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Indian Journal of Medical Sciences publishes manuscripts in the following categories
Manuscripts are accepted from all fields of medicine and allied specialities. They will be grouped into sections as required to make it easier for the readers.
Indian Journal of Medical Sciences (IJMS) publishes original works and findings that contribute to the advancements in the field of Medicine and Allied Sciences and the Publication of Scientific Investigation.
The journal accepts only original work that has not been published elsewhere. All authors must confirm that neither the manuscript nor any part of it was written or published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere. Publication of the content as an abstract during the proceedings of meetings is not considered prior publication and can be submitted for publication. At the time of submission, authors should disclose details, if the study described in the manuscript had been previously presented in a meeting or published as an abstract. The details have to be mentioned in the Acknowledgments section. Any use of previously published material protected by copyright laws must be clearly acknowledged in the manuscript. Publishing of material on a website may be considered prior publication and should be mentioned at the time of submission. Authors should disclose details of related papers even those authored in a different language.
Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to any of the four components mentioned below:
Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the appropriate content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the individual included for authorship credit toward the study itself and the writing of the manuscript. Once the article has been submitted, the order cannot be changed without written consent from all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of eight authors for all categories of manuscripts except for Case Reports and Case Series that will have a maximum of four authors.
The authors need to identify one author who will correspond with the Journal office in all matters related to the manuscript called the Corresponding Author. The content of the final manuscript including changes suggested by the Editor or reviewer of the manuscript is the responsibility of the corresponding author.
Studies conducted must adhere to and be in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. According to (Federal Research Misconduct Policy) scientific misconduct includes:
Direct copying of sentences, whether from their previously published paper or from someone else’s paper, is considered plagiarism. Authors need to check that they have not inadvertently ‘cut and paste’ verbatim from published works.
Plagiarism is the use of other’s 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. The intent and effect of plagiarism are to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies to whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format (print or electronic).
Self-plagiarism refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quotes. This practice is widespread and sometimes unintentional. The journal requires authors to disclose information and cite references about reused content from previously published work of their own or of others.
Incorrect authorship: Excluding authors, wrongly presenting the same material as original in more than one publication, the inclusion of authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published; or submission of articles without the concurrence of all authors.
Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
Violation of generally accepted research practices: Improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: Violations of regulations and laws involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials.
Any form of unethical behavior is strictly discouraged and will result in the submitting author and his group from being banned from submitting material to the journal for a time frame depending on the severity of malpractice.
No particular feature within an image may be introduced, moved, enhanced, obscured, or removed. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are allowed if they are applied to the whole image and do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original image. Adjustments such as changes to settings must be disclosed in the figure legend.
The authors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them toward the manuscript. The description should be divided into the following categories, as deemed applicable: 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 as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as ‘guarantor’ or ‘guarantors’.
All authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or any institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose any conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.
All prospective and retrospective human studies must have appropriate institutional review board approval, and signed informed consent from all human participants is required. All animal studies must have an appropriate institutional review board or animal care committee approval.
Compliance with these rules must be stated in the text, including a waiver of consent by the board, if applicable. Manuscripts that do not comply with these rules will not be accepted for publication.
Patient consent and or Ethical approval statements along with Protocol number and date must be included in all research articles.
For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.
Identifying information, including patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, CT scans, photographs, sonograms, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.
Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.
Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement.
Reporting Guidelines for Specific manuscript types are given below. A statement of compliance with the appropriate guideline must be included on the title page of the manuscript.
Indian Journal of Medical Sciences has a highly rigorous double-blind peer-review process that makes sure that manuscripts are scientifically accurate, relevant, novel, and meaningful.
Manuscripts are subjected to an unbiased double-blinded peer-review process. Decisions on accepting manuscripts for publication are solely based on the peer-review process, and the Editor’s discretion and the decision are final. The manuscript is sent for peer review to at least two external reviewers, and if required, it is sent to a third reviewer to act as a tie-breaker. A completed review by two reviewers recommending the acceptance of the manuscript for publication is mandatory.
Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Indian Journal of Medical Sciences are sent for blind review. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/rejection/amendments to the manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the author. The author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised manuscript version. This process is repeated until reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.
Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Galley proofs are sent to the author. The author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The process of submitting the manuscript to the final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online immediately on final acceptance.
