Papers should be submitted in journal style. Failure to do so will result in the paper being immediately returned to the author and may lead to significant delays in publication. Spelling may follow British or American usage, but not a mixture of the two. Papers should be double-spaced with a margin of at least 3 cm all round.
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Title page : The title page should give the following information:
- Title of the article.
- Full name of each author.
- Name and address of the department or institution to which the work should be attributed.
- Name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
- Sources of support in the form of grants.
- Key words.
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Abstract : The length of the abstract should be restricted to 200 words for case reports and brief reports and 350 words for original articles. The abstract should be structured to include the Background, Aims, Settings and Design, Methods and Material, Statistical Analysis used Results and Conclusions.
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Keywords Three to six keywords
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Introduction
- Present first the nature and scope of the problem investigated.
- Review briefly the pertinent literature.
- State the rationale for the study.
- Explain the purpose in writing the paper.
- State the method of investigation and the reasons for the choice of a particular method.
- Should be written in the present tense.
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Materials and Methods
- Give the full details, limit references.
- Should be written in the past tense.
- Include exact technical specifications, quantities and generic names.
- Limit the number of subheadings, and use the same in the results section.
- Mention statistical method.
- Do not include results in this section.
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Ethics
While reporting experiments on human subjects, you should 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 that was revised in 2000. (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html.)
Do not use names or initials of patients or hospitals and/or hospital telephone numbers especially in illustrative material.
While reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether you adhered to the guidelines of an institution or national research council governing the care and use of laboratory animals.
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Statistics
Whenever possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty.
Report losses to observation resulting from conditions, such as dropouts from a clinical trial.
Include a general description of methods in the Methods section.
While summarizing the data in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them.
Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols.
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Results
- Do not describe methods.
- Present results in the past tens.
- Present representations rather than endlessly repetitive data.
- Use tables where appropriate, and do not repeat information in the text.
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Discussion
Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that result from them.
Do not repeat in detail the data or other material provided in the Introduction or Results section. Include in results the Discussion section the implications of the findings for the present and for future research and their limitations. Relate the observations to other relevant studies.
Contributors should refrain from commenting 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.
Recommendations may be included only if appropriate.
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Drugs
Use only generic (non-proprietary) names in the text. Suppliers of drugs used may be named in the Acknowledgments section. Do not use 'he', 'his' etc where the sex of the person is unknown; say 'the patient' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'. Patients should not be automatically designated as 'she', and doctors as 'he'.
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References
The references / bibliography should be in Vancouver style. For full details on this refer to the following link to university of Queensland ( HYPERLINK "http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/vancouv.pdf" http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/vancouv.pdf)
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.
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 that is otherwise unavailable from public sources. In such an event, the name of the person and the date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.
For scientific articles, contributors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.
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Tables
Tables should be used only to clarify important points. Double documentation in the form of tables and figures is not acceptable. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. They should be double spaced and contain only horizontal rules. Do not submit tables as photographs. A short descriptive title should appear above each table, with any footnotes suitably identified below. Care must be taken to ensure that all units are included. Ensure that each table is cited in the text.
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Figures
All illustrations (e.g. graphs, drawings or photographs) are considered to be figures, and should be numbered in sequence with Arabic numerals. Each figure should have a caption, typed double-spaced on a separate page and numbered correspondingly. The minimum resolution for electronically generated figures is 300 dpi.
Photographs and radiographs: Photomicrographs should show magnification and details of any staining techniques used. The area(s) of interest must be clearly indicated with arrows or other symbols.
Colour images are encouraged, but the decision whether an illustration is accepted for reproduction in colour in the printed journal lies with the editor-in-chief. Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour in the online version of the journal.
Size of photographs: The final size of photographs will be: (a) single column width (53 mm), (b) double column width (110 mm), (c) full page width (170 mm). Photographs should ideally be submitted at the final reproduction size based on the above figures.
