About the Journal

The Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences is a peer reviewed Journal that published twice per year until 2019. From the year 2020, the Journal has started publishing thrice a year. The editors of the journal invite papers from authors in all fields of dentistry and applied oral sciences. These include, but are not limited to clinical dentistry, maxillofacial surgery, dental practice management and oral health economics, dental education, dental therapeutics and materials science. All manuscripts should be of genuine interest to the dental community and must contain information and data that are scientifically substantiated by research, clinical experience and literature reports. All manuscripts submitted must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" (available online at http://www.icmje.org/) developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be done with the clear understanding that the manuscript is not currently under review in any other journal. 

To publish scientific papers three times a year covering the broad spectrum of oral sciences of oral biological topics, clinical dentistry, biomaterials, dental therapeutics, preventive dentistry, dental education, and other related interdisciplinary topics.

Aim of the journal

To publish scientific papers three times a year covering the broad spectrum of oral sciences  of oral biological topics, clinical dentistry, biomaterials, dental therapeutics, preventive dentistry, dental education, and other related interdisciplinary topics.

Scope of the journal

The journal will cover technical and clinical studies related to health, ethical and social issues in field of Biological, clinical and physical research in dentistry and pharmacy . Articles with clinical interest and implications will be given preference.   

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review based on standards of reporting research as available at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences will be scrutinised for full compliance to aforementioned reporting guidelines, instructions to the author and are sent to two or more expert reviewers. Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication, but with partial compliance to reporting guidelines/other instructions to author are sent back to the author for technical modification. If the author submits the manuscripts within the stipulated period of time after technical modification, it will be scrutinised and sent for the review process.

Peer review process: During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes 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. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from the reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers assigns the manuscript for final recommendation phase to the managing editor and editor-in-chief for acceptance/ rejection/ revision in manuscript). Expected duration of time is within 12 weeks.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to 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 as ‘Ahead of Print’ immediately on acceptance.

Clinical trial registry

Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.ctri.nic.in/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/; http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp; and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr. This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrollment of subjects in or after June 2008. Clinical trials that have commenced enrollment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below: 

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. 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 content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without 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 number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, 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 author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'. 

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors of articles must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with 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. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website https://review.jow.medknow.com/sjoralsci. First time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password. Authors do not have to pay for submission, processing or publication of articles. If you experience any problems, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at [email protected] with cc to [email protected]

The submitted manuscripts that are not as 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:

[1] Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:

This file should provide

1. The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to editor, Images, etc.) title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited, . All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files.
2. The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;
3. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;
4. 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. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.
5. If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read. A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very 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 paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.
6. Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)
7. 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 in an authors' form
8. Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/ contributors’ list
9. A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this 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
10. The name, address, e-mail, 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 on the manuscript itself.

[2] Blinded Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Page headers/running title can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance 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 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

[3] Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 2 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep 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 end of the article file. 

[4] The contributors' / copyright transfer form (template provided below) 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 at the time of submitting revised manuscript. High resolution images (up to 5 MB each) can be sent by email.

Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form can be submitted online from the authors’ area on https://review.jow.medknow.com/sjoralsci.

Preparation of Manuscripts

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 2008). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the journal (http://www.saudijos.org) and from the manuscript submission site https://review.jow.medknow.com/sjoralsci).

Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences accepts manuscripts written in American English.

Copies of any permission(s)

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

Types of Manuscripts

The journal accepts the following types of manuscripts

A) Original Articles: Papers that are the result of original research should not exceed 3000 words. Evidence of compliance with the relevant institutional ethical codes of scientific research must be indicated and/or attached.

B) Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses: The journal recommends that systematic reviews and meta-analyses should not exceed 3500 words. The submission of narrative reviews is not normally encouraged, although on  certain topics, they may be accepted.

C) Case Reports and Case Series: The journal gives a low priority to case reports, however case series of interesting and/or rare clinical importance could be considered for publication. These should not exceed 2000 words.

D) Short Communications: Certain interesting and/or novel clinical techniques may be accepted in the form of short communications or letters to the Editor. These should not exceed 1500 words and the references should not be more than eight references.  

Online Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts should be submitted to the Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences using the manuscript management software available at https://review.jow.medknow.com/sjoralsci. The journal does not encourage  submission of manuscripts physically, by fax or e-mail.

