Editorial Statement
Peer Review Process Guiding Principal
Types of Manuscript
Authorship Criteria Submitting Manuscript
Preparation of Manuscript
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Authors are the souls of any journal, and deserve much respect. To publish a journal manuscripts are needed from authors. Authors have a great responsibility for producing facts of their work in terms of number and results truthfully and an individual honesty is expected from authors in this regards. Both ways its true "No authors-No manuscripts-No journals" and "No journals–No manuscripts–No authors". Reviewing a manuscript is also a very responsible and important task of any peer-reviewed journal and to be taken seriously. It needs knowledge on the subject, sincerity, honesty and determination. Although the process of reviewing a manuscript is a time consuming task butit is expected to give one's best remarks within the time frame of the journal.
Salient features of the JCDR: It is a biomedical, multidisciplinary (including all medical and dental specialities), e-journal, with wide scope and extensive author support. At the same time, a free text of manuscript is available in HTML and PDF format. There is fast growing authorship and readership with JCDR as this can be judged by the number of articles published in it i e; in Feb 2007 of its first issue, it contained 5 articles only, and now in its recent volume published in April 2011, it contained 67 manuscripts. This e-journal is fulfilling the commitments and objectives sincerely, (as stated by Editor-in-chief in his preface to first edition) i e; to encourage physicians through the internet, especially from the developing countries who witness a spectrum of disease and acquire a wealth of knowledge to publish their experiences to benefit the medical community in patients care. I also feel that many of us have work of substance, newer ideas, adequate clinical materials but poor in medical writing and hesitation to submit the work and need help. JCDR provides authors help in this regards.
Timely publication of journal: Publication of manuscripts and bringing out the issue in time is one of the positive aspects of JCDR and is possible with strong support team in terms of peer reviewers, proof reading, language check, computer operators, etc. This is one of the great reasons for authors to submit their work with JCDR. Another best part of JCDR is "Online first Publications" facilities available for the authors. This facility not only provides the prompt publications of the manuscripts but at the same time also early availability of the manuscripts for the readers.
Indexation and online availability: Indexation transforms the journal in some sense from its local ownership to the worldwide professional community and to the public.JCDR is indexed with Embase & EMbiology, Google Scholar, Index Copernicus, Chemical Abstracts Service, Journal seek Database, Indian Science Abstracts, to name few of them. Manuscriptspublished in JCDR are available on major search engines ie; google, yahoo, msn.
In the era of fast growing newer technologies, and in computer and internet friendly environment the manuscripts preparation, submission, review, revision, etc and all can be done and checked with a click from all corer of the world, at any time. Of course there is always a scope for improvement in every field and none is perfect. To progress, one needs to identify the areas of one's weakness and to strengthen them.
It is well said that "happy beginning is half done" and it fits perfectly with JCDR. It has grown considerably and I feel it has already grown up from its infancy to adolescence, achieving the status of standard online e-journal form Indian continent since its inception in Feb 2007. This had been made possible due to the efforts and the hard work put in it. The way the JCDR is improving with every new volume, with good quality original manuscripts, makes it a quality journal for readers. I must thank and congratulate Dr Hemant Jain, Editor-in-Chief JCDR and his team for their sincere efforts, dedication, and determination for making JCDR a fast growing journal.
Every one of us: authors, reviewers, editors, and publisher are responsible for enhancing the stature of the journal. I wish for a great success for JCDR."
Thanking you
With sincere regards
Dr. Rajendra Kumar Ghritlaharey, M.S., M. Ch., FAIS
Associate Professor,
Department of Paediatric Surgery, Gandhi Medical College & Associated
Kamla Nehru & Hamidia Hospitals Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462 001 (India)
E-mail: drrajendrak1@rediffmail.com
On May 11,2011
Dr. Shankar P.R.
"On looking back through my Gmail archives after being requested by the journal to write a short editorial about my experiences of publishing with the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research (JCDR), I came across an e-mail from Dr. Hemant Jain, Editor, in March 2007, which introduced the new electronic journal. The main features of the journal which were outlined in the e-mail were extensive author support, cash rewards, the peer review process, and other salient features of the journal.
Over a span of over four years, we (I and my colleagues) have published around 25 articles in the journal. In this editorial, I plan to briefly discuss my experiences of publishing with JCDR and the strengths of the journal and to finally address the areas for improvement.
My experiences of publishing with JCDR: Overall, my experiences of publishing withJCDR have been positive. The best point about the journal is that it responds to queries from the author. This may seem to be simple and not too much to ask for, but unfortunately, many journals in the subcontinent and from many developing countries do not respond or they respond with a long delay to the queries from the authors 1. The reasons could be many, including lack of optimal secretarial and other support. Another problem with many journals is the slowness of the review process. Editorial processing and peer review can take anywhere between a year to two years with some journals. Also, some journals do not keep the contributors informed about the progress of the review process. Due to the long review process, the articles can lose their relevance and topicality. A major benefit with JCDR is the timeliness and promptness of its response. In Dr Jain's e-mail which was sent to me in 2007, before the introduction of the Pre-publishing system, he had stated that he had received my submission and that he would get back to me within seven days and he did!
