Journal of Medical Sciences and Health

CATEGORIES OF ARTICLES

The Editors invite contributions to the following sections of the Journal:

• Editorials
• Original articles
• Review articles
• Short Communications
• Case Reports
• Letter to Editor

1. Editorials will be signed. These are usually solicited but unsolicited material may also be considered (approx. 1000 to 1200 words). A maximum of 10 references may be included. Editorials should normally not have tables and figures.

2. Original Articles These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rate. The text of original articles amounting to up to 3000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References ( 25-30), Tables and Figure legends.  A maximum of  2 tables and 4 figures are allowed in the main manuscript, and the remaining tables and figures should be accommodated in supplementary data.

3. Review articles: These provide an in-depth review of a specific topic. Authors should preferably be working in and have published papers in the area being reviewed and have sufficient expertise to critically evaluate the relevant literature. Appropriate use of tables and figures is encouraged. Where relevant, key messages and salient features may be provided. Review articles are usually solicited by the Journal, but unsolicited material will also be considered (approx. 3000 to 4000 words), up to 50 references.   A maximum of  4 tables and 4 figures are allowed in the main manuscript.

4. Short Communications: These are brief reports on original research (approx. 1200 to 1500 words). A short report may include up to 2 tables or figures and up to 10 references.

5. Case reports: These are brief descriptions of a previously undocumented disease process, a unique unreported manifestation or treatment of a known disease condition, a unique unreported complication of treatment, a case that generates a new hypothesis or helps understand possible pathophysiological processes (approx. 700 to 1200 words). These may be accompanied by upto 4 figures (relevant photographs). High-resolution photographs as  JPEG files (not over 4MB each) should be submitted along with the write-up and up to 12 references as separate files.

6. Medical education and medical ethics: This section includes articles on original research in ‘Medical education’ including the use of new techniques and teaching aids, the design of curricula and evaluation of current educational practices. Brief reviews in the field of medical education and ethical principles are also considered (approx. 1000 to 2000 words) and up to 15 references. Up to 2 tables or 2 Figures can be accommodated in the manuscript.

7. Correspondence: This includes reader’s comments on articles published in the Journal during the previous 6 months. Short studies, observations and opinions may also be submitted (approx. 300 to 500 words with a maximum of 1 table or figure and 10 references)

8. Student research: This includes and research studies exclusively authored by medical students both undergraduate and postgraduates. The articles have to be written under the supervision of at least one faculty. (approx. 1000 to 2000 words) up to 15 references.

9. Images quiz: Contributors are required to submit an image quiz with relevant clinical and histological/radiological photograph/s with a brief history and discussion. We solicit submissions of a rare entity, a syndrome, a sign etc, which encourages the reader to think. A maximum of  200 words and three photographs including histology when applicable are required. 1 or 2 high-resolution photographs as  JPEG file (not over 4MB each) should be submitted along with the write-up and up to 5 references.

10. Letter to the editor: This should be a short, decisive observation. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. Up to 500 words and up to 5 references.

Note: Authors please note that all the manuscripts submitted will be processed for plagiarism check before considering for peer-review process.

Ethics: When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available at https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of (regional/ national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/ or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants’ names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. 
Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Materials and Methods’

 

 Tables

• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
• Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable.
• Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
• Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
• Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
• Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.
• Tables with their legends should be provided at the end of the text after the references. The tables along with their number should be cited at the relevant place in the text

Illustrations (Figures)

• Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 4 MB in size while uploading.
• Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
• Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
• Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
• Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
• When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
• The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
• If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
• If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
• Legends for illustrations: Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
• Final figures for print production: If uploaded images are not printable quality, the publication office may request for higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, color photographic prints, with height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript. Print outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. If digital images are the only source of images, ensure that the image has minimum resolution of 300 dpi or 1800 x 1600 pixels in TIFF format. Send the images on a CD. Each figure should have a label pasted (avoid use of liquid gum for pasting) on its back indicating the number of the figure, the running title, top of the figure and the legends of the figure. Do not write the contributor/s' name/s. Do not write on the back of figures, scratch, or mark them by using paper clips.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

References

Please note that the references should be in Vancouver’s style.

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

Articles in Journals
Standard journal article (for up to six authors): Shukla N, Husain N, Agarwal GG, Husain M. Utility of cysticercus fasciolaris antigen in Dot ELISA for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis. Indian J Med Sci 2008;62:222-7.
Standard journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by et al.
Nozari Y, Hashemlu A, Hatmi ZN, Sheikhvatan M, Iravani A, Bazdar A, et al. Outcome of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients without major risk factors and patients with at least one major risk factor for coronary artery disease. Indian J Med Sci 2007;61:547-54

Volume with supplement: Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994; 102 Suppl 1:275-82.

The issue with supplement: Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women's psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol 1996; 23(1, Suppl 2):89-97.

Books and Other Monographs

Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.

Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

Chapter in a book: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. pp. 465-78.

Electronic Sources as reference

Journal article on the Internet: Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 3 p.].
Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ajnonline/Fulltext/2002/06000/Quality_Improvement_Initiative_in_Nursing_Homes.31.aspx

Similarity index consideration

We run all the manuscripts through a plagiarism software. We consider similarity index up to 20% with due citation to consider the articles for peer review process. If the similarity index is >20%, the article will be withheld and sent back to the author for rectification of the plagiarized content. Once the plagiarism is reduced or rectified by the author, the author can resubmit the manuscript for consideration for peer review process and possible publication.

Publication processing time

From article submission to publishing online takes an average of 5 – 6 months

APC charges

Our journal doesn’t charge any article submission or article processing fee to authors, it is free to publish and free to read online.

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