Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health (ATMPH), a Bimonthly peer-reviewed international journal is being published under the auspices of the Africa Health Research Organization. The journal is indexed with CAB Abstracts, Global Health, Index Copernicus, CiteFactor, and ISI.
The journal’s full text is online at www.atmph.uk . With the aim of faster and better dissemination of knowledge, we will be publishing articles ‘Ahead of Print’ immediately on acceptance. In addition, the journal would allow free access (Open Access) to its contents, which is likely to attract more readers and citations to articles published in ATMPH.
Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2006). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of ATMPH are summarized below. Before sending a manuscript contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the journal (www.atmph.uk) and from the manuscript submission site.
Special Issue
Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health also publishes Special Issues to cover specific topic or events submissions from Event organizers around the globe.
To consider your request for Special issue, send email to: editor@atmph.uk with the following the information:
Citation:
The standard abbreviation of the journal is Ann Trop Med PH.
Scope of the journal |
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The journal will cover tropical medicine, clinical medicine, molecular medicine, infectious diseases, microbiology, Parasitology, immunology, basis and molecular biology, virology, Dentistry, Physician sport, Health management, Clinical biochemistry and Public Health related issues. The Journal would publish peer-reviewed original research papers, case reports, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and debates.
The Editorial Process |
The manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted to one journal at a time and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. On an average, 75-80% of the manuscripts are rejected by the editors before a formal peer-review.
The Editors review all submitted manuscripts initially. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific and technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. Manuscripts are sent to two or more expert reviewers without revealing the identity of the contributors to the reviewers. Each manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The contributors will be informed about the reviewers' comments and acceptance/rejection of manuscript. The average submission to first decision time is about 5 weeks and about 85% of unsolicited manuscripts do not get published. Articles accepted would be copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author, which has to be returned within three days. Correction received after that period may not be included.
Clinical trial registry |
All clinical trials from India must be registered with “clinical trials registry – India” . The trials conducted outside India may be registered with any other clinical trial registry. The Indian council of medical research has recommended making it mandatory to have registration number for all clinical trials submitted for publication from January 2009.
Authorship Criteria |
Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions
Conditions 1, 2, and 3 must be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors.
For a study from in a single institute the number of contributors should not exceed six. For a case-report, images, letter to the editor and review article the number of contributors should not exceed four. A justification should be included, if the number of contributors exceeds these limits.
Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. 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 give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of article and should be sent as a letter to editor, as and when major development occurs in the field.
Contribution Details |
Contributors should provide a description of what each of them contributed towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concepts, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed on the first page of the article. One or more author should take responsibility of the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.
Conflicts of Interest |
All authors of submitting articles to the journal must disclose any conflict of interest they may have with an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript. The Editor will discuss with the authors on an individual basis the method by which any conflicts of interest will be communicated to the readers.
Copies of any permission(s) |
To reproduce published material, and to use illustrations or report information about identifiable people a copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript. The manuscript should be sent to Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health c/o AHRO Scientific Publishing Ltd, 272 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4JR Scotland.
Types of Manuscripts and Limits |
Editorial, Guest Editorial, Commentary, Expert’s Comments and Symposia articles are solicited by the editorial board.
Online Submission of the Manuscripts |
All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website First time users will have to register at this site. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password. Authors do not have to pay for submission, processing or publication of articles. If you experience any problems, please contact our editorial office by e-mail at:
The contributor may provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but who are not affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. When you submit an article, the following items must be included. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review.
Preparation of the Manuscript |
The text of original articles should be divided into sections with the headings: Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables and Figure legends. For a brief report include Abstract, Key-words Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order. Do not use subheadings in these sections. Use double spacing throughout. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. The language should be American English.
Title Page
The title page should carry
Abstract Page
The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of no more than 150 words for brief reports and 250 words for original articles and other article types). The abstract should be structured for original articles. State the context (background), aims, settings and design, material and methods, statistical analysis used, results and conclusions. Below the abstract should provide 3 to 8 keywords. The abstract should not be structured for a brief report, review article, symposia and research methodology. Do not include references in abstract.
Introduction
State the purpose and summarize the rationale for the study or observation.
Materials and Methods
The Methods section should only include information that was available at the time the study was planned or protocol written; all information obtained during the conduct of the study belongs to the results section.
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. Because the relevance of such variables as age and sex to the object of research is not always clear, authors should explain their use when they are included in a study report; for example, authors should explain why only subjects of certain ages were included or why women were excluded. The guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. When authors use variables such as race or ethnicity, they should define how they measured the variables and justify their relevance.
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 |
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STARD |
studies of diagnostic accuracy |
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QUOROM |
systematic reviews and meta-analyses |
http://www.consort-statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf |
STROBE |
observational studies in epidemiology |
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MOOSE |
meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology |
http://www.consort-statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf |
Note: Authors submitting review article should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.
Ethical Policies
When reporting studies on human, 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, as revised in 2000 (available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/17-c_e.html). Do not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s 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 anesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must be in accordance with the guidelines provided by the CPCSEA (animal) and ICMR (human). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement on ethics committee permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the ‘Materials and Methods’ section.
