Submissions

Author Guidelines

JUCMS, the official journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences, is a peer-reviewed journal published as 3 issues per year (Jan-April, May-Aug, Sept-Dec). The journal is indexed in NepJOL, Google Scholar, The Grove library, Journal TOCs, JOL, DRJI, Asia Journals online, Universia, Libtoc, UniSA, NTHRYS, ULRICHSWEB, University of Saskatchewan, and HINARI. The journal gives priority to reports of outstanding clinical work, as well as important contributions related to common and important problems related in developing nations. The Journal is available online at www.ucms.com.np/index.php/jucms and www.nepjol.info/index.php/JUCMS

Manuscript submission: All manuscripts should be emailed to ucmsjournal@gmail.com. Please attach your manuscript as per authors’ instructions. Submissions sent as hard copies to the journal office will not be entertained. All manuscript related queries should be through email only.

Criteria for acceptance: All manuscripts should meet the following criteria: the material is original, study methods are appropriate, data are sound, conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data, and the information is important; and the article is written in reasonably good English. Articles not written as per JUCMS format will be sent back to authors without initiating the peer-review process. Manuscripts once accepted will be edited to conform to the journal’s style and may be sent to author for approval.

Unauthorized use: The copyright of all accepted and published manuscripts lies with JUCMS; these cannot be reproduced elsewhere or distributed in any form, in whole or part, without the written permission from the Editor-in-Chief. For permission to use copyrighted material, the Editor-in-Chief may be contacted at ucmsjournal@gmail.com.

Review process: Majority of the submitted manuscripts may be rejected after an initial Editorial board review. The reasons for rejection may be due to insufficient originality, serious scientific flaws, major ethical issues, not submitted in desired format, not of interest to majority of readers, or not in accordance with the current priorities of the journal. Decision on such papers is communicated to authors within two weeks. Remaining articles are sent to reviewers having sufficient experience on the subject, in a ‘masked fashion’. Manuscripts are reviewed with due respect for authors’ confidentiality. Authors should take care not to disclose their and their institution’s identity in the text of the ‘blinded manuscript.’ The peer reviewer identity is also kept confidential. Period of submission to first decision varies from 2 weeks to 6 weeks depending on availability of reviewers, and timely response from them. The total time duration from initial submission to final publication varies and may take up to maximum of two years.

Duplicate submission and plagiarism: Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format and are not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. If plagiarism or duplicate publication is detected, authors should expect prompt rejection/retraction, Editorial board’s action such as barring the author from submitting articles in future, notification in the journal/website, and informing the authors’ institute or other medical editors. A previously rejected article should not be resubmitted again under the original or modified title, especially if the content remains substantially same. Authors should provide full information regarding previous submission, if any.

Proofs: A galley proof will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail, prior to publication. Corrections on the proof should be restricted to printing errors or errors in figures or data only, and should be submitted within 48 hours of receipt of the proofs. The authors should inform even if no corrections are needed.

No addition, deletion, alteration in the sequence of authors or change of corresponding authorship is permissible at this stage.

TYPES OF ARTICLES
Articles can be submitted as Original articles, Case reports, Review articles, Medical education and letter to editor. 

Original article: The submission should report research including descriptive studies, case records/series, pilot interventional studies randomized clinical trials, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, analytical cohort and case control studies, systematic reviews and cost-effectiveness analyses.

Each manuscript should be written in New Times Roman format with font size of 10. Abstract should not exceed more than 250 words and should include introduction, material and methods, results and conclusion. Key words up to 3-5 should follow after the abstract. The manuscript text should be arranged in sections on Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. Number of tables and figures should be limited to a maximum of 5 and 3, respectively. The typical text length for such contributions is 1500-2000 words (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, acknowledgments, key words and references). Number of references should be limited to 25.

