Tanzania Journal of Health Research
Journal / Tanzania Journal of Health Research / Submissions

 

The Tanzania Journal of Health Research (TJHR) accepts articles written in English; spelling should be based on British English. Manuscripts should be prepared by the fifth edition of the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” established by the Vancouver Group (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, ICMJE). For additional details not covered in the ICMJE Recommendations, EAHRJ refers to the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style (10th edition), published by the American Medical Association and Oxford University Press.

TJHR does not set explicit limits on the length of papers submitted but encourages authors to be concise to reach our audience effectively. In some cases, providing more detail in appendices may be appropriate. Formatting approaches such as subheadings, lists, tables, figures, and highlighting key concepts are highly encouraged. Summaries and single-sentence tag lines or headlines— abstracted sentences containing keywords that convey the essential messages—are also standard. The authors must sign and submit a declaration of the copyright agreement. Original scientific articles should follow the conventional structure: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion.

CATEGORIES OF ARTICLES

1. Original research articles: Research articles that make a substantial, original contribution to research, practice or policy in any biomedical, socio-behavioural, structural or health research areas. Research articles are contributions that have the purpose of publication of original unpublished research which may be reproduced and generalised. They should be between 3000 and 6000 words, excluding tables, figures and references. The original research article should follow the conventional structure: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion.
2. Short communications: Short communications are intended to provide preliminary research results or unpublished hypotheses of public health relevance. Short communications may contain an abstract and can be organized either along the lines of a regular manuscript or without subdivisions. The accompanying abstract should not exceed 200 words. Authors may also consider combining the results and discussion sections. They should be up to 2500 words and include a table or figure, preferably not more than five references.
3. Letters to the Editor: These include letters which seek to discuss recent articles published in TJHR or report on original research or significant findings. They should not exceed 600 words and 5 references.
4. Reviews: TJHR welcomes review papers relating to biomedical and health research themes. The review should emphasize the implication of reviewed literature for future practical application and policy implications. A review paper should not exceed 6000 words.
5. Clinical studies: TJHR supports the registration of trials as an important initiative to improve the reporting of clinical studies. Trial registers that currently meet all of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and World Health Organization requirements can be found at http://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf
6. Case reports: TJHR accepts highly informative cases illustrated with a single table or up to two images [figure may have x 2 illustrations labelled (a) and (b)]. Articles submitted as case reports should be no more than 1500 words and a maximum of six references

Preparing a manuscript: Manuscripts for publication in the Tanzania Journal of Health Research should be prepared by the fifth edition of the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” established by the Vancouver Group (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, ICMJE). The complete document, updated October 2001, is available at http://www.icmje.org/index.html. The manuscripts should be addressed exclusively to the TJHR. Their simultaneous presentation to other journals whether in regards to the text, tables or figures, whether in their totality or part, is prohibited. The authors must sign and submit a declaration of the copyright agreement. Original scientific articles should follow the conventional structure: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion as described in detail below:

1. Title: It should be short; omit phrases such as “Investigation on…’ “Preliminary report of …’; numbered series articles followed by a subtitle are not allowed. Taxonomic affiliation and authority should be given in the abstract, or the keywords, but not in the Title. Full addresses should appear under the names of the author(s); in addition, the title page should contain the name and address of the person to whom the proofs should be sent. If the author’s address has changed, his full present address should also appear on the title page. A short list of terms suitable for indexing should be included.
2. Abstract: A summary of your research paper.
3. Introduction: It should be short, defining the problem studied, stating its importance and highlighting the present gaps in knowledge. The introduction serves multiple purposes. It presents the background to your study, introduces your topic and aims, and gives an overview of the paper, should also cite what is already known about the study. The number of citations should be limited.
4. Materials and methods: All information must be given so that it is quite clear how the experiments were done: any interested colleague should be able to verify the experiments from this information. However, details about already commonly used methods and materials must be omitted. Information about the origin of the source materials is necessary.
5. Results: This section should be limited to the description of the findings achieved with no inclusion of interpretation. The results are usually presented in tables and figures, and the text must provide a clear explanation of this information. Tables and figures should be limited to a total of 5 and it is recommended that they include only essential data. Tables and figures should only be used for substantial amounts of data, otherwise, the information should be inserted in the text. Avoid repeating data from tables and figures in the text as much as possible. Numerals are always used with abbreviated units (e.g. 3 mm^2, not three mm²). In all other cases, whole numbers above 10, fractions and decimals should be expressed as numerals, and whole numbers between 1 and 10 are to be spelt out in full. All units are to conform to the standards of the International System (S.I).
6. Discussion: It should include the limitation of the study, a comparison with the available literature, the interpretation of the authors, concluding. The findings should be discussed about what is already known, and indications of the course for further research may be provided. Scientific as well as policy implications of the major findings may be mentioned. Within space limitations, the author has some freedom to express his own opinion, even if editors or referees differ from him.
7. References:
   1. For citations in the text: use name and year system; e.g. (Magesa, 1998); for two authors, use the ampersand (&); e.g. (Ijumba & Kitua, 2004); for more than two authors, use et al., g. (Lusingu et al., 2004). If referring to personal communication use initials e.g. (B.K. Mayala, per comm.). For unpublished results, use unpubl., e.g. (M. Urassa, unpubl). The latter two categories, however, cannot be put on the reference list.
   2. For citations in the reference section: list each reference alphabetically on the first author’s last name; if a single author has more than one contribution, list each chronologically; in cases of more than one author, list each reference alphabetically on 2^nd, the 3^rd, etc. author’s names.  Publications in preparation or submitted can only appear in the reference list if they have been accepted for publication, mentioning the year of publication and volume of the journal with the reference note ‘in press’ added. Journal titles should be given in full.
   3. Include a list of all references cited at the end of the article, in the order in which they were mentioned in the text. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript.

Submission of the Manuscript:

1. Please submit your paper through our online submission using the following URL: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/thrb/login. After creating an account, the online system will ask you to enter information about your paper, such as the title, abstract, and author names. Then you will be instructed to upload your title page, paper, and any accompanying figures, tables, photos, and supplementary materials.
2. Please upload the main paper with references as either a Microsoft Word document (DOC, DOCX) or in rich text format (RTF).  It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the good quality of tables, figures, tables and any other images in the published article.
3. The resolution of photos should be approximately 300 dpi (dots per inch), and line or halftone figures and illustrations should be approximately 600 dpi. If you submit photographs with identifiable people you must also submit a form to grant permission to TJHR to use those images before final publication.

Conflict of Interest: All authors must complete the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. You do not need to submit the forms to the Journal. Instead, the corresponding author should keep the forms on file if a question arises about competing interests related to your submission. The online submission system will ask you, however, to declare any competing interests for all authors, based on the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form. If there are no competing interests, please indicate, “None declared.”

Submission fee: TJHR does not charge any fees to authors to submit or publish articles in our journal.

 Contact: For further information, please contact the editors at tjhr@nimr.or.tz