Submissions

Author Guidelines

Journal of KIST Medical College

Guideline to authors

Introduction

JKISTMC is a multi-disciplinary, open-access, peer-reviewed, biannually published scientific journal. The journal is the official publication of KIST Medical College, Lalitpur Nepal.

Aims and Scope 
Aims of JKISTMC is to promote and disseminate research activities in the medical field taking place in the country.  JKISTMC  seeks articles in basic and clinical medical sciences, medical education, public health, hospital and healthcare management, research and publication ethics in the form of  original research papers, review articles, case reports, medical education, viewpoints, letter to the editor relating to any aspect of Medical & Health Science that are not published or not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Article processing charges

There is no article processing charges. All submissions and access to published articles are free of charge.

Peer review process

JKISTMC is a peer reviewed journal.  Our aim is to provide all authors with a supportive, efficient, productive and quick editorial process.

The author has to submit their manuscript according to JKISTMC section policy. Submitted manuscript will be first accessed for scope of journal, completeness, language, ethical and legal issues. If found appropriate for consideration it will be sent for external peer review. The submitted articles are sent for online peer review through the OJS.

Two independent external expert reviewers will review the manuscript individually for scientific and technical basis of the work.

Accept Submission: The submission will be accepted without revisions.
Revisions Required: The submission will be accepted after minor changes have been made according to the reviewer's comment.
Resubmit for Review: The submission needs to be re-worked, but with significant changes, may be accepted. It will require a second round of review, however.
Resubmit elsewhere: When the submission does not meet the focus and scope of JKISTMC.
Decline Submission: The submission will not be published in the journal.

 However, independent from the comment received from peer reviewer final decision regarding the acceptance and rejection will be made by editorial board.

. It usually takes 4 weeks to a maximum of 3 months for the peer review process to complete.

Copyright and Open Access Policy            

JKISTMC provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

JKIST applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to all works we publish. Under the CC BY license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, distribute, and/or copy articles in JKISTMC, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

Article by JKISTMC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Policies

JKISTMC adheres to the policy published by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and to publishing ethics guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

 Section Policies
Editorial
It is written by JKISTMC editors or invited (Guest Editorial) on most pertinent issues on Health in Nepal or in the world.  

Original Article

 JKISTMC accepts researches conducted in the field of basic and clinical medical sciences, medical education, public health, hospital and healthcare management, allied health sciences and research and publication ethics, with the maximum length of 2500-3500 words  (excluding abstract of 250 words). Reference should be limited to 35. JKISTMC requests all authors to register prospective clinical trials in a suitable electronic and freely accessible registry (e.g. www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.controlled-trials.com), according to the ICMJE guidelines.

It should be written under the following headings: Title and authorship, Abstract- Introduction, Method, Result, Conclusion, Key words, Introduction Methods Results Discussion Acknowledgement References. The reference number is superscripted after full stop at the end of sentence.

Case Report

JKISTMC accepts case reports with literature review that includes, a rare case, an unexpected association between diseases or symptoms, an unexpected event in the course of treatment such as complications and other adverse events that are significant enough to share among scientific committee. A case report should have maximum of 1200 words excluding abstract which should be of maximum 100 words and references up to 10. A case report should be written in following sections: 1. Title with Author Information 2. Abstract with key words 3. Introduction 4. Case Report 5. Discussion 6. Acknowledgement  7. References.. Please use the CARE Case Report Checklist while preparing your case report taking an account of CARE Flow Diagram.
Review Article
Review article summarizes the current state of understanding on a topic and analyses or discusses research previously published by others on the subject matter, rather than reporting new experimental results and which does not fit into the category of systematic review. They are thorough literature reviews that identify historical and current trends in the topic, gaps in the research (areas for further exploration), and current debates or controversies.  It has to be about 3000 words excluding abstract (200 words) and references should be limited to 40. Required

Medical Education
JKISTMC  accepts  perspective on undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education highlighting teaching methods, curriculum reform, the training of medical teachers, curriculum development, evaluations of performance, assessment of training needs and evidence-based medicine are accepted, with word limit up to 1500 words excluding abstract of 150 words. 

Viewpoint
The article in this section is based on issues related to health sciences to raise the voice, awareness, new ideas, thought to provoke concepts, and personal expert opinion to improve the health.

Letter to the Editor
The section includes comments relating a recent article, an elaboration of an important discovery, or simply a thought-provoking commentary of fewer than 1000 words without an abstract.

Book Review
This section is invited by the editorial board of JKISTMC.

SUBMISSION DOCUMENTS 
Please submit all the following documents while submitting new manuscript to JKISTMC through online  after registering .

