INTRODUCTION

Aims and Scope

The International Journal of Gerontology (IJGE) is the official peer-reviewed and SCIE-indexed journal of the Taiwan Society of Geriatric Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. The journal aims to publish original research and review papers on all fields of geriatrics and gerontology, including those dealing with critical care and emergency medicine.

The IJGE aims to explore and clarify the medical science and philosophy in all fields of geriatrics and gerontology, including those in emergency and critical care medicine. The IJGE is determined not only to be a professional gerontology journal but also a leading source of information for the developing field of geriatric emergency and critical care medicine. It is a pioneer in Asia.

Topics in the IJGE cover the advancement of diagnosis and management in urgent, serious and chronic intractable diseases in later life, preventive medicine, long-term care of disability, ethical issues in the diseased elderly and biochemistry, cell biology, endocrinology, molecular biology, pharmacology, physiology and protein chemistry involving diseases associated with age. We did not limit the territory to only critical or emergency conditions inasmuch as chronic diseases are frequently brought about by inappropriate management of acute problems.

The scientific information published here is grounded on clinical cases, statistic evidence of original studies, and accumulation of medical knowledge, humanistic ethics, and fundamental researches. We are also interested in studies bridging the gap between basic and clinical aspects of geriatric diseases. In addition to Review and Original Articles, Brief Communications, Case Reports, Medical Images and Letters to the Editor are welcome.

The IJGE is an open access journal and is indexed in the SCIE since its first volume. It is also indexed in Scopus, Embase, ScienceDirect, CAB Abstracts & Global Health and SIIC Data Bases.

The Editorial Board requires authors to be in compliance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URMs), which are compiled by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE); current URMs are available at http://www.icmje.org/.

These Instructions to Authors are revised periodically by the Editors as needed. Authors should visit this page for the latest version of these instructions. Any manuscript not prepared according to these instructions will be returned immediately to the author(s) without review.

Article Categories

The categories of articles that are published in the Journal are listed and described below. Please select the category that best describes your paper. If your paper does not fall into any of these categories, please contact the Editorial Office.

Authors should carefully read the formatting guidelines and ensure that the article adheres to the limits of the chosen submission type.

Review Articles

These should provide the reader with critical assessments of current topics in research or practice. They should cover aspects of a topic in which scientific consensus exists as well as aspects that remain controversial and are the subject of ongoing scientific research. For systematic reviews, a Methods section should be included, which explicitly states the methods used to search for all relevant sources of information, e.g., search terms and search engines used and whether published bibliographies were also searched. All articles and data sources reviewed should include information about the specific type of study or analysis, population, intervention, exposure, and tests or outcomes. All articles or data sources should be selected systematically for inclusion in the review and critically evaluated.

While review articles are usually submitted by invitation only, unsolicited review articles will also be given due consideration.

Original Articles

These articles typically include randomized trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, laboratory and animal studies, cohort studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control studies, and surveys with high response rates, which represent new and significant contributions to the field.

Section headings should be: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if any), and References.

The Introduction should provide a brief background to the subject of the paper, explain the importance of the study, and state a precise study question or purpose.

The Materials and Methods section should describe the study design and methods (including the study setting and dates, patients/participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, patient samples or animal specimens used, the essential features of any interventions, the main outcome measures, the laboratory methods followed, or data sources and how these were selected for the study), and state the statistical procedures employed in the research. This section must also include a statement regarding approval of the study by an institutional review board and informed consent from human subjects where applicable.

The Results section should comprise the study results, including numeric data and the results of statistical analyses, presented in a logical sequence, supplemented by tables and/or figures. Take care that the text does not repeat data that are presented in tables and/or figures. Rather than simply stating numerical results, the text in this section should interpret the data; only emphasize and summarize the essential features of the main results.

The Discussion should begin with a clear statement of the major findings of the study and their implications. The findings should be compared with those of other relevant reports. Limitations of the study should be noted. The conclusion should emphasize the important implications of the study, but only as supported by the actual results. Comments about specific future directions may be made as appropriate, e.g., work still needed to translate bench findings into clinical applications or particular studies needed to advance understanding of the topic. Avoid, however, vague calls for further studies. Material in the Introduction should not be repeated in the Discussion, nor should specific study results be repeated except as necessary to emphasize a specific point.

