EDITORIAL POLICY

General policy

Authorship

Peer Review

Plagiarism

Acknowledgement

Amendment in Authorship

Conflict of Interest

Manuscript submission

Copyright

Privacy

Anonymity and Confidentiality

Misconduct

Ethical Approval

Retraction of submitted articles

 

• General Policy

The journal posits that all manuscripts submitted by authors for publication have not been published elsewhere, either in part or whole, and not being considered for publication in another peer review journal. This however, excludes abstract submission for conferences, thesis submitted for degrees and or any other academic or intellectual engagements, lectures etc. After the initial editorial review for content, the journal will initiate the process of peer review for all articles submitted to it with the assumption that all authors whose names appeared on the manuscript have gone through, and agreed to the content before submission. Apart from the editorial crew, the authors and reviewers of the manuscript, the journal shall not disclose the intellectual content of any manuscript to anyone.

 

• Peer Review Policy

All manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal will be subjected to a thorough peer review process. At submission, the authors, if they so desire, are to submit the names and e-mail addresses of three potential reviewers. If otherwise, the editor will search for competent reviewers to review such manuscript. The editor is not under any obligation to choose from the submitted names and consequently reserves the right to choose outside those submitted by the authors. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, all corresponding authors will be notified of the outcome of the review process within 4 weeks of submission of such manuscript. 

All our reviewers shall adhere to the guidelines which include:

1. Reviewer shall declare any personal, financial or non-financial conflict of interest to the Editor-in-chief.
2. Effect a speedy, thorough, accurate, and unbiased assessment of manuscripts.
3. Ensure painstaking review and maintain ethical standards of the scientific process.
4. Ensure confidentiality of document and review process.
5. Suggest modification to the manuscript, if any.
6. Offer objective recommendation to the editor-in-chief on the originality, suitability, and acceptability or otherwise of any submission for publication.
7. Reviewers shall not use any part or whole of submitted manuscripts for an unauthorized purpose
8. Reviewers shall alert the Editor-in-Chief of any publication misconduct such as plagiarism.

 

• Plagiarism Policy

The journal has zero tolerance for plagiarism. Plagiarism in whatever form, intentional and unintentional, are not acceptable to the journal.  It is the duty of the authors to ensure adherence to the plagiarism policy of the journal. All submitted manuscripts are subjected to plagiarism check and the similarity index acceptable to the journal is 10% (with 90% originality).  At first submission, manuscripts that do not meet this are returned to the author for checks and corrections if they are still within the limits acceptable to the journal. However, all manuscripts with very high similarity index, poor originality, and with marked intentional plagiarism are rejected out rightly from first submission.

 

• Acknowledgement

It is the duty of all authors to identify and acknowledge any individual, who have contributed to the research in one way or the other, but not qualified to be an author. The acknowledgement should be placed in the appropriate place with the manuscript. The journal is not liable should an individual deserving of such is not duly accorded by the author(s).

 

• Amendment in Authorship

The corresponding author can include names of other persons with the understanding that such person has contributed significantly to qualify to be an author. The said amendment must be done before the article is accepted for publication. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the journal will not entertain such amendment again.  However, the journal will not entertain deletion or removal of already listed author(s) in an already submitted manuscript, either before or after acceptance.

 

• Authorship

Authorship Criteria   

Eligibility as an Author: SJMRP, follows the recommendation of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for eligibility to be considered as an author for submitted papers. The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following four (4) criteria:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group 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 the written consent of all the contributors. Authors should ensure compliance with the above guidelines as manuscripts considered to have a gift or unjustified authorships will be rejected.

Contributors should describe contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. The description should be divided into the following categories, as applicable: concept, design, the definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. The lead author and/or corresponding authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article.

 

• Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests: Authors must disclose all conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study. Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

 

• Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the savannah journal of medical research and practice website https://sjmrp.org/manuscript/ . First-time users will be required to register at this site.

Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of three separate files and other supplementary materials (e.g. images, etc.):

 [1] Title Page:

The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to editor, Images, etc.) title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations and name(s) of the department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited. All information that can reveal author(s)/Contributor(s) identity should be here.

