Information For Authors: Editorial Policies, Guidelines And Instructions
GENERAL INFORMATION
Introduction:
Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine (AIPM), an open access journal is published tri-annually by the Association of Resident Doctors, UCH Chapter. It is published in the months of April, August and December.
Subscription:
It is an open access journal, electronic copies of abstracts and full versions of articles published in the journal are free for viewing, reading and download on our website (aipmed.org) and on indexed sites. However, hard copy versions require subscription. Subscriptions are available on a calendar year basis for a volume comprising three issues. Rate in Nigeria for individuals is N3,000.00 per issue and N5,000.00 per issue for institutions and libraries. A volume of 3 issues will be a multiplication of the factor above). For subscription requests outside Nigeria, US$25.00 will be paid for each volume (three issues). Orders and payments from, or on behalf of subscribers should be paid to the Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine, Basement of East Wing, UCH, Ibadan via cash payments at our office or electronic transfers to our bank account or use of payment link on our website.
Manuscript Submission:
Authors submitting manuscripts should read Information to Authors which is obtainable from our website or in the first issue of a year for detailed guidelines for manuscript preparation. Submitted manuscripts may be rejected, delayed or returned if requirements are not met.
Manuscripts can be submitted via the website (aipmed.org) (view submission process), or to our email (ibadanpgmed@yahoo.com).
Advertisement: Advertisers of major products, services or classified adverts will find in Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine, a sure avenue to reach most doctors, health workers and consumers in Nigeria and beyond. Our rates are modest. All inquiries relating to the journal including advert booking, subscription, or submission of manuscripts should be addressed to:
Editor-in-Chief
Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine,
Basement of East Wing,
University College Hospital, Ibadan,
P.M.B. 5116, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
E-mail: ibadanpgmed@yahoo.com
Publishing Consultant:
Samdavies Publishers,
Plot 4, Adenekan Oyejide Street, Oloruntedo layout, Oloode, New Ife Road, Ibadan,
P.O. Box 27411, Agodi, Ibadan, Nigeria.
E-mail: samdaviesventures@yahoo.com
Tel.: 08023451177, 08084878480, 08054569871.
EDITORIAL POLICIES
The Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine (AIPM) (Journal of the Association of Resident Doctors, UCH Chapter) is published tri-annually. The Editorial Board welcomes contributions in all fields of medicine including medical technology, as well as economic, social and ethical issues related to the practice of medicine especially in a developing country. It is meant to meet the continuing educational needs of postgraduate doctors as well as stimulate research and academic pursuit.
Editorial Style
The Journal follows the British conventions of spelling, punctuation and grammar. All submitted articles must have excellent design and correct methods of statistical analysis. The statistical methods must be appropriate to the study. Interpretation of data must be correct and accurate.
Peer Review
We operate a double-blinded peer review system. All submitted articles are first read by at least a member of the Editorial Board. Those potentially acceptable are then passed on to reviewers who are experts in the various fields concerned. We ask reviewers to comment on the originality, scientific reliability and clinical relevance or usefulness. Those adjudged suitable are then submitted to statistician for statistical review. Those that fall short may be rejected outrightly or sent back to authors for corrections. Those that successfully pass through all the stages will be considered for publication.
Ethics
Studies and trials involving human beings must contain a statement that it was approved by the regional or institutional ethical committee. It must also show that the human subjects gave their informed consent and assent where applicable. Authors should also affirm that they have obtained consent to publish identifying pictures of patients
Plagiarism Check
All manuscripts submitted for publication will undergo checks for plagiarism and other forms of misconducts in scientific writing. All authors are strongly advised to familiarize themselves with the principles of ethical conduct in scientific writing and to abide by these principles. The journal holds strongly these ethical principles and would not tolerate any form of ethical misconduct or wrong doings.
Any identified ethical misconduct in scientific writing in a submitted or published manuscript will be further investigated. All cases of confirmed plagiarism or other editorial misconducts will be addressed using the guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Appropriate sanctions would be determined by the editorial board and communicated to authors, institutions of authors and/or funding agencies as deemed necessary.
Conflict of Interest
Authors must declare all conflict of interests related to the conceptualization, or execution of a research in manuscripts submitted to the journal.