Authors using the online submission system are required to ensure that the following files are uploaded before submission. All files should be in the MS Word (.doc, .docx) format or the PDF format. Each file should be uploaded separately. Electronically compressed files with will not be accepted.

1. First Page File:  Should include the title page, covering letter and acknowledgements. All information that can identify the authors must be restricted to this file ONLY.
2. Article file:  should include the entire text of the article i.e.: abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion and references (including tables). Authors should not include any information (such as acknowledgement, names in page headers, etc.) in this file and should not incorporate images in this file. Large files  can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file.
3. Images: Good quality color images are mandatory. Each image should be less than 400 kb in size.  The size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images, however images smaller than 6 inches x 4inches (1024x760 pixels) are not acceptable. All image formats (jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, png, eps, etc.) are acceptable;  however jpeg or tiff  is most suitable.
4. Legends: Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file. 

Copyright Transfer: The copyright transfer form must be signed by all authors, scanned and uploaded into the manuscript management software. Articles without signed copyright transfer forms will not be considered for publication.The copyright transfer form is available below.

The copyright for all articles rests with the Riyadh Elm University(Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharma and no part of any published article can be reproduced without prior expressed permission.

Preparation of the Manuscript

Authors are advised to prepare the manuscript under the following sections, Title Page, Abstract Page, Main text of the Document. All manuscripts should be in Times New Roman, 12pt double spacing with a 1 inch (2.5cm) margin on all sides.

In order to ensure double blind peer-review of the articles, the authors should ensure that the title page is uploaded onto the online manuscript management system as a separate word document.

Title Page

The title page should include the following information. 

1. Type of manuscript (e.g. original article, review articles case/case series reports)
2. The title of the article, which should be concise and  informative; 
3. Running title or short title not more than 50 characters; 
4.  The name by which each contributor is known (Last name, First name and initials of middle name), with his or her highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation; 
5. The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed; 
6. The name, address, phone number, facsimile number and e-mail address of the designated author for correspondence about the manuscript; 
7. The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references and abstract);
8. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these; 
9. Acknowledgements, if any; 

Abstract Page

The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150 words for case reports and brief reports and 250 words for original articles).

For Original Articles The abstract should be structured according to the format of IMRAD (i) Introduction, ii) Aims, iii) Materials and Methods, iv) Results and Discussion, v) Conclusion) as in https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/

For Systematic Reviews, Meta-analyses and Case-Reports/Case Series:  The abstract must be structured according to the format of IMRAD https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/

Authors should provide between three and eight keywords below the abstract for ALL articles.

Main Text Document

This document should contain the body of the article including references and tables. The tables and the legends for Images should be placed at the end of the document, after the references.  The main text document should be organized as follows

        A) Original Articles: The main text document of original articles should be organized as follows

1. Introduction: Should clearly state, with evidence from literature the purpose and need for the study. Introduction should end with Rationale of the study-->followed by stating the aims of the study
2. Materials and Methods: Should clearly state the methodology of the article. All materials used must be mentioned by generic name, with the trade name, manufacturer and country of manufacture mentioned within brackets. The statistical tests used must be mentioned clearly in this section.
3. Results: should present the observations with minimal reference to earlier literature or to possible interpretations. Data should not be duplicated in Tables and Figures.
4. Discussion: Could start with a brief summary of the major findings, but repetition of parts of the abstract or of the results section should be avoided. Statements and interpretation of the data should be appropriately supported by original references. The discussion should end with the limitations of the study/research done and generalisability of the results in the study/research done
5. Conclusions: should contain a summary of the findings. Future recommendations should be added based on the results, limitations and generalisability of the study 

Ethical Considerations for Manuscripts Submitted

When reporting studies on human beings, 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 which was first adopted in 1964, and revised in 2013 (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 was 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 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 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.

The Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences adheres to internationally accepted ethical guidelines for research and publication by international scientific committees. Authors can refer to the following online references for details.

Recommendations http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/

Authorship http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/

Scientific Misconduct: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/scientific-misconduct-expressions-of-concern-and-retraction.html

Registration of Clinical trials: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

The journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above mentioned guidelines. 

Study design:

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, 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).

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

The reporting guidelines for other type of studies can be found at https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/. 

