Type of Manuscripts: Manuscripts submitted to NMJ, maybe in the form of Review articles, Original research articles, case series and reports, Clinical practice materials, Editorial Letters, Short commentaries, Books reviews and Medical educational materials. All contributions are expected to be original works, and must not have been previously published in print or online or simultaneously submitted to another journal.  An abstract published before a full report will not be regarded as a duplicate publication. Authors should ensure any submission to NMJ conforms to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals - http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/. To avoid delays in publication, authors are advised to also adhere closely to the specific requirement of the Nigerian Medical Journal. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions from the journal - https://nigerianmedjournal.org/.

Abstract and keywords: Abstracts for original research should be structured into a background stating the objective of the paper, methods, results and conclusion. Abstracts for other forms of manuscripts such as review articles, case reports and short commentaries/reports need not be structured. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words for all categories of articles. Abstracts are not required for correspondence, editorial letters and CME articles.  References should not be cited in the abstract.  Keywords should be placed below the abstract with (3) to 15 keywords or short phrases that will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article. The use of terms from the medical subject headings (MeSH) list from Index Medicus for the keywords is advised where possible. 

Specific manuscript requirements

Original articles:

These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rates. The text of original articles amounting to up to 5000 words (excluding Abstract, references and Tables) should be divided into sections with the headings Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends.

Introduction: State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation. 

Materials and Methods: It should include and describe the following aspects:

Ethics: When reporting studies on human beings, indicate whether the procedures followed were following the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). For prospective studies involving human participants, authors are expected to mention about approval of regional/ national/ institutional or independent Ethics Committee or Review Board, obtaining informed consent from adult research participants and obtaining assent for children aged over 7 years participating in the trial. The age beyond which assent would be required could vary as per regional and/ or national guidelines. Ensure confidentiality of subjects by desisting from mentioning participants' names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institutions or a national research council's guide for or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Evidence for approval by a local Ethics Committee (for both human as well as animal studies) must be supplied by the authors on demand. Animal experimental procedures should be as humane as possible and the details of anaesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be per the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA and World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Humans for studies involving experimental animals and human beings, respectively). The journal will not consider any ethically unacceptable paper. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the 'Materials and Methods section.

Study design:

Selection and Description of Participants: Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants (patients or laboratory animals, including controls) clearly, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Technical information: Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for 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 drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration.

Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions (methods of randomization, concealment of allocation to treatment groups), and the method of masking (blinding), based on the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Initiative                  Type of Study                                   Source

CONSORT     Randomized controlled trials             http://www.consort-statement.org

STARD           Studies of diagnostic accuracy http://www.consort-statement.org/stardstatement.htm

PRISMA  (Including Extensions) Systematic reviews and meta-analyses http://www.prisma-statement.org/

STROBE Observational studies in epidemiology http://www.strobe-statement.org

MOOSE             Meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology http://www.consortstatement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf

Statistics: Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Authors should report losses to observation (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomizing device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations', and 'sample'. Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (P 0.048). For all P values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001. Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Extra- or supplementary materials and technical detail can be placed in an appendix where they will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text; alternatively, it can be published only in the electronic version of the journal.

When data are summarized in the Results section, give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Where scientifically appropriate, analyses of the data by variables such as age and sex should be included.

Discussion: Include a summary of key findings (primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, results as they relate to a prior hypothesis); Strengths and limitations of the study (study question, study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation); Interpretation and implications in the context of the totality of evidence (is there a systematic review to refer to, if not, could one be reasonably done here and now?, what this study adds to the available evidence, effects on patient care and health policy, possible mechanisms); Controversies raised by this study; and Future research directions (for this particular research collaboration, underlying mechanisms, clinical research).

Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. In particular, contributors should avoid making statements 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. New hypotheses may be stated if needed, however, they should be clearly labelled as such. About 30 references can be included. 

Review Articles:

Include narrative and systematic reviews. Systematic reviews should be prepared in strict compliance with MOOSE or PRISMA guidelines, or other relevant guidelines for systematic reviews.

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field. A summary of the work done by the contributor(s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

The prescribed word count is up to 7500 words excluding tables, references and abstract. The manuscript may have about 90 references. The manuscript should have an unstructured Abstract (300 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles would depend upon the topic reviewed. Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

The journal expects the contributors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of the article and should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.

