Submissions

Author Guidelines

Scope

The Integrated Health Research Journal is a multidisciplinary Journal that covers all aspect of health sciences disciplines and is dedicated to publishing impactful healthcare both pre-clinical and clinical research including original research articles, review, perspectives, short communication, case studies, case reports and reviews.

The journal aims to promote the integration of knowledge from various disciplines to achieve a comprehensive understanding of health and drive breakthroughs in healthcare.

Word, Figures, Tables, and References Limits. Strict limitations apply for each category of submission in terms of the number of words, figures, tables, and references (see table below).

Note: These limits do not include supplementary material, which can include more detailed information and data. Such supplements will be published as submitted and will not be reset in the journal style. Excluding abstract, tables, figure captions, references, acknowledgements, funding sources, conflict of interest statements, and supplementary material.

Review Articles, Clinical Guidelines, Clinical Standards, and Systematic Reviews that exceed these limits may be submitted with prior written approval from the Editor. In such cases, the Editor must be informed, prior to submission, of the number of words in the manuscript and the number of figure parts, tables, and references. The abstract must still be limited to 300 words.

General Formatting

Font Type: The manuscript should be submitted in Microsoft Word using Times New Roman font size 12.

Alignment: Use left hand alignment of text. Do not justify text.

Spacing: Use 2.0-line spacing of text.

Pagination: Number all pages consecutively in the top right-hand comer, beginning with the title page.

Superscripting Submitted manuscripts must not contain automatic numbering of references and footnotes. Any links between superscripted numbers in the text and references, or between figure or table designations and the figure or table captions must be removed prior to submitting the final version of the manuscript.

Special Character: Specify any special characters in words in square brackets after the special character so that the editorial staff can make sure the correct special character is used. The bracketed texts describing words will be deleted when the manuscript is set for print.

Use 'English Equation Editor' for equations in the document.

Spelling: The Journal uses UK spelling e.g., "colour" not "color", preserving the diphthong in words such as aetiology, oedema, and paediatric.

Apostrophes: Apostrophes must not be used except in known phrases e.g., Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy. Preference will be given to more formal long forms of expression e.g. instead of "the subject's age", write "the age of the subject"

Abbreviations: Abbreviation must not be used e.g., use "that is" not i.e.) and "for example" (not 'e.g.').

Acronyms: The initial use of phrases must be in full, followed by the acronym in parentheses, e.g., Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT); thereafter use the acronym only. All other terms must be written out in full each time they are used.

Italics: Italicize in vitro, in vivo, and in situ. Do not italicize ad hoc. Do not italicize punctuation unless it is part of the whole clause or sentence. Latin and other foreign terms should be italicized, except those in common usage.

Units: All measurements must be given in SI or Sl-derived units.

Trade names: Chemical substances should be referred to by their generic names. Trade names should not be used. If proprietary drugs have been used in a study, refer to these first by their generic names, with the proprietary name, followed by the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses. Commercially available equipment should be identified by the type of infrastment, its maker, and the model number.

Tables:

• Set up tables using the Microsoft Word 'Table' function or a similar Table function.
  Ensure that each data point is contained within a unique cell.
• Do not use "Enter" within cells. If you do not use a Table function always use a tab (not space bar) to separate data.
• Each table should be submitted on a separate page at the end of the text, after the references.
• Tables should be comprehensible without reference to the text. They must not duplicate information contained in the text, although the text may pick out key points in a Table.
• Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals.
• References to tables in the manuscript should be written as 'Table 1 ' if part of a sentence, or '(Table 1)'.
  
  

Table legends: It should be concise but clear in their meaning and placed at the top of the table.

Vertical lines: should not be used to separate columns. Use horizontal lines sparingly at the top and bottom of the Table, to mark out rows of totals or to separate different groups o of data. Do not outline every cell, row, and column.

Column headings: should be brief and comprehensible with units of measurement in parentheses. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: t, t, S, Il, should be used (in that order). The symbols * ** *** should be reserved for p-values.

Language policy

IHRJ will accept manuscripts that exhibit high standard of English grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence, and paragraph construction.

Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise and explanatory style so that they are intelligible to the audience.

Passive will be the IHRJ's preferred option. Do not use the 'first person' pronoun. That is, avoid words such as 'I', 'our', 'ourselves', 'me', 'my', 'mine', 'myself', 'we' or 'us'.

The Editor and the Publisher will reserve the right to modify manuscripts to ensure conformity to the style of the journal or to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve clarity. Authors will be responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made by the Editor and the Publisher, and must carefully check and approve final proofs.

In general, manuscripts would follow the style detailed in the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, found at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform requirements.html (Vancouver style).

Structure and Format of Title Page for All Submissions

Authors should structure the title page for all submissions by including the following elements in the order indicated below, all left justified.

Type of submission: The type of submission (as per the table above) should be stated in uppercase, not bold, at the top of the page. For a review or original research paper articles, write "REVIEW" or "RESEARCH", respectively. For all other types of submissions, use phrases as given in the table above, in upper-case, not bold.

