GUIDELINES TO AUTHORS

 

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GENERAL INFORMATION                       

• The journal shall be published quarterly in the second week of the month.
• The manuscripts must be primarily the work of the authors and must not have been previously published or under consideration of any other journal.
• All papers submitted to JISH will undergo review and editing from the concerned subject, technical, and language experts. The comments of the reviewers shall be conveyed to the authors for compliance/counter-comments. All accepted papers will be suitably edited before publication. However, the decision of the Editorial Board of JISH regarding the publication of the article(s) or any other matter will be final.
• Articles contrary to the principles of Homoeopathy shall not be accepted.
• The writing will adhere to the plagiarism policy of the Institute.
• If any article is accepted but cannot be published in the forthcoming volume of JISH due to space constraint or other reasons, it may be considered for the next volume of the journal.

 

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA:

• Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:

1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published.

• Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group/ clinical activity is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript.
• The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted, the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope, and the number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide justification if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST/ COMPETING INTERESTS

• All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. All authors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest they may have with an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

 

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION, PROCESSING AND PUBLICATION CHARGES

• The JISH does not charge the authors or authors’ institutions for the submission, processing, and/or publications of manuscripts. It also does not pay any compensation to the authors whose articles are published.

 

COPYRIGHTS

• The entire contents of the JISH are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform, and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

 

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE AUTHORS REGARDING THE SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

All the manuscripts submitted for publication should include the following:

1. Manuscripts including tables/figures/photographs.
2. Declaration form duly signed by all authors.
3. Particulars of corresponding author (if the article is written by more than one author), i.e. name, designation, email ID, mobile number etc.
4. Manuscript should be submitted only via email.
5. The language used in the manuscript should be English (United Kingdom).
6. The Email id for submissions is- mldmhi@gmail.com

 

Instruction regarding Appendices while submitting the Manuscript

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as photographs/ jpeg images. Tables should appear in the text; submit tables separately on separate page(s) at the end of the manuscript for printing purpose. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Provide a short but self-explanatory title for each table, which should be placed above the table. Any explanatory information or description of symbols etc. used in the table should be explained below the table in legend.

Figures

Figures include graphs, illustrative drawings/ pictures, images of laboratory reports, photographs of patients before and after treatment etc. Upload the images in JPEG format. Figures should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. The title for the figure should be placed below each figure. Detailed explanations about the figure should be placed below the figure in legend; be careful that explanations should not be made within the figure. When graphs are submitted, the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied. If photographs of patients are used in the article, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use their photographs. If a figure published elsewhere is included in the article, acknowledge the original source in reference and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material.

Final photographs for print: Digital images are the only source accepted. Ensure that the image has minimum resolution of 300 dpi or 1800 × 1600 pixels in JPEG/TIFF format. The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

 

CATEGORIES OF MANUSCRIPTS

Brief guidelines are given below:

Case Reports: Such reports should contain usually less than 2,000 words, excluding an abstract of not more than 250 words. While writing case reports, the CARE guidelines, modified for Homoeopathic cases, as reproduced below should be followed.

 

Table 1

The Modified for Homoeopathy CARE guidelines checklist

The Narrative: A case report tells a story in a narrative format that includes the presenting concerns, clinical findings, diagnoses, interventions, outcomes (including adverse events), and follow-up. The narrative should include a discussion of the rationale for any conclusions and any take-away messages.

