“Healthline” is a quarterly published national journal of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine. “Healthline” aims to promote quality research in the field of Community Medicine and Public health. The editorial board of the journal is committed to an unbiased, independent, anonymous and confidential review of submitted articles. Manuscripts submitted to this Journal, should not have been published or under consideration for publication in any substantial form in any other publication, professional or lay. All the manuscripts once submitted to and published in the Healthline will become the property of the journal.
Aims and Objectives of the Journal:
The “Healthline” journal aims at promotion of high quality medical research by
- Ensuring the accessibility to novel ideas, observations and advanced knowledge for all by adopting open access policy
- Providing a platform to researches in Community Medicine and Public Health
- Improving the visibility of public health issues for concerned stake holders
Process for submission:
Authors are requested to strictly follow the guidelines provided herewith, while preparing the manuscripts for submission to the “Healthline” journal.
Editorial and Peer Review Policy:
The “Heathline” journal follows double blind peer review process. Following receipt of a manuscript from the authors, the manuscript undergoes an editorial review (by editor in chief/executive editor/joint editor). If the manuscript is found appropriate for the further process following the editorial review, the blind manuscript is sent to two anonymous peer reviewers and one statistical reviewer. It is ensured that the reviewers are having qualifications of post-graduation or higher in the concerned subjects and not from the same institute where the authors belong. Upon completion of peer review, the changes suggested by the reviewers are forwarded to the authors and modifications are sought with explanations (if required). The revised manuscript is again forwarded to the concerned reviewers. If the reviewers are satisfied with the revisions from the authors, the manuscript is accepted and formative changes are done for the publication. At any stage of review, if editorial board members or reviewers find the manuscript unsuitable for the publication, the manuscript is rejected. If manuscript is found suitable, the average time taken for publication of manuscript is about 90 days.
General Instructions:
The manuscript can be submitted through email to editorhealthline@gmail.com. The email should contain separate document of Title Page and Original Manuscript inlcuding abstarct both in MS Word as well as Copyright form (duly signed by all the authors), in jpg format. Authors need to attach the approval letter from Institutaional Ethics Committee while submitting the manuscript. Authors are requested to prepare the article typed in “Times New Roman” fonts with size of “12”. Double spacing (including references), should be followed with wide margins. There is no need to send a hard copy.
For any query, kindly reach editorial office through e mail at editorhealthline@gmail.com.
Preparation of Manuscript
Following are the word limits to be followed while submitting an article.
|
Type of Article |
Maximum Word Limit |
|
Editorial (by invitation only) |
1500 |
|
Continuing Medical Education/Review article |
4500 |
|
Original article (Excluding abstract, references, tables and images) |
3000 |
|
Short Communication |
1500 |
|
Letter to Editor |
750 |
|
Book review (should not be sponsored by any company/organization) |
500 |
Manuscript should be prepared using American English language. Articles exceeding the word limit for a particular category of manuscript would not be processed further. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (URM) submitted to Biomedical Journals should be consulted before submission of manuscript ( http://www.icmje.org ).
Dual Submission and Duplicate Publication:
The Healthline Journal strongly disapproves of the submission of the same article simultaneously to different journals. The author must provide an undertaking stating that the manuscript has not been submitted to another journal for consideration of publication. The author must also disclose details of any similar or closely related paper published previously, in press, or submitted to another journal. If dual submission is found to have occurred, the manuscript will not be processed further and will be considered rejected. Such an author shall be debarred from further submissions. The journal may send this information to the head of the institution where the authors work for further inquiry.
Ethical Issues:
All articles should mention how human and animal ethical aspect of the study was addressed. Mention whether informed consent was taken or not. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. When reporting experiment on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. (http://www.wma.net).
Title page:
This should contain the title of the manuscript, name and designation of all the authors, a short title (not more than 40 letters) to be used as the running title, source of support in the form of grants, equipments, drugs etc., acknowledgement, the institution where the work has been carried out and the address with contact number and email ID of the corresponding author. Briefly mention contribution of each author in multi author article.
Number of authors must be limited to six for Original article, Review article and Short Communication, whereas maximum four authors will be permitted for Letter to editor.
Original Manuscript: Each of the following sections should begin on a separate page. Number all pages in sequence.
Abstract:
Abstract should be a structured condensation of the work not exceeding 250 words for original research articles and 150 words for short communication. It should be structured under the following headings: Introduction, Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and 3- 5 Key Words to index the subject matter of the article. Please do not make any other heading.
Manuscript:
It must be concise and should include title, Introduction, Material and Methods, Result, Discussion, Conclusion, Recommendations and References. The manuscript should not contain names or any other information related to authors. The matter must be written in a manner, which is easy to understand, and should be restricted to the topic being presented. Insert tables and figures within the text at appropriate places. Written permissions of persons/agency acknowledged should be provided, if applicable.
Conflict of interest and financial support:
The situations where conflict of interest arises are when an author (or the author's institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties). The potential of influences can vary from the insignificant ones to the significant ones where the results of the reviews or publication process. The conflict of interest can also occur if an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony) are also one of the identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. The other potential conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as academic rivalry, personal relationships and intellectual desire. (Source: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (“Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”), February 2006) A brief statement on source of funding and conflict of interest should be included in the manuscript.
