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About Privacy Instructions to the Authors Peer Review Guideline Author Guideline

Welcome and thank you for considering the All India Journal of Medical Sciences (AIJMS) as a venue for your work.

CATEGORIES OF ARTICLES

At AIJMS, we offer authors the opportunity to submit a range of article types:

1. Original Articles
2. Review Articles
3. Case reports

 Original articles: These scientific reports give results of original research. These should have a structured abstract and should follow the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) format (maximum 4000 words including references).

 Review articles: These provide an in-depth review of a specific topic. Authors should preferably be working in and have published papers in the area being reviewed and have sufficient expertise to critically evaluate the relevant literature. Appropriate use of tables and figures is encouraged. Where relevant, key messages and salient features may be provided. Review articles are usually solicited by the Journal, but unsolicited material will also be considered (maximum 4000 words including references).

 Case reports: These are brief reports on one to three salient and rare cases, which may be of benefit to the medical fraternity (maximum 1500 words including references). A case report may include up to 3 tables or figures and 15 to 20 references.

PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Cover Letter

Though cover letters are not required, important information that is not in the metadata, such as a meeting presentation date or a major conflict of interest not in the manuscript, should be communicated with initial manuscript submissions.

Manuscript Text File

Compile all text, references, figure legends, and tables into a single double-spaced digital file (preferably an MS Word document, Times New Roman, 12 Font).

 Manuscript title
 Short Title
 Each author’s name, highest degree, and affiliation/institution
 Institution where the work was performed
 Contact information for one (1) corresponding author
 Acknowledgements

Abstract
Provide a structured abstract (for original articles) of not more than 250 words containing the following:

 Background: Problem being addressed in the study
 Methods: How the study was performed
 Results: Salient results
 Conclusions: What the authors conclude from study results

The introduction should state why the study was carried out and what the specific aims of the study were. It should describe the background for the study (the available knowledge), its importance and its goals. It should be brief but complete enough for the reader to understand the reasons for the study without having to read previous publications on the subject.

Methods

These should be described in sufficient detail to permit evaluation and duplication of the work by others. The following should be described in this section:

 Study design
 Setting
 Selection of participants
 Interventions
 Methods of measurement
 Data collection and processing
 Loss of data such as dropouts or patients lost to follow up
 Outcome measures: primary and secondary
 Statistical methods used
 Ethical guidelines followed by the investigators

Statistics

The following information should be given:

 The statistical universe, i.e. the population from which the sample for the study is selected
 Method of selecting the sample (subjects, animals, etc. from the statistical universe)
 Method of allocating the subjects into different groups
 Statistical methods used for presentation and analysis of data (e.g. mean and standard deviation values or percentage values), and statistical tests (e.g. Student’s t test, chi-square test, analysis of variance, non-parametric tests and multivariate techniques)
 Exact p values should be provided.
 Confidence intervals for measurements should be provided wherever appropriate.
 The software package (name and version) used for statistical analysis should be specified.

Results

These should be concise and include only the tables and figures necessary to enhance understanding of the text. Results should be presented in a logical, sequential order that parallels the organization of the methods section. The text should be used to highlight the most important aspects of the figures and tables, and to convey unique information. Data presented in tables and figures should not be duplicated in the text. Drug names, wherever used, should be generic. If the use of proprietary names is deemed a must for the study, generic names should be mentioned in parentheses.

Discussion

The discussion should summarize how the study findings add to the current knowledge, provide explanations for the findings, compare the study’s findings with available studies, discuss the limitations of the study and the implications for future research. Only those published articles directly relevant to interpreting the results and placing them in context should be referenced. The conclusion should be based on and justified by the results of the study. The particular relevance of the results to healthcare in India should be stressed. Conclusions regarding cost-benefit should be drawn only if a specific economic analysis formed a part of the study design.

Identifying Data
At appropriate places in the manuscript, please provide the following items:

 If applicable, a statement that the research protocol was approved by relevant institutional review boards or ethics committees and that all human participants gave written informed consent
 For clinical trials, registration number and registry name
 For studies containing microarrays, accession numbers and repository name

1. Shapiro AMJ, Lakey JRT, Ryan EA, et al. Islet transplantation in seven patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus using a glucocorticoid-free immunosuppressive regimen. N Engl J Med 2000;343:230- 8.

