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Author Guidelines

Authorship Criteria

To justify authorship for the submitted manuscripts, the contributors should meet the following three conditions:

  • Conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data has been done by the author
  • Either drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content has been done by the author
  • The final approval of the version to be published has been given by the author. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to be allowed to take public responsibility for suitable portions of the content.

Note:

These are the guidelines given out by respected international bodies for authorship. Based on our experience we have add few points to the above which should also be taken into consideration while deciding upon the authorship list.

  • Some articles are drafted based on Thesis Works. In such cases, we expect both the Guide/Mentor and the Principal Investigator to be part of the authorship. If the corresponding author did not follow this, by excluding either or both the Principal Investigator and the Guide, they should be informed before submitting the article and should attach a documental proof of consent on the manuscript publication without his or her name. Interested reader can refer to the editorial publication based on such an incidence 
  • In some articles author from Departments Unrelated to the topic of the article, from geographically separate institutions is seen. As incidences of gift or purchase authorship is high, such authors are viewed with contempt. And as a rule our editors tend to away from such articles, unless compelling argument is put forth by the corresponding author.

Naming Order for Contributors

The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and the writing of the manuscript. Once submitted, the order cannot be changed without the written consent of all the contributors.

Number of Contributors

In the event of a study carried out in a single institute, the number of contributors should not exceed eight. There should be a written justification if the number of contributors exceeds eight.

Author Contributors Form

Authorship Changed

No addition of author(s) will be entertained post submission. Exception to this will be made only with proper justification supported by institution/university head.

Paper Presentation and Format

  1. IJPHAP has following outlines for paper presentation and formats.
    1. Use double spacing throughout
    2. Pages should have margins at least 25 mm and be numbered
    3. Maintain the sequence title page, abstract, key words, text, acknowledgements, references and legends.
    4. Text should be presented as per the nature of paper
    5. The Cover page should carry the title, a short running title, total words count on abstract, total word count of manuscript, information of any disclaimers or funding bodies and the corresponding author’s full names, qualifications, affiliations, departments, email and addresses of institute affiliated (street, city, country)
    6. Authorship page should carry in sequence information on primary author, corresponding author, and other authors, with authors’ full names, qualifications, affiliations, departments, email and addresses of institute affiliated (street, city, and country)
    7. Author Contributors' Form must be scanned and sent with signature of all authors. Include permission to reproduce previously published material or to use illustrations that may identify participants

Use of Language

  1. Uniformity in Language is required, with preference to British English
  2. There should be no abbreviation in Abstract
  3. Abbreviation spelt out in full for the first time
  4. Avoid repetition of same words and waste words
  5. Do not use ‘&’ and ‘@’ in the text
  6. Running title provided should be not more than 50 characters
  7. Format the manuscript in a single column
  8. Do not use any special typeface for emphasis

Use of Numbers

  1. Numbers less than 10 should be written in words.
  2. Numbers 10 or more should be written in numbers.
  3. Words not numbers begin a sentence.
  4. Be consistent in lists of numbers.
  5. Numbers less than 1 begin with a zero.
  6. Do not use a space between a number and it’s percent sign.
  7. Use one space between a number and its unit.
  8. Report percentages to only one decimal place if the sample size is larger than 100.
  9. Do not use decimal places if the sample size is less than 100.
  10. Do not use percentages if the sample size is less than 20.
  11. Do not imply greater precision than your measurement instrument.
  12. For ranges use “to” but not “–” to avoid confusion with a minus sign and use the same number of decimal places as the summary statistic.
  13. Rules for data numbers do not apply to citations to the literature
  14. Us the metric system throughout; use of appropriate SI Units is encouraged. If using other, more commonly used units, give the SI equivalent in parenthesis.

Use of Tables, Figures and Images

  1. Tables, Figure and Images number in Arabic letters (no Romans)
  2. Title/legends provided in no more than 40 words
  3. For borrowed materials – credit note must be provided in the figure/table/image itself.
  4. Keep the table/figures simple and uncluttered as possible
  5. Standard abbreviation of units of measurement should be added in parentheses

Use of Tables

  1. Rule of Thumb: Use tables to present data that is detailed and that is important
  2. Avoid tables created with the tab key, pictures, and embedded objects
  3. Fancy borders, shading, 3D effects, multiple grids are both distracting and unnecessary
  4. Prefer grey shades of tables and figures
  5. Scientific table have few horizontal lines and no vertical lines. Usually only three horizontal lines (above and below the column headings, below the table)
  6. Tables should be formatted so that they have to be read horizontally (left to right) – the natural reading style

Use of Figures

  1. Rule of Thumb: Use figures to - Show trends in data (as graphs)
  2. Do not use Pie charts, 3D bar diagrams, as Figures
  3. Figures should be simple to interpret, uncluttered, and free of extra lines, text, dimensions and other gimmicks.
  4. Prefer common data-presentation formats in figures: Column charts/bar charts; Line charts; Scatter plots

Use of Images/photographs

  1. Do not create math equations or tables as pictures
  2. For Images and photographs, use TIFF or a high resolution JPEG.
  3. Figures necessitate good quality – 300dpi with minimum resolution of 800x600 pixel

Relating to tables and figures in text

  1. Refer to all the tables/figures in the text
  2. Point out the relevant part(s) of a table/figure when referring to it
  3. Do not restate all the information from tables/figures in the text of the paper
  4. Tables/figures should not be used to highlight what has already been said in the paper

Permissions

Written permission to reproduce borrowed material (illustrations, tables and photographs) must be obtained. Authors must ensure that appropriate permission has been obtained for the publication of identifiable clinical photographs. Borrowed and previously published material should be acknowledged in the captions in this style: ‘Reproduced by kind permission of . . . (publishers) . . . from . . . (reference).’ It is the responsibility of the author to obtain all such permissions from the original publishers and authors, and to submit them with the manuscript.