1. The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.
2. The total number of pages, the total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;
3. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;
4. Acknowledgement, if any. One or more statements to specify contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by any individual or authority; technical help; and financial and material support.
5. Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL). In the case of a systematic review the evidence of protocol registration stating the name of the registry, the URL and number where appropriate.
6. Conflicts of Interest of each author/ contributor. A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or an authors' form
7. Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/ contributors’ list
8. A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work.

[2] Blinded Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

[3] Non blinded article file: with the full contents inclusive of names and institutions at which the study was done or acknowledgements.

[4] Images: Submit good quality colour images. Each image should be less than 4 MB in size. The size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1800 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

The specific instructions for each type of manuscript are stated in the specific sections for the manuscript type.

Referencing guide:  The SJMRP, follows the Vancouver style of referencing. It is a numbered referencing style commonly used in medicine and science, and consists of: citations to someone else's work in the text, indicated by the use of a number and a sequentially numbered reference list at the end of the document providing full details of the corresponding in-text reference. It follows the guidelines provided in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered following the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.

The Journal names should be abbreviated according to the style used in the Index Medicus. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of cited references.

All references must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents. List all authors when six or less; when seven or more list only the first six and add et al. Examples of correct forms of references are given below:

Example references Journals:

The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

Examples of references are:
1. Journal articles: Adeyemi FT. Pattern of end stage renal diseases in children. NigJMedPrac1977; 4:30-35
2. Books: Kosofe GA, Audu DB, Clement CR. Textbook of Endocrinology. Ilorin: Al-Fattah (Publishers), 2010: 786-908.
3. Chapter in a Book: Martins BT. Pulmonary tuberculosis. In: Textbook of Chest Medicine in the Tropics. Jimmy DB, ed. Chester Croker (Publishers), London, 1967: 25-30 3.
4. Corporate Author

World Health Organization, Geneva. 2021. WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation. Report on the scientific basis of tobacco product regulation: seventh report of a WHO study group. WHO Technical Report Series, No. 1015.

Institute for Public Health. National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017: Adolescent Health Survey 2017. Jaraban: Institute for Public Health, Ministry of Health Jaraban; 2017.

1. Agency Publication

National Care for Health Statistics. Acute conditions: incidence and associated disability, United States, July 1968 - June 1969. Rockville, Me: National Centre for Health Statistics, 1972. (Vital and health statistics). Series 10: data from the National Health Survey, No 69). (DHEW Publication No (HSM) 72 - 1036).

Online articles

1. Webpage: Webpages are referenced with their URL and access date, and as much other information as is available. The cited date is important as the webpage can be updated and URLs change. The "cited" should contain the month and year accessed.

Ministry of Health and Population Eberia. Press Release: Status of preparedness and response by the ministry of health in and event of an outbreak of Ebola in Eberia 2014 [cited Dec 2014].          Available            from:

http://www.moh.gov.my/english.php/database_stores/store_view_page/21/437.

Other Articles:

1. Newspaper Article

Panirchellvum V. 'No outdoor activities if weather too hot'. The Sun. 2016; March 18: 9(col. 1-3).

1. Magazine Article

Thirunavukarasu R. Survey - Landscape of GP services and health economics in Yerian. Securitas MMA. 2016; March: 20-1.

Tables and illustrations: Use Roman numerals for numbering tables (e.g., Table I, Table II, Table III). Illustrations and diagrams should be numbered using Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3).

A brief title should be placed on top of each table and a legend written below each illustration. All tables, illustrations and diagrams should be fully labelled and comprehensible without reference to the text. Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material. Measurements should be reported using the metric system.

Each table should be typed on a separate sheet of paper, double-spaced and numbered consecutively. Omit the internal horizontal and vertical rules. Tables should be carefully checked for errors; all totals and subtotals should tally.  Digits should be in alignment (thousands, hundredth, tenth, units).

Photographs of Patients:

Proof of permission and/or consent from the patient or legal guardian must be sobtained.