Title: The title should be stated in sentence case, not bold, and must not exceed 15 words. The title should be informative to give a clear indication of the purpose, scope or conclusion of the manuscript. It should not include abbreviations. Ensure that the title is clear and descriptive and includes words that might be used as search terms.

Authors: List the names of the authors, one under the other, in this format: full given name, family name, initials, and qualifications starting with the most senior degree and ending with o diplomas or fellowships (if any). Do not include titles such as Doctor or Professor.

Author institutions: Give the names of the institutions (specifying department/school, institution, city, country) of all the authors using the symbols * , t, S, Il (in this order) to associate the institutions to the authors. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

Running title: Provide an abbreviation of the title (no more than 40 characters).

Key words: Following the caption "Key words" and continuing on the same line in alphabetical order must be a list of five or less key words or phrases likely to be used for searching. Write in lower case, not bold.

Structure and Format of Original Research Papers

Authors should structure their manuscripts as follows:

Title page: As per the above guidelines under the heading "Structure and Format of Title Page for All Submissions' '.

Abstract: Do not use the heading "Abstract". The abstract should be divided into paragraphs that begin with the bolded words: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The abstract should not contain abbreviations and should only contain a reference when that reference is the key starting point for the study. In this case, give abbreviated reference details (i.e., omitting the title) in parentheses after the surnames of the authors of that key paper.

Introduction: Do not use the heading 'Introduction'. The introduction gives the background to the study reported. It should be a concise and pertinent account of previous related work, the rationale for the study, and its aim(s). Do not include any data or conclusions from the work you are reporting. If used, sub-headings should be in bold and in sentence case.

Materials and Methods: Introduce the heading "METHODS" (i.e., upper case, bold). Provide a clear description of the methods used in the study. This must be succinct yet sufficiently detailed to enable replication of the experiment. See the guidance above under the heading "Trade names" for describing equipment and chemical substances used. If used, sub-headings should be written in bold and in sentence case.

Results: Introduce the heading 'RESULTS' (i.e., upper case, bold). Results should be presented in tables and figures as far as possible to draw attention to or summarize key features of the results and key outcomes of statistical analyses. The text should not duplicate results shown in tables and figures. If used, sub-headings should be written in bold and in sentence case.

Discussion: Introduce the heading 'DISCUSSION' (i.e., upper case, bold). Briefly summarize the main findings and explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings. The Discussion emphasizes new or important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Results. Include the implications of the findings and their limitations. Relate observations to other relevant studies. A conclusions section can be added after the discussion, by introducing the heading 'CONCLUSION' (i.e., upper case, bold) if the discussion section is long and there are multiple conclusions. Use sub-headings if the discussion is long. If used, sub-headings should be written in bold and in sentence case.

Acknowledgements: Introduce the heading 'ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS' (i.e., upper case, bold). Acknowledge those who have made an important contribution to the manuscript, but make sure that you have their approval to do so. This is to avoid associating persons with a manuscript and its conclusions when they may not wish to be so associated. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include those who provided purely technical help, collected data, provided writing assistance, or colleagues who provided only general support or reviewed a draft of the manuscript. Acknowledge all grants and other significant financial support both monetary and in kind. Make a short statement of any circumstance that might be perceived as having the potential to give rise to conflict of interest.

References: Introduce the heading 'REFERENCES' (i.e., upper case, bold). Provide direct references to original research sources whenever possible. Avoid excessive referencing (not exceeding the number of references stipulated in the table above). When many sources can be used to support a statement of fact, a generalization or a viewpoint, a selection of suitable references should be made rather than citing them all. Criteria for selection of the most suitable references to use might be as follows: the references that are the key starting point of the study reported; the references that first made the observation or conclusion; the references that have the best supporting evidence or have been published in a journal known for its rigorous editorial standards; and the most recent references.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references they cite. The editors and reviewers will be alert to the possibility of inaccurately cited references and will spot check references. Manuscripts in which there are serious errors in the use of references, in reference details or in reference formatting will be rejected. See below for further information.

Corresponding author name and e-mail address: State the name and e-mail address of the corresponding author only.

Tables: All tables should be placed after the references. Place (or start) each table on a new page.

Figure captions: List figure captions commencing on a new page at the end of the manuscript, after the references and tables. Number figures with Arabic numerals. Ensure that the caption combined with the labels on the figure enable it to be understood without reference to the text.

Supplementary material: More detailed information and data can be associated with published manuscripts as supplementary material. Such supplements must be carefully laid out by the author, as they are published as submitted and are not reset in journal style.

Structure and Format for Papers other than Original Research Papers

The title page should be formatted as per the information provided above under the heading

 Structure and Format of Title Page for All Submissions".

Abstracts for Review Articles, Clinical Guidelines, Clinical Standards and Systematic Reviews do not have to be structured. They should be written to best summarize the paper with the fewest words.

Editorials, Viewpoints, Profiles, Obituaries, Historical Overviews, Clinical Communications, Clinical Pictures, and Letters to the Editor and Book Reviews do not have abstracts.

The other types of papers can have headings in the text that suit the narrative of the paper.

References

Follow the standards summarized in the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References webpage.

In the text, references should be cited using superscript Arabic numerals, not in brackets, and numbered in the order in which they appear in the text.

