Information for authors
1. Manuscript preparation and submission: Manuscripts can be submitted to the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal (EMHJ) in Arabic, English or French through the journal’s online submission platform on editorial manager. Instructions on how to access the platform and submit a manuscript is available at: http://www.emro.who.int/emh-journal/authors/. To be considered for publication, manuscripts must address a public health or related biomedical issue within the scope of interest of the World Health Organization and the public health research community and should be relevant to health issues in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The manuscript must not have been published, accepted for publication, or currently being considered for publication by another journal or any other publication. The manuscript 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). All manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word, double-spaced, single column, preferably using Times New Roman font size 12. The title of the manuscript should be as concise as possible, preferably not more than 15 words.
2. Authorship and license to publish: All authors must have made material and intellectual contribution to the design and analysis of the study or to the writing of the manuscript and must have approved the final version being submitted. All the names of authors must be listed in the license to publish, which each author must personally sign before uploading to the EMHJ platform. No change in authorship will be permitted after the paper has been accepted for publication, and any change before acceptance must be agreed by all authors listed. Authors may be requested to verify their contribution. Other contributors who have not contributed enough to be listed as authors may be listed in the acknowledgement. Please see the ICMJE recommendations for authorship and contribution.
3. Ethics considerations: All manuscripts being submitted as original research article or short research communication must include a statement indicating which ethics committee or institutional review board granted approval for the study, including the approval number. They should also include statements indicating how informed consent was obtained from the study participants, whether they are adults, minors or individuals (living or dead) who are under the care of other persons or institutions and are unable to give such consent by themselves. If your research did not require ethics approval, please state this in the manuscript with clear reasons. You will be required to confirm this during the process of submission.
4. Conflict of interest: Authors should provide information about any funding for their research work and indicate if there were any competing interests. Please see the ICMJE recommendations for more information on this.
5. Reporting guidelines: Authors must adhere to the best research protocols available and follow established reporting guidelines as indicated by the Equator Network (http:// www.equator- network.org/); 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. Registration of clinical trials: In accordance with the WHO and ICMJE recommendations, every research involving clinical trials must be registered in a public trials registry for the manuscripts reporting them to be considered for publication. And such registry must be one of the clinical trials registries certified by WHO and ICMJE. An updated list of such registries is available at the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/).
7. Similarity check: EMHJ conducts similarity check on manuscripts submitted for publication using anti-plagiarism software. Any manuscript found to have high similarity index will be rejected, authors are therefore advised to ensure that their manuscripts contain their original work that has not been published elsewhere.
8. Abstracts: All abstracts must be structured into: Background, Aim(s), Methods, Results, and Conclusion and should not exceed 250 words, summarizing the key points of the manuscript. Abstracts will be translated into the other two languages, therefore, to ensure correct spelling, all authors’ names should be provided in Arabic and English.
9. Peer-review: All manuscripts being considered for publication will be peer-reviewed. The decision to accept or reject a manuscript will be based on the reviewers’ comments, scientific rigor, suitability for the journal, and recommendation by the editorial board. Manuscripts that have been peer-reviewed may be subject to statistical review and all accepted manuscripts will be subjected to editorial revision, including editing and re-ordering of text where necessary.
10. Original research articles: Manuscripts reporting original research should include Abstract, Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussion that correctly interprets the findings, and Conclusion. The text should not exceed 3000 words (excluding references) and the references should not exceed 35. The number of tables and figures should not exceed 5.
11. Review articles: Review articles include critical assessments of research on topics of relevance to public health. They should include Abstract, Background, Objectives, Methods that includes the sources of materials used for the review, Results, Discussion that correctly interprets the findings, and Conclusion. The search strategy must be clearly stated in the methods section. 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. Review articles should have not more than 70 references.
12. Reports: Reports are papers reporting projects or interventions of public health relevance. Such manuscripts should include Abstract, Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. They should have not more than 35 references, should not be more than 3000 words and should have not more than 5 tables and figures.
13. Short research communication: Short research communication articles are research reports which do not constitute a complete research study but are of relevance or importance to public health. The text should not exceed 2000 words (excluding references) and should include Abstract, Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. It should be accompanied by a structured abstract of not more than 250 words. The number of tables and figures should not be more than 3 and they should have not more than 35 references.
14. Commentaries: Commentaries are manuscripts expressing opinions and perspectives about public health issues of relevance to the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The text should not exceed 1500 words (excluding references) and not more than 20 references. Commentaries should not have abstract, and if they contain tables and figures these should not be more than 3.
15. Policy briefs: Policy briefs are manuscripts developed to support policymaking by presenting policy options based on evidence. They should be 1500 words long with up to 20 references. Policy briefs should not have abstracts and should follow the template provided by WHO at this link: https:// applications.emro.who.int/docs/9789292741907-eng.pdf?ua=1.
16. Case reports: Only reports of cases of an unusual nature that are of public health significance will be considered for publication. The text should include an abstract, an introduction explaining the context and providing relevant background information, the report of the case, and a discussion. The text should not exceed 1500 words and should not have more than 20 references. Submissions for a case report should include a consent form signed by the subject.
17. Letters to the editor: Letters commenting on published articles or a relevant public health issue are welcome. Letters commenting on a published article will be sent to the authors of the original article for their comments, and these will be published along with the original letter. The text of letters should not exceed 500 words, with up to 5 relevant references.
18. Editorials: EMHJ editorials are usually commissioned; unsolicited submissions will not be accepted. If commissioned, an editorial should be 800 words long and supported by up to 20 references.
19. References: EMHJ uses the Vancouver referencing style. In-text citations of published works should be limited to essential and up-to-date references, which should be numbered separately as they occur in the text with sequential italic 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 references available online without a DOI, the exact URL of the page cited should be included. For references with up to 6 authors, all authors must be named and for references with more than 6 authors, only 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).
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. (Add DOI or weblink).
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).
20. Figures, tables and illustrations: All figures, tables and illustrations should have a caption and should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals. Each figure, table or illustration should be referenced in the text. If any figure, table or illustration was copied from other sources, authors have the sole responsibility for securing the required permission. All tables, figures and illustrations should be submitted in editable format, preferably in the original software used to create them or in Microsoft Excel. Photographs and image illustrations should be sent as separate high-resolution JPG, TIFF or PNG printable files, at least 300 dpi, in addition to placing them in the manuscript.
20. Supplementary materials: EMHJ will not publish supplementary materials such as tables, figures or text, therefore, no supplementary materials should be submitted.
21. Compliance with the guidelines: Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned to the authors for correction before being considered for peer-review or rejection.