Case reports or Series:

New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. Cases should have a unique lesson for practice in the diagnosis, pathology or management of the case, beyond the mere finding of a rare entity and demonstrate good clinical practice. Reporting the outcome and length of survival of a rare problem will also be considered more valuable than merely describing what treatment was rendered at the time of diagnosis. These communications could be of up to 3000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Keywords, Introduction, and Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order. Pictures and tables should be limited to content with relevant information with a maximum of four (4) tables and four (4) photographs. 

Short Communications and commentaries: Shorts communication are short research articles of important preliminary observations or findings that extends previously published research, data that does not warrant publication as a full paper, small-scale clinical studies, and clinical audits. Short communications shall consist of an abstract/summary and the Main Text. These communications could be of up to 2000 words with an abstract/summary should be limited to 300 words and provided immediately after the title page. The number of figures and tables should be limited to five (5) and the number of references to twenty (20).

Letter to the Editor:

These should be short and decisive observations. They should preferably be related to articles previously published in the Journal or views expressed in the journal or communicate a very important message (statements of statistics, facts, research, or theories) that is time-sensitive and cannot wait for the full process of peer review.  The letter could have up to 1000 words and not more than 5 references. 

Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary and Opinion are solicited by the editorial board.

Editorials: These are articles written by the editor or editorial team about issues relevant to the journal and topical issues for the publication. Guest editorials may also be solicited by the Editors. Editorial may be up to 1000 words.

Commentaries: Commentaries will usually be articles that comment on articles published in the same or previous issue of the NMJ. However, commentaries on issues relevant to medicine globally are welcomed.  Commentaries should be concise and maybe up to 1000 words and when presenting a point of view, should be supported with the relevant references not exceeding (5). 

Continuing Medical Education (CME) Articles: A CME article is a critical analysis of a topic of current medical interest. The article should include the clinical question or issue and its importance for general medical practice, speciality practice, or public health. The authors should provide five multiple-choice questions, [each with the best of five responses], based on the article. CME Articles should not exceed 1500 words inclusive of Multiple choice questions and any references not exceeding 5.

Copies of any permission(s)  

It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permission for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.  

References

Referencing guide:  The NMedJ, follows the Vancouver style of referencing. It is a numbered referencing style commonly used in medicine and science, and consists of: citations to someone else's work in the text, indicated by the use of a number and a sequentially numbered reference list at the end of the document providing full details of the corresponding in-text reference. It follows the guidelines provided in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. References 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 Arabic numerals in superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered following the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of cited references and these should be checked before the manuscript is submitted. The Journal names should be abbreviated according to the style used in the Index Medicus. Use the complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals.

Articles published as abstracts only should not be used as references; Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source and should not be in the reference list. 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.

All references must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents. List all authors when six or less; when seven or more list only the first six and add et al. Examples of correct forms of references are given below:

Example references Journals:

The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

Articles in Journals

1. Standard journal article (for up to six authors): Parija S C, Ravinder PT, Shariff M. Detection of hydatid antigen in the fluid samples from hydatid cysts by co-agglutination. Trans. R.Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.1996; 90:255–256.
2. Standard journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by et al. 

Roddy P, Goiri J, Flevaud L, Palma PP, Morote S, Lima N. et al., Field Evaluation of a Rapid Immunochromatographic Assay for Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi Infection by Use of Whole Blood. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2008; 46: 2022-2027.

Books and Other Monographs:

2. Personal Author(s)

Goodman NW, Edwards MB. 2014. Medical Writing: A Prescription for Clarity. 4th Edition. Cambridge University Press.

3. Chapter in Book

McFarland D, Holland JC. Distress, adjustments, and anxiety disorders. In: Watson M, Kissane D, Editors. Management of clinical depression and anxiety. Oxford University Press; 2017: 1-22.

4. Corporate Author

World Health Organization, Geneva. 2019. WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation. Report on the scientific basis of tobacco product regulation: seventh report of a WHO study group. WHO Technical Report Series, No. 1015.

Institute for Public Health. National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017: Adolescent Health Survey 2017. Jaraban: Institute for Public Health, Ministry of Health Jaraban; 2017.

5. Agency Publication

National Care for Health Statistics. Acute conditions: incidence and associated disability, United States, July 1968 - June 1969. Rockville, Me: National Centre for Health Statistics, 1972. (Vital and health statistics). Series 10: data from the National Health Survey, No 69). (DHEW Publication No (HSM) 72 - 1036).

Online articles

6. Webpage: Webpages are referenced with their URL and access date, and as much other information as is available. The cited date is important as the webpage can be updated and URLs change. The "cited" should contain the month and year accessed.

