Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are asked to write their manuscripts in English using an easily readable style. Ayurvedic terms and other Latin terms must be Italized and its equivalent English terminology should be mentioned in first instance in a bracket, for example: Urdhwaga Amlapitta (Non ulcer dyspepsia). Spelling and phraseology should conform to standard English usage and should be consistent throughout the paper. A manuscript will be considered for publication on the understanding that:

1. All named authors have agreed to its submission.
2. It is not currently being considered for publication by another journal.
3. If the paper is accepted it will not subsequently be published in the same or similar form in any language without the consent of publishers.
4. Authors have obtained permission from their employers or institution to publish, if they have a contractual or moral obligation to do so.

Authors will be entitled to publish any part of their paper elsewhere without permission, provided the usual acknowledgements are given. The assignment of copyright will not affect subsisting patent rights and arrangements relating to them. Original Research Articles should include, as appropriate:

1. A clear statement of purpose;
2. A historical review when desirable;
3. A description of the procedures, methods, and subjects or materials used (previously published procedures require only references to the original).
4. A full report of the findings, including discussion and references to relevant findings of other researchers.

Format of Papers

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Note: Authors submitting a review article should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

Preparation of Original Articles

A. Title page (template provided under download menu)

B. Article File (template provided)

1. Title - Short & informative
2. Abstract - 1 paragraph (250 words)
3. Keywords - 4 to 5
4. Introduction - 1 – 1.5 pages
5. Materials and Methods - 1-2 pages
6. Results - 2-3 pages
7. Discussion - 1-2 pages
8. Conclusion - 1 paragraph (250 words)
9. Acknowledgements
10. Conflict of Interest
11. References - 20-50 (2-4 pages)
12. Tables - 6-8 (one per page)
13. Figures

A) TITLE PAGE

The title page should bear the title of the paper, the full names of all the authors, highest academic degree obtained, and their affiliations, together with the name, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address of the author to whom correspondence and offprint requests are to be sent (This information is also asked for on the electronic submission form). The title should be brief, informative, of 150 characters or less and should not make a statement or conclusion. The running title should consist of not more than 50 letters and spaces. It should be as brief as possible, convey the essential message of the paper and contain no abbreviations. Authors should disclose the sources of any support for the work, received in the form of grants and/or equipment and drugs.

B) ARTICLE FILE

Title

Title of your article will be read by thousands of people. Selection of all the words should be taken with great care. Indexing and abstracting process depend on the accuracy of title.

Abstract

The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150 words for brief reports, case series, case report and 250 words for original research articles and other article types). The abstract should be structured for original articles. State the context (background), aims, settings and design, materials and methods, statistical analysis used, results and conclusions. Below the abstract should provide 3 to 8 keywords. The abstract should not be structured for a brief report, review article, symposia and research methodology. Do not include references in the abstract.

Keywords

Four to five Keywords.

Introduction

State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation. It includes the background of the study planned, its objectives and the major outcome expected at the end of the study.

Materials and Methods

This section should contain sufficient detail, so that all experimental procedures can be reproduced, and include references. Methods, however, that have been published in detail elsewhere should not be described in detail. Authors should provide the name of the manufacturer and their location for any specifically named medical equipment and instruments, and all drugs should be identified by their pharmaceutical names, and by their trade name if relevant.
This includes setting, duration and type of study, sampling methods, sample size calculation, inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, Data collection procedure, Data analysis, Ethical consideration & permission, Any scoring system, Surgical procedure if any, etc.

Ethics

When reporting studies on humans, 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 http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html ). Do not use patients’ 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 on demand. 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 (animal) and ICMR (human). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Materials and Methods’ section.

Statistics

Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyse 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. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001.

Results

Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations.
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 analyse 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.

Discussion

Include summary of 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 (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research).

Do not repeat in detail data or other material given 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. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such.

Conclusion

The major findings of the work highlighting its importance, relevance and their usefulness of the study shall be summarized. The conclusions of this study must discuss a short summary and further scope in the field should describe in this context.

Acknowledgements

These should be brief, and should include sources of support including sponsorship (e.g., university, charity, commercial organization) and sources of material (e.g., novel drugs) not available commercially.

Conflict of interest

Authors must declare whether or not there is any competing financial interests in relation to the work described. This information must be included at this stage and will be published as part of the paper. Conflict of interest should also be noted on the supplementary covering letter and as part of the submission process.

References

References should be in Vancouver style and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Do not cite the references in the Abstract. Cite the references in the text by the appropriate number with superscript e.g. [1], [2, 3], [4-6], [7, 8-10] in increasing order from Introduction upto Discussion. Do not repeat the same reference numbers again and again. The reference numbers should be within square brackets. 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. Avoid using abstracts as references and do not cite any references in conclusion section.

Journal article, up to six authors:

Rutanen J, Turunen A-M, Teittinen M, Rissanen TT, Heikura T, Koponen JK et al. Gene transfer using the mature form of VEGF-D reduces neointimal thickening through nitric oxide-dependent mechanism. Gene Ther2005; 12: 980–987.

Journal article, e-pub ahead of print:

Couderc B, Pradines A, Rafii A, Golzio M, Deviers A, Allal C et al. In vivo restoration of RhoB expression leads to ovarian tumor regression. Cancer Gene Ther; e-pub ahead of print 14 March 2008; doi:10.1038/cgt.2008.12

Journal article, in press:

Wang R, Lin F, Wang X, Gao P, Dong K, Zou A-M et al. Silencing Livin gene expression to inhibit proliferation and enhance chemosensitivity in tumor cells. Cancer Gene Ther (in press).

Complete book:

Gordon MY, Barre AJ. Bone Marrow Disorder: the Biological Basis of Clinical Problems. Blackwell Scientific Publishers: Oxford, 1985.

Chapter in book:

Meyerowitz BE, Heinrich RI, Schag CC. A competency-based approach to coping with cancer. In: Burish TG, Bradley L (eds). Coping With Chronic Illness: Research and Applications, 2nd edn. Academic Press: New York, 1983, pp 137–158.

Abstract:

Feig SA, Lenarsky C, Moss T, Gallardo RL, Juneja HS, Gordon MY et al. Bone marrow transplantation for neuroblastoma. Exp Hematol 1985; 13(Suppl 2): 362 (abstract 102).

Correspondence:

Kyritsis AP, Rao JS, Puduvalli VK. Radio-responsive TRAIL gene therapy for malignant gliomas [letter].Cancer Gene Ther 2007; 14: 1002.

Tables

These should be labelled sequentially and cited within the text. Each table should be presented on its own page, numbered and titled. Reference to table footnotes should be made by means of Arabic numerals. Tables should not duplicate the content of the text. They should consist of at least two columns; columns should always have headings. Authors should ensure that the data in the tables are consistent with those cited in the relevant places in the text, totals add up correctly, and percentages have been calculated correctly. Unlike figures or images, tables may be embedded into the word processing software if necessary, or supplied as separate electronic files.

Figures

Figures and images should be labelled sequentially, numbered and cited in the text. Figure legends should be brief, specific and appear on a separate manuscript page after the References section. Refer to (and cite) figures specifically in the text of the paper. Figures should not be embedded within the text. If a table or figure has been published before, the authors must obtain written permission to reproduce the material in both print and electronic formats from the copyright owner and submit it with the manuscript. This follows for quotes, illustrations and other materials taken from previously published works not in the public domain. The original source should be cited in the figure caption or table footnote. Scale markers should be used in the image for electron micrographs, and indicate the type of stain used.