BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Ethics in publishing

For information on Ethics in publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/journal-authors/ethics.

Conflict of interest

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest. Further information and an example of a Conflict of Interest form can be found at: http://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/286/supporthub/publishing.

Submission declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint, see http://www.elsevier.com/sharingpolicy), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement.' Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement. Express written permission is required for resale or distribution of this journal and its contents, including all derivative works, compilations and/or translations. Please contact the editorial board for all inquiries (wjo@cma.org.cn).” If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Open access

This is an open access journal: all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. To provide open access, this journal has an open access fee (also known as an article publishing charge APC) which needs to be paid by the authors or on their behalf e.g. by their research funder or institution. The APC is currently waived for this journal. Permitted third party (re)use is defined by the following Creative Commons user licenses.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (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.

Language services

Please write your text in correct English. American or British usage is accepted, but do not mix these two variants. Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission should visit http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting or our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com for more information.

Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds entirely online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/wjorl/) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail. If you are unable to provide an electronic version, please contact the editorial office prior to submission [e-mail: lijing@cma.org.cn; telephone: 0086-010-85158192; or fax:0086-010-85158194].

Referees

Please submit the names and institutional e-mail addresses of several potential referees. For more details, visit our Support\ site. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.

Additional information

Tables and figures may be presented with captions within the main body of the manuscript; if so, figures should additionally be uploaded as high-resolution files.

PREPARATION

Peer review

This journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers 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. For more information on the types of peer review, please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/peer-review.

Use of word processing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

LaTeX

You are recommended to use the Elsevier article class elsarticle.cls (http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/elsarticle) to prepare your manuscript and BibTeX (http://www.bibtex.org) to generate your bibliography.
For detailed submission instructions, templates and other information on LaTeX, see http://www.elsevier.com/latex.

Article Structure

1. Original Research

Subdivision - Numbered Sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. The abstract is not included in section numbering. Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to "the text". Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Abstract
The abstract may follow the structured or unstructured format, as determined by the author of the submission. The objective is to provide a concise overview of the proceeding text.

Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference, and only relevant modifications should be described.

Results
Results should be comprehensive but concise.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, and should not simply repeat the results. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may appear alone or form a subsection of a Discussion, or Results and Discussion section.

 

2. Review Article
Three types of review manuscript are accepted by the WJO-HNS.These are:
1) State-of-the-Art Review. This article type is intended to review contemporary topics. Authors of this type of review can discuss basic science, translational research, or clinical topics. The editors encourage, but do not require, the submission of topics that elicit some degree of controversy allowing both sides of the controversial issue to be presented in detail using the latest peer-reviewed evidence available. The review should be comprehensive but appropriately concise and, ideally, should be authored by two or more experts presenting opposing perspectives.
2)Systematic Review This manuscript type comprehensively evaluates the peer-reviewed literature relating to a specific clinical topic. Article selection should be based on clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria intended to capture all appropriate articles and to minimize selection bias. These criteria must be described in detail. The literature review must be thorough and should incorporate a careful evaluation of the levels of evidence associated with each of the included articles.
3)Evidence-Based Review. This article type represents the highest level of evidence. An Evidence-Based Review incorporates a systematic review and specific clinical recommendations. Upon evaluating the strength of the evidence, authors should use the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) Working Group criteria to classify recommendations as either “Strong” or “Weak”. In brief, if the balance of evidence conclusively indicates that a particular intervention or treatment will be of benefit to the patient, outweighing the risks, then the recommendation can be strong. Similarly, if the evidence conclusively indicates that the risk outweighs the benefit, a strong recommendation for not performing a particular intervention can be made. When the balance of risks and benefits is uncertain or similar, a weak recommendation should be made. Critically, when making recommendations, the authors should discuss the values and preferences that were brought to bear in making the decision, particularly in the context of weak recommendations. Authors are advised to review landmark publications on grading of evidence by the GRADE Working Group (http://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/publications/index.htm).