Manuscripts that do not conform to the Author Guidelines or exceed the Maximums set for Articles may be returned to the author without review. Authors can resubmit after complying with the requirements.
In-house submissions
In-house submissions that contain the work of any editorial board member are not allowed to be reviewed by that editorial board member, and an independent editor makes all decisions regarding this manuscript. In addition, these manuscripts are reviewed by two external reviewers. This is also disclosed in the published manuscript under the section of Conflict of Interest.
Data Sharing Policy
NIH funded researchers, please follow the NIH guidelines on Data sharing as given at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-21-013.html
The manuscript should be double-spaced, with a 2.5 cm margin, 12-point Times New Roman font and justified. The pages of the manuscript should be numbered on the bottom right corner.
The manuscript should be written in American English. The author should write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measure. The use of acronyms and abbreviations must be kept to a minimum. When used, they are defined at first mention, followed by the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses. If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer’s name and address (city, state, and country). Manuscripts will be altered to meet the style guidelines of the Indian Journal of Medical Sciences. The authors are requested to check the manuscript for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors before submission. Headings and titles must be in sentence case and not in Capitals.
Cover page includes (a) complete manuscript title; (b) List all authors’ full names, highest academic degrees, professional titles, affiliations, and locations of affiliations; (c) name and address of the corresponding author, including, telephone number, and e-mail address and (d) sources of support that require acknowledgment, and a short title of no more than 45 characters (including spaces) for use as a running title.
An abstract is required for all categories of manuscripts. The abstract should not exceed 500 words. The content should not have any subheadings.
For an Original Research article, the abstract should be divided into four sections: Objective, Material and Methods, Results, and Conclusions. It should not exceed 500 words.
No abstract should contain any figures, tables, or references, trade names, or manufacturer’s names.
Provide up to five keywords at the end of the abstract for all types of articles except for Letters to the Editor and Replies.
All articles need an Introduction that describes the objective of the investigation in not more than 500 words. The author should clearly state the specific goal or purpose of the article, and indicate why it is worthy of attention. In the Introduction, describe the hypothesis to be tested, the dilemma to be resolved, or the deficiency to be remedied.
The research plan, the materials (or subjects), and the methods used should be described. An explanation of how the disease was confirmed and the controls used must be included, as well as the details of the data obtained and how it was analyzed. Methods must include the following aspects:
When a surgical device is mentioned in the manuscript for the first time, its manufactures complete detail should be mentioned such as the BRANDED name of the device/medication followed by name of the manufacturer, city, and state. , For example, IVC filter (C.R. Bard, Inc. Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA). Please mention the name of the Ultrasound machine, its manufacturer, and the country of origin. In addition please mention the type of transducer and its frequency used for the study. This should be mentioned in the methods or the section where you describe how the ultrasound was performed. For Example GE, Logiq E9, Milwaukee, USA
Ethics: When reporting studies on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available at https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of (regional/national/institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants’ names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.
Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the (CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively). The journal will not consider any manuscript which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all original research manuscripts under the ‘Materials and Methods’ section.
Patient consent: Patient anonymity must be maintained in all submissions. If there is any possibility that the patient can be identified in a figure, written consent must be obtained from the patient or parent/guardian by the author, and a line stating that this has been received included in the article.
Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.
Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol number and date, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).
Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). The authors should report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Result section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as ‘random’ (which implies a randomizing device), ‘normal’, ‘significant’, ‘correlations’, and ‘sample’. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.
All results should be in a clear, logical sequence and should adhere to the specific objective of the paper. Data presented in tables should not be duplicated in the text. Important trends and points observed in the study will need to be described. When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.
The article submitted should explain clearly the outcome of the research considering the goals and results obtained. Any limitations on the materials or subjects and methods must be included. How the results differ from those obtained by previous investigators need to be presented with adequate comparisons and explanations. Include key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence should be described. Include what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, etc.
Do not repeat the data or other material mentioned in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed.
References are to be numbered sequentially in the order in which they appear in the manuscript. Reference numbers are typed as superscripts, enclosed by square brackets.
Example: …… with no evidence of intratubular testicular neoplasia.[1]
Unpublished data or articles submitted for publication are not to be cited in the reference list. They are cited within parenthesis in the text. (Example: Aaron J, unpublished data). Papers presented at meetings are not cited in the reference list. They are cited within parenthesis in the text. (Example: Aaron J et al., presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society).
