Submissions

Author Guidelines

Policy

Author Guidelines

INTRODUCTION

Journal of biological and allied health sciences is published annually. This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://jbahs.pk/index.php/JBAHS  to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences will be reviewed.

To submit a manuscript, authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in by clicking “make a submission” tab on the Journal’s homepage.

As part of the submission process, you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere, has not already been published elsewhere and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Contact details for submission

Submission is accepted throughout the year with an average review time of 3-5 months. All submissions must be in Microsoft Word format. In case of any query email to Editor.jbahs@superior.edu.pk . All submissions are subjected to peer review and should follow the Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences format.

Publication Charges

Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences strictly follows guidelines and instructions given by Higher Education Commission (HEC). It focuses only on high quality peered reviewed publication in its field.

Submission and processing Charges for the Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences = PKR 3000

After Approval Charges=  PKR 12000

Type of Publications:

Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences has no restrictions on length of manuscripts provided that the text is concise and comprehensive. Full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. For experimental studies, authors must publish all experimental controls and make full datasets available where possible.

The main article types are as follows:

1. Original Research Articles: The journal considers all original research manuscripts provided that the work reports scientifically sound experiments and provides a substantial amount of new information.  Quality and impact of the study will be considered during Double blind peer review.
2. Review Articles: These provide concise and precise updates on the latest progress made in a given area of research or on a single aspect of clinical practice. Systematic reviews should follow the HEC guidelines.

Ensure that the following items are present
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been attached:
Manuscript:
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
Supplemental files (where applicable)

Further considerations:
• Manuscript has been ‘spell checked’ and ‘grammar checked’
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
• Relevant declarations of interest have been made
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided are based on journal requirements

Ethics in publishing
When reporting on research that involves human subjects, authors must follow following guidelines.

• Approval from an institutional ethics committee must be obtained before undertaking the research. At a minimum, a statement including the project, date of approval and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the material and method section of the article.
• A copy of the institutional ethics committee certificate must be attached with the manuscript.
• Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves).

Declaration of interest
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. If there are no interests to declare then please state this: ‘Declarations of interest: none’. This summary statement will be ultimately published if the article is accepted.

Submission declaration and verification
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form or in any other language.

Contributors
Each author is required to declare his or her individual contribution to the article: all authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true and included in the disclosure.

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

1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the paper or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published.
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

The order of names of the authors 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.

Changes in authorship
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, confirmation from the author being added or removed must be attached

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a ‘Journal Publishing Agreement’. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a ‘Journal Publishing Agreement’ form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Open access
Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences offers open access to articles

Submission
Manuscripts for Journal of Biological and Allied Health Sciences should be submitted through the online submission system at http://jbahs.pk/index.php/JBAHS. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they have all read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the OJS.  All co-authors will be able to see the manuscript details in the submission system if they register and log in using the e-mail address provided during manuscript submission.

Review Process

• All submitted manuscripts received by the Editorial Office will be checked by Managing Editor to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal.
• Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer-review.
• Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission.
• Every original article is reviewed by at least one or more National and at least one or more International reviewers.
• Submitted manuscripts are reviewed for originality, significance, adequacy of documentation, reader interest and composition. This journal provides review, where the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers. To facilitate this, please include the following separately:
  Title page (with author details): This should include the title, authors’ names, affiliations, acknowledgements and any Declaration of Interest statement, and a complete address for the corresponding author including an e-mail address.
  Blinded manuscript (no author details): The main body of the paper (including the references, figures, tables and any acknowledgements) should not include any identifying information, such as the authors’ names or affiliations.

Article structure

Title

• The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of publication and post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about material and methods. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Manuscript Formatting – General Overview

• Lower case Times New Roman font should be used for writing the manuscript, with text size 12 bold for the title, 12 (left Indented and bold) for headings, and 12 (justified) for the body of the manuscript. A spacing of 1.5 should be used between lines of the text, and no extra spacing should be used before or after the para. A 1-inch margin page margin should be used and pages should be numbered using Arabic numerical (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.)

Abstract

Add structured abstract not more than 250 words. A concise and factual abstract is required. A structured abstract should consist of five paragraphs, under the following headings: background, objective, material and methods, results, and conclusion followed by keywords.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords, using British spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts.

Manuscript Formatting - Body of the manuscript

The body of the manuscript should contain background, material and methods, results, discussion and conclusion. Other additional information included should be acknowledgement, conflict of Interest and grants & funding disclosure.

Background
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, 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. Material and Methods should contain ethical review statement, study design, description of selection of the observational or experimental subjects such as randomization protocol and inclusion and exclusion criteria, study setting and duration, sample size calculation and justification with references, follow-up period, outcome measurement tool, and data collection procedures, and statistical procedures applied for data analysis.

Results
Results should be clear and concise. Present the results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations and do not repeat all the data of the tables or illustrations in the text. Frequencies and percentages both should be mentioned. Exact p values should be reported.

Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature. The discussion should begin with a summary of the main results which are then discussed with results of previously published relevant studies. Any new findings of the research should be emphasized and the relevance should be stated. Limitations of the study should be stated at the end of the discussion in a separate paragraph

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study should be brief. The conclusion should be a brief summary of the study. Neither state any findings which have not been presented in the results nor state any benefits which have not been studied.

Authors are strongly encouraged to refer to the scientific reporting guidelines for health research, hosted by the EQUATOR Network

Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. No of figures should not be more than two in the manuscript.

Tables
Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Number of tables should not be more than two in the manuscript. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in Arabic (1,2,3 etc) in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references.

Conflicts of Interest

• Author(s) should disclose any potential conflict of interest at the earliest possible stage.
• All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed alongside a brief overview of the role played if any by the responses during the various stages of research.

Grants and funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, then this should be stated.

Patient Consent

Authors should state that the consent of the patient/guardian was taken prior to the inclusion of participants in the study.

References

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list.

Reference style
Text: Citations in the text should follow the Vancouver referencing style. You are referred to the following URL for further processing https://www.citethisforme.com/citation-generator/vancouver-referencing-generator

Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations.

Supplementary material
Supplementary material such as applications and images can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received. Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each supplementary file.

Author(s) can directly ask any query related to their work by sending email at Editor.jbahs@superior.edu.pk.

Originality and Plagiarism

• It is the author(s) responsibility to ascertain that he has submitted an entirely original work, giving due credit, under proper citations, to the works and/or words of others where they are used.
• Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is not acceptable.
• Similarity index should not be more than 5% in single source. The manuscript has been found to have a similarity index of more than 9% will either be rejected or left at the discretion of the editor for purposes of conditional acceptance.

Plagiarism Detection

• The Journal uses Turnitin for all research papers submitted to detect possible plagiarism.

Declaration

• Authors are required to provide an undertaking/declaration stating that the manuscript under consideration contains solely their original work that is not under consideration for publishing in any other journal in any form.
• The manuscript that is co-authored must be accompanied by an undertaking explicitly stating that each author has contributed substantially towards the preparation of the manuscript to claim the right to authorship.
• It is the responsibility of the corresponding author that he has ensured that all those who have substantially contributed in the manuscripts have been included in the author list and they have agreed to the order of authorship.

Authorship of the Work

• Authorship of the work may only be credited to those who have made a noteworthy contribution in conceptualization, design, conducting, data analysis and writing up of the manuscript.
• It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to include the name of only those co-authors who have made significant contributions to the work.
• The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Others who have participated in the certain substantive aspect of the research should be acknowledged for their contribution to an “Acknowledgement” section.

Privacy of Participants

• Authors must respect the privacy of the participant of research and must not use any information obtained from them without their informed consent.
• The authors should ensure that only information that improves the understanding of the study is shared.
• Authors must ensure that in instances where the identity of the participant needs to be revealed in the study, explicit and informed consent of the concerned party is obtained.
• In the event of the demise of a participant, consent must be obtained from the family of the deceased.

Copyright

Authors may have to sign an agreement allowing the journal to reserve the right to circulate the article and all other derivative works such as translations.

Manuscript Acceptance and Rejection

• The review period can last between 1-2 months or longer and during this period author has reserved a right to contact the editor to ask about the status of the review. The article is returned within 2 weeks after initial internal review. . Review will be completed in 6 months.
• Once the review process has been completed, the author will be informed about the status of the manuscript which could either be an acceptance, rejection or revision. In the event of rejection, the Author reserves the right to publish the article elsewhere.
• In case of revisions, the author must provide an exposition of all corrections made in the manuscript and the revised manuscript will then go through the process of affirmation of revisions and be accepted or rejected accordingly.
• In case of dissatisfaction over the decision of rejection, the author can appeal the decision by contacting the editor.

Retraction Policy

Published articles may be retracted if:

1. The paper has major scientific error invalidating the conclusions of the article, for example if evidently findings are unreliable, due to misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or unintentional error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
2. Where the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification.
3. Plagiarism (appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit including those obtained through confidential review of others' manuscripts).
4. Inappropriate authorship.
5. Unethical research has been reported.

Retraction process
In accordance with COPE guidelines, the journal adopts the following retraction process:

1. All matters regarding a potential retraction are considered by the journal editor.

1. The journal editor should follow the step-by-step guidelines according to the COPE flowcharts (including evaluating a response from the author of the article in question).
2. The editor's findings are sent to Ethical Review Committee (ERC) for review.
3. The final decision is communicated to the author and, if so decided by the ERC, to any other relevant bodies, such as the author's institution.
4. The retraction statement is then posted online and published in the next available issue of the journal (see below for more details of this step).
5. ERC decisions are considered final and cannot be challenged in a court of law. Any complaint against the decision will be addressed to ERC for reconsideration.

Retraction:

If the paper has been published in early issue of the journal, we shall issue a retraction statement which should be published separately but should be linked to the article being retracted. The article should be retained online in order to maintain the scientific record.

Retraction announcement and the title of the original article included will be published in the next possible issue, with pagination in the contents list.

The text of the retraction should explain why the article is being retracted in print as well as in the link to the online paper.

Privacy Statement

Articles published in this journal are purely research product of authors. 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.