Author Guidelines

Authors must view The Instructions of the Journals mentioned below before submission of the manuscript in IJOBSMS.

1. Scope of Journal

We invite articles from all Multidiciplinary Field, Pedagogy, Education, Physical Education, Social Science, Behavioral Science, Arts and Commerce, Sports Sciences, Fitness, Movement Science, Biomechanics, Kinsiology, medical specialties like Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Pathology and Health & Fitness Journals. The journal is concerned with social progress and teaching and learning aspects, Sports and Fitness Development, Pedagogy, Education, Physical Education, Social Science, Behavioral Science, Arts and Commerce, Sports Sciences, Movement Science, Biomechanics, Kinsiology, medical specialties epidemiological studies, clinical research, Nutrition, preventive medicine and dentistry, health services research, health education, health promotion, health economics, quality of life, analysis of risk and quality assessment.

The Journal would publish peer-reviewed original research papers, case reports, case series, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, Perspective, editorial, and debates.

2. Editorial Process

The manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted to one journal at a time and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere.

The Editors review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific and technical flaws or lack of a significant message are rejected. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. Manuscripts are sent to two or more expert reviewers without revealing the identity of the contributors to the reviewers. Each manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The contributors will be informed about the reviewers' comments and acceptance/rejection of the manuscript.

Articles accepted would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author, which has to be returned within 2-3 days. Correction received after that period may not be included.

3. Clinical trial registry

All clinical trials from India must be registered with “clinical trials registry – India”. The trials conducted outside India may be registered with any other clinical trial registry. The Indian council of medical research has recommended making it mandatory to have a registration number for all clinical trials submitted for publication from January 2009.

4. Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions

  1. Conception and design or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. Final approval of the version to be published.

Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without the written consent of all the contributors.

Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. A short summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript. The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of an article and should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

5. Contribution details

Contributors should provide a description of what each of them contributed to the manuscript.

The description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concepts, design, the definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review. The authors' contributions will be printed on the first page of the article. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

6. Conflict of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

7. Copy of any permission

To reproduce published material, and to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people a copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript.
Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.
The manuscript should be sent to:

IJOBSMS
Dr. Mandeep Singh
Department of Higher Education
Government of UT of J&K, GCOE, Cluster University of Jammu, J&K 180002
Email id: drmsnathial@gmail.com, editor@ijem.org
Contact No: +91-9906365952

8. Types of Manuscripts and Limits

Original Article
Original articles should contain original research relevant to medical science (Pre, Para & clinical) includes case-control studies, cohort studies, interventional studies, Quasi-experimental, the study of screening and diagnostic tests. Text of study is usually divided into sections introduction, methods, Results & Discussion (IMRAD). Manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract (divided into objective, design, subjects, methods, Result & Conclusions) in not more than 250 words. Four to five keywords in alphabetical order should be provided for indexing along with an abstract. The typical text length for such contribution in 2500-3500 words (excluding Title page, abstract, tables, figures, acknowledgments, & references).

Case Report
Clinical case highlighting uncommon condition or presentation are published as care reports. The Text should not exceed 1000 words & is divided into sections i.e. abstract, Introduction, case report, and discussion. Include a brief abstract of about 100 words.

Case Series
Case series consists of two to five interesting cases with similar clinical presentations. These cases should be a series of uncommon clinical condition or some rare diseases. The Text should not exceed 1500 words & is divided into sections i.e. abstract, Introduction, case study and discussion and include a brief abstract of about 100 words with 3 to 5 keywords.

Review Article
Journal encourages submission of a review article on the topic of general interest. Any topic will be considered but priority will be given to the current problem. The typical length should be about 3000 words (excluding tables, figures & references) manuscript should be accompanied by an Abstract of less than 250 words.

Brief Report
A short account of original studies is published as brief reports. The text should be divided into section i.e. abstract, introduction, methods, results & discussion. A series of cases can also be considered as a brief report, provided the number of cases is reasonably large. The abstract should be 100-150 words with 3-5 keywords. The text should not contain more than 1500 words.

Letter to Editor(s)
The editorial office welcomes and encourages correspondence relating to articles published in the journal. The letter may also relate to other topics of interest to the medical professional. The letter should not be more than 500 words.

Short Communication
Authors can submit short communication which should be related to some recent diseases or clinical problems. It should not exceed 800 to 1000 words with an abstract of about 100 words. It should be having 3 to 5 keywords.

Research Brief
Small original studies are published as research briefs. The text should be divided into section i.e. abstract, introduction, methods, results & discussion. A series of cases can also be considered as research brief, provided the number of cases is reasonably large. The abstract should be 100-150 words with 3-5 keywords. The text should not contain more than 1500 words.

9. Online Submission of Manuscript

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website. First-time users will have to register at this site. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password. If you experience any problems, please contact our editorial office by e-mail at editor@ijem.org

The contributor may provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but who are not affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor.

When you submit an article, the following items must be included. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review.