With regards to authors ethical obligations, authors should know that research being reported in articles must be conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and must comply with international regulations, Authors must be aware of and refrain from engaging in scientific misconduct as outlined in COPE's Responsible Research Publication: International Standards for Authors. Authors should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or in appropriate data manipulation. The authors shall guarantee the originality of their mateiral. Authors should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambigiously so that their findings can be confirmed by others. Authors should provide appropriate authorship and acknowledgment . Authors must refrain from deliberately misrepresenting a scientist's relationship with published work. All authors must have significantly contributed to the research. Contribitors who have made less substantial contribution to the research or publication can be acknowledged, but should not be identified as authors. Authors must tell the journal when they have a direct ir indirect conflict of interest with editors or members of the editorial board or International Sceintific Committee. All authors must submit a list of reference and financial support information if so requested by the editorial board. All sources of research finding, including data, including direct and indirect financial support should be disclosed. No significant part of the artilce shall have been previously published either as an article or as a chapter, or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. If authors intend to reproduce their article in other publication or for any other purpose and by any means, they must seek writte authorization from the editorial board. Authors shall refrain from engaging in segmentation of research that would turn one meanninful paper into several different papers (Salami publication). Authors are obliged, for all material submitted, to participate in a peer review process and follow publication conventions. Further information can be obtained from COPE guidelines: Responsible Research Publication: International Standards for Author at: www.publicationethics.org/file/Internationa Standards_authors_for website_11_Nov_2011_1.pdf.
For Editors, the journal utilizes a double-blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by either the Editor In Chief or Managing Editor. The Editor In Chief is solely and independently responsible for selecting, processing, and deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal meet the editorial objectives and could be published. Each paper considered suitable is sent to 2 independent peer reviewerd who are experts in their field and able to assess the specific qualities of the submitted work. The Editor In Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding whether or not the paper is accepted or rejected. The decision to publish a paper will always be measured by its scientific merit base on its importance to researchers, practitioners, and potential readers. Editor In Chief or Managing Editor should make unbiased decisions independent from commercial considerations. Editors who makde final decisions about manuscripts should withdraw from editorial decision if there is any conflict of interest or relationship that pose potential problems concerning articles under consideration. The responsibility of the final decision on an article will be attributed to an Editor who does not have any conflicts of interest or relationship that could cause a problems concerning the articles under consideration.
For reviewers, the journal requires that potential reviewers should possess the necessary scientific experts or significant work experience in a relevant field. They must have recently conducted research and/ or work and have acquired recognized expertise by their peers. Potential reviewers should provide personal and professional information which is accurate and gives fair representation of their expertise. All reviewers who have any potential conflict of interest or unqualifed regarding a paper should withdraw. Reviewed articles should be treated with confidentiality by reviewers and members of Editorial board as well as the International Scientific Committee. Reviewers should point out any relevant published work that has not been cited in the reviewed material. If required, the Editors would issue a correction request to this effect. Reviewers are requested to identify papers where research misconduct has or seems to have occurred and inform the Editorial board, which will be dealt with accordingly. ATMPH base its ethical model of best ethical practices as found in COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
Anti-Predatory Policy: The journal upholds the principle of promoting the publication of quality articles which are of research importance. Therefore, while th journals charges APC for publication of articles, the journal will not fail to upload the standard editorial, peer review , or other ethical publication practices that promotes quality article. We will not conceal, lie about , or mislead authors on fees, and the publication process. Based on this, the journal will follow adequate, qualified review process, our editorial members would be clearly and accutate mentioned, all fees on our website will be clearly and transparently stated, and the journal will continously upload its principle of quality work so that it remains indexed in large, trusted database of scholarly works. The journal will not engage or promote stealing of intellectual property via deception, engage in fraudulent or fake peer review, ot list respected researchers on its editorial board without their knowledge or consent.
Statistics
Whenever possible quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). 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.
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 it 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 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. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such.
References
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 in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use 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 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.
The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as electronic media; newspaper items, etc. please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).
Download a PowerPoint presentation on common reference styles and using the reference checking facility on the manuscript submission site.
Articles in Journals
Tables
Illustrations (Figures)
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 obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.
Case Reports
Case reports must meet all of the following criteria:
Preparation of Case Reports
Follow the standard format for the article (Abstract, Key-words, Introduction, Case History, Discussion and References).
Sending a revised manuscript |
While submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the ‘referees’ remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article. A photocopy of the first page of all the cited references (articles and books) can be asked by the journal to verify the references.
Reprints |
Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.
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Copyrights |
The copyright of article published in ATMPH is retain by the author. Articles are made available under the creative commons licence thereby allowing for free access, copy, and use in research provided the author is correctly acknowledged .
Publication fee |
The Open Access Model used for ATMPH is based on the foundation that production costs are mainly covered by Article Publication Fees (APC). We always try to keep the fees at minimum. Publishing an article in ATMPH incurs a flat charge of US$500.00 per article. The publication of short of Product/Event Review incurs a charge of US$200.00 while letters to the editor. The total will be charge to the corresponding author upon acceptance of the article. Articles for Special issues incures a flat charge of $400 per article.
WAIVERS: We offer a complete or partial fee waiver on a case –by-case basis for individual authors or group of authors who do not have funds to cover APC. Please mail your request to the Editor In Chief: editor@atmph.org before submission of your manuscript. Request for waiver of APC for manuscript that have already gone through the peer review or been type set will not be granted. Editor and reviewers have no access to author payment information and inability to pay will therefore not influence the decision to accept the manuscript or not.
Withdrawal of manuscript: If you withdraw your manuscript after it has been type set (but not published) or passed through the peer review process, you will be charge for the peer review and typesetting cost of US$100.00.
Checklist |
Covering letter
Authors
Presentation and format
Language and grammar
Tables and figures
Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote