International Scholar Journal (ISJ)

Authors Guidelines

Instructions to Authors
International Scholar Journal (ISJ) is a quarterly Journal, which publishes original research work that contributes significantly to further the scientific knowledge in Pharmacy, Nursing, Paramedical, Life and Allied Sciences and Management Studies.

Journal does not charge the authors or authors’ institutions for the submission of manuscripts. The Journal levy processing and/or publications of manuscript and for colour reproduction of colour images/photographs/figures, which are applicable only after final acceptance of the manuscript.

Submission of a manuscript to International Scholar Journal for publication implies that the same work has not been either published or under consideration for publication in another Journal. Authors, in their cover note to the Editor, have to clearly mention whether the manuscript shall be considered as a Research Paper, Short Communication or Review Article and also confirm that the manuscript has not been submitted to any other Journal for publication. Authors publishing results from in vivo experiments involving animals or humans should state whether due permission for conduction of these experiments was obtained, from the relevant ethics committees, in the Materials and Methods section. In addition, authors wishing to publish research work involving human studies should also send a notary verified letter of approval from the Ethics Committee or the Institutional Review Board.

Authors desirous of submitting manuscripts for publication to the International Scholar Journal are advised to refer to the current issue of the Journal to understand the format and style of papers that get published. Authors are also advised to go through the current set of Instructions to Authors and prepare their manuscripts accordingly. Information should be conveyed in simple language with the correct syntax. Care should be taken to avoid common errors like having abbreviations in the Title or Abstract, beginning a sentence with a numeral, adding “etc.” after a few examples, dropping articles and using “&” instead of ‘and’ in the text. The usage of standard abbreviations and symbols is encouraged. Manuscripts that fail to conform to the requirements of the Journal, as specified under Instructions to Authors, will be rejected outright.

Peer Review Process
Once a manuscript is received, it is screened thoroughly to evaluate that it is within the scope of the journal, and prepared according to the format, usually followed by a plagiarism check. Manuscripts that fail to conform to the requirements of the journal, as specified under “Instructions to Authors”, will be rejected. Those manuscripts that meet the specified requirements of the journals are subsequently assigned to an Editor for further processing.

The Editor assigns a minimum of 3 potential reviewers to access the suitability of the scientific content for publishing. The editor’s decision of acceptance, rejection or request for revision of the manuscript is strictly based on the comments of at least two reviewers.

Essential title page information
Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations: Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript number immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Structured abstract
Authors of original scientific papers must supply a structured abstract of no more than 250 words under the following sub-headings:
Objective: include the specific study aims or hypothesis
Methods: include study design, setting, patients, interventions and main outcome measures.
Results: give numerical data rather than vague statements that drug x produced a better response than drug y. Favour confidence intervals over p-values, and give the numerical data on which any p-value is based. Include absolute as well as relative risk numerical data.
Conclusions: do not make any claims that are not supported by data in the paper.
Do not cite references in the abstract. Limit the use of abbreviations and acronyms.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 key words. Be sparing with abbreviations. These key words will be used for indexing purposes, and therefore should be different than the terms/words already used in the title of the paper.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations of common terms (e.g., ECG, PTCA, CABG) or acronyms (GUSTO, SOLVD, TIMI) may be used throughout the manuscript. List the selected abbreviations and their definitions (e.g., TEE: Transesophageal Echocardiography).

Human and Animal Rights Policy
Human experimentation: Studies should comply with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the research protocol must be approved by the locally appointed ethics committee. Informed consent must be obtained from the subjects (or their legally authorized representative). These facts must be stated in the manuscript.

If the study involves experiments on animals, the author/s should clearly state that the experimental study protocol has been approved by the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee constituted as per the guidelines laid by the committee for the purpose of control and supervision of experiments on Animals.

Informed Patient Consent
Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ISJ recommendations for reporting about patients. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without prior informed consent.

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.

Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential, but patient data should never be altered or falsified to attain anonymity. A statement addressing informed patient consent must be included as part of the manuscript.

Article structure
Subdivision - unnumbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Each subsection is given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. The Introduction should lead the reader to the importance of the study; tie-up published literature with the aims of the study and clearly states the rationale behind the investigation.

Material and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. All important materials used along with their source shall be mentioned. The main methods used shall be briefly described, citing references. Trivial details may be avoided. New methods or substantially modified methods may be described in sufficient detail. The statistical method and the level of significance chosen shall be clearly stated.

Drugs and therapeutic agents
Refer to drugs and therapeutic agents by their accepted generic or chemical names, and do not abbreviate them. Use code numbers only when a generic name is not yet available. In that case, the chemical name and a figure giving the chemical structure of the drug is required. Copyright or trade names of drugs should be capitalized and placed in parentheses after the name of the drug. Names and locations (city and state in the country) of manufacturers of drugs, supplies, or equipment cited in a manuscript are required to comply with trademark law and should be provided in parentheses.

Brand names
If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state in the country).

A Statistical Methods Section must be included where relevant. This should include the statistical
methods used with sufficient clarity for the findings to be reproduced by independent analysis of the
dataset, a statement on how the data presented were selected including prospective sample size
calculations, the reasons for including/excluding subjects or data points, and what steps the authors
have taken, if any, to exclude intentional or unintentional bias in recruitment, measurement, data
retention, analysis, reporting and comment.

Results
Results should be clear and concise. All findings presented in tabular or graphical form shall be described in this section. The data should be statistically analyzed and the level of significance stated. Data that is not statistically significant need only to be mentioned in the text - no illustration is necessary. All Tables and figures must have a title or caption and a legend to make them self-explanatory. Results section shall start after materials and methods section.

Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature. Discussion should follow results, deal with the interpretation of results, convey how they help increase current understanding of the problem and should be logical. Unsupported hypothesis should be avoided. The Discussion should state the possibilities the results uncover, that need to be further explored.

Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references. Individuals with direct involvement in the study but not included in authorship may be acknowledged.

Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest arises when the author, reviewer, or editor has any financial or personal interests that may influence the final decision-making process. The journal insists on submission to declare about the conflict of interest if any by authors. The author is expected to disclose this before publishing any article. The author should declare that the content submitted to the journal or the similar content under his/her authorship is not submitted for consideration or published elsewhere.
If no conflict of interest exists for the research, please include the following sentence:
The authors and planners have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.

References
Limit references to directly pertinent published works or papers that have been accepted for publication. Number references serially in the text and list them at the end of the paper in numerical order. Should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by numerals in square brackets. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below. Use complete name of the journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, contributors should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.

Articles in Journals
Nakagawa, Takahiko, et al. "The conundrum of hyperuricemia, metabolic syndrome, and renal disease." Internal and Emergency Medicine Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008, pp. 313-18.

Books and Other Monographs
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Chang, Alfred E., et al., eds. Oncology: An Evidence-Based Approach. Springer Science & Business Media, 2007.
Chapter in a book: Agrawal, Manish, et al. "Ethics of Clinical Oncology Research." Oncology: An Evidence-Based Approach, edited by Alfred E. Chang, et al. Springer Science & Business Media, 2007, pp. 127-42.
Print thesis: Ali, Younes Saleh. Hepatitis Virus Markers of the Population in The Southern Plain Region of Hungary; Perinatal and/or Transplacental Transmission of Viruses. 2007. National Center of Epidemiology, Division of Virology, Budapest, Hungary. PhD dissertation.
Thesis accessed online: Horst, Cody J. Predicting Medical Diagnoses from Pharmaceutical Claims Data. 2017. University of Washington. Master thesis. ResearchWorks, https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/40423.

Entire website
National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Health: Turning Discovery into Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, https://www.nih.gov/. Accessed 28 Oct. 2016.
A page on a website
U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Ifosfamide Injection." MedlinePlus: Trusted Health Information for you. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 15 Mar. 2013. https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a695023.html.
Government publications
Depression: Fact sheet. World Health Organization. Feb. 2017, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs369/en/.

Illustrations
Tables - Should be typed on separate sheets of paper and should not preferably contain any molecular structures. Only MS word table format should be used for preparing tables. Tables should show lines separating columns but not those separating rows except for the top row that shows column captions. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and bear a brief title in bold face above the table. Units of measurement should be abbreviated and placed below the column headings. Column headings or captions shall be in bold face. It is essential that all tables have legends, which explain the contents of the table. Tables should not be very large that they run more than one A4 sized page. Tables should not be prepared in the landscape format, i. e. tables that are prepared widthwise on the paper.

Figures
Upload the images in JPEG format.
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size. The lettering for figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to fit the width of a printed column.
Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background and should marked neatly with transfer type or by tissue overlay and not by pen.
Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves.
When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
The photographs and figures should be trimmed to remove all the unwanted areas.
If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable, or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. When images containing X-ray picture or echocardiogram, the name of the patient and the institute should be deleted.
If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. A credit line should appear in the legend for such figures.

Legends for illustrations: Type legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one in the legend. Explain the internal scale (magnification) and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.
The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size.
Tables and figures must be cited in the text in numerical order. Table 2 cannot be first cited before Table 1. If citation to a Table or Figure is not found in the text, the table or figure will be deleted.

Preparation of Case Reports
Case reports must meet all of the following criteria:
The case should be one that is highly unusual, very unique, underreported in the literature and;
The case report must present as a challenging diagnostic and therapeutic problem and;
The case report must have significant educational value including the ability to perhaps change a clinician's traditional method of handling such a case and;
The case report's interest to the reader should be significant.

Follow the standard format for the article (Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Case History, Discussion, and References).

Author Withdrawal Policy
From time to time, an author may wish to withdraw a manuscript after submitting it. Changing one’s mind is an author’s prerogative. And an author is free to withdraw an article at no charge – as long as it is withdrawn within 7 days of its initial submission, however, if authors withdraw manuscripts any time after review and acceptance, a withdrawal fee will have to be paid. If you have concerns or questions about it, please contact us for further discussion. We welcome your input.

Copyright
The Journal follows the copyright as per Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Editorial Board Office
ISJ