Instructions to authors

Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to the journal 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, the editor reviews all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message, if not prepared as per journal instructions, are rejected before proceeding for formal peer review. Manuscripts unlikely to be of interest to the journal are also liable to be rejected at this stage.

Authorship Criteria

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

  • Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
  • Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  • Final approval of the version to be published.

Participation solely in acquiring funding or data collection 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 manuscript's content. 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 can only be changed with the contributors' written consent. The journal prescribes a maximum number of six (06) authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope, and the number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should justify if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors submitting a manuscript to the journal must disclose any and all 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. Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Submission of Manuscript

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website https://www.ijnrph.com
First time users will have to register at this site. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password.

The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” will be directly rejected. The submission should include:

Title Page/First Page
Blinded Manuscript Template
Cover letter
Copyright transfer form
Supplementary Material

[1] Title Page/First Page
This file should provide

a) The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, short communications, Ethics Forum, Education Forum, Letter to editor, Images, etc.), title of the manuscript, running title and names of all authors/ contributors with their affiliations.

b) Acknowledgement, if any. This should be included in the manuscript's title page and not in the main article file. Those who have helped the authors carry out the study and/or prepare the manuscript but have not made a significant intellectual contribution to deserve authorship must be acknowledged. Mention all applicable grants and other funding that supported the work.

c) Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)

d) 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 in the manuscript.

e) Author List and Affiliations: Authors' names must be started with family name followed by initials of first and middle names (e.g., Gupta A.K.). The complete address information of Affiliations including city, zip code, state/province, and country must be written. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author, and his or her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section. After acceptance, no updates to author names or affiliations will be permitted.

[2] Blinded Manuscript Template

The manuscript must not mention the authors' names, initials, or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgment. Manuscripts not in compliance with The Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. The main text of the article, beginning from the Abstract to References (including tables and figures), should be in this file. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Tables and figures should be incorporated in this file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

[3] Cover letter

The cover letter should include:

  • Your manuscript's title.
  • A statement that your paper has not been previously published and is not currently under consideration by another journal.
  • Briefly describe the research/review you are reporting in your paper, why it is important, and why you think the journal readers would be interested in it.
  • Contact information for you and any co-authors.
  • Confirmation that you have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

[4] Copyright transfer form

The entire contents of the Journal are protected under Indian and international copyrights.The contributors' / copyright transfer form (template provided below) has to be submitted online in original with the signatures of all the contributors from the authors’ area on https://www.ijnrph.com

Click here to download copyright form

[5] Supplementary Material

Submit good quality colour images. Each image should be less than 4 MB in size. The size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1800 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images should 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.

Preparation of Manuscripts

The manuscript should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized-paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins on all sides. Times New Roman font 12 pt should be used. The fonts used in the text and graphics should be restricted to Times New Roman, Symbol, and Zapf Dingbats. The prescribed word count for original research and review articles is up to 3000 words, including tables, references, and abstract.

Please put all primary section titles in UPPER CASE letters (Example INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, REFERENCES) and subheadings in both Upper and Lower Case letters. Do not number your subtitles (for example, 1.0 Introduction; 2.0 Background; 2.1.1 are unacceptable). Do not use the tab key to indent blocks of text such as paragraphs of quotes or lists because the page layout program overrides your left margin with its own, and the tabs end up in mid-sentence.

Title: Should be in Title Case; the first character in each word in the title has to be capitalized.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH MANUSCRIPT:

An original research article typically should include the following in the order given below:

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results including Tables and/or Figures
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Appendixes [if necessary]
  • Abbreviations used [if necessary]

Abstract

The article should begin with an abstract of 200-250 words, clearly indicating/summarizing the article's content, viz. i.e., purpose, methodology, major findings, and implications of the research. The abstract should have 5-10 keywords.

Graphical abstract

A Graphical abstract is mandatory for this journal. It should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Authors must provide images that represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Preferred file types: JPEG, PDF, or MS Office files.

Introduction

A description of the research area, pertinent background information, and the hypotheses tested in the study should be included in this section. The introduction should provide sufficient background information so that a scientifically literate reader can understand and appreciate the work described. The introduction should be precise; this section does not require a detailed literature review. The project's specific aims should be identified along with the rationale for the specific experiments and other work performed. The introduction MUST include in-text citations, including a few references pertinent to the background and justification for the study.

Materials and Methods

Materials and/or subjects utilized in the study and the procedures undertaken to complete the work. The methods should be described sufficiently so that a competent researcher can repeat them. The sources of all major instruments and reagents used (kits, drugs, etc.) must be given in parentheses. Illustrations and/or tables may be helpful in describing complex equipment or elaborate procedures. The statistical tool used to analyze the data should be mentioned. All procedures involving experimental animals or human subjects must accompany a statement on ethical approval from the appropriate ethics committee along with the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) approval number.

Results

Data acquired from the research with appropriate statistical analysis described in the methods section should be included in this section. The results section should highlight the important results obtained. Data should be organized into figures and tables. Qualitative as well as quantitative results should be included, if applicable.