Item name	Item no.	Brief description
Title	1	The words “case report” (or “case study”) should appear in the title along with the phenomenon of greatest interest (e.g., symptom, diagnosis, test, intervention)
Keywords	2	The key elements of this case in 2-5 words
Abstract	3	a) Introduction—What does this case add?
		b) Case Presentation:
		– The main symptoms of the patient
		– The main clinical findings
		– The main diagnoses and interventions
		– The main outcomes
		c) Conclusion—What were the main take-away lessons from this case?
Introduction	4	Brief background summary of this case referencing the relevant medical literature
Patient Information	5	a) Demographic information (e.g., age, sex, ethnicity, occupation)
		b) Main symptoms of the patient (his or her chief complaints preferably in the LSMC format)
		c) Medical, family, and psychosocial history—including diet, lifestyle, and genetic information whenever possible, and details about relevant co-morbidities including past interventions and their outcomes
		d) The physical generals and particulars
Clinical Findings	6	Describe the relevant physical examination (PE) findings
Timeline	7	Depict important dates and times in this case (table or figure)
Diagnostic Assessment	8	a)      Diagnostic methods (e.g., PE, laboratory testing, imaging, questionnaires)
		b) Diagnostic challenges (e.g., financial, language/cultural)
		c) Diagnostic reasoning including other diagnoses considered
		d) Prognostic characteristics (e.g., staging) where applicable
Analysis and Synthesis	9	Present the totality after indicating adequate classification and evaluation of the symptoms
Totality and Processing	10	Erect the totality in the appropriate way and indicate the processing through repertorial/non-repertorial methods
Susceptibility assessment and Planning and Programming	11	Where indicated, a full analysis of assessment of Susceptibility and its impact on Planning and Programming may be presented
Therapeutic Intervention	12	a) Types of intervention (e.g., pharmacologic, surgical, preventive, self-care)
		– Administration of intervention (e.g., dosage, posology, duration)
		– Changes in intervention (with rationale)
Follow-up and Outcomes	13	a) Summarize the clinical course of all follow-up visits including
		– Clinician and patient-assessed outcomes
		– Important follow-up test results (positive or negative)
Discussion	14	a) The strengths and limitations of the management of this case
		b) The relevant medical literature
		c) The rationale for conclusions (including assessments of cause and effect)
		d) The main take-away lessons of this case report
Patient Perspective	15	The patient should share his or her perspective or experience whenever possible

 

Case series with or without Review article: Such article should be written generally in less than 3,000 words, but should include preferably a structured abstract of not more than 250 words. The case series taken by the author should be integrated a part of the review article.

Education: These should be written generally in less than 1,000 words excluding an abstract of not more than 250 words. The article should usually be organized including the sections Introduction, Discussion & Conclusion. These articles should enhance the existing knowledge on teaching methodology; curriculum development; lesson plan; existing lacuna(e) in the education domain and how to overcome etc.

Pilot Research Projects/Observational studies: Such articles should be written in less than 2,000 words, but longer papers may be accepted if found suitable. Articles on qualitative and quantitative research; prospective /retrospective studies are welcome. All articles must clarify how the findings of the study will advance the existing knowledge on the subject concerned. The research studies may be reported in the format mentioned in Table 2

Table 2

STROBE statement/ checklist of items that should be included in reports of observational studies

