Instructions to authors

Author Guidelines

Indian Journal of Pharmacy & Drugs Studies is a quarterly, international, online journal owned and published by the Mansa STM publishers, India. IJPDS aims to promote scientific communication among medical researchers worldwide. The journal's full text is available online at https://mansapublishers.com/IJPDS. The journal allows free access (Open Access) to its contents; therefore, authors are free to self-archive the final accepted version of the article.

Manuscript Preparation:

IJPDS accepts manuscripts written as per the "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). Manuscripts must be in English and should be written in a clear, concise, and direct style. They should be typed as a Microsoft Word document in double space on the A-4 size page, set up with margins of at least 1 inch (25 mm). All pages should be numbered consecutively beginning with the title page. All submitted manuscripts must include the following items:

  • Title Page
  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods:
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments (optional)
  • References

Title Page:

  1. Type of the manuscript (original article, review article, short communication, case report, letter to the editor, etc.)
  2. Title of the manuscript
  3. Short running title (up to 50 characters)
  4. Names of all the authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation, and affiliations)
  5. Name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited
  6. Corresponding author details, including full address, e-mail address, and phone number or mobile number
  7. The total number of pages, figures, and tables
  8. Word counts (separately for the abstract and the text, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends).
  9. Source(s) of support in the form of grants/ funding, equipment, drugs, or all of these.
  10. Registration number, in case of a registered clinical trial
  11. Conflicts of interest of each author.
  12. Contribution details

Abstract:

An abstract (not exceeding 300 words) should be provided typed on a separate sheet. The abstract should be structured (except for case reports) and include objectives, methods, results, and conclusions.

Keywords:

Up to 4-6 keywords must be provided related to the work. These keywords should be typed at the end of the abstract.

Introduction:

It should be a concise statement of the background to the work presented, including relevant earlier work, suitably referenced. It should start on a new page.

Materials and Methods:

It shall start as a continuation of the introduction on the same page. All important materials and equipment, the manufacturer's name, and, if possible, the location should be provided. The main methods used shall be briefly described, citing references. New methods or substantially modified methods may be described in sufficient detail. The statistical methods and the level of significance chosen shall be clearly stated.

Results:

The important results of the work should be clearly stated and illustrated where necessary by using tables and figures. The statistical treatment of data and the significance level of the factors should be stated wherever necessary. Data that is not statistically significant needs only to be mentioned in the text, and no illustration is necessary.

Discussion:

This section should deal with the interpretation of results, making readers understand the problem taken, and should be logical. The discussion should state the scope of the results, which need to be further explored.

Conclusions:

Concisely summarize the principal conclusions of the work and highlight the wider implications. This section should not merely duplicate the abstract.

Acknowledgments:

Acknowledgments, as well as information regarding funding sources, should be provided.

Types of Manuscripts:

Original articles: Randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and survey-based studies can be sent under this heading. Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions, methods of randomization, and masking (blinding). The text should be divided into the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, and Figure legends. The recommended word limit is up to 3000 words, excluding abstract, tables, figures, and about 40 references.

Review Articles: Review articles are the systematic critical evaluation of already published material. It is expected that these articles would be written by experts or individuals who have done substantial work on the subject. A review article should be written in the following steps: define the problem, summarize previous investigations to define the state of current research, identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature reviewed, suggest clinical practice based on the current evidence, and suggest further areas of research. The recommended word limit is up to 4000 words excluding abstract, tables, figures, and up to 50 references.

Systematic Reviews & Meta-analysis: IJPDS also encourages the publication of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on various topics of clinical significance. These should provide information on search strategies to retrieve relevant studies, methods used to assess the scientific validity of retrieved studies, and the process of generating a bias-free list of citations to answer the topic under review. The recommended word limit is up to 4000 words, excluding abstract, tables, figures, and up to 75 references.

Short Communications: Short correspondence about research can be sent under this heading. Word count should not exceed 2000 words with an abstract of up to 200 words and up to 25 references. Letters must not duplicate other material published, submitted, or planned to be submitted for publication. The matter should be divided into introduction, methods, results, and discussion, and should follow all other guidelines in preparing the manuscript.

Case reports: New, interesting, or rare cases of clinical significance can be reported. However, mere reporting of a rare case may not be considered. The prescribed word limit is up to 1500 words, excluding up to 15 references and an abstract. Case reports should be written under the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, References, Tables, and Legends in that order.

Letter to the Editor: These should be short and decisive observations, preferably related to articles previously published in the journal. The word limit is up to 1000 words and up to 10 references.

References: 

Number references consecutively in the order cited in the text, not alphabetically. If no person or organization can be identified as the author and no editors or translators are given, begin the reference with the title of the article.

All the references should be cited in the article as numbers put in the square brackets, e.g., [1-3] or [1]. Papers accepted but not yet published can be included in the reference list. Follow the Vancouver style.

Tables:

Each table should be given at appropriate places within the text rather than at the end and headed by a brief descriptive title. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers in the order of their citation in the text. Authors should list explanations, including abbreviations, as footnotes, not in the heading.

