Author guidelines

Author Guidelines

Authorship criteria:

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:  (Based on the ICMJE recommendations)

• Concept and design of the study or
• acquisition of the data or
• analysis and interpretation of the data;
• Drafting the article or
• revising the article critically for important intellectual content; and
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or data collection does not justify authorship.
• General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship.
• Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the manuscript’s content.
• The order of naming contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript.
• Once submitted, the order of the authors is final. After that, no changes will be allowed without the written consent of all the contributors.
• The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope, and the number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should justify if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Contribution details

• Contributors should describe contributions made of them to the manuscript.
• The description should be divided into the following categories, concept, design,
• the definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review.
• One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work from inception to published article and should be designated as ‘guarantor.’

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interest

• All the authors must disclose any conflicts of interest present with the publication of the manuscript or
• an institution or product mentioned in the manuscript that is important to the outcome of the study presented.
• Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Copies of any permission(s):

• It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permission to reproduce any copyrighted material.
• A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript.
• Copies of any published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

Submission of Manuscript:

Manuscript submission through the online portal (The Most preferable mode)

Email Submission: submission.pujhsr@paruluniversity.ac.in

Manuscript Preparation & Guidelines

Manuscripts must be prepared by following “Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals” developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (December 2019).

Before submitting a manuscript, contributors may be requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available on the website of the journal.

The Parul University Journal of Health Sciences and Research (PUJHSR) recommends using British English while preparing the manuscripts.

All manuscripts should submit online through the website of the journal & submission email. Only no physical submission will be accepted. If you experience any problems, please get in touch with the editorial office by email submission.pujhsr@paruluniversity@ac.in

The submitted manuscripts not per the “Instructions to Authors” would be returned to the authors for technical correction before they undergo editorial/ peer-review.

Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:

Typography:

Font- TIMES NEW ROMAN

Font Size- 12

Spacing- 1.5

Page Alignment-  T (1.0 cm) B (1.0cm)

RS- (1.5cm) LS (1.0cm)

Page Number- Middle of the Page (bottom)

Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:

This file should provide:

The type of manuscript viz., (original article, case report, case studies, case series, review article, Letter to editor, Short review and Images, etc.),

the title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation, and affiliations) and name(s) of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be credited, All information that can reveal your identity should be here. Use text/RTF/doc files. Do not zip the files.

Suggesting the authors submit the total number of pages, photographs, and word counts separately for the abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables, and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;  Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these; Acknowledgement, if any. One or more statements should specify

1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair;

2) acknowledgments of technical help; and

3) acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. Acknowledgment should be included on the manuscript title page and not in the main article file.

If the manuscript is presented as part of a meeting,  organization, place, and exact date on which read it. A complete statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports might be considered redundant publication of the same or similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted form to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.

Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and URL)

Conflicts of Interest of each author/ contributor. A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or an authors’ form Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/contributors’ list

A statement stating that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for the authorship as stated earlier in the document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and The name, address, email, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself.

Blinded Article file: The article’s main text should be in this file, beginning from Abstract to References (including tables). The file must not mention the authors’ names, initials, the institution at which the study was carried out, or acknowledgments. Page headers/running titles can include the title but not the authors’ names.

Manuscripts not complying with the journal’s blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1 M.B.

Do not incorporate images in the file. If the file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the file size.

The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 2 M.B. in size.

The image’s size can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (up to 1600 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files.

Legends for the figures/images should be included at the article file’s end.

The contributors’ / copyright transfer form

(template provided) has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax, or email as a scanned image.

Print-ready hard copies of the images (one set) or digital images should be sent to the journal office when submitting the revised manuscript.

High-resolution images (up to 5 M.B. each) can be sent by email.

Contributors’ form/copyright transfer form can be submitted through email as mentioned in the editorial contacts

Tables: Authors should exercise particular care in preparing, notating, and describing tables and figures.

Tables should be included in the article file document. Make self-explanatory tables that do not duplicate the text.

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.

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: *, †, ‡, §, ||, **, ††, ‡‡

Illustrations:

Sketches/flow diagrams should be included in the article file document (M.S. Word).

Clinical and histopathology photographs should be uploaded online simultaneously at the time of submission of the manuscript (after scanning if printed) as JPEG files, preferably of a size less than 4 M.B. each.

Please follow the necessary instructions on the journal website. Using double line spacing, type legends (maximum 20 words) for illustrations/figures. Use Arabic numerals for numbering illustrations and should be referred to in the text as “Figure.”

For histopathology photographs, please mention the magnification scale and the staining method. Legends should also be incorporated in the article file after the references.

Illustrations must be cited in the text and numbered in the order of mention. For print photographs, indicate the number of the figure, the first contributor’s surname, and the top of the figure on a label pasted (avoid the use of liquid gum) on the back of each print or mount of a slide.

Parul University Journal of Health Sciences and Research (PUJHSR) reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

For clinical photographs, the subjects must not be identifiable, or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photo.

If a figure or table has been published before, acknowledge the source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material.

