Manuscript Preparation

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Manuscript Sections should include

• Cover Letter
• Title Page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgement
• Declarations
• References
• Tables
• Figures

Note: Tables and Illustrations (Figures) should be provided at the end of the manuscript after the “References” section.

Units of Measurement, Abbreviations and Symbols are to be included in the body of the text, wherever required.

The basic structure of an Original Research Paper usually follows “IMRAD” structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Sub-headings are provided within these sections to further organize their content.

Other types of articles like Reviews, Short Communications etc. may be organized in a different format; but the content must be properly structured in different sections with suitable headings and sub-headings. Case reports, Opinions, Editorials, and Letters to Editors etc. may have less structured or unstructured formats.

Cover Letter

Cover Letter should be addressed to Journal Editor-In-Chief or Managing Editor of specific journal. It should explain how the research is novel and why the manuscript should be published in the journal.

It requires specific statements to be included:

• Conflict of interest
• Funding details
• Authorship details
• Clinical trial registration (If required)
• Deposition of sequence data into public databases

Title Page

Manuscript title page includes the article title and author information. It should also include any disclaimers, sources of support, word count, and the number of tables and figures (wherever applicable).

a) Article Title: The word limit of the title should not exceed 15 words (or 90-100 characters). The title of the manuscript should be concise yet descriptive. It (in conjunction with the abstract) should make electronic retrieval of the article sensitive and specific.

b) Author information: The title page should provide the corresponding author’s telephone number, fax number and e-mail address. Each author's highest academic degrees, name of the department(s)/ /institution(s)/organizations where they work should be listed, their email ids and contact numbers.

c) *Corresponding Author:
Peter Melvin, PhD, Professor, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, 1295, N Martin Ave, PO Box 210202, Tucson, USA, Tel.: +530-526-1629; Fax: +530-526-1739.
E-mail address: pmelv@colpharmacy.az

d) Disclaimers: If the authors wish they can provide a disclaimer that the views expressed in the submitted article are his or her own and not an official position of the institution or funder.

e) Source(s) of support: If the authors wish, they can provide information about the source(s) of support for equipment, drugs, and/or other materials/laboratories requirements that facilitated the work described in the article or the writing of the article itself.

f) Word count: The authors should list the total word count for the manuscript main text, (excluding its abstract, acknowledgments, tables, figure legends, and references). Separate word count should be given for the Abstract.

Abstract

The abstract needs to be structured properly and should describe the context/background for the research conducted. It should state why the proposed study/research was performed and how it is different from the work that has already been done in that particular field. It should also disclose the procedures, findings and the conclusions.

a) Keywords
The major keywords that highlight the significance of the study and emphasize the study need to be mentioned.
Abbreviations can be listed as keywords, in such a case they should be written in Upper Case.

b) Abbreviations
Only standard abbreviations are allowed; abbreviations are to be avoided 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.

Introduction

Introduction should provide the context of the study. It should briefly describe the research work that has already been conducted in that particular field. It should clearly state the purpose/objective of the research work/study. Introduction must emphasize on the significance of the research; and how the research being undertaken is different from the pre-existing work. Only pertinent references should be cited. Utmost care should be taken to avoid the data or conclusions from the work being reported.

Methods

The methods section should elaborate the protocol of the study, the experimental design, the techniques used, specific materials and instruments required for the purpose of the study. This section should clearly specify how and why the study was performed in that particular way.

The methods section should only include experimental details that were listed in the protocol before starting the experiments; all information obtained during the study should be provided in the Results section. Particular details and/or practices for new approaches have to be mentioned. Proper citations should be provided for using standard protocols; and detailed protocols should be provided for new methods.

Results

The results must be presented in order of their significance. Results should be given in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. Only the most important findings should be summarized. Results for all the outcomes identified in the Methods Section should be given.

Tables and Figures should be provided, if they are essential to explain the results/to assess supporting data. Tables with too many entries can alternatively be represented by a graph.

Discussions

The main findings of the study should be linked with the purpose of the study. This section should aim at providing the conclusions from the study; and interpret the data generated from the study to derive these conclusions. The data from the other part of the manuscript like Introduction/Results section should not be repeated in detail. For Original Research Papers or other such manuscripts involving experimental studies, the discussion section should open with a brief summary of the main findings. The results should then be compared with other similar studies. Discussion section should aim at emphasizing how your work is innovative and how it can be relevant for future advancement and research in the concerned field.

Acknowledgements

Authors need to provide the funding details and the grant numbers (if any). They might acknowledge their supported work.

Declarations

It requires specific statements to be included:

a) Conflict of Interest: All authors must disclose the details of any association of financial/professional/personal with other Institutes/Organizations/Universities that could have an unwarranted effect on their work. Employment, Honoraria, Patent Applications/Registrations, and Grants are some of the examples of potential conflicts of interest. Please state NA; if there is no conflict of interest.

b) Ethical Approval: Studies involving animal testing and clinical trials on humans require ethical approval. The details regarding the ethical approval should be provided in the Declarations section (whether approval has been given, name of the relevant ethics committee and the reference number for their judgment). Please state NA; if no work requiring ethical approval was conducted.

c) Clinical trial registration: The trials conducted on human subjects should follow proper protocol for conducting and reporting of these trials. Studies on human patients/volunteers require approval from the concerned ethical committee; and fully informed written consent.
Authors should confirm at the time of the submission process that written consent has been obtained.

References

All the references should clearly mention the names of the author, title of the reference article/book, name of the journal/publisher, year of publication, volume number (with issue no. in brackets, if applicable)/edition and page number. Authors need to provide the reference number in the body of the text as Arabic numeral; the number is enclosed in Square Bracket [ ]. References are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first cited in the text.

For ex.,
Handovers are critical for a safe, reliable and efficient healthcare system [1]. Please refer http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html for details of referencing style and formats (ICMJE recommendations http://www.icmje.org).

Tables/Figures

Tables should be uploaded at the end of the document after the “References section”. Tables should have a short descriptive title, should be numbered in Arabic numerals, and cited in the text. Symbols and abbreviations represented in the table should be explained in footnotes, below the table. For ex:

The results from the In-Vitro dissolution testing are presented in Table 1. Figures should be uploaded at the end of the document after the “Tables”. A suitable title and short explanation should be provided in figure legends. Figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals and cited in the text. Good quality image should be provided.