Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submitting Translations/Secondary Publications to Indian Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP) - Guidelines

The Indian Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP) permits translations or secondary publications of prior published works under certain circumstances.

The following guidelines have been developed drawing on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations and they must be adhered ro when submitting an article:

1. Permission: Authors must obtain permission for a secondary publication from the editors of both the journal in which the original work was published and IJCP.
2. Transparency: When submitting a translation or secondary publication, authors are required to clearly disclose in the submission letter that the manuscript is a translation of an earlier work. They should also provide a copy of the original work.
3. Reference to The Original Publication: A complete reference to the original work must be included in the abstract and also in the reference list of the translation or secondary publication.
4. Verification: All submissions of translations must conform to the policies of the IJCP on the translations and the ICMJE. The policies on translations can be found [here](website URL here).
5. Rationale: Authors are asked to justify why they think a secondary publication is necessary, as part of their cover letter. This might be because the translation makes the work accessible to a different audience and the work is of clinical relevance or has implications for public health.

Remember, the IJCP and its editors have the final authority to accept or reject a manuscript for publication.

For further information and context, authors are encouraged to review the ICMJE recommendations on overlapping publications here. If in doubt, authors should contact the editorial board to discuss potential submissions.

Ethics and Publishing Policy for Indian Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP)

The Indian Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP) is committed to upholding ethical standards in academic publishing and ensuring the content published in our journal meets the highest levels of integrity. To achieve this, IJCP adheres to the following guidelines and principles:

1. COPE Principles of Transparency and Best Practice: IJCP follows the guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ensuring transparency, publication ethics, and best practices for all parties involved in the publication process. More details on COPE's guidelines can be found here.
2. ICMJE Recommendations: The journal abides by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals. For more information on these recommendations, please visit the ICMJE website.
3. Conflicts of Interest: All authors, reviewers, and editors must declare any potential conflicts of interest that may influence their work. Conflicts of interest should be disclosed within the manuscript and during the review process.
4. Authorship Criteria: IJCP follows the ICMJE authorship guidelines, specifying that authors must meet all four criteria:
• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
• Drafting the work or revising it critically for intellectual content
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
5. Informed Consent and Human Research: Manuscripts involving human subjects must have appropriate ethics committee approval and informed consent. Research participants’ identities should remain confidential.
6. Animal Research: Animal studies must adhere to relevant guidelines, such as the ARRIVE guidelines, and any necessary research ethics committee approvals must be stated in the manuscript.
7. Data Availability: Authors should make their research data available for further study upon request, if it maintains the confidentiality and privacy of research participants, where applicable.
8. Response to Misconduct and Plagiarism: IJCP takes all allegations of research misconduct and plagiarism seriously. In cases of suspected misconduct, IJCP follows the procedures outlined by COPE for addressing and resolving such allegations.

By adhering to these ethical guidelines and principles, the Indian Journal of Clinical Practice is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic publishing and research integrity. All submitted manuscripts must abide by these policies to be considered for publication in IJCP.

Plagiarism and Decision Process for Indian Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP) Based on COPE and ICMJE

IJCP is highly committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, originality, and ethical conduct in the field of academic publishing. In this regard, it strictly adheres to the guidelines provided by the 'Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)' and 'International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)' for handling plagiarism and conducting the decision process effectively.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is treated as a serious ethical violation and act of misconduct in the IJCP:

1. Definition: IJCP follows the COPE and ICMJE definitions of plagiarism which regard it as the presentation of someone else's published or unpublished work or ideas without appropriate attribution or permission.
2. Detection: All submissions to IJCP undergo rigorous plagiarism checks using advanced software tools like iThenticate and Turnitin.
3. Action: In any case of detected plagiarism, COPE's guidelines are strictly followed. Initial steps may include contacting the author for clarification and if plagiarism is confirmed, this can lead to the outright rejection of the manuscript. Serious cases of plagiarism may also result in the author being barred from future submissions to the journal.

Decision Process

The decision process at IJCP has been designed adhering to ethical guidelines recommended by both COPE and ICMJE:

1. Peer Review: All submitted manuscripts are subjected to a rigorous peer review process. The reviewers chosen are experts in the relevant field who provide unbiased, accurate, and constructive assessment of the manuscript.
2. Editorial Decision: After thorough review, the editorial team makes a decision about the manuscript. The decision could be acceptance, minor/major revision, or rejection.
3. Fair Play: IJCP follows COPE and ICMJE's principles of fairness and integrity. Manuscripts are evaluated on academic merit, relevance, new contributions, and the originality of research irrespective of race, gender, religious belief, ethnicity, or political philosophy of the authors.
4. Respect for Appeals: Authors may appeal editorial decisions by submitting written appeal letters detailing their responses to the reviewers and editors' comments. IJCP treats all such appeals with respect and handles them in accordance with COPE's guidelines and practices.

By adhering to these COPE and ICMJE-based guidelines on plagiarism and decision making, IJCP ensures that it upholds the highest level of ethical standards in academic publishing.

Fees and Charges

The Indian Journal of Clinical Practice (IJCP) is committed to delivering high-quality publications while maintaining accessible pricing for authors. We would like to inform prospective authors that the publication fee for an article in our journal is INR 5,000.

This fee covers essential costs associated with the administrative, technical, and production aspects of the publishing process. By charging this fee, we ensure the timely and professional publication of your research, ultimately allowing your work to spark conversations and contribute to scientific advancements.

We appreciate your interest in publishing with IJCP and look forward to helping share your research with our global community.