Ministry of Health and Population Eberia. Press Release: Status of preparedness and response by the ministry of health in and event of an outbreak of Ebola in Eberia 2014 [cited Dec 2014]. Available from:

http://www.moh.gov.my/english.php/database_stores/store_view_page/21/437.

Kaos J. 40°C threshold for 'heatwave emergency' Jalabad: The Star Nalaysia; [updated 18 March 2016, cited March 2016]. Available from: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/03/18/heatwave-emergency- threshold/.

Other Articles:

7. Newspaper Article

Panirchellvum V. 'No outdoor activities if weather too hot'. the Sun. 2016; March 18: 9(col. 1-3).

8. Magazine Article

Thirunavukarasu R. Survey - Landscape of GP services and health economics in Yerian. Securitas MMA. 2016; March: 20-1.

Tables and illustrations: Roman numerals should be used for numbering tables (e.g., Table I, Table II, Table III). Arabic numerals should be used when numbering illustrations and diagrams (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3). Illustrations and tables should be kept to a minimum.

All tables, illustrations and diagrams should be fully labelled so that each is comprehensible without reference to the text. All measurements should be reported using the metric system.

Each table should be typed on a separate sheet of paper, double-spaced and numbered consecutively. Omit the internal horizontal and vertical rules. The contents of all tables should be carefully checked to ensure that all totals and subtotals tally.

Tables

• Tables should be self-explanatory and should not duplicate textual material.
• Tables with more than 10 columns and 25 rows are not acceptable.
• Number tables, in Arabic numerals, consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
• Place 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: *, †, ‡, §, ||,¶, **, ††, ‡‡
• Tables with their legends should be provided at the end of the text after the references. The tables along with their number should be cited at the relevant place in the text

Photographs of Patients:

Proof of permission and/or consent from the patient or legal guardian must be submitted with the manuscript. A statement on this must be included as a footnote to the relevant photograph.

Illustrations (Figures)

• Upload the images in JPEG format. The file size should be within 4 MB in size while uploading.
• 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 be 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 individuals are used, their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
• If a figure has been published elsewhere, acknowledge the 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 or print out legends (maximum 40 words, excluding the credit line) for illustrations using double spacing, 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.
• Final figures for print production: If the uploaded images are not printable quality, the publisher office may request higher resolution images which can be sent at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. Send sharp, glossy, un-mounted, colour photographic prints, with a height of 4 inches and width of 6 inches at the time of submitting the revised manuscript.
• The Journal reserves the right to crop, rotate, reduce, or enlarge the photographs to an acceptable size. 

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy  

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

1) Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.

2) If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity or a description that has an obvious indication of the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

 Abbreviations: Use only standard abbreviations. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the abstract, article text, tables, and figures unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Abbreviations shall not be used in the Title. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum.

Formatting of text: Numbers one to ten in the text are written out in words unless they are used as a unit of measurement, except in tables and figures. Use single hard-returns to separate paragraphs. Do not use tabs or indents to start a paragraph. Do not use the automated formatting of your software, such as hyphenation, endnotes, headers, or footers (especially for references). Submit the Manuscript in plain text only, remove all 'field codes' before submission. Do not include line numbers. Include only page number.

Sending a revised manuscript  

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online like that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the "First Page" or "Covering Letter" file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the 'referees' remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning of the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or coloured text in the article.

Reprints and proofs: Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints on request from the editor. 

Manuscript submission, processing and publication charges  

Article Processing Charge:  The NMJ does not charge publication fees for manuscripts. In line with the open access policy of the journal published manuscripts are also accessible online at no cost with users who agree to the creative commons copyright policies. To support the open access policy of the journal authors are required to pay an article processing fee of US$150.00 only, at the point of submission to sustain article administrative processes. No additional fees are charged on the acceptance of an article for publication. 

Authors Checklist   

Covering letter

• Signed by all contributors
• Previous publication/presentations mentioned
• Source of funding mentioned
• Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors Name(s)

• Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
• Author for correspondence, with the e-mail address provided
• Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions
• Identity not revealed in the paper except the title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing the previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of the institute in photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

• Double spacing
• Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
• Page numbers included at the bottom
• Title page contains all the desired information
• Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
• Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
• Abstract provided (structured abstract of 300 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 300 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
• Keywords provided (three or more)
• Introduction of 75-100 words
• Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
• The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with a square bracket.
• References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
• Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

• Uniformly British English
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
• If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

• No repetition of data in tables and graphs and text
• Actual numbers from which graphs are drawn, provided
• Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)
• Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
•  

Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)

• Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
• Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided

• Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote