Ibom Medical Journal
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Submission Preparation Checklist 

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor). 
• The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format. 
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided. 
• The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 
• The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines. 

Author Guidelines 

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS:
This should be in accordance with the ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals’ as described by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), also known as the Vancouver group. These requirements are published in the British Medical Journal, – International Committee of Medical Editors: Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals, BMJ, 1997, 314: 1-10. The summary below is for guidance
All manuscripts must be in English. They must be printed on A4 paper, double spaced with margins of at least 25mm, and must be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page. Each section should begin on a new page. They should include the following sections and in the outlined sequence:

1. a) Title page: This should include the title of the article, the first name, middle initial, and the surname of each author with institutional affiliations and addresses of each of the authors and the name and the full address of the author who will handle all the correspondences.
   b) Abstract: This would be a structured abstract not exceeding 250 words. The original research article should contain the following sections:
   Context: This provides a brief background to the study including its justification
   Objective: contains the outline of the aim of the study
   Study Design, Setting, and Subjects and/or Materials and Methods: This section gives a broad description of the type of study, the site where the study was carried out, and the participants/subjects/materials used in the study. Interventions (if any): should also be included here.
   Results: This includes the main outcome measures and also outlines the main findings from the study
   Conclusion: This gives the main conclusions and major recommendations (if any) of the study
   Keywords: three to six keywords for indexing and retrieval purposes.
   c) Introduction
   d) Subjects/materials and Methods
   e) Results
   f) Discussions
   g) Acknowledgments (if any): Only financial and other tangible support should be included here
   h) References
   i) Tables
   j) Illustrations and Figures
   For review articles, the length of the article, and the organizational headings and subheadings used are at the author’s discretion. Review articles must cover a thorough overview of the subject and incorporate the most current research and opinion on the topic. Case reports should provide a narrative abstract of not more than 100 words indicating the nature of the case and justifying its worthiness for special reports. The body should include the following sections: Introduction, case report, discussion, references, and Illustrations (if any). Only standard abbreviations are acceptable. Any special abbreviations must first be written out in full followed with the abbreviation in parenthesis.

REFERENCES
These must be numbered consecutively following the order of their first appearance in the text. The references should be identified in the text table and figure legends in Arabic numerals in superscript (e.g. as noted in other studies 1-5.). They should be inserted on each occasion a reference is cited. Published abstracts can be included in references but unpublished observations and personal communications are not allowed.

References should be listed in the Vancouver style. The following are sample references:

Journal article: Adewole I. F, Oye-Adeniran B. A., Iwere N, Oladokun A, Gbadegesin A, Babarinsa A. I. Contraceptive usage Among Abortion Seekers in Nigeria. West Afr J Med 2002; 21(2): 112-114.
A., Iwere N, Oladokun A, Gbadegesin A, Babarinsa A. I. Contraceptive usage Among Abortion Seekers in Nigeria. West Afr J Med 2002; 21(2): 112-114.
List all authors but where they are more than six, list the first six followed by et al.
Chapters in books: Otubu JAM. Anatomy of the pelvic organs. In: Akin Agboola, ed. Textbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology for Medical Students, Volume 1. Lagos, Heinemann Educational Books, 1988; 1- 12
Books: Symonds E. M. Essential Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1st Edition. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1987; 70 -72.
Internet: Banta D. What is the efficacy/effectiveness of antenatal care? Copenhagen, WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2003; (Health Evidence Network report;
http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E82996.pdf, accessed 30 December 2003).

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word format and submitted as an email attachment to ibomjournal@yahoo.com. Manuscripts can also be submitted online through the journal's website. Authors submitting hard copies should send one original copy and three other copies and a CD ROM of all parts of the manuscripts to the editorial office. All submissions must be accompanied by all supporting materials and a cover letter signed by all the authors. All authors of accepted manuscripts shall sign the authors guarantee forms. These should be sent to the editor at the editorial office below in good time before publication.

All correspondence to:
Prof. Eyo E. Ekpe
The Editor, Ibom Medical Journal
Department of Surgery
University of Uyo Teaching Hospital
P. M. B. 1136 Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
E-mail: ibomjournal@yahoo.com

Document cited:
1. Information for authors. Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2004; 21(1): 78-79.

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE

Ibom Medical Journal charges N25,000 (Twenty Five Thousand Naira only) upon acceptance of manuscript. This is because Ibom Med J is an open access journal and the money is used for the maintenance of services.
Ibom Med J does not charge money for submission of manuscripts.
Special waivers for APC can be given to authors who are commissioned by the journal to contribute research or review articles.

MANUSCRIPT REVIEW PROCESS

Upon successful submission of manuscript to Ibom Med J, the manuscript must undergo editorial processes which include removing all authors’ names/affiliations and selection of experts in the field of research of the manuscript.
Since Ibom Med J adopts double blind peer review policy, the manuscript is then sent out for peer reviews without the authors and the reviewers knowing their names. The opinion of the reviewers are communicated to the authors through the corresponding author.
On the average, it takes 4-12 weeks between submission and publication in Ibom Med J.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

Authors should submit only original manuscript. No author should submit already published work.
Ibom Med J has zero tolerance for plagiarism and when discovered, such authors are reported to their Institution and their publication retracted from Ibom Med J. Our reviewers are to check for similarity/screen for plagiarism in the manuscript assigned to them for peer review.