Research Methodologies

IJCP recognizes and welcomes diverse research methodologies, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Any research contributing towards the field of clinical practice is encouraged.

Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the ‘Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals’ compiled by the International Committee of Medical Journal.
Indian Journal of Clinical Practice strongly disapproves of the submission of the same articles simultaneously to different journals for consideration as well as duplicate publication and will decline to accept fresh manuscripts submitted by authors who have done so. 
The boxed checklist (provided at the end) will help authors in preparing their manuscript according to our requirements. Improperly prepared manuscripts may be returned to the author without review. The checklist should accompany each manuscript.
Authors may provide on the checklist, the names and addresses of experts from Asia and from other parts of the World who, in the authors’ opinion, are best qualified to review the paper.

Covering letter
– The covering letter should explain if there is any deviation from the standard IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) and should outline the importance of the paper.
– Principal/Senior author must sign the covering letter indicating full responsibility for the paper submitted, preferably with signatures of all the authors.
– Articles must be accompanied by a declaration by all authors stating that the article has not been published in any other Journal/Book. Authors should mentioned complete designation and departments, etc. on the manuscript.

Manuscript
– Three complete sets of the manuscript should be submitted, typed double spaced throughout (including references, tables and legends to figures).
– The manuscript should be arranged as follow: Covering letter, Checklist, Title page, Abstract, Keywords (for indexing, if required), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, Legends to Figures and Figures.
– All pages should be numbered consecutively beginning with the title page.
Note: Please keep a copy of your manuscript as we are not responsible for its loss in the mail. Manuscripts will not be returned to authors.

Title page
Should contain the title, short title, names of all the authors (without degrees or diplomas), names and full location of the departments and institutions where the work was performed, name of the corresponding authors, acknowledgment of financial support and abbreviations used.
– The title should be of no more than 80 characters and should represent the major theme of the manuscript. A subtitle can be added if necessary. – A short title of not more than 50 characters (including inter-word spaces) for use as a running head should be included.
– The name, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and postal addresses of the author to whom communications are to be sent should be typed in the lower right corner of the title page.
– A list of abbreviations used in the paper should be included. In general, the use of abbreviations is discouraged unless they are essential for improving the readability of the text.

Summary
– The summary of not more than 200 words. It must convey the essential features of the paper.
– It should not contain abbreviations, footnotes or references.

Introduction
– The introduction should state why the study was carried out and what were its specific aims/objectives.

Methods
– These should be described in sufficient detail to permit evaluation and duplication of the work by others.
– Ethical guidelines followed by the investigations should be described.

Statistics
The following information should be given:
– The statistical universe i.e., the population from which the sample for the study is selected.
– Method of selecting the sample (cases, subjects, etc. from the statistical universe).
– Method of allocating the subjects into different groups.
– Statistical methods used for presentation and analysis of data i.e., in terms of mean and standard deviation values or percentages and statistical tests such as Student’s ‘t’ test, Chi-square test and analysis of variance or non-parametric tests and multivariate techniques.
– Confidence intervals for the measurements should be provided wherever appropriate.

Results
– These should be concise and include only the tables and figures necessary to enhance the understanding of the text.

Discussion
– This should consist of a review of the literature and relate the major findings of the article to other publications on the subject. The particular relevance of the results to healthcare in India should be stressed, e.g., practicality and cost.

References
These should conform to the Vancouver style. References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the texts and these numbers should be inserted above the lines on each occasion the author is cited (Sinha12 confirmed other reports13,14...). References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in the text of the particular table or illustration. Include among the references papers accepted but not yet published; designate the journal and add ‘in press’ (in parentheses). Information from manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted should be citedin the text as ‘unpublished observations’ (in parentheses).
At the end of the article the full list of references should include the names of all authors if there are fewer than seven or if there are more, the first six followed by et al., the full title of the journal article or book chapters; the title of journals abbreviated according to the style of the Index Medicus and the first and final page numbers of the article or chapter. The authors should check that the references are accurate. If they are not this may result in the rejection of an otherwise adequate contribution.

Examples of common forms of references are:

Articles
Paintal AS. Impulses in vagal afferent fibres from specific pulmonary deflation receptors. The response of those receptors to phenylguanide, potato S-hydroxytryptamine and their role in respiratory and cardiovascular reflexes. Q. J. Expt. Physiol. 1955;40:89-111.

Books
Stansfield AG. Lymph Node Biopsy Interpretation Churchill Livingstone, New York 1985.

Articles in Books
Strong MS. Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis. In: Scott Brown’s Otolaryngology. Paediatric Otolaryngology Evans JNG (Ed.), Butterworths, London 1987;6:466-470.

Tables
– These should be typed double spaced on separate sheets with the table number (in Roman Arabic numerals) and title above the table and explanatory notes below the table.

Legends
– These should be typed double spaces on a separate sheet and figure numbers (in Arabic numerals) corresponding with the order in which the figures are presented in the text.
– The legend must include enough information to permit interpretation of the figure without reference to the text.

Figures
– Two complete sets of glossy prints of high quality should be submitted. The labelling must be clear and neat.
– All photomicrographs should indicate the magnification of the print.
– Special features should be indicated by arrows or letters which contrast with the background.
– The back of each illustration should bear the first author’s last name, figure number and an arrow indicating the top. This should be written lightly in pencil only. Please do not use a hard pencil, ball point or felt pen.
– Color illustrations will be accepted if they make contribution to the understanding of the article.
– Do not use clips/staples on photographs and artwork.
– Illustrations must be drawn neatly by an artist and photographs must be sent on glossy paper.