Brief Communications

These reports should be concise presentations of clinical observations or preliminary experimental results, or technical aspects of clinical or experimental practice that are not fully investigated, verified, or perfected but may be of widespread interest or application. The Editors reserve the right to determine what constitutes a Brief Communication.

Case Reports

These are short discussions of a case or case series with unique features not previously described that make an important teaching point or scientific observation. They may describe novel techniques or use of equipment, or new information on diseases of importance. Section headings should be: Abstract, Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if any), and References.

The Abstract should include a brief statement of the background, age and sex of the patient(s), clinical findings, and management and outcome.

The Introduction should describe the purpose of the present report, the significance of the disease and its specificity, and briefly review the relevant literature.

The Case Report should include a focused patient history, physical examination, and results of diagnostic studies, the definitive diagnosis, treatment and outcome, and any other information pertinent to the case(s).

The Discussion should begin with a clear statement of the main point(s) illustrated by the case(s), along with reference to relevant reports in the literature. The focus should be on the particular points the authors wish to make but should not include a textbook review of the entire disease entity.

Medical Imagery

Medical imagery are interesting and classic images of medical issues related to gerontology. They are important to facilitate learning and understanding in both basic research and clinical medicine. This category aims to feature medical images with novelty, innovation and an educational sense in any field of gerontology, especially images from emergency and critical situations. It is not intended to be another form of case report.

Images must be original and of high quality to be considered for publication. The figure can have up to 3 photographs or images, and should include appropriate labeling and arrows identifying specific structures. All labeled structures in the image(s) should be accurately described and explained in the figure legend. Relevant clinical information, including a short description of the patient's history, physical and laboratory findings, and clinical course should also be succinctly presented in the figure legend.

Letters to the Editor

Letters are welcome in response to previously published IJGE articles, and may also include interesting cases that do not meet the requirement of being truly exceptional, as well as other brief technical or clinical notes of general interest. Letters should have a title, include appropriate references and the corresponding author's mailing and e-mail addresses. Letters are edited, sometimes extensively, to sharpen their focus. They may be sent for peer review at the discretion of IJGE Editors. Letters are selected based on clarity, significance, and space.

Manuscript Submission

Before submitting your manuscript to the journal, you may consider the use of a professional language editing service, particularly if English is not your first language. Although editing prior to submission is not mandatory, it may improve the overall quality of your manuscript and enable journal editors and reviewers to fully understand the content of your paper. The use of a professional language-editing service does not guarantee that your manuscript will receive a favorable response from IJGE.

Language-editing services are available from Editage (External link http://www.editage.com.tw/), an independent editorial service. Authors intended on submitting to IJGE receive a 5% discount on the expert publication support services from Editage when you submit your manuscript through the website, External link http://www.editage.com.tw/, and enter the coupon code IJGE5.

Note that several other companies also offer language editing services, and authors can choose from any of these. IJGE does not accept responsibility for costs associated with the use of an independent editing service provider services or the associated customer service support.

Online Submission

Manuscripts (meaning all submission items, including all text, tables, artwork, cover letter, authorship statement and conflicts of interest disclosures, and any other required documents/material) must be submitted online to the IJGE through EVISE at https://www.evise.com/profile/api/navigate/null. If assistance is required, please refer to the tutorials for authors and/or customer support that are available on the EVISE website; you may also contact the Editorial Office. Please do not post, fax or e-mail your manuscripts to the Editorial Office.

Editorial Office
International Journal of Gerontology (IJGE)
7F.-3, No. 42, Sec. 1, Minsheng East Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 104612 , Taiwan
Tel: (+886) 2 2543-3555
Fax: (+886) 2 2543-1989
E-mail: ijge.editor@gmail.com

Important Information

Articles should be in Microsoft Word document format and prepared in the simplest form possible. We will add in the correct font, font size, margins and so on according to the journal!|s style.
You may use automatic page numbering, but do NOT use other kinds of automatic formatting such as footnotes, headers and footers. References especially should NOT be formatted using the MS Word "endnotes" or "footnotes" function. References especially should NOT be formatted using the MS Word "endnotes" or "footnotes" function; instead, you may use the commercially available EndNoteR or Reference ManagerR software to manage your references.
Put text, references, table headings and tables, and figure legends in one file.
Figures must be submitted as separate picture files, at the correct resolution and named according to the figure number, e.g., !§Fig1.tif!‥, !§Fig2.jpg!‥.

