Suggestions to Authors

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Introduction

The Journal invites Original articles, Short communications, Editorials, Review articles, and other type of scientific information in the field of Medical Arthropodology & Public Health from prospective authors worldwide. At present, the journal does not take any charge for submission, processing, publication of manuscripts, and copy/supply of pdf version of the research paper published.

Manuscripts will be accepted for publication with the understanding that the submission (entire contents or in part) have not been published and will not be published elsewhere. Submissions received for consideration will be acknowledged. Manuscripts will be initially reviewed by the Editorial team for suitability of content. Manuscripts satisfying criterion of quality would be processed for formal review by blinded peer reviewers for originality, scientific content, methodology, quality, importance and suitability for publication in the journal. Reviewer comments will be forwarded to the corresponding author for response, revision and resubmission within a specified timeframe. Manuscripts accepted for publication will be edited for grammar, punctuation and format. Final proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for corrections and resubmission by email. Articles once rejected will not be entertained ordinarily for reconsideration in future. The decision of the Editorial Board will be considered final for all purposes. Decisions of rejection may not reflect upon the quality of research submitted and merely a statement of current needs of the journal.

Articles resubmitted after the specified period has expired will be considered as new submissions at the discretion of the Chief Editor or the Executive Editor.

Authorship

All individuals listed as authors should qualify for authorship. An 'author' is someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. The lead author should be confident of his /her co-authors’ competence and integrity. Co-authors who do NOT meet the criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, however they should be acknowledged.

Article categories

The following categories of articles are accepted for publication in the journal. The authors should select the category that best describes their paper. If the paper does not qualify in any of these categories, please contact the Editorial Office.

Original Articles: These are submissions from research workers engaged in the field of Medical Arthropodology & Public Health. Articles pertaining to the field of current topics/path breaking research and those of general interest to medico-arthropodologists and public health specialists will be published on priority.

All studies should have been approved by the Institutional/local Ethics committee.
Responsibility for correctness of data, statistical analysis and interpretations wherever applicable will lie entirely with the authors.

Format - Abstract (Structured) & Keywords; Introduction; Material & Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusion.

Review Article or Update Article: These will be on invitation from senior faculty and experts in the field who have published quality original research articles in the same field. Prospective authors are requested to contact the Chief Editor or the Executive Editor for prior approval of their topic.

Short Communication: Any research study or finding of interest which does not qualify for a full length original study.

Perspective: Opinion articles written by senior faculty/scientists, experts in the field and policy makers. Budding Researcher's section: Preliminary or original fresh findings of Postgraduate / Doctoral/Post Doc students can be submitted for publication in this section.
[Format for the entire above category except for Original articles - unstructured abstract with key words; Introduction; Materials and Methods (if applicable); Results (if applicable); Discussion.]

Letter to the Editor: These should be brief with constructive criticism of published articles, supported with additional data and information, sources etc. A short title referring to the recently published article along with a covering letter should be submitted. Current interesting topics or news can also be considered for Letter to Editor.

Others: This includes Editorials and Perspectives which are solicited by the Editorial Board.

Size of manuscript

The Table below provides guidelines regarding maximum permissible size of text as well as number of Tables, Figures and References. Non-adherence of the manuscript to the specifications is likely to result in rejection at the discretion of the editorial team.

Type of Article	Limit of Text (in words)	Limit of Tables and figures	Limit of References
Editorial	2000	-	10
Perspective	2000	-	10
Original Article	3500	8	35
Review/Update Article	4500	8	45
Budding Researcher's Section	3500	8	35
Letter to Editor	500	2	3

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Medical Arthropodology and Public Health (J Med Arthropodol & Public Health) should not have been published previously or be under simultaneous consideration for publication by any other journal. Any violation of this will lead to a retraction of the published article by the Journal and any other actions as deemed necessary by the Editorial Board. All manuscripts including invited articles will be peer-reviewed. Accepted articles will be edited to the Journal's style. Accepted submissions will become the permanent property of the Journal and cannot be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the Chief Editor or the Executive Editor. Studies involving human subjects or animals should have been approved by the institutional ethics committee. A statement to this effect and that informed consent was taken from participating human subjects must be mentioned in the manuscript.

