Submissions

Author Guidelines

Introduction

The Nepal Journal of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology (NJDVL) is a scientific biomedical peer-reviewed journal, published twice a year (March-April and September-October) by Society of Dermatologist Venereologists and Leprologists of Nepal (SODVELON).

It aims to publish and disseminate information on all aspects of diagnosis and management of skin diseases, and the information on the scientific research related to dermatology.

According to ICJME (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendation for acquiring an authorship, one must:

• Conceptualize, plan and design manuscript and/ or analyze and interpret the data.
• Draft the manuscript and critically revise the manuscript for any changes.
• Approve the final version of submission to the editorial board.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

AND also

• Each author must have at least bachelor degree in the related field and should have participated sufficiently in the work as per ICJME

Editorial policy

1. All contributions are judged by the criteria of originality and scientific content, and preference will be given to original research articles.
2. The manuscripts submitted will be scrutinized by the editorial board and reviewed by independent experts. Double-blinded peer review process is followed. The reviewer is sent email notification with abstract of the blinded manuscript and are asked to respond for review within time frame of 1 week and after acceptance due date of review work is 3 weeks. The reviewer is sent a reviewer form according to manuscript submitted and along with the general comments also asked to disclose any conflict of interest. If accepted, the papers are subjected for editorial revision, including shortening of the text and omission of tables and figures if appropriate. Rapid review and publication is the policy of the journal.
3. The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the editorial board.
4. The articles for publication must be submitted exclusively to NJDVL and if accepted will not be published elsewhere in whole or in part without the editor’s permission. All articles should be accompanied by a covering letter bearing a statement to this effect signed by all authors.
5. Dispute, if any, among the authors should be settled prior to the submission of the manuscript to the editorial board.
6. The Editor-in-chief reserves the right to reject or accept the manuscript submitted for publication.

Preparation and submission of manuscript 

Preparation of manuscript: Manuscript should be prepared in accordance with the “Uniform Requirement for Manuscript Submitted to Biomedical Journals” established by the Vancouver Group. The updated version of the document may be accessed at http://www.icmje.org/index.html

General format for preparation of the manuscript 

• Use single line spacing.
• Texts should be typed in Times New Roman font with font size of 12 point.
• Abbreviation should be written in full for the first time.
• Avoid use of short forms like &, @
• Use of numbers – should be Arabic numbers
• Tables
• Numbering should be in Arabic letters
• Heading should not be more than 40 words
• Figures
• Bar diagrams, line diagrams and scatter plots are preferred to pie charts and 3D diagrams
• Clinical image – clear images with good resolution should be used; use TIFF or a high-resolution JPEG
• Histopathological image – mention the magnification scale and method of staining used
• Dermoscopy image – mention the mode (polar/ non-polarized), magnification and label the relevant dermoscopic structures

On online submission of manuscript supplementary files templates (Title page, cover letter, author declaration form and copyright form) will be sent from editorial office to the author and the author need to send back these files signed and after receiving the signed files by the editorial office the peer review process will start.

Sample of  few Supplementary files can be submitted during the submission or will be sent from the editorial office after submission of manuscript

Title  page should include

Title:
Authors: [first name, family name]¹ put names according to authorship
Affiliations: [order according to superscript in authors list]
Details of all authors:
[Name, highest academic degree of each author]
[Present affiliation with working status salutation of each author]
[Email ID of each author]
[ORCID id mandatory for 1^st author and corresponding author]
Corresponding Author: Contact Details, Mailing Address, Tel, Fax, Email
Running Title: [max 8 words or 50 characters]
Word Count: [including abstract, manuscript, references]
Number of Tables, Figures:
Declaration: [if any]
Conflict of interest:
Funding:
Consent from patient [ For case report only attached or not]
IRC/ Ethical clearance letter [For research article/original articles attached or not]

Cover  letter to editor should include: 

• Category in which the manuscript is being submitted (original article, review article, etc.)
• Title of the article
• Running title of the article
• Full names of each author, highest academic degree, their designations, affiliated institutional addresses, ORCID id (mandatory), telephone numbers and email addresses
• Surname and initials of the first and middle names of each author should also be submitted.
• Complete address of the department and institution to which the work should be attributed
• Corresponding author contact details
• Word count (text only, exclusive of title, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends)
• Number of figures, number of tables, number of references
• Statement of conflict of interest and sources of financial support

Submission of manuscript: All manuscript should be submitted to the editor, NJDVL. Papers should preferably be submitted online https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJDVL/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions . The time frame for the acceptance and publication of the article will be 3months ± 30 days.

