Guidlines

• The author list is limited to only those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. Authors are required to submit a cover letter stating the contribution of the authors in the manuscript.
• Authors are encouraged to retain their original data such as spreadsheets used in statistical analysis as they may be asked to present them for rechecking correctness of statistical methods submit them for editorial review if the need arises.
• Submitted manuscript is believed to be original and must have not been submitted elsewhere or published or under review in any form. If the manuscript abstract has been presented, this should be stated clearly
• Authors submitting their work to the journal have agreed that all information contained in their paper is their original idea. They also agreed that the works or statements of other authors are appropriately cited.
• Authors must properly acknowledgement of sources used for writing the paper.
• All authors in the paper must disclose all relationships that could lead to a potential conflict of interest, including any personal, financial or other relationships with people or organizations that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence the results reported in the manuscript. A statement about Conflict of Interest should be added to the Title Page.
• Authors are required to notify the journal if significant errors are observed after publication of their manuscript.
• The international standard of reporting and discussing original research should be strictly adhered to by all authors.
• Manuscript describing the results of experiment performed on animals or humans or their parts must provide statements of compliance at submission.
• Both ethical approval (with IRB number) and informed consent must be stated in the manuscript for studies performed on patients or volunteers. The International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans should be strictly followed [WHO/UNESCO Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS), https://cioms.ch/].
• All submitted papers will be scanned with the Turnitin plagiarism software to ascertain the originality of the contents.

Submission of a manuscript implies that the results described have not been published elsewhere except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis. Authors should note that manuscripts submitted to the journal should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. It is believed that manuscript submitted to the journal has been approved by all authors or the responsible authorities where the work was conducted, and that the manuscript will not be published in the same form if it is accepted.

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Articles should be submitted in English language only (British or American style). The manuscript should be succinct with correct grammar, conforming to standard scientific English language style. Authors are advised to seek the services of a professional English language editor or a native English language speaker with a scientific background for submitting their paper to the journal. Authors may be requested to seek the services of language editor. The following tools may help the author in preparing their manuscript: https://www.goodreports.org/; http://www.equator-network.org/; www.penelope.ai or see must robust list at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html.  

Abbreviations, nomenclature and units of measurement

Use of abbreviations should be reduced in the text and defined at first usage. Generic names are preferred for drugs. The use of SI units is recommended.

Original article/short communication

Original manuscript reporting novel findings or describing state of the art methods or techniques in basic or applied medical sciences should be formatted according to the following order: title page, structured abstract (250 words maximum), keywords (4-6 words), introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, conflict of interest, references, tables, figures/legends. Word count should be limited to 6,000 (excluding title page, abstract, references, tables, figures).

Review article

High quality reviews of wide readership should be formatted according to the following order: title page, a list of abbreviations, unstructured abstract (200 words maximum), introduction, results, summary, and conclusion. Word count should be limited to 12,000 words (excluding title page, abstract, references, tables, figures). Systemic reviews and meta-analysis should follow the PRISMA Statement (http://www.prisma-statement.org/).

Case report/Case series and opinion

In general, an unstructured abstract of less than 150 words and an illustrative case (s) presentation are followed by a discussion based upon literature review, and a brief conclusion emphasizing the key aspect(s) of the case. These papers should be 2,500-5,000 words (excluding title page, abstract, references and tables/figures), with appropriate support of figures and/or tables.

Medical education

Manuscripts on latest trends or information on medical education can be considered for publication if it meets generally acceptable standards for publication in the journal. Medical teachers and educators are encouraged to discuss state of the art teaching trends or techniques or projects on medical education. The word count should not exceed 1500 (excluding title page and references). The manuscript should be structured as follows: abstract, introduction, aims, methodology and results.

Letter to the Editor

Concise communication within the scope of the journal that address a topic of interest or re-analyze an article previously published in the journal or other journals can be submitted to the Editor for consideration. Letters should not be structured and no abstract is needed. Letters should not exceed 1,000 words, 10 references, and 2 figures or tables.