        B) Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Should be divided into

1. Introduction: Should highlight the need for the review in relation to documented lacunae in literature. Introduction should end with Rationale of the study-->followed by stating the aims of the study
2. Review: Should show the methods followed as per the PRISMA guidelines. Findings should be listed with appropriate citations. Risk of bias chart should be added. In case of Meta-analyses, this section should entail a detailed description of the methodology and software used for the meta-analysis. The discussion should end with the limitations of the research done and generalisability of the results in the research done
3. Conclusions: Should caontain a summary of the key findings without bulleting. Future recommendations should be added based on the results, limitations and generalisability of the study 

        C) Case Reports and Case Series: 

1. Introduction: A brief introduction to the case including details of incidence/prevalence and clinical significance
2. Case report: Findings seen in the case and/or treatment modality applied
3. Discussion: Relevance of the reported cases/treatment modality for the practioner
4. Conclusions: Should contain a summary of the findings. Future recommendations should be added based on the results, limitations and generalisability of the study.

Citations in the Bibliography

Reference List:

Atleast 50% of article cited should be within recent 5 years of submission of the manuscript with minimum of 3-4 studies quoted in the current year.

The reference list at the end of the manuscript must be numbered in the order of appearance and should be cited as follows

               (i) Names and initials of up to six authors. When there are seven or more, list the first three and add et al.
(ii)Year of publication
(iii) Full title of paper followed by a full stop (.)
(iv)Title of journal in the standard MEDLINE/ indexing Abbreviation (in italics)
(v) Volume number  followed by a comma (,)
(vi) First page in full and the last digit of the last pages (last two digits in case where the second digit is different)

       a) Journal Articles

                 Articles with up to Six Authors :

• al Shammery, A., el Backly, M. & Guile, E. E. 1998. Permanent tooth loss among adults and children in Saudi Arabia. Community Dent Health, 15, 277-80.
• Abolfotouh, M. A., Hassan, K. H., Khattab, M. S., Youssef, R. M., Sadek, A. & El-Sebaiei, M. 2000. Dental caries: experience in relation to wasting and stunted growth among schoolboys in Abha, Saudi Arabia. Ann Saudi Med, 20, 360-3.

Articles with more than Six Authors

• Akpata, E. S., Fakiha, Z., Khan, N, et .al.. 1997. Dental fluorosis in 12-15-year-old rural children exposed to fluorides from well drinking water in the Hail region of Saudi Arabia. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol, 25, 324-7.

Articles with Two Authors:

• Alhammad, N. S. & Wyne, A. H. 2010. Caries experience and oral hygiene status of cerebral palsy children in Riyadh. Odontostomatol Trop, 33, 5-9.

       b) Books

i) Personal author(s)
Akpata E, AlOmari Q, AlShammery AR,. 2013 Principles and Practice of Operative Dentistry- A Modern Approach, 1st edn: Quintessence Publications; Berlin, Germany..

               ii) Chapter in a book
                                Wesselink P .1990. Conventional root-canal therapy III: root filling. In: Harty FJ, ed. Endodontics in Clinical Practice, 3rd edn; pp. 186-223. Butterworth .London, UK       

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

1) Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.

2) If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

Sending a revised manuscript

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the “First Page” or “Covering Letter” file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the ‘referees’ remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Reprint as proofs

Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Publication schedule

The journal publishes articles on its website immediately on acceptance and follows a ‘continuous publication’ schedule. Articles are compiled for ‘print on demand’ tri-annual issues.

Issue 1(Jan to April)
Issue 2(May-August)
Issue 3(September-December)

Manuscript submission, processing and publication charges

The journal does not charge for submission and processing of the manuscripts.

Copyrights

The entire contents of the Saudi Journal of Oral Sciences are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Public License.

Checklist

Covering letter

• Signed by all contributors
• Previous publication / presentations mentioned
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

• Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided
• Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions
• Identity not revealed in paper except title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of institute in photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at bottom
• Title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Abstract provided (structured abstract of 250 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 150 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
• Key words provided (three or more)
• Introduction of 75-100 words
• Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with square bracket.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

• Uniformly American English
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
• If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

• No repetition of data in tables and graphs and in text
• Actual numbers from which graphs drawn, provided
• Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)
• Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
• Labels pasted on back of the photographs (no names written)
• Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)
• Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
• Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
• Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote

Contributors' form

Click here to download instructions

Click here to download copyright form

These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program. 
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file. 


Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)

Download Template for Case Reports.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Review Articles.  (.DOT file)

Download Template for Letter to the Editor.  (.DOT file)