Submissions

Author Guidelines

INFORMATION TO CONTRIBUTORS/AUTHORS

THE ETHIOPIAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH SCIENCES publishes original research findings, observations, review articles, brief communications, case reports and book reviews related to Public Health and Medicine, Papers presented at recognized conferences may be considered for publication.

The journal used to get published biannually until July 2007; now it is appearing every other month. The language of the journal is English. All manuscripts submitted for publication are subject to peer review and will be sent to at least two experts in the field. Accepted manuscripts will be the property of College of Health Sciences of Jimma University. Those articles not accepted for publication will be returned to the author. The editorial board reserves the right to edit all manuscripts for clarity or structure, fit within the space available and decide on editorial matters. Statements and opinions expressed in the journal are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Editorial Board or College of Health Science of Jimma University. Requirements for all categories of articles largely conform to the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which can be accessed on http://icmje.acponline.org/recommendations/. 

SUBMISSION: All manuscripts should be submitted online (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ju-ejhs), typed on double spacing with margins of at least 2.5 cm all around. The authors(s) should submit the electronic copy of the word format manuscript by opening an account under the link http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ju-ejhs. We advise authors to strictly follow the submission instruction and steps to avoid unnecessary rejection. Submission via email is not acceptable.

CONTENTS: Each manuscript component should begin on a new page, in the following sequence: Title page; Abstract and key words; Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes on a separate page) and Legends for illustrations. 

Number pages consecutively beginning with the title page. Type the page number in the upper right-hand corner of each page. 

COVER LETTER. A letter signed by all authors declaring that it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere should accompany the manuscript. The cover letter should also indicate the name and address of the corresponding author and a statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest. 

TITLE PAGE: Each paper should include the title of the paper and name(s) of the author(s), qualification(s), full addresses and institutional affiliation. It should also indicate name and address (including E- mail) of the author responsible for correspondence and requests for reprints.

AUTHORSHIP: All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content as per ICMJE recommendation mentioned above. The order and credit of authorship should be a joint decision of the authors. 

ABSTRACT: Each paper should have structured abstract not exceeding 250 words. This abstract should consist of four paragraphs, labeled Background, Methods (design), Results and Conclusions. They should briefly describe, respectively, the problem being addressed and objectives of the study, how the study was performed, the salient results and what the authors conclude from the results. Abbreviations should be avoided in the abstract. Below the abstract authors should provide 3 to 10 Key words or short phrases that will assist in cross-indexing the article and may be published with the abstract. Use terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus. 

INTRODUCTION: The paper should contain an introduction part stating background information, the major objectives of the work and a brief literature review. 

MATERIALS AND METHODS or PATIENTS AND METHODS: Authors should briefly describe the conditions under which the investigation has been conducted including the sampling procedures, measurements, data collection and analysis to permit repetition of research work. Statistical methods should be explicitly explained in this section. 

ETHICS: When reporting experiments on human subjects indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) or with the Helsinki Declaration of the 1975, as revised in 1983. Do not use patients' names initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. 

We would like our contributors know that we follow the “Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)” guidelines to handle publication ethics. 

RESULTS: This section should present the major findings of the study in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. 

DISCUSSION: In this section, emphasis should be given to important aspects of the study, the conclusions that follow and their limitations. Relate the observations to other relevant studies and indicate possible practical implications including implications for future research. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This must be limited to persons or institutions with  vital contributions or inputs to the paper such as funding agencies. It should be sent on separate page. 

REFERENCES: References should follow the standards summarized in the National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine, 2nd edition. These resources are regularly updated as new media develop, and currently include guidance for print documents; unpublished material; audio and visual media; material on CD-ROM, DVD, or disk; and material on the Internet. See www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html for sample references that conform to the style specified by the National Library of Medicine. Two authors should be cited together as follows: e.g. John B, Brown S.

All authors' names and initials should be listed when 6 or fewer, but if they are more than six, list the first three followed by “et al.”

Example:  Hart CA, Kariuki S. Antimicrobial resistance in developing countries. Br Med J 1998; 317: 647-50.

Do not include references to personal communications, unpublished data or manuscript in the list of references. If necessary, such materials may be incorporated into the appropriate place in the text. 

