Instructions to Authors

Thank you for contributing to the International Journal of College of Palliative Medicine of Sri Lanka. Please read the instructions carefully and observe all the directions given. Failure to do so may result in unnecessary delays in publishing your article.

International Journal of College of Palliative Medicine of Sri Lanka and aims to publish articles that contribute to the improvement and the development of the practice, research, and training in medical education, and related specialties.

The journal publishes human and animal studies. Public health and epidemiologic studies relevant to human and animal, and investigations that employ epigenetic, genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic approaches are encouraged.

The International Journal of College of Palliative Medicine of Sri Lanka is published Ahead of Print and publish quarterly, in February, May, August, and November, and publishes Original Articles, Review Articles, Case Reports, Letter to the Editor and Consensus on nutrition and nutrology. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the «Uniform Requirements for Manu- scripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals» developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors available at http://icmje.org/. All submissions follows double blind peer-review process. Manuscripts can be submitted free of charge (no APCs) through MedNEXT Journal of Medical and Health Science online submission website: https://ijn.zotarellifilhoscientificworks.com/index.php/ijn.

International Journal of College of Palliative Medicine of Sri Lanka also publishes supplements. The symposium organizer needs to provide the topic and content of the symposium to the Editorial Office, including title, location, and date of the meeting; the names and affiliations of potential guest editors; the sponsor(s) of the meeting; the sponsor(s) of the publication; and the pro- gram from the meeting along with the names of the speakers. After that, the individual articles will be submitted to anonymous peer review of each article. To be considered for publication, supplement articles must be received within 3 months of each symposium or workshop.

 

Peer Reviewing Process

The journal follows double blind peer-review process where author does not get to know the identity of the reviewer but reviewer knows about the author.

At least two random reviewers based on their technical and clinical expertise are assigned by the Editor in Chief on each manuscript and the decision is taken based on the comparative reviews which the manuscript receives during the review process.

 

Manuscripts format

The manuscripts must be written in English in an editable format and must have Abstracts and Keywords in English.

Original article: The text should have up to 6.500 words, not including references and tables. It should have up to 5 tables and/or figures. The number of references should not exceed 40. Their structure should contain the following:

Review article: The text should have up to 5.000 words document, not including references and tables, resulting from an investigation that analyzes, systematizes and integrates the results of published or unpublished research, in order to present progresses and developmental trends. Their structure should contain the following:

Short article: The text should have up to 2.000 words document, not including references and tables. A brief document presenting the preliminary (or partial) results of an original scientific or technological research that usually requires quick diffusion. Their structure should contain the following:

Case report: Document that presents the description of a specific case. Includes a review of the topic on similar cases. The text should have up to 1.500 words document, not including references and tables. Their structure should contain the following:

Letters to the editor: The text should have up to 1.000 words document, not including references and tables. Critical, analytical or interpretive positions on documents published in the journal, interesting topics, or articles published in other journals, which in the opinion of the Editor constitute an important contribution to the community. Their structure should contain the following:

Special Numbers: organized after authorization by the Editor-in-chief.

 

General Guidelines

• You must submit a digital copy of your manuscript. Hard copy submissions are not accepted.
• Keep the format of your manuscript simple and clear. We will set your manuscript according to our style - do not try to “design” the document.
• The manuscript, including the title page, abstract and keywords, text, references, figure captions, and tables should be typewritten, double-spaced in 12-point Arial font with double-spaced, with 2 cm margins justified.
• Each figure should be saved as its own separate file. Do not embed figures within the manuscript file. This requires special handling by MetaScience Press’s Production Department.
• Keep abbreviations to a minimum and be sure to explain all of them the first time they are used in the text.
• The manuscripts should be written in English.
• The authors should use Système International (SI) measurements. For clarity, non- metric equivalents may be included in parentheses following the SI measurements.
• Use generic names for drugs. You may cite proprietary names in parentheses along with the name and location of the manufacturer.
• Credit suppliers and manufacturers of equipment, drugs, and other brand-name material mentioned in the manuscript within parentheses, giving the company name and primary location.
• The papers will be submitted to 2 peer reviewers appointed by the Editor-in-chief. Within the next 60 days, the authors will be informed about the acceptance of the material.
• Once accepted, articles might be subject to minor corrections following the editorial rules. Any changes in form, style or interpretation must be authorized by the authors.
• The reviewers might suggest changes be- fore the manuscript publication.
• In case of manuscript rejection, the corresponding author will receive the letter containing the reviewers’ comments on the manuscript.

 

Final correction

The PDF of the accepted manuscripts will be sent to the corresponding author for approval. The final version must be sent back to the editor in two weeks. If the editor does not receive the corrected proofs in 2 weeks, the manuscript will be published, even with no final approval of the authors.

 

Ethics standards

No data or image identifying a patient can be used without formal consent. Also, studies using human beings or animal trials must follow ethical standards from the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors – ICMJE, as well as approval of original institution’s Ethics Committee; conflicts of interest must have a ICMJE form filled in by all authors (available at: http://icmje.org/); commercial marks should be avoided; authors are the sole responsible for opinions and concepts in the published articles, as well as for the reference accuracy.

 

Authorization Letter

The corresponding author should send a letter authorizing publication, signed by all co-authors, ensuring the uniqueness of the publication, ie, the article should not be posted on other news outlets, not be available online. Articles already published in other media should say when and where they were accepted for publication.

 

Standards for articles structure

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments to contributors may be cited at the end of the article, before references.

Format of presentation Title Page

Title

The article title should be short, clear and concise. When necessary, one can use a subtitle title (with a maximum of 50 characters including spaces). The title must be written in English.

Authors

The authors’ full name should come just below the title with the highest degree and affiliation of each author.

Name of Institution

The name of the institution where the work was carried out must be cited and also the authors’ affiliation. Regarding studies presented in meetings, conference or congress, the name of the event should be cited.

 

Conflict of Interest Statement (if any):

All authors (including corresponding and coauthors associated with the manuscript) must make a formal statement at the time of submission indicating any potential conflict of interest that might constitute an embarrassment to any of the authors if it were not to be declared and were to emerge after publication. Such conflicts might include, but are not limited to, share holding in or receipt of a grant or consultancy fee from a company whose product features in the submitted manuscript or which manufactures a competing product. Should the article be accepted for publication, this information will be published with the paper.

Types of conflicts include: Consulting, Royalties, Research Support, Institutional Support, Ownership, Stock/Options, Speakers Bureau, and Fellowship Support. Any commercial entity whose products are described, reviewed, evaluated, or compared in the manuscript, except for those disclosed in the Acknowledgments section, are potential conflicts.

This journal follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and an ICMJE disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (COI) form must be submitted for each author at the time of manuscript submission. Forms must be submitted even if there is no conflict of interest. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy prior to submission.

A conflict of interest statement must also be included in the manuscript after any "Acknowledgements" and "Funding" sections and should summarize all aspects of any conflicts of inter- est included on the ICMJE form. If there is no conflict of interest, authors must include 'Conflict of Interest: none declared'.

Please click https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ ofinterest to download a Conflict of Interest form. The disclosure information is important in article processing. If the provided forms are incomplete or missing, it can cause delays in publishing of article.

 

Informed Consent

The journal adheres to the principles set forth in the Helsinki Declaration and holds that all reported research conducted with human participants should be conducted in accordance with such principles. Reports describing data obtained from research conducted in human participants must contain a statement in the Methods section indicating approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The authors should also indicate whether or not individual consent for the study was obtained, or whether it was waived.

 

Conflicts arising from papers authored by Editorial Board Members

The journal evaluates any submissions from the members of the editorial board purely on merit of the clinical content presented as it does for any other article coming from authors globally. All the articles including articles from Editorial Board members are evaluated via double-blind peer review process, which will ensure that the information of author (s) is not revealed to the reviewers. In doing so, the journal ensures there are no conflict of interests or preferences and selection of articles is purely on its clinical content merit, thus ensuring best ethical standards and practices of peerreview are maintained.

 

Authorship

Authorship will be based on the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): 1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the job; AND 2. Write the work or critically review it for important intellectual content; 3. Final approval of the version to be published; 4. Agreement to be responsible for all aspects of the engagement to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or completeness of any portion of the engagement are properly investigated and resolved. In the case of collective authorship, The names of those responsible for the work will be included followed by “and the Group ...” when all the members of the group consider themselves co-authors of the work. If you want to include the name of the group, although not all its members are considered co-authors, the formula used will be to mention the responsible authors followed by “on behalf of the Group ...” or “by the Group ...”.

In any case, the names and institutions of the group members will be included in an annex at the end of the manuscript. The authors will be noted both on the first page of the title and in the Add/Edit/Remove/Author section. Declaration that they have read and approved the manuscript and that the requirements for authorship have been met. The Journal declines any responsibility for possible conflicts derived from the authorship of the works published in the Journal.

 

Publishing Permissions

The authors are responsible for obtaining the appropriate permissions to partially reproduce material (text, tables or figures) from other publications.

These permissions must be requested both from the author and from the Publishing House that has published said material.

Publishing permission is required from the institution that has funded the research. Declaration that the content of the article is original and that it has not been previously published or sent or submitted to any other publication, in its entirety or in any of its parts. The authors should be aware that not revealing that the material submitted for publication has already been totally or partially published constitutes a serious breach of scientific ethics. Likewise, authors who reproduce previously published materials in their article (text, tables or figures) are responsible for obtaining the appropriate permissions to reproduce said materials in the journal. The authors must have obtained written authorization from both the author and the publisher that has published this material and send a copy of them together with the article to the Journal.

 

Redundant or duplicate publication

The editors and International Journal of College of Palliative Medicine of Sri Lanka combat plagiarism, double publication, and scientific misconduct with the software CrossCheck powered by iThenticate. Your manuscript may be subject to an investigation and retraction if plagiarism is suspected.

The journal does not accept previously published material and will not consider manuscripts that are simultaneously submitted to other journals, or redundant or duplicate publications, that is, articles that substantially overlap with another already published, printed or in the electronic media. Authors must inform in the cover letter about previous submissions or publications of the same work, in whole or in part, that may be considered redundant or duplicate publication.

These restrictions do not apply to published abstracts of communications, papers or conferences presented at national or international scientific meetings.

 

Mailing Address

Repeat the name of the corresponding author and add your full address, phone and email.

 

References

Limit to 40 references for original articles, 25 for case reports and 100 for review articles. Refer- ences should be arranged in the text in the order they are cited and presented in numerical order of appearance in the text as superscript numbers. The references should be the most updated references in the area. References of textbooks with more than 5 years should be limited to those that are fundamental. Mention all authors up to a total of 6. If the article has more than 6 authors, cite only the first 6 followed by et al (preceded by a comma). When the quote is an article already accepted for publication, include the phrase “in process of publication,” indicating the journal and year. Unpublished results or studies presented at medical conferences are not recommended for citation.

If the reference is an organization its name should be cited. Example: World Health Organization.

 

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted through IJN’s online submission website: https://ijn.zotarellifilhoscientificworks.com/index.php/ijn.

Use the guidelines from Instructions to Authors to prepare your submission. All correspondence should be with the Regional Editorial Offices. If a paper is accepted, the Production Office will correspond with the author via e-mail.

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission‘s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
• The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.

 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.