Instructions For Authors

Organization of Sections in an Article

Cover Page

Cover page includes (a) complete manuscript title; (b) List of all authors’ full names, highest academic degrees, professional titles, affiliations, and locations of affiliations; (c) Details of the corresponding author – name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and ORCID ID and (d) sources of support that require acknowledgment, and a running title of not more than 45 characters (including spaces).

Abstract

An abstract is required for all categories of manuscripts. The content should not have any subheadings.

For an Original Research article/Case series, the abstract should be structured and divided into five sections: Objective, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions and Keywords, not exceeding 300 words.

For Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis, the abstract may be unstructured/structured. If structured, should be divided into five sections: Objective, Material and Methods, Results, Conclusions and Keywords, not exceeding 300 words.

For Letters/replies to letter, Case reports, Images/videos in hematology and Resident’s corner, the abstract may be unstructured (highlighting the salient features shown in the study) not exceeding 100 words.

The abstract must not contain any figures, tables, or references, trade names, or manufacturer’s names.

Keywords

Provide three to five keywords at the end of the abstract for all types of articles except for the sections, Letters/reply to the letter, Images/videos in hematology and Resident’s corner.

Introduction

All articles need an Introduction that describes the background and objective of the investigation of not more than 500 words. The author should clearly state the specific goal or purpose of the article, and indicate why it is worthy of attention. In the Introduction, describe the hypothesis to be tested, the dilemma to be resolved, or the deficiency to be remedied.

Materials and Methods or Subject Profile

The type of study, the materials (or subjects), and the methods used should be thoroughly described. An explanation of how the disease was confirmed and the controls used must be included, as well as the details of the data obtained and how it was analyzed. Methods must include the following aspects:

When a device/drug is mentioned in the manuscript for the first time, its manufactures complete details should be mentioned such as the BRAND name of the device/medication followed by name of the manufacturer, city, and state. For example IVC filter (C.R. Bard, Inc. Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA).

Ethics: When reporting studies on human subjects, 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. 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 was followed.

The journal will not consider any manuscript which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethical practices and ethics committee permission must be included in all original research manuscripts under the ‘Materials and Methods’ section. Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) should be supplied by the authors. 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).

Patient consent: Patient anonymity must be maintained in all submissions. If there is any possibility that the patient can be identified in a figure, written consent must be obtained from the patient or parent/guardian by the author, and a line stating that this has been received included in the article.

Study Design

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe the selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population.

Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name, city and country in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol number and date, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement.

Statistics

Wherever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). The authors should report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Result section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as ‘random’ (which implies a randomizing device), ‘normal’, ‘significant’, ‘correlations’, and ‘sample’. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used for data analysis. For all P values include the exact value (and not less than 0.05 or 0.001). Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results

All results should be in a clear, logical sequence and should adhere to the specific objective of the paper. Data presented in tables should not be duplicated in the text. However, important trends and points observed in the study will need to be described. While summarizing data, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated; also specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.

Discussion

The article submitted should explain clearly the outcome of the research considering the goals and results obtained. Any limitations on the materials or subjects and methods must be included. The results differing from those obtained by previous investigators need to be presented with adequate comparisons and explanations. Include key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures and results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence should be described. Include what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, etc.

Do not repeat the data or other material mentioned in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed.

References

References are to be numbered sequentially in the order in which they appear in the manuscript. Reference numbers are typed as superscripts, enclosed by square brackets.

Example: …… with no evidence of intratubular testicular neoplasia.^[1]

Unpublished data or articles submitted for publication are not to be cited in the reference list. They are cited within parenthesis in the text. (Example: Aaron J, unpublished data). Papers presented at meetings are not cited in the reference list. They are cited within parenthesis in the text. (Example: Aaron J et al., presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society).

References follow the ICMJE guidelines. The author’s surname is followed by the author’s initials in capitals without spaces or full stops. All references show page numbers in the format (121-26). Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list from here.

Sample references are given below:

Articles in Journals
1. Olson MC, Posniak HV, Fisher SG, Flisak ME, Salomon CG, Flanigan RC, et al. Directed and random biopsies of the prostate: indications based on combined results of transrectal sonography and prostate-specific antigen density determinations. Am J Roentgenol 1994;163:1407–11.