Supporting Documents

The following documents must be included in your submission (refer also to the Checklist). Items (1), (2) and (3) are mandatory. Items (4), (5) and (6) are required only if they are applicable to your manuscript.

1.Cover Letter.
This must include the following information:

Title of the manuscript
Names (spelled out in full) of all the authors*, and the institutions with which they are affiliated; indicate all affiliations with a superscripted number after the author's name and in front of the matching affiliation (*the name of each author should be written with the family name last, e.g., Wan-Lin Chang) corresponding author details (name, e-mail, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers)
A statement that the material contained in the manuscript has not been previously published and is not being concurrently submitted elsewhere
Persons who do not fulfill the requirements to be listed as authors but who nevertheless contributed to the manuscript (such as those who provided writing assistance, for example) should be disclosed
List of manuscripts that have been published, submitted, or are in press that are similar to the submission to the IJGE (and include in your submission copies of those similar manuscripts so that IJGE Editors can be assured there is no overlap)
The signature of the corresponding author
For all types of articles, please indicate in cover letter whether your paper has received ethical approval (and from which body). If ethical approval was not required please state reasons.
Optional: if you have a list of reviewers who you wish to review or not to review your manuscript, you may include this list in the cover letter

2.Authorship & Conflicts of Interest Statement.
Each author's contribution to the manuscript should be listed. Any and all potential and actual conflicts of interest should also be listed. Please use the IJGE Authorship & Conflicts of Interest Statement form. Your signature and those of ALL your coauthors must be included.

3.Copyright Transfer Agreement.
In the event that your manuscript is accepted for publication in the IJGE, you are required to transfer all copyright ownership in and relating to the work to the Taiwan Society of Geriatric Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. Please use the IJGE Copyright Transfer Agreement form. Your signature and those of ALL your coauthors must be included. However, the Agreement will be null and void if your manuscript is not published in the IJGE.

4.Ethics Statement.
Articles covering the use of human or animal samples in research, or human or animal experiments must be accompanied by a letter of approval from the relevant review committee or authorities.

5.Signed Statement of Informed Consent.
Articles where human subjects can be identified in descriptions, photographs or pedigrees must be accompanied by a signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) the descriptions, photographs and pedigrees from each subject who can be identified.

6.Copyright Permission.
If you have reproduced or adapted material from other copyrighted sources, the letter(s) of permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce or adapt the copyrighted sources must be supplied. Otherwise, such material must be removed from your manuscript.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual's objectivity is potentially compromised by a desire for financial gain, prominence, professional advancement or a successful outcome. IJGE Editors strive to ensure that what is published in the Journal is as balanced, objective and evidence-based as possible. Since it is difficult to distinguish between an actual conflict of interest and a perceived conflict of interest, the Journal requires authors to disclose all and any potential conflicts of interest.

Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial. Financial conflicts include financial relationships such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers' bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements. Non-financial conflicts include personal or professional relationships, affiliations, academic competition, intellectual passion, knowledge or beliefs that might affect objectivity.

Please ensure that the name of each author listed in your manuscript appears in either Section I or Section II on page 2 of the IJGE Authorship & Conflicts of Interest Statement form (an author's name cannot appear in both Section I and Section II of the form).

Ethical Approval of Studies and Informed Consent

For human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee approval is required, and such approval should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed (World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Available at: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/17c.pdf).

For investigations in humans, state explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adults and from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (i.e., oral or written).

For animals used in experiments, state the species, strain, number used, and other pertinent descriptive characteristics. When describing surgical procedures on animals, identify the preanesthetic and anesthetic agents used, and state the amount or concentration and the route and frequency of administration for each. The use of paralytic agents, such as curare or succinylcholine, is not an acceptable substitute for anesthetics. For other invasive procedures on animals, report the analgesic or tranquilizing drugs used. If none were used, provide justification for such exclusion. Manuscripts involving animals must indicate that the study was approved by an institutional animal care and use committee. Reports of studies on animals must indicate that the procedures followed were in accordance with institutional guidelines.

Identification of Patients in Descriptions, Photographs and Pedigrees

A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs and pedigrees should be obtained from all persons (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including by the patients themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs or pedigrees. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission. Omitting data or making data less specific to de-identify patients is acceptable, but changing any such data is not acceptable. State explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adult subjects or from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (i.e., oral or written).

Previous Publication or Duplicate Submission

Submitted manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format (except in abstract or poster form) and are not under consideration in totality or in part by another publication or electronic medium.