Full length manuscript should contain the following:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Main text
• Acknowledgments (if any)
• Conflict of interest
• References
• Tables
• Figures/legends
• Research in context

Title page

The title should be concise and informative, and not to exceed 40 words. No abbreviation should be used in the title. The title should be followed by a list of author names (first, middle, last). Authors’ affiliations and addresses should follow after follow the names. In addition, the postal address of the corresponding author name and complete contact information, including institution, mailing address, telephone number and email address should be provided. An author may have more than one institution. However, the address of the institution where the work was carried out should be retained. A maximum of two qualifications should be included per author.  A running or short title of not more than 8 words should be included in the title page. The title page should contain statement about conflict of interest conflict-of-interest statement, source of funding, keywords, and number of words in the manuscript (excluding abstract, tables, figure legends and references).

Abstract

Authors should begin their abstract on a new page. Abstract may be unstructured or structured (Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions) depending on the type of manuscript been submitted. The aim of the study, procedure/technique/methods, key findings to include statistical significance, and main conclusions should be concisely stated. Abbreviations in the abstract should be minimally reduced and defined at first usage in the abstract. If similar abbreviations are used in the text, they should also be defined at first usage.

Key words

Key words for the manuscript should be selected based on the list of Health Sciences Descriptors terms (Medical Subject Headings, MeSH) of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Introduction

The introduction section should contain essential information on the background and necessity of the study. It should provide information beyond any doubt why the study was conducted. The aims and objectives of the study should be stated here.

Methods

The methods section should describe in details any technique or principle of working of equipment and should be explicit enough for possible replication. The methods section should be separated into subheadings. The section should contain ethical approval and consent statement for studies involving the use of animal or human subjects. The ethical statement must be in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki for experiments involving human subjects. For animal studies, the author must provide a stamen that they adhered to the institutional review board for use of animals in experiment (with approval number). The methods section must also contain informed consent statement for studies involving human subjects. It is advisable to retain consent forms used for study as the editorial board in certain circumstances may require to view a selection.  The rights of human subjects to privacy must be maintained at all times always maintained.

Results

Results of the experiment or review should be succinctly documented. Authors should ensure accuracy of results. Statistical values and their significance should be stated vividly.

Discussion

The authors should conduct an unbiased discussion of their results in line with literature evidences. Limitations of the study should also be stated.

Acknowledgement

All sources, persons or funding organizations that helped in the completion of the work should be duly acknowledged.

Conflict of Interest

Authors should state any potential conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, a statement such as “None declared” or “The authors declare to conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper” can be documented. All funding from institutions or product manufacturers (mentioned within manuscript) must be stated here.

References

References should start on a new page and should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the manuscript text. Every reference in the list should be cited in text or vice versa. Only published works should be included in the list. In Press manuscripts can be cited. Authors should ensure that citations in text are accurate and all permissions have been obtained for specific statements or data not belonging to the authors’ work. Abstracts should be devoid of references. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references in the submitted manuscript. Avoid using abstracts as references.

References in text should be cited by numbers in squired brackets [ ]. Authors may be cited in text with only surnames and year of publication as in Dane (2019), Dane & Kant (2017) or Dane et al. (2015). References should appear in the list in the order in which they are cited in text appear in the text.

Examples:

Journal

1. Chen KC, Peng CC, Chiu WT, Cheng YT, Huang GT, Hsieh CL, Peng RY. Action mechanism and signal pathways of Psidium guajava L. aqueous extract in killing prostate cancer LNCaP cells. Nutr Cancer. 2010;62(2):260–70.

If the number of authors in a single is more than seven, list the first three authors followed by et al.

2. Unal C, Welcome MO, Salako M, et al. The effect of foot reflexotherapy on the dynamics of cortical oscillatory waves in healthy humans: an EEG study, Compl. Ther. Med. 38 (2018) 42–47.

Book

1. Kant H. Ozone layer. 2nd ed. City, Country: Publisher; 2015.
2. World Health Organization. Haemoglobin  concentrations for  the  diagnosis  of  anaemia  and  assessment  of  severity. Geneva:  World Health Organization, Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition Information System, 2011.