Most of the manuscripts are published within 3 to 4 months of their submission if they are found to be suitable after the review process. JCDR is published bimonthly and the accepted articles were usually published in the next issue. Recently, due to the increased volume of the submissions, the review process has become slower and it ?? Section can take from 4 to 6 months for the articles to be reviewed. The journal has an extensive author support system and it has recently introduced a paid expedited review process. The journal also mentions the average time for processing the manuscript under different submission systems - regular submission and expedited review.
Strengths of the journal: The journal has an online first facility in which the accepted manuscripts may be published on the website before being included in a regular issue of the journal. This cuts down the time between their acceptance and the publication. The journal is indexed in many databases, though not in PubMed. The editorial board should now take steps to index the journal in PubMed. The journal has a system of notifying readers through e-mail when a new issue is released. Also, the articles are available in both the HTML and the PDF formats. I especially like the new and colorful page format of the journal. Also, the access statistics of the articles are available. The prepublication and the manuscript tracking system are also helpful for the authors.
Areas for improvement: In certain cases, I felt that the peer review process of the manuscripts was not up to international standards and that it should be strengthened. Also, the number of manuscripts in an issue is high and it may be difficult for readers to go through all of them. The journal can consider tightening of the peer review process and increasing the quality standards for the acceptance of the manuscripts. I faced occasional problems with the online manuscript submission (Pre-publishing) system, which have to be addressed.
Overall, the publishing process with JCDR has been smooth, quick and relatively hassle free and I can recommend other authors to consider the journal as an outlet for their work."
Dr. P. Ravi Shankar
KIST Medical College, P.O. Box 14142, Kathmandu, Nepal.
E-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com
On April 2011 Anuradha
Dear team JCDR, I would like to thank you for the very professional and polite service provided by everyone at JCDR. While i have been in the field of writing and editing for sometime, this has been my first attempt in publishing a scientific paper.Thank you for hand-holding me through the process.
Dr. Anuradha
E-mail: anuradha2nittur@gmail.com
On Jan 2020
You must prepare your manuscripts in accordance with the "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journal" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in October 2001. The general and specific requirements of the JCDR are summarised below. Before sending a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions.
- Original articles : Randomised controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with a reasonably high response rate. Up to 3000 words excluding the abstract and the references.
- Review articles (including those related to the Ethics forum, the Education forum, E-Medicine, and so on): Systemic critical assessment of literature and data sources. Up to 4000 words excluding the abstract and the references.
- Case reports or briefs: Novel/interesting/extremely rare cases or rare presentations can be reported. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. Up to 1200 words excluding references and abstract and up to 10-15 references.
- Case Series : Same as case report more than two case reports having similar findings.
- Images in medicine : A short history, photograph, differential diagnosis, and discussion of a classic and/or rare case. Should not be more than 1000 words excluding up to ten references.
- Letter to the Editor : Should reflect short, decisive observation. Up to 500 words and five references.
- Clinicians Corner : Short narrative of a real life experience in the medical sphere during practice. Should contain a clear, informative, educative, or enlightening message. Up to 600 words.
- Short communications : An unusual or rare observation or a case study or a pilot study. Up to 1500 words.
- Announcements : of conferences, meetings, courses, awards, and other events of interest to the readers should be submitted with the name and address of the person from whom additional information can be sought. Up to 100 words.
- Book review : A sectional detailed analysis/observation of a book related to the scope and specialities covered in the journal. Up to 1500 words
To Justify authorship for the submitted manuscripts, the contributors should meet the following three conditions:
- Conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data has been done by the author
- Either drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content has been done by the author
- The final approval of the version to be published has been given by the author. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to be allowed to take public responsibility for suitable portions of the content.
Note :
These are the guidelines given out by respected international bodies for authorship. Based on our experience we have add few points to the above which should also be taken into consideration while deciding upon the authorship list.
- Some articles are based on thesis works. In such cases, we expect both the Guide/Mentor and the Principal Investigator to be part of the authorship. In past we have faced post-publication authorship conflicts in which either of them were not included; hence the policy was introduced. If the corresponding author did not follow this, by excluding either or both the Principal Investigator and the Guide, they should attach a documental proof of consent whereby the individual has consented on the publication without his or her name in it as author. Interested readers can refer to the editorial publication based on such an incidence click here .
