Southern African Journal of Critical Care
Journal / Southern African Journal of Critical Care / Submissions

 

Please view the Author Tutorial for guidance on how to submit on Editorial Manager.

Scope of the Journal.

We only accept articles that relate to any aspect of critical care or intensive care medicine/nursing and the emergency care of critically ill humans.

To submit a manuscript, please proceed to the SAJCC Editorial Manager website: www.editorialmanager.com/sajcc

To access and submit an article already in production, please see the guidelines here.

Author Guidelines
Please take the time to familiarise yourself with the policies and processes below. If you still have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask our editorial staff (tel.: +27 (0)21 532 1281, email: submissions@hmpg.co.za).

Authorship
Named authors must consent to publication. Authorship should be based on: (i) substantial contribution to conceptualisation, design, analysis and interpretation of data; (ii) drafting or critical revision of important scientific content; or (iii) approval of the version to be published. These conditions must all be met for an individual to be included as an author (uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals; refer to www.icmje.org)

If authors’ names are added or deleted after submission of an article, or the order of the names is changed, all authors must agree to this in writing.

Please note that co-authors will be requested to verify their contribution upon submission. Non-verification may lead to delays in the processing of submissions. Author contributions should be listed/described in the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest can derive from any kind of relationship or association that may influence authors’ or reviewers’ opinions about the subject matter of a paper. The existence of a conflict – whether actual, perceived or potential – does not preclude publication of an article. However, we aim to ensure that, in such cases, readers have all the information they need to enable them to make an informed assessment about a publication’s message and conclusions. We require that both authors and reviewers declare all sources of support for their research, any personal or financial relationships (including honoraria, speaking fees, gifts received, etc) with relevant individuals or organisations connected to the topic of the paper, and any association with a product or subject that may constitute a real, perceived or potential conflict of interest. If you are unsure whether a specific relationship constitutes a conflict, please contact the editorial team for advice. If a conflict remains undisclosed and is later brought to the attention of the editorial team, it will be considered a serious issue prompting an investigation with the possibility of retraction.

Research ethics committee approval
Authors must provide evidence of Research Ethics Committee approval of the research where relevant. Ensure the correct, full ethics committee name and reference number is included in the manuscript an accompanying documentation. A copy of the ethics approval letter must be uploaded as a supplementary file.

If the study was carried out using data from provincial healthcare facilities, or required active data collection through facility visits or staff interviews, approval should be sought from the relevant provincial authorities. For South African authors, please refer to the guidelines for submission to the National Health Research Database. Research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Please refer to the National Department of Health’s guideline on Ethics in Health research: principles, processes and structures to ensure that the appropriate requirements for conducting research have been met, and that the HPCSA’s General Ethical Guidelines for Health Researchers have been adhered to.

Protection of rights to privacy
Research Participants
Information that would enable identification of individual research participants should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, radiographs and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given informed written consent for publication and distribution. We further recommend that the published article is disseminated not only to the involved researchers but also to the patients/participants from whom the data was drawn. Refer to Protection of Research Participants. The signed consent form should be submitted with the manuscript to enable verification by the editorial team.

Other individuals
Any individual who is identifiable in an image must provide written agreement that the image may be used in that context in the SAJCC.

Copyright notice
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it.

Material submitted for publication in the SAJCC is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at
a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The SAJCC does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors. The corresponding author should also indicate if the research forms part of a postgraduate short report, dissertation or thesis.

Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.

Privacy statement
The SAJCC is committed to protecting the privacy of its website and submission system users. The names, personal particulars and email addresses entered in the website or submission system will not be made available to any third party without the user’s permission or due process. By registering to use the website or submission system, users consent to receive communication from the SAJCC or its publisher HMPG on matters relating to the journal or associated publications. Queries with regard to privacy may be directed to publishing@hmpg.co.za.

Ethnic/race classification
Use of racial or ethnicity classifications in research is fraught with problems. If you choose to use a research design that involves classification of participants based on race or ethnicity, or discuss issues with reference to such classifications, please ensure that you include a detailed rationale for doing so, ensure that the categories you describe are carefully defined, and that socioeconomic, cultural and lifestyle variables that may underlie perceived racial disparities are appropriately controlled for. Please also clearly specify whether race or ethnicity is classified as reported by the patient (self-identifying) or as perceived by the investigators. Please note thatit is not appropriate to use self-reported or investigator-assigned racial or ethnic categories for genetic studies.

Manuscript preparation
Preparing an article for anonymous review
To ensure a fair and unbiased review process, submissions may include an anonymized version of the manuscript.

Submitting a manuscript that needs additional blinding can slow down your review process, so please be sure to follow these simple guidelines as much as possible:

 An anonymous version should not contain any author, affiliation or particular institutional details that will enable identification.
 Please remove title page, acknowledgements, contact details, funding grants to a named person, and any running headers of author names.
 Mask self-citations by referring to your own work in third person.

General article format/layout
Submitted manuscripts that are not in the correct format specified in these guidelines will be returned to the author(s) for correction prior to being sent for review, which will delay publication.

General:
 Manuscripts must be written in UK English (this includes spelling).
 The manuscript must be in Microsoft Word or RTF document format. Text must be 1.5 line spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and contain no unnecessary formatting (such as text in boxes). Pages and lines should be numbered consecutively.
 Please make your article concise, even if it is below the word limit.
 Qualifications, full affiliation (department, school/faculty, institution, city, country) and contact details of ALL authors must be provided in the manuscript and in the online submission process.
 Abbreviations should be spelt out when first used and thereafter used consistently, e.g. 'intravenous (IV)' or 'Department of Health (DoH)'.
 Numbers should be written as grouped per thousand-units, i.e. 4 000, 22 160.
 Quotes should be placed in single quotation marks: i.e. The respondent stated: '...'
 Round brackets (parentheses) should be used, as opposed to square brackets, which are reserved for denoting concentrations or insertions in direct quotes.
 Medical drugs or devices should be referred to by their generic name although the trade name may be used in brackets once the text if the product is unique. If you wish material to be in a box, simply indicate this in the text. You may use the table format –this is the only exception. Please DO NOT use fill, format lines and so on.

Preparation notes by article type
Research

Guideline word limit: 3 000 words (excluding abstract and bibliography)

Research articles describe the background, methods, results and conclusions of an original research study. The article should contain the following sections: introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion, and should include a structured abstract (see below). The title of the manuscript should concisely describe the study but should not include the outcome. The introduction should be concise – no more than three paragraphs – on the background to the research question, and must include references to other relevant published studies that clearly lay out the rationale for conducting the study. Some common reasons for conducting a study are: to fill a gap in the literature, a logical extension of previous work, or to answer an important question. If other papers related to the same study have been published previously, please make sure to refer to them specifically. At the end of the introduction clearly state the aim or objective of the study. The primary and secondary outcomes should be specified.

In the Methods section describe in sufficient detail so that others would be able to replicate the study should they need to. Sections of the methods that have been described in previous publications need only be referenced. The statistical methods should be described. Where appropriate, sample size calculations should be included to demonstrate that the study is not underpowered.

Results should describe the study sample as well as the findings from the study itself, but all interpretation of findings must be kept in the discussion section. The conclusion should briefly summarise the main message of the paper and provide recommendations for further study.

The discussion should be confined to an interpretation of your results with respect to your stated aim and if applicable, a comparison to the results of similar studies. The strengths and weaknesses of your study should be discussed.

The conclusion should be confined to an interpretation of the results of the study and a recommendation if applicable.
 May include up to 6 illustrations or tables.
 References should only include the most recent and relevant articles. A maximum of 30 references is advised.

Structured abstract

 This should be no more than 250 words, with the following headings:
o Background: why the study is being done and how it relates to other published work.
o Objectives: what the study intends to find out
o Methods: must include study design, number of participants, description of the research tools/instruments, any specific analyses that were done on the data.
o Results: first sentence must be brief population and sample description; outline the results according to the methods described. Primary outcomes must be described first, even if they are not the most significant findings of the study.
o Conclusion: must be supported by the data, and be aligned with the conclusion in the main text.
 Please ensure that the structured abstract is complete, accurate and clear and has been approved by all authors. It should be able to be intelligible to the reader without referral to the main body of the article.
 Do not include any references in the abstracts.

Scientific letters/short reports

These are shorter length, scholarly research articles of no more than 1500 words, and include case reports.
Guideline word limit: 1500 words

 Abstract: Structured, maximum 250 words, with the following headings: Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
 May include only one illustration or table
 A maximum of 15 references

Editorials
Guideline word limit: 1 000 words

These opinion or comment articles are usually commissioned but we are happy to consider and peer review unsolicited editorials. Editorials should be accessible and interesting to readers without specialist knowledge of the subject under discussion and should have an element of topicality (why is a comment on this issue relevant now?)

There should be a clear message to the piece, supported by evidence.

Please make clear the type of evidence that supports each key statement, e.g.:

 expert opinion
 personal clinical experience
 observational studies
 trials
 systematic reviews.

Review articles

Narrative review articles should always be discussed with the Editor prior to submission. (Structured reviews or meta-analyses’ need not be).

Guideline word limit: 4 000 words

These are welcome, but should be either commissioned or discussed with the Editor before submission. A review article should provide a clear, up-to-date account of the topic and be aimed at non-specialist hospital doctors and general practitioners. They should be aligned to practice in South and/or sub-Saharan Africa and not a précis of reviews published in the international literature

Please ensure that your article includes:

 Abstract: unstructured, of about 100-150 words, explaining the review and why it is important
 Methods: Outline the sources and selection methods, including search strategy and keywords used for identifying references from online bibliographic databases. Discuss the quality of evidence.
 When writing: clarify the evidence you used for key statements and the strength of the evidence. Do not present statements or opinions without such evidence, or if you have to, say that there is little or no evidence and that this is opinion. Avoid specialist jargon and abbreviations, and provide advice specific to southern Africa.
 Personal details: Please supply your qualifications, position and affiliations address, telephone number and fax number, and your e-mail address; and a short personal profile (50 words) and a few words about your current fields of interest.

Correspondence (Letters to the Editor)

Guideline word limit: 400 words

Letters to the editor should relate either to a paper or article published by the SAJCC or to a topical issue of particular relevance to the journal’s readership

 May include only one illustration or table
 Must include a correspondence address.

Obituaries

Guideline word limit: 400 words

Should be offered within the first year of the practitioner’s death, and may be accompanied by a photograph.

Illustrations/photos/scans

 If illustrations submitted have been published elsewhere, the author(s) should provide evidence of consent to republication obtained from the copyright holder.
 Figures must be numbered in Arabic numerals and referred to in the text e.g. '(Fig. 1)'.
 Each figure must have a caption/legend: Fig. 1. Description (any abbreviations in full).
 All images must be of high enough resolution/quality for print.
 All illustrations (graphs, diagrams, charts, etc.) must be in PDF form.
 Ensure all graph axes are labelled appropriately, with a heading/description and units (as necessary) indicated. Do not include decimal places if not necessary e.g. 0; 1.0; 2.0; 3.0; 4.0 etc.
 Each image must be attached individually as a 'supplementary file' upon submission (not solely embedded in the accompanying manuscript) and named Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.

Tables

 Tables should be constructed carefully and simply for intelligible data representation. Unnecessarily complicated tables are strongly discouraged.
 Embed/include each table in the manuscript Word file - do not provide separately as supplementary files.
 Number each table in Arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) consecutively as they are referred to in the text.
 Tables must be cell-based (i.e. not constructed with text boxes or tabs) and editable.
 Ensure each table has a concise title and column headings, and include units where necessary.
 Footnotes must be indicated with consecutive use of the following symbols: * † ‡ § ¶ || then ** †† ‡‡ etc.