Item name	Item No	Recommendation
Title and abstract
	1	(a) Indicate the study’s design with a commonly used term in the title or the abstract
		(b) Provide in the abstract an informative and balanced summary of what was done and what was found
Introduction
Background/rationale	2	Explain the scientific background and rationale for the investigation being reported
Objectives	3	State specific objectives, including any pre-specified hypotheses
Methods
Study design	4	Present key elements of study design early in the paper
Setting	5	Describe the setting, locations, and relevant dates, including periods of recruitment, exposure, follow-up, and data collection
Participants	6	(a)   Cohort study: Give the eligibility criteria, and the sources and methods of selection of participants. Describe methods of follow-up (b)   Case-control study: Give the eligibility criteria, and the sources and methods of case ascertainment and control selection. Give the rationale for the choice of cases and controls Cross sectional study? Give the eligibility criteria, and the sources and methods of selection of participants
		(c)    Cohort study: For matched studies, give matching criteria and number of exposed and unexposed (d)   Case-control study: For matched studies, give matching criteria and the number of controls per case
Variables	7	Clearly define all outcomes, exposures, predictors, potential confounders, and effect modifiers. Give diagnostic criteria, if applicable
Data sources/ measurement	8*	For each variable of interest, give sources of data and details of methods of assessment (measurement). Describe comparability of assessment methods if there is more than one group
Bias	9	Describe any efforts to address potential sources of bias
Study size	10	Explain how the study size was arrived at
Quantitative variables	11	Explain how quantitative variables were handled in the analyses. If applicable, describe which groupings were chosen and why
Statistical methods	12	Describe all statistical methods, including those used to control for confounding
		Describe any methods used to examine subgroups and interactions
		Explain how missing data were addressed
		(a)   Cohort study: If applicable, explain how loss to follow-up was addressed (b)   Case-control study: If applicable, explain how matching of cases and controls was addressed (c)    Cross sectional study: If applicable, describe analytical methods taking account of sampling strategy
		Describe any sensitivity analyses
Results
Participants	13*	Report numbers of individuals at each stage of study: e.g. numbers potentially eligible, examined for eligibility, confirmed eligible, included in the study, completing follow-up, and analysed
		Give reasons for non-participation at each stage
		Consider use of a flow diagram
Descriptive data	14*	Give characteristics of study participants (e.g. demographic, clinical, social) and information on exposures and potential confounders
		Indicate number of participants with missing data for each variable of interest
		Cohort study: Summarise follow-up time (e.g. average and total amount)
Outcome data	15*	(a)   Cohort study: Report numbers of outcome events or summary measures over time (b)   Case-control study: Report numbers in each exposure category, or summary measures of exposure (c)    Cross sectional study: Report numbers of outcome events or summary measures
Main results	16	Report the numbers of individuals at each stage of the study, e.g., numbers potentially eligible, examined for eligibility, confirmed eligible, included in the study, completing follow-up, and analysed
		Give reasons for non-participation at each stage
		Consider use of a flow diagram
Other analyses	17	Report other analyses done: e.g., analyses of subgroups and interactions, and sensitivity analyses
Discussion
Key results	18	Summarise key results with reference to study objectives
Limitations	19	Discuss limitations of the study, taking into account sources of potential bias or imprecision. Discuss both direction and magnitude of any potential bias
Interpretation	20	Give a cautious overall interpretation of results considering objectives, limitations, multiplicity of analyses, results from similar studies, and other relevant evidence
Generalisability	21	Discuss the generalisability (external validity) of the study results
Other information
Funding	22	Give the source of funding and the role of the funders for the present study and, if applicable, for the original study on which the present article is based

*Give information separately for cases and controls in case-control studies and, if applicable, for exposed and unexposed groups in cohort and cross sectional studies.

 

Symposium/Academic day report: Up to 1000 words. It should include the theme, conduct, and take home lessons clearly enunciated.

Contributions from the alumni: Should follow the guidelines as per the nature of their submissions.

Events related to students/Institutions: These should be brief and accompanied by suitable photographs in jpg format and minimal 72 dpi.

Letter to the Editor: It may contain up to 400 words. It may send very brief vignettes or offer comments to articles published in the preceding issue/s

Note: 

1. While writingreferences for the above categories of articles, the Vancouver style should be followed.
2. For the References – the use of reference management software (such as End Note) is not required.

Examples:

 

Reference Type	Reference list example
Journal article (One author)	Snowdon J. Severe depression in old age. Medicine Today. 2002 Dec;3(12):40-47.
Journal article (Two to six authors)	Katon W, Lin EH, Kroenke K. The association of depression and anxiety with medical symptom burden in patients with chronic medical illness. General hospital psychiatry. 2007 Mar 1;29(2):147-55.
Six or more authors	Ozcetin A, Ataoglu S, Kocer E, Yazycy S, Yildiz O, Ataoglu A, Ycmeli C. Effects of depression and anxiety on quality of life of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, knee osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia syndrome. West Indian medical journal. 2007 Mar;56(2):122-9.
Edited book	Brooks A, Mahoney P, Rowlands B, editors. ABC of tubes, drains, lines and frames. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2008.
Chapter in a book	Speroff L, Fritz MA. Clinical gynaecologic endocrinology and infertility. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2005. Chapter 29, Endometriosis; p.1103-33.