Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Indian Journal of Child Health (IJCH) is an international, online, and print journal published monthly by the Mansa STM Publishers, India. IJCH is aimed to promote scientific communication among medical researchers worldwide. The journal's full text is available online at https://mansapublishers.com/IJCH. 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 Submission:

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

Ethics, informed consent, and patient anonymity: 

Authors should obtain ethical clearance from the ethical committee for the study and if requested by the journal's editorial board, the authors should produce a copy of ethical clearance. It is the author's responsibility to ensure the patient's anonymity. In images or illustrations, the patient's eyes should be masked. However, if the eye area is the focus of illustration, the patient's nose and mouth should be masked and written consent must be obtained from the patients'/legal guardian. Patients' names should be removed from the figures, radiographs, and CT scans unless written consent is obtained. Studies reporting the experimental investigation on human subjects, procedures should follow the standard guidelines and ethical standards, and authors should indicate that study was performed with informed consent from the patients/legal guardian or assent from the children aged over 7 years participating in the trial.

The Editorial Process:

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original contributions submitted to IJCH alone, 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 After acceptance in the journal, the manuscript must not be published elsewhere in any form, without prior permission of the editor-in-chief or publisher. All the manuscript submitted to the IJCH receives individual identification code and would initially be reviewed by the editors for suitability for publication. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are returned back before proceeding for formal peer-review.

Manuscripts found suitable for publication are sent to two or more expert reviewers for peer-review. At the time of submission, all the authors are requested to suggest two or three qualified reviewers, experienced in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institution as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other's identity. After receiving the reviewer's report/comments, the report will be communicated to the authors for possible corrections. Authors will be directed to submit the revised manuscript within the time limit, along with a point-by-point response to reviewers' comments.

We ensure speedy publication of the submitted articles and target to finish the initial review process within 4-6 weeks. However, this time period can change depending upon the quality of the manuscript submitted, the reviewer's response, and the time taken by the authors to submit the revised manuscript.

Article Processing Fee: If this paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay an Article Processing Fee to cover the publication costs. See here - https://mansapublishers.com/IJCH/fees.

Article Proofs:

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author through e-mail. They must carefully check and return the revised manuscript within 72 hours. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that the galley proof is to be returned without delay with correction. In case of any delay, authors are responsible for the contents that appeared in their published manuscripts.

Authorship Criteria:

All the authors should have substantial contributions to each of the following three components: 1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; 2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3. Final approval of the version to be published. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship as the general supervision of the research group.

Contribution Details:

The authors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. At least one author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work and should be designated as a 'guarantor'. The authors' contributions will be published along with the article. 

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests:

All authors must disclose any conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented.

Copies of any permission(s):

It is the responsibility of authors/contributors to obtain permission for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript.

Clinical trial registry:

IJCH 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/.

Preparation of Manuscript:

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). The manuscript should be typewritten in 12 fonts sizes using Times New Roman font, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Pages should be numbered consecutively on the top right corner of the pages, starting with the title page. The matter should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions, Acknowledgement, References, Tables and Figures along with caption and legends. The manuscript should be submitted in two separate files: 1. Title page, and 2. Blinded article file

Title Page:

This file should provide -

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 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

Blinded Article file:

The manuscript must not contain any mention of the authors' names, initials, or the institution. The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract to References (including tables) should be in this file. Use doc files and do not zip the files.

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 be started on a new page.

Materials and Methods:

It shall be started 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 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 need 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.

Types of Manuscripts:

Original articles: Randomized controlled trials, intervention studied, 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, Material 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 systemic 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: IJCH 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 pertaining to 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 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 be related to articles previously published in the journal. The word limit is up to 1000 words and up to 10 references.

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs:

References:

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in the square bracket before the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. 

Standard Journal Articles:

1. For up to six authors:

Agrawal A, Singh VK, Varma A, Sharma R. Intravenous arginine vasopressin infusion in refractory vasodilatory shock: A clinical study. Indian J Pediatr. 2012;79(4):488-493.

1. For more than six authors: List the first six authors followed by et al. 

Nobili V, Marcellini M, Giovannelli L, Girolami E, Muratori F, Giannone G, et al. Association of serum interleukin-8 levels with the degree of fibrosis in infants with chronic liver disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2004;39(5):540-4.

Personal author (book):

Leung AK.  Common Problems in Ambulatory Pediatrics: Symptoms and Signs, 1^st ed. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.; 2011.

Chapter in a book:

Leung AK.  Oral rehydration therapy and early refeeding in the management of childhood gastroenteritis.  In: Overton LT, Ewente MR, eds.  Child Nutrition Physiology.  New York: Nova Biomedical Books; 2008. p. 127-152.

Conference proceedings:

Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumors V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.

Conference paper:

Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002. p. 182-91.

Unpublished Material:

Children and adolescents with chronic constipation: How many seek healthcare and what determines it? Rajindrajith S, Devanarayana NM, Benninga MA. J Tropical Pediatr. 2011 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print]

Electronic Material CD-ROM:

Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Training Aids [on CD-ROM]. National Neonatology Forum, New Delhi, 2006.Hemodynamics III: the ups and downs of hemodynamics [computer program]. Version 2.2. Orlando (FL): Computerized Educational Systems;1993.

Journal article on the Internet:

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 1 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htmArticle

Homepage/Website:

Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Acknowledgments:

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

Tables:

Each table should be given at appropriate places within the text rather than at the end, numbered in sequence with the body of the text. Tables should be headed with a short, descriptive caption. They should be formatted with horizontal lines only; vertical ruled lines are not required. Footnotes to tables should be indicated with a), b), c), etc., and typed on the same page as the table.

Figures:

It should be on separate pages but not inserted within the text. All figures must be referred to in the text and numbered with Arabic numerals in the sequence in which they are cited. Each figure must be accompanied by a legend explaining the contents of the figure. Graphs and bar diagrams should preferably be prepared using Microsoft Excel and submitted as an Excel graph pasted in Word. Alternatively, photographs can be submitted as JPEG images. Keys to symbols, abbreviations, arrows, numbers, or letters used in the illustrations should not be written on the illustration itself but should be clearly explained in the legend. Avoid inserting a box with the key to symbols, in the figure or below the figure. All Tables and Figures captions and legends should be typed on a separate page.

Copyright:

IJCH is 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.

Reprints:

Authors can contact the editor or publisher for reprints at editor.ijch@mansapublishers.com or info@mansapublishers.com

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.