Author Guidelines

The Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) is committed to an unbiased, independent, anonymous and confidential review of articles submitted to it. Manuscripts submitted to this Journal, should not have been published or under consideration for publication in any substantial form in any other publication, professional or lay. All the manuscripts once submitted to and published in the Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) will become the property of the journal.

Submission of articles

Authors are requested to register with login and password to submit the article online. If authors face any problem with registration process, they can  submit article typed in double space (including references), with wide margins as electronic copy through email to editorjmrph@gmail.com There is no need to send a hard copy.

Quality articles are invited from the contributors for “Original Articles, Review Articles, Short Communications, and Letter to the Editor”. Potential contributors are requested to read the “Uniform Guidelines for Submission of Biomedical Articles”, before submitting an article.

The main objective of the journal is to promote the research activities amongst younger faculty members. The principal author would be responsible for the manuscript handling, review and printing costs as per page length of the article directly to the publisher and not to the editors. In case of colour graphics and colour charts the charges for the same should be inquired from the publishers.

Papers that are not formatted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines for authors will be returned to the author before editorial review. Each submission will be initially reviewed by the editor followed by peer review provided the article is of sufficient priority for publication. Every submission has to be the sole work of the authors and not been previously published nor before another journal for consideration.

Decision of Publication

The decision of acceptance for publication lies with the editorial board and accepted manuscripts are copyedited according to the journal style, the galley proofs are returned to the corresponding author for approval before publishing. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the copy editor and authorized by the corresponding author.

Types of acceptable articles

Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) accepts and publishes original articles, reviews, brief communications and letters to editor in the field of medical sciences and public health especially focusing on family health care, epidemiology, health care delivery, national health problems and related subjects.

Preparation of the manuscript

Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) accepts materials in the following electronic formats:

1. Text: Microsoft Word
2. Illustrations*: .GIF or .JPG format

Materials sent in any other format shall not be accepted.

*Illustrations (figures/photos/graphs) in .GIF or .JPG format should be inserted into the body of the text and also e-mailed as attached files. The photographs used in case illustrations should be the original, unedited images.

Authors are supposed to submit two separate files, a title page and an article file for ensuring a blind review.

Article Format

Editorials, Review Articles and articles of Current Interest are solicited by the Editorial Board and therefore should be sent only on our request. Guidelines for other articles are given below:

Basic Requirements:
Articles submitted to Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) shall conform to the Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med. 1997;336:309-15)

 

Originality: All articles submitted for publication in Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) should be original material. The submission should have been made exclusively to Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) and should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. 

The first author should certify to this effect.

Authorship: Each quoted author should have contributed substantially to the represented work in terms of conceptual design or analysis, writing of the article and final approval of the article in order to take public responsibility for the content. 

First author must guarantee this to be so. Submit the Copyright Transfer and Financial Disclosure /Conflict of Interest Statement in format as mentioned at the end of this document.

 

Disclosure of commercial interests: 

Sources of support for the research or article must be acknowledged in the paper and any financial involvement that might indicate a conflict of interest should be disclosed at the time of submission.

Patient Anonymity and Consent: 

Since Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) is largely available for public access, ethical and legal considerations mandate that patients’ anonymity be preserved. Research papers must indicate informed consent for procedures and the involvement of an ethical committee, proof of which may be required in the review process of the paper.

The First Page

• A concise and comprehensive title
• A short running head (less than 40 characters)
• Authors’ names, highest academic degrees and institutional affiliations
• The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed.
• Contact information of the corresponding author (name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address)
• Word count (excluding abstract, acknowledgments, figure legends, and references)
• The number of figures and tables
• Key words and Abstract.

Suggested length of articles:
Original Article – 3000 words, 3 tables, 2 graphs; references limited to 15
Short Communications – 1500 words, 1 table, 1 graph; references limited to 10
Comments/Letters to the Editor – 800 words; references limited to 8

Components of Articles:

Articles submitted to Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) shall conform to the Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med. 1997;336:309-15).

 

For Review Articles, Original Work:
Title, Authors and affiliations, Summary/Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Statistics, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References

For Short Communications:
Title, Authors and affiliations, Summary/Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References

For Comments/Letters to the Editor:
Title, Authors and affiliations, Introduction, Discussion, References

• Title: Short, meaningful and interesting, preferably not more than 12 words (or 72 characters) in length.
• Authors and affiliations: Full name, qualifications, designation and institutional affiliation of all authors, complete postal address, mobile number and e-mail ID of the first author for correspondence.
• Summary/Abstract: Not more than 150 words, stating the purpose(s) of the study or investigation, basic procedures and methodology, important findings and principal conclusions. Emphasis should be on new and important aspects of the study or observations. No references allowed.
• Introduction: Brief review of the subject or background; purpose of the article and /or rationale for the study; pertinent references only.
• Methods: Selection criteria, details of the methods/procedures so that others can reproduce the same. For established methods, give references; for not so well known methods, give brief description and references; for new or substantially modified methods, give details, reasons for use and for modification(s) and limitations. Drug(s) and chemical(s) should be precisely identified by generic name(s), dose(s) and route(s) of administration.

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Guideline	Type of Study	Source
STROBE	Observational studies including cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies	https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists
CONSORT	Randomized controlled trials	http://www.consort-statement.org
SQUIRE	Quality improvement projects	http://squire-statement.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=471
PRISMA	Systematic reviews and meta-analyses	http://prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/Checklist.aspx
STARD	Studies of diagnostic accuracy	https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.2015151516
CARE	Case Reports	https://www.care-statement.org/checklist
AGREE	Clinical Practice Guidelines	https://www.agreetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/AGREE-Reporting-Checklist-2016.pdf

• Statistics: Clearly state the statistical methods used in the design and analysis of the studies. Where relevant the exact statistical tests must be stated with reference to confidence intervals.
• Results: Present in logical sequence in text, tables and illustrations, avoid repeating the data. All tables must be prepared using the insert Table option on the MS-Word menu or pasted from MS-Excel.
• Tables
• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
• Tables should be less than 10 columns and 25 rows.
• 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.
• Discussion: Emphasise the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow, the implications and the limitations; relate to other relevant studies; avoid repeating the details given in introduction and/or results.
• Acknowledgements: For contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, with prior permission from the persons being acknowledged. Limit to ten.

References:

Accuracy of citation is the author’s responsibility. The reference style is given below and conforms to the Vancouver style.

Each reference should be assigned a number, consecutively in the order of mention in the text. The original number should be reused each time the same reference is cited in the text. The number should be placed in the text in superscript format without any brackets e.e. text¹, outside the full-stops and commas and inside colons and semi-colons. When multiple references are cited at a given place in the text, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers that are inclusive and use commas to separate non-inclusive numbers (e.g. ^2-5,7,10).

The list of references should be given at the end of the paper. Where there are 3 or less authors, list ALL the authors. Where there are more than 3 authors, use et al after the third author.

Examples:

Citing a book:

<Author/s>. <Title of book>, <edition of book>. <Place of publication>: <Publisher>; <year of publication>. p<page number/s>.

Example:

K Park. Park’s Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 21st ed. Jabalpur: Bhanot Publishers; 2011. p 358.

Citing a journal:

<Author/s>. <Title>. <Name of Journal><Publication Year>; <Volume(Issue)>: <Page no.>.

Example:

Singh SS, Vijayachari P, Sinha A, et al. Clinico-epidemiological study of hospitalized cases of severe leptospirosis. Indian J Med Res. 1999;109:94-9.

 Citing conferences:

 

Example:

Kakkilaya BS, Motha B, Rajeev, et al. Investigation of a leptospirosis outbreak in Surathkal. In Bundy D, Warrel D, Co-Chairman, Scientific committee. Final programme and abstract book, Oxford 2000, New Challenges in tropical medicine and parasitology, 2000 Sep 18-22; Oxford. Cheshire: Complete Congress Services Ltd; 2000. p.139.

Citing Internet:

<Title of Page>. Available at: <web address>. Accessed on <Month day, year>.

Example:

International Chemical Safety Cards: Chloroaniline. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcs/ipcs0026.html. Accessed May 18^th, 2001.

Citing a report:

<Agency to whom the report belongs>. <Title>, <edition/volume (if applicable>. <Place of publication>: <Publisher>; <year of publication>.p<page number/s>.

Example:
World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia. HIV /AIDS in the South-East Asia Region 2009. New Delhi, India: WHO; 2009. p17.

Review process:

Papers will usually be acknowledged upon receipt.

All scientific papers will be independently peer reviewed to determine the originality of research and the viability of publication.

Anonymity of authors/institutions and referees to each other shall be maintained so that the review process remains uninfluenced. Reviewers’ comments may be sent to authors when revisions to the paper are found necessary. Generally the review process shall be completed within one month of submission. After one month of submission, the author can mail to executive editor to verify the status of their submitted articles.

The editorial decision is final. The editorial board reserves the right to make revisions aimed at greater clarity or conformity of style.

For further details: editorjmrph@gmail.com

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Printing and Manuscript handling charges: 

As per the decision of the editorial board, once the article is accepted, the principal author has to bear the bare minimum publication costs (cost of manuscript handling, reviewing, publishing, web maintenance fee etc.) which will be according to the page length of the article. The page length of the article will be according to printing format of the journal and will be informed to corresponding author once the article is accepted. If you do not have funds to pay such fees, you will have an opportunity to waive each fee. We do not want fees to prevent the publication of a worthy work.

Copyright Notice

The submitting author on behalf of all the authors transfers the copyright ownership of the submitted work to Journal of Medical Research and Public Health (JMRPH) in the event it is published. Authors declare that the article is original and is not under consideration for publication in any other journal. The authors confirm that the submitted paper or its contents (tables or figures) have not been previously published. The author(s) endorse that the final article has been read by all the authors and each author’s contribution has been approved by the appropriate author. In addition, all the authors declare that they have made substantive contributions to the submitted work and no authorship violation has been done. Please sign this form, Scan & email along with the manuscript.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. 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).
2. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 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.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.