Submissions

Author Guidelines

INSTRUCTION TO AUTHORS

EDITORIAL PROCESS

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of African Neonatology must not have been published in any form in any other publication or referee based journals and become the property of the publishers. All manuscripts must be accompanied by the following written statement signed by all the authors. "The undersigned author (s) certify (ies) that the article is original, is not under consideration by any other journal, and has not been previously published. 

The Journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal on all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication are sent to two or more expert reviewers and overviewed by a handling Editor. The Journal uses a double blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. 

The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors have reached a conclusion and endorse the manuscript.

Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author for corrections and spelling errors if any. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. After which it may not be possible to incorporate corrections. The whole process is done electronically.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:

1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. 

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed along with the article. 

One /more author/s should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to publication and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST/ COMPETING INTERESTS

Author(s) must disclose any conflicts of interest he/she (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.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website (insert Journal website) or electronically to (insert address).

The manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:

1. Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:

This file should provide the type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Ethics Forum, Education Forum, Letter to editor, Images, etc.), title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (designation and affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited, All information which can reveal your identity should be here. The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract), word counts for introduction and discussion in case of an original article;

2. Blinded Article file:

The manuscript must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Manuscripts not in compliance with JAN blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

3. Images:

Must be good quality color images. Each image should be less than 4 MB in size. Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

4. The contributors' / copyright transfer form

This has to be submitted in original form with the signatures of all the contributors at the time of submission of manuscript. (Template of contributor’s form is provided in the last page)

5. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, should be acknowledged 

Acknowledgement, if any. One or more statements should specify 1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair; 2) acknowledgment of technical help; and 3) acknowledgment of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of Journal of African Neonatology are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available.

Copies of any permission(s)
It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

Types of Manuscripts

Original articles:
The text of original articles amounting to up to 3000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Tables and Figure legends. An abstract in English must be introduced right after the abstract in French.

Introduction:
State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation.

Materials and Methods: Type of study; Study site; Study period; Patient selection (inclusion criteria, non-inclusion criteria); Study parameters and data collection methodology; Statistical analysis methodology; Regulatory and ethical aspects

Ethics:
When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013 (available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention approval of (regional/national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board.

The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the 'Subjects and Methods' section.

Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. 

Discussion: 
The discussion section should focus on the implications of the results and any limitations of the study. It should relate the findings to other relevant studies. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. 

Acknowledgement: 
Acknowledgement of technical assistance, critical advice or other assistance should be placed after discussion but before the references. 

Review Articles: 
It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. A short summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript. The prescribed word count is up to 3000 words excluding tables, references and abstract. The manuscript may have about 90 references. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles would depend upon the topic reviewed. Authors submitting review article should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract. 

The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of the article and should be sent as a letter to editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

Case reports:
New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. The case report could be of up to 1500 words (excluding Title page, Abstract, Figures, Tables, and Acknowledgement, Table or Figure Legends and references) and should have the following headings:
Abstract (unstructured), Key words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order. A maximum of four (4) Tables or Figures may be accepted.

It could be supported with up to 20 references and could be authored by up to four (4) authors.

Letter to the Editor: 
These should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. The letter could have up to 500 words and 5 references. It could be generally authored by not more than four authors.

Others:
Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary and Opinion are solicited by the editorial board.

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. 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.

Style of references
References should be in the Vancouver Style as laid down in the "Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals.-www.icmje.org 
At the end of the article the full list of references should give the surname and initials of all authors unless they are more than six, when only the first six should be given, followed by et al.

The author(s) name(s) should be followed by the title of the article, the title of the Journal abbreviated as in Index Medicus, year of publication, volume number, and the first and last pages. For books the references should follow the following format: the author (s), title of book, place of publication, the publisher, year and the relevant pages.

Tables
Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable.
Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.

Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.

Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.

Figures
Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 4 MB in size while uploading. Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.

Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures -should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should be marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.

Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.

When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied. The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas. If photographs of individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.

If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.

SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPT

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the "First Page" or "Covering Letter" file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the 'referees' remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Proofs will be sent to the corresponding authors by email approximately two (2) weeks before the publication date.

CHARGES

Journal of African Neonatology charges fifty (50) USD as publication fees on acceptance of manuscript.

Mode of Payment: Charges are paid into the following Journal Accounts

COPY RIGHT

The entire contents of the Journal of African Neonatology are protected under copyright law. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 Unported License.

CHECK LIST

• Covering letter signed by all contributors
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

• Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• E-mail address of corresponding author provided.

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Font used
• Page numbers included at bottom
• Title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Abstract provided (structured abstract of 250 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 150 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
• Key words provided (three or more)
•                   Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with square bracket.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

• Uniformly UK English/French
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
• If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

• Inserted and uploaded

CONTRIBUTORS FORM

(to be modified as applicable and one signed copy attached with the manuscript)

Manuscript Title:

_______________________________________________________________________________________ I/we certify that I/we have participated sufficiently in contributing to the intellectual content, concept and design of this work or the analysis and interpretation of the data (where applicable), as well as writing of the manuscript, to take public responsibility for it and have agreed to have my/our name(s) listed as contributor(s).

 I/we believe that the manuscript represents valid work. Neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under my/our authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere, except as described in the covering letter. I/we certify that all the data collected during the study is presented in this manuscript and no data from the study has been or will be published separately. I/we attest that, if requested by the editors, 

I/we will provide the data/information or will cooperate fully in obtaining and providing the data/information on which the manuscript is based, for examination by the editors or their assignees. Financial interests, direct or indirect, that exist or may be perceived to exist for individual contributors in connection with the content of this paper have been disclosed in the cover letter. Sources of outside support of the project are named in the covering letter. 

I/We hereby transfer(s), assign(s), or otherwise convey(s) all copyright ownership, including any and all rights incidental thereto, exclusively to the Journal of African Neonatology in the event that such work is published by the Journal. The Journal of African Neonatology shall own the work, including;

1. Copyright
   2. The right to grant permission to republish the article in whole or in part, with or without fee;
   3. The right to produce preprints or reprints and translate into languages other than English for sale or free distribution; and
   4. The right to republish the work in a collection of articles in any other mechanical or electronic format.
   We give the rights to the corresponding author to make necessary changes as per the request of the journal, do the rest of the correspondence on our behalf and he/she will act as the guarantor for the manuscript on our behalf.
   All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript, but who are not contributors, are named in the Acknowledgment and have given me/us their written permission to be named. If I/we do not include an Acknowledgment that means I/we have not received substantial contributions from non-contributors and no contributor has been omitted.

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DOCUMENTS CITED

1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform requirements for manuscript submitted to Biomedical Journals http://www.icmje.org
2. Adapted from Nigerian Journal of Paediatrics www.njpaediatrics.com Instruction to authors