National Journal of Research
in Community Medicine of India

NJRCM Invites and encourages authors to submit only original work (not the duplication/ reduplication of published data) in the broad areas of public health & social sciences research, health management & administration, epidemiology, biostatistics, medical education and related fields.

Guide to the authors:

Please read and follow the instruction properly to make the process fast. All types articles and letters to submitonline. No hard copies will be required.Articles must be clearly written in English. All the articles should be submitted in MS Word document.

Covering Letter and Declaration forms:

All the articles should be submitted with covering letter explains about their article and Declaration form and covering lettersigned by all the authors.Authors are requested to scan and send the signed document by email.

Authorship:

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Article Types:

The following types of manuscripts are routinely accepted (please note that word count is from abstract to references but excluding references):

• Original research articles: The form of these articles is discussed fully below; an abstract is required. They should be no longer than 4000 words and 40 references (as above, please note that word count also excludes tables, figures and legends).
• Short article:  This is a shortest form of a research work. The format is same as original research article but limit the word count to 2500.
• Review articles: An abstract and keywords are required. The text should be divided into sections by suitable headings. Tables and figures may be used as appropriate for the text. They should be no longer than 5000 words.
• Case reports: The journal welcomes interesting case reports.
• Letters: Headings should not be used in a letter; no abstract or keywords are required. The text should be no more than 800 words; there should be a maximum of 10 references and one table or figure may be included.
• Commentaries: Commentaries are intended to put into context the material presented in a particular paper.
• Correspondence\Letter to Editor: Correspondence is limited to specific comments or criticisms relating to a recent NJRCM paper, whose authors will be invited to reply.
• Book review:The aim of a book review is to provide insight and opinion on recently published scholarly books. It should be no longer than 750 words.

The total number of words:

Original articles:  2500- 4000
Review articles: 2500-5000
Short Article: 2500
Letters to the editor: 750
Book Review: 750

The word count may be flexible in case of important article. The decision of editor would be final.

Permissions:

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Manuscript preparation:

Use a normal, plain font (11-point Times New Roman) with single line spacing for text.  In particular, do not use the options to justify text or to hyphenate words. Always use single column. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. It is advised to prepare the table in Excel and paste it in Word. Use spellcheckers always before submitting. Please do not split the article into separate files (title page as one file, text as another, etc.). Do not allow your computer to introduce word splits and do not use a ‘justified’ layout. Please adhere strictly to the general instructions on style/arrangement and, in particular, the reference style of the journal.

Try to give separate title file with full title, running title, Author names and affiliations,Corresponding author address with E-mail and mobile number.Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address.

Original Research Articles Must be submitted under the following headings and order:

• Title: The title should be Concise and informative. Maximum 15 words, Times New Roman font, Bold and font size 14 is permitted..Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Name of the authors with affiliation (designation and work address) and contact details of the corresponding authors. Try to give the details as per our journal style if possible.
• Abstract: A concise and factual abstract is required It should be structured with sub-heading in continuous manner(Background, Objectives, methods, Conclusion) and not exceeding 250 words with5-6 key words (Font Size: 10)
• Text (Times New Roman Font Size 11& single line spacing): Under the headings such as Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Discussion. One line spacing between sub-titles and no spacing between paragraphs and no indent space of first line of the paragraph are suggested.Proper justification is important throughout the article. Bullet points is not encouraged. Do not include Table, Illustrations/Figures in the text and these should be presented towards end of the article.Table, figure numbers to be mentioned in the text. Do not embed ‘graphically designed’ equations or tables, but prepare these using the facility in Word or as a separate file in Excel.

Introduction:

The introduction should give a short and clear account of the background of the problem and state the objectives of the work.

Methods:

The methods must be described in sufficient detail to allow the experiments to be interpreted and repeated by an experienced investigator. Where published methods are used, references should be given, together with a brief outline. The statistical tool used to analyze the data should be mentioned.

Reporting guidelines for specific study designs:

Results:

Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or figures; emphasize or summarize only important observations.

Discussion:
The purpose of the discussion is to present a brief and pertinent interpretation of the results against the background of existing knowledge. Any assumptions on which conclusions are based must be stated clearly. The main conclusions should be conveyed in a final paragraph with a clear statement of how the study advances knowledge and understanding in the field.

• Acknowledgment: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section.Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
• Interest of conflict &Source of funding: It should be given after references.If you have no declaration to make please insert the following statements into your manuscript: Funding: None, Conflict of interest: None declared; Ethical approval: Not required
• References: Vancouver’s style of references to be followed.References should be numbered consecutively as they appear in the text. Reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in superscript after the punctuation marks. All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six should be quoted followed by et al.
• Tables: Must be self-explanatory and numbered according to the order quoted in the text. Short title should be given to the table and it should not duplicate data contained in the text. Tables should be presented after text in Ms.Wordtables(Care needed when copied from Excel/hidden rows & Columns to be removed) and JPEG format.The title with Times New Roman 10 font size(Bold), body with 9font size and foot note if any 8 font size with 1.0 line spacing(all) are preferred.
• Illustration/ Figures: Should be precise and clear with good quality. JPEG format is preferable.
• Articles sent without above specification will be summarily rejected

Publication Charges:

Minimal publication charges applicable for document handling, free web hosting/access etc.bbut there is no submission charges. There is no special charges for coloured figures or tables.

For members of COMFA

• Original Research Article:Rs.2500/-(With applicable Taxes)
• Short Article/Review Article/Letter to editor,etc: Rs.2000/-(With applicable Taxes)

For Non-members

• Original Research Article:Rs.4000/-(With applicable Taxes)
• Short Article/Review Article/Letter to editor,etc: Rs.3000/-(With applicable Taxes)
• Editing or correction after publication: Rs. 350/- each time towards document and website handling.

How to pay publication charges

Authors will receive information about payment of publication fees at the time of acceptance of article. Publication fee has to be paid only if your article gets accepted for publishing. Below are the options for payment of publication charges:

Authors from India:

• Direct Payment:
  • Payment by your net banking a/c (NEFT) to the account given in acceptance letter

Authors from other countries:

• Payment by credit card or debit card through PayPal (Author will receive invoice through PayPal)

Review Process:

Double Blinded Review-All articles sent to two independent reviewers for evaluation one must be from editorial board for coordination. Authors can also recommend some reviwers for their article but finalise the reviewers decided by the chief editor. Article is only accepted by the chief editor based on the recommendations of reviewer. If the paper is not accepted by the first time, the process of resubmission will continue until the paper accepted by the reviewer.

It is strongly advised that Authors provide a list of 3 or 4 potential reviewers (e-mail and phone numbers) who are knowledgeable in the subject matter, have no conflict of interest, and are likely to agree to review the manuscript.

Print Copies:

Hard copies will be sent to corresponding authors. Soft copy of full issue only will be sent to all members of COMFA in the view of reducing association’s printing and postal cost and improve our environment.We offer printed issue of the journal as per author’s request. The actual price of a specific issue depends on total number of pages. If you require a print copy of a specific issue, please send your order by email to dopnjrcm@gmail.com.

Checklist for article Submission:

•  Signed Soft copy of Covering Letter,
•  Signed Soft copy of Declaration form with date and email,
• Title page: Type of article, Full title, Running title, Author names, their affliation& E-Mail, Author’s contribution,Word count of abstract & Main text,Ethical approval details, Corresponding author’s address and e mail and Type of article- original research, short article, editorial, letter to editor etc.
•  Main text (without author’s identifiers):  Title, Abstract, Main text, Tables(MS Word or Excel format), charts&figures towards end
•  Separate attachment of jpeg format of tables and figures as per specification given above with width of 7cm.