Basic Criteria

Manuscripts should be written in clear, grammatically correct English, using American English spelling, and meet the following basic criteria: the material is original, the information is important, the writing is clear and concise, the study methods are appropriate, the data are valid, and the conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data.

Authors whose native language is not English are urged to have an English consultant check the text before submission. The Editorial Office reserves the right to correct or modify the English as necessary, with any fees for English revision charged to the authors.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Open access

This Journal is a peer reviewed, subsidized open access journal where Taiwan Society of Geriatric Emergency and Critical Care Medicine pays for the publishing costs incurred by the Journal.

Authors will be charged by the Association a publication fee and will be charged for the excess of pages and the color pages in the print journal if applicable. Please refer to the "Publication Charges and Reprints" section in the Guide for Authors.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

Identification of Patients in Descriptions, Photographs and Pedigrees

A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs and pedigrees should be obtained from all subjects (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including by the subjects themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs or pedigrees. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission. Omitting data or making data less specific to de-identify patients is acceptable, but changing any such data is not acceptable. State explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adult subjects or from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (i.e., oral or written).

PREPARATION

Peer review

This journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions are typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewer to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final.

Article structure

Manuscript Preparation
Text should be typed double-spaced on white A4 (297 X 210 mm) paper, with outer margins of 2.5 cm. The manuscript should include a title page, abstract, keywords, main text, acknowledgments (if any), references, and figures and tables as appropriate. Each section of the manuscript should begin on a new page. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.

Title Page
The title page should contain the following information (in order, from the top to bottom of the page):article category/article title/declaration of any potential financial and non-financial conflicts of interest/running title not exceeding 50 characters.

IMPORTANT: please do NOT include any author names and affiliations or corresponding author information on the title page (this information should be listed in your cover letter instead) because the IJGE follows a single-blind peer review process.

article category
article title
declaration of any potential financial and non-financial conflicts of interest
running title not exceeding 50 characters
IMPORTANT: please do NOT include any author names and affiliations or corresponding author information on the title page (this information should be listed in your cover letter instead) because the IJGE follows a single-blind peer review process

Abstract and Keywords
A concise and factual abstract and relevant keywords (in alphabetical order) are required for the following article categories: Review Articles, Original Articles, Brief Communications, and Case Reports.

Abstracts for Original Articles should be structured using the following sections:
Background: briefly explain the reasons and importance of the study
Methods: briefly introduce the methods used to perform the study
Results: briefly present the most important results, including both numeric data and details of statistical significance
Conclusion: state the meaning and usefulness of your findings

Abstracts for Review Articles, Brief Communications and Case Reports should be unstructured, in one single paragraph with no section headings. They should consist of a concise summary of the content and importance of the report.

An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, references should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Keywords will be used for indexing purposes and should be taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html). Avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible.

No abstract or keywords are required for Medical Images and Letters to the Editor.

Main Text
The text for Original Articles should be organized into the following sections: Introduction, Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if any), and References. Sections for Case Reports are: Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgments (if any), and References. Each section should begin on a new page.

Abbreviations
Where a term/definition will be continually referred to, it must be written in full when it first appears in the text, followed by the subsequent abbreviation in parentheses (even if it was previously defined in the abstract). Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used. An abbreviation should not be first defined in any section heading; if an abbreviation has previously been defined in the text, then the abbreviation may be used in a subsequent section heading. Restrict the number of abbreviations to those that are absolutely necessary and ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. Ensure that an abbreviation so defined does actually appear later in the text (excluding in figures/tables), otherwise, it should be deleted.

Numbers
Numbers that begin a sentence or those that are less than 10 should be spelled out using letters. Centuries and decades should be spelled out, e.g., the Eighties or nineteenth century. Laboratory parameters, time, temperature, length, area, mass, and volume should be expressed using digits.

Units
Systme International (SI) units must be used, with the exception of blood pressure values which are to be reported in mmHg. Use the metric system for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius.

Names of drugs, devices and other products
Use the Recommended International Non-proprietary Name (rINN) for medicinal substances, unless the specific trade name of a drug is directly relevant to the discussion. Generic drug names should appear in lowercase letters in the text. If a specific proprietary drug needs to be identified, the brand name may appear only once in the manuscript in parentheses following the generic name the first time the drug is mentioned in the text. For devices and other products, the specific brand or trade name, the manufacturer and their location (city, state, country) should be provided the first time the device or product is mentioned in the text, for example, "...KIBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 was used (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA)". Thereafter, the generic term (if appropriate) should be used.