Reference

  1. The references / bibliography should be in Vancouver style.
  2. 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.
  3. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus.
  4. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals.
  5. Avoid using abstracts as references.
  6. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source.
  7. 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.
  8. For scientific articles, contributors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses Time New Roman 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • Author Contributors Form

Original Article

We publish all types of research articles, i.e. descriptive, analytical, and experimental. However, we believe that some descriptive studies fall under the audit section more than an original research article. Such articles which do not contribute substantially to existing knowledge or to new concepts will be placed under the AUDIT section of the journal. The word limits are up to 3000 words excluding the abstract and the references.

  • Original Articles should have the following headings in their manuscript:
  • Title
  • Abstract
  • Key Words
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Limitation
  • Acknowledgement
  • Conflict of Interest
  • Reference

    Title

    1. Complete the title of the article
    2. Provide also Running title – not more than 50 characters
    3. Be short, accurate, and unambiguous giving your paper a distinct personality
    4. Begin with the subject of the study
    5. Avoid excessive adjectives and noun strings

    Abstracts

    1. The abstract should contain the essence of the whole paper and should stand-alone. Be clear and concise and avoid unnecessary detail.
    2. Word limits – 300 words
    3. No abbreviation to be used in abstract
    4. Structured abstract - into following sub groups
    • Background
    • Objectives
    • Methods
    • Results
    • Conclusion

    Key Words

    1. Key Words – 3-5 words, arranged in alphabetical order
    2. Use Key Words from the MeSH index – website http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh

    Introduction

    1. Word limit – 300 words
    2. Introductions should be short and arresting and tell the reader why you undertook the study
    3. Divide the Introduction into three parts
    • The first paragraph should be a very short summary of the existing knowledge of your research area.
    • This should lead directly into the second paragraph that summarizes what other people have done in this field, what limitations have been encountered with work to date, and what questions still need to be answered.
    • This, in turn, will lead to the last paragraph, which should clearly state what you did and why.
    1. Do not write conclusion in this section

     Methods

    Basically, it should include three questions:

    • How was the study designed?
    • How was the study carried out?
    • How was the data analyzed?

    Mention following, in order of their appearance, and writing in past tense or passive verb

    • Study type and study design
    • Place and duration of study
    • Sample size and Sampling method
    • Methods of data collection
    • Ethical Approval and Patient consent
    • Inclusion and exclusion criteria
    • Protocols followed (if any)
    • Statistical analysis and software used

    You should give precise details of the questionnaires you used and how they were developed, validated, and tested for repeatability. If IJPHAP questions, you should be able to provide the questionnaire.

    When the sample size is smaller than 40, the results are rarely believable, the summary estimates lack of precision, standard statistical methods may be inappropriate, and the generalizability of the results will be questionable. It is always important to include details of your sample size calculations.

    For comparison, you must also describe the methods of randomization, allocation concealment and blinding of the research staff and the participants to study group allocation. You must also describe any procedures that you used to maximize or measure compliance with the interventions. If a drug is being tested, then the generic name, the manufacturer, the doses used and any other information should be included.

    Results

    You should use an interesting sequence of text, tables, and figures to answer the study questions and to tell the story without diversions. Remember that results and data are not the same thing. You do not need to repeat numbers in the text that are already presented in a table or a figure.

    It is essential that you are consistent in the use of units in your reporting so that readers can make valid comparisons between and within groups. IJPHAP require you to use Système Internationale (SI) units

    • Clearly present relevant data, and avoid data redundancy
    • Only significant results must be shown under this heading
    • Use a mixture of text, tables, and figures
    • Avoid using percentages unless the group have more than 100 subjects
    • When condensing results give the number of subjects, the range of results, the central tendency (mean± SD), and the spread (confidence interval for the mean)
    • If you have done an analysis of variance give the estimates with their degrees of freedom and p values.

    • Prepare tables and figures according to the instructions mentioned above
    • Tables and illustrations/ graphs/ charts should not represent the same results.
    • Use the space below the legend to show some important findings.
    • Write all your result text under one section referring to appropriate legends.

    Template for the result, in order of their appearance

    1. Describe the study sample. Who did you study?
    2. Univariate analyses - How many participants had what?
    3. Bivariate analyses - What is the relation between the outcome and explanatory variables?
    4. Multivariate analyses - What is the result when the confounders and effect modifiers have been taken into account?

    Discussion

    1. Discuss major findings. It should not merely be a repetition of the results section. Only duplicating data from the results section into this heading is NOT allowed
    2. Avoid unnecessary explanations of someone else work unless it is very relevant to the study. Other studies should be quoted in relation to the findings of the present study.
    3. Provide and discuss the literature to support the study
    4. Mention about
    • Limitations of your study
    • Confounding factors
    • Possible implications which are not mentioned in the abstract

    Conclusion

    Template for Conclusion, in order of their appearance

    • What did this study show? Address the aims stated in the
    • Introduction
    • Strengths and weaknesses of methods
    • Discuss how the results support the current literature or refute current knowledge
    • Future directions “So what?” and “where next?” Impact on current thinking or practice

    Also, make note of the following

    • Give recommendations from your study

    Acknowledgment

    Acknowledge any person or institute who has helped the study Make acknowledgment short and do not add praise or literature in this section

    Conflict of Interest

    References

    Abide by IJPHAP guideline – Vancouver citation method. Not more than 40 references for the Original Article

    Legends

    Table e.g. (Table 1)  and Figure e.g. (Figure 3) Put  tables,  charts,  and  figures  at  the  end  of  the  paper, after references

    IJPHAP Template-Original Article

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