Principal sections 

• Editorials
• Letter to the editor
• Review articles
• Original articles
• Brief reports
• Case reports
• Resident’s page
• News
• Abstracts from current literature
• Events/Conferences
• Book review

Guidelines on individual article type 

Editorials 

• Authoritative reviews, analyses, or views on the important topic of dermatology, preferably of the significant important to the context of developing nation.

Letter to the editor 

• The readers are invited to send comments, criticisms and questions related to specific article published in NJDVL or any interesting  observation related to clinical practice, therapy or any laboratory diagnostic tests
• Abstract- 150 words
• Word limit (excluding abstract) – 500
• Maximum Number of references – 5

Review articles 

• Reviews articles on the topics of interest in dermatology, sexually transmitted infection or leprosy.
• Priority will be given to those topics addressing a major current problem.
• It should be scientific and new data should not presented from author’s experiment.
• It should be critical and constructive analysis of the literatures related to the field of study.
• Systematic review should be written following The PRISMA statement. http://www.prismastatement.org/
• Word limit of manuscript – 5000
• Maximum number of references – 50

Original articles 

• Methodologically sound original research in dermatology, sexually transmitted infections or leprosy.
• Preference will be given to articles of relevance to practice in developing nations.
• Word limit of manuscript – 3000
• Maximum Number of references – 30
• It should include the following:
• Title
• Abstract [Structured abstract with headings: Introduction, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusion]
• Key Words
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgement
• References

Title

• Provide the complete title.
• Should be short and accurate.
• Capitalize each word.

Abstract

• Should not exceed 250 words.
• It should be structured as: Introduction, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results and Conclusion.
• No abbreviation should be used in abstract.

Keywords

• Write 3-8 words separated by semi colon in an alphabetical order at the end of the abstract.
• Keywords must be from MeSH index - website http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh

Introduction

• It should not be lengthy reviews of past literature.
• Word count – 250
• A brief introduction about the study should be provided, including:
• The rationale and objectives of the study.
• Concise background information to rationalize the study.
• The purpose of doing this study.

Materials and Methods

• It should include sufficient information to permit other investigators to repeat the work.
• It should include the following:
• Study type and design
• Duration and place of study
• Sample size
• Sampling technique
• Statistical methods and software used
• Inclusion and exclusion criteria
• Published procedure can be referred to by citation
• Include precise details of the questionnaires used, if any.
• If the study was conducted on human subject, ethical consideration should be mentioned.
• Documented evidence granting such clearance should be attached to the manuscript.

Results

• It should be presented in a logical sequence and supported by figures and tables, which should be essential to an understanding of the text.
• The same data should not be presented in the both tables and graphs.
• A total of 8 figures permitted( if tables/microphotograph are included then the total number of figures and tables/microphotograph  should be 8 only)

Discussion

• This emphasizes the newly and the important aspects of the study and conclusion that follow them.
• Do the repeat in detail data or material given in the introduction or result sections.
• The finding should be related to observation of other relevant studies.
• It should include limitations of the study.

Conclusion

• It should include a concise message, suggestion or recommendation as deducted from the content of the main manuscript.

Acknowledgement

• It should be made at the end of the text before the references if any.