References follow the ICMJE guidelines. The author’s surname is followed by the author’s initials in capitals without spaces or full stops. All references show page numbers in the format (121-26). Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list from here.
Sample references are given below:
Articles in Journals
1. Olson MC, Posniak HV, Fisher SG, Flisak ME, Salomon CG, Flanigan RC, et al. Directed and random biopsies of the prostate: indications based on combined results of transrectal sonography and prostate-specific antigen density determinations. Am J Roentgenol 1994;163:1407–11.
Issue with supplement
Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women’s psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol 1996;23(1, Suppl 2):89-97.
Volume with supplement
Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994;102 Suppl 1:275-82.
Books and Other Monographs
Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author:
Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.
Chapter in A Book
Turgut AT, Dogra VS. Prostate carcinoma: Evaluation using transrectal sonography. In: Hayat MA, ed. Methods of cancer diagnosis, therapy and prognosis. 1st ed. New York, NA: Elsevier; 2008. p. 499-520.
Refer APA’s Quick guide on reference for electronic references.
Monograph on the Internet format:
Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9].
Refer Homepage/Web site and Part of a homepage/Web site formats in the hyperlink provided
Tables must be significant and provide a good summary of the study. Tables should be self-explanatory and not duplicate the data given in the text or figures. Each table must have a descriptive title, and each column a heading. Tables must contain a minimum of four lines and two columns of data and not exceed 10 columns and 25 rows. Tables are numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. Abbreviations used in the tables are defined below each table. All arithmetic calculations (percentages, totals, differences) must be double-checked for accuracy, and data must agree with the data given in the text.
Graphs need to be exported as JPEG or TIF images and submitted as figures. Graphs and line drawings need to be a minimum of 1000 dpi. Graphs should include clearly labeled error bars described in the figure legend. Authors must state whether a number that follows the ± sign is a standard error (SEM) or a standard deviation (SD). The number of independent data points (N) represented in a graph must be indicated in the legend. Numerical axes on graphs should go to 0, except for log axes.
All figure parts relating to one image should have the same figure number. The style for figure legends is given here:
Figure 1: Age and gender of the patient followed by presenting symptoms and subsequent diagnosis. Imaging modality used, organ/section imaged, view, and abnormality seen in the image. Add arrows pointing to the abnormality seen in the image.
Example: Figure 1: 42-year-old woman with Behçet disease who presented with dyspnea. (a) Contrast-enhanced CT image shows the increased diameter of both middle and lower lobe pulmonary arteries (arrows) on the right; the aneurysms are partially thrombosed. (b) CT image with lung window shows well-defined lung parenchymal nodules (arrow) corresponding to the aneurysms.
Written permission to reprint in print and electronic media, including online use, must be obtained for all previously published illustrations, and an appropriate credit line to be given in the legends.
All images should be uploaded in JPEG, or TIF, format. The file size should be within 12 MB in size. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for figures not on the figure/image themselves. The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas and the patient’s name and medical record number. If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph and eyes must be covered. If a figure has been published elsewhere, the original source must be acknowledged and written permission from the copyright holder submitted to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures. Electronic manipulation of images that materially alters the medical information must be identified and the nature of the alterations described. Symbols used must be uniform in size and style and large enough to withstand reduction. Line drawings and graphs should be in black on a white background, using the same size type as the text. 0.5 mm hairline rules must be avoided. Authors’ names and affiliations must not appear anywhere on the images.
Black & white images: JPEG, or TIF format, Grayscale mode, and 300 DPI resolution. The height and width of an image should be at least 6 x 5 inches.
Color images: 300 DPI resolution, no layered files, no alpha channels. Color profile if used: CMYK (No Indexed Color, Lab, or RGB profiles)
Line art: 1200 DPI resolution, Grayscale or Jpeg format. No layered files, no alpha channels. Color profile if used: CMYK (No Indexed Color, Lab, or RGB profiles) The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.
The journal encourages authors to submit video clips, cine clips, or real-time images (preferably in ‘mp4’). The maximum size of each multimedia file should not exceed 400 MB. In addition to the video content, authors must provide a still image from each video file. Supply TIFF or JPEG files.
ISSN (Print): 0019-5359
ISSN (Online): 1998-3654
