I. Authorship criteria
The following criteria’s are based on ICMJE Recommendations May 2023 (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf)
Authorship usually confers credit and has important academic, social and financial implications. At the same time authorship also means that they are responsible and accountable for published data.
The authors must enlist their contributions in the title page that has been submitted to the journal. They must also sign the copyright form in order of their appearance in the main article.
a. Criteria for authorship
ICMJE recommends that authorship must be given to people who have substantial contribution for the study and publication process and is must meet all the four criteria and those who meet all four criteria should be identified as authors
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
In order not to deny opportunity all authors who make substantial contribution to 1st criteria must be given an opportunity to participate in criteria 2 and 3. Precaution must be taken to see that all the authors listed make contributions under any of the above four criteria
It is collective responsibility of the authors and not the journal to determine the authorship, order of authors or settle authorship conflicts.
b. Removal or addition of authors
Any removal or addition of authors after the submission or publication of articles to be directly discussed with the editor. A signed statement of agreement for request of change in authorship with explanation must be submitted to editorial office in the format which can be obtained from editorial office after an online request is made.
c. Corresponding Authors
Only one corresponding author is allowed for one article.
Corresponding author is an authors who takes up the primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. They ensure that all the journal's administrative requirements, such as details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities, are properly completed and reported. They also have to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.
d. Multi-author groups
The members of the research group have to decide about the authorship before submitting the article for publication. In case where large multi-author groups are identified by group name with or without names of individuals the corresponding author must clearly mention about the group name and clearly identifies the members who take the credit and responsibility of authorship.
e. Non Author – Contributors
If any contributions that does not meet the above four criteria can be acknowledged.
Chatbots or other Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors.
f. Number of authors
Though the National Library of Medicine no longer limits the number of authors listed on MEDLINE, The maximum number of authors permitted are maximum of two authors for Editorials, less than five authors for case reports, less than ten authors (for original articles and review articles. (Castillo M. Authorship and bylines. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2009;30(8):1455-6. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1636)
g. Authorship disputes/changes
Any change in the authorship is not entertained by the journal. Any issues with the authorship should be communicated to the editorial office and must be discussed with the Editor in chief.
Any disputes of authorships will be resolved as per the COPE guidelines. https://publicationethics.org/resources/discussion-documents/authorship
h. Manuscript Preparation and Submission
Our journal publishes Review articles, Editorials, Original research work and case reports. All the articles have to be submitted through electronic submission on www.apccr-ascentia.com. First time authors have to register as author before submitting their article. The author can learn to navigate through the editorial scholar here
General Instructions
v All articles must be prepared in Microsoft word with double spacing, 2.5 cms/1 inch margin, Uniformly American English, page numbers must be mentioned in lower left corner of the page. Manuscript must be checked for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors before submission. References must be cited in the text after punctuation marks, in superscript without any bracket ex:
v All Abbreviations should be expanded and mentioned when it is used first in the article; title should not have any abbreviations.
v Numerical must be spelt out (one instead of 1) in the beginning of sentences.
v If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country) must be mentioned.
v Species names should be in italics
v All references should be in Vancouver style
Covering letter containing the request to publish the article in APCCR, details of conflicts of interest, permission from Institutional Ethics Committee, funding support has to be mentioned.
Title page consisting of general information about an article and its authors such as article title, running title, information of authors, details of corresponding authors, sources of support, number of pages, word count, number of tables and figures, details of conflict of interest, Acknowledgement, details of contributions must be mentioned.
Title of the article should not exceed 15 to 20 words and should include study design be a part of the title for randomized trials and systematic reviews and meta-analyses and running title should not more than 4 to 8 words
Manuscript file: (The details of Manuscript Preparation and Submission can be found at https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf)
The main text of the article should be present in the file. File must not contain any mention of the author’s details or place/institution at which the study was done.
Editorial:
Original Article: Word count of 4000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) Should be divided into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections (IMRAD) ending with conclusion. List of references cited in the text, tables and figure legends must be mentioned in the end. Can have a maximum of thirty references
Abstract for original studies must have maximum of 350 words must be structured and divided into background, material and methods, results and conclusion
Case Report: New cases, interesting and rare cases can be reported. Word count of 1000 to 1200 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables). Should contain Abstract (unstructured maximum of 150 to 200 words), Key-words, Introduction, Case details, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends. Can have maximum of ten references
Review articles: Articles written by individuals who have done substantial work/contributed extensively on the subject can write review articles. Prescribed word count is up to 4000 words (excluding abstract and references). An unstructured Abstract (250 to 300 words) representing an accurate summary of the article should be written. The section titles can be decided by the reviewer. Maximum of 40 references can be included in the study.
Editorials: Mostly of the editorials are through invitation only. Unsolicited editorials can be uploaded to the journal management system after prior discussion with the Editor in chief. Editorials should be between 1000 to 1200 words with a maximum of 6 to 8 references.
Reporting guidelines for original/research studies types are as follows: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/
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Randomised trials |
CONSORT |
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Observational studies |
STROBE |
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Systematic reviews |
PRISMA |
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Study protocols |
SPIRIT |
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Diagnostic/prognostic studies |
STARD |
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Case reports |
CARE |
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Clinical practice guidelines |
AGREE |
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Qualitative research |
SRQR |
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Animal |
Pre-clinical studies |
|
Quality improvement studies |
SQUIRE |
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Economic evaluations |
CHEERS |
Sending revised manuscript and any corrections in the manuscript after proof reading
· If editorial team/ reviewers suggest any corrections/ modifications to the author same will be conveyed to the primary/ corresponding author through their registered emails.