References

• Should be in the Vancouver style of list.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references.
• In text, references are cited as superscript Arabic numerals, inserted before colons and semicolons and after comas and full stops without any spacing.
• While citing multiple references, use hyphen for a series of continuous numbers and comma for non-continuous numbers (Examples – 1,2,3,4,5,8 can be written as 1-5,8).
• Reference list should be in numerical order and numbered consecutively as they appear in the text.
• It should not include unpublished items.
• Journal title should be abbreviated in style used in NLM catalog https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog
• Provide DOI for the references if available.

Using Vancouver style

• The first six authors of a work should be named, followed by “et al.” if there are more than six; list the surname followed by initials.
• Enter author’s name in order in which they appear in the original source.
• Journal references
• The sequences for journal references should be: author(s). Title of the paper (are spelled out in full; all the main words have an initial capital letter). Abbreviated journal title. Year of publication; volume number (issue number): page number
• Abbreviate page numbers (153-9).
• Abbreviate months to first three letters, without full stop.
• Book references
• The sequence for the book references should be: author(s). Chapter title; editors; book title; volume number; edition; place of publication; page number.
• Electronic journals
• The word [Internet] in square brackets should be inserted after the abbreviated journal title.
• The URL (web address) must be included at the end of the reference.
• For electronic journal articles with a DOI, include the DOI (digital object identifier) at the end of the reference, after the URL.
• The URL for electronic references is followed by “accessed on (date)”

Commonly used abbreviations in references –

• edition = ed.
• figure(s) = fig(s)
• page(s) = p.
• part(s) = pt(s)
• supplement = suppl
• chapter = ch.
• others = et al.
• illustrator(s) = ill(s)
• paragraph(s) = para(s)
• revised = rev
• circa (about, approximately) = c.

Brief report

Brief reports are similar to original research as per the formats and guidelines, but are for small sample size or research in early phase of development.

Manuscript limits

• Total length: up to 1500 words (excluding abstract, illustration and references)
• Abstract: 150 words
• Table/Figure: up to 3 tables and figures
• References: 30

Case reports 

• Reports of patients with rare dermatological condition, complication of therapy, newer modalities of treatment or unusual associations of diseases.
• Reports of previously unreported cases are encouraged.
• Word limit of manuscript (including introduction, case report, discussion and conclusion) should not exceed 2000 words.
• Number of references should not be more than 25.
• It should be written in the following pattern:
• Title
• Abstract
• It is unstructured however should be clear and concise.
• Should not exceed 200 words.
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Maximum word count – 200 words
• Introduction of the case in short and its importance.
• Case Report
• A detailed case history, clinical examination, investigations and treatment.
• A total of 6 figures including microphotograph or tables, in exceptional case report a total of 8 can be permitted .
• Discussion
• Discuss the case in relation to the latest literatures related to your case.
• Mention the limitations.

Resident’s page
Brief articles (1000 words) which are of educational purpose for postgraduates and which help them to increase their theoretical and clinical skills would be considered. No abstract is required.

News 
Reports of various activities of SODVELON, other related societies and important news of relevance to the dermatologists of Nepal.

Abstracts from current literature 
Abstracts on topics of interest published in recent international journals.

Events/Conferences 

• Announcements of relevant, forth coming national and international meetings, conferences, training or workshops.
• These are accepted and published free of cost.

Book review
Please send a high quality digital photograph of front cover of the book you wish us to review in the editorial official email of the journal (available in website contact address)

Copyright 

• Papers should be accompanied by a statement signed by all authors, stating that the submitted manuscript has not already been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere and that, if accepted by the NJDVL, it will not be submitted for publication elsewhere without the permission of editor, NJDVL.
• Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce in their articles any material enjoying copyright protection.
• A letter granting such permission should be attached to the manuscript.
• Copyright on any research article is transferred in full to Nepal Journal of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology upon publication.
• The copyright transfer includes the right to reproduce and distribute the article in any form of reproduction (printing, electronic media or any other form).
• Articles in the Nepal Journal of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology are Open Access articles published under the Creative Commons CC BY License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ethical clearance 
Authors are required to submit the approval letter from their respective ethics board/Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC). Patient consent is necessary when the identity of patient is revealed.