List the first six contributors followed by et al in all references.

2. Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002;935:40-6

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

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

Books and Other Monographs

Personal Author(s):

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

Editor(s), compiler(s) as author:

6. Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.

Chapter in A Book
7. Turgut AT, Dogra VS. Prostate carcinoma: Evaluation using transrectal sonography. In: Hayat MA, ed. Methods of cancer diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. 1st ed. New York, NA: Elsevier; 2008. p. 499-520.

Electronic Sources as Reference

Refer APA’s Quick guide on reference for electronic references.

Monograph on the Internet format: Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9].

Refer Homepage/Web site and Part of a homepage/Web site formats in the hyperlink provided

Tables

Tables must be significant and provide a good summary of the study. Tables should be self-explanatory and not duplicate of the data given in the text or figures. Each table must have a descriptive title/legend, and each column a heading. Tables must contain a minimum of four lines and two columns of data and not exceeding 10 columns and 25 rows. Tables should be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. Abbreviations used in the tables are defined below each table. All arithmetic calculations (percentages, totals, differences) must be double-checked for accuracy, and data must agree with the data given in the text.

Graphs

Graphs need to be exported as JPEG or TIF images and submitted as figures. Graphs and line drawings need to be a minimum of 1000 dpi. Graphs should include clearly labeled error bars described in the figure legend. The authors must state whether a number that follows the ± sign is a standard error of the mean (SEM) or a standard deviation (SD). The number of independent data points (N) represented in a graph must be indicated in the legend. Numerical axes on graphs should go to 0, except for log axes.

Figure/Image Legends

All figure parts relating to one image should have the same figure number. The style for figure legends should strictly follow the format as the following:
Figure 1: Age and gender of the patient followed by presenting symptoms and subsequent diagnosis. Imaging modality used, organ/section imaged, view, and abnormality seen in the image. It is important to add arrows pointing to the abnormality seen in the image.
Example: Figure 1: 42-year-old woman with Behçet disease who presented with dyspnea. (a) Contrast-enhanced CT image shows the increased diameter of both middle and lower lobe pulmonary arteries (arrows) on the right; the aneurysms are partially thrombosed. (b) CT image with lung window shows well-defined lung parenchymal nodules (arrow) corresponding to the aneurysms.

For microphotographs, stains used and magnification must be mentioned in parenthesis.

Written permission to reprint in print and electronic media, including online use, must be obtained for all previously published illustrations, and an appropriate credit line to be given in the legends.

Figures/Images

All images should be uploaded in JPEG, or TIF, format. The file size should be within 12 MB. 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 legible enough even after reducing 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 figures not on the figure/image themselves. The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas and the patient’s name and medical record number. If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph and eyes must be covered. If a figure has been published elsewhere, the original source must be acknowledged and written permission from the copyright holder submitted to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures. Electronic manipulation of images that materially alters the medical information must be identified and the nature of the alterations described. Symbols used must be uniform in size & style and large enough to withstand reduction. Line drawings and graphs should be in black on a white background, using the same size type as the text. 0.5 mm hairline rules must be avoided. Authors’ names and affiliations must not appear anywhere on the images.

Image Size

Black & white images: should be in JPEG or TIFF format of, Grayscale mode, and 300 DPI resolution. The height and width of an image should be at least 6 x 5 inches.

Color images: should be in 300 DPI resolution without any layered files and alpha channels. Color profile if used should be in CMYK (No Indexed Color, Lab, or RGB profiles) only.

Line art: should be in 1200 DPI resolution of Grayscale or JPEG format. Layered files and alpha channels should not be used. Color profile if used should be in CMYK (No Indexed Color, Lab, or RGB profiles) only. The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

Video Clips

The journal encourages authors to submit video clips, cine clips, or real-time images (preferably in ‘mp4’). The maximum size of each multimedia file should not exceed 400 MB. In addition to the video content, authors must provide a still image from each video file. Provide only TIFF or JPEG files.