Contribution of Authors/ Authorship
A statement on the contribution of all authors must be included in the manuscript. The requirements for authorship and for preparation of manuscripts submitted to the journal are in accordance with the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” available on the ICMJE website (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/)
Acknowledgement:
Individuals who participated in the research but who do not meet the threshold for authorship according to COPE guidelines may be included in the authorship segment
Copyright Information
Following the acceptance and publishing of any article in the Journal, the copyright of the paper will be vested in the Journal and Publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system without the written permission of the Editor-in-Chief. Any article published in this journal will be licensed under the Creative Common License by Non-Commercial version 3.0 (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Retraction
Retractions of articles submitted for publication or of published articles which are found to breech ethical guidelines, or contain fraudulent data, which comprise the integrity of the scientific literature will be done according to COPE guidelines. Authors are also allowed to request for retraction of published articles but such request must be accompanied by a cover letter detailing reasons for the request. Such request will be considered by the board and appropriate response given. For published articles, retraction notices will contain the link to the original article and the retracted article would also contain a link to the retraction notice.
Corrections (Addendum, Erratum and Corrigendum):
Addendum
An Addendum will be published at the request of authors if significant information was observed to be unintentionally omitted from the original publication. When an Addendum is published, a hyperlink to the Addendum will be added to the original publication and the link to the original article also included in the addendum.
Erratum
An erratum will be published if a significant error has been introduced by us during the process of copy editing and production of a journal article. Such publication will be done at the request of the authors, detailing the errors observed. An Erratum will have its hyperlink added to the original publication and the link to the original article also included in the erratum.
Corrigendum
A corrigendum will be published if a significant error was made by the authors of a published article during the preparation of the manuscript. Such publication will be done at the request of the authors, detailing the errors made and corrections requested. A corrigendum will have its hyperlink added to the original publication and the link to the original article also included in the corrigendum.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
GUIDELINES AND INSTRUCTIONS
Type of Articles
Original Research Articles: This can be accepted as a main article, or a short communication. It usually presents the result of a study (prospective or retrospective). These include case reports, case series, observational and experimental studies amongst others. It must contain an abstract of not more than 250 words. The main body of the article should contain no more than 4,000 words
Reviews Articles: These reviews that summarizes the relevant knowledge of topical issues. They include narrative reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis amongst others. They are expected to be concise and exhaustive but main body of the manuscript must not exceed 4,000 words. It must contain an abstract of not more than 250 words.
Short communications: are reports of smaller studies. This should have not more than 10 references, one illustration and one table
Correspondence: (Letter to the editor and short notes). This should contain not more than 1000 words and at most, two figures and 10 references. It should be accompanied by a covering letter stating clearly whether the communication is for publication.
Editorial/Commentaries: They are invited editorials on any subject suggested by the Editor-in-Chief which should not be more than 1,500 words and not more than 10 references.
Meeting Reports: Articles to be submitted are expected to be of benefit to the practitioners. It is expected to be the summary of proceeding of medical societies.
Addresses and Speeches: Great speeches, addresses and orations by medical personnel in Africa will be welcomed (in the similitude of the Oslerian speeches or Harvain orations)
Topical Issues: These are novel articles which deal with issues like:
– Medical ethics as it affects practice in Africa
– Management issues
– Trade and Labour relations
– Information Technology
– Social responsibilities of doctors in an increasingly complex society
– Investment and private practice
– Medical education/career focus
Book Review: The book must be relevant and of tropical benefit.
Word Count for Manuscripts:
Word counts stated above for different manuscripts only apply to the main body of the manuscript. They word count excludes abstracts, tables and references, and other ancillary inclusions such as acknowledgement, conflict of interest, contribution of authors etc.
GUIDELINES FOR PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscript will be considered for publication based on the following:
- That the manuscript has been submitted exclusively to this journal except for addresses and speeches.
- That it is not being considered for publication elsewhere at the time of submission.
- That the data submitted has not been published elsewhere. However, a paper presented at a scientific meeting or conference will be considered if it has not been published in full in a proceeding or similar publication.
- Manuscripts which have been published as non-peer reviewed pre-prints can also be submitted but appropriate declaration must be made and link to such pre-print included
- Authors are free to submit manuscripts rejected by other journals. In a similar way, they are free to submit articles rejected by this journal elsewhere.