References

NB: Only complete, correctly formatted reference lists in Vancouver style will be accepted. If reference manager software is used, the reference list and citations in text are to be unformatted to plain text before submitting..

 Authors must verify references from original sources.
 Citations should be inserted in the text as superscript numbers between square brackets, e.g. These regulations are endorsed by the World Health Organization,[2] and others.[3,4-6]
 All references should be listed at the end of the article in numerical order of appearance in the Vancouver style (not alphabetical order).
 Approved abbreviations of journal titles must be used; see the List of Journals in Index Medicus.
 Names and initials of all authors should be given; if there are more than six authors, the first three names should be given followed by et al.
 Volume and issue numbers should be given.
 First and last page, in full, should be given e.g.: 1215-1217 not 1215-17.
 Wherever possible, references must be accompanied by a digital object identifier (DOI) link). Authors are encouraged to use the DOI lookup service offered by CrossRef:
o On the Crossref homepage, paste the article title into the ‘Metadata search’ box.
o Look for the correct, matching article in the list of results.
o Click Actions > Cite
o Alongside 'url =' copy the URL between { }. o Provide as follows, e.g.: https://doi.org/10.7196/07294.937.98x

Some examples:

 Journal references: Price NC, Jacobs NN, Roberts DA, et al. Importance of asking about glaucoma. Stat Med 1998;289(1):350-355. DOI:10.1000/hgjr.182
 Book references: Jeffcoate N. Principles of Gynaecology. 4th ed. London: Butterworth, 1975:96-101.
 Chapter/section in a book: Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic Properties of Invading Microorganisms. In: Sodeman WA, Sodeman WA, eds. Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1974:457-472.
 Internet references: World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2002 - Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Geneva: WHO, 2002. http://www.who.int/whr/2002 (accessed 16 January 2010).
 Legal references
• Government Gazettes:
National Department of Health, South Africa. National Policy for Health Act, 1990 (Act No. 116 of 1990). Free primary health care services. Government Gazette No. 17507:1514. 1996.
In this example, 17507 is the Gazette Number. This is followed by :1514 - this is the notice number in this Gazette.
• Provincial Gazettes:
Gauteng Province, South Africa; Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs. Publication of the Gauteng health care waste management draft regulations. Gauteng Provincial Gazette No. 373:3003, 2003.
• Acts:
South Africa. National Health Act No. 61 of 2003.
• Regulations to an Act:
South Africa. National Health Act of 2003. Regulations: Rendering of clinical forensic medicine services. Government Gazette No. 35099, 2012. (Published under Government Notice R176).
• Bills:
South Africa. Traditional Health Practitioners Bill, No. B66B-2003, 2006.
• Green/white papers:
South Africa. Department of Health Green Paper: National Health Insurance in South Africa. 2011.
• Case law:
Rex v Jopp and Another 1949 (4) SA 11 (N)
Rex v Jopp and Another: Name of the parties concerned
1949: Date of decision (or when the case was heard)
(4): Volume number
SA: SA Law Reports
11: Page or section number
(N): In this case Natal - where the case was heard. Similarly, (C) would indicate Cape, (G) Gauteng, and so on.
NOTE: no . after the v
 Other references (e.g. reports) should follow the same format: Author(s). Title. Publisher place: Publisher name, year; pages.
 Cited manuscripts that have been accepted but not yet published can be included as references followed by '(in press)'.
 Unpublished observations and personal communications in the text must not appear in the reference list. The full name of the source person must be provided for personal communications e.g. '...(Prof. Michael Jones, personal communication)'.

From submission to acceptance
Submission and peer-review
To submit an article:

 Please ensure that you have prepared your manuscript in line with the SAJCC requirements.
 All submissions should be submitted via Editorial Manager
 The following are required for your submission to be complete:
o Anonymous manuscript (unless otherwise stated)
o Author Agreement form
o Manuscript
o Ethics Approval form (for research articles)
o Any supplementary files: figures, datasets, patient consent form, permissions for published images, etc.
 Once the submission has been successfully processed on Editorial Manager, it will undergo a technical check by the Editorial Office before it will be assigned to an editor who will handle the review process. If the author guidelines have not been appropriately followed, the manuscript may be sent back to the author for correcting.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts are reviewed initially by two of the editors and only those that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for external peer review. Each manuscript is reviewed by two reviewers selected on the basis of their expertise in the field. A double blind review process is followed at SAJCC.

