Manuscript Preparation
Preparing main manuscript text:
General guidelines of the journal’s style and language are given below:
Manuscripts for Research Articles submitted to Journal of Integrative Medical Sciences should be divided into the following sections (in this order):
Title page
Abstract
Keywords
Background
Methods
Results and discussion
Conclusions
List of abbreviations used (if any)
Competing interests
Authors’ contributions
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
References
Illustrations and figures (if any)
Title page
The title page should: ” provide the title of the article ” list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors ” indicate the corresponding author Please note: ” abbreviations within the title should be avoided.
Abstract
The Abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and must be structured into separate sections: Background, the context and purpose of the study; Results, the main findings; Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications (do not cite references in the abstract).
Keywords
Three to Ten keywords representing the main content of the article.
Background
The Background section should be written in a way that is accessible to researchers without specialist knowledge in that area and must clearly state – and, if helpful, illustrate – the background to the research and its aims. The section should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article.
Methods
The methods section should include the design of the study, the type of materials involved, a clear description of all comparisons, and the type of analysis used, to enable replication.
Results and discussionThe Results and discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. The Results and discussion sections may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.
Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.
List of abbreviations
If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations can be provided, which should precede the competing interests and authors’ contributions.
Competing interests
A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors must disclose any financial competing interests; they should also reveal any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.
Authors are required to complete a declaration of competing interests. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read ‘The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests’.
Authors’ contributions
In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. An ‘author’ is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Provide the scanned copy of the duly filled Author’s contribution form along with the manuscript.
Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include the source(s) of funding for each author, and for the manuscript preparation. Authors must describe the role of the funding body, if any, in design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study. If a language editor has made significant revision of the manuscript, we recommend that you acknowledge the editor by name, where possible. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.
Endnotes
Endnotes should be designated within the text using a superscript lowercase letter and all notes (along with their corresponding letter) should be included in the Endnotes section. Please format this section in a paragraph rather than a list.