Review Article: State-of-the-art review articles or systematic, critical assessments of literature are also published. The authors may consult the Editor-in-Chief before submitting such articles, as similar reviews may already be in submission. Normally, a review article on a subject already published in JUCMS in last 3 years is not accepted. The typical length for review articles is 2500-3000 words (excluding tables, figures, and references). Authors submitting review articles should include an abstract of around 200 words with key words (3-5 in number) describing the need and purpose of review, methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data, and main conclusions. The number of references should be limited to 50. The number of authors should usually be limited to four.

Case Reports: Clinical cases highlighting some unusual or new but “clinically relevant” aspects of a condition are published as Case Reports. Case reports should highlight some new or unusual aspect regarding etiopathogenesis, diagnosis or management of a condition that adds to the existing body of knowledge. Rarity of the reported condition alone will not be a criterion for acceptance. The text should not exceed 1000 words and should have following sections: abstract (not more than 150 words) with key words, Manuscript with following sections- Introduction, Case report and Discussion and Conclusion. Only two very relevant figures are allowed. References should not exceed more than 10. Only color photographs should be submitted; black-and-white images will not be entertained. Color images will be published only in the web-version of the journal; for print version, these will be converted to black and white. The patient’s written consent (or that of the next of kin) to publication must be obtained, and the same must be affirmed/stated. Pictures identity should not be disclosed.

Medical Education: Articles on medical education should not exceed 2500-3000 words. Abstract should not exceed more than 200 words and key words should be around 3-5. References should not exceed more than 50.

Letter to the Editor: Letters commenting upon recent articles in JUCMS are welcome. Such letters should be received within 12 months of the article’s publication. Letters commenting on ‘Case Reports’ and ‘Correspondence’, are generally not preferred. At the Editorial board’s discretion, the letter may be sent to the authors for reply and the letter alone or letter and reply together may be published after appropriate review.

Letters should not have more than 400 words, and 5 most recent references. The text need not be divided into sections. The number of authors should not exceed two.

PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT

1. The manuscript is to be submitted electronically at ucmsjournal@gmail.com.
2. Use American (US) English throughout.
3. Double-space throughout, including title page, abstract with key words, main text, and references. Start each of these sections (in same order) on a new page, numbered consecutively in the lower right hand corner.
4. Use 10-point font size (Times New Roman) and leave margins of 2.5 cm (1 inch) on all sides. The whole manuscript should be formatted in ‘portrait’ layout.
5. Units of measure: Conventional units are preferred. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass and volume.
6. There should not be any discrepancy in names and sequence of authors, and the corresponding author details, as submitted in the title page and other documents.
7. References should be cited in the text wherever necessary in superscript. Superscript letters should be numerical and should be cited after full-stop.
8. Authorship: All submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by a signed statement by all authors regarding authorship. All submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by a signed statement by all authors regarding authorship.

TITLE PAGE: At the beginning mention the category (Original article, review article, case report, medical education) for which the article is being submitted. The page should contain (i) the title of the article: which should be concise but informative; the type of study may be added in title after a colon. The title should be written in bold capital letters using Times new Roman format with font size of 14. Total number of tables and figures should be mentioned along with word counts for abstract and the text separately. If the work has been presented previously in a conference, please mention the place, date and conference presented. Sources of support, if any has to be mentioned. Conflict of interests, if any has to be mentioned.

ABSTRACT PAGE:

• Title of the study: This page should contain the title of the article (in capital letter, bold, Times new Roman)
  Biomedical Waste Management in Nepal: a Review

• Author information:
  (Please consult our previous issues). For. e.g.
  Nagendra Chaudhary¹, Shyam Kumar Mahato¹, Shatdal Chaudhary², Bal Dev Bhatia¹
  1. Department of Pediatrics, Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa, Nepal
  2. Department of Medicine, Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa, Nepal
  For more detail please go through our published article. Please make sure you use superscript and position of comma according to JUCMS format.