Chapter in an edited book

1. Fuller J, Edwards J, Procter N, Ross J. Mental health in rural and remote Australia. In: Wilkinson D, Blue I, editors. The new rural health. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2002. p. 171-185

URL

1. Medical Sciences in the 21st Century. http://www.medsci21.com; 2018 [accessed 05.05.19].

Figures should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Each figure should have a brief title and legend. Authors should minimize text under figures. Format of figures is JPEG or TIFF (MS Office files are also acceptable) with high resolution. The use of color diagrams/figures is highly encouraged. Figures should be uploaded as separately from the main manuscript. All figures should be submitted as separate files. Minimum acceptable resolution of figures is 800 dpi. The Journal has the right to crop, enlarge or reduce size of images submitted to fit the manuscript print style.

Tables should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Tables should have a short title and footnotes are necessary. The table title should be placed above the table. Footnotes should be placed below the table and indicated with superscript lowercase letters. Tables should be inserted in main text after the paragraph where the table is first referred to.

Such sections are designed to state in few words the added information this study is bringing to limelight. The evidence before the study is concisely stated, the new information the current study has that is different from other studies or gaps the study has impacted. The implications of the studying moving forward should be stated concisely and may include impact on policies or need for further specific research.

Only online manuscript submission is accepted. All submissions and communications must be made by the corresponding author only.

Checklist

Authors are advised to check their manuscript for the following before submission.

• The manuscript is prepared in Microsoft word (default) format.
• The manuscript is prepared according to the guidelines and requirements of the journal.
• The cover letter, email addresses and affiliations of all authors as well as the corresponding author are well stated.
• The manuscript is accurate and has been edited for grammar and language.
• The authors have read and understood the journal copyright transfer principles.
• The results stated in the manuscript have not been published, submitted or under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• All authors have approved the manuscript for submission.

Page formatting

The manuscript text should be typed with Roman New Times using 12-point font and double-spaced. The manuscript should be formatted with 1 inch margin. Manuscript pages should be numbered consecutively from the title at the bottom center.

Cover Letter

The cover letter is required during manuscript submission. The cover letter should include the following: manuscript title, statement that the paper has not been published, submitted, or under review elsewhere, conflict of interest, and approval by all authors to submit the manuscript to the journal.

Authors will be required to propose at least three competent reviewers who are not members of their institution. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers, but the final decision to reject, accept or revise a manuscript will be made by the Editor in Chief. If a manuscript is suggested for revision, the author should address each reviewer comment or suggestion in sequence one after the other in an “Author’s Response to Reviewers’ Comments” or “Response to Reviewers” in a separate document or letter. The revised manuscript and “Author’s Response to Reviewers’ Comments” should be submitted for the next round of revision. When submitting a revised manuscript, the authors should include both a plain and highlighted version (yellow or red) of the revised manuscript.

Following acceptance of the manuscript, authors will be asked to complete the “Journal Publishing Agreement and Copyright”. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the authors are required to obtain a written permission from the copyright owners and must provide a statement acknowledging the source in the manuscript.

Upon acceptance of a manuscript, the corresponding author will be requested to perform proofing of the manuscript before it is published. This will eliminate potential errors from the accepted paper.

After acceptance, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is given as a link to online published manuscript.

After proof correction, accepted manuscript will be published at the beginning of every Quarter.

Accepted articles will first appear “In Press” before they are finally published in the journal issue.

After manuscript acceptance, authors will be able to choose open access publishing or restricted access publishing. In open access publishing, there is unrestricted use, reproduction and distribution provided the paper is cited accurately. The bill is charged to the corresponding author at 40,000 naira only. Details of how to pay the fee will be communicated to the corresponding author after peer review and manuscript acceptance.

Restricted access publishing is also available. Here only the abstract will be available for readers and readers required to purchase the article before reading or citing the article. It is usually not advisable to cite abstracts only. The bill for restricted access publishing is 20,000 naira only and details of payment will be communicated to corresponding author after peer review and acceptance of manuscript.