2. Goadsby PJ. Pathophysiology of headache. In: Silberstein SD, Lipton RB, Dalessio DJ, eds. Wolff's headache and other head pain. 7th ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001:57- 72.

3. Kuczmarski RJ, Ogden CL, Grammer-Strawn LM, et al. CDC growth charts: United States. Advance data from vital and health statistics. No. 314. Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 2000. (DHHS publication no. (PHS) 2000-1250 0-0431.)

References

References must be double-spaced and numbered consecutively as they are cited. References first cited in a table or figure legend should be numbered so they will be in sequence with references cited in the text at the point where the table or figure is first mentioned. At the end of the article, the full list of references should include the names of authors, the full title of the journal article or book chapters; the title of journals abbreviated according to the Index Medicus style (www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html) the year of publication, the volume number and the first and final page numbers of the article or chapter.List all citation authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first three, followed by et al. The authors should check that the references are accurate; lack of accuracy may result in the rejection of an otherwise adequate manuscript. The following are sample references:

1. Shapiro AMJ, Lakey JRT, Ryan EA, et al. Islet transplantation in seven patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus using a glucocorticoid-free immunosuppressive regimen. N Engl J Med 2000;343:230- 8.

2. Goadsby PJ. Pathophysiology of headache. In: Silberstein SD, Lipton RB, Dalessio DJ, eds. Wolff's headache and other head pain. 7th ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001:57- 72.

4. Medicare: trends in fees, utilization, and expenditures for imaging services before and after implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office, September 2008. (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d081102r.pdf. opens in new tab.)

Numbered references to personal communications, unpublished data, or manuscripts either “in preparation” or “submitted for publication” are unacceptable. If essential, such materials can be incorporated at appropriate places in the text.

Tables

All tables should be included at the end of the manuscript text file. Double-space tables (including footnotes) and provide a title for each table. Extensive tables or supplementary materials will be published as supplemental materials with the digital version of the article.

Figures

High quality images should be submitted separately in JPG or TIFF format. The labelling must be clear and neat. All photomicrographs should indicate the magnification of the print. Use arrows or letters in contrast with the background to indicate special features. Colour illustrations will be accepted if they make a contribution to the understanding of the manuscript.

REPORTING GUIDELINES

Reporting guidelines promote clear reporting of methods and results to allow critical appraisal of the manuscript. We ask that all manuscripts be written in accordance with the appropriate reporting guideline. A complete list of guidelines can be found in the website of the Equator Network. Below is the list of most often used checklists but others may apply.

For a clinical trials, use the CONSORT checklist and also include a structured abstract that follows the CONSORT extension for abstract checklist, the CONSORT flowchart and, where applicable, the appropriate CONSORT extension statements (for example, for cluster RCTs, pragmatic trials, etc.).

For systematic reviews or meta-analysis of randomised trials and other evaluation studies, use the PRISMA checklist and flowchart and use the PRISMA structured abstract checklist when writing the structured abstract.

For studies of diagnostic accuracy, use the STARD checklist and flowchart.
For observational studies, use the STROBE checklist and any appropriate extension STROBE

extensions.
For genetic risk prediction studies, use GRIPS.
For economic evaluation studies, use CHEERS.
For studies developing, validating or updating a prediction model, use TRIPOD.

For articles that include explicit statements of the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations, we prefer reporting using the GRADE system.

KEY JOURNAL STYLE ELEMENTS

Units of Measurement

Authors should express all measurements in conventional units, with Système International (SI) units given in parentheses throughout the text. Figures and tables should use conventional units, with conversion factors given in legends or footnotes. In accordance with the Uniform Requirements, however, manuscripts containing only SI units will not be returned for that reason.

Abbreviations

Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are strongly discouraged; the first time an abbreviation appears, it should be preceded by the words for which it stands.

Drug Names

Generic names should be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer in parentheses after the first mention of the generic name in the Methods section.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Peer Review

The AIJMS employs a highly rigorous peer-review process to evaluate manuscripts for scientific accuracy, novelty, and importance. The peer-review process often works to improve research while preventing overstatements of results from reaching physicians and the public. The Journal’s careful editing process often requires extensive revisions and involves detailed checking for accuracy.

