GUIDELINES TO CONTRIBUTORS

To address the task of the expansion of the Sudanese Journal   of Paediatrics (SJP) to encompass  the scientific work dealing with child health locally and abroad, it will be the purpose of the Editorial Board of SJP to encourage authors to submit high-quality papers for the refereed publication and to make a more varied source of material to our readers. “Guidelines to Contributors “are published to help the authors to present their data in accordance with the currently accepted uniform style for submitted manuscripts. It is based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [1] with minor modifications to suit varied facilities worldwide.

 

General Principles

Original research articles text is usually divided into ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, and DISCUSSION sections. To further organize their content, subheadings may be used within these sections. Other types of articles such as reviews, case reports, and images may have less structured or unstructured formats.

These sections should be followed by DECLARATIONS section which includes:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

FUNDING: Includes the source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs or all of these.

ETHICS: Includes ethics approval and consent to participate, and consent for publication. Approval by an appropriate ethics committee is required in research involving human subjects, human data, or human material, and the research should have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki [2]. The name of the ethics committee should be stated, and also the reference number (where appropriate). It should also be stated if the study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval. Written informed consent for publication should also be stated in manuscripts which include details of an individual person, images, or videos. Consent to participate, and consent for publication are obtained from a person (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children below18 years of age).

Experimental research on animals should comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, with approval by an appropriate ethics committee, where available.

Tables should not be submitted as photographs or in PowerPoint. Use the facility in MSWord to prepare the tables.

Figures should be submitted, as attached files, in JPG or TIFF format.

Type manuscript using double spacing throughout, including title page, abstract, text, declarations, references, tables and legends. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. Type the page number in the upper right-hand corner of each page.

Manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted only to SJP at that time and have not been published, simultaneously submitted or already accepted for publication elsewhere. This does not preclude consideration of a manuscript that has been rejected by another journal or of a complete report that follows publication of preliminary findings elsewhere, usually in the form, of an abstract. Copies of any possibly duplicative published material should be submitted with the manuscript that is being sent for considerations.

 

The title page should contain (1) the title of the article, which should be concise but informative, (2) first name, middle initial, and last name of each author, with highest academic degree(s), (3) name of department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed. If an author has moved since the work described in the manuscript was done, a “Current address” may be indicated as a footnote to that author’s name. (4) disclaimers, if any, (5) name and address of author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript with telephone number and e-mail address provided.

 

An abstract should not more than 250 words. The abstract should state the purposes of study or investigation, basic procedures, (study subjects or experimental specific data and their statistical significance, if possible), and the principal conclusions. Emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Use only approved abbreviations.

Key (indexing) terms: Below the abstract provide and identify as such, three to 10 key words or short phrases that will assist indexers in cross-indexing your article and that maybe published with the abstract. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings list from Index Medicus whenever possible.

 

The text of observational and experimental articles is usually - but not necessarily - divided into sections with the headings INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, and DISCUSSION. Long articles may need subheadings within some sections to clarify their contents, especially the RESULTS and DISCUSSION sections.

 

INTRODUCTION: Clearly state the purpose of the article. Summarize the rationale for the study or observation. Give only strictly pertinent references, and do not review the subject extensively.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Describe your section of the observational or experimental subjects (patients or experimental animals, including controls) clearly. Identify the methods, apparatus (manufacturer’s name and address in parenthesis), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to and brief descriptions of 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.

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accord with the ethical standards of the committee on human experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration [2]. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic names(s), dosage(s), and route(s) of administration. Do not use patient’s names, initials, or hospital numbers.

 

Include numbers of observations and the statistical significance of the findings when appropriate. 

RESULTS: Present your results in logical sequence on the text, tables, and illustrations.  Do not repeat   in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations, or both: emphasize or summarize only important observations. 

DISCUSSION: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and conclusions that follow from them.   Do not repeat in detail data given in the results section. Include in the DISCUSSION the implications of the findings and their limitations and relate the observations to other relevant studies. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by your data. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses, when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Conclusions and recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.

 

Acknowledge only persons who have made substantive contributions to the study.

 

Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals. References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration.

 Use the form of references adopted by the US National Library of Medicine and used in Index Medicus. Use the style of the examples cited at the end of this section, which have been approved by the National Library of Medicine.