Ethical approval of studies and Informed consent

Studies involving human subjects or animals should have been approved by the institutional ethics committee. A statement to this effect and that informed consent was obtained from participating human subjects must be included in the manuscript text. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Conflict of Interest

The Journal mandates that authors disclose all and any potential conflicts. Authors are requested to provide information about any potential financial and non-financial conflicts of interest in a brief paragraph after the main text.

Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial. Financial conflicts include financial relationships such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers' bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements. Non-financial conflicts include personal or professional relationships, affiliations, academic competition, intellectual passion, knowledge or beliefs that might affect objectivity.

Authors should submit a conflict of interest statement which will be published with every article. The purpose of the statement is to ensure that any factors —personal relationships, financial connections (e.g. Funded Research Projects by ICMR, DRDO, CSIR, ICAR, DBT etc.), sponsorships by companies etc. that might influence the author of an article, are declared so that readers are aware of the potential conflict of interest and can include that knowledge in the assessment of information. Stating a conflict of interest does not disqualify an author from publication. All authors have to disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article means that the research work described has not been published previously that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all co-authors, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the consent of the copyright-holder (i.e., Journal of Medical Arthropodology & Public Health). To verify originality, the submissions may be checked by the originality detection service Crossref Similarity Check.

Author contributions

For transparency, the journal mandates authors to submit a statement file outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing. Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first (abbreviated for example Rina Tilak should be mentioned as RT) and CRediT role(s) following.

Authorship

Authorship credit should be based on substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet all the above conditions.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding, for the collection of data or data entry, and general routine supervision does not justify authorship. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of all the co-authors. Once submitted, the order will not be changed without written consent of all the co- authors, and acceptance by the Executive Editor, J Med Arthropodol & Public Health.

Intellectual contribution

The contribution of each author is to be mentioned, on the Author Certificate in all multi-author research papers under the following headings: Study Concept, Drafting & Manuscript Revision, Statistical Analysis, Study Supervision.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names will not be entertained.

Copyright

Journal of Medical Arthropodology and Public Health is the official peer-reviewed publication of the Society of Medical Arthropodology (website address: http://www.soma16.org). Contents of the Journal are covered by copyright. Journal of Medical Arthropodology and Public Health does not accept any responsibility for the statements made by the authors. The Editorial Board has the right to introduce such changes in the articles as may be considered necessary for effectiveness of communication.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism (wrongful appropriation or purloining and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas of another without proper attribution or permission) will be considered by the Journal of Medical Arthropodology and Public Health as a serious professional/scientific/publication misconduct. Each manuscript submitted to the Journal of Medical Arthropodology and Public Health will be subjected to thorough plagiarism check with professional plagiarism detection software as well as will be scrutinized by the editorial team before processing the manuscript, every time. Authors are expected to ensure that a submitted article is free from plagiarism. Authors and reviewers are advised to be careful to maintain high ethical standards as per existing international norms.

Language

Articles in English only will be accepted for publication.

Manuscript submission

The manuscripts will be submitted in electronic form (later after announcement through the Journals website: http://www.soma16.org) and should be accompanied by (1) Manuscript with author details including email ID (2) Tables (3) Figures with legends (4) Ethical Clearance (5) Authors’ originally signed and scanned Certificate (6) Duly signed Copy Transfer Certificate. The files should be uploaded separately in the order mentioned.

Title page

The title page should have the following: Title (in capitals), author(s) names with highest degree, affiliation, email ID with footnotes as a, b, c, d, short title, word count (excluding abstract and references), number of Tables and Figures, corresponding author with address, email ID and mobile number.

Abstract

Structured abstract arranged into the headings: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusion. No abbreviations should be used in the abstract. Give not more than 6 keywords. Abstract is not required for Letters to the Editor.

Main Text

The main text should have the following headers - Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Discussion. Authors should maintain individuality of each section. All tables, figures and references should be cited in the text. The Journal discourages use of any abbreviations which are not authorized or accepted internationally. Full form of all abbreviations must be mentioned in the first instance barring standard units of measurement.

