Instruction for authors

Papers are accepted for publication with an understanding that they are submitted solely to the journal and are subject to peer review and editorial revision. The statements and opinions expressed in the articles, communications and letters published by the journal are personalized by the author(s), and the journal does not carry any legal or other type of responsibility for the author’s opinion, statements and research misconduct (fabrication, falsification or plagiarism made by authors).

One hard copy along with a soft copy along with a cover letter should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, MEDISCOPE, Gazi Medical College, A 19-21, Mazid Sarani, Sonadanga, Khulna-9100, Bangladesh. Email: mediscopegmch@gmail.com or gmc11@ rocketmail.com (a soft copy of doc and pdf files along with a cover letter in case of email submission). A statement should be made in the cover letter that the manuscript has not been published elsewhwere and has not been sent simulteniously for consideration to anywhere other than this journal for publication.

Aims and scope

Mediscope publishes Editorials, Review Articles, Original Articles, Short Communications, Field Reports, and Letters to the Editor-in-Chief. It welcomes any manuscripts dealing with health and medical sciences. Human experimental studies on environmental health effects. Animal experiments are only acceptable if relevant to pathogenic aspects.

Short Communications.

Papers submitted as Short Communications should consist of about 2000 words.

Review Articles.

These are received on invitation only. Please contact the Editorial Office with any queries regarding the submission of potential review articles.

Letters to the Editors/ Debate and Opinion Papers.

Letters are invited that discuss, criticize or develop themes put forward in papers published in the journal or that deal with matters relevant to it. They should not be used as a means of publishing new work. Acceptance will be at the discretion of the Editorial Board, and editorial changes may be required. Wherever possible, letters from responding authors will be included in the same issue.

Form of original articles submitted for publication.

Original articles should be not more than 4000 words long. Authors are advised to consult a current issue in order to make themselves familiar with the journal’s typographical and other conventions, layout of tables, etc for preparing their manuscripts. Authors are also encouraged to consult the latest guidelines produced by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which contains a lot of useful generic information about preparing scientific papers; (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html).

Manuscripts should be typed on one side of white good quality A4 size paper, with wide margins of at least 2.5 cm and using double space throughout, the preferred font being Times New Roman size 12. At the ends of lines words should not be hyphenated unless hyphens are to be printed. Page numbering is required. Spelling should generally be that of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995), 9th edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Each component of the manuscript should begin on a new page in the sequence of title page, abstract, text, reference, tables and legends for illustration. The title page should include the title of the paper, name of the author(s), and name of the departments(s) to which the work should be attributed. An abstract of not more than 250 words should follow the title page. It may provide the following sections: Background, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusion. The text should be presented in the form of Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgement (if any) and References.

References

These should be given in the text using the Vancouver system. They should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they first appear in the text using superscript. If a reference is cited more than once the same number should be used each time. References cited in tables and figure legends should be matched for them maintaining the sequence of number in the text. At the end of the paper, on a page(s) separate from the text, references should be listed in numerical order. The journal adheres closely to the Vancouver style of references (see http://www.icmje.org/urm_full.pdf, updated April 2010). The first six authors of a work should be named, followed by “et al.” if there are more than six. The issue number should be omitted if there is continuous pagination throughout a volume. Names and initials of authors of unpublished work should be given in the text as ‘unpublished results’ and not included in the References. Titles of journals should appear in their abbreviated form using the NCBI link http://www.ncbi.nlh.gov/-books/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.pubmedhelptable45/.

References to books and monographs should include the town of publication and the number of the edition to which reference is made.

• Truswell AS, Thomas BJ, Brown AM. Survey of dietary policy and management in British diabetic clinics. BMJ 1975;4:85-9.
• Mann JI, De Leeuw I, Hermansen K, Karamanos B, Karlstrom B, Katsilambros N, et al. Evidence-based nutritional approaches to the treatment and prevention of diabetes mellitus. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2004;14:373-94.
• Eliasson B, Eeg-Olofsson K, Cederholm J, Nilsson PM, Gudbjöirnsdóttir S, for the Steering Committee of the Swedish National Diabetes Register (NDR). Antihyperglycaemic treatment of type 2 diabetes: results from a national diabetes register. Diabetes Metab 2007;37:269-76.
• Rashid KM. Food and Nutrition. In: Rashid KM, Rahman M, Hyder S (eds). Textbook of Comnunity Medicine and Public Health. 4th edn. Dhaka: RHM Publishers, 2004:126-40.
• Jarrett RJ. Insulin and hypertension (Letter). Lancet 1987;ii:748-9.
• Banerji MA, Faridi N, Atluri R, Chaiken RL, Lebovitz HE: Body composition, visceral fat, leptin and insulin resistance in Asian Indian men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1999;84:137-44. [Abstract].
• Anwar AKMN and Fariduddin KM. Innovation and reorientation in medical education and research: challenges for Ibrahim Medical College. IMCJ 2007;l(1):i-ii. [Editorial].g

References to material available on websites should include the full Internet address, and the date of the version cited.

Tables

Each table should be typed in on separate sheet. Table should have brief title for each, should be numbered consecutively using Roman Numerals and be cited in the text in consecutive order. If possible, internal horizontal and vertical rules should not be used.

Illustration

All drawings should be made with black Indian ink on white paper. All illustrations must be in JPEG format at a resolution of 300 dots/inch (DPI) or higher. Photographs and Photomicrographs should be supplied as glossy black and white prints unmounted and having internal scale markers, the original magnification and the stain used. Line diagrams and graphs should be scanned at 600 DPI or better and submitted on separate sheets. Legend for each illustration should be submitted in separate sheets. All photographs, graphs and diagrams should be referred to as figures numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals.

Abbreviation

Except for units of measurement, abbreviations are discouraged. Consult scientific style and format. The CBE (Council of Biology Editors) Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers (6th edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994) for lists of standard abbreviations. The first time an abbreviation appears it should be placed in () after the words for which it stands. This should be the same for the abstract section.

Drug names

Generic names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name in parentheses in the Materials and Method section.

Permission

Materials taken from other source must be accompanied by a written statement from both authors and publishers giving permission to the Journal for reproduction. Obtain written permission from at least one author of papers still in press, unpublished data and personal communications.

Authorship

The uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journal state that authorship credit should be based only on substantial contribution to a) conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data, b) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and c) final approval of the version to be published.

Editorial procedure

All articles on receipt for publication are immediately registered but this does not mean that it has been accepted for publication. The manuscript is sent to two or more reviewers who take minimum one month time for masked peer review. One marked copy of the proofs may be sent to the principal author for careful correction of errors. One corrected copy must be returned to the Editor-in-Chief within the next 3 days. Major alteration in the text will not be accepted. During the editorial procedure if needed, the Editor-in-Chief may ask the authors to provide data file or any such material for checking material authenticity. The ultimate authority to accept or reject the article rests with the Editorial Board.

Clarifications are sought from the authors when required. Letter of acceptance can be issued only after approval of the article. No article is rejected unless similar comments are received from at least two reviewers. Ethical aspects will also be considered in the assessment of papers.

Copyright transfer

Authors are asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher through sending prescribed COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AGREEMENT properly filled up and signed by the author(s) after the acceptance of the article for publishing to ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.