  • Unblinded Title Page/First Page File/covering letter: All information that can reveal your identity should be here. Use MS word files. Do not zip the files. Provide the highest degree of each author. The covering letter must include:
    1. A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.
    2. A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors' form
    3. A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and
    4. The name, address, telephone number and email of all authors including the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself.
    5. Blinded Article file: Journal of Cytology has a policy of blinded peer review. The manuscript must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgments. Page headers/running titles can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with The Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract to References (including tables) should be in this file. Use MS word doc files. Do not zip the files.
    6. Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 4 MB in size. The size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1800 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Image format jpeg is acceptable. They should be put in at an appropriate place with legends in the manuscript.
    7. Legends: Legends for the figures/images should be included below each figure. Mention the stain and magnification e.g. H and E x100

The contributors' form and copyright transfer form (template provided below) have to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks from submission via email as a scanned image.

10. Preparation of Manuscript

The text of original articles should be divided into sections with the headings: Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends. For a brief report include Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order. Do not use subheadings in these sections. Use double spacing throughout. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. The language should be American English.

Title Page
The title page should carry

  1. Type of manuscript (e.g. Original article, Case Report)
  2. The title of the article, which should be concise, but informative;
  3. Running title or short title, not more than 50 characters;
  4. The name by which each contributor is known (First name and initials of a middle name, Last name), with his or her highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation;
  5. The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed;
  6. The name, address, phone numbers, facsimile numbers and e-mail address of all authors (contributor) including the corresponding author;
  7. The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references and abstract);
  8. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;
  9. Acknowledgment, if any; one or more statements should specify 1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair; 2) acknowledgments of technical help; and 3) acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.
  10. If the manuscript was presented as part of a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read.
  11. Registration number of clinical trials.

Abstract Page
The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150 words for brief reports, case series, case report and 250 words for original research articles and other article types). The abstract should be structured for original articles. State the context (background), aims, settings and design, materials and methods, statistical analysis used, results and conclusions. Below the abstract should provide 3 to 8 keywords. The abstract should not be structured for a brief report, review article, symposia and research methodology. Do not include references in the abstract.

Introduction
State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation. It includes the background of the study planned, its objectives and the major outcome expected at the end of the study.

Materials and Methods
The Methods section should only include information that was available at the time the study was planned or protocol written; all information obtained during the conduct of the study belongs to the results section.

This includes setting, duration and type of study, sampling methods, sample size calculation, inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, Data collection procedure, Data analysis, Ethical consideration & permission, Any scoring system, Surgical procedure if any, etc

Put all subheadings with details of each.

Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address 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, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement  (http://www.consort-statement.org).

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Note: Authors submitting a review article should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

Ethics
When reporting studies on humans, 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 http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html ). Do not use patients’ 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 (animal) and ICMR (human). 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’ section.

Statistics
Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results 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. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001.

Results
Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations.

When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and 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
Include summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, 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 (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research).

Do not repeat in detail data or other material given 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. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such.

References
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. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.

The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as electronic media; newspaper items, etc. please refer to ICMJE Guidelines

(https://www.icmje.org/ or https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html)

Use Vancouver guidelines for reference writing. Visit link:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support-services/library/public/vancouver.pdf

Or link: https://library.westernsydney.edu.au/main/sites/default/files/cite_Vancouver.pdf

Articles in Journals

  • Standard journal article: Bavdekar SB, Gogtay NJ, Muzumdar D, Vaideeswar P, Salvi V, Sarkar M. The path ahead. J Postgrad Med 2007;53(3):153-3 List the first six contributors followed by et al.

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.

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.
      • For footnotes use the following symbols, in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||,¶, **, ††, ‡‡
      • 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 people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or 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 the images uploaded are not printable quality, the publisher office may request for higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript.
      • Final figures for print production: If the images uploaded are not printable quality, the publisher office may request for higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy
Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

    1. Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.
    2. If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity or a description that has an obvious indication of the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

Case Reports/ Case series
Case reports must meet all of the following criteria:

  1. the case should be one that is highly unusual, very unique, underreported in the literature and;
  2. the case report must present as a challenging diagnostic and therapeutic problem and;
  3. the case report must have significant educational value including the ability to perhaps change a clinician's traditional method of handling such a case and;
  4. the case report's interest to the reader should be significant.

Preparation of Case Reports
Follow the standard format for the article (Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Case History, Discussion and Refer

11. Checklist

Covering letter

  • Signed by all contributors
  • Previous publication / presentations mentioned
  • Source of funding mentioned
  • Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

  • Middle name initials provided
  • Author for correspondence, with the e-mail address provided
  • Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions
  • Identity not revealed in a paper except the title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing the previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of the institute in photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

  • Double spacing
  • Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
  • Title page contains all the desired information
  • Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
  • The abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
  • Abstract provided (about 150 words for case reports and 250 words for original articles)
  • Structured abstract provided for an original article
  • Keywords provided (three or more)
  • Introduction of 75-100 words
  • Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
  • The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with a square bracket.
  • References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
  • Send the final article file without ‘Track Change's

Language and grammar

  • Uniformly American English
  • Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelled out
  • Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelled out
  • Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
  • If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
  • Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

  • No repetition of data in tables and graphs and in text
  • Actual numbers from which graphs are drawn, provided
  • Figures necessary and of good quality (color)
  • Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
  • Labels pasted on the back of the photographs (no names written)
  • Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)
  • Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission was taken)
  • Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
  • Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote