublished data, abstracts, and personal communications may be cited within the text only. Submitted articles that have not yet been accepted should be cited as data not shown, unpublished data, or personal communication.
Unpublished data may refer only to work from an author of the manuscript being submitted.
A personal communication should be documented by a letter of permission.
References should include only articles that are published or in press. In the References list, "et al." should be used only after 6 authors.