Illustrations (Figures)

• Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 4 MB in size while uploading.
• Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
• Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
• Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
• Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
• When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
• The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
• If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
• If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.
• Legends for illustrations: Type or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using double spacing, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
• Final figures for print production: If the uploaded images are not printable quality, the publisher office may request higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, colour photographic prints, with a height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy: Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

1) Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.

2) If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity or a description that has an obvious indication of the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

 Abbreviations: Use only standard abbreviations. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the abstract, article text, tables, and figures unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Abbreviations shall not be used in the Title. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum.

 Formatting of text: Numbers one to ten in the text are written out in words unless they are used as a unit of measurement, except in tables and figures. Use single hard-returns to separate paragraphs. Do not use tabs or indents to start a paragraph. Do not use the automated formatting of your software, such as hyphenation, endnotes, headers, or footers (especially for references). Submit the Manuscript in plain text only, remove all 'field codes' before submission. Do not include line numbers. Include only page number.

Sending a revised manuscript: The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online like that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the "First Page" or "Covering Letter" file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the 'referees' remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning of the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or coloured text in the article.

Authors Checklist      

Covering letter

• Signed by all contributors
• Previous publication/presentations mentioned
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors Name(s)

• Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• Author for correspondence, with the e-mail address provided
• Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at the bottom
• Title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Abstract provided (structured abstract of 300 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 300 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
• Keywords provided (three or more)
• Introduction of 75-100 words
• Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with a square bracket.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

• Uniformly British English
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
• If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics

 

Tables and figures

• No repetition of data in tables and graphs and text
• Actual numbers from which graphs are drawn, provided
• Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)
• Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)

Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)

• Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
• Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
• Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote

Article Processing Charge:  The SJMRP does not charge fees for processing of manuscripts. However, upon acceptance and before publication, the journal charges a sum of #20,000. No other additional fees are charged on the acceptance of an article for publication.

 

Review Articles:

Include narrative and systematic reviews. Systematic reviews should be prepared in strict compliance with MOOSE or PRISMA guidelines, or other relevant guidelines for systematic reviews.

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. A summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

The prescribed word count is up to 7500 words excluding tables, references and abstract. The manuscript may have about 90 references. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (300 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles would depend upon the topic reviewed. Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of the article and should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

Abstract and keywords: Abstracts for original research should be structured into a background stating the objective of the paper, methods, results and conclusion. Abstracts for other forms of manuscripts such as review articles, case reports and short commentaries/reports need not be structured. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words for all categories of articles. Abstracts are not required for correspondence, editorial letters and CME articles.  References should not be cited in the abstract.  Keywords should be placed below the abstract with (3) to 15 keywords or short phrases that will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article. The use of terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list from Index Medicus for the keywords is advised where possible.

Original Articles

These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rates. The text of original articles amounting to up to 5000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends.

Introduction: State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation.

Methodology: It should include and describe the following aspects:

Ethics: When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were following the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of regional/ national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over seven years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/ or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants' names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institutions or a national research council's guide for or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anaesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be per the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively). The journal will not consider any ethically unacceptable paper. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the 'Materials and Methods section.

Study design:

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Initiative	Type of Study	Reference
CONSORT    Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials	Randomized controlled trials	http://www.consort-statement.org
STARD Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies	Diagnostic / Prognostic studies	http://www.consort-statement.org/stardstatement.htm
PRISMA Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis	Systematic reviews and meta-analyses	http://www.prisma-statement.org
STROBE  Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology	Observational studies in epidemiology	http://www.strobe-statement.org
MOOSE Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology	Meta-analyses of observational studies	http://www.consort- statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf
COREQ Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research	Qualitative studies	https://www.aje.com/arc/what-are-reporting-guidelines-for-research
CARE Consensus-based Clinical Case Report Guidelines	Case reports	https://www.aje.com/arc/what-are-reporting-guidelines-for-research
REMARK Reporting Recommendations for Tumour Marker Prognostic Studies	Tumour marker prognostic studies	https://www.aje.com/arc/what-are-reporting-guidelines-for-research
SQUIRE Standard for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence	Quality improvement studies	https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/17/Suppl_1/i13

Statistics: Whenever possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Extra- or supplementary materials and technical detail can be placed in an appendix where they will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text; alternatively, it can be published only in the electronic version of the journal.