 The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus.

 Try to avoid using abstracts as references; “unpublished observations” and “personal communications” may not be used as references, although references to written, not verbal, communications may be inserted [square brackets] in the text. Include among the references manuscripts accepted but not yet published; designate the journal followed by “in press” [square brackets]. Information from manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” [square brackets].

 The references must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents.

 

 

Journal

Standard journal article: (List all authors when six or less; when seven or more, list only first six and add et al.)

1. Jalloh S, Van Rostenberghe H, Yusoff NM, Ghazali S, Nik Ismail NZ, Matsuo M, et al. Poor correlation between hemolysis and jaundice in glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase-deficient babies. Pediatr Int 2005; 47:258-61.

 

1. The committee on enzyme of the Scandinaian Society of Clinical Chemistry and clinical Physiology, Recommended method for the determination of gammaglutamyltransferase in blood. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1976;119-25.

 

Personal Author(s):

1. Barkovich AJ. Pediatric Neuroimaging (4th ed). Philadelphia: Lippincott William &Wilkins, 2005.

 

Corporate Author:

1. Americal Medical Association Department of Drugs. AMA drug evaluations. 3rd ed. Littleton: Publishing Science Group, 1977.

 

Editor(s), Compiler:

1. Armstrong DL, Halliday W, Hawkings C, Takashima S, eds. Pediatric Neuropathology: A Text- Atlas. New York: Springer; 2007.

 

Chapter in book:

1. Salih MAM. Genetic disorders in Sudan. In: Teebi AS, ed. Genetic Disorders among Arab Populations (2nd ed). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2010:575-612.

 

Agency publications:

1. National Center for Health Statistics. Acute conditions: incidence and associated disability, United States July 1968- June 1969. Rockwille, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 1972. (Vital and health statistics. Series 10: Data from the national Health Survey, No 69) (Dhew publication No (HSM) 72-1036)

Online reference:

1. JAMA’s key and critical objectives. Available at: http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/aboutjama.dtl. Accessed June 7, 2011.

 

Newspaper article:

1. Shaffer RA. Advances in chemistry are starting to unlock mysteries of the brain: discoveries could help cure alcoholism and insomnia, explain mental illness. How the messengers work. Wall street Journal 1977Aug 12;1 (col1), 10 (col 1).

 

Magazine article:

1. Roueche B. Annals of medicine: the Santa Claus culture. The New Yorker 1971 Sep 4:66-81.

 

Type each table on a separate sheet; remember to single line spacing. Do not submit tables as photographs or in PowerPoint. Use the facility in MSWord to prepare the tables. Number the tables consecutively and supply a brief title for each. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table. Identify statistical measures of variations such as SD and SEM. Omit internal horizontal and vertical rulers. Cite each table in the text in consecutive order.

If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge fully.

 

Figures should be submitted, as attached files, in JPG or TIFF format. Letters, numbers, and symbols should be clear and even throughout, and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations, not on the illustrations themselves. Do not import the figures into the text file, but indicate their locations in the manuscript.

Photomicrographs must have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows or letters used in the photo micrographs should contrast with the background.

If photographs of persons are used, the author bears full responsibility of either permission to use the photographs or have the eyes masked.

Cite each figure in the text  in  consecutive  order. If a figure has been published, acknowledge the additional source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Permission is required, regardless of authorship or publisher, except for documents in the public domain.

 

Type legends for illustrations single line spaced, starting on the 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 internal scale and identify method of staining in photomicrographs.

 

Use only standard abbreviations. Avoid abbreviations in the title. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

Report measurement in the units in which they were made. If the traditional units of measurements were used, add the System International (SI) equivalent  in parentheses. Scientific names giving genus and species should be in italics typescript with an initial capital; use abbreviations only after the first mention: Escherichia coli, then E coli.

Full stops should not be used after contractions or abbreviations: FRCS, mg/dl, Dr, et al, etc.

Drugs should not be given their approved names followed- when appropriate- by their proprietary names (in parentheses)

Submission of Manuscripts

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1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.  Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Updated December 2018. Available at: http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf. Accessed May 17, 2019.
2. WMA DECLARATION OF HELSINKI – ETHICAL PRINCIPLES FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN SUBJECTS. Available at: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/. Accessed May 17, 2019. 

 

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