Manuscript Preparation
Manuscript should be prepared in accordance with guidelines provided on the website of the journal. Irrespective of article category, a separate document for title page and undertaking form should be submitted. The title page should include the study title, name of all authors in the correct order with their affiliation, e-mail address and contact numbers. Please download the template for title page here. Along with title page and undertaking form, a covering letter should also be submitted addressing the importance of the study in the respective field. Please download the template of covering letter from here.
-Original article
-ABSTRACT: An structured abstract of not more than 300 words should be provided covering sub-headings of background, study center and duration, methodology, results and conclusion.
-KEYWORDS: At least keywords should be provided at the end of abstract according to the MeSH terms.
-INTRODUCTION: The study introduction should precisely present a background for study and summarizing the available literature. The necessity of conducting the study should be highlighted with a logical rationale and study objective in last paragraph of the introduction.
-METHODOLOGY: the methodology should highlight study design, duration (like January to March 2021 or July 2019 to March 2020) and study setting. Inclusion and exclusion criteria should be clearly documented. A statement of ethical approval should also be added. Statement of informed consent Technical information like instrument used, drugs or chemical used and all methods and procedures should be mentioned so that other researchers can reproduce the results. References should be given for establishing methodology as applicable. Sample size estimation should be provided with a cited reference. Sample size calculator/formula must be mentioned used for estimation of sample size. Statistical techniques along with statistical package used for data analysis should be highlighted. As applicable, a statement of statistical significance based on p-values should be given in the end of data analysis section. The authors should submit their study data and SPSS output files for result verification.
-RESULTS: The study results should be written in a logical way. Data mentioned in tables/figures should not be duplicated in textual form and vice-versa. Tables of long length can be submitted as supplementary file. All the figures and tables must be cited in the result section.
-DISCUSSION: Discussion should briefly summarize the main findings, and similarities or variations with other work done in same context. If the results vary, explore the possible mechanisms or explanations for the findings; emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and relate the implications of the findings in future research. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the Results section. Limitations of the study should also be mentioned in this section in the last paragraph.
-CONCLUSION: The summary of the study should be provided in separate heading of conclusion. Concepts that are already addressed should not be repeated in this section. Unnecessary generalizations should be avoided. The author can address the possible implications for current practices or give recommendations only if applicable.
-CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Authors should declare all relevant interests that may be considered contradictory. Authors should explain why every interest can represent a conflict. If there is no conflict, the authors should state this.
-SOURCE OF FUNDING: Authors should disclose the funding source in case grants/funds were sought from any agency. The authentic documents of funding and reason of funding should be provided to the journal at the time of submission.
-ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: People providing assistance in manuscript preparation at any stage but does not quality for authorship criteria should be acknowledge here with their name, designation and affiliation.
-AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTION: The contribution of all authors in manuscript preparation from study concept till final approval of the article must be declared in this section in the initials of authors’ name. A statement should be given in last of this section that the work has been read and approved by all the authors.
-REFERENCES: The last part of manuscript should enlist the all of the cited references following the Vancouver style. The guide to Vancouver style is available here https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html#journals. All of the references should be cited in ascending order in superscript format and must be available in reference list in same order. Avoid citing the old references for e.g. giving statistics for disease and citing reference of past ten years is not acceptable. The reference range for original article is 20-30. At least 60% of the total references should be cited from past five years.
-Word count of abstract: 200-300.
-Word count of main text excluding abstract and tables/figures: 2000-3000
-Narrative review
-Unstructured abstract of 150-200 words.
-length of main text should be 4000-4500 words.
-sub-headings should be provided in a logical way.
-Sources used for literature search should be mentioned.
-Keywords used for searching the record must be documented in method section.
-Number of articles retrieved and removed should be presented through a figure.
-Reference limit is 40-50.
-Systematic reviews/Meta-analysis
-Structured abstract of 200-300 words should be written.
-Word count for main text should be 4000-5000.
-Total 5 tables/figures may be presented in a manuscript.
-Additional tables/figures or another material should be submitted as supplementary file.
-Reference limit is 40-50.
-Case report
-Unstructured abstract of 150-200 words should be provided.
-Headings must cover abstract, introduction, case presentation, discussion, conclusion, patient consent for case report, conflict of interest and funding source.
-The main text should be comprised of 1200-1500 words.
-Maximum 3 tables/figures are allowed.
-Reference limit is 10-15.
-Short communication/ Short reports
-Unstructured abstract of 150-200 words.
-Length of main text should be 1200-1500 words.
-Maximum 3 tables/figures are allowed.
-Reference limit is 10-15.
Table preparation
-Tables should not be pasted in picture format in manuscript
-Tables should be inserted using insert table option on word and the all border style should be selected.
- Arabic numerals should be used to identify and cite tables in the text, in format of with Table 1.
-Proper titles should be given to all tables with table numbers. The table number should be bold and title is plain text e.g. Table 1: Descriptive statistics of study participants.
-Tables should be pasted in end of the manuscript but must be identified within a manuscript where it has to be inserted (like after stating paragraph one in result you can mention, INSERT HERE TABLE 1).
-Symbols/notations or abbreviations presented in tables must be defined in table legends.
-Tables larger than A4 size may be submitted as supplementary material.
-Colors filling and shading should not be used in tables.
-Illustrations/Figures
-High quality figures/illustrations should be pasted in the manuscript.
-The order in which the figures are posted should correspond to the order in which they are numbered in the text. Multi-panel figures must be provided as one composite file containing all of the figure's components.
-Charts depicting frequencies and percentages should not be pasted as figures. Use a insert chart option in word for adding the Microsoft Excel charts.
-Caption should be given for all figures. The figure number should be bold and title is plain text e.g. Figure 1: Severity of the disease
-Legends should be provided as applicable.