When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.

Discussion: Include a summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research).

Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. New hypotheses may be stated if needed, however, they should be clearly labelled as such. About 40 references can be included.

Abstract and keywords: Abstracts for original research should be structured into a background stating the objective of the paper, methods, results and conclusion. Abstracts for other forms of manuscripts such as review articles, case reports and short commentaries/reports need not be structured. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words for all categories of articles. Abstracts are not required for correspondence, editorial letters and CME articles.  References should not be cited in the abstract.  Keywords should be placed below the abstract with (3) to 15 keywords or short phrases that will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article. The use of terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list from Index Medicus for the keywords is advised where possible

Case reports or Series

New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. Cases should have a unique lesson for practice in the diagnosis, pathology or management of the case, beyond the mere finding of a rare entity and demonstrate good clinical practice. Reporting the outcome and length of survival of a rare problem will also be considered more valuable than merely describing what treatment was rendered at the time of diagnosis. These communications could be of up to 3000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, and Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order. Pictures and tables should be limited to content with relevant information with a maximum of four (4) tables and four (4) photographs.

Short Communications

Shorts communication are short research articles of important preliminary observations or findings that extends previously published research, data that does not warrant publication as a full paper, small-scale clinical studies, and clinical audits. Short communications shall consist of an abstract/summary and the Main Text. These communications could be of up to 2000 words with an abstract/summary should be limited to 300 words and provided immediately after the title page. The number of figures and tables should be limited to five (5) and the number of references to twenty (20).

Commentaries

Commentaries will usually be articles that comment on articles published in the same or previous issue of the NMJ. However, commentaries on issues relevant to medicine globally are welcomed.  Commentaries should be concise and maybe up to 1000 words and when presenting a point of view, should be supported with the relevant references not exceeding (5).

Letter to the Editor

These should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal or communicate a very important message (statements of statistics, facts, research, or theories) that is time-sensitive and cannot wait for the full process of peer review.  The letter could have up to 1000 words and not more than 5 references.

Abstract of Conference Proceedings

A conference abstract presented at any scientific conference or other scientific society meetings will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to the journal alone and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. Suitable abstracts will be subjected to editorial and external peer review.  

The authorship eligibility should conform to the SJMRP requirements which follow the recommendation of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for eligibility to be considered as an author for submitted papers. The abstracts should be original and devoid of plagiarism. An abstract published before a full report will not be regarded as a duplicate publication and may be published as full reports in the SJMRP or other journals of the author’s choice. Abstracts should be structured in accordance with abstract requirements of the journal and should not exceed 300 words excluding the title, authors' information and keywords.

• Copyright Notice

The entire contents of the SJMRP are protected under Nigerian and international copyrights. The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Kwara State Branch of the Nigerian Medical Association. The copyright of papers published is vested in the journal and the publisher. In submitting manuscripts to the SJMRP, authors agree to transfer all rights exclusively to the Journal, in the event that such work is published by the Journal. In line with our open access policy and the creative commons, attribution license authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

• 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.

• Anonymity and Confidentiality

There will be a blind review process for all manuscripts.  Apart from the editorial crew, the authors and reviewers of the manuscript, the journal shall not disclose the intellectual content of any manuscript to anyone.

 

• Misconduct

Violation of the editorial policy, including research and publication ethics shall be regarded as a misconduct. Any identified compromise of the publication process by the author shall also be regarded as misconduct. All such cases shall be investigated.

 

• Ethical Approval

All human and animal subject research submitted to the journal must have a valid ethical approval from a recognized institutional Ethical Review Board.  No article will be published by the journal without ethical approval.

 

• Retraction of Submitted Articles

The corresponding or the submitting author, on behalf of him/herself or other co-authors in cases of multiple authorship, can at any time during the submission or review process, retract a manuscript as long as the manuscript has not been published by the journal.