Submissions

Author Guidelines

About the Journal

Journal of Basic Medical and Clinical Sciences is the official journal of Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, (AEFUTHA) chapter, Ebonyi State Nigeria.

The journal’s aim is to give affordable opportunity for dissemination of recent research findings in various areas/fields of basic medical and clinical sciences.

Article Submission

Submission of manuscript should be online through our manuscript submission and manuscript management system (recommended) or by email attachment to editor.jbmcs@gmail.com .

Note: When making a submission, ensure that a copy of your submission in MS Word containing your entire work from title to references, including tables and figures, is also submitted or uploaded online as the case may be.

If you are submitting online, under “Add Contributors” ensure you enter all the co-authors as well with their full addresses.

Any article that does not conform to these requirements will be returned to the author and this may delay the review process.

Download the Article Template from the website at http://jbmcs.org.ng 

Article Submission Guideline for JBMCS

The guideline is in accordance with the standard of International Committee of Medical Journal Editor’s (ICMJE) recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals

The journal will accept the following kinds of article:

Original articles: Maximum of 4000 words excluding, abstract, references and tables. The abstract for original articles should be a maximum of 350 words

Systematic/Narrative Reviews: Maximum of 5000 words excluding, abstract, references and tables. The abstract should be a maximum of 350 words

Case reports: Maximum of 1000 words, excluding, abstract, references and tables. The abstract should be a maximum of 150 words.

Research Letter: Maximum of 1000 words, two tables, no abstract, 15 references

Letter to Editor: Maximum of 500 words, no abstract

Commentaries: Maximum of 750 words, 10 references.

Cover Letter
All manuscripts submitted to JBMCS should be accompanied by a cover letter stating the significance of the study, and clearly stating that all the Co-authors have read the final draft and are in agreement with all the contents. The cover should also include the email addresses of all the co-authors.

Manuscript organization

The manuscripts should be organized as follows:

Title

Authors (with affiliations in superscript numbers)

Affiliations

Corresponding author’s name, full address and email

Abstract

 Keywords

Introduction

Methods

Results (with Figures, Tables)

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgments, Funding, Author contributions, Conflict of interests statement.

References

Title: The title, authors, and affiliations should all be included on a title page as the first page of the manuscript file. On the title page, write author names in the following order: First name, Middle name and Last Name

Author information: Each author on the list must have an affiliation.

The affiliation includes department, university, or organizational affiliation and its location, including city, state/province (if applicable), and country. At a minimum, the address must include the author’s current institution, city, and country. Note: Change of authors or addition will not be entertained after submission of the manuscript except in writing to the editor which is subject to the editorial approval.

Corresponding author information: Should include name, address, email address and phone number

Abstract:

The Abstract comes after the title page in the manuscript file and should be a maximum of 350 words. The Abstract (for most research articles) should be written in the following order:  Background, Aims/Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

Keywords: There should be Three to Six Key Words at the end of the abstract. Keywords should be arranged alphabetically.  

MAIN TEXT for Original articles

The text of the manuscript should consist of the following sections.

Introduction

Provide an adequate background and state the objectives of the work avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and referenced. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Results

Results should be clear and concise without discussion and should not normally contain any references

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Discussion should also compare findings of the present study with that of similar studies elsewhere and proffer convincing explanations for both similarities and differences observed. Limitations of the study and the degree to which they adversely affected the outcome of the research findings should also be included here.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section

Acknowledgments

Author(s) should acknowledge all including institutions and individuals that played a significant role in the successful completion of the study but do not meet criteria for authorship.

Authorship contributions: (write authors’ initials only and their contributions to the manuscript).  This should be in accordance with the CREDIT and ICMJE criteria for authorship.

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Disclosure of Conflict of Interest: Author(s) should declare if they have any conflict of interest concerning the research in any form such as economic, social, or religious of any type. (insert this statement if there are no competing interests “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Manuscript format

File type: Manuscript file should be in Microsoft Word document format. Ensure your file is not locked or protected.

Font: Times new Roman, size 12, double spacing.

Page and line numbers: Include page numbers in the manuscript file. Do not include line numbers.

Footnotes: If your manuscript contains footnotes, move the information into the main text or the reference list, depending on the content.

Language: Manuscripts must be submitted in English.

Abbreviations: Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the text of the Abstract and main body text, and then use the abbreviation only from that point forward. Abbreviations have to be explained in all figure legends and tables (as a table footnote).

