Author Guidelines
Aim and Scope
The Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research (JMBR) is a multi-disciplinary biannual (June &
December) publication of the College of Medical Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City.
The Journal will publish original research articles, reviews, case reports and short communications - editorials, commentaries, and letters to the Editor. The journal welcomes articles from all branches/subspecialties of Medicine and Dentistry, including Basic Medical Sciences (Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pharmacology, Psychology, etc.) and Clinical Sciences (Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dental Surgery, Child Health, Laboratory Sciences, Radiology, Community medicine, etc.) Articles are also welcome from Social Science researchers that document the social factors influencing health in developing countries.
Publication information for Authors
Submitted manuscripts will be considered for publications on the understanding that:
- Papers are original, have not been published elsewhere and are not currently under consideration by another journal or any other publisher.
- Authors agree to transfer copyright of accepted and published articles to the Journal Medicine and Biomedical Research – the copyright transfer letter must be signed by all authors and submitted with manuscripts.
- Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders to reproduce any material for which copyright already exists.
- The research have been subjected to appropriate ethical review; as ethical aspect of the study will be carefully considered at the time of assessment of the manuscript.
- Any manuscript that includes table, illustration or photograph that have been published earlier should accompany a letter of permission for re-publication from the author(s) of the publication and editor/publisher of the Journal where it was published earlier.
- Permission of the patients and/or their families to reproduce photographs of the patients where identity is not disguised should be sent with the manuscript. Otherwise the identity will be blackened out.
- It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce illustrations, tables etc. from other publications.
The following information provides guidance in preparing manuscripts:
General Instructions
Articles submitted for publication should be typed double-spaced in Microsoft-word format with one (1”) inch margins, right hand side should not be justified and font size should be 12p; for easy and quick peer-review and typesetting. Submissions are acceptable in British or American English. All accepted manuscripts will be edited according to the Journal’s style. Authors should note that manuscripts that do not conform to the Journal’s guidelines will not be reviewed.
All articles must include the correct names and address of all author(s) including their e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Articles will be subjected to a through peer-review process before any decision is made to publish or not. Authors should note that the Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research is not under any obligation to publish articles submitted, as decision to publish will be based on recommendations of reviewers and the Editorial Board.
Manuscripts should be submitted as e-mail attachment to:
Editor-In-Chief, Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research
Email: jmbr@uniben.edu
This should be accompanied by a cover letter which should include the article title, corresponding author’s affiliation, email address and telephone number. The full names, affiliations and contact details of the co-authors should also be clearly indicated. Note that authors’ details should only appear on the cover page only, and not on any other page of the manuscript.
A manuscript reference number will be mailed to the corresponding author within two working days and the same thread of mail should be maintained for all correspondence with respect to the manuscript.
Manuscripts
Articles should be divided into the following sections:
Abstract
Articles must contain a structured abstract with the following sub-headings: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusion. Abstract should not be more than 250 words with up to 3 - 5 keywords.
Main Text
The main text of articles should be organized as follows: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. Authors of review articles and short reports are requested to organize the body of their manuscript using headings/sub-headings appropriate to the material and discipline represented. Subsequent pages should follow this order: acknowledgement (on a separate page) references, appendix, figure captions, tables and figures. Do not place tables or figures in the main text.
References
References should be in the Vancouver style and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Titles of journal should be abbreviated according to the Index. Authors must cross check and make sure all information provided in the reference citation is complete and correctly written.
Reference numbers should be inserted above the line on each occasion a references is cited in the text,
e.g.......as noted in other studies. 5 The format of referencing should be as published by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in the British Medical Journal, 1998, volume 296, pages 401-405.
NOTE: Authors should include the Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) of referenced articles in the
reference section for all articles cited.
Conflict of interest: Authors must declare any competing financial and/or non-financial interests in relation to the work submitted.
Acknowledgement: Authors should use this section to acknowledge those who have not met the authorship criteria as outlined below.
Contributions to joint publication: A statement stating the contribution of individual authors to joint publication should be declared in this section.
Policy on authorship criteria
Anyone who made major contributions to the writing of the manuscript should be listed as an author. All authors listed on the manuscript should have contributed significantly to the conceptualization, design, collection, collation or analysis and interpretation of the data. All authors should have been involved in the writing of the manuscript at draft and any revision stages, and have read and approved the final version. Any other individuals who made less substantive contributions to the research or the writing of the manuscript should be listed in the acknowledgement section. Any change in authorship (including author order) after the initial manuscript submission must be approved in writing by all authors.
Authors’ Guarantee
All authors will be requested to complete and submit an author(s) guarantee form certifying that all authors named have contributed sufficiently to the work submitted and that the content of the manuscript has neither been previously published nor being considered for publication elsewhere.
Tables and Figures
All tables and figures must be clearly labelled with titles with each table/figure on a separate page. Tables and figures should be relevant to the theme of the articles and each table/figure should be provided in a separate page at the end of the main text. Tables/figures should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numeral, 1, 2, 3… in the order in which they are referred. Tables should complement and not duplicate results already presented in the manuscript. All figures (photographs, charts and diagrams) should be of good quality and colour.
Review Process
All manuscripts are initially screened by the Editor in-chief or any member of the Editorial Board to
assess the suitability of the paper with respect to conformity to journal scope and guidelines; before being subjected to peer-review by at least two reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. Reviewers are expected to declare any conflict of interest.
The review process is double-blinded and confidentiality is usually maintained throughout the process.
Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible and the JMBR strives to return reviewers’ comments to authors within 4 weeks. Acceptance or rejection is based on the comments of at least two reviewers and the Editorial Board, and communicated to the authors.
Policy on plagiarism
All submitted articles will be subjected to plagiarism testing. Any article identified to have been plagiarised will not be considered for publication and such cases will undergo investigation according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.
Access policy:
Full text of the Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research is available free online at:
http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jmbr and https:// www.jmbr.org
Indexing:
JMBR is indexed in African Journals Online (AJOL); Scopus; Asian Science Citation Index
(ASCI); Index Medicus; Bioline International; EBSCO
Article publication charge:
All manuscripts submitted for publication shall attract an article publication charge (APC) of forty thousand naira (₦40,000.00) if the article is accepted for publication. The article publication charge should be paid to the journal account. The account detail is as follows:
Bank: Fidelity Bank
Account Name: Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Research, College of Medical Sciences
Account Number: 5700153707
Contributors are to send a scanned copy of the evidence of payment to the Editor-in-Chief as email attachment: jmbr@uniben.edu
Copyright Notice:
Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the journal and publishing association.
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES
African-based institutions $100
Non-African-based institutions $150
African individuals $100
Non-African individuals $150
Nigeria Library ₦5000
Single copy $200 (International)
Single copy ₦2500 (Local)