Authorship

An ‘author’ is someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a study. It is the responsibility of every person listed as an author of an article published in AIJMS to have contributed in a meaningful and identifiable way to the design, performance, analysis, and reporting of the work and to agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

As stated in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations, credit for authorship requires:

 Substantial contributions to conception and design; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
 Drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content
 Final approval of the version to be published
 Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article are appropriately investigated and resolved

The contribution of each author must be mentioned on the Title page. Also, before publication, each author must sign a statement attesting that he or she fulfills the authorship criteria of the ICMJE Recommendations. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section, on the Title page. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or statistical or writing assistance. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Financial Associations/Conflicts of Interest

The Journal is committed to publishing the highest-quality research and reliable, authoritative review articles that are free from commercial influence. A conflict of interest exists when a financial or personal relationship of the author may inappropriately influence his or her actions. Conflicts may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial. Some examples of financial conflicts of interest include employment, research funding (received or pending), stock or share ownership, payment for lectures or travel, consultancies and non- monetary support. Each author must fill the ICJME conflict of interest form at the time of submission of the manuscript. The Journal may use information disclosed in conflict of interest and financial interest statements as a basis for editorial decisions. Sources of full or partial funding or other support for the research must be declared. For more information please see www.icmje.org.

Protection of human subjects and animals in research

All studies conducted on human subjects or animals should be approved by the ethics committee or the institutional review board of the institution where the study was performed. When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national). When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Patient confidentiality

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients’ names, initials or hospital numbers, should not be revealed in written descriptions and photographs. If it is not possible to ensure anonymity, written, informed consent should be obtained from the patient and submitted to the Journal. Identifying details should be omitted if these are not essential but patient data should not be altered to attain anonymity.

Clinical Trials Registration

The ICMJE and, therefore, AIJMS require investigators to register trials in acceptable clinical trial registries before the onset of patient enrollment. Manuscripts describing primary results of nonregistered trials will be turned away prior to peer review.

Copyright

Authors must agree in writing to transfer to the Journal the copyright for all material submitted, in case of its publication by the Journal. The published manuscript may not be reproduced elsewhere, wholly or in part, without the prior written permission of the Journal. The authors need to submit a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) form, duly signed by all the authors, at the time of submission of the manuscript.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of others’ published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. This applies to all forms of documents, published (print or electronic) or unpublished. Authors should make sure that their manuscripts are free from plagiarized material. Providing a reference to the material quoted verbatim from previously published material does not absolve the user of plagiarism. Detection of plagiarism would lead to rejection of the manuscript and debar the publication of any material from the concerned authors for at least three years. The Journal may also send this information to the head of the institution where the authors work with a request for an inquiry in the matter. The Journal may also publish such correspondence in its pages to inform its readers of scientific misconduct.

Dual submission and duplicate publication

The Journal strongly disapproves of ‘Dual submission’, i.e. the submission of the same article simultaneously to different journals for consideration for publication. The authors must give an undertaking (see ‘Author’s declaration’ below) stating that the manuscript has not been submitted to another journal for consideration for publication nor has a substantial part of it been published previously. They should disclose details of any similar or closely-related paper(s) previously published, in press or those currently under review at another Journal, in the Cover Letter.. Previous publication of an abstract in the proceedings of meetings (print or electronic) does not preclude subsequent submission for publication, but this information must be provided at the time of submission. In case the manuscript has already been published elsewhere in any form, details of such publication (including a copy of the submitted/published manuscript) and the reason for submission in the present form, must be stated at the time of submission in the covering letter. If dual submission or duplicate publication is found to have occurred, the manuscript will be rejected and the authors barred from future submissions. The Journal may also send this information to the head of the institution where the authors work with a request for an inquiry in the matter. The Journal may also publish such correspondence in its pages to inform its readers of scientific misconduct and such papers may be retracted.

Pre-publication proofs and offprints

Proofs of articles, prior to their publication, are provided to authors. The authors may make only the necessary minor corrections at this stage and should answer any queries marked for their attention. The proofs should be returned, after corrections and answering all queries, within 2 days electronically. A delay in returning proofs may lead to a delay in publication. Offprints can be ordered by the authors on payment and an order for these should be placed at the time of returning the proofs.