Reference style: The journal referencing style is Vancouver and the numbers should appear consecutively as superscripts in the write-up. If citing more than one reference at the same point, separate the numbers with commas and no spaces between. DOIs and website links should be included where available. Where more than six authors are involved, only the first six should be listed and then followed by et al.

Examples

Original Articles

1.Onoh RC, Umeora OUJ, Egwuatu VE, Ezeonu PO, Onoh TJP. Antibiotic sensitivity pattern of uropathogens from pregnant women with urinary tract infection in Abakaliki, Nigeria. Infection and Drug Resistance. 2013; 6:225-233

2.Ukwaja KN, Alphonsus C, Eze CC, Lehman L, Ekeke N, Nwafor CC, et al. Investigating barriers and challenges to the integrated management of neglected tropical skin diseases in an endemic setting in Nigeria. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020;14(4):0008248

Book

Lawani O, Egede J, Adebayo J, Iyoke C. Basic Steps in Obstetric and Gynaecological Procedures for Undergraduates and Postgraduates. 2nd ed. Enugu: El’Demak Nig. Ltd; 2021.

Online articles

World Health Organization. Global Health Observatory data repository, Noncommunicable diseases, Mortality. Available: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A859?lang=en. Accessed: 22 June 2018.

Figures: Figures should be submitted in Microsoft word format in the body of the text and should not be presented in a separate file. Each figure or table should appear on a fresh page alone and be sufficiently titled. They should be cited in the manuscript in a consecutive manner they are listed.

Tables

Tables must be editable, cell-based objects. Use the table tool in your text editing software to create tables. Do not insert text boxes or graphics within your tables. Do not insert tables within tables or cells within cells. Use a standard font size and any standard font. Borders within the tables should be removed. Maximum number of tables/figures is 6. To add symbols to the manuscript, use the Insert Symbol function in your word processor.

Supplementary Materials

All supplementary materials (eg, supplementary figures, tables or appendices) should be placed in a separate file. Each item should be labeled as Figure S1, Table S1, Appendix S1 etc, as necessary.

Journal review policy/processes

Manuscripts submitted to JBMCS are assessed by our editors and/or peer reviewers. All published articles are peer-reviewed Manuscripts submitted to the JBMCS will go through three stages of review:

1. Internal review of the format and adherence to the journal instructions for authors:  Manuscripts are assessed to ensure adherence to the journal instructions for authors including the quality of the images and tables, the format of citations and references of the manuscript. The editors in charge of the manuscript may reject the manuscript at this stage if the issues identified are numerous or request the submission of a revision if the issues identified are minor.
2. Internal scientific review by the editors: Qualified members of the editorial board will assess the scientific contents of the manuscript; focusing on all aspects of the manuscript including adherence to reporting guideline such as STROBE, PRISMA, CONSORT, CARE, sound science, adherence to ethical guidelines and compliance with the journal editorial policy. The editors may recommend revisions, rejection, or accept the manuscript.
3. External peer review: Each manuscript is sent to 2 to 3 external peer reviewers. The external peer review does not preclude an internal one as the two can be conducted concomitantly.

 The ultimate responsibility for any decision lies with the Editor-in-Chief, to whom any appeals against rejections should be addressed.

Guidelines on Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern

Retractions are considered by the editorial board after if there is evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and unethical research practices

Human and Animal rights, and Informed Consent

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper. Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed. 

For studies involving animals, national and international laws and treaties governing animal safety should be strictly adhered to. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/sa_awa/ct_awa_program_information;  

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1993/2103/made; Nigeria, Anti-cruelty, protection and welfare   

https://www.globalanimallaw.org/database/national/nigeria/.

Peer-Review guidelines for Reviewers

Editorial decisions are not made on the basis of the interest of a study or its likely impact but studies must be of high quality and should advance knowledge.  Studies must be scientifically valid; for research articles this includes a scientifically sound research question, the use of suitable methods and analysis, and following community-agreed standards relevant to the research field

Plagiarism Policy

We take the issue of plagiarism very seriously. All manuscripts submitted to the JBMCS are checked for plagiarism using high-precision ant-plagiarism checkers. Manuscripts confirmed with plagiarism can be removed from consideration for publication in the journal. If the plagiarism is identified post-publication, the article can be retracted with a retraction notice published.