· Upload revised manuscript file separately with changes made in the text highlighted in yellow color
· Recheck the instructions to authors and see if all those instructions are followed
· Send the corrections as word document in the format suggested below
· Even if author wants to make any corrections on their own they can send it in the same format
· Details of changes made in the manuscript must be submitted separately as comments file in Microsoft word as per the format mentioned below
· Point number Comment raised by reviewer Author Reply to reviewer comments Page, column, line number where changes are made (e.g. page 3, line 10)
· Use column (Right or Left when changes has to be made in the final proof reading copy )
· Revised anonymized manuscripts have to be submitted within 15 days of receiving reviewer’s comment.
· Authors need not submit copyright form/first page file if there are no changes in methodology or authors
References
General Considerations related to references tables, figures, units of measurements observations and symbols are as follows:
Although references to review articles can be an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature, review articles do not always reflect original work accurately. Readers should therefore be provided with direct references to original research sources whenever possible. On the other hand, extensive lists of references to original work on a topic can use excessive space on the printed page. Small numbers of references to key original papers often serve as well as more exhaustive lists, particularly since references can now be added to the electronic version of published papers, and since electronic literature searching allows readers to retrieve published literature efficiently.
Avoid using abstracts as references. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as "in press" or "forthcoming"; authors should obtain written permission to cite such papers as well as verification that they have been accepted for publication. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source.
Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.
Some but not all journals check the accuracy of all reference citations; thus, citation errors sometimes appear in the published version of articles. To minimize such errors, references should be verified using either an electronic bibliographic source, such as PubMed or print copies from original sources. Authors are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction. For articles published in journals indexed in MEDLINE, the ICMJE considers PubMed the authoritative source for information about retractions. Authors can identify retracted articles in MEDLINE by using the following search term, where pt in square brackets stands for publication type: Retracted publication [pt] in PubMed.
Reference Style and Format
The Uniform Requirements style for references is based largely on an American National Standards Institute style adapted by the NLM for its databases. Authors should consult NLM's Citing Medicine for information on its recommended formats for a variety of reference types. Authors may also consultsample references, a list of examples extracted from or based on Citing Medicine for easy use by the ICMJE audience; these sample references are maintained by NLM.
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses. 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 the list of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE, posted by the NLM on the Library's Web site. Journals vary on whether they ask authors to cite electronic references within parentheses in the text or in numbered references following the text. Authors should consult with the journal to which they plan to submit their work.
Examples
1. Davidoff F, for the CSE Task Force on Authorship. Who's the author? Problems with biomedical authorship, and some possible solutions. Science Editor. 2000;23: 111-9.
2. Yank V, Rennie D. Disclosure of researcher contributions: a study of original research articles in The Lancet. Ann Intern Med. 1999;130:661-70.
3. Flanagin A, Fontanarosa PB, DeAngelis CD. Authorship for research groups. JAMA. 2002;288:3166-8. Godlee F, Jefferson T. Peer Review in Health Sciences. London: BMJ Books; 1999.
4. http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm (accessed June 26, 2009).
5. Rochon PA, Gurwitz JH, Cheung CM, Hayes JA, Chalmers TC. Evaluating the quality of articles published in journal supplements compared with the quality of those published in the parent journal. JAMA. 1994;272:108-13.
6. Pitkin RM, Branagan MA, Burmeister LF. Accuracy of data in abstracts of published research articles. JAMA. 1999;281:1110-1.
Tables
Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text.
Type or print each table with double-spacing on a separate sheet of paper. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines. Give each column a short or an abbreviated heading. Authors should place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes.
Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.
Be sure that each table is cited in the text.
If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.
Additional tables containing backup data too extensive to publish in print may be appropriate for publication in the electronic version of the journal, deposited with an archival service, or made available to readers directly by the authors. An appropriate statement should be added to the text to inform readers that this additional information is available and where it is located. Submit such tables for consideration with the paper so that they will be available to the peer reviewers.
Illustrations (Figures)
Figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed, or submitted as photographic-quality digital prints. In addition to requiring a version of the figures suitable for printing, some journals now ask authors for electronic files of figures in a format (for example, JPEG or GIF) that will produce high-quality images in the Web version of the journal; authors should review the images of such files on a computer screen before submitting them to be sure they meet their own quality standards.
For x-ray films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send sharp, glossy, black-and-white or color photographic prints, usually 127 x 173 mm (5 x 7 inches). Although some journals redraw figures, many do not. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should therefore be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough to remain legible when the figure is reduced for publication. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends--not on the illustrations themselves.
Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.
Photographs of potentially identifiable people must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the figure. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.
For illustrations in color, ascertain whether the journal requires color negatives, positive transparencies, or color prints. Accompanying drawings marked to indicate the region to be reproduced might be useful to the editor. Some journals publish illustrations in color only if the author pays the additional cost.
Authors should consult the journal about requirements for figures submitted in electronic formats.
Legends for Illustrations (Figures)
Type or print out legends for illustrations using double spacing, starting on a separate page, 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 clearly in the legend. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
Units of Measurement
Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.
Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, unless other units are specifically required by the journal.
Journals vary in the units they use for reporting hematologic, clinical chemistry, and other measurements. Authors must consult the Information for Authors of the particular journal and should report laboratory information in both local and International System of Units (SI). Editors may request that authors add alternative or non-SI units, since SI units are not universally used. Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units, but the alternative should be provided in parentheses where appropriate.
Abbreviations and Symbols
Use only standard abbreviations; use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement.