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HJEGS | Instructions for Authors

Introduction

Authors should read the instructions carefully before submitting their manuscripts. Authors should also use the appropriate reporting guidelines in preparing their manuscripts.

Before You Start

Cover letter
The cover letter should include the corresponding author's full address, affiliation, telephone/fax numbers and should be sent as e-mail to the editor with the manuscript attached as a file bearing the surname of the corresponding author.

Publication Ethics

Please see our information pages on Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics.

Research Ethics

Studies involving human subjects should be conducted according to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Studies involving non-human animals should follow appropriate ethical guidelines such as the Animal Welfare ActThe Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (Amendment) Order 1993The EU parliament directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes,  ARRP policies and guidelines, etc.

Disclosure of conflict of interest

Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the study.

Reporting guideline

Responsible reporting of research studies, which includes a complete, transparent, accurate and timely account of what was done and what was found during a research study, is an integral part of good research and publication practice and not an optional extra.

Submission 
All manuscripts must be in English, in MS Word format, tables and figures should be included in a single Microsoft Word file, preferably in Arial font and should be submitted via our online system. http://heraldjournals.org/manuscript.aspx. To avoid unnecessary errors, authors should use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your word processor. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the articles emanating from a particular institution are submitted with the approval of the institution. Only an acknowledgment from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt of manuscript. Subsequent correspondence and proofs will be sent to the corresponding author before publication unless otherwise indicated. Upon receipt, a manuscript is assigned a reference number which will be mailed to the corresponding author within 48 hours. 
Submit manuscripts as e-mail attachment to the editorial office at [email protected],  [email protected] and [email protected].

Submission declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

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. The Journal limits authors to a maximum of eight. Exceptions to this rule will require justification and approval by the Editor-in-Chief. One person should be designated as the lead author. If authorship is attributed to a group of individuals, each individual must achieve the criteria for authorship described below.

Authorship Criteria

In order to meet authorship criteria, each author must have participated sufficiently in the work of the study and manuscript to acknowledge publicly responsibility for the manuscript. At least one author must be able to take public responsibility for the entire work, from idea to complete manuscript. Academic Pediatrics follows published uniform recommendations for criteria for authorship (see references). All three of the following criteria must be met for authorship:
1. Substantial involvement and contribution to the idea or the study question, or to the study design, or to the fieldwork component, or to the analysis, or to the interpretation of study findings; and
2. Writing drafts of the manuscript, or reviewing drafts or revisions critically with substantial input; and
3. Approval of the final version of the manuscript.

Acceptance Criteria

Relevance to readers (esp., educators, scientists, policymakers, and clinicians) is of major importance in manuscript selection. Reports of original research will be judged on the importance and originality of the research; the scientific strength; the relevance to clinical care, programs, education, or policy; the clarity with which it is presented, and the novelty of the new knowledge it adds. The Journal does not publish clinical case reports. Education interventions must include an evaluation component, preferably one that goes beyond increasing knowledge to assessing and demonstrating whether the intervention changes learners' behavior, skills, or potentially health care quality or outcomes. Multi-site education innovations are generally reviewed more favorably than single site experiments.

Preparing Your Manuscript

General structure for articles should follow the IMRAD structure.

Title 
The title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper. The Title Page should include the authors' full names and affiliations, phone, fax and e-mail information. Current addresses of authors should appear as footnote.

Abstract 
The abstract should be informative and succinct. The subject matter should be briefly presented, state the scope of the subject matter, indicate the methodology, and point out major findings and conclusions. The abstract should be prepared with an unstructured or structured format with a maximum of 250 words in length. Complete sentences, active verbs, the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. Keywords should be less than 8.

Introduction 
The introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of scientific disciplines.

Materials and Methods 
Materials and methods should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. New procedures should be described in detail.

Results/Discussion
Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in past tense when describing findings. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the results but should be put into the discussion section.

Acknowledgements 
Contributors to the research other than the authors credited should be mentioned under acknowledgements. The specifications of the source of funding for the research if applicable can be included. The Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be brief.

Abbreviations
Recommended SI units should be used. However, non-standard abbreviations can be introduced. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelt out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text.

Tables 
Tables should be kept to a minimum and be presented as simple as possible and should be double-spaced. Each table should be numbered serially in Arabic numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the methods used in the experiments should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph forms or repeated in the text.

Figure Legends 
Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint before pasting on Microsoft Word manuscript file. Figure legends should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

References
In the text, a reference identified by means of an author‘s name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the information in each reference is complete and accurate. All references should be cited within the text; otherwise, these references will be automatically removed. References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication. References should be double-spaced and generally not exceed 35. Journal names are abbreviated according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references. Below are some list of correct and wrong references format.

Reference to a journal publication:

Correct format:
Abbasi FM, Ahmad H, Perveen F, Inamullah, Sajid M, Brar DS (2010). Assesment of genomic relationship between Oryza sativa and Oryza australiensis. Afr. J. Biotechnol. 9(12): 1312-1316.

Xu YW, Liu L, Zhao D, Zou YT, Zeng JW, Wu W (2011a). Aliphatic aldehyde rich volatile constituents of Houttuyania cordata from southwest China. J. Med. Plants Res., 5: 5844-5847.

Xu YW, Zou YT, Husaini AM, Zeng JW, Guan LL, Liu Q, Wu W (2011b). Optimization of potassium for proper growth and physiological response of Houttuynia cordata Thunb. Environ. Exp. Bot., 71:292-297.

Shahyar HA, Salamatdoust_nobar R, Lak A, Lotfi AR (2011). Effect of dietary supplemented canola oil and poultry fat on the performance and carcass characterozes of broiler knekcihc . Current. Res. J. Biol. Sci., 3: 388-392.

Wrong format:
Hussain, S.; Ghaffar, A. and M. Aslam (1990): Biological control of Macrophomina phaseolina charcoal rot of sunflower and mung bean. Egypt, J. Phytopathol., 130: 157-160.

Wrong format:
F.M. Abbasi, H. Ahmad, F. Perveen, P.W. Inamullah, M. Sajid, and D.S. Brar, Assesment of genomic relationship between Oryza sativa and Oryza australiensis. African Journal of Biotechnology, (2010). Vol. 9, Num 12: 1312-1316.

Reference to a book:
Strunk W,White EB (1979).The elements of style.(3rd ed.).New York: Macmillan,(Chapter 4).

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam GR, Adams LB (1994). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In Jones BS, Smith RZ (Eds.). Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.

Charles AL, Sriroth K, Huang TC (2005). Proximate composition,mineral contents, hydrogen cyanide and phytic acid of 5 cassava genotypes. Food Chem. 92: 615-620.

Citing References in the Text 
Whenever citing a reference in the text, the reference is made using the author’s surname and the year of publication.

Citing works by more than one Author 
If your source has two authors, you should include both names in the text. For example, Anderson and Peterson (2000)

Citing works by three or more Authors 
If there are three or more authors, you should include the first named author and then add ‘et al.’ in italics followed by a full stop. For example, (Kline et al., 2003)

Citing Secondary Sources 
When citing secondary sources (i.e., an author refers to a work which you have not read) cite the secondary source, but include the name of the author and date of publication of the original source in the text. Only the secondary source should be listed in your List of references. You should only cite secondary sources if you are unable to read the original source yourself. For example, Sheriff (1993) notes that Nintendo invested heavily in advertising (cited in Kline et al., 2003, p.118).

After Acceptance

Acceptance Certificate

Authors are issued an Acceptance Certificate for manuscripts that have been reviewed and accepted for publication by an editor.

Payment of manuscript handling fee

Once a manuscript has been accepted, the corresponding author will be contacted to make the necessary payment of the manuscript handling fee of $350. Kindly note that payment is only for manuscripts that have been accepted for publication.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Herald now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download the free Adobe Reader, version 9 (or higher). Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Herald in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and scan the pages and return via e-mail. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Publication

Once proofs are received at the editorial office, the manuscripts are usually included in the next issue of the journal. The article will thereafter be published on the journal’s website.

Publication Notification

After the article is made available on the journal’s website, a publication notice is sent to the corresponding author with links to the issue and article.

Author Inquiries

Visit our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to find out more and ways to get in touch.