A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.

References:

In citing other work, only references consulted in the original should be included.

Use the sequential numbering system.

Personal communications should not be mentioned in the reference list but may appear parenthetically in the text.

Arrange the reference list in the sequence in which the references are first cited. In the text, references cited should be superscripted and appear on top of the line after the punctuation.

Check all connections for accuracy and completeness. The journal follows the Vancouver system of references.

Reference Format:

Mention the first four to six authors followed by et al. Write the surname, followed by the initials for each author/s;  the title of the paper; journal-title (abbreviated according to the style of Index Medicus [www.nlm.nih.gov]; in case the journal is not listed in the Index Medicus, the full journal title may be given); year of publication; volume number; first and last page numbers. Please observe the interpunctuation most carefully.

Examples of references:

For journal articles:

Madan-Patel G, Mazumdar V. Clinical profile and disease progression of HIV in adolescents and young adults in Vadodara, India. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2021 Jan-Jun;42(1):24-30.

For books:

Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (N.Y.): Delmar Publishers; 1996.p 134-8.

For chapters in books:

Lever WF, Schaumberg Lever G. Pityriasis rubra pilaris. In: Lever WF, Schaumberg Lever G, editors. Histopathology of the skin. 7th ed. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott; 1996. p. 176-8.

For electronic media:

Bhatia A, Prakash S. Topical phenytoin for wound healing. Dermatology Online Journal. Available at: http://dermatology.cdlib.org. It was accessed on November 3, 2004.

Abbreviations- Short words or Abbreviations should be avoided in the title and abstract. A term or a disease must be spelled out at first mention, with the abbreviation following in parentheses in the text file.

N.B. before writing, please refer to ‘Uniform requirement for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals’ at the web page www.icmje.org or in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med 1997; 126:36-47) for more detailed guidelines

Clinical Trial Registry:

Parul University Journal of Health Sciences and Research (PUJHSR) strongly recommends registering clinical trials as per the ICMR regulations. Parul University Journal of Health Sciences and Research (PUJHSR) would publish clinical trials that are registered with a clinical trial registry and also register with other authorized trial registrars acceptable.

Types of Manuscripts

Review article:  Systematic critical assessments of literature and data sources of about 3000 words should be submitted. Add an unstructured abstract of 250 words with keywords.

Research article: This includes reports of trials, studies of diagnostic tests, or surveys up to 2500 words in length (excluding references and abstract). Please write a structured abstract (including five headings: Background, Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusion) of not more than 250 words and add keywords (3-5 words). The article should include an introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgment, and references. Double-blind controlled trials must conform to the revised CONSORT statement, which is available from the editorial office or at the website http://www.consort-statement.org. Registration of clinical trials is desirable. Permission from the ethics committee/ Institutional Review Board (IRB), statement of sources of support, and conflict of interest is mandatory. IRB approval must be mentioned in the “methods” section of all manuscripts. Short reports of preliminary studies may be submitted for the category of Brief descriptions.

Case reports/Case study/Case series: Reports of an unusual manifestation of a disease or a new disease (1000 words and up to 10 references) should be submitted with photographs. An unstructured abstract of not more than 200 words should be submitted along with 3-5 keywords. The article should include an introduction, case report(s), discussion, and references.

Letters to the Editor: These should generally be no more than 750 words in length and may have up to 5 references and a maximum of three photographs. There are no sub-headings within the letter.

Short review: Short reviews (up to 1500 words) on instruments or equipment or drugs or procedures of current interest may be submitted after consulting the editor on the subject selection. No abstract is required.

Short communication: Announcements of conferences, meetings, courses, awards, and other items likely to be of interest to readers should be submitted with the name and address of the person from whom additional information can be obtained (up to 100 words).

Retraction Policy:

Parul University Journal of Health Sciences and Research (PUJHSR), implementing the retraction Guidelines as per the COPE Retraction Guidelines. (https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines)

Various scenarios in retracting a publication:

With clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g., data fabrication) or honest error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error), the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication)

In these scenarios, the Journal editor will ask for an explanation from the author/s, based on their response form them in the stipulated time, Upon hearing from them, the editor constitutes the committee with editorial board members, and after a details discussion, the decision will be conveyed to the Author/s. (Entire process is time-bound, and the editor’s decision is the final).

Notices of retraction: linked to the retracted article wherever possible (i.e., in all electronic versions), clearly identify the retracted article (e.g., by including the title and authors in the retraction heading), Clearly identified as a retraction (i.e., distinct from other types of correction or comment), Published promptly to minimize harmful effects from misleading publications.

Appeal: During the publication process, right from submission to publication, the Author/Author can appeal to the editor-in-chief at his official email for any discrepancy. However, the editor-in-chief’s decision is the final.

Disclaimer: Author/Authors are fully responsible for any consequences that arise from the publication. However, the Editor in Chief, Editorial board members & editorial staff is consistently striving to publish the best quality of research only. Either Journal Team or Parul University Management is not responsible.