- In some articles author from departments unrelated to the topic of the article, from geographically separate institutions is seen. As incidences of gift or purchase authorship is high in the Indian subcontinent, such authors are viewed with contempt. And as a rule our editors tend to shy away from such articles, unless compelling argument is put forth by the corresponding author.
Naming Order for Contributors
The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and the writing of the manuscript. Once submitted, the order cannot be changed without the written consent of all the contributors.
Number of Contributors
In Original Articles (single institute-based or multi-centric studies) and, Systemic Reviews the number of contributors should not exceed eight. In exceptional cases, where the study is multicentric the number of authors in original articles may exceed and the journal may accept the request, if the corresponding author provides a substantial justification. However, the decision is at the discretion of the Chief Editor. For Research Protocols the number of contributors should not exceed four (namely 1 Guide,1 Co-Guide, 1 Head of the Department and 1 Researcher). For Case Reports, Case Series,Short communication and, Images in Medicine the number of contributors should not exceed five. For Letter to Editor the number of contributors should not exceed two. For Review of Literature the number of contributors should not exceed six.
Authorship Changed
No addition of author(s) will be entertained post submission. Exception to this will be made only with proper justification supported by institution/university head.
Guarantor
One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work from the inception to the publishing of the article. This author will be designated as the guarantor.
Prerequisite for review articles
A review article can be written only by individuals who have done substantial work in a particular field. A short summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript. The journal expects the contributors to provide post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief and should include the expected advancements in the field after the publication of the article. The update should be sent as a letter to the editor as and when major developments occur in the particular field.
All manuscripts for articles, original research reports, editorials, reviews, that are submitted to the journal must be accompanied by a conflict of interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they do not have any conflicts of interest to declare.
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) states in its Guidelines on Good Publication Practice (2003) that:
‘Conflicts of interest arise when authors, reviewers, or editors have interests that are not fully apparent and that may influence their judgments on what is published. They have been described as those which, when revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.’
JCDR believe that, to make the best decision on how to deal with an article, Journal should know about any competing interests that authors may have, before an article can be reviewed and accepted for publication.
Other interest-
- Author must be truthful and must declare if the article has been published in some other language during the time of submission
- Author must disclose if some part of work has already been published or under consideration elsewhere.
- If the research submitted is the thesis or PhD work, author should reveal the name of the "Primary researcher" and the "Supervisor".
While reporting scientific project involving human subjects or experimental animals authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) or regulations for laboratory animals. The statement has to be mentioned in "Materials and Methods" section, right after the presentation of the study groups. We believe animal experimentation should be avoided whenever possible in favor of alternative research strategies.
Please use our Manuscript Management Portal : JCDR Pre Publishing for submitting manuscripts and knowing their post-submission status. For any problems related to submission please feel free to write to editors@jcdr.net
We do not accept print submission.
- Observational and experimental articles should be divided into sections, such as Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, Figures, Figure legends, and Acknowledgment.
- Use double spacing throughout.
- The language should be UK English.
Title Page
Title page details to be filled in at the time of uploading the article on JCDR Pre Publshing.
Abstract Page
The length of the abstract should be restricted to 250 words for case reports and brief reports and 350 words for original articles. For Original articles the abstract should be structured with the following sub-headings : Introduction, Aim, Materials and methods, Results and Conclusion. Case reports and case series should have unstructured abstract (no sub-headings). No abstract is required in Short communications, Images in Medicine, Letter to Editor.
Key Words
These should be put in after reference to standard key words in Mesh terms.
Introduction
State the purpose of the article and summarise the rationale for the study or observation. JCDR does not required Introduction in Case report, Images in medicine, View point and Letter to editor.
Methods
- Describe the selection of the observational or experimental subjects, such as patients and laboratory animals. Include the controls used for each experiment.
- Identify the age, sex, and other important characteristics of the subjects.
- Identify the methods, apparatus, and procedures in sufficient detail. Provide references to established methods, and describe briefly methods that have been published but are not well known.
- Describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all the drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.
- Reports of random clinical trials should provide information regarding all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions, and the method of masking.(Click Here).
- Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesising data. These methods should also be summarised in the abstract.
Ethics
- While reporting experiments on human subjects, you should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 that was revised in 2013. (Click Here)
- Do not use names or initials of patients or hospitals and/or hospital telephone numbers especially in illustrative material.
- While reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether you adhered to the guidelines of an institution or national research council governing the care and use of laboratory animals.
Statistics
- Whenever possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty.
- Report losses to observation resulting from conditions, such as dropouts from a clinical trial.
- Include a general description of methods in the Methods section.
- While summarizing the data in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyse them.
- Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols.
Results
Present the results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations. Instead, emphasise on or summarise only important observations.
Discussion
- Emphasise the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that result from them.
