Information for authors

License to publish

Information for authors

1. Papers submitted to the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal (EMHJ) for publication must not have been published, accepted for publication, or currently being considered for publication by another journal or elsewhere.

2. Papers submitted for publication to the EMHJ should conform with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

3. Ethical considerations: Where applicable, a statement must be included indicating that approval for the study was granted by the ethics committee/institutional review board of the relevant institution. Authors should verify where appropriate that all persons on whom the research has been carried out have given their voluntary, informed, written consent, and where participants (living or dead) were unable to give such consent, that surrogate consent was obtained. Authors may be requested to supply such consent forms.

4. Conflict of interest: Authors are requested to provide details of any competing interests and funding. Please see the ICMJE recommendations for more information on this.

5. Reporting guidelines: EMHJ recommends that authors adhere to the best research protocols available and follow established reporting guidelines. Reporting guidelines are available at the EQUATOR Network (http://www.equator-network.org/). The key guidelines for research in the field of public health are: CONSORT (guidelines for reporting randomized trials), STROBE (guidelines for reporting observational studies), PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), STARD (Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy), COREQ (Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research), CARE (guideline for clinical case report), and the COCHRANE handbook (for systematic reviews of interventions). Links to these sites and other useful resources are available under “Useful resources for authors and reviewers” (http://www.emro.who.int/emh-journal/links/).

6. In accordance with the WHO and ICMJE recommendations, EMHJ requires registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry as a condition for considering papers for publication. Authors should register in one of the clinical trials registries certified by WHO and ICMJE, which are available at the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/).

7. Submission: Original papers written in Arabic, English or French may be submitted for consideration through our online submission system. Instructions on how to access and submit a manuscript through the online system is available at: http://www.emro.who.int/emh-journal/authors/.

8. Abstracts of papers accepted for publication will be translated into the other two languages. To ensure the correct spelling of authors’ names, full names of all authors should be provided in Arabic for papers written in English or French.

9. Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word format double-spaced, single column, preferably using Times New Roman script, font size 12.

10. All papers being considered for publication will be peer-reviewed. The Editorial Board reserves the right to accept or reject any paper based on the reviewers’ comments, scientific rigor, and suitability for the journal. Papers are accepted may be subject to statistical and editorial revision as deemed necessary, including abridgement of the text and omission of tabular or graphic material.

11. Topics: Papers to be considered for publication in the journal must address a public health or related biomedical or technical issue within the scope of interest of the WHO, and should be relevant to the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

12. The title of the paper should be as concise as possible, preferably not more than 15 words. All authors must have made material contribution to the design, analysis or writing of the study and have approved the final version submitted. No change in authorship will be permitted after the paper has been accepted for publication and any change before this must be agreed by all authors listed. Authors may be requested to verify their contribution. Names of other contributors may be included in the acknowledgements. Please see the ICMJE recommendations for authorship and contributorship.

13. Structured abstracts: Submissions should include a structured abstract in this format: Background, Aims, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. The abstract should not exceed 250 words.

14. Research articles: Papers reporting original research findings should follow this format: Abstract, Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. The text of research articles and reports should not exceed 3000 words (excluding references). The maximum number of references permitted is 35 and must include DOIs if available. The number of tables and figures should not exceed 5.

15. Review articles: i.e. critical assessments of research on topics of relevance to public health in the Region. These should contain sections dealing with objectives, sources, methods of selection, compilation and interpretation of data, and conclusions. The text should not exceed 3000 words (excluding the accompanying abstract, references, tables, and figures), and should be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 250 words. The number of tables and figures should not exceed 5.

16. Reports: i.e. papers reporting on projects of public health relevance to the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Manuscript specifications (length, references, tables/ figures) are the same as a research article, but the abstract should be structured and not more than 150 words.

17. Short research communications: Articles which do not constitute a complete research study but are of relevance or importance to public health in the Region may be considered for publication. The text should not exceed 1500 words (excluding references) and should be accompanied by a structured abstract of not more than 150 words. The number of tables and figures should not exceed 3.

18. Commentaries: i.e. papers reporting on research/issues of public health relevance to the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Manuscript specifications (references, tables/figures) are the same as in a short research communication, but maximum length is 1000 words. The abstract should be structured and should not exceed 150 words.

19. Case reports: Only reports of cases of an unusual nature are considered for publication. Text should include an introduction, the report of the case(s) and a discussion. The text should not exceed 1500 words and the number of references kept to a minimum. The abstract should not exceed 150 words.

20. Letters to the Editor: Letters commenting on published articles are welcome. Letters will be sent to the authors of the original article for their comments, and these will be published along with the letter. The text of letters should not exceed 500 words.

21. Editorials: Editorials are commissioned; unsolicited submissions are usually not accepted. If commissioned, an editorial should be 800 words long and supported by 8–10 references.

22. References: EMHJ uses the Vancouver referencing style. In-text citations of published works should be limited to essential up-to-date references. These should be numbered separately as they occur in the text with sequential Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g. (1,5–8) and should appear in a numbered references list on a separate page after the main text of the paper. Each reference must contain the following elements: name(s) and initial(s) of author(s); title of paper or book in its original language; for research articles, abbreviated name of journal plus volume number and page range; for books and other texts, place of publication (city and country) and name of publisher (commercial or institutional); date of publication and DOI number; for text available on the internet, exact URL of the page cited and date when last accessed. For text with up to 6 authors, all authors must be named. For texts with more than 6 authors, the first 6 authors should be named followed by “et al”. The following are examples of the Journal’s preferred style:

Example of a book reference

Al Hamza B, Smith A. The fifth sign of identity. Cairo: American University Press; 1990. 34 p. (Add DOI or weblink if available).

Example of a journal article reference

Rehmani R, Elzubair AG, Al Maani M, Chaudary IY, Al Qarni A, Khasshogi T et al. Population-based health survey in eastern region of Saudi Arabia. East Mediterr Health J. 2013; 19(5):417–425. (Add DOI or weblink if available).

Example of a published document reference

Al-Itneen M, editors. The principles of uncertainty. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1985 (WHO/ DOC/537). 280 p. (Add DOI or weblink if available).

Example of a thesis reference

Smith S. Use of healthcare services by the elderly with the introduction of technical innovations.

London: Drake University; 2013. (Add DOI or weblink if available).

23. Figures, tables and illustrations for the paper should be on separate pages and should be captioned and numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals. Each figure, table or illustration must be referred to in the text. Where appropriate, sources should be provided. If any figures, tables or illustration were copied from other sources, authors have the sole responsibility for securing the required permission. To avoid problems with layout for final production, only few tables, figures and illustrations should be included and must be submitted in editable formats, preferably in Microsoft Excel. Figures derived from data must be accompanied by those data, e.g. Excel data sheet, to enable the graphic designer to redraw if necessary. Photographs and illustrations should be sent as separate high-resolution printable files, in addition to placing them in the text. The preferred format is JPG, TIFF or PNG; resolution should be minimum 300 dpi.

24. Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned to the authors for correction before being considered for peer-review.