Discussion

This section should relate the results section to current understanding of the scientific problems being investigated in the field. Description of relevant references to other work/s in the field should be included here.

Conclusion

This section should give a brief recap of the issue examined, the method used and major finding(s), what are the implications of your work? How does it add to the literature? And describe how future researchers can expand or build on your work.

References
In-text citation Correct / Acceptable Format

Literature citations in the text must be indicated by Arabic numerals in superscript. Each reference separately in the order it appears in the text, e.g. Respiratory tract infection is one of the most important infectious diseases worldwide. This infection is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients in developing countries. [1] Respiratory tract infections, which involve the upper or lower respiratory tract, frequently occurs after birth. [2, 3]

Reference List: Author/Authors

The references should be cited at the end of the manuscript in the order of their appearance in the text. References should strictly adhere to Vancouver style of citing references Format: Author(s) of article (surname initials). Title of article. Journal title abbreviated Year of publication; volume number (issue number): page numbers. Standard journal article (If more than six authors, the first six shall be listed followed by et al.)

Journal References

Single/Multiple Authors
Singh SD, Gupta PA, John AL. Solid-dispersion manufacturing processes. Int J Pharm. 2002 Jul 25; 347(4): 284-7.

More than six authors
Rose SE, Rubin J, Medick Q, Masion P, Jalmer MA, Chiding K, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Drug Res. 2002; 935(1-2): 40-6.

Organization as Author
Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002; 40(5): 679-86.

Unknown Author
21st century heart solution may have a sting in the tail. BMJ. 2002; 325(7357): 184-5.

Journal article on the Internet
Akid S. Drug delivery research in herbal medicines. Am J Pharm [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12]; 102(6): [about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.pharmaworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm

Personal author(s)
Sarray PR, Ronthal S, Koyashi GS, Patler A. Pharmaceutical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

Editor(s), compiler(s) as author
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, Van Dorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.

Author(s) and editor(s)
Breedlove GK, Schorfheide AM. Adolescent pregnancy. 2nd ed. Wieczorek RR, editor. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Education Services; 2001.

Organization(s) as author
Royal Adelaide Hospital; University of Adelaide, Department of Clinical Nursing. Compendium of nursing research and practice development, 1999-2000. Adelaide (Australia): Adelaide University; 2001.

Chapter in a book
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

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. Thesis N. Khoshakhlagh. The compositions of volatile fractions of Peganum harmala seeds and its smoke. Pharm. D. Thesis, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. (2002).

Websites
Website information Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the 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/.

Tables and Figures
Tables

Tables should be numbered with Roman numerals according to their sequence in the text, and have a short self-explanatory heading. Use SI units. Tables should include vertical rules, but horizontal rules should separate column headings from the content. Authors should keep in mind the page layout of the journal when designing tables. Tables that fit onto one printed page are preferred.

Chemical terminology - The chemical nomenclature used must be in accordance with that used in the Chemical Abstracts.

Abbreviations - At the first appearance in the abstract and the text, abbreviations should be preceded by words for which they stand. In vitro, in vivo, in situ, ex vivo, ad libitum, et al. and so on are two words each and should be written in italics.

Biological nomenclature - Names of plants, animals and bacteria should be in italics.

Enzyme nomenclature - The trivial names recommended by the IUPAC-IUB Commission should be used. When the enzyme is the main subject of a paper, its code number and systematic name should be stated at its first citation in the paper.

Spelling - These should be as in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English.

Illustrations (Figures)

  1. Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 4 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1800 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images should be submitted as JPEG files..
  2. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
  3. 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.
  4. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should mark neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
  5. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
  6. The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
  7. If photographs of other people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
  8. If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
  9. Legends for illustrations: Type legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
  10. Final figures for print production: If the uploaded images are not printable quality, the publisher office may request for higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. Print outs of digital photographs are not acceptable. If digital images are the only source of images, ensure that the image has minimum resolution of 300 dpi or 1800 x 1600 pixels in JPEG/TIFF format.
  11. The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

Table and Figure captions

Figure captions/legends should include a statement at the end of each caption/legend about reproduction size (e.g. at full page width, at column width). They should be double spaced and typed in the journal format. Explanations should be brief and authors should keep in mind that captions/legends will be placed below figures.

REVIEW PAPERS:

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. A short summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

The prescribed word count is up to 3000 words including tables, references and abstract. The manuscript may have about 70 references.

For a review article, abstract should be structured as follows: context, objective, methods (including data sources, study selection and data extraction), results and conclusion.

Authors submitting 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.

The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of the article and should be sent as a letter to editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

CASE REPORTS:

New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications could be of up to 1000 words (including Abstract and references) and could be supported with up to 10 references. Case Reports could be authored by up to four authors and should have the following headings: Abstract (structured), Key-words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, and Tables and Legends in that order.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

These should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors.

Other:

Editorial, Guest Editorial, and Commentary are solicited by the editorial board.

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.

Checklist

  • Title Page/First Page
  • Blinded Manuscript
  • Cover letter
  • Copyright Form
  • Supplementary Material (If any)