Figures:

Figures should be imported into the text on a separate page, and they should also be supplied separately in JPG, TIFF, or other graphics files. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. Each figure should have a brief caption that adequately describes the figure. If a figure has previously been published, written permission from the copyright holder must be provided.

Manuscript Submission:

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the journal's online manuscript submission system https://mansapublishers.com/IJPDS/Submission. In case of any problem, the manuscript can also be sent to the editor as an email attachment to editor.ijpds@mansapublishers.com; however, online submission is also a must in these cases, as soon as problems have been sorted out. Any type of postal submission will not be entertained.

The Submitted Manuscript should follow the below :

  • Manuscripts should be written in British English.
  • Having innovative, original contributions and creative outcomes.
  • Must not be previously published, already accepted for publication, or under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • After acceptance in the journal, the manuscript must not be published elsewhere in any form without prior permission from the editor-in-chief or publisher.
  • Manuscripts should be written in British English
  • Methods should preferably be advanced and reproducible.

After Acceptance:

Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, an acceptance letter will be forwarded to you. Then the manuscript will be forwarded to the Production Editor, who is responsible for the production of the journal. We ensure speedy publication of the submitted articles and aim to finish the initial review process within 1-2 weeks. However, this time period can change depending on the quality of the manuscript submitted, the reviewer's response, and the time taken by the authors to submit the revised manuscript. If the author wants to retract the article after an initial review, then he/she has to pay retraction fees of INR 500/-

Proof Correction:

The corresponding author will receive an email containing a designed article. Hence a working email address must, therefore, it should be provided for the corresponding author. The proof will be in PDF (portable document format) format. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen, and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Proofs must be returned within three days of receipt. Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in his work, including changes made by the copy editor.

Clinical trial registry:

IJPDS recommends registration of clinical trials, and preference would be given to registered clinical trials. Trials can be registered in any of the following trial registers: http://www.ctri.in/; http://www.actr.org.au/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/.

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs:

Initiative

Type of study

Source

CONsolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials (CONSORT)

Randomized controlled trials

http://www.consort-statement.org

STAndards for Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy (STARD)

Studies of diagnostic accuracy 

http://www.stard-statement.org/

Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE)

Meta-analyses of observational studies

http://www.equator-ntework.org

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)

Systematic reviews/ Meta-analyses of RCT

http://www.prisma-statement.org

STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE)

Observational studies in epidemiology

http://www.strobe-statement.org

 Copyright:

IJPDS is an open-access journal, and authors will keep the copyright. Authors can use the final published manuscript to disseminate the knowledge at various platforms; however, the journal should be given due credit at such platforms.

Disclaimer:

While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors and omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

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.

 

AI Guidelines for Authors

Guidelines for authors regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence

  1. Authors should disclose the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for manuscript preparation in a separate AI declaration statement in their manuscript upon submission. However, AI tools should not be included in the authorship list.
  2. Authors should document their use of AI, including the name of the AI Tool used (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots [e.g., ChatGPT], machine learning, image creators, or similar technologies), the purpose of the use, and the extent of their oversight.
  3. Basic checks of grammar, spelling, and punctuation need no declaration.
  4. We discourage large-scale use of AI-assisted technology to the extent that the original human contribution to the work is brought into question (eg, large portions of text written almost completely by AI).
  5. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the terms of use for all tool(s) permit commercial use and that the output is not owned by the generating website.
  6. Carefully check sources and citations: Offer a comprehensive list of resources utilized for content and citations, including those produced by AI. Meticulously cross-check citations for their accuracy to ensure proper referencing. 
  7. AI could inadvertently reproduce significant text chunks from existing sources without due citation, infringing others' intellectual property. Confirm that there is no plagiarized content in your submission. 
  8. Images that duplicate or refer to existing copyrighted images, real people, or others’ identifiable products or brands must not be generated
  9. AI-generated text may reproduce biases, such as racism or sexism, or may overlook perspectives of populations that have been historically marginalized. Relying on AI to generate text or images can inadvertently propagate these biases, so carefully review all AI-generated content to ensure it’s inclusive, impartial, and appeals to a broad readership.
  10. Do not use generative AI to create or modify core research data artificially.
  11. If AI was used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation, this should be described in detail in the Materials and Methods section. It is appropriate to use AI in the collection or analysis of data only if this methodology has already been approved by an ethics board (for studies requiring ethical approval).
  12. Authors are responsible for all aspects of any submitted material that includes the use of AI-assisted technologies. AI will not be able to undertake responsibilities required for authorship, i.e., vouching for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work.
  13. Mere declaration of the use of AI is not enough to avoid legal or ethical violations, including plagiarism. It is crucial to recognize that AI should serve as a supplement rather than a complete substitute for human creativity.
  14. Failure to properly disclose the use of AI-assisted technology at submission may result in the reversal of the acceptance decision or in the retraction of a published manuscript.