References

The Responsibility of accuracy of the references rests exclusively with the authors. References should be in Vancouver style (i.e., numeral) as described in examples. Relevant, important and recent references should be included in the submissions. The references should be indicated in the text by Arabic numerals superscripted with word or punctuation. The manuscript should include all references cited in the text. The reference should list all authors, surname followed by initials when six or less; when seven or more, mention only first three authors followed by et al. Full stops should not be used in abbreviations of journal names.

Examples of reference style

(i) Standard Journal Articles -

(a) Single author:
Cowan G. Rickettsial diseases: the typhus group of fevers - a review. Postgrad Med J. 2000; 76 (895): 269-72.

(b) Upto six authors:
Schwartz J, Coull B, Laden F, Ryan L. The effect of dose and timing of dose on the association between airborne particles and survival. Environ Health Perspect. 2008; 116: 64-9.

(c) More than six authors:
Baselga J, Campone M, Piccart M, et al. Everolimus in postmenopausal hormone-receptor-positive advanced breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2012; 366: 520-29.

(ii) Organization as Author -
National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. Dengue/Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever. Delhi: National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme; c2005-2018. Available from: http://www.nvbdcp.gov.in/dengue5.html, accessed on March 26, 2018.

(iii) Epub ahead of print with DOI -
Slamon D, Neven P, Chia S, et al. Overall survival with ribociclib plus fulvestrant in advanced breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2019; published online Dec 22. DOI:10.1056/NEJMoa1911149. For further referencing in Vancouver style, authors are advised to go through the following document link - https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support- services/library/public/vancouver.pdf

Tables

Tables should be typed serially numbered in Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1, Table 2) with a short title specifying the contents. Horizontal lines should not be used in the body of the table except between a column heading and its sub-headings. Vertical lines should not be used in the table. Tables should be concise and restricted to a page in length and should be self-explanatory. The data presented should not be duplicated in the text.

Figures/Photographs/ Illustrations

Colour images may be submitted but must be in good quality of production. Illustrations should have at least 300 x300 dpi resolutions and be clear enough. Photographs/illustrations may be submitted as 'JPEG', or 'TIFF' files. Line art drawing must have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi. Borrowed photographs or Illustrations should be included only after due permission from the copy write holder, and with due mention of the donor’s reference. In Figures as a preference use glyphs in black and white (or at least darker colours distinguishable, however) bar and/or graphic presentations so that they may be discernably reproduced in print version of the journal.

Figure Legends: The Figure numbers (numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals), title and explanations of the Figures should appear along with the figure. Figure should be made in such a manner that it can be interpreted without any reference to the main text.

Units: All measurements must be in metric units, preferably with corresponding SI units in parentheses. No periods, no plural form should be used (e.g. '10 cm' not '10 cms.').

Personal communications and unpublished data

These should not be included in the references list but may be described in the text. The author(s) must give the full name, affiliation and the date of communication, and whether it was in oral or written (letter, fax, email) form. A signed statement of permission of the personal communication or as a source for unpublished data should be forwarded along with the submission.

Ethics

Any submission involving human subjects should have been conducted with informed consent by the subjects and of approval by the institutional ethics committee.

Keywords

Not more than 3-6 Keywords in alphabetical order should be mentioned in the abstract section of the following article categories: Review Articles, Original Articles and Short Communications.

No keywords are required for Editorials, Perspectives, and Letters to the Editor.

Acknowledgements

All individuals who were directly involved with the study but do not qualify to be authors should be acknowledged. Consent should however be taken from these individuals prior to including their names. People who have provided only secretarial, clerical or technical help and whose contribution was limited to their routine job profile should not be included in the acknowledgement.

The Chief Editor and/or the Executive Editor shall have the final Decision-making power to accept or reject a submission and also reserve the right to adjust the style to certain standards of uniformity and suitability of the journal.

All correspondence regarding manuscripts and inquiries if any should be made to the Executive Editor Dr Rina Tilak [email: rinatilak@hotmail.com], with a cc. to Prof. Dr B.K. Tyagi [email: abktyagi@gmail.com].