Gene nomenclature
Current standard international nomenclature for genes should be adhered to. For human genes, use genetic notation and symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee ( www.genenames.org). You may also refer to the resources available on PubMed at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/guide/genes-expression. The Human Genome Variation Society has a useful site that provides guidance in naming mutations at www.hgvs.org/mutnomen/index.html. In your manuscript, genes should be typed in italic font and include the accession number.

Statistical requirements
Statistical analysis is essential for all research papers except Case Reports. Use correct nomenclature for statistical methods (e.g., two sample t test, not unpaired t test). Descriptive statistics should follow the scales used in data description. Inferential statistics are important for interpreting results and should be described in detail.

All p values should be presented to the third decimal place for accuracy. The smallest p value that should be expressed is p < 0.001 since additional zeros do not convey useful information; the largest p value that should be expressed is p > 0.99.

Personal communications and unpublished data
These sources cannot be included in the references list but may be described in the text. The author(s) must give the full name and highest academic degree of the person, the date of the communication, and indicate whether it was in oral or written (letter, fax, e-mail) form. A signed statement of permission should be included from each person identified as a source of information in a personal communication or as a source for unpublished data.

Acknowledgements

General acknowledgments for consultations and statistical analyses should be listed concisely, including the names of the individuals who were directly involved. Consent should be obtained from those individuals before their names are listed in this section. Those acknowledged should not include secretarial, clerical or technical staff whose participation was limited to the performance of their normal duties.

Funding/Support Statement

All financial and material support for the research, work, writing and editorial assistance from internal or external agencies, including commercial companies, should be clearly and completely identified in a Funding/Support Statement.

Tables

Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should have a concise table heading, be self-explanatory, and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Information requiring explanatory footnotes should be denoted using superscripted lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.), with the footnotes arranged under the table in alphabetical order. Asterisks (*, **) are used only to indicate the probability level of tests of significance. Abbreviations used in the table must be defined and placed after the footnotes in alphabetical order. If you include a block of data or table from another source, whether published or unpublished, you must acknowledge the original source.

Figures

General guidelines
The number of figures should be restricted to the minimum necessary to support the textual material. Figures should have an informative figure legend and be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. All symbols and abbreviations should be defined in the figure legend in alphabetical order. Items requiring explanatory footnotes should follow the same style as that for tables as described.

Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details (such as name and date of birth) of the patient must be removed. Anything that might allow identification of a patient must be obscured (e.g., if their face is shown, use a black bar to cover their eyes so that they cannot be identified. If this is not possible or the patient can be identified in some other way, written consent from the patient or family must be submitted along with the article.

All lettering should be done professionally and should be in proportion to the drawing, graph or photograph. Photomicrographs must include an internal scale marker, and the legend should state the type of specimen, original magnification and stain.

Figures must be submitted as separate picture files, at the correct resolution and named according to the figure number and format, e.g., "Fig1.tif", "Fig2.jpg".

Supplementary Materials

Supporting material that cannot be included, and which is not essential for inclusion, in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader. It should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that are additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content.

• All material to be considered as supplementary material must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. Please indicate clearly the material intended as supplementary material upon submission. Also ensure that the supplementary material is referred to in the main manuscript at an appropriate point in the text.
• A maximum of 5 files is acceptable to make up the supplementary material unit for the article. The maximum size per file should not exceed 5 MB.
• Submitted supplementary materials will not be edited, are published exactly as they are received (files in PDF, MS Word format). It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, so ensure that it is clearly and succinctly presented, and that the style of terms conforms with the rest of the paper. Also ensure that the presentation will work on any internet browser.
• The supplementary materials document may contain a reference list. The reference list should follow our citation style and should be checked carefully.
• Authors should ensure the necessary permissions are obtained before including any third party supplementary material with their submission.
• If the manuscript is accepted for publication, such material will be published online on the journal’s website, linked to the article.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct in-text citation.

We strongly suggest cite articles in English. If articles are not in English, they should be with English abstract.