The time period of the entire review process may vary however depending upon the quality of the manuscript submitted, reviewers’ responses and the time taken by the authors to submit the revised manuscript.

Manuscripts from review may be accepted, rejected or returned to the author for revision or resubmission for review. Authors will be directed to submit revised manuscripts within two months of receiving the editor’s decision, and are requested to submit a point by point response to the reviewers’ comments. Manuscripts which authors are requested to revise and resubmit will be sent for a second round of peer review, often to the original set of reviewers. All final decisions on a manuscript are at the Editor's discretion

Article Processing Charges
There is currently no article-processing charge (APC), also known as page fees, for the publication of manuscripts. The publication costs are supported by the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa and advertisements in the print version.

Please refer to the section on ‘Sponsored Supplements’ regarding the publication of supplements, where a charge is currently applicable.

Production process
The following process should usually take between 4 - 6 weeks:

1. An accepted manuscript is passed to a Managing Editor to assign to a copyeditor (CE).
2. The CE copyedits in Word, working on house style, format, spelling/grammar/punctuation, sense and consistency, and preparation for typesetting.
3. If the CE has an author queries, he/she will contact the corresponding author and send them the copyedited Word doc, asking them to solve the queries by means of track changes or comment boxes.
4. The authors are typically asked to respond within 1-3 days. Any comments/changes must be clearly indicated e.g. by means of track changes. Do not work in the original manuscript - work in the copyedited file sent to you and make your changes clear.
5. The CE will finalise the article and then it will be typeset.
6. Once typeset, the CE will send a PDF of the file to the authors to complete their final check, while simultaneously sending to the 2nd-eye proofreader.
7. The authors are typically asked to complete their final check and sign-off within 1-2 days. No major additional changes can be accommodated at this point.
8. The CE implements the authors’ and proofreader’s mark-ups, finalises the file, and prepares it for the upcoming issue.
Changing contact details or authorship
Please notify the Editorial Department of any contact detail changes, including email, to facilitate communication.

Errata and retractions
Errata

Should you become aware of an error or inaccuracy in yours or someone else’s contribution after it has been published, please inform us as soon as possible via an email to publishing@hmpg.co.za,including the following details:

 Journal, volume and issue in which published
 Article title and authors
 Description of error and details of where it appears in the published article
 Full detail of proposed correction and rationale

We will investigate the issue and provide feedback. If appropriate, we will correct the web version immediately, and will publish an erratum in the next issue. All investigations will be conducted in accordance with guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Retractions

Retraction of an article is the prerogative of either the original authors or the editorial team of HMPG. Should you wish to withdraw your article before publication, we need a signed statement from all the authors.

Should you wish to retract your published article, all authors have to agree in writing before publication of the retraction.

Send an email to publishing@hmpg.co.za, including the following details:

 Journal, volume and issue to which article was submitted/in which article was published
 Article title and authors
 Description of reason for withdrawal/retraction.

We will make a decision on a case-by-case basis upon review by the editorial committee in line with international best practices. Comprehensive feedback will be communicated with the authors with regard to the process. In case where there is any suspected fraud or professional misconduct, we will follow due process as recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and in liaison with any relevant institutions.

When a retraction is published, it will be linked to the original article.

Indexing

Published articles are covered by the following major indexing services. As such articles published in the SAJCC are immediately available to all users of these databases, guaranteed a global and African audience:

 DOAJ
 AIM
 AJOL
 Scopus
 EBSCO
 EMBASE
 Crossref
 Sabinet
 Scielo

Sponsored supplements

Contact the editor for information on submitting ad hoc/commissioned supplements, including guidelines, conference/congress abstracts, Festschrifts, etc.