Published Statement of Informed Consent:
The involvement of study participants should be voluntary and following informed consent. Any details disclosing identification of the patients (names, record numbers, contact details, photographs and pedigree) must not be included in the published article. In case, such information is necessary for scientific reasons, an informed consent must be obtained from the study participants or parents/guardian (in case of children less than 18 years of age). Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should identify individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. When informed consent has been obtained it should be indicated in the published article. (Source: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ("Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals"), February 2006)
Data Sharing Policy:
The authors must submit a statement of data sharing that, the data pertaining to original articles, published in “Healthline” journal must be provided, without restrictions, whenever asked for by the editorial board of the journal. Failure to comply this condition may lead to rejection of the article.
References:
In citing other work, only reference consulted in original should be included. If it is against citation by others, this should be so stated. Signed permission is required for use of data from persons cited in personal communication. ANSI standard style adapted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) should be followed. Consult http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. References should be numbered and listed consecutively in the order in which they are first cited in the text and should be identified in the text, tables and legends by Arabic numerals as superscripts in square brackets (as example shown below). The full list of reference at the end of the paper should include; names and initials of all authors up to six (if more than 6, only the first 6 are given followed by et al.); the title of the paper, the journal title abbreviation according to the style of Index Medicus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=journals), year of publication; volume number; first and last page numbers. Reference of books should give the names and initials of the authors, book title, place of publication, publisher and year; those with multiple authors should also include the chapter title, first and last page numbers and names and initials of editors. For citing website references, give the complete URL of the website, followed by date of accession of the website. Quote such references as - author name, title of the article, the website address, and date of accession.
Citation: Several research studies have revealed gap between facts and beliefs of adolescent girls and showed that there is low level of awareness about menstruation among girls when they first experience it.[4]
Journals: Mehta MN, Mehta NJ. Serum lipids and ABO Blood group in cord blood of neonates. Indian J Pediatr.1984; 51:39-43.
Book: Smith GDL. Chronic ear disease. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1980.
Chapter in the Book: Malhotra KC. Medicogenetics. problems of Indian tribes. In: Verma IC, editor. Medical genetics in India.vol. 2. Pondicherry: Auroma Entrprises; 1978. p. 51-55.
Papers accepted but not yet published should be included in the references followed by ‘in press”. Those in preparation, personal communications and unpublished observations should be referred to as such in the text only.
Total number of references should not be more than 25 for an Original article.
Illustrations (Maximum 4):
These should be of the highest quality, preferably black and white and editable. Graphs should be drawn by the artist or prepared using standard computer software. Number all illustrations with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3….).
Legends:
A descriptive legend must accompany each illustration and must define all abbreviations used therein.
Tables (Maximum 4):
These must be self–explanatory and must not duplicate information in the text. Each table must have a title and should be numbered with Arabic numerals. Each table should be typed in double space in results’ section. All tables should be cited in the text.
Abbreviation:
As there are no universally accepted abbreviations, authors should use familiar ones and should define them when used first in the text.
Short Communication
For preparing a manuscript for short communication, please follow the same guidelines as Original Manuscript given above. The world count for Short Communication should be limited to 1,500 words with abstract not exceeding 150 words. Number of tables and/ or figures should be limited to 3 and number of references should not be more than 12.
Letter to the Editor:
It should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. The word limit of 750 with no more than 5 references.
Manuscript Processing Charges:
The manuscript processing charges are applicable only at the time of acceptance of the manuscript for publication in “Healthline” journal, as mentioned below. Authors are instructed to avoid doing upfront payment at the time of submisssion of manuscript.
Charges are applicable to all the manuscripts accepted for publication in Healthline Journal from 1st April 2023 onwards.
- First author – IAPSM Member: Rs 5000
- First author – Non-IAPSM Member: Rs 7000
(Applicable for Letter to Editor, Original Article, Review Article, Short Communication & Book review)
The charges as mentioned above can be paid by cheque / online transfer in favour of below mentioned account.
|
Name of Account: |
HEALTHLINE IAPSMGC |
|
Account Number: |
34898725422 |
|
IFSC Code: |
SBIN0003043 |
|
Address: |
State Bank of India, Civil Hospital Precincts Branch, Opp. B. J. Medical College, PO Bag No. 1, Ahmedabad-380016 |
|
MICR Code: |
380002011 |
Following online payment of charges, the receipt of fund transfer should be emailed to editorhealthline@gmail.com.
If paid by cheque, duly prepared cheque should be sent to Dr. Viral Dave, Editor in chief, Community Medicine Department, GCS Medical College, Opp. DRM Office, Nr. Chamunda Bridge, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad-380025, Gujarat, India.
Advertisement Policy:
Being a national journal of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, “Healthline” has a reach to more than 4200 members of IAPSM, government health officials, Post Graduate students, epidemiologists, medical institutions and medical faculties across the country. It can provide a highly cost effective mode of advertising and passing the desired message to the targeted population.
“Healthline” provides the option of print advertisement on the pages of the printed issues of the journal. The rates for the same are as below.
|
Advertisement Type |
Charges (INR) per Issue |
|
Outer Back Cover (Full Page)- Colour |
25000 |
|
Inner Back Cover (Full Page)- Colour |
10000 |
|
Inner Back Cover (Half Page)- Colour |
7500 |
For advertisement or any query, please contact,
Editor in Chief, “Healthline” journal, Professor & Head, Community Medicine Department, GCS Medical College, Opp. DRM Office, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad-380025
Email: editorhealthline@gmail.com, Contact no.: +917966048351