Author Guidelines
Manuscript preparation
The manuscript should be submitted using LMJ template preserving the original typesetting. The whole manuscript should be submitted in one file. Corresponding author must provide his/her ORCID number (www.orcid.org), and /or Thomson-Reuters’ Researcher ID (www.researcherid.com).
Title page
The title page should contain a clear, concise and informative title of the article followed by the names and affiliations of the authors. The affiliation should comprise the department, institution, city, and state (or nation) and should be typed as a footnote to the author’s name. The Corresponding Author must indicate his or her complete mailing address, office/cellular phone number, fax number, and email address at the lower left of the Title Page.
Article Structure
Abstract
The abstract should not more than 400 words and should provide brief details about objectives of study, materials and methods, Results and Conclusions. The abstract should not be structured; it should be a single paragraph without subheadings. Abstract must be followed by four-six keywords.
Introduction
This should be brief and indicates the aim of the study and the essential background information. The introduction should clearly state the hypothesis or purpose statement, how and why the purpose or hypothesis was developed and why the author deems it important.
Materials and methods
Please provide concise but complete information about the material and the analytical, statistical and experimental procedures used. This part should be as clear as possible to enable other scientists to repeat the research presented. The use of subheadings to divide the text is encouraged. Primary headings should be in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS. Secondary or subheadings should be in Bold and Italic sentence case. Third level subheadings should be in Italicized sentence case. In the case of animal/human experiments or clinical trials, authors must give the details of ethical approval.
Result and Discussion
Data acquired from the research with the appropriate statistical analysis described in the methods section should be included in this section. In this part, the same data/ information given in a table must not be repeated in a figure or vice versa. Tables and Figures should be self-explanatory and it is not acceptable to repeat extensively the numerals from tables into text and give lengthy and unnecessary explanations of the Tables and Figures. The discussion should relate the results to the current understanding of the scientific problems being investigated in the field.
Conclusion
This should clearly explain the main conclusions of the work highlighting its importance and relevance.
References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.
The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Articles in Journals
Standard journal article (for up to six authors): Parija S C, Ravinder PT, Shariff M. Detection of hydatid antigen in the fluid samples from hydatid cysts by co-agglutination. Trans. R.Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.1996; 90:255–256.
Standard journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by et al.
Roddy P, Goiri J, Flevaud L, Palma PP, Morote S, Lima N. et al., Field Evaluation of a Rapid Immunochromatographic Assay for Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi Infection by Use of Whole Blood. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2008; 46: 2022-2027.
Volume with supplement: Otranto D, Capelli G, Genchi C: Changing distribution patterns of canine vector borne diseases in Italy: leishmaniosis vs. dirofilariosis.Parasites & Vectors 2009; Suppl 1:S2.
Books and Other Monographs
Personal author(s): Parija SC. Textbook of Medical Parasitology. 3rd ed. All India Publishers and Distributors. 2008.
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Garcia LS, Filarial Nematodes In: Garcia LS (editor) Diagnostic Medical Parasitology ASM press Washington DC 2007: pp 319-356.
Chapter in a book: Nesheim M C. Ascariasis and human nutrition. In Ascariasis and its prevention and control, D. W. T. Crompton, M. C. Nesbemi, and Z. S. Pawlowski (eds.). Taylor and Francis,London, U.K.1989, pp. 87–100.
Electronic Sources as reference
Journal article on the Internet: Parija SC, Khairnar K. Detection of excretory Entamoeba histolytica DNA in the urine, and detection of E. histolytica DNA and lectin antigen in the liver abscess pus for the diagnosis of amoebic liver abscess. BMC Microbiology 2007, 7:41.doi:10.1186/1471-2180-7-41. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/7/41
Tables & Figures
Tables and figures should not be embedded in the text, but should be included at the end of the manuscript on separate pages. Tables should be created with a word processor and cited consecutively in the text. To ensure the highest print quality, your figures must be submitted in TIF/JPG/JPEG format with minimum 300 dpi or higher resolutions. Captions/legends will be placed below figures and adjusted to 10 font size.
Authorship and acknowledgements
Authorship
All the authors in a manuscript are equally responsible for the technical information communicated to the journal. Thus, it is necessary that all authors must read and approve the final version of the manuscript before submitting it to the journal. All named authors must have made an active contribution to the conception and design and/or analysis and interpretation of the data and/or the drafting of the paper and all must have critically reviewed its content and have approved the final version submitted for publication. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship.
LMJ follows the definition of authorship given by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND Final approval of the version to be published; AND Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Authors should meet all the four conditions. As per the requirements of this journal all the manuscripts should contain Authors’ Contributions statement immediately before the Acknowledgments section.
Acknowledgments
All acknowledgments should be included at the very end of the paper before the references and may include supporting grants, presentations, and so forth. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under Acknowledgements.
Conflict of interests
All the authors must disclose the possible conflicts of interest/Competing Interests they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript. The Conflict-of-Interest statement should list each author separately by name.
Funding sources
The authors must declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. Authors should give the name of granting agencies and grant numbers, along with a short description of each funder’s role. Only the funding related to the submitted work should be mentioned and authors are NOT required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them.
Originality and plagiarism
Authors should ensure the originality of their contents while preparing a manuscript draft. In case the authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately cited or quoted. All the articles submitted to LMJ shall be screened for plagiarism using iThenticate (online plagiarism detection software). In case, plagiarism is detected during the review/editorial process, such manuscript(s) will be rejected immediately. Please read our plagiarism policy for details.
Reporting standards
Authors of the original research article must present the accurate data of work performed during their research. Authors are also expected to discuss the objective of their work and the significance of their results. An article should contain sufficient information and references to ensure the reproducibility of the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements considered unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Data access and retention
Authors may be asked to provide the raw/supplementary data for a paper that is under editorial review. The authors should be prepared to provide the public access to these data (if practicable) and to retain such data for a reasonable time after the publication.
Peer Review
All the manuscripts submitted to LMJ will be subjected to the double-blinded peer-review process. Before starting a submission, the authors should make sure that they are aware of our peer-review policy.
Ethical approvals
Patient Rights
Patients have a right to privacy thus; all the studies should be conducted with informed consent. No identifying information should be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article. Investigations with human subjects must follow the ethical standards formulated in the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, revised in 2000. All the experiments should be approved by the institutional human experimentation committee or equivalent.
Animal Rights
Animal experiments must follow the ethical standards for the care and use of laboratory animals. The article involved the animal experiments must seek approval from the appropriate Ethical Committee in accordance with “Principles of Laboratory Animal Care” (NIH publication no. 85-23, revised 1985).
Clinical trial registry
We advise the authors to register the clinical trials with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable:
http://www.ctri.in/; http://www.actr.org.au/;
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; http://isrctn.org/;
http://www.trialregister.nl/ and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr.
Abbreviations
Standard abbreviations should be used throughout the manuscript. All nonstandard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and must be defined in the text following their first use.