If referring to an author by name, state the last name followed by the superscripted reference number, e.g., Boampong⁵ . For two authors, state the last names of both authors followed by the superscripted reference number, e.g., Boampong and Dakwa⁶ .

For three or more authors, state the last name of the first author followed by "et al" and then the superscripted reference number, e.g., Kyei et al.⁷

If references are cited in tables or figure legends, number them according to the first mention of the table or figure in the text.

Do not use "ibid." or "op cit." (abbreviations indicating that the citation is from the previous reference). A reference appears in the reference list only once. If a reference is cited more than once, then repeatedly use the number assigned to it on its first use.

Avoid citing "personal communication". If necessary, the reference should be cited in the O text only, for example, (Boampong A, 2000, unpublished data).

References are listed in the reference list at the end of the manuscript in the order they are cited in the text of the manuscript.

Full biographical details must be given for all references, including authors names, the title of the paper, name of the journal, year of publication, volume number, start page and finish page, as per the examples below. Do not include issue number of journals. If there are four or more authors, name only the first three authors, followed by et al.. Names of journals should be abbreviated in accordance the style used for MEDLINE (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/ioumals). For books, name the place of publication, publisher, and date of publication.

Take great care to punctuate reference citations as shown in the examples below. When in doubt as to how to cite an unusual form of reference, go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform requirements.html.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references.

We recommend the use of EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting. EndNote and Reference Manager Journal reference styles can be found at "http://endnote.com/downloads/styles" and "http://www.refman.com/support/nnstylesterms.asp" respectively.

If automatic bibliographic software such as EndNote reference numbering is used when writing the manuscript, all automated links between the citations in the body of the manuscript and the list of references must be removed prior to submitting the final version of the manuscript.

Examples of references:

Journal article

1. Vega KJ, Pina I, Krevsky B. Heart transplantation is associated with an increased risk for pancreatobiliary disease. Ann Intern Med 1996; 124: 980-983.
2. Edwards K, Pritchard N, Dehghani C et al. Corneal confocal microscopy best identifies the development and progression of neuropathy in patients with Type 1 diabetes. J

Diabetes Complications 2017; 31: 1325-1327.

Book

3. Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontolou and Leadership Skills for Nurses, 2nd ed. Albany, NY:

Delmar Publishers, 1996.

Book Chapter

4. Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, eds. Hypertension: Pathophysiolou, Diagnosis, and Management, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Raven

Press, 1995. p 465-475.

Journal article on the Internet

5. Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 12 Aug 2002]; 102: [about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.hün.

Monograph on the Internet

6. Foley KM, Gelband H. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 9 Jul 2002]. Available from:

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/.

Conference proceedings

7. Hamden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell

Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.

Data citation

In recognition of the significance of data as an output of research effort, IHRJ will endorse the FORCEI 1 Data Citation Principles. Data should be cited in the same way as article, book, and web citations and authors are required to include data citations as part of their reference list. Data citation is appropriate for data held within institutional, subject focused, or more general data repositories. It is not intended to take the place of community standards such as in-line citation of

GenBank accession codes

When citing or making claims based on data, authors must refer to the data at the relevant place in the manuscript text and in addition provide a formal citation in the reference list. The following format, as proposed by the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles, should be adopted:

Authors; Year; Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version (if any); Persistent identifier (e.g., DOI).

Preparing Figures Importance of illustrations

IHRJ will encourage authors to include illustrations with all papers as illustrated articles are more often read than those without illustrations. IHRJ will publish illustrations in color without author charges when color is necessary.

Guidance on preparing effective figures

1. All illustrations (photographs, line drawings, and graphs) are classified as figures.
2. Figures are numbered using Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text.
3. References to figures in the manuscript should be written as "Figure 1 " if t forms part of a sentence or ' '(Figure 1)"
4. Line drawings and graphs should be sized so they can be reduced in size to fit in 1 column (58 mm), a half-page (89 mm), 2 columns (120 mm) or across the page (3 columns) (182 mm), while retaining clarity and readability of all key elements of the drawing. Simple graphs and drawings should be sized to fit in I column although most figures will take 2 columns.
5. Two or three related figures should be drawn so they can be grouped to fit across 2 or 3 columns.
6. Line figures should be black and white.
7. Do not use three-dimensional bars and columns in graphs.
8. Use only white, black and greyscale fill. Do not use patterned fills.
9. Use Helvetica typeface for legends and numbers. Do not use bold face. Type size should be 9 point when reduced: if the original figure is to be reduced to half size when printed, use 18 or 20-point type in the original. Use horizontal and vertical grid lines sparingly. If the graph is simple, do not use any grid lines. In more complex graphs where the reader may wish to read off values, use a minimum number of horizontal grid lines.
10. In line graphs, use these symbols in this order: unfilled and filled circles, unfilled and filled squares, and unfilled and filled triangles.
11. Original photographs should be submitted as TIFF or EPS format; JPEG is acceptable if necessary.
12. Photographs and scanned illustrations must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi in a width of at least 12 cm.
13. However, do not start papers with the heading ' 'Introduction" or ' 'Background'