- The editors would wish to be informed about any conflicts of interest in the submitted manuscripts and any previous reports that might be regarded as a duplication of some data.
- The editors also reserve the right to destroy rejected articles as well as correspondence relating to them.
- All submitted papers will undergo peer review process
- All submitted articles must be accompanied by a cover letter, which also includes a declaration by the corresponding author that all authors are in agreement with the content of the submitted manuscript and that they agree with the submission of the manuscript for publication.
- The cover letter should be addressed to:
The Editor-in-Chief
Annals of Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine,
Basement of East Wing, University College Hospital, Ibadan,
Oyo State, Nigeria.
An electronic copy of the manuscript accompanied by a cover letter can be submitted via the submission link on our website (www.aipmed.org) or to our email (ibadanpgmed@yahoo.com)
Order of Arrangement
- Arrange the article in this order. (1) Title page (2) Abstract (3) Text (4) References (5) Tables and (6) Figures and Legends.
- Pages should be numbered in sequence beginning with the Title page as 1, Abstract as 2, etc.
- Each section of the manuscript must start on a new page.
- All manuscripts should be typed double spaced on A4 sized page with a 25 mm margin. at the top, bottom and sides. Texts should be written in Times New Roman, Size 12.
1. Title Page: This should contain:
- Full title of the paper
- The name of each author, their highest academic qualification, and medical titles (where appropriate).
- The affiliations (department(s) and institution(s)) of all authors, below the name of the last author listed.
- The name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number of the corresponding author
2. Abstract
A structured abstract is required for the manuscripts of all original research and review articles submitted to the journal for publication and should not be more than 250 words. It should contain the background, aim, materials and methods, results and conclusions of the study. Abstract of case report and case series should have background, case summary(ies) and conclusion. Three to six keywords should be included after the abstract.
3. Main Body of the Text
Original and Review Articles: should be divided into:
- Introduction
- Materials and Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
Case reports/Case series should have:
- Introduction
- Case Presentation(s)
- Discussion
- Conclusion
NB:
- For review articles, annotations and commentaries, there should be headings appropriate to the article.
- Use of undefined acronyms or abbreviations should be limited to units of measurement. All measurements should be in metric units (metre, kilogram, and litre) or their decimal multiples.
- Temperatures should be in degree Celsius, blood pressures in millimeters of mercury and haemoglobin in g/dl.
- Authors are advised to use the generic names of drugs unless where the trade name is important to the article. Trade names should be designated by use of the symbol ®
- The names of the manufacturer, city and country, of manufacture of specialised equipment, chemicals and pharmaceutical products cited in the text must be mentioned.
- The discussion segment should have subheadings such as limitations and recommendations where appropriate
4. Addendum
Each manuscript should provide statements clarifying the following after the conclusion of main body of the manuscript:
- Conflict of Interest
- Contribution of Authors
- Funding for the study
- Acknowledgement (where necessary)
5. References
The Journal follows the convention of the Vancouver superscript citation and reference list system.
- General arrangement, abbreviations and punctuation are uniform requirement for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals using the National Library of Medicine (NLM) guidelines.
- In-text citations must be identified as superscripts to distinguish them from numerical data.
- All authors should be listed when they are six or less. However, if author numbers exceed six, list only the first 6 and add et al
- Personal communication must be accompanied by a written acknowledgement.
6. Tables
Each table should be at the top of new page and double spaced.
– There must be a title to each table.
– Number them in Arabic numerals (Tables 1, 2, etc.) in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
– Each table should have a footnote which identifies the abbreviation used.
7. Figures and Figure Legends
Illustrations should be referred in text as, e.g. Fig. 2 Each figure should bear a reference number corresponding to a similar one in the text.
All figures should be clearly label with a clear, concise and descriptive title below the figure.
Diagrams should be clear and should have a label at the bottom of the diagram
Colored pictures, diagrams and charts will be published at an extra cost to the authors. Otherwise, it will be printed in black and white.
Legends of each figure should be typed under the figure.
The identity of subjects in photographs must be concealed or send with a written consent of the subject, if otherwise.
Any previously published figures must be accompanied by a written permission from the copyright owner.
8. Appendices
Relevant data which complement the manuscript may be provided to be added as appendices.