1.Forwarding letter

 2.Authorship letter

3.Declaration letter

 4.Manuscript

 5.Ethical Approval letter for research article. Ethical approval letter should be taken before starting the research.

Authors should send their manuscripts through online system.

Correspondence Address :

The Editor-in-chief

Journal of KIST Medical College

GPO; 8975, EPC: 2588

Kathmandu, Nepal.

Email: jkistmc@gmail.com

Manuscript preparation

• Double-spacing, 12 point -Arial font
• 5-cm margins
• Page numbers in the top right corner
• Line numbers
• Clear concise language
• American spelling (all components of a manuscript must be in English)
• Ensure tables and figures are cited
• The preferred electronic format for text is Microsoft Word
• Manuscripts will be accepted in LaTeX as long as the native LaTeX and a PDF is also supplied
• Use International Systems of Units (SiI) symbols and recognized abbreviations for units of measurement
• Do not punctuate abbreviations e g, et al, ie
• Spell out acronyms in the first instance in the abstract and aper
• Generic drug names are used in title, text, tables, and figures
• Suppliers of drugs, equipment, and other brand-name material are credited in parentheses (company, name, city, state, country)
• If molecular sequences are used, provide a statement that the data have been deposited in a publicly accessible database, eg, GenBank, and indicate the database accession number
• Get DOI to issue your protocol with a unique DOI (digital object identifier)
  Include the DOI link in the Methods section of your manuscript using the format provided by protocols.io: https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.xxxxxxx (where xxxxxxx is the unique DOI)

1. General Principles

The text of articles reporting original research is usually divided into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. This so-called “IMRAD” structure is not an arbitrary publication format but a reflection of the process of scientific discovery. Articles often need subheadings within these sections to further organize their content. Other types of articles, such as meta-analyses, may require different formats, while case reports, narrative reviews, and editorials may have less structured or unstructured formats.

2. Reporting Guidelines

Reporting guidelines have been developed for different study designs; examples include CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy. Journals are encouraged to ask authors to follow these guidelines because they help authors describe the study in enough detail for it to be evaluated by editors, reviewers, readers, and other researchers evaluating the medical literature. Authors of review manuscripts are encouraged to describe the methods used for locating, select¬ing, extracting, and synthesizing data; this is mandatory for systematic reviews. Good sources for reporting guidelines are the EQUATOR Network and the NLM's Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

3. Manuscript Sections

The following are general requirements for reporting within sections of all study designs and manuscript formats.

a. Title Page

The title page should contain

1Type of manuscript( e.g. Original article, Case Report, etc)

2. Article title. The title provides a distilled description of the complete article and should include information that, along with the Abstract, will make electronic retrieval of the article sensitive and specific. No more than 40 characters
3. Author information:Each authors full names. The name of the department(s) and institution(s) or organizations where the work should be attributed. Full contact information, including land mail and e-mail addresses of corresponding author.. ICMJE encourages the listing of authors’ Open Researcher and Contributor Identification (ORCID).
4. Disclaimers. An example of a disclaimer is an author's statement that the views expressed in the submitted article are his or her own and not an official position of the institution or funder.
5. Source(s) of support. These include grants, equipment, drugs, and/or other support that facilitated conduct of the work described in the article or the writing of the article itself.
6. Word count. A word count for the paper's text, excluding its abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, and references, allows editors and reviewers to assess whether the information contained in the paper warrants the paper's length, and whether the submitted manuscript fits within the journal's formats and word limits.
7. Number of figures and tables. Specification of the number of Figures and Tables before uploading the relevant files. These numbers allow editorial staff and reviewers to confirm that all figures and tables were actually included with the manuscript and, because Tables and Figures occupy space, to assess if the information provided by the figures and tables warrants the paper's length and if the manuscript fits within the journal's space limits.

8.Conflict of Interest declaration. Conflict of interest information for each author needs to be part of the manuscript. The ICMJE has developed a uniform conflict of interest disclosure form for use by ICMJE member journals .

b. Abstract

The abstract should start on the second page. It should be structured for original articles as: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions and Keywords. Do not include references in the abstract.

c. Introduction

Provide a context or background for the study (that is, the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objective of, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation. Cite only directly pertinent references, and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.

d.Methods

The guiding principle of the Methods section should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. Methods section should aim to be sufficiently detailed such that others with access to the data would be able to reproduce the results. In general, the section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was being written; all information obtained during the study belongs in the Results section. If an organization was paid or otherwise contracted to help conduct the research (examples include data collection and management), then this should be detailed in the methods.