• For Correspondence:
  Name, Affiliation, Address, Email: Phone:
  (N.B.: Do not provide academic degree and positions, just affiliation).
  e.g.
  For Correspondence
  Dr. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Department of Medicine
  Universal College of Medical Sciences
  Bhairahawa, Nepal
  Email: shxxxyyy@yahoo.com
  Phone: 98570xxxxx.
• ABSTRACT
  It should contain 4 headings
  INTRODUCTION
  MATERIAL AND METHODS
  RESULTS
  CONCLUSION
  Abstract for original article should not exceed more than 250 words, Review article- 200 words, Medical education- 200 words and case reports- 150 words.
• KEY WORDS
  Key words should be 3-5 separated by comma without full-stop at the end. Each word should be in capital letters at the initials.

MAIN TEXT PAGE

• This section contains
  For original articles: INTRODUCTION, MATERIAL AND METHODS, RESULTS, CONCLUSION, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (if any), CONFLICT OF INTERESTS (if any), and REFERENCES
  For case reports: INTRODUCTION, CASE REPORT, DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (if any), CONFLICT OF INTERESTS (if any), and REFERENCES
  Review articles and medical education has to be written taken into consideration of its word limit.
• INTRODUCTION: The introduction must clearly justify and state the question that the author(s) tried to answer in the It may be necessary to briefly review the relevant literature.
• MATERIAL AND METHODS: Provide the detail in the order of study design, place and duration of study, ethical approval and patient consent, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample size and sampling, statistical analysis and software used.
• RESULTS: Present the key finding first and then move towards less important findings. Use table and figures appropriately in the text at appropriate place and do not explain table and figures in the text, instead provide main finding of the table or figures and then use table and figure no at the end of the sentence. Table heading should be in top of the table while figure heading should be below the figure. Numbering of tables and figures should be in numbers in bold letters followed by full-stop (.). Tables should be created by using MS Word tables. Tables created by snapshots or power point are not acceptable. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body. Abbreviations used in the table should be expanded in the footnote to the table. Supply all figures electronically in the text only. Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
• DISCUSSION: Ordinarily it should not be more than one-fourth of the total length of the manuscript. Do not attempt a detailed review of literature. Do not extensively describe someone else work. Compare and contrast, support and refute your findings with existing literature Provide limitation of your study at the end in the discussion section only.
• CONCLUSION: Do not explain the finding instead key message with recommendations, if applicable.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Acknowledgments, if any should be placed soon after the conclusion and before the references. Person who have helped in the study but do not qualify the authorship should be placed in this section.
Just name the individual or organization but do not use literary word to praise them. Corresponding author should take the responsibility of obtaining the permission to include his/her name in this section.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS:
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests. If yes, please specify.

REFERENCES:
References should be in Vancouver manoeuvre. One should not exceed more than 25 references in original articles, 10 in case reports and 50 in review articles/medical education. All the references should be cited in the text. Failure to do it may lead to automatic rejection of the manuscript even before a peer review process.

LEGENDS
Tables
We use Table then one space then number followed by full-stop, then title (first letter being Caps rest small). Table number should be above the table. Title should be in bold letters. Table should be sent on editable word file. Screen-shot tables are not accepted.  

Figures: Figure should be sent in JPG or TIFF format. We use Figure then one space, then number, followed by full-stop then title (first letter being Caps rest small).

Figure number should be given below the figure. Title should be in bold letters.

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CHECKLIST BEFORE SUBMISSION

(Please read the author instructions carefully before uploading the article).

1. Cover letter: Authors should include a separate cover letter (pdf file) explaining why his study should be taken into consideration for publication.
2. Authorship and declaration letter: Corresponding should upload an authorship and declaration letter with the title of the study and names and signatures of all the authors. It should include that this study has not been published anywhere previously or in consideration for publication to other journals.
3. Manuscript file: Manuscript following the JUCMS format (Please go to the author instruction section for more details). Please prepare the manuscript following the manuscript template provided
4. Ethical approval letter: Ethical approval letter in cases of original article is must for consideration for further processing of the article. Failure to provide will lead to automatic rejection of the manuscript.