- Do not repeat in detail the data or other material provided in the Introduction or Results section. Include in the Discussion section the implications of the findings for the present and for future research and their limitations. Relate the observations to other relevant studies.
- Contributors should refrain from commenting on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses.
- Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed.
- State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such.
- Recommendations may be included only if appropriate.
Acknowledgments
As an appendix to the text, one or more statements should specify
- The contributions that should be acknowledged but do not justify authorship,
- Acknowledgment of technical help; and
- Acknowledgment of financial and material support, specifying the nature of the support.
- Any paid support received from JCDR in preparation of the manuscript.
References
- The references / biblography should be in Vancouver style. For full details on this refer to the following link to university of Queensland ( Click Here )
- 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.
- The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus.
- Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed 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 that is otherwise unavailable from public sources. In such an event, the name of the person and the 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.
Tables & Figures
- JCDR was initially an online only journal later went into print. It does not differentiate between tables and figures in numbering them as images are made for both. All tables and Figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text. ( example Table/Fig 1, Table/Fig 2......)
- Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
- Tables with more than 12 columns and 30 rows are not acceptable.
- Place the explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading.
- Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table.
- Obtain permission for all fully borrowed, adapted, and modified tables and provide a credit line in the footnote.
- For footnotes, use the following symbols in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ||, , **, ††, ‡‡
- Labels, numbers, and symbols should be clear and of uniform size.
- When graphs, scatter-grams or histograms are submitted, the numerical data on which they are based should also be supplied.
- 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.
- If a figure has been published, 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 figures for such figures.
- The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to the desired size.
Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes. The patient, parent, or guardian provides a written consent for the publication. After the consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the article. A copy of the consent should be attached with the cover letter.
Use instructions sent in email by the editor while asking for revision. It should be submitted at the JCDR Pre Publishing Portal only.
The whole of the literary matter in the JCDR is copyright of its publishers. For reproduction refer to disclaimer and copyrights.
Ombudsman
For issues related to this journal, write to Dr. Hemant Jain at drhemantjain@jcdr.net
Contributors’ form
(to be copied, signed, scanned and attached as an pdf file to the e-mail, Click here to download the pdf)
Manuscript Title: _______________________________________________________________ I/we certify that I/we have participated adequately in the intellectual content, conception and design of this work or the analysis and interpretation of the data as well as the writing of the manuscript. I/we take public responsibility for the piece of work and have agreed to have my/our name listed as a contributor. I/we believe the manuscript represents valid work. Neither this manuscript nor any other manuscript with substantially similar content under my/our authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere, except as described in the cover letter. I/we certify that all the data collected during the study has been presented in this manuscript and that no data from the study has been or will be published separately. I/we attest that, if requested by the editors, I/we will provide required data/information and will cooperate fully in obtaining and providing the data/information on which the manuscript is based, for examination purposes by the editors or their assignees. Financial interests, either direct or indirect, that exist or may be perceived to exist for individual contributors in connection with the content of this paper have been disclosed in the cover letter. All sources of external support have been mentioned in the cover letter.
All the images and pictorial content are original. If not original than I/we have added due acknowledgement and sought permission from the original authors
I/We hereby transfer, assign, or otherwise convey all copyright ownership, including any and all rights incidental thereto, exclusively to the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, in the event that such work is published by the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. The Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research shall own the work, including 1) the copyright, 2) the right to grant permission to republish the article in whole or in part, with or without a fee, 3) the right to produce preprints or reprints and translate into languages other than English for sale or free distribution, and 4) the right to republish the work in a collection of articles in any other mechanical or electronic format.
We give the right to make necessary changes according to the request of the journal, correspond on our behalf, and to act as the guarantor for the manuscript to the corresponding author.
I/We are aware of the present indexation of the Journal. I/We are further made aware that the indexing agencies take the articles post publication after a small time lag and the mutual agreement between indexing agencies and the Journal provides for termination of agreement at any time without any notice. I/We therefore agree and indemnify the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research of all responsibilities, claims, loss, damages of any kind, if any, caused by third party action if such termination of agreement happens in future.
All persons who have made substantial contribution to the work reported in the manuscript, but are not contributors, are named in the Acknowledgment and have given me/us their written permission to be named. If I/we do not include an Acknowledgment, it means that I/we have not received substantial contribution from such persons and that the name of no contributor has been omitted.
Name Signature Date signed
1 __________ __________ __________
2__________ __________ __________(up to 2 contributors for Letter to Editor)
3 __________ __________ __________
4 __________ __________ __________
5 __________ __________ __________ (up to 5 contributors for Case Reports / Case Series / Images in Medicine)
6 __________ __________ __________(up to 6 contributors for Review of Literature)
7 __________ __________ __________
8 __________ __________ __________ (up to 8 contributors for Original Article / Research Protocols / Systemic Reviews)