Reviews should be formatted as follows:
• Abstract (300 words) with the following subheadings: Objective, Data Sources, Methods, Results, Conclusion
• Introduction
• Methods (not applicable to State-of-the-Art Review)
• Results (not applicable to State-of-the-Art Review
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References

Systematic and Evidence-Based Reviews should follow the formatting guidelines described in the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) document (http://www.prisma-statement.org/). The PRISMA checklist, found on the same website, provides a concise reference that should guide manuscript preparation.
Word count:
• 3000 words for State-of-the-Art Review
• 4500 words for Systematic Review and Evidence-Based Review
Figures/Tables should not exceed 8 in total.

 

3. Case Discussion
A case discussion describes one or more related patient encounters with a unique or rare clinical scenario. A successful submission will not only concisely describe the clinical situation but, importantly, will highlight a clinical pearl that will be of benefit to future patients. The unique feature of this submission type is the “expert analysis”. If selected for publication, the submission will undergo detailed evaluation by one or more invited reviewers who will provide a stimulating analysis that will be published alongside the author-submitted case discussion.
Case discussions should include the following: a brief introduction that serves to highlight the theme of the subsequent case description. The case description should concisely and accurately describe one or more related patient encounters, and can be supported by the use of no more than 4 clinical or radiologic images. Lastly, the author(s) should provide a brief discussion emphasizing the important clinical pearl. The word count from the abstract to the discussion should not exceed 1000 words. The number of peer-reviewed references should not exceed 10.

Title Page Information

Author Names and Affiliations
Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding Author
Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, as well as post-publication communication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers, including the country and area codes, are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Present/Permanent AddressIf an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should briefly state the purpose of the research, the principal results, and the major conclusions. 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, 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. The author may decide whether to follow the structured or unstructured format for the abstract. In the case of a structured abstract, the following headings should be included:
• Objective
• Study Design
• Setting
• Subjects and Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

Keywords

Authors are invited to submit keywords associated with their paper.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Nomenclature and Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions, and use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned give their equivalent in SI. Authors wishing to present a table of nomenclature should do so on the second page of their manuscript.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Artwork

Electronic Artwork

General points
•Use uniform lettering and sizing of original artwork.
•Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font
•Use only the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit each figure as a separate file.
• A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats
Regardless of the application used, when electronic artwork is finalized, please use "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: Color or gray scale photographs (halftones): use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or gray scale): use a minimum of 500 dpi.
If electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply as is.

Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG). The resolution of these files is too low.
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color Artwork

Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure that these figures appear in color on the Web at no additional charge (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites). This service will be provided regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.

Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules.

References

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.

Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

References in a special issue

Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference management software

Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles (http://citationstyles.org), such as Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com/features/reference-manager) and Zotero (https://www.zotero.org/), as well as EndNote (http://endnote.com/downloads/styles). Using the word processor plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide.

Reference Style

Text: Indicate references by (consecutive) superscript arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. The numerals are to be used outside periods and commas, inside colons and semicolons. For further detail and examples you are referred to the AMA Manual of Style, A Guide for Authors and Editors, Ninth Edition, ISBN 0-683-40206-4, copies of which may be ordered from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (http://www.lww.com/index.html).
List: Number the references in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.

Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.

Journal Abbreviations Source

Journal names should be abbreviated according to:
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
Printed version of figures (if applicable) in color or black-and-white
• Indicate clearly whether or not color or black-and-white in print is required.
For any further information please visit our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. Example of a correctly given DOI (in URL format; here an article in the journal Physics Letters B):
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 9 (or higher) available free from http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. 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. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. 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.

Offprints

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail (the PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use). For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's WebShop (http://webshop.elsevier.com/myarticleservices/offprints). Authors requiring printed copies of multiple articles may use Elsevier WebShop's 'Create Your Own Book' service to collate multiple articles within a single cover (http://webshop.elsevier.com/myarticleservices/booklets).