1. In the main text, tables and figure legends

References should be identified using superscripted numbers, and numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text; the numbers should be placed after punctuation.
References cited in tables or figure legends should be included in sequence at the point where the table or figure is first mentioned in the main text.
Do not cite uncompleted work or work that has not yet been accepted for publication (i.e., "unpublished observation", "personal communication") as references (also see Section 8.3.5.)
Do not cite abstracts unless they are the only available reference to an important concept.

2. In the references list

• References should be limited to those cited in the text only.
• The surnames and initials of all the authors up to 3 should be included, but when there are more than 3 authors, list the first 3 authors only followed by "et al".
• Journal references should include, in order, authors' surnames and initials, article title, abbreviated journal name, year, volume and inclusive page numbers
• Abbreviations for journal names should conform to those used in MEDLINE.
• References to books should include the authors' last names and initials, complete title of the chapter, names of the book's editors, complete title of the book, city of publication, publisher, volume and edition numbers, year of publication, and the inclusive page numbers of the cited chapter.
• References to websites should include the authors' names, article title, URL, and the date you last accessed the information.

Examples of the most common reference types are provided below. Please pay particular attention to the formatting, word capitalization, spacing and style. Authors should refer to the AMA Manual of Style, A Guide for Authors and Editors, 10th edition, for the reference style to be followed.

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Data references

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

The Editorial and Peer Review Process

As a general rule, the receipt of a manuscript will be acknowledged within 2 weeks of submission, and authors will be provided with a manuscript reference number for future correspondence. If such an acknowledgment is not received in a reasonable period of time, the author should contact the Editorial Office.

Submissions are reviewed by the Editorial Office to ensure that it contains all parts. Submissions will be rejected if the author has not supplied all the material and documents as outlined in these author instructions.

Manuscripts are then forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief, who makes an initial assessment of it. If the manuscript does not appear to be of sufficient merit or is not appropriate for the Journal, then the manuscript will be rejected without review.

Manuscripts that appear meritorious and appropriate for the Journal are reviewed by at least two Editorial Board members or expert consultants assigned by the Editor-in-Chief. The IJGE follows a single-blind peer review process. Authors may submit a list in their cover letter of reviewers who they wish to review or not to review their manuscript. However, the actual peer reviewers invited will remain anonymous and may or may not be the reviewers suggested by the authors as the selection of reviewers is at the sole discretion of IJGE Editors.

The corresponding author will usually be notified within 12 weeks of whether the submitted article is accepted for publication, rejected, or subject to revision before acceptance (however, do note that delays are sometimes unavoidable). If revisions are required, authors are asked to return a revised manuscript to the Editorial Office via the EES within 30 days. Please notify the Editorial Office in advance if additional time is needed or if you choose not to submit a revised manuscript.

Preparation for Publication

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors should submit the final version of their manuscript in MS Word format, with all tables/figures as applicable, via EVISE.

Accepted manuscripts are then copyedited according to the Journal's style and the galley proofs in the form of a PDF file are sent by the Publisher to the corresponding author for final approval. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the copy editor.

Proofreading is solely the authors' responsibility. Note that the Editorial Board reserves the right to make revisions to the manuscript and the Publisher may proceed with the publication of your article if no response from the author(s) is received.

Publication Charges and Reprints

Authors of accepted articles will be charged a publication fee as follows:

• US$600/NT$18,000 for Review Articles of 6 printed pages or less (invited reviews are exempt);
• US$800/NT$24,000 for Original Articles of 6 printed pages or less;
• US$500/NT$15,000 for Brief Communications and Case Reports of 4 printed pages or less;
• US$200/NT$6,000 for Medical Images and Letters to the Editor of 2 printed pages or less.

Authors will be charged US$170/NT$5,000 per extra page over the page numbers listed above; color illustrations will be charged at the rate of US$100/NT$3,000 per page. The accepted article will proceed to the next stage only upon receipt of payment of the total publication fee. Professional reprints (which include a cover page for the article) may be ordered at prices based on the cost of production.

Quick Publication

For this journal an optional QUICK PUBLICATION service is available to authors for their accepted manuscripts.
Quick publication service allows the accepted manuscript to appear in the next 1 or 2 coming print issue, depending on the availability, of the journal.
Authors who opt for this service is responsible for arranging the payment and replying author proofs within one week. The handling fee of US$300/NT$10,000 will be additionally charged for all categories of article.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Online proof correction

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

FORMS

• Authorship & Conflicts of Interest Statement
• Copyright Transfer Agreement
• Endnote of International Journal of Gerontology (format of reference)