Reference to a BOOK should contain the name(s) of the author(s), year of publication, full title, name of editor(s) and edition, if applicable, chapter, name and domicile of publishers, first and last page numbers:

Example: Park MM. Innervation of the intraocular muscle. In: Duane TD, Jaeger EA, eds. Clinical Ophthalmology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Lippincot Co, 1988: 1-5. 

Ethiopian names should be referred to in accordance with national usage, e.g. Abebe Tesfaye as Abebe Tesfaye, but will be cross-referred in index to as Tesfaye A. 

Sign of binomial nomenclature: reference to an organism must be given in full and later references may show a capitalized initial for the genus; e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, as S. aureus. 

Drugs should be mentioned by their generic name, if necessary, followed by the proprietary brand and manufacturer name in parentheses: e.g. Metoclopramide (Plasil: Lepetit, Italy).

TABLES and FIGURES. These should be numbered in serial Arabic numerals and should be prepared on separate paper with proper heading or legend, and their correct placing in the text be clearly explained. Do not use internal lines for tables. Lengthy tables and figures are discouraged. Not more than six tables are accepted in each manuscript. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table. For footnotes use the following symbols in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††,…. 

MEASUREMENTS: length, height, weight, and volume measurements should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees of Celsius (⁰C) and blood pressures should be measured in millimeters of mercury.

All hematologic and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI). 

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS: Use only standard abbreviations and recognized symbols for chemical elements, drugs, statistics, etc. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. 

OFF PRINTS: Twenty reprints (off prints) will be supplied free to the corresponding author. 

VOLUMES OF MANUSCRIPTS: Original articles should be no longer than 3000 words (excluding title page, abstract, acknowledgements and references).

       Review articles should contain an average of 5000 words.

       Brief communication should not exceed 1500 words with not more than 20

       References and 2-3 figures or tables. 

New contributors are advised to study the information given, the style and the length (volume) of an article in the recent copies of the journal.     

MANUSCRIPT MANAGEMENT PROCESS  

Figure

2

. The Editorial process. *Decision could be transfer to the next level, send to reviewer, and send to author for revision (major or minor) or rejection.  

Associate Editor (AE):

Assesses manuscript

1. Receives manuscripts from the Editorial-in-Chief to take through peer-review process.
2. Screens the manuscript for suitability for peer review. Also sends the same manuscript to one of the Associate Editorial Team member for similar review.
3. Then invite reviewers within 7 days.

Checklist for manuscript screening before proceeding into peer review

overall soundness

EJHS guidelines and scope

evidence of plagiarism or duplicate publication

adherence to standards for deposition of data and reporting

statements about consent for participation and publication

statement of ethical committee approval or of exemption from approval

1. In case of rejection before peer-review, writes explanation for the authors why the manuscript was not suitable for peer review.
2. Informs about the outcome of the initial assessment to the EIC within 5 working days.
   

Invites reviewers

Recommends at least 4 reviewers for each manuscript.

Sends invitation to two reviewers.

Decides based on reviewers’ response to invitation.

In the event of failing to find at least two reviewers, may invite members in his sub-team to act as a peer reviewer; notifies this case to the EIC.

  III.        

Makes decision after review reports

Decisions should be based on the EJHS guidelines.

Straightforward decision: Forwards manuscripts with ‘accept in principle’ to the AET.

Emails authors with manuscripts decided as  ‘minor or major revisions’  (allow up to 3 months for major revisions)

Reject a manuscript: emails authors the reasons for rejection, in addition to passing on the reviewers’ feedback.

If a manuscript is considered by reviewers to be scientifically sound then we would expect to accept it, even if they raise concerns about a lack of advance on previous work.

-The manuscript is scientifically unsound: if a manuscript that is so flawed that even major revision could not make it acceptable you would make a ‘closed reject’ decision (and the manuscript could not be resubmitted to EJHS).

-Serious (non-remediable) concerns about research ethics or publication ethics. In all cases where researcher or author misconduct is suspected, the EJHS will adhere to the guidelines of the ICMJE.

When only one reviewer report is received: assess the experience and expertise of the reviewer for the one available report, involves the AET and may then be able to reach a decision. If needed, asks EIC for further advice.

When the reviewer reports are conflicting: assess the experience and expertise of the reviewer for the one available report, involves the AET and may then be able to reach a decision.  If needed, asks EIC for further advice.

Notifies the above decision to EIC within 7 working days.