The Methods section should include a statement indicating that the research was approved by an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board). If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the local, regional or national review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

i. Selection and Description of Participants

Clearly describe the selection of observational or experimental participants (healthy individuals or patients, including controls), including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age, sex, or ethnicity is not always known at the time of study design, researchers should aim for inclusion of representative populations into all study types and at a minimum provide descriptive data for these and other relevant demographic variables. Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases, (e.g., prostate cancer).” Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.

ii. Technical Information

Specify the study's main and secondary objectives–usually identified as primary and secondary outcomes. Identify methods, equipment (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well-known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give the reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Identify appropriate scientific names and gene names.

iii. Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to judge its appropriateness for the study and to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as P values, which fail to convey important information about effect size and precision of estimates. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated). Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the statistical software package(s) and versions used. Distinguish prespecified from exploratory analyses, including subgroup analyses.

e. Results

Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. 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 significance attached to them, if any. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess supporting data. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as “random” (which implies a randomizing device), “normal,” “significant,” “correlations,” and “sample.”

f. Discussion

It is useful to begin the discussion by briefly summarizing the main findings, and explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings. Emphasize the new and important aspects of your study and put your finings in the context of the totality of the relevant evidence. State the limitations of your study, and explore the implications of your findings for future research and for clinical practice or policy. Discuss the influence or association of variables, such as sex and/or gender, on your findings, where appropriate, and the limitations of the data. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the Results section.

1. Conclusion

Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. In particular, distinguish between clinical and statistical significance, and avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless the manuscript includes the appropriate economic data and analyses.

1. Acknowledgement

i. References

The Vancouver system of referencing should be used..

Do not use conference abstracts as references: they can be cited in the text, in parentheses, but not as page footnotes. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as “in press” or “forthcoming.” 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. For scientific articles, obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.

check the accuracy of all reference citations; thus, citation errors sometimes appear in the published version of articles. To minimize such errors, references should be verified using either an electronic bibliographic source, such as PubMed, or print copies from original sources. Authors are responsible for checking that none of the references cite retracted articles except in the context of referring to the retraction. For articles published in journals indexed in MEDLINE, the ICMJE considers PubMed the authoritative source for information about retractions. 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 parentheses.

ii. Reference Style and Format

References should follow the standards summarized in the NLM’s International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References webpage and detailed in the NLM’s Citing Medicine, 2nd edition.

Examples of reference format

1. Standard journal article

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7.

List the first six authors, followed by et al. If there are more than six authors, list the first

2. Personal author(s)

Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St.

j. Tables

Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text.

Prepare tables according to the specific journal's requirements; to avoid errors it is best if tables can be directly imported into the journal's publication software. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a title for each. Titles in tables should be short but self-explanatory, containing information that allows readers to understand the table's content without having to go back to the text. Be sure that each table is cited in the text.

Give each column a short or an abbreviated heading. Authors should place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes, and use symbols to explain information if needed. Symbols may vary from journal to journal (alphabet letter or such symbols as *, †, ‡, §), so check each journal's instructions for authors for required practice. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.

If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.

k. Illustrations (Figures)

Digital images of manuscript illustrations should be submitted in a suitable format for print publication. Most submission systems have detailed instructions on the quality of images and check them after manuscript upload. For print submissions, figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed, or submitted as photographic-quality digital prints.

For radiological and other clinical and diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send high-resolution photographic image files 127x173 mm( 5x7inches). Before-and-after images should be taken with the same intensity, direction, and color of light. Although some journals redraw figures, many do not. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should therefore be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough to remain legible when the figure is reduced for publication. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends—not on the illustrations themselves.

Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. Explain the internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.

In the manuscript, legends for illustrations should be on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.

l. Units of Measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units, but the alternative should be provided in parentheses where appropriate.

k. Abbreviations and Symbols

Use only standard abbreviations; use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement.

Advertisement

JKISTMC accepts advertisements from organizations related to medical services such as publishers, event organizers; academic professional organizations, other academic journals etc. Medical colleges and hospitals, Pharmaceuticals and medical suppliers are also encouraged to advertise.

Disclaimer

All the information and opinions published in the journal reflect the view of the authors and hence the journal or the editorial board or the publisher will not bear any liability for the accuracy of the information. The authors are requested to refrain from plagiarism and to check for the accuracy of the information and to avoid any copyright infringement in their articles.

Chief Editor’s request

1. All the documents have to be submitted at once in single submission (as listed above).
2. Email is the preferred methods of communication. We will inform you about the status of your article through our system to the email you at your mail ID which you have provided. We may also contact you anytime for immediate information to speed up the review process. 
3. Please do not contact editorial member's personal telephone numbers. Contact JKISTMC Office for information.